#it's about the Identity arc

[raayllum]

 Don’t you remember who you are?

Was mulling over this scene specifically from 4x06 and the interesting commonalities / weight to it, particularly paired with the way S4 quietly starts deconstructing the identities that Callum and Rayla have built over arc 1 and into S4, both individually and together.

Ezran attempts to get them to work together by stating basically that working together is an intrinsic part of who Callum and Rayla are, at this point. A part hat they need to remember even as a stressful situation mounts. It’s similar to Ezran’s faith in their love for each other in 4x01, buoyed by his love for them, in which Ezran knows Callum still loves Rayla even if he’s heartbroken and unable to say it aloud, and Ezran knows that as long as Rayla has breath, she likewise has love for his brother. So there’s that.

Then you have what Ezran says. To each of them, he starts with their more formal titles, titles they are chafing or splintering under. Ezran doesn’t know (or isn’t taking into account) how awkward and apprehensive Callum is about his formal high mage title and following so directly in Viren’s footsteps, unable to say the man’s name aloud either. Then you have Rayla, who shirked off her Dragonguard title the night before with an eye-roll and a big change in character, something she’s done her best to repress and has thus far been decently successful at doing so. Titles that don’t accurately capture who they are, or at least aren’t titles they feel secure in. 

And then the second thing Ezran says is something that reminds them of the journey they went on together. Callum became the first primal human mage in centuries because Rayla called him a mage and was there every step in the way in his journey with magic, from none to dark to the Sky arcanum, always hearing him out and even helping him learn a couple of spells. Ezran cites something akin to what Rayla said about Callum when vouching for him to Sol Regem back in 3x01 (“The only reason the Dragon Prince is alive is because of this human”) and refers back to something we know is already on Rayla’s mind (circa 4x05′s “Then you spread your wings, and you saved me”). She’s the real reason Zym is still here, but the only reason she’s still here is because of Callum.

And then she looks at Callum, arches an eyebrow, and waits for his judgement call (like almost always, ever since “Say the word”) and he collects himself and passes his staff over to her so he can think. So they can work as a team, again. 

[stagefoureddiediaz]

The Helena diaz of it all has me fascinated. I’ve said for a long while that Eddie’s real issues are his mommy issues and this episode just cemented for me that we’re gonna explore that and deal with it.

Because it’s Helena who forced Eddie to grow up to fast - because her husband wasn’t around much - so she pushed Eddie into de facto parent and husband role ls - selfishly filling her needs and ignoring the damage it was doing to her son (it is a form of abuse in my book).

Eddie then had the audacity to fall in love with and marry Shannon and get her pregnant. It’s why Helena was always so off with Shannon - she was punishing her. She is also punishing Eddie for all of this and his refusal to return to El Paso only cemented further her bitterness and resentment.

Now she does have Ramon back she doesn’t need Eddie any longer to fill that role so she is still punishing him and part of that is tied into her glee over now getting to parent Christopher - something she has always been intent on doing the doppelgänger just gave her the opportunity- as well as allowing her to further punish her son and his love of Shannon.

Her barbed comments about building a pool were all about showing what she can provide Christopher - how she is parenting him better than Eddie - it’s part of her mind games - making Eddie feel like more of a failure as a parent to his son.

The reality of course is that the reverse is true - Helena’s parenting is all superficial, flash and showy - it isn’t the hard day to day parenting when things get tough and you have to be the bad guy. While Eddie has made mistakes, there is nothing superficial, flash, or showy about his parenting. It’s why bucks comments about Eddie being a great dad are so important.

Eddie feel like a failure right now and that he is entirely to blame for everything. But in reality, while he does bear a bit of the responsibility, the truth of the matter is that he needs to learn and deal with the fact that all of it actually stems from Helena and her abuse of her young son - Shannon never stood a chance just like Eddie never has.

[necrotic-nephilim]

what's fun about shipping Tim with Dick, Jason, or Damian is he has, at some point, hallucinated all of them to comfort himself. even when he doesn't like them or particularly get along with them, he has to imagine/hallucinate them just so he has the power to go on. Tim's concepts of the Robin mantle and what it should be is so fun, because he respects the others through the Robin mantle. Tim worships Dick because he was the first Robin. he wouldn't be Robin if Jason hadn't died in the mantle. and a lot of his frustration with Damian is he feels Damian isn't honoring the mantle correctly. when you ship Tim with the other Robins you can't divorce their identities as Robin from it because Tim will always see them as a Robin first and that's so fun and fucked up. like.

batman (1940) #456

Tim perceiving Dick as *Robin* cheering him on, not Nightwing, which is the version of Dick that Tim actually knows? that's just. wild of him. he will always view Dick as Robin first, his personal hero but also the original of the legacy. his love for Dick is shaped by that.

and then of course, even when he's hallucinating/imagining Jason cheering him on, it's *still* through the lense of being reminded how Jason failed? subconsciously believing that Jason got himself killed because of his actions, and that being a lesson for Tim to learn from? Jason isn't a person to Tim, he's a moral lesson about how to be Robin. any potential idolization he could have of Jason isn't because he loves Jason, it's because of the lessons Jason's death taught him.

and then, even though him hallucinating TIm is from the New-52, which makes characterization all kinds of questionable, i do think it makes sense for TIm to hallucinate/imagine Damian after Damian's death in an attempt to cope with it.

teen titans (2011) #18

to an extend, he sees Damian's death as in part his own fault. and even hating Damian, Tim needs the comfort from this to cope with Damian being gone. he's angry that Damian even was Robin, and has to learn something from Damian's death and how it impacts the Robin mantle, and teenage heroes as a whole. like, Tim can pretend he hates Damian all he wants, even getting taunted by the image of Damian, but there's still an underlying love to their relationship.

i think that's just the fun of shipping Tim with any of them. you will never divorce Tim's views of them from the Robin mantle and how fucking Unwell he is about anyone else who's been Robin before or after him, to the point he has to hallucinate them comforting him when he's at his lowest. it's always going to be a little unhealthy, a little toxic, and driven by Tim's relationship with being Robin as well. i need more Tim being weird about Robin in these ships.

[agrebel18]

Nimona 🤝 Gwen Stacy: being Very Transgender/Not Cis to the point where you can’t separate it because it’s literally woven into their character arcs and even having trans flags surrounding them in some scenes yet some people only call it “coding” and “theories” purely because neither of them said “oh btw I’m transgender” on screen

[morethansky]

The TBB finale posits that Echo is a foil to Darth Vader, and I am eating it up! Hear me out.

The doors open on Echo. The doors close on Vader. Past the threshold in both scenes lie the dead bodies of their enemies, who belong to the two key opposing factions of this era. Vader wreaks havoc on the rebels on behalf of the Empire. Echo wreaks havoc on the Empire's stormtroopers on behalf of his rebel cell.

Echo walks toward us, and in the following scene, he bends down to retrieve a weapon. Vader walks toward us, and in the next scene (at least in the trailer), the Inquisitors, who are his weapons, bend down to kneel before him.

Anakin was a hero in the war, risking his life by leading his clone battalion from the front to help them make it through. Then he was put under the thrall of the Sith. When that happened, he killed his own people—the Jedi.

Echo was a hero in the war, risking his life in hopes of helping the Jedi escape the Citadel. Then he was put under the thrall of the Techno Union and the Separatists. When that happened, he caused the deaths of his own people—the clones.

Anakin lost his right arm in a feat of reckless courage, when he rushed ahead to take on Dooku alone (Obi-Wan: "No, Anakin, no!"). Echo lost his right arm in a feat of reckless courage, when he rushed ahead to fight the commando droids alone (Fives: "Echo! Look out!"). Vader and Echo are also two of the characters who have suffered the most extreme bodily harm and survived.

Anakin had a slave chip put in him when he was a baby. Echo had an inhibitor chip put in him when he was a baby. Echo was eventually liberated. Anakin spent the majority of his life enslaved.

Vader recruits and trains the Inquisitorius, which includes Jedi children he tortures into serving the Empire. Echo recruits clones for his rebel cell, and trains a clone child who, inspired by his teachings, joins the fight against the Empire.

At the end of Vader's story, he does a good deed by ruining Palpatine's plans, and dies. At the end of Echo's story (for now, I pray), he does a good deed by ruining Palpatine's plans—and lives.

[silverwhittlingknife]

OKAY SO i have been rereading dustorange's wonderful post here about Dick in an UtRH-esque scenario where he dies & then comes back to life

AND I HAVE INCOHERENT BRAINSTORMING THOUGHTS:

so first, i think Robin!Dick would be just as hurt by the discovery that Bruce has a new Robin, and brood about it - but i think the shame of having died would stop him from confronting Bruce about it the way Nightwing!Dick does in canon.

and I do NOT think that he would expect Bruce to kill anyone for him (or even be upset that he doesn't? I just don't think this would be a consideration for Dick. he's gonna be fixated on "I failed." so he'll be upset about being replaced but not about the lack of revenge. and if Bruce did take revenge, i think he'd actually feel angry and betrayed about that because it'd feel like the choice was taken away from him, a la how upset he gets when he thinks Bruce has arranged to have Zucco killed - even if he intellectually knows that Bruce wasn't deliberately undermining himbecause he didn't know Dick was gonna come back to life.)

anyway so what WOULD he do??

what comes to mind is something along the lines of "Dick obsessively keeps an eye on Batman & Robin even while telling himself that he's not"

and then - say - if it's Robin!Tim (i feel like this has to be Tim because in the world where Dick dies there is no way that Bruce is voluntarily picking a new Robin), then maybe the moment when Dick steps in is when Bruce is in danger & he's furious / critical of Tim for not protecting Bruce well enough

and i feel like that's how he'd channel the hurt feelings - it'd all be deflected under shame and obligation, and then translated into the anger of "you replaced me & yet you're failing to do the job that you're supposed to do" (which is actually about projection/self-hatred because Dick would actually be mad at himself for having died & not doing that job anymore)

and Dick wouldn't want to see Bruce at all because of the shame over dying & subconscious fear that Bruce doesn't want him back, plus every little thing that Tim does differently would drive him NUTS because it implies that maybe the way Dick did things wasn't good enough for Bruce

i'm actually kind of fascinated by this now. because i am me and i have (1) obsession i am mostly invested in the dick & tim side of it sdfsdfds

so i'm picturing Tim very stung by whatever critical things Dick said to him & tracking this mysterious vigilante down, and then Dick doesn't want to spend ANY time with him BUT he's also subconsciously desperate for news of Bruce!!! so then something something Dick starts sorta training him a la Tim's various contacts with edgy non-batman-aligned vigilantes, and Tim's very defensive about how he IS a good robin so THERE but of course he's also defensive because he's secretly worried he's not good enough.

normally i would have tim Recognize dick since recognizing dick is tim's most basic skill HOWEVER i think it would be much more fun if tim doesn't recognize him so he can give dick a speech about legacy & the first robin: "i do x and such because that's how the first robin did it so it is Objectively Correct." which Dick will find incredibly infuriating but will be unable to counter since he cannot counter with 'the 1st robin was ME'

…hmmm i do think Dick ought to be angry about SOMETHING about batman's methods/attitude just because that's more dynamic? I feel like in order to make the adaptation work, there ought to be SOME kind of argument with Bruce right before he dies that he can still be mad about, a la the garzonas fight for Jason and Bruce. unsure what though?

okay let's see: I feel like Dick's main arguments with Bruce aren't about vigilante issues per se so much as they're about working in a team - so e.g.

1) Bruce being controlling/demanding, and 2) Bruce being secretive and doing stuff behind Dick's back, and 3) Bruce not allowing Dick enough autonomy, 4) just generally a perceived lack of trust.

SO maybe whatever The Frustrating Thing that bruce was doing when dick died is a thing he's STILL doing with this new robin, and dick is getting frustrated all over again sorta on tim's behalf but mostly on his own behalf because he never got to resolve this with bruce

but anyway that way when Bruce finally spots disguised!Dick, then they can have the fight again before Bruce realizes who he is <3

[zxal]

who are you? who am I to you?

[l9jx100]

I just want her to be happy….

[kelpshippingceo]

you ever think about how lloyd lost his childhood due to the tea, his teenage years to being a ninja + (gestures vaguely at harumi-induced trauma) and his early adult years to isolating himself from the world and grieving his friends? because I do

[raayllum]

Do you think that I’m season 5 we’ll find out why Rayla came back. I mean she kinda just showed up. Also, do you think some traumatic thing happened to her? If so, what do you think it was?

Given that S5 is likely going to be Ocean and Callum by the end of S4 has going through his initial block and will likely be way more willing to talk / expressly want answers in S5, I think so, yeah!

Also yes, I 100% think that something traumatic happened to Rayla during her time away, if not a few things. Keep in mind that everything she’d been through from S1-S3 and TTM — turning against Runaan, almost losing her hand, almost losing Callum, almost dying times like five, being Ghosted by everyone, the nightmares and PTSD, etc — were not enough to take away her core ‘saviour complex’ (for lack of a better term) that she had in early S1 and all the way through S3. 

Now, in S4, we see she’s shut that part of her down - eerily reminiscent of the way Callum has heavily emotionally repressed his own ability to feel. For any other character, leaving the drake in the forest wouldn’t be out of character (Callum and Ezran were both willing to, ultimately, in 2x07 after all) but it is a massive shift for Rayla in particular, and that feels purposeful.

We know, bare minimum, she was travelling entirely on her own for at least six months if not maybe a full year, since Stella is still a baby in an almost teething like stage of comfort, gnawing, and cuddles. Real life human babies start teething around 6-12 months, for example, and other animals even younger, so she’s on the early stage in Rayla’s life, absolutely

So I have one to like, five factors I think could have heavily played a part

The initial isolation of 6+ months and being on her own heavily wore her down and was a new experience for her, since Rayla had never been that alone before, always travelling with her troupe and then the boys. I doubt her nightmares about Callum suddenly vanished when she did, lol, so that’s another layer too

Possibly a near death experience or drowning, whether accidentally or in an attempt of saving someone, would likely deeply rattle her given her history. This could be what inspired her to come home. Oneshot pending

There was someone Rayla could not successfully save, and they asked her for a TW mercy killing. She did it, meaning she knows Aaravos isn’t assessment of her isn’t entirely accurate even if it’s still true about Viren. This would mean she killed someone she 1) didn’t want to and 2) wasn’t even her target. Also oneshot pending

Rayla possibly ran into the Bloodmoon Huntress, a dangerous Moonshadow villain from her childhood named Kim’Dael, resulting in one of the two aforementioned options

Compounded by everything or nothing, an emotionally and physically exhausted Rayla decides to throw herself into actually trying to Move On and Let Go for the first time, and knows the first step there is going back to Katolis to face the music

The same way Rayla coming back to Katolis forces Callum to stop emotionally repressing everything he was feeling about her and thereby get back to being more genuinely and wholly himself (which is going to be very important considering possession is about being stripped of autonomy and identity in equal measure!!), I think Callum is going to help Rayla restore herself back to the heroic selfless figure she was, but in a healthier way than ever before. It won’t surprise me if Rayla doubles down in future seasons on a self-destructive route (possibly in S5 depending on how the coin plot goes) now that she’s tried to let go and failed, but she’s also lost some of what made her selflessness a good quality - and they’ve always been heavily tied to each other’s identity and having an ultimately positive, if sometimes painfully transformative, impact on each other

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

so something i noticed on my latest black sails rewatch is that despite most of the show taking place on various ships we never really find out what skills silver has as a sailor? like he's pretending to be a cook when flint's crew picks him up and we never see him doing regular sailor duties on the walrus, and when he's briefly left in charge while flint is ashore he says that he's basically agreeing with whatever mr. de groot says to hide that he doesn't know what he's doing. but also he wasn't the cook on the ship he was on before the walrus and he knew where to damage the ship to keep vane's crew from leaving charleston, so he is an experienced sailor? maybe? i don't have a point i just love how the more you watch the more you start having flint on the cliffs moments where you realize that despite watching him for four seasons, you don't really know anything about john silver

[garden-bug]

Is being critical of Sabine’s force sensitivity ‘gatekeeping’ the force or it is about how it undermines the established magic system and was not well written?

I’ll give you a clue it’s the second one.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Something something about the cursed mummy working at a rodeo and the connection to lassos and wrangling bulls and foreshadowing. Something something about buck wearing a moustache when he dresses up as billy boils which connects things to Eddie.

How rodeos are connected to Texas in the general psyche. The idea that Eddie needs to go and wrangle with his bull in the next episode - Helena.

That she has been constantly trying to Buck him off but he needs to hold on in order to break the curse she has been on his life - the play on Buck being a massive support to Eddie - that gives him the strength to stay on and win the fight and pen the bull.

That he needs to break free of that curse in order to transform into his true self and how the werewolf is a representation of that happening and also a foreshadowing for the shaving off of the stache

[kaftan]

this may or may not make a lick of sense but my approach and the one that makes most sense to me when it comes to analyzing amy is to start at panacea, double back to amelia lavere, and then proceed to amy dallon, instead of going for the obvious route and starting at the last point. panacea is huge. panacea, not ‘amy dallon,’ is the identity where she’s forced to rest all the weight of herself (up until she sheds it). i don’t think it’s possible to understand what it means to “be” amy without first getting incredibly familiar with the expectation that goes into her cape identity (and other people on here, I think, have talked about the nightmare of civilian/cape identity blurring under new wave). it’s a level of moral responsibility above and beyond what anyone else in her life has to handle. there is no existing equivalent to it. to stop being panacea is to let the pooling blood accumulate until it fills you up to your lungs or you transform into something monstrous and gilled. like.

and when you peel that away, get a look at the girl underneath the healer, yes, you see amy dallon, but amy dallon very simply wouldn’t exist without amelia lavere — it’s not just chronology, it’s not just her first identity or the name she used to have, it’s the ghost rattling around in her bones and Fucking It All Up. it fills every silence in her adopted home, hangs behind every unspoken accusation, marks every subtle and unsubtle ostracism. it’s the second obligation of blood after what she does as panacea. that’s what sets the stage for amy dallon, and that’s what creates the end result that people come face to face with: the unwanted, underloved girl clawing like a kitten up the leg of the only person who’s never swatted her away, molded into an irritable, unpersonable teenager whose bottled-and-shaken romantic longing explodes into a gory mess of heartbreak, confusion, and disgust. that’s how you get from point A to point B with her. to me.

[taiturner]

VIKTOR HARGREEVES 2x02 “The Frankel Footage” | 3x02 “World’s Biggest Ball of Twine”

[shorthaltsjester]

maybe this is just because it feels like a metaphor for how tlovm uses vex in general (and i could write an essay about it and have and will again) but something that i both understand tlovm choosing to do and deeply hate as a choice they made is vex no longer being the one to break thordak’s crystal even though vax was still the one to kill him. especially since the show was very explicit about thordak being responsible for killing the twins’ mother and also set it up as a sort of avenging of percy, it felt tonally weird to literally just have vex hanging out in the background for both the crystal breaking and him being killed. it’s fine (deeply upset voice) i understand that adjustments to pike’s vestige made this make sense for the plot but. glad to have vex continue to be a witness in tlovm moments that in the campaign her agency in were delicious character moments. it’s fine.