#its called character developement!

[iooiu]

mature... sure thing bud

[bkdk-art]

After years of making fun of Izuku and his dream, for Katsuki to now be the one who spends years in order to make Izuku's dream come true again. I'm just-

[deadtiredghost]

the only reason Tim Drake and Damian Wayne don't get along is because if they did the writers wouldn't be able to come up with a plot contrived enough for them to struggle with.

they would be the ultimate team if they could just work smoothly together.

but they cant so balance is restored to the world i guess.

[ofswordsandpens]

I'm sincerely very happy for anyone who is enjoying the show but every time I see takes that the show has improved the book characterizations or that the book characters are underdeveloped in comparison to the show...

[beaulesbian]

i was rereading some water 7 chapters, and the introduction of kaku was so funny. i love when luffy and zoro are using the same braincell even at a distance

luffy meeting kaku, ch. 325 "usopp?"

and zoro meeting kaku, ch 326 "oh, just usopp"

vs. Egghead arc and meeting kaku again post time skip - with nothing really changing of how luffy perceives some people (ch. 1078)

and also kaku meeting zoro on the sunny on Egghead prior the scene above and their lines echoing the first meeting on Water 7 - "I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" vs here "Who dares to disturb my nap?"

[serendipity-by-chance]

new chapter of bllk has me screaming so bad i must talk about it!!!!

we finally have the kaisagi team up that i've been calling for since ages ago! this isn't a surprise. not when we've seen time and time again how characters who are rivals in bllk reluctantly (and sometimes not so reluctantly like now) team up to defeat the opposing team. isagi-nagi, barou-isagi, and even rin-isagi to an extent. so this was definitely coming.

but also wanna talk about this in terms of michael's character bc apparently there were people doubting that michael would agree? which is so funny to me? the way people don't understand michael's character is so funny to me.

Michael Kaiser wants to be the best. He wants to win. If you think he won't seize every opportunity he can to win this game then u really have been reading this manga so far with ur eyes closed. the kaiser who would deny isagi's offer of team up is the one who was still stuck to his old ways and clung to his pride. Michael in this game quite literally discarded his pride. He chose to do it bc he realised his pride and refusal to change was causing him to stagnate. which is also what prompted him to discard ness. the moment he changed, he was saying "please" to raichi. RAICHI. a player michael doesn't even consider on the same level as him like?? if he can do that so that he can win why wouldnt he team up with isagi?

people don't get michael's character and its so ??? to me. also u dont get bllk rivals either. time and time again we've seen bllk players who are intense rivals having to cooperate with each other for the greater win. nagi-isagi, barou-isagi, rin-isagi. like it has happened before and it will continue to happen. bc despite the whole best striker and everything, its still football. a game that is very much about players cooperating with eo.

so. michael teaming up with isagi isnt a surprise. this is an opportunity for him to seize a win and prove that he's the best in his generation.

[inkcovens]

something that rlly annoys me is shannon being both aware of the fate of the "tech guy" character and then proceeding to do exactly that to dex lmao. like he LITERALLY says he doesn't want to be a technopath because he's going to be excluded from the action. how he's afraid he'll only be relevant when he's useful. and then!! thats exactly what happens in the plot!!

[obsessive-dumpling]

Kudos to Katsuki who really said "you ran away on my birthday so imma be dead on yours". Who doesn't love a good revenge arc?

[k-martins]

i so want to write a post canon angsty breakup fanfic where megumi leaves the jujutsu society to heal from his trauma, but yuji still stays because he wants to protect people from curses and make up for sukuna's damage.

they both feel like they're getting in each other's way from achieving their goals. and then they meet again ten years later (oh yeah, stsg parallels, i love them) and live out the cheesiest, corniest cliche ever.

[cowboygideon]

Kevin sketch but it's vaguely based on that hockey guy everyone uses as a faceclaim for him

[mikosocute]

"i hate cait now shes so mean" im gonna shoot ur face

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Brain goes brrrrrr (well mine and @fruityfirehose 's brains - she had the initial thought - I'm just running with it!)

What if we have this seemingly 'cute and happy' moment where tommy is teaching Buck Maui Thai in the loft (my money is on them being in the space between the sitting room and dining table!) - he hits Buck - accidentally (I don't like the guy but I don't think he's evil in that way!) and Buck sits down and uses his camera to check the injury -Tommy is holding back because he did just hurt him (hence the poses in the stills!)

Buck calls Eddie, who comes to help with his medical expertise and assesses Bucks injury.

It gives us several callbacks and parallels to draw on!

I've already pointed out the white hoodie - and the fact Buck is sitting in a chair (I assume the same chair) as in 517 when Taylors betrayal begins - Tommy is in a similar enough position to Taylors as well (we don't get the same camera angles as the stills but you can see what I mean!)

We also get an interesting call back to both their first kiss and more importantly the basketball game - hence the shiner on his face! Tommy is in red/black - like he was for their first kiss in 704 and his shirt is sleeveless like his basketball hoodie was - both have had the sleeves cut off.

This would be interesting as a set up for Bucks arc and the hurdles, baggage, issues - whatever you want to call it at this point! Tommy injuring Buck would call back to Buck hurting Eddie - and play into Bucks tendency to react to difficult situations with anger/aggression - hurting people unintentionally in the process- which also ties into the Gerrard situation from 801 when Buck saved him but injured him in the process.

We also have a callback to 504 (how appropriate after last week!) and 'Ice goes on the eye bud' and maybe an implied reference to 'maybe you don't know [Maddie} like he does' - the injury is in the same-ish place. This would be especially good as the implication that Eddie knows Buck better than Tommy does is just perfectly set up

Buck not dealing with things well when they are not going his way - turning to aggression in some form (the law suit was an act of aggression - just not physical aggression) is an interesting flaw of Bucks that he really hasn't dealt with and really is one that he does need to actively work on and 'fix'. Its one of the parts of Buck that is some baggage he's carrying that he needs to address, and what additionally interesting about it is that if Tommy does (accidentally) hit Buck whilst teaching him Maui Thai, it plays into the theory that Tommy (as the plot device that he is) is an alt version of Buck - there to reflect/ highlight Bucks issues - the ones he needs to work on!

[spear-gsun]

A character i designed in class today, got the assignment to make a character and for some reason i was thinking about bells I realized while making her that she'd actually fit into my oc world pretty well and add some really interesting stuff

Have not come up with a name for her yet unsurprisingly, so lets just call her Bell Goat(sheep? cow?) Grandma for now

Also heres the sketches from when i was trying to come up with ideas, first i drew the bells in the corner, then the person in the top right, and then the sketch i ended up refining

[dickheadcanons]

Your brain is literally gynormous. Do you think Damian's and Dick's relationship is paternal? Because, as someone who has actually had to raise their sibling (do not recommend) it looks more like a guy that had too much in his plate trying to be the best caregiver he could, but not really being a parent, if that makes sense. I feel like the idea of him wanting to adopt him feels like kind of a retcon, couldn't really see it in the og run. But of course, it could be because it's not exactly the same as my experience (abusive father, incapable mother, yknow the drill). What do you think? All your posts are so good.

Also while you're at it, what do you think of Dick as a parent? Some elseworlds have played with the concept, and main continuity did something too with Olivia but T*m Tayl*r fucked that up too. I also wonder how Damian would be as a dad, but I don't think I've ever seen any stories with it.

omg anon thank you and thank you for asking!! this is literally one of my favorite topics!! i was thinking about making a post on this and now you gave me the excuse for it!!

Long story short, I don't think that “parental” is a binary thing. I mean, I know several bio-parents who are just guys with too much on their plates, trying to be the best they can, you know? And people can see parent figures in all kinds of relationships that aren’t blood or traditional moms/dads, especially with people who didn't know each other from birth. There are a million ways to be parented, and a million ways to act as a parent.

The way I think about it is, is Dick Damain's John Grayson? No, I don't think so.

But is Dick Damian's Bruce Wayne? Yes. Totally. Absolutely.

More under the cut bc I have a lot of thoughts.

I think to talk about Dick and Damian, we have to start with Dick and Bruce. So much about Dick and Damian is a reflection of the original Dynamic Duo, and I think that's very much the case with this element as well. From the start of their very long comic history, Dick and Bruce have been dancing around their relationship. We get early comics that say they're "like" father and son, we have Bruce saying he couldn't care about Dick more than if he was Bruce's son, but we also have places where they call each other their best friends, where they act more like brothers, etc etc.

When it comes to who our parents are, I think there is the responsibility, and the result. Certain people have the responsibility, the duty, to be our parents, and sometimes (because death or illness or being shitty people), they aren't able to meet those responsibilities. That never removes the responsibility; they don't stop being the parent. But they aren't able to create the result of us becoming good stable adults. That's where other people can step in, where the parental figure appears, and those are the people that we actually point to when we say "they made me the person I am today."

In fandom, we see a lot of Dick not wanting Bruce to replace his father, of him asking not to be adopted. I think this is a fine characterization that works with who Dick is, but Bruce is actually the one to say that he is not going to replace Dick's father. He says it completely unprompted, too. This is withholding the responsibility of being Dick's parent from Bruce, keeping him at a distance and reserving it as an honor for someone who can't hold it anymore, even as Bruce demands responsibility for literally everything else about Dick.

And I think that it's very telling of what Bruce's idea of a father is. The thing about having a dead parent at a young age is that the person of your parents is still tangled in the role of parent in your life; Mom is mom, not Martha, and because she's dead, the image of both Martha and "mom" is frozen. For Bruce, the relationship of father and son is frozen in the relationship of specifically his father and him. Of course Bruce is not Dick's father; Bruce himself is so different from what his conception of a father is. And as a fellow son, for Bruce, someone who just got back from 7 years abroad studying to be Batman, for whom the nearly 20 year old wound is still fresh, the idea of even wanting another father doesn't make sense, particularly for a boy that Bruce identifies with so hard that he becomes the third person ever to know who Batman is.

This looming memory is even worse when it's Dick's turn to be Batman. While Bruce looks at Dick and sees the memory of his own loss, the shadow of his own grief, Dick is looking at Damian and seeing Bruce. Dick knows very well who Damian lost; Dick is grieving what Damian lost more than Damian is. Bruce couldn't conceive of replacing a father, but Dick is struggling to imagining himself replacing Bruce at his job, much less who he was in his personal relationships.

But even if Damian isn't Dick's responsibility, Dick doesn't hesitate to care about Damian's future. "Who's going to save him if we don't?" At the start of the DickBats era, Dick isn't looking at Damian as a family member, really. He's looking at Damian as a victim, abet a very involved, very dangerous one. It's how Bruce looked at Dick too, before he had any reason to know that this kid would become something more to him. But, like Bruce, what Dick does to save Damian is bring him into the thing that is most precious to him; Batman. The mission. Saving people. A way to live in the world.

I know saying someone is the Batman to their Robin is like, a joke at this point. Something unbelievably cheesy. But you google "iconic duos" and Batman and Robin are one of the first responses. There's a reason for the joke. So imagine you are Robin, and your Batman is dead. And you have to go and find a new partner. Dick making Damian his Robin is heavy, just as heavy to me as adoption papers. Bruce made Dick his partner without any idea of what that meant. Dick, and the audience, had 70 years of expectation on what Dick and Damian could be. Dick making Damian Robin was a very specific claim, far stronger imo than just claiming him as a son would have been.

Because, to be honest (and speak to your other question), I don't think Dick thinks a lot about being a parent. I don't really think it's that important to him. Dick is a leader, a mentor, he deals with a ton of teenagers and kids through his vigilante work, he goes to Tim's sidekick parent's meetings and takes Jason skiing and more than that, he's also young. He's in his 20s. He should be at the club. I think he probably thinks he'll have kids in an abstract way, but it's not something he's looking for, consciously or unconsciously. He's not searching for connection, or to fix his mistakes or his past, the things that lead Bruce to adopting sidekicks. He'd be a great dad, and I think we see him being pretty good with his Elseworlds kids, but Dick is a very practical person, and him taking a kid in (vs finding somewhere else they can go) is not really the practical choice.

Except for one kid. There's just been one kid with legitimately no where else to go, where Dick is truly the only option, because going home meant only bad things for him. Dick made Damian part of his family in the ways that mattered to them both in that moment. With their lives, adoption doesn't really make a huge material difference on custody (if Damian wanted to leave, Dick couldn't have stopped him; Damian has access to basically unlimited money and can feed and clothe and wash himself. and possibly already has a phd.), and Dick wanted Damian to choose, anyway. If I recall correctly, Dick says he didn't think about taking Damian with him until Bruce comes back. He thought about taking Damian with him, thought that Damian might be better with Dick (his partner!!!!) than even with Bruce, his dad, the person Dick loves so much, only in the face of them being separated.

Meanwhile Damian, for all his blustering about how Dick needs to "earn" his respect, warms up to Dick startlingly quickly. For Damian, who had never known a father, who in his initial run hadn't even known his mother for more than two years, whose other male family is Ra’s al Ghul, his father is Batman. Even in Tomasi's kinder depiction of Damian's childhood, Damian only knows the Bat. And when he meets Bruce, the first thing he expresses is disappointment. Bruce the man is underwhelming and then goes and dies. So much for the mythic hero!

And then he meets Dick. Who manages to teach Damian something, who doesn't discount his skills even when he's wrong. Who proves that he is better at being Batman than Damian, and shows that he wants Damian around. And, even more importantly, who doesn't die. Dick is stable in a world constantly in flux. Damian screws up a lot in that run, and he leaves for long stretches of it, but Dick is always there when he gets back. There's no blame here, but the truth is that Dick is the one who stays.

Bruce was Damian's father, but what does that mean to someone whose never met a father at all? Bruce might have tried to connect with Damian before he died, but he doesn’t do it in a way that works. He doesn’t give Damian trust, he doesn’t encourage him in the ways Damian finds important…the first person to do that is Dick. Dick gives Damian responsibility, makes him part of the team. It could be argued that Damian didn’t deserve it, but we’re not talking about deserving. We’re talking about what worked. It sounds like as good an idea as making a tiny 8 year old acrobat a sidekick, but it undeniably worked for both Damian and Dick. Does that mean that either of these relationships were parental in the way that we think of it in the real world, in the way that a child psychologist would say is good and healthy? I have no idea. But they are the most parental in the absence of any other parents, and I think that means a lot.

Unfortunately, we don't get to actually see the dissolution of Dick and Damian's partnership. DC conveniently skips over showing us Bruce coming back and Dick becoming Nightwing again; preNew 52, Dick is still Batman with Damian even when Bruce returns, and in the New 52, he's been Batman "Before" and we don't really see the end, just a vague aftermath. But if it did take that kind of change to make them realize their relationship had a flavor of "parent and child", had the makings of something like a father and son, well, they'd just be following in the original Batman's footprints.

[ganondoodle]

i am being so brave trying so hard to hold back writing a rant about that 'minimizing narrative noise' comment on totk sage concept art bc its actively flying around in my head like the worlds most annoying fly

[marinsawakening]

Imo one of the weirder decisions TOTK made was having Sidon's power be the defensive one rather than Yunobo's. Yunobo is the only living character in BOTW (aside from Zelda) to have innate powers; he is Daruk's descendant and has his shield power. There is no reason for him to have lost this in between BOTW and TOTK, but TOTK never mentions it. Instead the focus for Yunobo is on a charge attack that's just incredibly generic Goron stuff rather than anything that reflects on his character specifically. Yunobo also never once mentions Daruk, which is very strange considering his lineage is very much still important in TOTK (as it relates to the Sage of Old). It's just a bunch of deeply strange decisions that to me indicate an outright aversion to building on BOTW.