#nothing against them relating to others! i love to see it but reduce them as just their relationships its not very cool to me :(

[buubonita]

ahh i agree that it's more likely that they break up than stay together and thats is not bad, but just because they end up separated doesn't mean that they won't see each other again! people sometimes drift apart and need some time to themselves! and i think that the three of them need some time to focus on themselves..with help from others of course, but then again, neither Killer nor Dust nor Horror NEED to always be together or in the company of others and this is something i haven't seen. Why we cant have them ALONE? Why can't Dust follow his path alone? Why can't Killer or Horror do the same as well?

Jumping from one "group to another" isn't a simple process either, that's not how things work in a few cases,, after all, relationships are more complicated than they seem.

i like the idea that they "miss" each other sometimes, call it because they love each other to a certain point or because they're possessed by habit. when i don't see someone i always see i miss them! Changes in routine always hit differently and i think that would happen not only between the three of them but also with the unmentionable. .anyway! I love MTT, they are my favorite trio and always will be no matter what take are we getting, but i have preferences, that's it.

I’m probably the only one who sees mtt underneath nightmare as just coworkers who’d go their separate ways immediately after they escape. Coworkers who have a lot of history, most of it not good.

And still there would be a deep chasm of mistrust beneath them—they won’t talk about or discuss any personal matters, just enough trust to work together well and have no plans to kill eachother, but not enough to trust the other to not throw them under the bus or turn against them as soon as Nightmare says the word.

[flowercrowngods]

it’s floaty steddie hours

Eddie never knew there were moments that would just steal his breath and not give it back even after they passed, lingering in his mind, his heartbeat, his fingertips, making him wonder if the world is suddenly much bigger than before, or endlessly smaller, reduced only to one impossibly perfect moment.

He never knew. Until he met Steve. Steve, with his moments, with his smiles, with his kisses and laughs and gentle voice singing under his breath when he thinks Eddie isn’t listening.

But Eddie listens. He always listens.

And he basks, taking it all in as he’s sitting in the back of his van somewhere at the foot of Weathertop, leaning against the side wall.

There is a steady pitter-patter of heavy summer rain against the roof of the van, a breeze of fresh air coming in through the open doors that occasionally leaves goose bumps along his arms and brings with it the smell of rain and drenched soil, of blooming fields and trees and life, mixing with their own little bubble of life and love and tobacco.

Eddie wants to catch that smell, that sound, that feeling in a mason jar like Steve told him he used to dream as a kid. Maybe he will. He knows there’s one in the driver’s side door for this very purpose.

It would be a good forever-moment, with Steve lying in the back of his van, illuminated by the soft glow of the fairy lights Eddie installed for him the other week with a hearty but ultimately fake grumble. The warm light dances along his skin, making it look even more golden than usual, complementing the galaxy of moles that is imprinted and immortalised on his skin.

And Eddie watches. He always watches.

Golden light that makes even his dimples shine as he smiles, eyes closed as he’s singing along to the third mixtape of the night. Space Age Love Song, which Eddie pretends to hate. But how could he hate it when it makes Steve look like that? When it thus steals Eddie’s breath, his heart, his sanity?

And then, for a moment, for one perfect, drawn-out moment, all Eddie Munson can do anymore is watch. And listen. And feel. Because what he sees and hears and feels is everything.

His breath is lodged in his throat as he reaches for his little sketchbook — the special one, littered with drawings and doodles and musings of Steve. His face, his hands, the constellations of his moles. The occasional DnD related sketch in there, because Steve just inspires him.

His pencil dances over the page in practiced, familiar movements as he tries to capture the moment on paper. It’s hard, though, because Steve’s nose is scrunched a little with that smile that Eddie’s not even sure Steve’s aware of, and his dimples tell a story of their own tonight. A story of contentment rather than joy or amusement. Eddie has to try and try again, never quite getting it right, this perfection, and he curses a little under his breath.

“What are you drawing?” Steve asks, turning his head and opening his eyes a little, squinting but curious.

“Nothing,” Eddie smiles, pulling the sketch closer to his chest, away from Steve’s sleepy, lazy, slow attempt to reach for it. “Go back to sleep.”

“‘M not asleep,” he sighs, rolling over onto his side, watching Eddie and reaching for his ankle — just to touch. To hold. To feel.

It makes Eddie smile. “No?”

“No,” Steve says, helpless not to smile back, and Eddie wants to kiss him. “Just… I don’t know. ‘S nice.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. Perfect.”

Eddie discards the sketchbook and goes to lie down beside Steve, wrapping one arm around his middle, the other coming up to take Steve’s, their fingers intertwined between their faces.

“Then I think the word you’re looking for is basking.”

Steve hums again, touching his forehead to Eddie’s knuckles before brushing featherlight kisses over them. “Yeah,” he breathes. “Basking.”

Eddie’s heart is ready to beat out of his chest, make a life of its own fuelled by the perfection of this moment. Everything about it. Everything.

Outside, the rain picks up even more, a wave of cold air coming into the van that makes Steve cuddle closer to him, until their foreheads are touching. Eddie closes his eyes, breathes him in, and slowly inches forward, tilting his head to claim Steve’s lips in a gentle kiss.

They trade slow, sensual kisses for a while. Steve’s hand comes up to Eddie’s cheek, his thumb stroking whatever skin he can find, caressing his cheek, his chin, his jaw, while Eddie plays with Steve’s hair.

In the end it’s Steve who pulls back first, eyes open, just watching Eddie. Taking him in, making him feel seen rather than watched.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Answering is as easy as breathing. And just as difficult. Just as impossible. His love, his breath — they both belong to Steve, completely and entirely.

Steve, who smiles at him like being loved by Eddie Munson means something to him. Like it means everything. Like it can mean Forever. Eddie feels like he might not survive tonight it Steve continues to be so genuine, so honest, so raw, so open, so vulnerable, so pretty, so beautiful, so absolutely breathtakingly everything.

“Can I see what you were drawing?”

“You,” Eddie says, reaching behind him blindly in search for his book, too weak to refuse Steve anything he asks for. “I was drawing you.”

“You were?”

Eddie nods, feeling a heat creeping up on his cheeks.

“Sap,” Steve grins, leaning in to plant a kiss on Eddie’s cheek as he reaches over him for the sketchbook. “Can I?”

“Knock yourself out,” Eddie grumbles, rolling them so Steve’s lying on his back and Eddie can sprawl on top of him. Hide his face in the crook of Steve’s neck, hide the way he’s flushing, hide the absolutely obvious way he’s a goner for Steve fucking Harrington.

He hears the gasps, hears the pages being flipped, the little giggles of surprise, the hums and tiny, secret little ohs. He hears them and he holds his breath, beginning to shiver for a reason that even the cool breeze cannot compete with.

“Eddie,” Steve breathes. Doesn’t say anything else for a while. And Eddie wonders if Steve is in the same boat, in the same condition, if he has these moments, too. Moments like this. He wonders, and he hopes, and he wishes.

But Steve doesn’t say anything else, and neither does Eddie, and the music switches to Springsteen. Tougher Than the Rest. It’s always been too soft for Eddie, but right now it serves to give the word perfect a new melody.

“Dance with me,” Steve breathes.

“Hm?”

“Dance with me. Please?”

“In the rain?”

“Mm-hmm,” Steve nods, tightens his hold around Eddie as if he forgot that they still had to get up and get out there.

“Yeah, okay,” Eddie says, lifting himself from Steve’s chest and climbing out of the car, warm rain immediately drenching his clothes. It makes him laugh, a boyish little thing that bubbles out of him as he holds out his hands to help Steve out.

Steve takes his hand, jumping out with a small giggle of his own, making for a glorious vision: happy and giddy against the golden light inside the van, his wild hair soon drenched completely, sticking to his face where he shakes his head, showing droplets of water left and right.

It doesn’t fit the song, doesn’t fit the notion of basking, but they’re both laughing and breathless, clinging to each other in the moonlit night somewhere at the foot of weathertop, far away from everyone else that they might just be the only two people left in the world. Two silly boys, giddy and breathless and stupidly in love.

It makes Eddie pause. Swallow. It makes his heart go wild as he stills.

“What?” Steve asks, stilling as well, looking over his shoulder to see if someone was coming, if someone’s watching them.

Eddie pulls him closer, makes Steve meet his eyes again as he rests his hands around his neck. “Dance with me.”

A smile spreads Steve’s lips, breaking through all of Eddie’s walls to let the light in — even in the middle of the night. “Okay,” he breathes.

And if you’re brave enough for love, // Honey, I’m tougher than the rest.

The sound of rain isn’t loud enough to drown out the music, but still Eddie can barely hear it over the sound of his own heart. Over the sound of I love you, I love you, I love you. Over the sound of Is this forever? Can this be forever?

They slow dance to Springsteen, then to Tears for Fears, and eventually to Prince. They dance until Steve begins to shiver in his arms, until the rain has drenched them so completely that none of the day’s heat is left in the air and the breeze is getting uncomfortable. And then, they dance a little longer, because Steve is capturing Eddie’s lips again, slow and unhurried and like he means it. Like he means it all.

“One day,” Steve breathes against Eddie’s lips. “One day I’m going to marry you. I’ll find a way.”

And it’s Eddie this time who gasps, who falls into Steve because his knees are giving out. It’s Eddie who’s lost for words.

But he doesn’t need words, because Steve is kissing him again, holding him up, holding him, holding his heart and his life and his future in hands so gentle and sure that Eddie wants to fall apart, just a little bit.

“Not if I marry you first,” he says eventually, brushing one last bruising kiss to Steve’s lips before pulling back and climbing into the van, dripping as he is.

Steve, laughing and giggling, follows immediately after him, pulling off his clothes in a hurry to get under the blanket. Eddie watches him with a leer — at least until Steve kicks him in the side and tells him to get out of these clothes and come under the blanket to warm up.

“If you wanted to get me naked, you could’a just said so, Harrington. Didn’t have to propose first.”

Steve grins, helpless against it, blushing a little and hiding his face in the blanket even as he reaches for Eddie to come closer.

But Eddie doesn’t, and awkwardly climbs over Steve to reach for the driver’s side door.

“What are you—“

Steve shuts up when Eddie retrieves the mason jar, his mouth clicking shut adorably, making Eddie grin, vulnerable and nervous and raw as he feels.

“Told myself I’d capture a perfect moment for you. What do you think, does it qualify?”

Steve swallows. Nods. Reaches for Eddie once more, who shuffles closer until Steve can test his head on his shoulder.

“Can’t believe you remembered,” he murmurs, trailing his index finger along the lid.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing,” Eddie grins, making Steve laugh. Alleviating the moment, but not dislodging it. “So?”

“Yeah,” Steve breathes. “It’s perfect. I’m… God, I love you so much, Eddie, shit.”

“And that’s how I’m gonna label it,” Eddie grins.

“Not One day I’m gonna marry you?”

And Eddie’s breath hitches again. He lowers the mason jar, meeting Steve’s eyes this time. He wants to ask; needs to ask. Needs to know.

“Do you mean that?” It’s whispered; he doesn’t have the strength or the bravery to be any louder.

Steve’s hands come up to his cheeks, cradling his face in the gentlest way as he holds Eddie’s eyes. “Eddie Munson,” he says, “one day I’m going to marry you. And I won’t let you marry me first.”

Between them, Eddie opens the mason jar just as Steve leans in to capture his mouth in a kiss that really is nothing less than a promise. Nothing less than Forever.

happy birthday @anzelsilver i have the hugest “pls be my friend” crush on you so i decided to write you a lil thing and hope you enjoy this and the rest of your week 🫶🤍🌷

[lai-mar]

I think. For me L+M is another example of a male+female pairing that seems a little too straightforward to ship in canon and hence some fans view it as “boring” and “low hanging fruit”, and as a result the ship is less popular despite having canon crumbs that you can interpret in a shippy way. So the ship being low hanging fruit turns around? In canon they have a strong friendship and lots of moments, and that’s what I like them as, friends (and they are canonically friends). Shipping these “straightforward straight pairings” can be a bit squicky (because I tend to think they are more interesting nonromantically) but it turns out in the end I will blatantly blaze through my squicks because I am desperate for content. And also because shippers actually care about them and their bond.

However, for these pairings people SOMEHOW usually impose a familial interpretation (siblings, in-laws) even though they are not related in canon either by blood or marriage. It’s more acceptable in DM because F/M certainly gets a lot of crumbs but it also kinda makes me salty to see people reduce L+M to being in laws only, like their only connection is through Falin, and that is just plain wrong. I have seen so many male+female pairings that get stuck in the fanon “sibling-coded” area and it’s like… guys it’s okay to not like them as a ship and not make them siblings. Guys. Not every kind of love has to be romantic or familial. I think sibling coding is fun and all that but sometimes it does feel like a “gotcha! I totally do not ship them because they’re like SIBLINGS to me and if you ship them you’re WEIRD”.

L+M would still be funny if it’s the fanon “lesbian elf teams up with her gf’s autistic brother and they squabble but work together to save the day” but canon L+M just drives me crazy because they obviously develop a bond outside of the other people they love, and they’ve basically known each other for two years only which is short even for a tallman lifespan, let alone Marcille’s. Actually I think what really gets me about L+M is that every time they get a moment that can be interpreted as shippy (eg. succubus, M wearing the dress in the Golden Country, even M knitting in the room with L in the Kensuke extra just like her mom used to do with her dad), there might be a few blushes and nervousness, but they quickly return to the status quo of being comfortable and physically affectionate with each other. Which you can interpret them as not seeing each other romantically, in deep denial, or they’re just so comfortable with each other that they don’t need to define their relationship, they just are.

Tbh the widespread DM fanon did mislead me a bunch, I thought we would get obvious F/M shipping or even confirmation after the bath scene but nope. I thought L+M would kinda stay the way they were pre Ep 11 and have a fun back and forth bit noooo they had to go and save each other and learn about each other’s deepest desires. I was shocked that they weren’t being discussed on such a widespread level considering how much screentime and importance they both get. Saw someone say “the romance between F/M is the catalyst and main plot driver” and I want to bang my head against the wall. DM has ship crumbs for a ton of ships but nothing has ever been confirmed canon and I’m happier because of it and it’s fun to explore.

I would say L+M needs better PR but honestly just read the manga, it does all the PR lmao. I can forgive anime onlies but if you read the manga you surely cannot ignore the elephant in the room.

[carionto]

Hyperbrake Racing

Everything in Human ships has a manual override. They love automating all processes and reduce any workload to nothing, but also have this compulsive need to be able to take direct control if so desired.

They also have emergency off switches for everything. Yes, including life support. Don't ask, you'll just get a variant of:

"But What If!?"

Obviously, this applies to things you should never under any circumstances shut down preemptively, such as a Hyperspace Jump.

The earliest space-faring civilizations quickly discovered that if a Hyperdrive has a power interruption even for a nano-second your atoms will get dispersed across a few light months. This is why all Hyperdrives have an internal chargeable uninterruptible power supply unit.

Humanity, however, did not allow "Not having any reason whatsoever" to stop them from figuring out a way. Utilizing their ridiculous quantum computer speed and the ability of their fusion reactors to charge a Hyperdrive mid-jump, and with an injection of a disgusting few million lines of hack code that manipulate all related pieces of hardware in just the most nauseating sequences, they created the Hyperbrake.

Also, not a metaphor - braking literally causes Humans to feel nauseous, sometimes throw up, rarely even pass out. Not a single volunteer crew member aboard joint vessels from any of the other Coalition species has dared to "test" what happens to them.

As with nearly all things Humans come across or invent, they will find a use for it should one not occur normally.

_____________________

Near Neptune

Daniel, Samantha, and Nicholas Schreier were three siblings ages 17, 19, and 20, respectively. Today they had "borrowed" their dad's General FordStar mark 980-MZ HaulerHound, a civilian grade transport typically used by small business owners. Dad, however, was an enthusiast, and had modified the "Hound Dog", as he calls it, with a military grade reactor and computer core. He's always been that guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can get the thing legally enough.

There is a nearby research station that the kids often visit due to their mom working there, but today she was not. Instead, what they are doing, is racing against each other to set the best record. Well, technically the opposite of racing - coming to a halt.

Using the Hyperbrake, they are competing to see who can stop the closest to the stations outer point-defense range without entering it or you automatically lose. After Samantha's turn, they were suddenly contacted by the station. It was Yakovskii, one of mom's colleagues and a frequent guest at dad's barbecues, so they were on sorta good terms. Not by the tone voice coming through the comms rights now though:

"What in the Hell are you thinking!? At first I thought you were just messing around and accidentally did that, but TWICE now!?! I checked the trajectory, if you had stopped a half-second later, you would've ended up mere meters from Neptune's upper atmosphere! Did you account for the possible sudden gravitational pull? Can you maneuver that lumbering ship fast enough to not get pulled down? Not to mention Hyperbraking severely impairs your cognitive abilities for a moment? A moment that you need to be clearheaded for or risk DEATH!?!"

The three siblings could only hang their heads in shame and mutter out some weak apologies. After a moment of silence and reflection, Yakovskii speaks in a warmer tone:

*sigh* "Look, I understand it's a fancy new toy and you want to see what you can do. I get it, I really do. Me and my brother used to play vertical hockey the first time we got our hands on a surplus gravity field generator. But we first figured out how to make sure we didn't break our bones in case it failed. Seriously, never forget to consider your own safety first before you try out new things in a peaceful environment. You're not being chased by pirates or trying to avoid the law or whatever.

Take your time, pick a starting position that's further away and keeps Neptune and any of its moons to the side of the station, then aim for an area of space that only has the outer range of the defenses and empty space ahead from your point of view. And please set the regular Hyperjump destination within Sol, don't just pick a random place. The Hyperbrake sometimes loops in on itself and never executes the brake and can only be reset once out of Hyperspace. You don't want to get stuck in a pointless jump for hours do you?"

After this admonishment, the siblings apologized more energetically and took his advice to heart. They spent the next hour competing until all three were down to single meter differences and kinda got bored, so they docked at the station and hung out with the off-duty staff, played some poker, but then dad barged in and dragged them all home. They were not invited to the barbecue gatherings for two weeks, but only because mom told him to. Personally he was excited about all the data his kids had unknowingly given him with all their jumping and braking, a real stress test for his beautiful Hound Dog.

[graysoncritic]

A (Negative) Review of Tom Taylor's Nightwing Run - What Went Wrong? Melinda Lin Grayson

Introduction Who is Dick Grayson? What Went Wrong? Dick's Characterization What Went Wrong? Barbara Gordon What Went Wrong? Bludhaven (Part 1, Part 2) What Went Wrong? Melinda Lin Grayson What Went Wrong? Bea Bennett What Went Wrong? Villains Conclusion Bibliography

Things do not get any better when it comes to Dick’s relationship to Melinda.

As I believe it is important to own up to one’s biases, I’ll begin by admitting that I dislike secret-sibling tropes. However, the problem present in Melinda’s character does not revolve around the concept of her existence, but rather in the fact that her status as Dick’s sister adds nothing to the story. Taylor does not take advantage of her existence to add to Dick’s backstory, complicate his views of his parents, to add conflict to the plot, or to offer on-screen character and relationship development. In failing to have his original character live up to her full potential, Taylor reduces her to a deus-ex-machina who only appears to either save Dick at the right time, or to put him in danger at the right moment.

That is why in execution, Melinda’s existence is irrelevant. While I would never want John Grayson to be cheater and I do not want John and Mary's marriage to be tarnished, that route would have offered conflict, for it forces Dick to grapple with the reality that parents were not the infallible individuals he remembers.

Instead, Melinda is very conveniently conceived during the span of time between John and Mary becoming an acrobatic duo and them getting together. They were already in love, so Dick does not have to worry about Melinda's mom being John's long lost lover and Mary having been a rebound. Yet, because John and Mary were not yet together, John remains a good person as he was not unfaithful. Melinda's mom doesn't resent Mary for ending up with John while she was stuck in an abusive relationship. Melinda doesn’t resent Dick for having known their father while she lived with Zucco. Neither does she feel any love towards Zucco or seeks his approval — which would have been another interesting and understandable source of conflict. After all, though he was an awful man, husband, and father, for a good part of Melinda’s life, he was the only father figure she had, and it is very common for children who were raised by an abusive guardian to still desire their affection.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Five. Nightwing: Rebirth. 82, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 14)

The way in which Taylor quickly and neatly wraps up this story does little to add to either Melinda or Dick’s character. Furthermore, Dick readily believes Melinda and Meilin when he is told their story. He does not know them, yet he simply accepts their words without requiring any evidence, without asking many questions, and without following it up with an investigation. 

Neither do we see him experience denial or any other form of human emotions to such a monumental discovery. In #83, when Dick returns to his apartment, he tells Babs “You heard? I have a sister. And even better… There’s a chance she’s not evil,” to which she replies  “I hear. You need to talk about it?” Rather than replying, or, indeed, talking about how he feels about this revelation, Dick instead passes out. As readers we never get to see if said conversation happened (which would also develop Dick and Babs’ relations), and so we never get to see Dick grapple with this life changing revelation..

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Six. Nightwing: Rebirth. 83, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 12)

Conveniently, Melinda’s morals and her approaches to solution also perfectly align with Dick’s own. Not only is she not the bad guy Dick originally thought she was, but she is actively working against those Dick wishes to stop. And, again, Dick takes her word for it without a second thought. Dick appears skeptical for a mere second before Melinda gives him an out by asking if he has “difficulty believing someone could have a double life.” 

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Six. Nightwing: Rebirth. 83, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 04)

This question misses the point of what should be Dick’s understandable suspicion. Just because Dick can believe someone can live a double life, it does not mean he should immediately accept the words of a woman he has never met before without any evidence. Neither should he just take her word for it when she says that she “brought down two crime bosses from within” and that she wishes “to do the same for Bludhaven.”

Just as baffling as the fact that Dick immediately believes is the fact that he is ready to include her in all of his plans to take down Blockbuster without even investigating whether she might have ulterior motives.

And this goes both ways. When Melinda claims to have the same goals as Dick, she does not question Dick’s motivations. Neither does she question the legality of having a vigilante in the city, working outside of the system. 

The problem is not just that they have the same objective — take down Blockbuster — but that their approach to said objective is the exact same, that their beliefs in what would be best for Bludhaven perfectly align, and so they trust each other with critical information almost instantaneously, denying the reader the opportunity to read them about them earning each other’s trust by trying to persuade the to their side.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Six. Nightwing: Rebirth. 83, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 05)

fter meeting one another, Dick and Melinda work closely together, and soon they start to think of themselves as siblings. This, however, happens off-screen. Melinda and Dick hardly ever appear together on the page, and Dick only thinks of her when it is convenient to the plot.  

As such, we are left with a significant change to a character’s backstory without having any conflict or significance created by this new addition. Melinda is not evil, so there's no conflict to be added. Melinda and Dick's morals not only perfectly align, but their methodology does as well. Dick is also not suspicious of Melinda, and Melinda views vigilantism and Nightwing’s presence in Bludhaven as a positive. There are no secret identity issues where Melinda doesn't know Dick and Nightwing are the same person and has contradicting feelings for each persona. Since Dick immediately takes her word when she claims to be his sister and when she claims to “not be evil,”  there is no need for her to win him over. There is no need for Dick to get Melinda to trust him. In other words, there is no room for this relationship to develop in front of the readers’ eyes so that we can grow to care for their bond and become invested in their dynamic. Every potential conflict or development is resolved and achieved as soon as the idea of Dick having a secret sister is introduced to the reader, making so that the storyline goes from its beginning to its endpoint in just two issues. 

This further destroys Dick’s characterization. Rather than trusting, Dick comes across as gullible, as he will blindly take the words of others when they tell him they are not evil. Dick comes off as incompetent, as he was unmasked so quickly and so easily when trying to investigate Melinda. And Melinda becomes a plot device, not a character. She is a deus-ex-machina who is there to call Dick when Blockbuster is going to try to kill him so Dick can escape at last second

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Get Grayson Act Three. Nightwing: Rebirth. 90, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2022. pp 04)

Or to bring Dick to danger when the plot needs Dick to be in danger.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. The Battle for Bludhaven’s Heart Part Three. Nightwing: Rebirth. 94, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2022. pp 22)

A lot of this could have been avoided if Melinda just wasn't Dick's sister, and instead they were made into reluctant allies. There would be no reason for her and Dick to spend time together outside of Nightwing-business or develop a sibling-bond, and without the Grayson connection, there would be the tension of Dick not knowing whether she is a threat. Losing the Grayson connection would also allow Melinda to become her own person, with her own history and interiority outside of Dick, John Grayson, and Zucco. She, too, could have become a face of Bludhaven so that her relevance to the plot would be through the city rather than Dick’s past. 

But that would require Dick to have meaningful interactions with a woman who is not related to him and who is not Barbara Gordon, and there would have been the threat of any tension between Dick and Melinda to be seen as romantic or sexual. It would have also required Taylor to put in the work to make an otherwise everyday human into someone who can excel in her work despite her ordinariness. 

Instead of letting the audience witness Dick and Melinda grow closer to one another, their bond as allies, friends, and siblings is developed off-screen. Taylor opts to skip over the interesting and messy steps that it takes to create such a relationship by instead having them immediately like and trust one another. 

As I said in the beginning of this section, I was never personally going to like "Dick's secret sibling" concept, but I could have still liked Melinda for her own character. Or I could have fallen in love with the sibling relationship she would build with Dick, had I been allowed the chance to witness it grow for myself. But Taylor makes no effort to endear his readers to Melinda as a character or to her relationship with Dick. Instead, she becomes the perfect example of so many of Taylor’s weaknesses as a writer — his distaste for conflict;  his tendency to show and not tell; his wanting to create plot twists that look shocking in a social media post while having no desire to follow through the consequences of said plot point; his wanting to create emotional pay-offs without putting in the work beforehand; his complete lack of understanding or care for Dick's character. Melinda embodies all of these problems.

[darklinaforever]

I found this on a pro Rhaesaria / anti Daemyra post. Dying of laughter. Because so far I have only seen logical arguments for not liking this stupid Rhaesaria ship devoid of meaning, of coherence, essentially coming out of nowhere and which will go nowhere after the unscripted kiss.

HOTD is misogynistic in its writing of female (and also male) characters, reducing them to the same role of wise and anti-war figure in the face of men who are generally violent and eager for this same violence through war. Not to mention the addition of violent scenes against women that did not exist in the source material, when they already suffer quite horrible things in the latter.

Not to mention making already existing violent scenes worse by transforming them to make them worse than originally. All this for sensationalism and shock to the spectator.

But most people prefer to say that those who point out these facts are the real misogynists under the pretext of defending the character of Daemon Targaryen who undergoes horrible treatment in HOTD, in particular by highlighting the OCC strangling scene that these people always bring out to prove that he is the enemy to be defeated when this typically ties in with what I said above.

Daemon was never physically violent towards Rhaenyra in Fire and Blood. But it was in HOTD because the men are supposed to be violent figures in this version. This is despite the fact that nothing in Daemon's characterization in HOTD from 1x01 to 1x08 suggested that he was capable of such a thing towards the people he loved. But what is consistency for in HOTD after all ?

Without forgetting that this obviously contributes to worsening violence against women, including here Rhaenyra, by making her suffer violence that she never suffered in the original canon of Fire and Blood, even though she is suffering from it. enough in the book. No need to add this type of violence.

Especially since once again, this type of scene is not there to tell anything, but simply to shock the viewer. Nothing more.

And a little free dig, I doubt that the members of the TB stans make more misogynistic remarks than the TG stans. Let's stop messing around.

These people also talk about biphobic and sapphobic for not liking Rhaesaria ? A ship that once again makes no sense either from Fire and Blood or from HOTD itself ? But ironically, you don't see them complaining about GRRM's non-inclusion of real queer characters in the show ?

Until now, it is those who criticize and do not like Rhaesaria or even Rhaenicent who have highlighted this point.

A bit as if it wasn't really the real, well-made representation that interests these people.

Simply to have their dose to spit on Daemyra. Or simply the fact that they will settle for anything and everything in terms of representation, even if in the end it will represent nothing at all.

Do you really want this kind of crappy ship to represent our community ? (Because yes, I'm Bi for information)

As for racism, I have no doubt that the Mysaria actress suffers from it. There are idiots everywhere. On the other hand, once again, in the anti-Rhaesaria shots I did not see anything relating to the Mysaria ethnicity.

Again, generally the conversations revolve once again around the mediocrity of Rhaesaria in terms of writing and consistency with what HOTD has so far told and in relation to the source material which Ryan Condal still does not understand if he thinks for a single second that Mysaria is sincere with Rhaenyra...

The fact is that yes, I don't doubt that this kind of bullshit exists to be anti Rhaesaria, but clearly, that is not the majority of the reason for the hatred of this stupid ship from what I have observed.

I also think that all these accusations are the super easy and free card to throw against someone who doesn't like a queer ship, whether it is poorly written like in the case of Rhaesaria, or not with others or simply the feeling and energy of shipping does not work. People need to calm down.

[bodysnatch3r]

putting this under a read more because i have nowhere else to put it. this ended up being long! mostly i am Processing.

i think what's fucking me up about veilguard being so polarising is that i have no way to make my own value judgement. i can't play it, at all, full stop. consoles are expensive, i live paycheck-to-paycheck and realistically speaking cannot even begin to think about buying a current gen console until well into 2025. i was saving up and then in june shit happened and those savings had to be used for something else and my stipend got reduced by a couple dozen pounds and the bills went up. so it goes.

i do not want to watch someone play it because it is just antithetical to how i relate to dragon age as media, and besides anyone posting playthroughs is inundated with critical comments. and the result is that the usual mechanisms i have against brainworms concerning certain types of critical statements—knowing i can fall back on my own experiences with the games and my own judgements of where the writing succeeded or didn't, what story am i trying to tell through these interactive games, how do i reconcile it with the story the devs were trying to tell, where does it diverge, etc.—are totally inaccessible to me.

this would have been fine, i think, if the fandom consensus i've been seeing hadn't been mostly "either you hate it or love it with no in between. and if you think the opposite of me you are Stupid". which. well i guess ten years in the fandom have taught me Nothing. but i digress.

i would have been fine, because i know from experience that i am often satisfied with scraps that others may find lacking—for example, i think dai quickly dropping and flattening the mage/templar conflict into a couple of missions in the hinterlands was fine, because we have several books that hint at and deal with the larger-branching consequences of da2. much of my fan experience is, generally, concerned with where i can "fill in the blanks" because that is what interests me the most. i thrive in the corners and margins. the less i know, the more i can take what canon gives us and run.

plus, over the years i have developed a tendency to meet bioware where they are at. past experience in creative industries has really shown to me how stifling any form of artmaking can be in a corporate environment, and i know that right now the blame as to why we got veilguard and not joplin is being passed around like a hot potato, but the truth of the matter is, we will never know beyond the fact that bioware management is beholden, like all companies, to the "number go up" capitalist doctrine, no doubt reinforced by their parent company ea. and that, at least following the failure of anthem and andromeda (but i suspect from even earlier, as david gaider has said), bioware has been the ugly duckling of ea's roster. (as an aside, i would love to know who in ea has such a soft spot for bioware, that they allowed them to continue on following those massive failures.)

what i am trying to say is, i have been struggling so much with something i had managed to heal myself from, precisely because the one coping mechanism that does work for me (stewing in the source material) is totally inaccessible to me. so i have all of this antsy, nervous, conflicted energy, exacerbated by my own obsessive tendencies and the fact that sometimes having a childhood hyperfixation return full force as an adult just really fucking sucks when my personality is prone to regressing into harmful thought patterns and behaviours—is it as bad as people are saying? will it be a massive disappointment when i finally do play it? should i even like it when apparently it is such a slap in the face to the fans?—and nowhere to put it.

i kind of preferred it when we all thought this game was just never going to come out and i had made peace with it.

[bananasfosterparent]

I read the post saying ascended astarion fans like him for 100% kink related, and it just piss me off. The post and reblogging comments that are agreeing with it all see it from their point of view. Those agreeing comments are even worse. Their hate toward ascended astarion, actually just astarion, is more noticeable, and by doing so hating on his fans.

Oh, astarion is not actually powerful and talented, and it doesn't change even after ascension, so ascended fans must like him for 100% kink related. You know because ascended fans are just horny and definitely can't come up with interesting story with their player character.

Astarion is so cringe, yet ascended fans must have fell for it. And i am going to give impression that those fans are low for falling for it. You know because once again ascended fans are cringe horny.

Post is like i respect ascended fans BUT wow how can you like ascended ASTARION of all characters, there is no way you like him for other reasons than you're KINCKY! You know because it's not like astarion is a character you can romance and be deeply part of your story unlike gortash and raphael. It's not like manipulative player characters exist. It's not like the first and only ASCENDED vampire is actually powerful, even if he isn't able to control his power yet. It's not like he has eternity to figure out how his power works while having powerful lover and friends who stayed by his side against Cazador and Gur. It's not like he is alive and praised as a hero. It's not like he has eternity to establish powerful connections, especially since he can find Cazador's helpful notes of powerful people and blackmail materials.

No, ascended fans are 100% just kinky! Seriously?

You're not the only one, anon!

At this point, I can only chuckle about it.

If someone claims people only like the ending for how "sexy" and "kinky" it is, they are ironically reducing the ending to its sexual parts and seeing nothing else of value within it, thus rendering them guilty of the very thing they're accusing someone of lol

It's totally fine if you can't see anything valuable in the Ascended ending outside of how sexy it is! But don't assume that everyone else just sees only that too. Especially those of us who actually enjoy the ending. For many of us, it goes well beyond that part, or that part barely matters. And that's why we like it so much.

Honestly, a lot of us actually dislike how the sexual parts are handled in the Ascended ending. They don't connect to the rest of the story. In Act 2, Astarion has his confession to Tav and the pair of them come to the agreement to stop having sex. And from what I hear, this choice is carried through in other ways later on (if you invite Halsin in your romance and things like that). YET it somehow is forgotten about after he's ascended, even though there is no reason it would be forgotten about. And Tav can't make any mention of their previous agreement or anything when he asks if they'd like to make love during their last night as a living being. It's so bizarre and jarring. I mean, a simple "Are you okay with that? We don't have to have sex if you aren't ready." dialog option would have sufficed.

And I know, I know. The explanation is often: "it's because Tav has confirmed they only see him as the sexy vampire once they ascend him and he's just giving them what he knows they want now, blah blah blah!" except... no? NOTHING in the canon, in-game dialog says that. The narrator doesn't say that. Astarion doesn't say that. You can have your Tav say it for some reason, but having the option "I want your body" isn't canon unless you choose it (and even then, there's nothing wrong with wanting your forever lover carnally too).

I wish people understood that more. I really think Welch's comments were meant as damage control for people actually roleplaying instead of just going along with the most popular interpretation.

ALL of that said, what's WRONG with us finding it sexy too? I mean we all find Astarion in general attractive, right?

Besides, I see Spawn fans talk about how hot and steamy Asc Astarion is all the time. In my BG3 related FB groups, I see people post screenshots of the Ascended Astarion romance scene and Spawn-only fans commenting things like "I'd never ascend him but this is so hot!" or "I like to pretend this is Spawnstarion 🥵" or "I could never do this to him but I'm so glad there's screenshots posted so I can experience it still!". I've seen spawn fans react to those scenes with horny/arousal gifs too. So if THEY can find him sexy, why can't we? Especially since we also like that version of him for who he is and the relationship dynamic, outside of all the sexual stuff.

If they don't find him sexy, then they talk about how "pathetic" and "powerless" he is. I've seen someone who wrongfully yet confidently claimed ascension did not make him stronger and actually rendered him mortal, therefore weaker than full vampires and fully doomed. It's wild. It's why many enjoy his bat form. Once he's harmless and small you can comfortably call him pitiful and powerless, just a drunk bat who falls asleep in the punch bowl and the embodiment of the Old Man Screaming At Cloud meme. It's really unfortunate how Ascended Astarion has been bastardized by anti-fans and their own interpretations of things.

I've literally seen people say there is only one way to interpret the ascended ending (and that is, as a bad, horrible, negative, awful, tragic, abusive thing) and it's supposed to be impossible to see it any other way. And if you want to see it that way, or can't help but see it that way based on what you know in your real life, that's fine! But don't come at those of us who don't see it from that same perspective. Have some respect for others. And the character. It really does feel like some people just... hate him yet claim to love him. I dunno.

At the end of the day, it's like... I'm sorry you aren't aware of how roleplaying works and aren't creative enough to see outside of your own real world perspective and step into the mind/perspective of someone else lol

[piecesthatcanfit]

It’s 2023, and Larries still can’t enjoy Louis Tomlinson, the artist, as an individual. It always has to be about him and that other person. Everything he does has to relate to someone else. Never appreciated or celebrated his art without needing to link it to someone else. If he wears something, oh, it’s because of someone else; if he expresses himself, oh, it’s about that person; if he has lights surrounding him, it’s not about him alone; no, never, that can not be. The disrespect is constant. I saw someone tweet about wanting to get into Louis, and the replies were about Larry and "proof" compilations from when he was young so many moons ago. Not his music, not his shows, nothing about him alone, nothing about the person and artist he is NOW. Larries do not realize the damage they cause on a daily basis. The whole idea of Larry goes beyond shipping; it in itself is disrespectful, homophobic, and misogynistic on so many levels. Let me play along and say Larry was or is real, and one of them or both do not want to talk about or be public with their sexuality (and stop with the management thing). Why in the world would you engage in a behavior that outs him? What Larries do is not done behind closed doors or only in fanfics (that alone is a conversation for another day); during Louis’ AOTV premiere, his concerts, online, among his colleagues and peers, Larries are there, and they are not just loud but obnoxious. Imagine saying you care about someone (well, more about their sexuality and who he "might" be dating), and yet you out him every chance you get. Vile behavior. Louis is a person with layers, friends, and experiences that you will never have access to, and that makes you mad and outraged. You attack people he loves, people he dates, and people he wants to be part of his life. You disrespect his family, his son, and his friends, and then claim that you love him while you scream liar to him with no shame. You don’t see Louis as an individual, and you need to realize that. You take part in homophobic stereotypes and discussions about his private sex life; you fight and get annoyed when he exhibits any behavior that doesn’t fit your misogynistic stereotypes; the same man that writes songs like Angels Fly, Holding on to Heartache, Defenseless... (insert all his discography). You contribute the "tommo way" to being an asshole. You showcase classist behavior; you don’t even want to admit that everything he stands for and all his values that he has spoken about publicly go against the person you so desperately "ship" him with. Louis is a solo artist in his 30s, on his second world tour, standing on his own after years of self-doubt. He finally found confidence and joy in being on stage, he talks about how thankful he is to be accepted, and feeling safe as AN ARTIST, and yet all Larries care about is: is he gay? He can’t be straight... Grow up and reevaluate what you are really doing. Louis has had enough struggles; enjoy the music and stop reducing him into a delusional ship. 

[wraith-caller]

this is something of a complaint post, not theory related.

I frequently(relative to the size of the fandom) see folks say they hope Miquella masterminded Mohg's kidnapping of him, because otherwise, he is 'reduced' to a helpless victim or damsel in distress. This is a super frustrating view and feels hastily applied. If Miquella was kidnapped against his will, this is simply ONE of many things that has happened to him in his life. If the game dwelled ONLY on this, then I could see the argument that he is reduced to a helpless victim. But it doesn't. The game is dripping with Miquella's influence. That boy has been at work EVERYWHERE. He turned his back on his father, who he was very devoted to, because his love and dedication for his sister was greater. He raised up a second Erdtree with his own blood in an effort to improve not just himself but the lives of the beleaguered and oppressed. He saw the curse afflicted on his beloved brother and sought a cure when no one else had answers or even a care. And he saw his own curse and rather than wallow in it, took proactive steps to try to resolve or mitigate it.

There is so much more to Miquella than 'kidnapped by Mohg'. The game is not 'reducing him to a victim' by having this terrible thing happen to him, you are. And this is what's frustrating because this perspective plays out in not just all kinds of fandom spaces, but in reality too. Bad things happen to people, but they are more than the bad thing that happened to them. Still sometimes all anyone focuses on is the bad thing, and nothing else of the person. It's exhausting to see this view perpetuated, and that there is this implication that there should be no victims in media(because then they are JUST a victim, right?), even though these stories are just as worthy of being told as any other.

I get that there are works which definitely botch this subject, but I also think people are really quick to decide a character is being 'reduced to a victim' when the truth is, you are the one who can't see past that to the whole of the character.

[cleopatrachampagne]

i know i’m far from an expert on history but it always bothers me to see bob marley’s portrait hanging in my local weed shop. like, i’ve loved reggae music since i was young, well before i ever smoked weed, i know listening to music is pretty rad when stoned, and i admit i understand that a lot of prominent figures and concepts idolized by the hippies and revolutionaries of the 60’s and 70’s in the usa eventually became synonymous with drug use, esp marijuana, due to smear campaigns against counterculture so maybe it is a kind of defiance to display it proudly? but while i understand the admiration a lot of disillusioned young people in the usa in the 60’s and 70’s would have felt for the people fighting the class war in jamaica and the reggae music emerging with lyrics about said war but still pushing for peace, for one love, as they worked to topple inequity and corrupt systems while redefining perspectives on race, oppression and intergenerational trauma but how did bob marley become “the weed man” in the cultural consciousness when he was a spokesperson for political change and class revolution? is it only that way in the us? do other countries and cultures see him as more than a stoner icon with his face on rasta memorabilia sold at jacked up prices to college kids who have never even heard of the rastafari revolution, the pan-african movement or the jamaican civil war, idk why but it really does bother me to see a strong voice for peace and change reduced to a face plastered on drug paraphernalia and stoner t-shirts. like… damn. that’s the death of a revolutionary in the capitalist tradition, i suppose. bob marley’s portrait hanging above the bud hut cash register, “grunge” clothing sold by fast fashion corporate hellholes, t-shirts with kurt cobain’s suicide note written on them being sold for 800 bucks a pop, eat the rich stickers for sale on amazon of all places, santa muerte being sold as a goth accessory or a “hardcore” generic tattoo in the us stripped of what she symbolizes to me and many other latina/o people who were raised with mexican neopaganism and folk catholic traditions, sanitized street art commissioned by some silicon valley suit that is purely aesthetics with no heart, no soul, nothing related to the authenticity of artistic vandalism, just imaginary street cred points for a rich dick. i get the same feeling in my stomach seeing the “aesthetic” whitewash of counterculture, the clownery of “alt” culture on apps like tiktok, the cashing in on the suffering of the oppressed for a quick buck and the tragic victory of cementing hippies and beatniks and freedom fighters in the minds of the following generations as degenerate druggies (thanks nixon and crew) that i get when i hear that pop remix of “the hanging tree” and it’s a lot to take in while i’m just trying to buy a box of strawberry cough prerolls.

[papaver-decervicatus]

Teaser... + house keeping!

Wow, I am just besides myself with how amazingly receptive and welcoming everyone has been to my silly little König story. Reading in storage closets at work, affirming bass player fetishes, offering translation help, love of environmental descriptions (ah yes, ecphrasis, my love!) asks, comments, just generally such sweet things, it's been an absolute honor to read everything everyone has been saying here! I did want to briefly explain that since this is a side-blog, I will not respond to comments/tags directly because tumblr would make me do that with my main blog (which is related to people I know irl, and I love them but I do not want my roommate reading my COD smut...) but everything is read and deeply appreciated. Please feel free to send asks (messages are more difficult for me to answer in depth...) As for other house keeping, please please please have an age in bio, or some descriptor that you're of age in some way, also blank blogs are terribly suspicious, changing pfp and descriptions go a long long way! If you wish to be added to a taglist for Cat/Mouse/Den, please comment/reblog/etc this post so I can round everyone up! Anyways, a minuscule little treat for being such wonderful people :) Cura ut valeas~ Caedis

He’s a vision, he’s hard to miss on the horizon, he stands out like a mountain lion against his fellow men. He sways his hips wide, the trusty Glock Field knife he keeps on his belt shines like a beacon. It’s such an outrageously cocky move, to keep glinting metal on his person when she’s sure he’s supposed to be stealthy. He’s tall as a tree and broad as a train and always has some hood covering his face. He’s sniper candy, he’s so obviously right there it makes her dig blunt nails into her arm in frustration. He’s hard to miss, should be her straight shot. 

But he never is. 

She never gets the barked orders, the confirmation. She’s asked a hundred times. When it’s in the forest, it’s less warfare and more stakeout. She’s not paid enough to know what she’s looking for, but she always sees him. And she’s always been told not to shoot. She stops asking at some point, but like everything else with this man, she doesn’t quite remember when. Her life is a blur of missions and off time and him and nothing else.

It’s been months since the ravine and she’s seen König just about everywhere she’s been. When SpecGru was gathering intel on KorTacs drug affiliations, she saw him in the haunted deserts of Sonora, Mexico where she lies in the dirt redder than blood and coyotes sing her to sleep. She gazes down at him atop crumbling 16th-century Byzantine marble when she picks off the guards of a weapons supplier in Belgrade, Serbia. In the ancient and verdant bamboo forest of Yibin, China, hunting down spy affiliations, she camps across a creek from him for a night. 

It’s a small world, but not quite small enough for her to believe just how they keep running into each other. No matter where she ends up, their eyes always meet. 

The eyes of the apparition with bloody tears on top of an executioner's hood always flick right towards her, even when she’s under a ghillie or some camo or nothing particularly obtrusive at all. She’s even taken off her scope once or twice to reduce glare, to see if the monster still turns her way then. To see if the cat is following a laser pointer she’s unwittingly putting out. 

He does.

He always finds her.

No matter what. 

[psychewritesbs]

I was reading your post about the megumi character trope and this is related but not?

Anyways, as someone who likes both sasuke and megumi, and I've come to like sasuke recently as I've finally checked out naruto, but it's bizarre to me how superficial their similarities are and it's crazier how people reduce their characters to their aloofness or dar hair or things like that and use that as a way to judge a character overall when their character arcs are so different imo. I have issues with how sasuke's character was handled in the story, but I've become very fond of the things he did for the story overall, so no problem for me, but I'm not sure megumi's arc will end or proceed any similiar to sasuke's with revenge as the main motivation, or at least I don't think so, I'm a couple chaps behind, but yeah, the way both characters process their own trauma or how their motivations are different enough for me to ignore the superficial ways in which they are similiar

I say it's also tough liking both in fandom spaces because naruto is still really popular and jjk is in the spotlight currently, so fandoms can be tense with each other and it's exhausting to see the slander going every which way lol

They say this as a way to slander mgm, but the "Megumi will never be sasuke" is funny because I don't think he's trying to be???

HOLA!

WELCOME to THE ULTIMATE SHONEN BATTLE FOR THE BEST "QUIET AND ALOOF DEUTERAGONIST-KUN": MEGUMI VS SASUKE!

Who's better? Well... let's ask the internet...

ok nvm. NEVER ask the internet for an opinion. ESPECIALLY when the Naruto fans who think Kishimoto is the mother of all anime tropes get involved.

This isn't even a question of whether Gege took inspiration from Sasuke for Megumi because 1) Sasuke himself takes inspiration from a Togashi character and, 2) "quiet and aloof deuteragonist-kun" is one of the most prevalent tropes in animanga--the trope is not even unique to shonen, hell even the 3-man team isn't unique to Naruto.

Nothing against Kishi but... he's doing the same thing every mangaka or author EVER has done--copying tropes.

At least Gege subverts them.

Let's taco'bout it more under the cut because I have many words to vomit about the topic.

Also... man, this is a fantastic conversation to have because, based on the comments I've seen about why Sasuke is "objectively" better, I feel like it comes back to a lack of introspection, dare I say toxic masculinity (?), and perhaps just not understanding or relating to Megumi as a character.

I've written before about Megumi's character development and how relating to him has a lot to do with how deeply you can be introspective about yourself. I won't address character development much here, so if you want to, you can read that post here.

But when it comes to Megumi vs. Sasuke, it's almost like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, they're both fruit (quiet and aloof deuteragonist-kun), AND they also have a different flavor profile, different texture, different scent... the list goes on.

And the way I see it, if someone can't see how the differences between Sasuke and Megumi make them fundamentally different despite sharing the same trope, then they can't "objectively" claim one is better than the other.

So I'm going to go ahead and just say it.

I don't like Sasuke. I never did and I never understood why he was so popular.

The comments about Megumi having the depth of a kiddie pool?

I feel the exact same about Sasuke.

I literally can't think of much to say about him other than he was pissy and had a sour attitude the whole time... umm... he wanted revenge and power... ? I guess?

And you know what? It's perfectly ok that I don't like Sasuke because my subjective opinion does not mean that someone who loves Sasuke is wrong about loving him. After all, my opinion should not be a measuring stick for someone who loves Sasuke.

In fact, I have moots who think very highly of Sasuke AND Megumi, and like them for different reasons. So I actually try to refrain from speaking negatively of Sasuke because I respect my moot's opinions and know that perhaps I am not seeing something they can.

That said, when we compare Sasuke and Megumi, we're measuring the characters against standards that don't apply to either of them.

Since Sasuke is on a revenge character arc, you can't really talk about how he explores his sense of self in order to re-define it (which is one of the main reasons I love Megumi). Sasuke wants power, but that just means he has to train harder.

Megumi does go the training route, but in the end, perhaps it was a moment of clarity and introspection that helped him level up, not just the physical training.

Likewise, since Megumi is on an arc meant to re-define his sense of self, you can't really talk about how he went about seeking power to reach his goal because Megumi is not interested in power for the sake of power, and/or does not have grandiose aspirations.

As you say, their motivations couldn't be more different.

Now, I think it bears repeating that when I started watching jjk, even though I liked him right from the beginning, I thought Megumi was underwhelming af given his trope.

But that's only because, again, I was measuring Megumi against the wrong standards.

In retrospect, I also do feel like Gege wanted Megumi to be perceived as "underwhelming given his trope" (MOST ESPECIALLY SASUKE imo), otherwise the payoff in chapter 58 would not have had the same impact.

So anyways.

To your point. Existing at the intersection of these two fandoms must be an interesting experience because most of the bad comparisons are rooted on surface level similarities.

Thing is, being able to see the nuance between the two characters and why neither is objectively better than the other, does require the ability to read below the surface AND to at least have a certain degree of emotional investment in the story and the characters.

Also, can I just say fandom wars are so pointless?

It's just a bunch of people who can't handle the idea that other people could have a different opinion because they see their opinion as the ultimate truth.

And don't let me act like I'm not the kind of pretentious asshat who will say something like "Megumi is a purposeful deconstruction but Aki is a copy" because I can be quite elitist myself. I just also don't take my opinion too seriously because I know I don't own the ultimate truth about what is and isn't good media.

Also I like to indulge in trash tv like every normal human being in this planet so that alone makes my taste questionable.

To that point, I saw a really good quote that is so relevant to your ask:

The price for certainty means that other people must be wrong. And that leads to holy war.

Lionel Corbett

"uwu Megumi is weak"

But... there's something that has been nagging me about why people don't like Megumi in general that is highly related to how his predecessors, Sasuke included, set the bar we use to measure the trope, most specifically in Battle Shonen.

And that's that the way me measure what makes Megumi a good character is based on toxic masculinity values.

Now... I'm not an expert on the topic, so please correct me if I'm wrong or need to expand my perspective here but...

There's something inherently "toxic" about how people are approaching both Megumi independently of Sasuke, and Megumi compared to Sasuke.

Like... if Sasuke wouldn't curl up in a ball because he's had to experience a traumatic event and instead just keeps on going, that's called repression and/or suppression and it's both not a healthy coping mechanism AND not realistically written.

So what if Sasuke would never?

Why is it wrong for a character (or a real human for that matter) to feel so defeated after the trauma they've had to face?

I am more interested in learning why we are so obsessed with looking down on a fictional character for feeling down on himself... like, Momo, are you ok, dude?

Do you ever allow yourself to feel all your feels or do you just berate yourself when you feel down on yourself?

And why are we measuring trauma on a scale of who has it worse just so that we can cancel someone else's trauma?

Actually, the fact that we can sit here and talk about who has it best and who has it worse like it's a competition?

That's gaslighting, and it's toxic af.

But again. The problem is that jjk fans themselves hate on Megumi independently of whether they compare him to Sasuke or not.

And I'm not sure whether kin here just has shitty reading comprehension skills, but...

I'm noticing a trend that has EVERYTHING to do with my female gaze and it's the fact that I kind of don't give a fuck about power scaling.

Like, it's cool. I'm not hating on people who do, you know. I'm just saying I don't care for it. But what I'm trying to say here is that people hate on Megumi for weird reasons...

Like... I don't think Hyena here is reading the same manga if he can't tell that Megumi has had character development, unless what he expects in terms of character development is...

Which is fine too... I loved dbz back in the day.

Who could ever forget Goku looking like he has to poop so bad his hair grows really long?

But like... are we fucking for real? JJK is far too nuanced to limit your experience of the manga to flashy fights and power ups only.

Again, if this is the standard we are using to measure Megumi as a character, no wonder people are disappointed.

So I say let them eat cake.

No shade to all of the people who I screenshotted here, but they're going to have to come up with smarter arguments to back up their subjective opinions about Sasuke's supposed objective superiority and why Megumi sucks.

In all honesty, the fact that Megumi is perceived as weak strikes me as toxic masculinity.

I get that some people read fiction to escape from their daily lives and not have to face the failures and successes they experience in the real world, but I personally want more human characters who fail and cry because that's more relatable to me than Goku's super powered instinct Saiyan form or whatever its called.

I guess we all read for different reasons. All I'm saying is "don't hate on Megumi for shortsighted reasons."

To bring it back to where it all started, let's be real here:

Megumi will NEVER be Sasuke

and that is fantastic news because Megumi is Megumi and that's exactly why we love him.

Dear anon, I think I went on a rant there hahahaha.

BAH! I just get so annoyed when people hate on Megumi for shallow reasons. Like, if you don't like him, you don't like him and that's that. But like some of the comments about him are just...

LOL!

Thank you for stopping by anon!

[learningtosmelltheroses]

that specific section of zendaya stans want to protect z from how the media and general public tend to reduce a woman's persona to her romantic life (which is totally valid because that sucks and i actually agree with them on that part) but at the same time will overhype every single relationship she has with other men (in this case timothee but i'm sure it will be the same thing with all the men she will collaborate with in the future) just to prove that she can exists and be her own person without tom. and to be clear, she absolutely does, and i think it's actually healthy for people in a relationship to also have close bonds with people from the opposite sex and totally believe in friendship between men and women. but that's not what irks me

what irks me is that they will go through great lengths to actually despise her romantic life - and literally nothing points to the relationship being toxic or anything - and when they're being called out, they always use the same argument : they're against making everything z related about tom. but let's just call a spade a spade : it's not actually about that but it's about them hating tom so much they can even stand that she's with him.

and they have all the rights in the world to dislike him, that's not even an issue, BUT what's soooo hypocritical of them is using the feminism/girlboss card while simultaneously freaking tf out whenever z just look into timothée's direction or used to complain when tom visited the dune set because i quote "he was disrupting timdaya hangouts and ruining the vibe". you cannot be taken seriously after that. especially when you're desperately trying to link her up with a dude who did questionable things lately. so they can start becoming honest that would make everything more simple

straight up insulting tom for xyz reasons, i'm like okay it happens to anyone in the public eye (even tho it's weird because nothing he does deserves that treatment but anyway). on the other hand, whenever they're hiding behind those fake ass takes, that's when i roll my eyes

[sorry for the rant but i had to let it go after seeing the 1929338th tweets complaining about tomdaya stans and then look at the profile and see genocide joker front and center, ooohh this is just too much 😭]

My inbox is always open to rants anon! I agree with you.

And we never make her whole career and life about her relationship. We praise and are excited for their individual projects but sue us for being happy that she's in a happy loving relationship. That she found true love after being in such crappy relationships before. Cause she's a good person and sweet and she deserves someone who loves her and treats her like a queen. And the same goes for Tom.

I learned already you can't use logic with this people cause they don't know it. They want to live in their made up world with the narratives that feed into their craziness.

[thesilverlady]

Unpopular opinion: having Aegon as this failson momma's boy is BORING let characters have agency let them make their own decisions even if it's morally ambiguous,or downright wrong. there is nothing absolutely wrong with a character who has agency, a well defined goal and solid characterization. Having a character that is reduced to be another character plot device is not moral complexity or "greyness"

hmm half agree, half disagree anon 😅

On the one hand, Aegon being failure in regards to the family expectations is part of his character, so I personally wouldn't take it away to prop him up. Him being sullen and unmotivated/lazy as well as quick tempered are the only traits we do in fact have about the character from canon.

Now, I'll agree the execution was bad. For instance in the show aemond is clearly the favorite one because he's calm, disciplined, studious and obedient. (basically a pollar opposite of his book self). While in the f&b we never get to see who alicent's favorite is, it makes sense for aegon to get her most attention; he remains her firstborn son, his "rights" have been robbed in her eyes, and his presence/existence alone is a weapon to wield against rhaenyra (who seem to live rent free in alicent's head)

The spin they went into for the show that alicent is this disappointed mother with the failure of her first son, her odd daughter and her only comfort is her second son - who also breaks the illusion when he kills her bff's son was.... a choice.

Alicent at core is a hypocrite. And I'm not saying this with hate. it's her trait. It can be as fun as it can be obnoxious, depending on the way you're viewing things. She would never acknowledge her children's flaws or pin blame on them.

So back to show Aegon, not only he doesn't have his mother's blind love/support, he doesn't even seem to have any relationship with his own brother whatsoever.

I've mentioned my disdain over the age changes for the show because essentially they serve nothing. Aegon being "friendly" with Jace for 3 minutes didn't add anything more because guess what, we only see the kids in two episodes. Aegon bullying his brother.... because his nephews were more interesting? again makes no sense

Objectively i think they wanted to toy with the shared childhood to build emotional bonds and to hurt more when you see all these people killing each other. But that doesn't work when you have timeskips in every single episode.

So Aegon is left as this guy whose father hates his guts for no reason (we never see if he even knows about the maids, or drinking or his son's general behavior), his mother seem like she cannot stand him. His brother is indifferent to him at best or looks down to him as worst. The only neutral is kinda Helaena - which doesn't last long if you pay attention to her dinner speech 😬

Aegon in the book is quite terrible, but TV people have forgotten that viewers used to enjoy characters like these without any need to "related" to them. Not to mention, I feel hotd as a writing point always calls the viewers dumb because in order for them to understand that aegon in the show is also not a great guy they have to turn every single person from his circle against him.

[bidisaster-peanut-romano]

about the parallels between derby and bif / achilles and patroclus.

first of all, i need to warn you- if you have read the song of achilles, delete it from your brain. forget about it forever you can rest now it was all a bad dream. know that both their personalities and their dynamics were simplified and stripped of all their cultural significance, reducing them to a hormonal-thirteen-years-olds-wattpad-fanfiction-from-2012 kind of story that fucking irks me as a classic lits student. with all due respect to thirteen year olds writing fanfic on wattpad in 2012.

so, the thing about them. achilles is the strongest warrior of the greeks, just him deciding not to partake in the war is a decisive hit for the army; just one nod of his is enough to decide the entire fate of his companions. but also, he's driven by blind pride, personal gain, an archaic and profound sense of honor. except that, you know- this is much more natural of a mindset than it might seem, because it's a very part of the societal and cultural structure these warriors live in. it is a value that's passed on within generation and that any sane citizen would've had, it was the mentality of the ruling class and the contrary would've been an anomaly. (if ur interested in this aspect: see archilocus' shield)

i think it's already easy to notice how this parallels some of the very core aspects of the preps' context and derby in particular. every action, their very existence is a matter of honor and reputation; for derby in particular, the leader, the one who always calls the shots, and when he wants something there's no one stopping him, not even his own clique. he will have what he wants, and if just one small offense is done to him, it's everyone's fault, and nothing will get better unless the cut is mended.

and then there's patroclus. older, wiser. he's not as powerful as achilles, but he's a level-minded, resistant and skilled warrior, favored by the gods. that's mostly what i hate about what madeline miller did to him, trying to make him into a relatable, pacifist softboy- he's one of the greatest warriors of the army, respected and recognized by all. he's perfectly capable of standing up on his own and fighting without achilles, basically massacring an entire army; if apollo didn't intervene, he would have won against hector change my mind

the thing about them, though, is that... they're still stronger together. a warrior's arms were a sacred thing, so when patroclus wears achille's armor is much more than a simple impersonation. they re exchanging power, almost blending into each other, and patroclus fights with his own and achilles' power. do you see the parallel there?

derby is of course a great leader, and bif is a powerful fighter on his own; but when you put them together they become unbeatable, a force of nature that is born from the union of them.

and also!! one of my favorite scenes from the iliad is one where we see achilles, in his tent, playing the lyre, while patroclus sits in front of him. for one: sitting in front of each other was a gesture of great intimacy, almost symbolic. two: this is almost a contradiction with what we said about achilles before. he is a demigod, but here and now, playing sad music, sitting in front of patroclus, he becomes human.

and that's the thing about derby and bif, that in their life they're expected to uphold aristocratic values, to never show any trace of imperfections or flaws. that their pride and reputation, as they have been told their whole lives, is essential, and they have nothing without it. and yet, when they are together, they just let that superhuman mask fall, and they can just be fragile, emotional, they can have a heart beating and flesh and blood and they can love. when they're together they are human again

tad and peanut / romeo and juliet | bryce and chad / cupid and psyche