#just like any other shitty generic superhero story

[candycandy00]

If this really is the end of Shigaraki’s arc, then I’m actually really glad I already gave up on this manga having a satisfying conclusion. Like I can’t even work up the emotion to be upset because the writing in general has been so shitty for such a long time, with only a couple of bright spots mixed into the sea of garbage, that I just don’t feel invested in it anymore. It’s like I’m reading a poorly written fanfic. I’m just gonna remember the good parts and pretend the rest never happened.

[concreteparasite]

You mentioned that Ray would be a professor of astronomy I like the idea especially that Ray likes stars buuut I have a really negative view of male professors (I hope i don't offend anyone it's just what I feel like) so it didn't set right with me I Don't think Ray would be the type but still Idk can you please answer? like it's alright if Ray is a murderer but it isn't if he's a college professor it doesn't make any sense I know

I'm sorry for any bad experiences you may have had with professors in the past.

Ray would be a professor, but maybe not in the way that you assume? Here is a bit more information:

Non Superhero AU Ray would get into teaching due to a love of astronomy and spreading knowledge , inspiring others regarding the boundless beauty of outterspace. Unfortunately, with how shitty of a job teaching can be, a lot of his passion has been lost. He spends his free time researching and reading, and he tends to stay up too late, which makes him dependent on caffeine throughout the day.

Ray wouldn't be the type to hit on or take advantage of any of his students. To be honest, he would barely remember any of their names. Ray would likely be hit on a few times as he is conventionally attractive, in these circumstances, Ray's annoyance would definitely show. Something like this:

Student: "Mr. Ray I'll do anything for extra credit 💕"

Ray: "Anything? How about studying?😒"

There would be a few students he would become fond of, but only those who express deep interest in astronomy and have a tenacity to keep bothering Ray to teach them more, even when class is over. He wouldn't even mind if that person's test scores were bad, as long as they were excited about learning and about astronomy in general.

Ray would seem tired and thorny in person, but with enough time spent together, he would eventually open up and become very warm towards that person. It is a story that would definitely be a slow burn and would require a ton of effort on MC's part to be a go-getter as Ray would have a LOT of reservations lol.

[eddathegreat]

Worm and Ward and Familiarity

I saw a really great analysis of Worm working with tropes while Ward works against them by @greatwyrmgold, and it reminded me of a more general contrast that I noted:

Worm is coming from a very familiar place and being pulled out of that. The Undersiders have fairly relatable experiences (on average). Poverty, bullying, neglect and abuse by guardians. I'd argue that, as extreme as Alec's experience is, it would resonate with many who have dealt with indoctrination in their youth (like me). Brockton Bay is a city on economic decline, struggling to stay afloat, and afflicted with violent crime. There's superpowers thrown in, sure, but it's fundamentally very familiar human shittiness and problems that drive a lot of the story.

The powers are definitely weird and creative, but it's still unmistakably a superhero story. Bugs, darkness, flight and strength and durability, contact biokinesis. Superheroes and supervillains in costumes fighting each other, hijinks and blood loss.

Except that there's Endbringers, and Echidna, and Cauldron, and Scion. The culmination of the story is peeling back the mask of a familiar superhero setting to reveal a cosmic horror story.

Ward is set in the aftermath of that.

There's a massive megacity that still doesn't have a name. It's basically a country, but it's led by a mayor. Infrastructure is just barely there, lots of people are still living in tents, the internet is just barely running and not everywhere. People with superpowers are no longer just superheroes and supervillains, they're... what, exactly? So many threats that were once contained are now running free, the ratio of normal territory to gonzo hellscapes has been turned on its head. The skyline is torn apart by portals to other worlds, and it's fucking with the weather. There's a political movement against people with superpowers, and there are people affected by superpowers with their own identity, and both of those groups are very conspicuous in how hard it is to treat them as an analogy for any other groups. People are estranged from their own environment, and it's a brave, terrible new world in the shadow of a slain god.

The superpowers are less straightforward. Being unable to be pointed at, impregnation tentacles that fuck with the effectiveness of other powers, lots of cluster triggers and grab-bags, etc. The powers are more obviously reflective of the cosmic horror story people have had to wake up to, unfamiliar, weird, and deeply upsetting.

The characters are also pretty dang weird. Rain is a lot like Alec, and I think he might actually be the most normal of the bunch. Body dysphoria+, sharing a body with a sibling, attachment issues, living as a clone or as a sort-of clone. Not totally unrelatable, to be sure, there are parallels with real life experiences, but these are more their own thing, not so recognizable.

This makes Victoria kind of the perfect protagonist, matching the themes: she's estranged from who she was and her old connections; her home city is gone; she's gone through something absolutely mind-bendingly terrible that is among the worst that people can experience IRL and then some; her power has changed; she was raised into the weirdness of superheroics and is pioneering how it looks in this new world; she's knowledgeable about the weirdness surrounding powers, giving her a good eye for understanding the new world.

I think a decent fraction of Ward's relative unpopularity sadly comes from this: estrangement from the once familiar. The characters can't be related to as easily, the powers aren't so iconic, and the setting feels undefined. I don't think Ward is inherently worse for it, it's just a bit of a tougher sell.

[spandexinspace]

I actually enjoyed this arc a lot up until this point, it's probably the most fun I'd had reading a comic arc in a long time. But these two issues did not live up to that.

It felt like the conclusion came on too fast, for one. There should have been something more there, everything went too smoothly and it feels like there's a piece missing somewhere between these two issues and the last.

And I know I expected too much when I expected the comic to actually take into account his existing family in any real capacity, but man, this is such a let down. They showed up, they got mind-controlled, Vril said two lines and now they're working together? None of them tried to kill Brainiac? Lobo and Vril didn't even speak directly to each other despite how loaded that relationship is. Lyrl didn't say a word despite his not entirely clear alligences?

The Dox family is a mess of generational trauma and abuse. A story where they're united like this should be messier (even if it's built on the shitty Villains' Month origin that tries way to hard to make Brainiac sympathetic and a parallel to Jor-El). But they're not there to be their own characters. It quite frankly kinda feels like Williamson saw that like ten of us were expecting them to show up and kinda threw them in there just for the hell of it. The story wouldn't change at all of you removed them. Their prescens doesn't even serve to highlight why Brainiac can't have a real family because not a single word is dedicated to what he did to them. Why they would never offer him that willingly.

For an arc supposedly about Brainiac's obsession with family it fails to examine that subject in any way but the most shallow ones. It's almost incurious in how little it actually explores the subject.

This is a Superman and Luthor story. The Dox family is incidental to it. Hell, even Brainiac mainly seems to be there to be a catalyst for Kon, Lex and Lena despite it supposedly being his arc. And I know the issue ends with Lex amnesiac, but overall the entire arc just feels too perfect. Very glossy, very superheroes being superheroes with not much going on beneath the surface.

[harleyxhoward]

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. V

💥Firecracker💥

Firecracker/Misty is one of my favorite additions to the show in S4, mostly because I enjoyed having a legitimate redpill influencer be depicted in the show outside of Stormfront.

Misty’s ability is a very minor form of explosion generation, taking the form of small sparks that are summoned from her snapping her fingers. This ability seems to be the result of her initially meek and insecure temperament in early adolescence that’s since mutated into an inferno of overconfidence that could very well seal her fate.

As we learn, she hates Starlight/Annie because back when they would do superhero pageants together, Annie was a pageant diva who spread a false rumor that Misty had performed lewd acts to get as far as she did in the competition. This ousted Misty from ever competing again, delegating her to a solid D-lister with a shitty power. This interaction ultimately puts both characters into perspective of one another. Both of their abilities center around light and ultimately visible perception, but while Annie relished in the limelight by shoving others out of her way, Misty was dependent on minor details to “spark” her way to glory. She relies on clipping truths and stringing together irrelevant info to create patchwork stories of misinformation she can sell to her fanbase.

As she puts it, she sells them purpose, making them believe that they’re a part of something worth fighting for instead of simple cogs in a corporate machine. Misty’s light doesn’t lead or guide like Annie’s, despite the fact it had the full potential to. Her light dissuades and confuses, flickering momentarily, just long enough to lure someone in her direction, only for it to fizzle out when they would attempt to examine it further. This is exactly how I view her conspiracy theories, giving her audience bread crumbs of truth without being able to provide ample evidence of their credibility.

Misty, like her ability, cares about details, so much so to the point where you could argue her true ability is being able to spin any situation back into a redpilled hate campaign to better suit her own agenda. She words every statement she gives the press carefully, riling up the masses while being able to turn suspicion away from herself, even when outed for sleeping with a 15 year old boy when she was 28. She took this mindset and used it to seduce Homelander, understanding that her breast milk could lure him in, but much like her sparks, it would only ever be a temporary source.

Misty is a perfect embodiment of the she-devil residing in the details, seeing as how one spark was capable of launching the entire United States into a tyrannical state of marital law.

[nerves-nebula]

do you have any recs for books about or surrounding trauma?

Mm. Not exactly? I mostly read fictional books that have abuse and trauma as, like, themes, but which aren't necessarily only about those things. i guess i can rec you some of those if that's what you're interested in.

but if you want like, nonfiction stuff, then there is this google drive that a guy gave me and it's full of csa/sa/childhood trauma/trauma healing books, articles, and workbooks. some pdfs and some epubs i think.

anyway i went back through my library log and here's some of the books i've read in which abuse is a main focus, but be warned that these stories aren't all 100% about abuse 100% of the time. anyway, under the cut.

the people in the trees (still reading)(about pedophilia and the abuse of a native population by the narrator)

the child finder (also still reading)(about a detective with a mysterious child abuse past who specializes in finding missing kids)

being lolita (a woman recounting how she was groomed by her english teacher and his weird reading of lolita)

lolita (its lolita. you know lolita)

juniper & thorn (a girl & her sisters kept in near isolation by her father. theres some SA, CSA, and incest, but it's also about a magic murder mystery and a hot dancer. the narrator has a weird blood kink its cool)

hench (OK THIS ONE IS NOT REALLY ABOUT ABUSE but early on in the book the MC gets a traumatic life altering injury and it's about trauma TO ME even tho it's really more about like. a corrupt shitty system of government/superhero stuff ruining ppls lives and the main character's rise in villainy trying to fix/tear down said system)

last ones left alive (ok also not about abuse/trauma exactly either but. listen. it's the only zombie story I've really enjoyed all that much in a while and this girls life is so sad fhasdifsdjf and really arent all zombie stories kind of about abuse and trauma? I mean when they aren't just silly webtoon type shit...)

lost in the moment and found (less about trauma more about abuse and adults lying to kids. there's some gaslighting & CSA stuff early on. part of a series but you dont really need to have read the rest to understand it i think. also the entire series is kind of about kids who feel like they belong in other worlds and that includes a lot of discussions of traumatizing things)

the entire broken earth trilogy (it's ripe with themes of abuse, genocide, violence, and inter-generational trauma)

I Hunt Killers (+ the rest of the books in this series. this one is a bit of an iffy recommendation because I last read it like. 10 years ago. So um. yeah idk?? I remember it being good tho and i liked the SPOILERS!!! weird incest reveal stuff near the end of the series. from what i remember at least)

[shigayokagayama]

maybe a weird question, but do you have any recommendations for non-mob psycho media? I’ve been in search of something that hits similarly/is as well made and I trust your judgement o wise one. I’m not super picky, so recs of any kind would be appreciated :)

im like the worst person to take media recommendations from because you have to tie me down to watch something new and then i get obsessed with it forever, in terms of things ive seen recently that hit the same tumblr is NOT lying dungeon meshi is really good and if you start watching now you're gonna be watching at the part where it starts getting crazy

other stuff ive been into (gets progressively less mob psycho and generally more depressing like the further down we go bc i tend to get into really, really sad shit):

-i <3 deltarune but everyone has already played that. deltarune good. if you havent played deltarune play deltarune. genuinely like it more than undertale. also if the last chapter of deltarune is just the confession arc i called it and deserve a million dollars

-same w spiderverse. listen usually i dont care about superhero stuff but god these movies are good and i really hope they stick the landing.

-everything everywhere all at once continues to be one of my favorite movies ever

-rainworld (video game, very difficult but skurry's playthroughs do a good job summarizing the plot and general vibe of each route if you wanna watch those. i watched my friend play survivor ages ago and ive been playing through survivor with a friend on multiplayer and decided to watch some playthroughs to get a feel for the map and GOD DAMN the story of this game. rivulet route almost made me cry.) fair warning this is animal death the video game.

-severance (live action tv show, general plot is some sort of dystopian future where they invent a surgery where you can seperate your work self from your normal self so you clock into work and then black out until your shift is over. except your work self is just stuck at work forever. only 9 episodes but very, VERY good)

-i actually really enjoyed the scott pilgrim comics and the anime i wish anyone ever could be normal about them. id definitely suggest comics (if you can handle the 2000s humor) then anime. also basically everyone knows this but fair warning that starting out the main character is in his early 20s dating a 17 year old, it is explicitly treated as a shitty thing by the narrative and theres nothing explicit and its made very clear that he has 0 feelings for her whatsoever and is just using her as an ego boost but if youre sensitive to that stuff i might skip this one

-lots of webcomics about animals. i read so many webcomics about animals its like. my main media intake. this is part of the reason that i dont understand complaints about the art style my favorite webcomic looks like this

its called doe of deadwood and ill think about it until the day i die. others im currently reading (since this one wrapped a while ago) are "what lurks beneath" (cat cult on an island) "waves always crash" (cat cult on the beach) "i didnt know" (cat cult in a barn), toufati sawa (hyena trying to avenge her clan) and africa (leopard trying to survive the harshening world with her cubs) warning for animal death with all of these and general abuse warning for all those cat cult ones bc. cults.

-i like warrior cats. do not read warrior cats. its not very good and youll get stuck here forever.

-pathologic but the actual game and not just people describing the game please watch someone play the actual game summaries skip so much of the meat of the story and the characters. or play the game if you can bear learning to strategically quicksave. fair warning there is a lot of racism depicted against indigenous people in these games and while the framing of it generally aires on the side of "racism bad" there are a lot of kinda shitty tropes that come with it.

-listen bojack horseman is one of my shows it is the polar opposite of mob psycho in like every way and i would never in a million years recommend it if you want something that hits like mob psycho but if we're asking for just things i enjoy this is one of them. heavy cw for drug usage and abuse with this one. might want to give "does the dog die" a look for this one bc people are not joking about how heavy this show is

-same with hospice. hospice is a concept album about a hospice worker and a patient and has had more of an influence on me than any other piece of media ever bc i found it at the exact perfect time in my life for it to be relevant to my circumstances and now its like part of my identity. heavy cw for abuse also

-speaking of concept albums hey have you listened to tyler the creator he has several. WOLF especially i really like because the plot is actually like. kinda intricate. he also says the f slur a lot in WOLF but hes bisexual so diversity win?

-succession good. tw for like. everything though. probably "does the dog die" this one.

-hey have you ever watched david lynch's 1972 film "eraserhead"

[pluckyredhead]

Red Hood and the Outlaws #4 (2011)

Back on Lobdell's bullshit!

There had been vague references to Roy being a "screwup" in the first three issues of the book, but this issue confirms that he is, as he was pre-Flashpoint, an addict in recovery. There are two major differences, though: one, his sobriety seems a lot shakier than it was pre-Flashpoint (at least, before Lian's death), and two, he is now an alcoholic, rather than a narcotics addict. Pre-Flashpoint, Roy was regularly shown drinking casually and sometimes even actively drunk (Ollie's bachelor party), and it was never depicted as a problem for him, though Kyle at one point gently teases him about staying away from booze. (Interestingly, Ollie is occasionally depicted as having an unhealthy relationship with alcohol himself, but no line is ever drawn between his potential addiction and Roy's, in any continuity.)

I'm of two minds about the change. On the one hand, though I have a strong attachment to the original "Snowbirds Don't Fly," it was very much commenting on a specific cultural moment, as well as being very deliberately designed to open up conversation about drugs and drug addiction in comic books (prior to "Snowbirds," the depiction of drug use was banned by the Comics Code Authority). There's no reason to stick specifically to heroin, other than tradition. I hate to praise Tom King, and I have quibbles with him giving Roy an addiction to prescription drugs in Heroes in Crisis (if injuries in the field led to Roy's reliance on and then addiction to prescription painkillers, why is he the only superhero to develop an addiction? it should be like a third of them!), but it's a choice that feels very current, the way that heroin felt very current in 1971. (People obviously still do heroin, but you know what I mean.)

Making Roy an alcoholic instead of a heroin addict provides an interesting opportunity to compare the two addictions. Alcoholism is much more culturally accepted (and, you know, legal), easier to hide, and carries far less stigma, both when using and when in recovery. And yet RHATO depicts a Roy who appears to be in greater disgrace with the superhero community than pre-Flashpoint Roy ever was. It would have been interesting to explore the difference in how the two addictions are received, in getting and staying sober, in the dangers of using any substance to excess, even legal and widely accepted ones. A thoughtful writer could have told a really moving story with this change.

Of course, we're talking about Lobdell here, so the change feels completely arbitrary and downright lazy, especially since Lobdell (and King) has a habit of doing zero research and changing things at random. Both the alcoholism and the prescription drug addiction wind up coming across like all addictions are interchangeable, which is...shitty.

But, you know. It could have been good.

On the other hand, here we have the debut of the single best thing about all of RHATO: the Jaybird nickname. Drink it in, friends.

Meanwhile, Kori gets attacked by this guy, Crux:

She's TAMARANEAN. In fact, the word "Tamaranean" is used later on the same page. What a shitshow.

Crux is a human whose parents were killed when a random Tamaranean spaceship hit their car (why were Tamaraneans just cruising by Earth? no idea), so he devoted his life to destroying aliens in general and Tamaraneans in particular, including using alien DNA so he can turn himself into a giant bat-lizard at will.

Meanwhile, the hot lady sheriff turns out to be an Untitled, and she and Jason frisk each other sexily before she turns into a monster and attacks. It's boring.

The issue ends with Roy going to help Kori, who is losing her fight, and Jason facing off against the Untitled. So to sum of the events of the issue, two fights start and Roy calls Jason "Jaybird" for the first time. It's amazing how little story you can tell in when you average like two panels per page!

[askmerriauthor]

Regarding discussion in this post here.

I think a lot of the dislike toward Geeta is two-fold when it comes to her behavior as a shitty boss.

First is how Paldea's depiction compares to other Champions and Gym Leaders in the past. In prior games, the Champion was either not discussed at all and merely existed as an end goal for the Player to overcome, or was regarded with a certain level of respect by everyone in the setting. In other cases, the Champion was even depicted as something akin to a vigilante/superhero who would actively go around righting wrongs and protecting the region from threats. However it was, the Champion was always someone held in very high esteem by the Gym Leaders and the general public, as well as carrying a certain level of mystique about themselves.

Geeta is decidedly mundane by comparison. She's integrated herself directly into the general day-to-day business of Paldea. Everyone knows who she is because they see her and directly interact with her all the damn time. Similarly, the Gym Leaders are comfortable enough to voice a negative opinion about her, which is in direct contrast to how Champions have always been treated in the past. I feel like the fact that they're willing to raise any criticism about Geeta, no matter how minor, is what a lot of Players are glomming onto and blowing out of proportion. I've seen folk saying things like "Larry absolutely loathes Geeta with every fiber of his being!" with a straight face. I mean, come on - Larry is annoyed by her, sure, but he's probably low-key annoyed by the majority of people/things he has to deal with in his everyday life. The guy's the literal personification of the "overworked salaryman" trope. He's annoyed by people like Rika and Hassel as well, but nobody mentions them. Do you think Larry could exist in the general proximity of someone as bombastically extra as Brassius for more than five seconds without wanting to eat a Hyper Beam?

Secondly, I think that it's because Geeta is presented as being a boss - an employer and manager - that there's a certain level of projection from Players. Misdirected ire taken from their own experiences with lousy, meddling bosses that they're pushing onto Geeta. We all vibe with Larry because, odds are, we're more like Larry than any other character. A lot of us older Players are tired, stressed workers who have to put up with bothersome bosses and the general public on a daily basis. So it's very easy to project that stress onto a character like Geeta even if she doesn't necessarily deserve it. Taking a step back and looking at a character, and their actions, in an objective manner is hard to do when one's first inclination is to experience the story in its intended manner - in an emotional, relatable way.

That's not to say Geeta gets a free pass. As I covered in an earlier post, she does A LOT of really shifty things and takes advantage of others' cooperation. So it's not like everyone calling her out is just doing so from a bias, unfair position. But I feel like there's definitely some folk who are letting their own feelings stubbornly color their judgement.

[thenixkat]

and you punched the metahuman victim because?

Batman's a bigot let's just say it

like, asshole you coulda punched Luthor instead of Luthor's victim Batman claims he only joined Luthor to figure out what Lex had been doing with Captain Marvel

Batman's group was plotting to double cross the villains

hmm maybe knocking Billy the fuck out while you explained to the room what Luthor did to him wasnt the best idea Bruce

especially teh part with you chasing with a gun while revealing everything that he knows is a lie

ah the dehumanization of prisoners who are only prisoners b/c a bunch of unsanctioned vigilantes kidnapped them for not bowing to their top vigilante

oh no how dare the people you kidnapped and put in a reeducation camp kill one of the guards keeping them locked up. The savages

meanwhile the regular people, the US president decides to drop nukes on the brawl at the Kansas gulag of course SUperman's the only hope. Also its nice to see someone acknowledging that Captain Marvel can match Superman

Wonder Woman attempts to kill Batman for talking shit. B/c we need someone to make the bad guy, and that's clearly what they've been trying to do with wonder woman here

just trying to murder someone who is there to help quell the revolution and keep teh prisoners in this illegal reeducation camp just cause they have an attitude is the best behavior from a superhero

Batman and Wonder Woman decide to stop fighting eachother and take on the planes carrying nuclear bombs. Granted i doubt either of them considered what the president might do is the heroes stop him from bombing them and their illegal prison camp

its probably not the best thing to say that all metas need to die for the sake of the world company that's bread and butter is selling stories about super people doing shit. But go off, which yer shitty shitty morals

The SPectre plans to punish who ever survives, the humans or the metas for the genocide that occurs either way, b/c teh Spetre is a shitty shitty superhero and an even more shit angel

and it picked up the narrator cause it cant tell teh future and needed help with teh judgment call cause the only two options the writers have decided to railroad shit into is either the metas get genocided or the metas take up humanity with infighting nevermind any other potential options

and the narrator chews teh Spectre the fuck out for simply being an all powerful observer and doing shit for dick to make shit better

so Superman decides to murder the UN for deciding to bomb his illegal prison camp and all of his friends who'd kidnapped people from all over teh world and were fighting all out to keep those prisoners from escaping that could have resulted in countless regular people casualties

teh narrator talks Superman down from murdering the UN

again with the people seeing superheroes as gods thing. I assure you that it'd be more normal for the average person to think of superpowers folks as just some asshole rather than a god

man i dont like this story

but also i love how solving problems along side the common folk doesnt involve like stopping being vigilantes and working through official channels. And it definitely wont mean doing shit that reduces crime in general

Batman rebuilds Wayne manor and turns it into a hospital to care for the people harmed by the radiation but he's still got multiple death robots just in every room watching people and he continuously patrols said hospital

why the fuck does Wonder Woman deserve to regain her crown when she tried to st

art a totalitarian regime?

fuck her and Superman and Wonder Woman hook up b/c they cant just leave a woman unattached

I dont care for the story. I didnt even find out the info I fucking read it for

I will say that its well painted and that painting a comic is an ordeal, too bad its wasted on this story

and Wonder Woman's fucking pregnant! Of course b/c that's the only way to heal and move forward hook up and have babies

of course other heroes breeding is a problem b/c they just spawn amoral wild animals but its ok for Wonder Woman and Superman to breed

they want Bruce to be a godparent to the baby. Bruce is shitty parent thank fuck its over

[msfcatlover]

Because there is a part of me that is legit terrified I might die under anesthesia and I hate the idea of leaving a story unfinished, I’ve queued up this very bare-bones summary of how “Have Mercy” is supposed to go.

Obviously spoilers, and if I don’t die then I will still be writing it, so you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to. But I want it out there just in case.

A big thing in “Have Mercy” is the way we get used to/come to accept things, using major moments of it to steadily downgrade Steph’s threat level. Keeping in mind that they’re still having minor encounters with the other Bats around, or others of roughly similar exposure levels in between chapters as there are months-long timeskips going on, and that superheroes generally have a different margin of forgiveness thanks to how often people get mind-controlled, or manipulated, or flip-flop which side of the fight they’re on.

So each of these is a moment where Steph theoretically could’ve killed Jason with no consequences, but didn’t. Upping both how easily she could’ve gotten away with it & how helpful she ended up being instead each time, and giving Jason chances to see Steph be vulnerable too (giving someone your trust is a pretty good way to earn trust in return.)

Chapter 1: A case gone wrong ends in a situation Jason likely can’t get out of on his own. Steph arrives and ends up handling things in typical Red Hood fashion. Jason stays hidden, too frightened to confront her, and he’s never 100% certain if Steph even realized he was there. Still, in a moment of extreme vulnerability that he couldn’t escape from, trapped in a room with Steph & no backup, Jason walked away completely unharmed by her. She is not inherently a horrid omen of pain.

Chapter 2: A seemingly inadvertent rescue. Jason is captured by villains, and can’t escape on his own. He can’t get through to the other Bats. Steph shows up and takes care of the bad guys before saving Jason. They have a brief conversation which very vaguely hints at Steph regretting the Tower attack and gives them some minor connection, then Jason leaves once again completely unharmed. There is no question this time that Steph, while she might not have intended to save Jason, made the active choice not to treat him as an active threat/enemy.

Chapter 3: Jason leaves the manor after having his huge fight with Bruce over the Garzonas incident (note: Jason did not kill him, but he’s not sorry the asshole died, and honestly? With Bruce & Cass & Damian so rigid in their own morality? The fact Jason is okay with certain terrible people dying is really messing with Jason’s head and making him feel even more shitty than he already did.) Duke is on a date, Cass is off-world, Damian’s in Bludhaven, but Jean-Paul’s couch is always available to any Bat who needs it and Jason desperately needs it right now. However, when Jason gets there he doesn’t find JPV—he finds Stephanie Brown, out of her armor and struggling to patch herself up after a fight gone very, very wrong. They do argue, but Steph is mostly too tired to do this right now and Jason doesn’t feel good picking a fight with someone who can barely move half their limbs, and neither of them wants to deal with Bruce, so they call a temporary truce. Steph shares the takeout she bought. Jason gets to vent a little, and Steph (unsurprisingly) gets it. She doesn’t necessarily say all the right things, but she gets where he’s coming from, and that means something. Jason still calls dibs on the bedroom, since it can lock from the inside, but he wakes up the next day to an empty apartment with barely any sign that Steph was ever there at all. Still, Jason saw Steph’s humanity again for the first time, saw that she could be hurt & worn-down & miserable just like any of them, they had a much stronger point of connection, and he was able to sleep in the same apartment as her without suffering anything other than some heated arguing.

Chapter 4: Almost all action scene probably, ugh. Major breakout happens, through total coincidence Steph & Jason end up in the same place at the same time. Jason specifically took a gamble in running to her as the closest probable-ally, but for all Steph complains, she jumps straight to covering him. They fight surprisingly well together, and you can see them getting more comfortable around eachother as the fight progresses. Nothing forces trust quite like fighting back-to-back with someone for both of your lives.

Chapter 5: The Ear Infection Incident. Jason’s so sick he gets lost, Steph finds him and takes him back to a safehouse to treat his ear & keep him from getting hurt wandering half-delirious with fever. They have a shockingly sincere conversation in which Jason accidentally cuts Steph right to the heart a few times and she clearly reconsiders her approach. The whole time, she is nothing but caring & gentle with him, despite her sharp words & constant complaining. Jason actually falls asleep with his head in her lap, and wakes up to Damian freaking the fuck out and trying to get a very offended Steph to get the hell away from his little brother. Jason is mostly just disgruntled and wants to go back to sleep.

Chapter 6: Switch to Steph’s POV as she talks her way into the Joker’s lair, convincing him she’s taking him up on that invite he sent out. It’s borderline impossible to keep up the banter when she sees the mess the rogues have made of Jason, sickeningly reminiscent of her own death. She beats the Joker into bloody paste, and Jason seems hesitant & shaky when Steph approaches Jason, but all she does is apologize profusely for not being there sooner and free Jason from his bonds. Jason slumps into her arms, too hurt & tired to hold himself up, and Steph helps him rehydrate while trying to reassure Jason that everything’s going to be alright. Jason tries to tell Steph that she was right back at the Tower, and Steph finally tells him that she was wrong and so, so, so very sorry for what she did. They stay there for as long as Jason needs before Steph carries him as gently as possible out of the lair. When she tries to give Jason back to the rest of the family, Jason latches onto Steph—his savior, his hero, his Shadow—and refuses to let her go.

Ends with Steph bracing herself for how miserable she’s going to be having to be around the other Bats for the foreseeable future, and climbing into the back of the Batmobile with Jason. Her little brother needs her, after all. Nothing else matters.

[beardedmrbean]

Oh that to bash my generation

AT LEAST BOOMERS HAD THE HIPPIES

https://x.com/southernkeeks/status/1784576489003856008?s=46

….Do you have ANY idea how many times our elders hammer down how shitty life was for them 40-50 years ago growing up?

How it was hammer down our throats? Did I mention that insulating time traveling cartoon movie of MLK where they stated his Martydom was NEEDED to change the world?

How the fuck did the king family-wait I heard they been a mess since his death. Nvm

But people wondering why zoomer college kids are so unhinged….okay story good Steven universe fans. I just wanted to show how long this mess was

But since you know I been in the asylum that’s is tumblr…um not surprising. For some goddamn reasons, late boomers and gen x (not all but you know) decided to like social media and tv will raised their kids

And given how over a decade misandrists and racist af non whites was go unchecked….

I think a lot of people forget that my generation grew up when people with untreated mental illness, unresolved parental issues, and it was socially acceptable to treat white people and men the same way the Nazis viewed the Jews because oppressed vs the oppressors. You end up with this

A lot of people don’t realize the crazy sjw/tumblr crowd PREYED kids. So when you have mentally stunted people who think like Star Wars (oh let leave out the character we talked about in the DMs. They are a landmine) preferring the galactic emperor/first order over the rebellion/resistance means your a Nazi apologist

Your shit out of luck, but funny enough me liking a certain villain lead me NOT calling the sons and daughters of David colonizer

Okay a lot of other things, but Jesus fucking Christ why do I have more empathy than people who entire personality is based off superhero comics and kids cartoons?

But seriously how the fuck I realize I had better moral compass at 13? Keep in mind I just got away from the bitch [stepmom] and still coping with my autism and adhd I was diagnosed with at 11.

Oh shit gen-z you are totally unique nobody has ever had to deal with this before since before the dawn of recorded history, what a brand new burden you carry.

Dunces that think they're the first generation to ever care about the environment are also totally a new thing and we've never had any kind of concern for the environment before, thank you gen-z for showing the rest of us the light.

How it was hammer down our throats? Did I mention that insulating time traveling cartoon movie of MLK where they stated his Martydom was NEEDED to change the world?

Saw people saying that about george floyd too, sad honestly.

But people wondering why zoomer college kids are so unhinged….okay story good Steven universe fans. I just wanted to show how long this mess was

There's a reason I've let my brother know to never let his kids watch that show, nothing to do with the show and everything to do with not wanting them to look online and encounter the cesspit that is in the fandom

But since you know I been in the asylum that’s is tumblr…um not surprising. For some goddamn reasons, late boomers and gen x (not all but you know) decided to like social media and tv will raised their kids And given how over a decade misandrists and racist af non whites was go unchecked….

late gen-x early millennial is closer, zucc is a millennial, dorsey and myspace tom are gen-x,but in our defense we in gen-x were so chill we'd thought that all that would just keep on going and folks would be chill online with each other, not zucc he wanted to get laid but the other two ya.

I think a lot of people forget that my generation grew up when people with untreated mental illness, unresolved parental issues, and it was socially acceptable to treat white people and men the same way the Nazis viewed the Jews because oppressed vs the oppressors. You end up with this

they're getting better ant the mental illness thing, we've gone over that before so not going much further into it, still say it's a miracle my ADHD and Dyslexia were diagnosed as a kid, still mostly abnormal then, but you can thank Gen-X for pushing to bust the stigma around mental illness and treatments and stuff, even if it did land us inside the "prozac nation"

We and some before us suffered so y'all could suffer less

A lot of people don’t realize the crazy sjw/tumblr crowd PREYED kids. So when you have mentally stunted people who think like Star Wars (oh let leave out the character we talked about in the DMs. They are a landmine) preferring the galactic emperor/first order over the rebellion/resistance means your a Nazi apologist

That's all not new, just worse than it used to be is all.

But seriously how the fuck I realize I had better moral compass at 13? Keep in mind I just got away from the bitch [stepmom] and still coping with my autism and adhd I was diagnosed with at 11.

You got lucky I'd say.

[leighlew3]

To the anon about the M.G. factor in TC:

That’s... unfairly reductive. Most people that I’ve seen, myself included as indicated previously, are repulsed by him. Most people are simply supporting their favorite other actor(s) and/or a franchise they love, along with considering the literally hundreds of talented, wonderful cast and crew that worked hard on a project that happens to unfortunately include a horrible person.

When AK was fired from SGCW, and he still received his EP credits and money (including a massive pay off) -- does that mean every single viewer who continued to watch “supported” a sexual predator? Not at all. It does not. People obviously just supported the WOMEN/POC/LGBTQs involved that they enjoyed, related to, and/or were at times inspired by. 

IMO, this M.G. thing isn’t like people doing or purchasing Potter content and putting shit tons more money and power into someone like JKR’s hands to do further vast and widespread harm. M.G. is just one awful man in a supporting role in an ensemble project from a popular franchise. Now, if he was THE lead, it would probably be a different story for many people, similar to how lots of people are conflicted on the upcoming superhero movie with a lead currently under numerous accusations of harm. Some people want to support the WOC in an iconic role, and they want to support the talented cast and crew, etc so it’s... complicated. And at the end of the day that buck stops with the active, direct enablers -- not costars nor fans now put in a shitty position of having to make hard choices and be judged either way. 

Look, most people I’ve seen are planning to watch the show in question DESPITE that man, and trying desperately to ignore him (after expressing obvious disgust that he’s involved), and hope this never happens again in the things they look forward to watching (or participating in).

In a dream world, people like that would simply never be employed in this industry again, as there are so many better options. Alas, it is the sad reality of the industry and our planet in general that this happens, and all anybody can do is hope karma sorts that person out, and decide individually whether you can stomach watching or participating in something they are or were involved in. Some people can, and some people can’t. And each situation is very different. I personally have turned down an opportunity where it would further empower a very harmful person who created the original piece of material. I’ve also gotten into a clusterfuck behind the scenes for merely subtweeting about an abuser and their enabler, and was seen as more of a problem for calling it out than the actual abuser and enabler, lol. THAT is the industry we’re dealing with. 

Either way, the concept of ‘guilt by association’ even though costars didn’t hire that person and most fans didn’t want him in it — is incredibly unfair. And realistically speaking, if that rule has to be applied across the board that to watch something with a problematic person in any way involved is to intentionally support them directly -- every person who watches ANYTHING would be guilty... and there would literally be nothing left to watch. 😩

[verifiedaccount]

Fatigued by the endless “based on a true story” movies coming out that are just half-assed dramatizations of popular non-fiction books, articles, docs. I just saw the news about Taron Egerton starring in a movie about the story of Nintendo acquiring the rights to Tetris, adapted from a chapter of some book on Nintendo, and it’s just fucking miserable. At least that book is from the 90s and not a current thing like the execrable The Dropout miniseries with Amanda Seyfried (who I generally like in things). Like, I heard the podcast The Dropout, I read the news stories about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes of which there were approximately a billion, I skipped the book and the Alex Gibney doc but those existed before they made the miniseries, I saw those texts between her and Sunny hundreds if not thousands of times on social media, what is there to possibly gain from watching famous people recite the same lines and act out the same details I’ve already seen and read over and over, now with (from the bits I’ve seen) glib, hacky screenwriting and editing that underlines every obvious punchline and heavy-handed “emotional moment” like it’s pre-chewing my food for me? Or the upcoming series based on Tiger King, or Inventing Anna, or WeCrashed, or any of these other unimaginative recreations of something we’ve already seen and read about endlessly; at this point, the restraint showed in just making two Fyre Fest docs seems almost impressive. I get the appeal for actors and writers, because it’s a way to have a “measurable” sort of display of your talent, since people can compare your impression/script to the real people/events, and applaud your goddamn lack of imagination in “transforming” yourself and mechanically recreating moments and mannerisms, but have audiences become so incurious and literal-minded that they actually want this shit?

That shitty Franco adaptation of The Disaster Artist was a mistake (I still think the book, which is much stranger and more unsettling — The Talented Mr. Ripley is convincingly made a motif — in addition to being way funnier, especially in audiobook form with Greg doing Tommy’s voice, and more insightful about movie making, is great); it hardly started there, but acclaiming a literal-minded impersonation and recreation of moments that already existed on film was a bad idea (like giving Jessica Chastain an Oscar for impersonating Tammy Faye Bakker in a remake of a documentary). And, while The Social Network was a much better movie that avoided the simple “imitation” move, it probably is the most to blame for the current trend.

This kind of shit used to be confined to TV Movies of the Week, rightly regarded as a place for hacks, has-beens, and up-and-comers who, if they ever made it, would later be embarrassed if anyone brought their early TV work up. It’s lazy junk-food, which was fun as an occasional thing but is now being shoveled at us in the guise of stories about “real people” as opposed to superhero stuff in spite of the fact that it still tends to have as much relation to what actually happened as those TV Movies of the Week. Some of this is streaming and “Prestige TV” collapsing the distinctions, in addition to everything shooting on digital whether it’s theatrical or television; the Tetris movie is for Apple+ but it’s getting a festival premiere. SXSW, which is by this point mainly a corporate showcase, but still, it’s depressing and looks like a creatively bankrupt dead end.

[sksksksksgreat]

The boys started as superhero satire but gave in to being just another generic superhero show so quick, they're basically building their own universe now with that shitty spin off, and there is another one coming too. The last seasons were soooo bad, not even homelander could save it, man is not even scary anymore, he used to be unpredictable and that was what was so fun about him but now hes killing people and i'm like ok now do something different. All those terrible monologues in front of the mirror too ooh they are trying so hard and failing, he's still the most interesting character in the show, but that is most due to the fact that the others suck and anthony star is still a great actor despite the bad writing. Season 1 was so solid idk what happened. Wait, i do, they are too scared to kill characters that matter, and for the show to have any sense of progress, and they think shocking scenes and saying fuck a lot is peak writing, and behind the screens its still a bunch of men who think are better than other men for being self aware. Ofc i love real life references in the context of the show The Boys made and distributed by Amazon now can you please have the characters do something that actually matter and progress the story in any way? If i'm not asking for much, thanks.

[the-velvet-worm]

In defense of Amber...

Honestly, I’m really glad I had absolutely zero contact with the Invincible fandom outside of little interactions on this site while season one was airing, because that way I got to develop my own opinions of the characters outside what the general populace thinks. 

Which of course, leads me to my thoughts on Amber. From what little I know of her in the comics, there isn’t really much to know. She just kind of exists to be Mark’s filler girlfriend before he inevitably gets with Eve. In my head, she kind of functions as the Gwen Stacy precursor girlfriend, which makes it really hard for me as a fan of show Amber to not get too invested in her knowing she’s not the endgame romantic partner. 

But, I simply cannot help but love her. For me, it’s a combination of watching (mostly male) fans of the comics absolutely seethe with rage over the fact that her character exists and deviates so much from the source material, and the fact that I just really, really enjoy her. As much as I love Eve and the friendship that she’s developing with Mark, I find myself increasingly frustrated that the writers won’t just let Mark and Amber figure things out in a healthy way. 

On the one hand, I sympathize with Mark a lot. He never asked to have superpowers, and where the season ended, he doesn’t really have much of a choice to be a superhero or not. At this point, he’s too deeply invested and Earth would be too vulnerable if he didn’t step up and protect it. Every time he blew Amber off or showed up late to a previously scheduled date or hangout, the circumstances absolutely were out of his control. However, I have a huge issue with the amount he lied to her and the way he lied to her. Empty promises, lame cover stories, lies that she can clearly see right through. Amber is not stupid. She’s incredibly perceptive and intuitive. So for him to treat her like she’s oblivious and gullible comes off really shitty to me. Throughout the whole first season there were so many indicators of parallels between Mark/Amber and Nolan/Debbie that apparently went right over peoples’ heads. I’m not saying that anything Mark has said or done is even close to the same level as what Nolan has done, but lying is lying... and Mark wasn’t even doing it for a good reason. 

To me, if Mark had true feelings for Amber and had intentions to make a lasting bond with her, he would’ve confessed the truth after the first couple times he stood her up. That, or he would’ve just spared her all the disappointment and heartache he put her through, and told her, “Hey, I have a lot going on in my life right now, and I care about you, but there just isn’t any room in my life for a serious relationship at the present.” That way, he wouldn’t have been stringing her along as much as he did, and he would’ve been making a commitment, which is what he’s needed to do all along - make that choice to commit to her fully, sharing the truth with her, so that when he does inevitably stand her up again, she at least understands why he’s doing it, or make the choice to commit to being a superhero and all the things that that encompasses. Nothing that’s happening to Mark is fair - but it’s also not fair to Amber for him to string her along. 

When they had their confrontation in episode 7, I literally shot up from my seat and started cheering for her. There is nothing I love to see more than a woman who knows what she wants and how she wants to be treated making her feelings known to the person who isn’t considerate of them. She never once gave Mark a reason to doubt her or his ability to trust her in all the time they’ve known each other; that much is evident in how many times he promised he’d make things up to her, to make things right, and how many times she believed him and then found herself disappointed by him again. 

The thing I’m truthfully most perplexed about is the fact that so many people are salty that she didn’t tell him that she knew he was a superhero. I mean, like I said, she is not a stupid person. I can’t get behind those claiming that she was “gaslighting” him by not telling him that she knew and getting upset that he ditched them during the attack at the college. She gave him an opportunity to come clean, and he didn’t do that. She was testing him and his ability to be honest, and he failed. Could she have been more subtle about it when they had that altercation? I mean, I guess, but given everything she’d put up with up until that point? I cannot find it in myself to blame her for being absolutely done with Mark’s shit. 

So, I guess that brings me to my final thoughts on her character and Amber’s relationship with Mark in the season finale. I’m... wary. I really hope there’s some genuine payoff and good development with their relationship. I’ve liked them together from the beginning, even though I do also like Mark and Eve’s dynamic and the friendship they’re building. I just want Amber to be done justice and I hope now that everything is out in the open with her and Mark, they can find a way to be happy and make their relationship stronger. I just want good things for them both.