#pov i did not used to be this way

[angelpuns]

hi there was a mouse in my room and I have taken -20 psychic damage from this knowledge

[clarissaweasley-10]

This might be a controversial take, but l don't think Eve deserves or should get a redemption arc.

[lunarharp]

offloads scribbly stuff

[silverwhittlingknife]

"the fault, dear Brutus -" (Julius Caesar)

Quotes from A Critical History of English Literature by David Daiches. Panels from Death in the Family, Under the Red Hood, Lost Days, and Batman and Robin.

[sherwood-scribblings]

HUNGER GAMES (SUNRISE ON THE REAPING) THEORIES: the "sunrise" over the reaping is maysilee

I have been going so absolutely bats off the wall ever since the SOTR announcement that I spent a whole day formulating my theories into in-depth essays and backing them up with canon... here ya go.

So, after some analysis of everything we know about the saga, chapter 14 of Catching Fire, and how Collins writes so far...

I present my theory on the new hunger games book: that the "sunrise" over the reaping is symbolic of Maysilee Donner, the former owner of the mockingjay pin.

I think Maysilee is going to be a symbol of the goodness, kindness, light, etc, of humanity, in the face of the reaping, in the face of violence and war. Aka the theme of the entire series. Aka a symbol of defiance just like Lucy Gray and her kindness. I mean, losing all his metaphorical light is what causes Haymitch to become a drunk... And likely to become so protective over Katniss and Peeta.

I also think the cover is going to have a mockingjay and a sunrise. Cause, Suzanne Collins is VERY intentional about her titles. The themes she uses. The imagery. The covers. It's all part of the story.

HOW COLLINS HAS USED THEME BEFORE

TBOSAS was called "songbird and snakes" which was symbolic of the nature of good vs. evil.

There's essays everywhere about how the songbird represents good (in Lucy Gray) and how the snake represents evil (in Coriolanus Snow), how they are symbolically shown to have both natures by using both snakes and songbirds as weapons, but one nature ultimately prevails. TBOSAS is about the struggle between humanity's two natures, and how we can ultimately prevail in one or the other. The crest of the mockingjay and the snake, is symbolic of said theme. 

Songbirds represent everything Lucy Gray is—free, wild, untamed, kind, colorful, a singer, a performer, honest and moral and true and good.

Snakes represent everything Coriolanus Snow is—deceptive, cunning, ruthless, adaptable, charming, determined to survive, everything sly and wicked and game playing.

And yet, they are shown to have the inverse as well. Lucy Gray is also cunning, and deceptive, and determined to survive. Coryo is also caring (about certain people), honest (he's bad at lying, and in THG he agrees to never lie to Katniss), and enjoys the idea of freedom.

They wield both natures and this struggle is portrayed throughout the story. Hence: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Hence: a snake and a bird on the cover.

Suzanne Collins is also no stranger to complimentary characters.

Lucy Gray and Snow are inverses of each other, both similar and wildly different. They work well... Until the difference in their nature tears them apart. 

She makes use of complimentary characters to emphasize theme throughout her books, constantly. We see with Katniss and Peeta, how Katniss is war-torn, distrusting, afraid, how easily she could become like Snow, how her motivations for security could become corrupted into a ruthlessness to survive just like Snow was driven by his fear. She is difficult, jaded, and tormented, but underneath that she does have a heart of gold and wants goodness to prevail.

Peeta is her dandelion in the spring, her hope, representative of the goodness left in humanity, he seems soft but he is a lot stronger than his peers would think or give him credit for. She clings to him because in a world of darkness he serves as light, as a reminder that not everyone is selfish, that kindness and morality do exist even if she's inclined to think people just are out for themselves.

He is full of light and her darkness falls for that because she needs light and goodness to heal, to believe, to fight for.

He is her compliment, where she is afraid, a survivor and a fighter, and sometimes rude or selfish seeming, and struggles to show her emotions and how much she cares, more like Haymitch—

Peeta is kind, brave, soft, and charming, has a way with people's hearts, and yet also strong in his own ways and in his morals, determined not to let the capitol force him to lose his humanity. 

This nature of humanity, of goodness, of light, is reflected in other characters.

Prim is that role to Katniss as well. She is a soft girl, innocent, sensitive, tender hearted, kind, a healer, which is part of why Katniss loves her so much.

Prim is a reminder of humanity, which Katniss needs, and it's why Katniss chooses Peeta over Gale. Prim is also contrasted against Katniss. Rue likewise, is similar, she's a symbol of hope and kindness set against Katniss.

We see this utilization of complimentary characters all over— Haymitch and Effie, one being a crude yet intelligent and snarky arrogant tormented and drunken victor from District 12, the other being a prim and proper rich Capitol girl, airheaded, brainwashed, sheltered, yet endearing and caring all the same. They're polar opposites, but they work so well together, both as teammates and as friends. There's a reason the fandom ships them and sees them as the beer uncle and wine aunt of THG, as parental roles to Katniss and Peeta.

Suzanne Collins knows what she's doing. She knows how to write characters that compliment or parallel each other and how to weaponize symbolism and imagery for a powerful theme. (Katniss and Peeta, Lucy Gray and Snow, Haymitch and Effie, Katniss and Prim, Prim and Rue, Katniss and Snow, Rue and the mockingjay, Snow and Coin)

HOW THIS APPLIES TO SUNRISE ON THE REAPING

If she describes young Haymitch as arrogant, snarky, nonchalant, dangerous, smart, capable, etc... Maysilee is likely gonna be his compliment: kind, moral, gentle, soft, willing to call his more selfish means out.

She's the one who saves him and had the idea for the alliance. She's the one who split because she didn't want it to come down to killing each other.

I am convinced the reason Haymitch sets up Peeta and Katniss to work together as teammates from district 12, is because he did that with Maysilee.

He's doing what him and Maysilee failed to do. They agreed to break off the alliance, and look what happened. She died. Why do you think he's so insistent on Katniss and Peeta working together? That Peeta is keeping her alive, that she doesn't deserve him, that she should be more grateful?

Because he sees Maysilee in Peeta, and himself in Katniss. Haysilee (regardless of if they're a ship or platonic) is a gender reversed parallel to Everlark. Perhaps he's harder on Katniss because he sees himself in her, and kinder to Peeta because he sees Maysilee in him. For all we know, Haysilee could have even incited their own rebellion that the capitol snuffed out (suzanne said the main theme of SOTR was essentially propaganda and lies, covering up the truth for the masses).

MAYSILEE IS SOFT LIKE MADGE & PRIM

Further on why I think Maysilee will be a soft sunshine girl—because her niece, MADGE, is exactly that. Golden haired, kind, softened. Selfless. Everything the capitol tries to destroy. Everything the capitol sees as rebellion.

Madge likely got her soft nature from her mom or her aunt (Maysilee), who are twins. They also all have sunshine golden hair.

It's essentially implied Madge is like her aunt.

And guess what? Prim is a blond soft girl and it's implied she's like HER mom, who was close friends with Maysilee.

Katniss' mom was also a soft girl before the trauma shut her down. Clearly Prim gets her own sunshine healer nature from her mother, because Katniss is more is rugged and protective like her father. She fills in for protecting them when he dies, and even notes her mom is too soft and fragile to deal with certain hardships the way Katniss does.

If Katniss' mother is friends with Maysilee, not to mention their daughter and niece are both soft healer kind sunshine girls who seem to take after the rest of their family.... It's likely that Maysilee is like Prim and Madge. Birds of a feather flock together and all. Of course they would bond.

MAYSILEE IS A SYMBOL OF LIGHT

Here's more on why I think the sunrise is Maysilee. 

Madge gave the mockingjay pin to Katniss, from Maysilee. SHE WAS THE FORMER OWNER OF THE MOCKINGJAY PIN. THE WHOLE REASON THE REVOLUTION STARTED.

Maysilee is another form the mockingjay takes. Just like Lucy Gray, just like Rue—a symbol of hope and resistance. A tribute from District 12, so determined not to let the capitol change her true nature, to take her humanity and morals, that it lights the spark to create a fire.

Do you think Haymitch looks at Katniss, and sees Maysilee's pin? Do you think he sees the mockingjay prevail in the face of the reapings, and all he can see is her?

"Sunrise on the reaping" is a symbolic title. This is Suzanne Collins. This is how she writes. 

"A ballad of songbirds and snakes" summarizes the themes of that book, the nature of good vs evil. Lucy Gray is the songbird, Snow the snake.

"Sunrise on the reaping" translates to light, hope, new beginnings, in the middle of war and violence. 

Collins said this book was going to focus on propaganda, how the media LIES to people, puts them in the dark for easy submission, to not see the truth.

You know what you need to illuminate the darkness of a lie? To see anything at all, including the truth?

Light. You need the sun. A sunrise.

Real or not real? How do you see what's real if you don't have the light to see it by?

Sunrise ON the reaping. Not over. ON. 

A sunrise casts light ON the reaping. On the violence of the capitol.

Kindness and hope casts light on the bleak violence and darkness of the capitol. Our humanity is the one true form of resistance. It's the main theme of the series.

This book is going to be about casting light on lies and darkness. On the capitol. The book will be about light prevailing over darkness.

About kindness and hope being the truth that acts as defiance against violent propaganda. Against Snow's beliefs that "there is no hope for humanity, we are all dark and twisted."

This book will be the inverse of Snow and Gaul, of TBOSAS. If Ballad is about how humanity can fall into darkness and evil, Reaping is its compliment, it's about how humanity can be light and good.

All darkness -> light exists -> fire sparks

(Ballad)              (Reaping)        (Catching Fire)

(@ aurynauthor on Instagram summarized that for me<3)

Maysilee is the sun, the warmth to start a FIRE... Her niece gives Katniss, the girl on fire... Her mockingjay pin. 

Maysilee, perhaps, is the true mockingjay.

Katniss compares her death to Rue's, when she watches Haymitch's games. We thought Rue was the mockingjay, but... What if the mockingjay isn't just one person? What if the mockingjay is a symbol, something larger than life, something anyone with the kindness and heart and resistance to stand against evil can be? Like how Katniss and Peeta publicly honor and mourn their fallen tributes when they ought to be entertained alongside the capitol, who is aghast by such displays of emotion.

Maybe that light is some of what the capitol is covering up with propaganda in this book, but it escaped in the form of the pin and Haymitch's survival.

The mockingjay is everyone. Lucy Gray, Rue, Katniss... Maysilee.

Perhaps when Haymitch sees that pin on Katniss, he remembers. When the mockingjay becomes a symbol of resistance, when Maysilee's sunlight sparks the heat for a flame... Perhaps then Haymitch can understand why Maysilee saved him. Why he was the one to survive, and she was the martyr.

How her legacy and her pin lived on even after she faded from history, just like the mockingjay bird itself—small and insignificant, survived against all odds, becoming something stronger.

Maybe, even after her death, even when he forgets the good she taught him and he gets drunk to block out the memories of what happened afterwards, when he has to train up a girl with a mouth of fire and a mockingjay pin, and a boy with a heart of gold and the wits to survive, District 12 tributes, teammates, children he sees someone else in...

Even after the truth of what really happened on the 50th Hunger Games is lost to history and propaganda. Even after all the death and violence.

After all the darkness, the lies Snow preaches, that humanity will always fall into selfishness and survival and cruelty, that nothing and no one can prevail or be different.

Maybe Maysilee and her kindness was the sunrise on his reaping.

[royalarchivist]

Wilbur: Everyone give it up for Alex Quackity! Thank you.

A close-up of one of the TNTduo hugs from the Lovejoy concert :')

[crustyfloor]

The idea of Till having a certain sentiment of regret, hate? towards Ivan for what he did in round 6 jumbled up with his already mixed feelings about Ivan because of the person he is and how he treated Till when they were kids up until now, it's a lot. It breaks my heart but feels a little too real.

[bayetea]

I'm gonna froth at the mouth over this in the tags so bear with me but reason #1278038 why the way rick went about breaking up jiper was bad: rereading her povs in hoo where she gushes over jason feels like even more of an unreliable narrator queer girl comphet psychological horror story

[lucienne-thee-librarian]

Just to minimize my chances of being genuinely misunderstood OR deliberately misinterpreted, and crucified for something I don't think, How Dare You Say We Piss on the Poor website etc...I'm gonna say this right up top. I absolutely understand why people don't like Thessaly as a character, if anyone does completely unironically stan her as some kind of feminist hero who Did Nothing Wrong uwu, I personally see it as a bit of a red flag. I don't like terfs real or fictional. In a vacuum, I could even completely sympathize and agree with the people who want her cut.

HOWEVER.

It's really something to me to see people clamoring for her to be cut, because she carries and expressed an ugly indefensible prejudice (transphobia) in words towards (1) person. Meanwhile Hob fucking Gadling enacted one of the most violent forms of antiblack racism I can even think of against thousands no, millions of people, the ripple effects of which still affect billions more today. Just a little light idk, profiting off the fucking slave trade and had to be told by someone else that it was bad...and he's a fan favorite.

People are saying Thessally being Dream's love interest reflects badly on him or is somehow endorsement by the narrative (?!?!?!?!?!? Didn't she (SPOILER ALERT AS IF IT MATTERS BY NOW) help participate in his extended assisted suicide? She's not painted as a great person to me just another character what are y'all SMOKING whatever fine. It's fine this is fine.) But shipping Dream with Mr. Former Slaver is not only not verboten or frowned on widely in the fandom but its THEE most popular pairing by far. So...why the difference?

Like where are the same fans who are saying Thessaly shouldn't just be more clearly shown to be wrong, she shouldn't even be in the show at all when it comes to Hobert's crimes??? Yes, transphobia is indefensible. Isn't racism?

And I hear the cries of "it's fiction!!!" Already rallying (if anyone who needs to hear this even sees it lol) to which I say:

HORSESHIT. I KNOW you don't, deep down, really agree because if you did, why get upset about Thessaly being included??? Why does what she said to one person matter if it's Just Fiction You Guyze. Fictional characters are allowed to do bad things and fiction isn't reality sweaty....except when you only apply that standard to fictional racists you like and simp for, but fictional transphobes you don't are SO HARMFUL they shouldn't even be portrayed in fiction.

Like. Give me a big fat BREAK. This looks like bullshit, no? I'm sorry, but I'd love for someone to try and give any other explanation besides one personally offended you or hit home for you, and the other doesn't.

And if that bothers you or you feel like it says something negative about you...idk what you want me to say??? You can't control how other people perceive you and that's how people outside this majority-of-the-fandom bubble see it. You don't need to respond, I just wish and genuinely hope this gives you a moment to think about why fans who ARE bothered by both (and not just paying lip service to being bothered by the one but railing against the other) are so frustrated with people saying everyone is welcome but in practice only bending over backwards for the comfort and emotions of themselves, and people they can easily relate to.

You don't have to like Thessaly (I don't. I find her an interesting antagonist, I don't stan her. And frankly imo likability is not. the point of her character) but you'll pardon me for feeling more than a bit cynical and side eying people's motivations for what seems a...pretty obvious double standard, on what fictional crimes related to real world issues matter to y'all, and which clearly don't. Either actually bring the same energy to the table for fictional people who committed atrocities, even if against a group you're not part of and thus don't feel the need to empathize with, or just carry on, but accept that you don't have the SLIGHTEST room to talk about cutting characters who do immoral things. And you also need to accept that you look like a hypocrite when you do.

[puppetmaster13u]

You may regret this @phoenixcatch7 lol, what if I start spamming you /j

Less cryptid Batman in this particular WIP since it's semi-outsider pov lol (one of two outside person not unnerved by them lol)

🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇👻🪆🦇

   Clark knew Batman wasn’t human, even before that disaster of a mission where he had let it slip to the others. 

   He’d known for a long time, from one of their early meetups, when Batman had first referred to him as Clark Kent instead of Kal-El, and he had panicked. He hadn’t ever lied to his teammates when he said that the cloak prevented him from seeing his body, but his ears still worked. 

   He’d tried to listen to a heartbeat, to see if his at the time temporary ally was lying when he stated he wasn’t going to tell anyone and… Nothing. There was no heartbeat, no breathing, nothing even remotely human, and if he didn’t know any better, nothing even remotely alive about the silence. 

   He couldn’t help but to pay attention more, to seek out the strange almost silence-feeling that accompanied the Gotham vigilante each time he felt it. It was… almost comforting, like the swaying of branches and the rustling of cloth over stone. Familiar, compared to the hustle and bustle surrounding him in the city. 

   The first thing he had noticed, physically that is, was Batman’s ears. Previously he’d thought the man unemotional, what with the rough voice, expressionless white eyes, cloak-covered body and the gas mask covering a good chunk of his face. 

   Yet the longer he watched, even idly, the more he noticed that while the man’s face or body didn’t show much, his ears did. 

   While Batman could stay silent and still for hours, the long ears twitched and swiveled, catching on the hood that he’d always wear around them. They’d pin back sometimes, a near silent sound he couldn’t quite place accompanying the movement, while other times they’d twist a near full three-sixty, as though searching for whatever sound it had caught. 

   Sometimes, when he’d startled the other vigilante, there’d be rattling noise, like wood and metal clacking together before it was cut off. It was a strange sound, one he’d not heard anywhere else, except with his… friend. 

   Were they friends? He’d like to think so. 

   The next time he was reminded that his friend wasn’t human was when he saw him get injured. It hadn’t been a bad injury, even if the Gothamite’s head had hit the wall with a very loud cracking noise, but he’d still smelled what he’d eventually come to recognize as blood. There was an almost pickle-like scent to it though that wasn’t quite it either. 

   Honestly the closest he could think of describing it was some sort of formaldehyde. And once he focused, he could pick out other things beneath it. Maybe not flesh and blood in the traditional sense, but still. 

   There was always that scent of cloth and wood, but he could smell the black liquid, paint, a metallic thing underneath like iron and steel. No heartbeat, no breath, but life all the same. It was honestly beautiful in a way, like a part of the city the other vigilante called home had come to life. 

   And it wasn’t like Batman minded whenever his own human mask slipped. Clark may have been raised by his Ma and Pa, whom he loved, but it didn’t make his body any more human in nature. There were just some things that he couldn’t change, and it took effort to move like one all day as a civilian when his body wasn’t designed to do so.

   So he stayed quiet for the most part when their group of three grew, and people started to speculate. He diverted the conversations whenever it turned to him, lightly admonishing over the various rumors. 

   It didn’t matter if Batman wasn’t human, he was still his friend, their ally and teammate. Was he curious? Oh of course, he’d gone into journalism for a reason after all, but it was still his friend. If he wanted to tell, he’d tell, and Clark wouldn’t break his trust. 

[bonefall]

NEVER STOP!!! everytime I get mad over DOTC I just come onto your page and read your Gray Wing slander and immediately feel better, thanks muchly! 😌✨️

I am but a humble DOTC Slander ranger, riding across the sunlit horizon with a big iron on my hip, putting every hater's formless frustration into the words you felt but did not realize how to say ✨️

[sciderman]

Were Peter and Harry properly a thing? Or was it more of a spur of the moment hook-up?

in 9319? it was just two sordid nights – and sweet, sweet lingering trauma...

harry so nice, peter had to have it twice.

[thefollow-spot]

"Untitled" (Favour)

Lancelot/Merlin ● G ● WC: 100 ● No Warnings // Written for @merlinmicrofic 2024, for the prompt 'Crowd'.

---

[devondespresso]

writing my silly little fic and again im struck with how much opportunities they missed by pretending the s2 stancy breakup wasn't messy, specifically for Nancy's guilt about barb and forcing herself to grow up too fast

like s1 Nancy spends one night being a stupid teenager goofing off at her boyfriend's party and staying over to get spicy while Barb goes home. then she later realizes Barb disappeared and died that one night she was letting go and having fun. this is widely recognized trauma for her and informs a lot if not most of her actions through the rest of the show

in season 2 she's feeling the weight of it more around the first year anniversary. steve trys to help by taking her to a party to forget for a little while and 'be stupid teenagers' for a night. a perfectly set up parallel already

the way the show wants it to go, we get the bullshit argument, they fight, allegedly break up at some point, and nancy sleeps with Jonathan. later steve tells her to go with him and we're supposed to read it as Steve stepping back so jancy can happen. we're supposed to be seeing this as a happy ending.

but with the material we're given this would have been the perfect place for an emotional repeat of season 1 for nancy. she and steve go to the party and pretend to be stupid teenagers for the night. but oh no! nancy lets lose too much, lets herself relax and drink and dance, and the next day her boyfriend's pissed. hes saying she said things she never remembered saying and its hurt him and she doesn't know what to do. and kids around school are talking about them breaking up at the party, and that fits with Steve's anger she saw, so they must've broken up right? it sucks, even if she wasn't in love with him, that'd be the worst way to break up with someone (especially if she's confusing platonic and romantic feelings or convincing herself it has to be romantic when she really just values him as a friend)

and then she doesn't have time to work it out, she needs to go with Jonathan to avenge barbs 'disappearance' to give her family closure. She's got a lot of conspiracy shit to do and its stressful. so when murray starts going off about how she's not really in love with steve, how she actually likes Jonathan and he seems to like her back. they finished a lot of the hard work with the conspiracy stuff, she can let her guard down and have a quick good night.

then the next day is chaos. demodogs and labs and will being possessed. It a rough fucking day. Steve tells her to go with Jonathan while they get the mindflayer out of Will, civil like they're on good terms so she does (and thank god she did because that was rough and they needed all the help they could get)

and then everything's fine again, with the upside down. and it looks like she handled things better this time, was about to relax occasionally and still made it through.

except apparently she and steve didn't break up. he thought it was just a few fights, that they put their shit aside for the apocalypse and now they can work things out.

and it could ruin nancy. a year later and she's still hasn't learned her lesson, that letting her guard down hurts the people she cares about, that relaxing and having fun makes her lose people. its her fault for the messy breakup with Steve and its her fault that barb is gone. she's the reason she's lost friends close to her, 2 for 2, and now she only has Jonathan left (and what do you know, season 3 has her conflict with Jonathan and in season 4 she's not let anyone else get truly close to her and fred still dies)

you see what i mean?? by having conflict magical resolve itself in the background we loose so much powerful, painful character drama for her. our girl who thinks she has to keep the world around her up solely on her shoulders because she can't handle the loss of her best friend in season 1. Nancy who desperately wants to be normal and have people she loves but keeps losing them, through factors both in and out of her control, but feels like everything has to be her fault just because some things were.

and to be fair, that story is still present in the show. its there and definitely compelling, but it could've been even more so. i feel like if maybe there was less 'nancy has to be a strong independent girlboss' in there (abd it's definitely there, they want to make a point of making her a Strong Woman Character so bad) and she was allowed to have mistakes acknowledged by the narrative, this is the direction it would've gone. She could've been an excellent example of well written women who are strong and awesome through their own right instead of the narrative trying to make us like her

[freakinator]

yknow it wasnt very obvious considering that wemmbus storyline was so heavily centered around zam (the first guy he ever became at least somewhat loyal to on the server who ended up scorning him) and egg (guy who hes genuinely attached and loyal to) esp if you arent super familiar with his older series but with this episode it really shows where his reputation came from i think like goddamn

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: LEECH by Hiron Ennes.

This is a reread for me! I first read it when it came out in 2022, and it absolutely rewired my brain. It does so many fascinating POV things that I adore, and I'm excited to revisit it with ~Vague Recollections~ of plot reveals to see how many of them I spot ahead of time this go-round.