#meta assassins

[fromashesweriseuphiddenones]

From Meta Assassins, not sure where this would fit story wise but it's a part of it.

Aurelio Voltaire sat there in his apartment rolling his eyes at the cluttered mess. He hated coming home to this dump of an apartment it was merely a collection of stuff. Mail, junk, files, Merch etc. He strode over to his lackluster seating and groaned. This place made him hate life. Outside wasn't much better.

"Bastardo, te acuestas con mi hermana."

"Porque a ella le gusta un hombre que sepa tratarla."

Voltaire wanted to yell before his attention was drawn to the apartment next to his. He listened in hearing

"Yeah let me know when real power wants a magazine or something."

Voltaire almost died laughing. Leave it to little bat, aka Desmond Miles to brighten his day. Then he heard

"Maker damn you Amell. Why do you have to cast both blizzard and Firestorm?! Why do you go all nuclear when I tap away from you?"

Finally he let out a boutriuos laugh. Desmond was playing Dragon Age Origins. His favorite traditional RPG. His favorite stealth based platformer RPG though was Assassins Creed. Funny though considering that he and Desmond were actual assassins. Like Desmond was actually portrayed in the first five games and he had heard Desmond when he played.

"Altaïr, no, no you can't...swim...damn it desynchronization."

"Ezio up, Ezio I swear..."

"Thanks for that assist Shaun."

Just to name a few times he heard. He got up and exited his apartment and went to Desmond's and knocked.

"Coming!"

He heard from within. A few minutes later Desmond was there with a smile on his face.

"Voltaire! Come in. Sorry if I am being too loud."

"Thank you Des, and far from it. I prefer you to the two Bastardos sin polla downstairs."

Desmond smiled as he quickly saved and shut down his game to give his friend, and mentor his attention. He survived dying and Voltaire helped him start again. Desmond told him the truth that Voltaire already knew, and Voltaire told him he was never truly alone among the Goth community. They were all assassins. The two old friends spent time together. Enjoying being "normal", bah Dark Gods they were far from normal and that was okay.

[winterprince601]

"he was never unfaithful to robert, was he?" - jaime, acok

ha. ha ha ha. the irony of this line is incredible. what's so striking to me is how one dimensional the realm's understanding of eddard stark as an honourable man is - honour itself is an incredibly complicated and unattainable ideal in asoiaf and i think ned as the stereotypical emblem of it encompasses many of the reasons why. because whilst he absolutely does consider acting in a conventionally honourable way important, he always prioritises those he loves. he defended cat's actions as his own without a second thought when she arrested tyrion. his main priority in king's landing is to see his daughters safe, not to secure the succession. lyanna is the prime example: jon's existence is not the result of the lapse of honourable ned stark, it was honourable ned stark choosing his love for his sister over his duty to his king. that and his personal ethical belief that the political murder of a child is never morally acceptable.

no one in the realm has the insight into his personality we get in the first book. none of his children, vitally, understand that he would always prioritise their safety over any honourable scruples. all of the starklings question what their honourable father would think of their actions - killing in self-defence, marrying jeyne westerling, sleeping with ygritte to name a few examples - without recognising that ned's true first priority was always his family's safety.

in fact, he betrayed robert far more than he ever betrayed cat and he would have betrayed honour for his family's safety every time.

[truth4ourfreedom]

TRUMP PIC BEING BANNED BY GOOGLE & META!!!

This one image has done more to shift people to support Trump than anything else every has.. that is why they are banning it.. Facebook and Instagram now join Google in banning this image.

Follow @renegademedia

---------------------------------------------

We all should consider cancelling our FB, Instagram, Whatsapp and Google accounts as well as anything else they own! This is blatant censorship for no good reason!

[syn0vial]

man, i continue to be blown away by the thought put into astarion's romance, even in seemingly throwaway scenes.

i just did zethino's test of love with him at the circus of the last days and there's such a stark difference between what wins you approval with him and what wins approval with the other companions.

for those who haven't played this bit, zethino's test of love involves a dryad, zethino, testing how well you know your romantic interest by asking you personal questions about their inner lives—their hopes, their fears, their likes, and dislikes. for most of your companions, this is very straightforward: when you answer a question about them correctly, you win approval points with them. when you say something untrue or insulting, you lose approval points , bc they realize that you're trolling or that you don't know them as well as they'd hoped.

unless you're romancing astarion. in which case, you have to do almost the complete opposite to win his approval.

the other characters want you to prove you know them by answering correctly. astarion wants you to prove you know him by lying—or, at least, refusing to pick the most accurate answer.

case in point: astarion does not like it if you tell the truth about his hopes and fears. like, really doesn't like it. answering honestly about his greatest fear, in particular (his fear of being enslaved again), causes you to lose a whole 4 approval points, twice as much as you lose with the other companions for outright insulting them. you can lose another one before that for answering honestly that his greatest desire is freedom. in both cases, he'll acknowledge that you're right—and then express dismay that you'd disclose that kind of information to a stranger. hell, you can figure out from the very first question that he's not comfortable taking this test with you at all; when the dryad asks what makes astarion happy, you lose approval if you say he's happy to take this test with you now.

so if astarion doesn't want you to pick the most accurate answers for him and honestly doesn't really seem to want to take this test with you at all, which answers can you pick to win approval with him?

well, whichever ones are funniest, of course! you don't win points with him for picking the deepest, truest answers, but the silly, flippant ones that make him laugh. what's astarion's greatest desire? well, me, of course! what's his greatest fear? breaking a nail, obviously. he's delighted by your refusal to take the test seriously and actually approves more of funny, light-hearted answers than badass, flattering ones.

i just think the whole sequence is such a fun and interesting exploration of his character and your relationship with him, all in a silly little side-activity where it would've been easy to just give all the characters the same win-conditions. little details like this are really the game's brightest moments, imo!

[the-overanalyst]

if you take out all the murder, the ending of assassination classroom is reflected in any student-teacher bond. no matter how close they become, there is always a ticking clock on the relationship. you only get one year with that teacher, with that class. the end of the year may as well be the end of the world. everything the students learn brings them closer to the point when they can leave the teacher behind. after graduation, the students will move on to their futures, armed with all the knowledge they've gained, but the teacher can't come with them.

there's a reason every episode's title has the word "time" in it. because the whole show is about the time class e gets to spend together, and the titles are a constant reminder that that time is limited.

the assassination of koro-sensei is class e's graduation. from that moment forward, the teacher, the class, and middle school itself, are no longer a part of their lives. it would seem the message is that nothing lasts forever. the sakura blossoms always fall, children always grow up, and the fun times always end.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Canadian Sikh Facebook users posting about the assassination of a Sikh community leader are seeing posts disappear and accounts suspended in response to legal demands by the Indian government.

Many Facebook posts and pages that have been flagged as being in violation of Indian law involve content relating to the legacy of Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader who was assassinated outside of a Surrey gurdwara in June of this year.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canadian intelligence was pursuing “credible allegations” that “agents of the Government of India” had assassinated Nijjar in Surrey, BC this summer.

“Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[earlgodwin]

something about cesare being neck-collared by his father by trapping him in the cardinal's robes against his will instilling a deep sense of powerlessness that drove cesare to overcompensate by seeking devotion and exerting domination as he projected the controlling behavior his father imposed on him onto two people who are so different from each other by grabbing them by the neck- the submissive masterless assassin micheletto, and his disobedient incompetent soldier younger brother juan. micheletto was an ideal vessel for cesare to fulfill his need to dominate in being a skilled but obedient killer and all while juan's rebelliousness made it difficult for cesare to control him...the contrast between the malleable (only to cesare) micheletto and the defiant juan is almost highlighting cesare's drive to assert the control that was denied to him by his father...

[the-scooby-gang]

Welcome once again toooooo

Velma by Me!

Watch me rewrite this show one 3AM idea at a time

[Part 1]

Shaggy is now Brazilian because I said so! AFRO LATINOS FOR THE WIN!!!!!

They are friends your honor, the Velma show is lying to you

Toxic masculinity? Never heard of him and neither did Fred

[niofo]

i just love lucanis' introduction so much, it's one of my favorite things. we first hear about him from some scared shitless venatori, he's killing off magisters all over tevinter, he's the grandson of first talon herself, rumored to be her successor. and then in person he is this very composed, logical and practical person especially contrasted to illario's chaos and chatter, he's pragmatic where illario is ornamental. but then when they actually infiltrate the party it's illario, not lucanis, who doesn't want to leave witnesses, it's illario who want to assassinate their mark quietly and gtfo long before anyone notices, and it's illario who doesn't want to deal with the slaves. and it's lucanis who decides to send a horde of vengeance demons after his target instead and then yeet himself into an abomination with just a sword. he's an entirely, completely bullshit man and i love it. he would be great pals with justice, which is the highest honor i can bestow on a dragon age character.

[asha-mage]

I think the reason I don't buy the argument that the show is framing Siuan as a villain/antagonist is that, while some of her actions are morally questionable (as are the actions of many of the characters in the show and books- including Moiraine and Rand in this episode) the merits of what she is saying are completely reasonable.

Cause the thing is, Siuan is right: Moiraine has lost control of the situation, and she no longer has the ability to be a check on Rand if he goes mad or becomes a threat to the world, much less protect him from the Forsaken. Meanwhile Rand, who should be out fulfilling prophecies, gathering nations and peoples behind him, fighting the Forsaken and rallying the world, has spent six months doing fuck all in Cairhien. He certainly has not been working to learn to control the One Power, which is the reason Moiraine lured him to Cairhien in the first place. Instead he's crept closer to either the One Power killing him from his failure to control it, or else going mad from using it.

Is taking him into custody and putting the Tower's leash on him the right move, morally? Maybe or maybe not, it depends on what you believe. Is it something that makes a disturbing amount of sense to an increasingly desperate Siuan? Well she says it herself in The Shadow Rising: Rand will full fill no prophecies dead. At least in the Tower he will be safe from the Forsaken and at least shielded the possibility of him killing himself on accident with the One Power is eliminated.

Is calling Lanfear for a save a morally right response for Moiraine and RAnd? Maybe and maybe not- the Foregaters and other innocents slaughtered by Lanfear's rampage would probably argue no, not moral, but Moiraine would likely argue yes, because it was necessary in order to free Rand so he could save the world. Was it in character for both of them? Definitely yes, given how desperate they are, and how rapidly the stakes are rising for Rand personally, and the world more generally.

Is Siuan using the Oath to force Moiraine to seal the Waygate a morally right thing? Probably not. Does it make sense when one of the Forsaken has attacked the city conveniently giving Rand the chance to escape right as Moiraine has abruptly and mysteriously regained her ability to channel? Absolutely.

[faderiftss]

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the dream team <3

[tealvenetianmask]

I just took a very sweaty two hour drive through the mountains with Apology Tour on my mind. It wasn't just me being dramatic (though I felt it)- I have a friend's wedding to go to and now I have motion sickness from the ups and downs. I cried a little-- you know- poor music choices for the road.

I haven't read anyone else's takes yet, so I don't know if anyone's said this, but I just want to heap some empathy on my favorite boy, Blitz, who definitely needs it.

For the entire episode, Blitz is going it alone, with no one supporting him. I don't think he thought at ANY POINT during this day that he should get help from anyone. Which is-- very him, and very brave, and I think that's part of his problem.

I think Blitz took action from the moment Stolas kicked him out (How about some funny shit to lighten the mood? If I keep texting, he has to respond. OKAY he's not responding? I'm going back over there.)

Then he kept going for the rest of the day- and yes, adjusted each time a new realization hit, but not enough to really think about what Stolas needed or what BLITZ HIMSELF NEEDED. Because if he paused, he would have had to sit with what had happened, and have to sit with the reality of being alone. And I think that inaction- that space to think- is too painful right now. When he gets home from the party, it's going to hit him like a fucking train.

He NEEDS his fam right now. Loona, Moxxie, Millie, maybe Fizz . . . please let this guy know he's cared for.

[bitterrobin]

Let's talk about Damian, the League of Assassins and the al Ghuls. A.K.A things to keep in mind when writing them.

You don't have to force yourself to comply with this, but there are some important facts you need to know and things you absolutely SHOULDNT do (be racist or orientalist).

Read on for a long post about Damian and the League and his family - giving context, some research and comic storylines, and characterization.

There are basically three different backstories for Damian.

Batman: Son of the Demon - technically, this baby is unnamed and not completely Damian. But the writer of that comic does still (sorta) resent that Morrison was able to write Damian in current comics while he wasn't. This baby was given up for adoption by Talia and we never see him again. Fans vastly prefer taking this backstory (me) because Damian is NOT a product of rape and Talia is written like herself.

Morrison's canon/the 2006-2011 era - the Damian we know and love. Kinda-sorta. So, in Morrison's whole run - Damian was raised in the League and trained as an assassin. One key point here: Talia DID NOT raise him. Morrison instead wrote that Talia only first met Damian when he was eight years old, and she was out of his life before then. Morrison also completely fucked up by writing Talia as a rapist who assaulted Bruce in Son of the Demon rather than the actual consensual sex they had. While it gave us the character, its not the complete version that many like. (and also its pretty racist)

Tomasi/Gleason's canon in Batman and Robin/Robin: Son of Batman - almost the same Damian as before, with one key difference: we actually get see what his training and life in the League entailed. Additionally, Talia in this version raised him from an infant, thus making his connection with her much stronger. A win/lose situation there. Talia would never raise her son under her father, but we do get a stronger mother/child bond than we ever had before. (Still fucked, but insanely better than Morrison).

From these three versions, only two utilize the League of Assassins in Damian's origin.

The League, then, is very important to his character. By extension, so should Ras right?

In Morrison's canon/the 2009 era - no, apparently. As per Resurrection of Ras al Ghul, he only sees Damian as a vessel for his soul. To stay eternally youthful and does not care for him as grandson in any way. This...is a lot. You could use it for angst. But it's also not in line with Ras' characterization. You could argue that this version of him and Damian have never interacted before but still.

Here's what you need to know about Ras al Ghul. He was and still is: a doctor. A man of science. He loves and wants to save the beauty of nature. Ras is an eco-terrorist. Not a generic assassin. He believes in the life of nature, animals, but he despises humanity for what they've done to the world. He has seen it all, and he canonically laments of loss of endangered species, of ruined habitats and long-gone animals he once cared for.

He also loves his family. A lot. The entire reason he becomes the Demon's Head is because his first wife, Sora, was killed by someone he treated, and then he was imprisoned and forced to co-habit with her corpse. Of course, over the centuries he's been alive, she's become only one reason for his existence, as we see how jaded he sees humanity and how little he trusts people. He latches onto Talia, his surviving daughter, because he loves her and he grieves her mother. He degrades Dusan, the White Ghost, because he cannot bring himself to love him. He was murdered by Nyssa because she felt betrayed and began to despise his love (and inaction). In current canon, Damian is his grandson and he loves him, despite everything.

Of course, it doesn't justify what he's done. But it's a crucial part of his character: the twisted love that cages. The love that binds and says it knows best for you - "I only want the best for you, I want to protect you, I want the world for you. Can't you see that? I can bring you something better." The fact that he's an ancient immortal only adds to the superiority he believes he's giving to his family.

We return to the League of Assassins. SO, the League was canonically created to further his ultimate goal: saving the planet. Again, eco-terrorism. The League exists to cull the human population. Ras believes in utopia, a world without any humans (even himself and his family). Ras is willing to die, eventually, like a really long time from now, if he gets to complete his goal. Thus, the League wholeheartedly believes in him, for the betterment of the world with their savior at the head. Exactly how the League treats their mission and Ras depends on the writer - but it's common to write them as a cult. Almost a religion.

We don't really get a lot about they operate. There are figures like Dr. Darrk and the White Ghost and all the stuff that comes up in Red Robin. We get some interesting ideas and characters in Robin: Son of Batman. But we don't get how the League works. There's no comic that does a step by step breakdown of their finances, operations, assassins, employees, what Ras actually does to lead and impart his vision to his followers.

We go the cult route, then. Here's something that I'm currently exploring and that I think others should too: The League is a global cult that believes in the holiness of death and the end of humanity in order to save nature/the planet. The League is far-reaching. It is eternal. It has existed for centuries, just as long as Ras al Ghul has.

Damian was part of a cult. Depending in your version of events, he was either taken from his adoptive parents or born into the League. Either way, he was indoctrinated. He believes in his grandfather's ideas. His training, canonically, began when he was very young. It was fast paced, trainer after teacher after teacher. He didn't grow attached to them, but he retained the skills. He is raised not just as an assassin. He is raised as an heir. A leader. An overachievement of talent and privileges. He embodies Ras' beliefs.

He is worshipped. A symbol of the cult. A prince. He is dehumanized. He is a figurehead, a piece of Ras that the common folk can touch and see. Damian believes in this superiority, misguidedly thinks they respect him and not the word of Ras. And there begins the struggle.

He grows up arrogant. Manipulated by his loving grandfather into something he really shouldn't be. But there is still Talia.

Either she only met him later in life when he was eight years old, or she was there from the beginning. In both cases, she would NOT stand for her son being treated this way.

Talia is not a completely non-violent character. She has killed before, and does not have the strict rules of Bruce. But she's not an assassin (at least , she didn't used to be). She can cry over a soul lost. She can shoot a gun but with a trembling heart. Talia was raised by her father with affection. She was sheltered, spoiled. She was educated and trained, yes, but she was not made into a weapon. She was taught martial arts for skills, protection, for Ras' paranoid benefit.

She was loved, but Ras has canonically hit her in moments in rage. He has canonically manipulated/threatened her to try and kill Bruce. I fully believe that she would want to protect Damian from as much abuse as possible even if they're both in the League.

You can interpret her split from her father as many things: her love for Bruce, her love for the world, her own love for her father and seeing in horror how twisted he'd become, her need for independence, to be her own woman without Bruce or Ras in her life, an abused child becoming an adult, etc.

Talia also canonically studied medicine (in Cairo). She believes in life. She would impart this onto her son. She wouldn't want him to grow up sheltered as she was, nor would she want him to become a weapon to be wielded. Talia would advocate for him to be taught arts and literature and respect for nature, and to try and give him some sense of normalcy. She was the one who let him keep Goliath. She would never kill Damian's pets (Morrison you have three days what were you thinking?!).

(EDIT: adding some more context to the Talia section of this post!)

After Talia healed Jason using the Pit and sent him to be trained, she left the League in entirety. For several comics, she was entirely independent and drifting - enjoying her life apart from Ras as her own woman.

For a brief moment in comics when Lex Luthor was the US President (yes that happened), he chose Talia to oversee LexCorp. Talia does not like Lex, but she agreed anyway in order to secretly change his company from the inside. While she put on a front to the public and Superman as another cruel businesswoman, in reality she was draining Lex's finances, shifting LexCorp into a more ethical direction, and digging up as much dirt as possible on Lex in order to take him down. She secretly gave Superman information on all of Lex's evil plans as she could, but didn't directly work with him. She wasn't LexCorp CEO for very long, but it was pretty much all she was doing until the events of Death and the Maidens. It can be assumed that while she was a CEO, Damian was being trained in the League in secret.

In Batman: Death and the Maidens, Talia was kidnapped and repeatedly tortured/resurrected in a Lazarus Pit by Nyssa Raatko (her half-sister) in order to brainwash her. She was killed, over and over and over again, then resurrected every single time afterwards in immense pain until she was filled with nothing but primal rage. Nyssa's goal was to use Talia as her own pawn against Ras in a revenge plot. The brainwashing made her a loyal follower of Nyssa, hate Bruce, and made her kill Ras without a second thought. Eventually, they succeeded in taking over the League - leading to the eventual storylines in Robin: One Year Later and Infinite Crisis where Nyssa is shown leading the League (before her unceremonious death). Ras eventually returns in the Batman: Resurrection of Ras al Ghul storyline that precedes Final Crisis/Bruce's death.

Some fans use this Pit event to explain Talia's butchered character in later appearances - making her abusive and cold to Damian and a full villain towards Bruce - as a consequence of this horrific brainwashing. It's definitely a far better explanation for her actions in Batman and Robin (2009) and Batman Incorporated than her sudden heel turn under Morrison. Unless you're completely re-writing her actions in the 2009-2011 era to be more in line with her original characterization, then this explanation is an easy add-in to explain her dynamic with Damian in your fic if you want.

You could take the complicated family dynamics of the al Ghuls and write some seriously heavy stuff on love and abuse and the cycles of trauma and violence. From Rúh to Ras down to Talia/Nyssa/Dusan down to Damian and Mara. It's one big circle.

Speaking of which, here's a list of all known al Ghuls for your convenience.

Rúh al Ghul - AKA Mother Soul. Ras' mother. She's fairly recent, but I think she's interesting enough to include. Unlike Ras' hard beliefs in science, Rúh is very spiritual and a practitioner of magic. Through her, it can be implied that every al Ghul has the possibility of learning magic. She believes in a figure called the Demon. Led the League of Lazarus on Lazarus Island, where she was basically imprisoned for centuries.

Ras al Ghul - real name unknown. The originator.

Sora - his first wife. Deceased. Killed by a raging prince who was healed by the Pit, as Ras did not know what it did back then.

Melisande - his second wife. Talia's mother. Half-Arab, half-Chinese. Deceased. Ras canonically met her at Woodstock (lol). She was murdered by Qayin, the antagonist of Son of the Demon. In some depictions (basically only Morrison) she was revealed to be alive and a fortune teller who hid her identity from Talia. (I think her being dead makes more sense for how Ras treats Talia, and her issues/love for her father).

Nyssa Raatko - I believe she's Ras' oldest child. Technically, she's been dead since Infinite Crisis and has not appeared in comics ever since. Canonically tortured and brainwashed Talia. Led the League for at least a couple months to a year. Half-Russian, part Arab and Chinese. Jewish ?, it's complicated. Canonically survived the Holocaust. Is immortal.

Dusan al Ghul - the first White Ghost. Albino. The forgotten and despised son. Still very loyal to Ras, does not call him father and instead calls him the Demon's Head. Mara's father. Is not immortal.

Talia al Ghul - the younger child. The beloved one. Damian's mother. Is not immortal.

Damian al Ghul-Wayne - you know already.

Mara al Ghul - Dusan's daughter. Damian's cousin. I think they're pretty much the same age. Raised in the League, led the Demon's Fist. Can be assumed to have been trained in the same subjects as Damian at the same time.

Compiling all of this, here's the things to NOT DO when writing the al Ghuls and the League:

Making them animal abusers, encouraging Damian to kill animals or showing him their deaths. The League stands for nature. They would not kill them unless its for food or mercy. It's insanely racist, even, to imply that a group of Arab-based people or Ras or Talia would gleefully brutally murder a puppy in order to teach Damian a "lesson."

Making Ras or Talia comically abusive. Ras would be hard on Damian and manipulate him. He's smart. He knows what he's doing all the time. He'd rather keep Damian's loyalty than turn him against him using physical violence. That doesn't mean he wouldn't ever threaten him, just..idk show some restraint when you write them interacting. On the other hand, Talia WOULD NEVER ABUSE HER SON. You could make an argument for Ras, but Talia would never ever hit her son unless she was forced to.

This is just common sense. DO NOT write the League or al Ghuls as racist, orientalist tropes. Research before you write? Use your brain. Please, I'm begging you. If you think of a concept you think might be problematic, look it up, try and find sources, ask around.

Make Ras weirdly obsessed with/in love with Tim. Seriously. What the fuck. This also weird and racist. I've seen horrendous tik-toks making shitty jokes over this. ITS NOT TRUE. STOP MAKING HIM A PEDO BC YOU THINK ITS FUNNY OR EVEN REMOTELY INTERESTING. Never once has Ras expressed a desire as making Tim "his bride" or some fucked shit like that. I'm going to beat you with hammers.

Having everyone take a dip in the Lazarus Pits/using them extensively to become immortal. As far as I know, only Rúh and Ras have used them frequently. Only they are the immortal ones, the ones arguably driven slowly mad by the unknown sciences of the pit. Talia is not immortal, she's not even that old, and she doesn't have the desire to be ageless. She has to be at least near Bruce's age, maybe younger than him depending on the timeline/your interpretation. Damian did not ever become exposed to the Pits until after he was killed in Batman Inc, and even then- he was NOT resurrected by it. (Actually I don't think he's ever been put into one.)

Having Talia hate Bruce. Like, No? Currently, they have more of a "we are Divorced but still care another but also we don't agree" dynamic. But they were once really in love, star-crossed even, they were married. But Ras and circumstances and even Damian pulled them apart. (I do think writing Damian as a child of divorce is both accurate and kind of funny).

Finally, demonizing all of the al Ghuls and making Bruce's half of the family Damian's saviors. THIS is racist. Full stop. Making his majority white family the "good ones" and "saving" him from his evil brown family is an insanely bad thing to write. We have to see it enough in comics, please don't write it into your fic. There can be redeeming things about the al Ghuls, about his life prior to meeting Bruce. Keep in mind, always, that Damian is part Arab/Chinese, that the al Ghuls are all a mix of Arab/Chinese ancestry and that they should/would be imparting their culture onto him. The League was where he was taught art, to appreciate animals. You could write Talia imparting certain tea preferences onto him, favorite cultural foods, practices, numerous languages. Ras is immensely proud of his own heritage, muddled by age it may be, there's no way he didn't let Damian express himself this way. I fully believe Damian is fluent in various Arabic languages and Chinese, and that his first language is not English.

My final message: think before you write. Consider the actual comics, in fact, I'll put one here for Ras.

Ras al Ghul: One Bad Day. Published 2023. Unfortunately written by Tom Taylor (sigh). Its still good though.

Ras kills some rich guys for facilitating the extinction of the wolf species you see. Of course, Bruce investigates.

Ras kills Bruce, keeps him dead for three months before resurrecting him in the Pit. Damian stays by Bruce's side. There's a lot more, but I implore you to read this comic for yourself to get the full experience.

Thus ends this post. Read this comic for yourself! Have fun writing them, just take these things into mind.

[devine-fem]

I actually have gotten to the point where I side eye people who hate Talia doing any type of evil and write anything she does that's "bad" to be out of character. We really need to get a grasp of Talia's characterization as turbulent as it is. Other than that, what I will say is that I find it weird that you will make it as if Talia's writing - all of Talia's writing after Morrison is just so OOC. Like it's very weird to me that you can't excuse WOC doing evil in media like you do men. When Talia loves Damian and puts him in the League then regardless, she's this 'horrible mother' that doesn't deserve custody and her putting him in the league was OOC. Then turn around and say that Bruce being a bad dad is OOC though there it at least two panels of Bruce beating each of his children. I don't even think you guys do this for David Cain. It's weird. The fun part of Talia has always been when she was an Anti-Hero and a villain (not including Morrison) like girl, go write your OC, don't hate on people who actually just enjoy a character in canon because that's literally how they are written in canon. It's about woman's rights and wrongs.

[elvenbeard]

"How'd you even end up working for Arasaka?" "Ha, well... That's a funny story actually."

I've been asked before how Vince, with his bold tattoos and all that he already had before the start of his short but intense copo-rat career, even ended up at Arasaka.

I always imagined that, despite being very traditional (and Vince has to tone down his appearance significantly when he takes the job eventually), Arasaka also is opportunistic enough to turn a blind eye to a person's appearance if they're only just useful and talented enough - and don't take on a position that is very representative or focused on customer contact. All that definitely applied in Vince's case. At that time he was wasting his skills in tech and netrunning at a car repair shop. He randomly encountered Jenkins there, did him a big favor almost by accident. Jenkins got curious, did some research, and uncovered who Vince was, that he had a prestigious education and his parents even had ties to Arasaka. He even knew Vince's father, not well, but in passing, and had respect for him, which was reason enough to try and get him to work for him. Vince though didn't really think Jenkins offering him a chance at a job was serious, that he was only being played with... so he decided to play a little with Jenkins as well. He showed up to the interview as loud and bold as he could, for fun, but also as a test to see how Jenkins would deal with the situation.

Long story short. He didn't even go to the meeting with any intention to take on a job - but in the end still did, to everyone's surprise, including his own xD

[elijahmiles]

no but desmond is absolutely getting resurrected right