#not great I don't think

[clonerightsagenda]

New ask for PPLN: Lyra Silvertongue

Hell yeah the ask meme adventure continues

(Ask meme here)

Full disclosure, I have not reread these books in quite some time. I do intend to, so that I'm prepped to be properly judgmental of the TV adaptation, but since my surgery keeps getting postponed I've been putting it off.

First impression

Man I wish I got to be a feral child running wild around a university.

Impression now

Given that HDM deconstructs the idea of the ~ innocence ~ of youth I like that Lyra (especially early on) is depicted as a selfish, impulsive kid who doesn't always make good decisions or empathize with other people. Like yeah, 12 year olds are still figuring stuff out! Most of them would cheer as their favorite bear tears another bear apart and eats his heart! Kids are weird and gross and complicated and authors who write very Pure Innocent Sweet Children just don't remember being that age.

Favorite moment

When she's not sure if she can trust Will so she asks the alethiometer about him and it tells her "he is a murderer" and she goes oh thank god. Bonkers behavior. (Also very judgmental of the alethiometer, I would call what he did manslaughter at best)

Also love that despite being the Eve in this scenario she pulled a Jesus and co-led the harrowing of hell. Love me a good afterlife breakout. Partycrash the underworld just to say hey to your friend and go 'btw while we're here do you want to like. leave'

Idea for a story

Lyra's described as a witch in many of the ways that count after being separated, and she pretends to be a witch a few times during the sequel series. I think she should hang out with them sometime. She suffers from the common female protag written by a male author problem of having no female friends and they might help her more than reading a bunch of depressing philosophy. "Oh your preteen crush is stranded in another universe? Well I've outlived 3 husbands. Let's talk about it."

Unpopular opinion

Is being a #hater of the sequel series so far unpopular? I was not a fan. While I did not expect some sort of secret surprise Will/Lyra endgame and hold the general perspective that most people are not going to have lasting relationships with their 13 year old crushes (a separate nested unpopular opinion?), setting up a romance with a guy who knew her as a baby and was her teacher when she was a kid weirds me out.

Favorite relationship

Does not every 12 year old girl want a giant fuckoff armored bear to be her bestie. At least after Lyra got every other person in her life surgically removed over the course of the narrative she can still visit Iorek the bear king. I hope? I don't remember him mentioned in the sequel series but I don't remember much of it.

Favorite headcanon

While as stated earlier I don't support holding out for your 13 year old crush I think it would be nice for her to get to say hi to all her friends from other worlds in the land of the dead before they all vaporize. (Speaking of which, wasn't the deal that they could only keep that window open if they taught everyone in each of their worlds to stop being assholes. How's that going guys)

[sparrowlucero]

like the most politically neutered movie of all time unironically

[lylahammar]

the one perk he can't earn

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

[nitw]

i've been waiting for gravity falls to become relevant again so i could share one of my favorite underrated bits from the entire show. like it's only episode 2 but this whole segment just makes me lose my shit. i think jason ritter's exasperated line delivery is what makes it

[egophiliac]

can't believe that skeleman has turned on us, and Halloween Prom is tomorrow.

(what a top-tier UM...we are about to be just totally obliterated in the absolute silliest way. what possible use could this power have outside of bringing us to the brink of utter holiday disaster.)

[nashilayladragneel]

I have a thing for traumatized men who turn out to be okayish father figures.

[descendant-of-truth]

Shipping is fun and all but I swear every single time someone makes a comment, whether as a joke or in a legitimate analysis, about there being "no other explanation" for a pair's interactions, I lose just a bit more of my sanity

Like, no, you guys don't get it. Romance is not about the Amount of devotion, it's about the COLOR. the FLAVOR of it all. a character can be just as devoted to their platonic friend as they are to their romantic partner, and they don't love either of them more, just differently.

But because the majority of people still have it stuck in their minds that romance exists on the highest tier of love, I'm stuck seeing endless takes that boil down to "these two care about each other too much for it to NOT be romantic" as if that's the core determining factor to how literally any of this works

In conclusion: stop telling me that I don't understand the story if I don't interpret the leads as romantic, I am TIRED

[hexedwithluck]

✦✧✦✧ 𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜 𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗢𝗡 ✦✧✦✧

[hyperblue]

terry: i used to make really poor choices about my life, so now I'm redeeming myself by being batman

dick, who is always five seconds away from killing himself when he has to be batman: what an... interesting way of seeing things

tim, who can not EVER be allowed to be batman: huh.

[iwasbored777]

They asked Lee Majdoub what he thinks of Stobotnik vs what Stone thinks of it and this man chose violence omg the more I read the more painful it gets

[prlssprfctn]

In his new room - in his new house - Jason searches up for a circus performances and stares at them for hours. First, he watches at them mindlessly, unconsciously curious, and then, he starts to take notes.

He is a street kid, and everything about him screams of that. So, he is nowhere near the grace of these performers on the screen. His arms are not that strong, too, but he is agile, and his legs are much stronger - he can think of something.

He can be just as good as the boy he is replacing.

It is not like someone tells him to match Richard Grayson, and it is not like someone admits that Jason is here to replace the first Wonder Boy, but Jason heard Bruce's conversation with Dick earlier. It was meant not for his ears, but it doesn't matter now.

"So, now what, you exile me, and bring a boy to replace me?!"

Jason is not mad. All of it ‐ adoption papers, the manor, the school - is much more than he ever thought he would get in his life. Being replacement doesn't sound as bad anyway; especially, if his brother is so cool.

So, he makes notes on circus performances and slightly chopes his hair. They are much curlier than Dick's - he has more of a wavy ones, and the only ever look that way, when they get long; his childhood photos with short hair looks too straight - but the cut does its magic.

The next day, Bruce compliments his hair absentmindedly and is positively surprised by his new moves on the patrol, asking where he learnt it from. Jason lies about not remembering, but his cheeks are flashed, and his smile is all about teeth. He can't wait to show it to Dick once they finally get on a mission together.

Expect, when they do, Dick just nods and mutters a light-hearted "good job" before leaving to talk with his team. And Jason knows Dick doesn't want to be mean - he gets it; no one feels good about having a replacement, especially the one that seems so cheap in comparison - but he still cries that night in his pillow, feeling himself a little kid, even if he isn't one. Even if he never was.

Jason wonders if his own replacement would make him understand Dick.

But Jason never gets replaced.

No matter the taunting voice of the Lazarus Pit in the back of his head - that sometimes sounds suspiciously like Talia's; you remain unavenged and replaced - and his own intrusive thoughts that spiral in uneven lines, Jason doesn't think Tim was ever meant to be his replacement. Being replaced means to match the person that was meant to be left behind. And no one asked Tim to be like Jason.

If anything, memory of Jason was thrown under the rag, hidden and locked securely in heads of those who survived. And if they brought Jason up, then it was always an example of what Robin shouldn't do: run away, disobey, and allow emotions to consume you. So, not much of an exemplary original. More like an opposite.

Jason feels an urge to explain that to Tim once; when they sit together on the rooftop, almost like a proper family, instead of broken pieces of someone's idea of a one.

'You could never replace me,' he says, and the instant it leaves his mouth, he knows it came out wrong.

Tim rolls his eyes.

'Yeah, dude. Whatever.'

'No, I mean—' He grits his teeth, scrapping slightly the back of his hand. 'I mean... You could never replace me, because... Because you were always better.'

Tim freezes. His big blue eyes shift in something more confused, and it is almost as if he is not sure how he needs to react — to protest? To agree? To thank him?

Jason doesn't know what to do, too.

He wants to say: it is easy as that, babybird. They wanted to have someone who would have nothing in common with me — someone who could help them to forget about my existence, about the existence of the failed Robin.

But he can't make himself speak again. And he is not sure he wants to stay any longer to hear Tin manging to put his thoughts in the words; he is better than him at this, too, and he almost always sounds convincing.

So, he leaves.

In his room - in the building he owns now - he ruffles his outgrown hair, fluffs up the white streak, and passes by his only remaining photo with Bruce in the frame, on the shelf under the stolen tire.

He still does this semi-circus move in his fights - almost frozen in the air, with his back arched - but he doesn't expect anyone to compliment him anymore.

[technically-human]

Bisexual crisis Crystal edition

[writeouswriter]

People sorting ao3 solely by stats and only clicking on fics with a certain amount of kudos or comments, you will not survive the winter, nor the summer, nor at all, *brings out knife,* run

[gatoiberico]

Twilight Princess is living rent-free in my head after I recently got to play it for the first time, so ofc I had to make something instead of just gushing and screaming about it into the abyss

Prints of this piece are available in my shop! There's also a video that took me way too long to make about how I drew this in which I also rant about cheese and socks... hope y'all enjoy it if u give it a watch!!

[dabiwantsfood]

Tgaa episode 2