#quinn is mads's biggest inspiration. and mads is quinn's biggest inspiration

[ralseinumberonebiggestsupporter]

mads - pizzapants swap (REAL AND COMING FOR YOU)

[chriss-slut]

Puddin'

~ Dom!Chris X sub!fem!reader ~

Synopsis: Your friends slip up who's your favorite character, but also your fantasy kink.

warning: SMUT!! rough unprotected sex, petnames, degradation kink, daddy kink, cursing, and a lot of stuff that i can't even remeber anymore lol

A/N: this is kinda MY fantasy kink so.. 😀 btw if there's any spelling mistakes, im sorry, i didnt have time to check it :)

I have always been, in some way, a big fan of Harley Quinn (if not obsessed). I discovered her when i was around 12 years old, when Suicide Squad came out. Everything about her inspired me. Whether it was her behavior, intelligence, madness, or eccentricity, deep down, I dreamed of being like her, of being as sexy and alluring.

As I grew older, my passion for her became something I no longer showcased, simply out of fear of being judged by others. I was now 20 years old, and it seemed weird, even boring, to others to see me in the same costume at every dress-up party.

When I met Chris, I never really talked to him about this little obsession I had, mainly out of fear that he would find it strange.

Up until now, everything had been going well between us, and I didn't find it important. He didn't need to know more about this subject.

I was at home with Chris and my two best friends. We had planned to spend the afternoon together so they could meet, especially since our relationship had just become official.

Everything was going well until Julia started talking about what I was trying to keep secret:

"Oh, by the way, are you still coming tomorrow night?" Julia asked me, completely changing the subject while munching on her chips.

"Tomorrow night?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, to Noah's costume party, like every year, Y/N!" she said in a "duh" tone, rolling her eyes.

"Um... I forgot. Honestly, I don't think so. Chris and I had planned to spend the evening together, so it's going to be difficult for me," I said, trying to find a plausible excuse to avoid further questions.

"What??!" she exclaimed, looking disappointed.

"You can come with him, and that way, you can get to know us a bit more, Chris!" added my other friend Stella, turning to my boyfriend with a big smile, and the others nodded in agreement.

"That would be nice," Chris replied with a shrug.

"See? Come on, you're coming. I don't really plan to give you a choice. We go every year, there's no way you're skipping it this time!" Julia added.

"I don't have a costume anyway, and I'm exhausted right now. It's going to be a no from me, guys, sorry," I said, trying to sound genuinely disappointed.

"You're such a liar. Are you going to make me believe you don't have a costume when you spend all your time dressing up as Harley Quinn at every opportunity?" she said, laughing.

My eye widen and i start blushing a bit. Chris turned to me, and i look at Julia with a face that says "Please, just shut your mouth."

"Oh, because, yes, I suppose you already know, but your girlfriend is completely obsessed with Harley Quinn. It's like she's totally in love with her!" Julia said to Chris, giggling.

"Julia! oh my god!" I said, embarrassed, now trying to hide my face in my hands.

"She's not wrong," Stella added. What a bunch of traitors.

"You never told me about this?" Chris said, confused, while I stood there, dying of embarrassment at the thought that the girls might make things worse.

"What, you mean she never bored you with her Harley Quinn obsession? I'm sure her biggest kink would be sleeping with you dressed as her!" Julia said without any restraint, and this time it was too much for me.

"Julia!! What the fuck is wrong with you!" I said, getting angry.

"Wow, calm down, I was just joking," she said, frowning.

Stella's mouth was wide open, and Chris looked like he didn't know where to put himself.

"You guys should go home. 'm tired, I need to rest," I said to escape the situation.

"What, seriously? You're going to be mad at me for this? Y/N!" I heard Julia shout as I left the room.

I went up to my room and shut the door behind me. My reaction was probably over the top, but I didn't want Chris to know about this. She had no right to humiliate me like that in front of him. I bury my face in my pillow and try to think about something else.

After a few minutes, I heard some knocks on my door.

"Julia, go away! I don't want to talk to you!" I shouted from my bed.

I heard the door open anyway, so I turned around to tell her to leave, but to my surprise, it was Chris.

"I'm not Julia, sorry to break it to you," he said, trying to make me laugh.

"It's not funny," I said, rolling my eyes before sitting up on my bed.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"You're already inside anyway..." I speak, shrugging

"Are you mad at me or Julia? I don't understand anymore," he said, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.

"Sorry," I replied, biting my lip, and he came to sit next to me.

"The girls left and asked me to tell you they really want you to be there tomorrow night," he said, placing his hand on the small of my back, and I sighed.

"Listen, I'd be very happy to go with you. I don't mind. We can always come back together and spend time alone after the party, but I don't want you to fight with your friends because of me," he said, and I turned my head towards him.

"That's not why I fought with them, Chris," I said, looking back at the floor.

"Then what was it about?" he asked.

"It's something stupid. I don't really want to talk about it!" I said, feeling the embarrassment return.

"Come on, tell me. I'm not going to judge you," he said, shaking his head.

"No!" I said, avoiding his gaze.

"Is it because of what she said about your obsession with Harley Quinn?" he asked.

"I'm not obsessed with her!" I said, getting angry.

“And that’s not what I implied. I was just repeating her words!” he responded immediately.

I sighed, realizing it was becoming ridiculous to keep this hidden from him any longer.

“Yes…” I said softly.

“Why did it upset you so much?” he asked.

“Because I was afraid she’d say more, and you’d find it weird!” I sighed.

“Why would I find it weird?” he said, gently rubbing my back.

“I don’t know…” I said, shrugging.

“I don’t find you weird, Y/N. You have every right to be a fan of any fictional character if it makes you happy. I really like Harley Quinn, too. You could have told me; I would have been happy to talk about it with you, baby,” he said, smiling.

My eyes sparkle as i hear him say that and i immediately look at him again. “Really?” I said, looking at him with admiration. I truly have a wonderful boyfriend.

“You know what, why don’t you dress up as Harley Quinn, and I’ll be your Joker? That way, you won’t miss the party, and I get to spend time with you and your friends,” he suggested, standing up.

I smiled at him, leaned to hug him tightly, and nodded.

“And when we get back from the party, I’d be happy to fuck you in your costume to fulfill your kink,” he whispered in my ear, playfully smacking my ass.

“Chris, she made that part up!!” I said, blushing deeply.

“Too bad, I was really down for that part,” he said, laughing.

i laugh too, still embarrassed, and i stand up, going to the bathroom.

_______

it's now the next day, almost 8pm, and I'm with my boyfriend arriving at my place. We just left the mall, where we went to buy a Joker costume to him.

i open my front door and we both run towards my room, since we're kinda late.

"dress up in there while i do it in the bathroom, okay?? i want it to be a surprise for you!" i say sweetly, quickly pecking Chris' lips before heading to the bathroom.

after an hour or so, i knock on the bathroom door so i can have Chris' attention and i shout from inside "Are you done??"

"Uh... I've been done for 20 minutes, Y/N." he says from my bedroom.

I burst out laughing for a bit and then i open the door, making a little pose for Chris, showing my costume.

Chris' jaw drops as soon as i open the door. He stands up and stay froze, staring at me.

i giggle softly and go over him, resting my hands in his chest "What'chu think?" i speak, in a slightly higher-pinched voice, trying to recreate Harley's voice.

Chris' jaw just drops more after hear me, he stays froze for a few more moments until he finally speaks. "wow... you look... wow!"

I giggle "you liked it?"

"Liked it? I just fell in love with you all over again!" he says, now hugging me tightly and lifting me from the ground.

I laugh cute and hug him back, tightly. "I'm so happy you liked it!"

Chris buries is face on the crook of my neck, sucking it softly. "There was no way for me to not like it. you look so hot." he whisper before kissing my neck.

I moan softly and move my hand to caress his hair. "thank you, baby..." i speak before pulling away and look at him. "You talking about me when you look like THAT is crazy!"

He grins at me "thank you, sweetheart! Lets go to that party, then?"

"Yeaaah!!" i yell happily, jumping.

He chuckles at my jump and grabs his stuff. We walk out of my house, going to the party.

After a while, we arrive at Noah's house. A lot of people outside of it, all dress up as various characters and monsters. I lead Chris into the party and after a few seconds, Julia and Stella run up to us.

"HEY, GIIIRL!!" Stella yells, happy to see me, as she hugs me from the side.

"Hey, guys!!" Julia shouts at us both, still a bit scared of me being mad at her.

"Hii!" Chris says at them, waving with a smile.

"Hi, girls! Love your costume!" I speak at Stella. She nods with a smile "Thank you! You look amazing yourself, but I'm used to see it already,"

I laugh softly, not really happy about her comment but i brush it off. "You look good too, Ju!" I speak at Julia.

She smiles at me "Thank you! You too, as always... Can i ask you something?" Julia says, with a soft expression. "Yeah, sure!" i say back.

"Uh... i just wanted to know if you're still mad at me for yesterday... I've been thinking about it all night and, I'm sorry..." She speaks softly.

I smile reassuringly "It's okay... I'm sorry too! I shouldn't have become so mad at you..."

She smiles softy and nods "It's okay, i guess we both screwed up!"

"Yeah, but its alright!" i lean to hug her as she does the same.

Suddenly, Stella speaks, loudly. "So, let's party?!?" We all yell "yess!" and that way, the party begins!

______

After hours, me and Chris are going back to my place, tired from dancing and jumping all night.

I open my front door and Chris holds the door for me to enter, smacking my ass playfully as i pass through him.

"Let's to the room. Now." He speaks in a soft but demanding way, which makes me a bit confused but i obey.

Once we get into my room, Chris closes the door behind him and quickly presses me in it, causing me to gasp softly.

"Remember what i told you yesterday??" Chris speaks, his hands caressing my sides.

"U-uh... y-yeah..?" i speak, slightly nervous, since Chris looks so hot and in a rough mood right now.

He smirks and attacks my lips in a hungry kiss. We both make out for a while. As we're still kissing, he puts his hands under my ass and picks me up from the floor, taking me to bed, where he throws me on.

He crawls on top of me and says, looking down at me "You look so damn hot right now. You have no idea how much i had to control myself to not drag you to a bathroom and fuck you right there." He leans and starts kissing my neck, intensively.

I moan in response and i wrap my arms and legs around him, pulling his body closer to mine.

"Tell me, what do you want me to do with you, Puddin'" Chris whispers, making me freeze for a second. Him calling Joker's nickname to Harley made me see stars... and made me wet.

"i-i want you to fuck me..." i say softly.

"huh? i didn't hear you, baby." he says, now lifting his head to look at me.

"i-i want you to fuck me, Chris. Please!" i whine, already desperate.

Chris smirks at me "Good girl" he says before leaning to kiss me again.

While we kiss, he takes off my Harley Quinn Jacket and toss it to the side. He gives wet kisses down my face to my collarbone, where he stays as he takes off my boots.

"mmh, you're so hot, babygirl~" he mumbles as he kisses me.

i moan softly in response, my hands now trying to take his jacket off, which he helps me with.

After a while kissing, he's now in just his jeans as i still have almost the full costume on.

He grabs my jaw tightly and speaks, firmly "you gonna do justice to your costume and act like a little slut f'me?"

I look up at him with puppy eyes and nod. He smirks and whispers "Good girl~" He moves two of his fingers that was on my jaw and slide it into my mouth, pressing it on my tongue.

"Fuck, you look so good like this... oh, imma fuck you so so good today~" He speaks, in a sensual tone.

I moan against his fingers, swirling my tongue around it.

He then takes his fingers off my mouth with a bop and attacks my lips again, then going down to my neck as his hands go under my shirt, caressing my chest over my bra. He lifts my shirt and move his hands to my back, unbuckling my bra and taking it off, without taking off my Harley Quinn shirt.

He then leans and suck my nipples, which makes me moan "mmh Chris...please, i need you..."

Chris lets out a soft chuckle and grabs my jaw again, harshly, making me look at him "I'm the one in control, got it?" he says in a demanding tone. i just nod, looking up at him.

He nods back and start kissing and sucking my breasts again, now going down my stomach, until he reaches my red and blue tight shorts.

"i gotta take this off, it drove me crazy all night." he speaks, now pulling it down, letting me in my fishnet tights, my thongs and my Harley shirt. He looks down at me and bite his lip. Chris caress my thighs and spreads them, softly passing his hand in my clothed pussy, making me whimper. "Chris, Please..."

"Did you not hear me when i said i was in control??" he speaks in a serious tone "I'll do whatever i want with you, understand?"

I sigh softly and nod. "Good." he speaks before slapping my inner thigh hardly, earning a loud moan from me.

"God, you're so good to spank!" he says, slapping my other inner thigh hardly, i moan loud again.

"Turn around f'me, ma" he speaks to me and i immediately do it. He smirk down, looking at my ass, half covered with my square tights and he spanks my ass, strongly. i cry loud, burying my face in my pillow.

He grabs a fist of my hair and pull my head back, for me to look at him. "Don't wanna mess that make up yet, do ya?" i shake my head, whining from the pain in my scalp. He throws my head on the pillow again, now with my head to the side. He slaps my ass again, and again, and again, making me whine in pain, but also in pleasure.

The last time he slaps my ass, he spanks between my ass cheeks, making me moan loud. He lets out a soft chuckle from my reaction and says "Looks like someone likes to be spanked, isn't that truth?" i whine in response and he slaps the same place again, now gripping my hair again. "answer me. with words." he speaks firmly and demanding. "y-yeah, i do... i-... i l-like it..." i speak, whiny. He lets go of my hair and whispers in my ear "you're so pathetic, aren't you? Look at you, looking like a real whore f'me"

He slaps my ass again and turns me around one more time. He digs his fingers in my square tights, right between my legs, and he stretch it out, ripping it over my pussy. He looks at my sexy thong and he looks at me with a smirk. "is this for me?" I nod softly. He slaps my clothed pussy, making me whine loud, with a smirk. "Be ready, i think you'll need to~" he says to me, before ripping my thong and tossing it to the side.

Seeing him ripping my clothes always make me more turned on, seeing his arms muscles flex gives me butterflies.

He slides his finger through my wet slit and he says "so wet for me. such a little slut for liking me treating you like this." He pushes one finger in my hole, making me moan a bit. He keeps with it in, not moving, and he looks at me. "Look at you... I'd take a photo of you just to show everyone how much of a slut you are... looking so good just for me."

Suddenly, Chris pulls his finger out and slam three fingers into me, making me moan. He starts fingering me roughly, hardly and fast.

"O-oh Chris! fuck!" i moan, leaning my head back from the intense pleasure.

He, then, stops again, making me moan frustrated. "All fours. Now." he speaks demanding and i do it, my ass now almost at his face.

Chris slaps my ass and caress my wet cunt. "so beautiful like this, puddin'... so perfect~"

I whine softly in response and he stands up, unbelting his pants. He grabs his belt and hit the bed hardly with it. "If you do something i didn't tell you to, you'll pay for it. Got it?" i nod frantically.

He pulls down his pants and take them off, tossing it to the pile of clothes on the floor. He grips my hips and pull me to the edge of the bed, so he can fuck me while standing up. He grabs both my ponytails and pull my head back. "You gonne be a good girl and not cum for me until i say it, alright? Don't leave this position and don't scream too loud until i let you, alright?" He speaks in a firm and demanding tone.

"Yeah..." i speak softly. "Yeah, what?" Chris says, pulling even more my hair. "Y-yes, daddy..." i whine. Chris slaps my ass and throw my head forward "Good girl~".

Chris rubs his clother hard dick against my wet pussy, making me moan softly. "You're so wet you're making my boxers soaked. slut!" He pulls his boxers down and slams into me, making me scream loud. He lean over my back and slaps his hand on my mouth, pulling it back harshly. "What didn't you understand about not. screaming.?" I whimper, squeezing my eyes shut, and speak against his mouth "i'm sorry..."

Chris lets out a breathy mockingly laugh and takes his hand off my mouth, my head falling down harshly. "fucking pathetic." Chris mutters, now pulling slowly out of me. i whine at the sensation and then moan loud, trying hard not to scream, when he slams into me again.

Chris moves one hand to under my shirt, squeezing my breast, and the other to my hip, now starting to thrust in and out of my cunt.

I moan as he fucks me, slowly. "Chris, please..."

Chris stops middle-way and says demanding "First off, I'm not giving you want you want. second, you're not calling me that."

I whine softly "S-sorry, daddy..." Chris slaps my ass again and start thrusting into me again, still slowly.

After a while, i give up on moaning and i stay quiet. My head down with my eyes squeezed shut. Chris notices that and start going faster, hitting my g-point every time he pushes into me. i moan and i lean down to rest on my elbows, my back arched and my ass higher.

Chris slaps my ass again and groans lowly. "mmh, baby~ why are you so hot and perfect? looking like a real slut like this, while your pussy clenches around me. fuck!" He starts punding harder, slapping my ass a few more times.

I moan deep, trying to not be loud though. Chris keeps pounding into me until my cunt starts clenching too much around his cock. He stops and speaks "You ain't cummin' now, bitch. You know what happens if you do." and starts fucking me hard again. i start moaning louder, trying my hardest to not cum. I whine "p-puddin'... p-please... i-i can't..."

Chris slaps my ass the hardest he can and says, roughly "No. You're not cummin, Y/N. Or should i call you..." he leans over me, putting his mouth right behing my ear "Harley?".

I can feel the knot in my stomach almost exploding ad he whispers that to me. I can't believe I'm finally realizing this fantasy.

He feels my pussy clenching more around him as he says that and he laughs, smacking my ass again. "oh, you liked it, dont you? you want me to call you Harley? Is that it?"

i nod frantically, barely able to speak at this point. "Words." Chris says roughly, pouding into me roughly.

"o-oh.. y-yeah, d-daddy! p-please, c-call me t-that! o-oh, fuck, its so g-good! p-please!" i whine slightly loud, tears forming in my eyes already.

Chris smirks and start fucking me harder and faster. "fuck, ma! s-such a fucking slut! such a whore f'me!" he says, groaning. I'm so glad i told Chris i liked being degrated! I'm wetter than i was supposed to.

i keep moaning loudly "d-daddy, please! i-i need to cum! p-please lemme cum!" i whine.

Suddenly, Chris pulls out and turn me around, so we're now in missionary.

Chris slams into me again and puts his hand around my neck, hard enough to hurt but not for me to be breathless. "If you gonna cum, I'll see you cum. Gotta see that pretty face with that pretty make up all messed up." He puts his hand on my face and slides it down, messing even more my Harley Quinn makeup.

He, then, slides two fingers into my mouth the deepest he can, fucking my mouth as he fucks my cunt. He starts pounding roughly again, making me scream against him fingers, also gagging a bit.

My eyes starts rolling back with tears, just as my back arching and hips jerking up, feeling myself really close to the edge.

"Look at you. All fucked up like a whore. You really became Harley Quinn, didn't you? That hot bitch. I bet you wanna fuck every guy of the city, don'chu? fuck, puddin'. you're so fucking beautiful." Chris speaks between groans as he pounds into me. i start moaning even louder as i feel myself not being able to hold my orgasm anymore. My cunt clenching around Chris' cock just makes him groan and moan more.

"Cum. Cum f'me, Harley. C'mon, babygirl, cum for daddy~" Chris whispers in my ear. That gives me the final push and i finally cum in his cock. Not a simple orgasm, though. All of this roleplay and dirty talk made me cum hard and squirt all over Chris, which makes him cum inside of me and collapse on top of me.

We both panting hard and shaking. We stay there for a while and then Chris pulls out, laying next to me.

"You did so good f'me, Harl..." He speaks softly, caressing my cheek

"y-you too, puddin'..." i say softly, still panting.

Chris leans and kissed my lips, a long peck. When he pulls away, he looks down at me, admiring me. "Why didn't you tell me this before? This was the best sex I've done in my life..."

i smile softly at him and speak softly, now turning to face him, "I'm sorry for that... if i get another kink, I'll promise to tell ya!"

i hope you liked it! pls comment what you think, I'd appreciate it! :) xoxo

[kronosfm]

NERO ( david tennant ) the man of many faces.

known without a true name, nero controls much of the dark underbelly residing in novus’ depths, from human and weapons trafficking, assassinations and even the movement of super drug enhancements. known to be able to shapeshift at will, he matches a cunning nature with agility by being able to impersonate anyone and everyone to an almost perfect degree, getting to the root of their deepest fears. the city’s kingpin has been around for almost two decades, and his influence only grows by day with his followers being more than willing to die for his cause of being the catalyst to novus’ chaos. though, he prefers not to be in the forefront of many of his planned attacks — with the public having barely seen him despite a few rare occurrences. rumour has it, he was once a part of the nsa’s hero training squadron and even trained amongst paragon and sentinel — but just never managed to make the final cut.  inspired by the joker.

DAHLIA & CHERRY ( lupita nyong'o & mia goth ) the queens of novus’ south side.

dahlia and cherry are the two names that always come to mind when you think of hijinks, heists and high-speed chases. both known survivors of a fire that engulfed an orphanage many years ago, the two outlaws were of the fair few who managed to wrestle their way out of the system and went on the run, despising most of the options laid out by the nsa’s policy, plans and programs department. dahlia wields the power of mother nature in her hands and cherry is a master mixed martial artist and trained gymnast — both formidable in their own ways, they have managed to make a name out of themselves even when starting from zero. known for their intrinsically distrusting nature, the two often only work together, though have managed to pull of the biggest bank heist to hit novus in centuries with record-breaking casualties. while the famed vigilante group crux has always come incredibly close to putting the two lovers behind bars, they never managed to strike the final nail on the coffin — at least not yet. inspired by poison ivy and harley quinn.

BEATRIX aka TRIX ( stephanie hsu ) the genius of novus’ underbelly.

with the motto of always searching for the big thing, and never cowering behind the boundaries of innovation, kronos has undoubtedly shaped some of the greatest minds of the last century. but what happens to those who had become a little too experimental? trix was fired from kronos five years ago for illegal experimentation concerning human subjects, with many of their projects involving life-threatening implants that resulted in the deaths of many. jubilant in nature, they were once the pride and joy of kronos’ ai execution and deployment team — known as bea. a bright future was set to be in their path, but they took one too many wrong turns. presently, however, their tale tells of a different story. trix often works with nero, as well as a few rumoured strays inside of the nsa’s tech and systems department, to manufacture and smuggle illegal technology for villains all over the globe. one of their most notable inventions rivals even the omnidroid itself, and there’s no telling what will come out of their brilliant mind yet. inspired by arcane’s jinx.

DANTE VITTORE ( giancarlo esposito ) the mad scientist.

a man respected by many and feared by much more, dante was, and still is, known within kronos to be a ‘super fanatic.’ he was widely-known to have been robert buchanan’s chief scientist and the mentor of many team members of kronos’ biotech r&d department. not stopping there, the futurist was heavily involved in the growth of nsa’s department of training, strategy and defense, and often aided its officers with his extensive knowledge on the biology of supers. while his intentions were pure, the measures he would take to achieve it grew more and more dangerous. one fateful night, dante fell victim to one of his experiments and became the catalyst to his own downfall from greatness. no one knew what exactly happened, but he was never the same again. ‘ he’s gone mad, ’ kronos explained, when he rampaged the city and controlled more than half of the population with the sheer force of his newly-acquired technopathy. the nsa’s heroes, aided by crux, quickly came into work and he was cast off to one of novus’ many off-island prisons. stories of dante have quieted down over the years, yet there’s really no telling when he’ll make his return. inspired by doctor doom.

[authoralexharvey]

For the Tarot Ask: The Magician, The Sun, and Three of Wands

Thanks for the ask! Answering from this list.

01. THE MAGICIAN: SPARK OF MAGIC (What inspired you to write your novel?) 

The answer changes a bit depending on which book we're talking about, all varying levels of cool. Sorry, I'm about to talk a lot.

For TOOD, the biggest catalyst was, well, a few things. I was in a queer lit class in college that I absolutely hated tbh. For my final, I made a short zine/collection? about the nonbinary experience from my perspective and one thing I included in that was a short story called Morning Afters, which was about two people who ended up being the main characters of TOOD. The MC, Quinn, is someone whose body changes every day, and they are trying to leave their fuck-buddy's house before they wake up but end up being discovered and the two bond over their different gender experiences.

I also had really nasty beef with this one cishet indie author dude who considered himself the savior of the gays and said queer people are so bad at writing their own books he has to do it for them--yes, really--so I wrote TOOD to spite him because he's a shitty man and a shittier author.

Anyway.

TWEfA was born out of my love of the Soulsborne franchise and also from the cannibalized corpse of an older novel I wrote a very long time ago. When I was like. Fifteen. A lot has changed since then. Maka and Dakota have stayed the most true to their original selves and I kinda... rebuilt everything around them. I'm sure some elements of it were also inspired by Madoka Magica. In fact, I guarantee some of it was.

Little Vicious Minds came about because I was playing Skyrim and am very mad still about the limited options of what you can do with/to Maven Black-Briar and so I resolved to make a story about someone who decides to destroy her criminal empire. And it kinda,,, blossomed from there.

Lilium was really a love letter to my depressed teenaged self because I wrote it originally in high school when everything fucking sucked. I see myself a lot in both of the main characters in different ways. It's also about your dead brother coming back as a demon which I have no real experience with so. *shrugs*

ASMLP started as a random thought because I love spellbooks and think they aren't used enough in fantasy so I resolved to write a book that required spellbooks and then I... made a whole magic and college system around that and it kind of evolved from there.

BTMS started as me wanting to write vampire erotica and became... very much not that.

I could go on. It really does just depend.

19. THE SUN: POSITIVITY (What is your greatest writing strength or skill?)

I like to think I'm good at dialogue and also at making people fucking sad. Highest praise I think I've gotten yet is a comment/review I got about Lilium about how well I got across the sense of loss and grief one of the MCs endures--and this is before I had lost anyone in my life to the inevitability of death. I don't want like. Instagram-worthy prose or anything but I would like for someone to feel like I just ripped their heart out of their chest and presented it to them when they're done reading, you know? And I think I'm pretty great about that so far.

66. THREE OF WANDS: FORESIGHT (Do you know what your book cover is going to look like? Do you have a color in mind?)

I don't have to imagine for ASMLP, because I already have one! You can see it here. As for my other works.... mmmm...Back when I wrote on Wattpad, I had to have a kind of idea for a cover because you were shooting yourself in the foot if you posted books without covers there. But since leaving there... well, not entirely. I also haven't gotten as far/thought as far ahead as I have with ASMLP--and in truth part of me buying the cover was to give myself an incentive to finish the fucking book. So far has been kind of working. I'm trying to finish by March lol

I haven't thought about covers for anything else yet. I should start doing so for BTMS since I want to publish it before or after ASMLP so we'll see. My main rules about covers is I vehemently refuse to have people on the cover. I hate it. Loathe it. The shadowed hands for ASMLP is as close to having people on the cover as I'm willing to get. I want my covers to have fancy typography or to make a focal point of important objects. I will settle for nothing less.

Thanks again for the ask and sorry for talking your ear off!

[linkspooky]

Is Himiko Toga inspired by Harley Quinn? 

Ignore the clickbaity title I just couldn’t think of anything else to call this post. This is the second in a series of posts I’m making, using my knowledge of both manga and american omics to sort of analyze possible influences that super hero comics could have had in Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia. 

The joker and Harley Quinn are characters that Horikoshi has paid homage too before. “All it takes is one bad day” is a quote from Alan Moore’s the Killing Joke, that HK uses in association with Twice. Rikiya Yotsubashi aka Re-Destro physically looks like the joker, and a few of his panels in his introduction are direct visual references. The posing of Toga and Twice is also a reference  is a reference to a pretty famous comic book cover of a one shot entitled “Batman: Harley Quinn.” 

But, is the character Himiko Toga herself, a girl who leaves a normal life behind and enters a life of villainry in pursuit of an obsessive mad love inspired by Harley Quinn? Let’s do a compare and contrast under the cut.

1. Mad, Bloody Love

There are a lot of immediate parallels between the two characters you could point out right away. They are both blonde characters who’s signature look is to always have their hair done up in twin tails (though Toga’s is twin buns). Their hair is even symbolic for their personality, Harley’s pigtails represent her immaturity, Toga’s messy buns how difficult she is to control, Toga wore her hair down in her youth when she was trying to fit in,a nd Harley when she was a working professional kept hers in a tight bun behind her to show how restrained she used to be. 

They are both characters who,moreso than other villains are known for running away from a normal life. Harleen Quinzell was a promising psychiatrist, a career woman who was an up-and-comer in her field. Everyone around her including Bruce was shocked how she could leave all of that behind. Unlike say, characters like Ivy who were strapped to a table and transformed into what they were, Harley willingly ran away. 

Toga is also someone questioned by everyone around her again and again why she would deliberately leave a normal life behind, to first become a runaway, and then a villain. It’s unfathomable to them how someone so dark could spring from a middle school girl who comes a well to do household. 

They’re both characters who are not the main villain, but serve as a sidekick and right hand to a bigger villain. Toga’s not the biggest threat in the league, she’s the support character to other league members like Twice, in part due to being the youngest. She’s also the only female member of the league, in the same vein Harley is the female counterpart of a well known male villain. 

They’re both characters who are primarily driven by their search for love, for Harley it’s pursuing a relationship with a man that quickly turns abusive, and then staying with him despite all common sense. For Toga it’s more of a love she has for everyone, one sided crushes that mutate into her taking blood from the victims of her love. 

However, you could also say there are a lot of differences between them two. Toga comes from a well off family, and Harley was lower middle class. Toga is the victim of familial abuse forcing her to hide her true self because her parents found her quirk disgusting, who was then abandoned and forced to run away after her first violent incident. Harley is a victim in a sense, but she was an adult when she got into that relationship, and she also chose in a way to leave everything behind and become a villain so she is in a more complicated way a nuanced villain and victim. 

Harley is an adult leaving her life behind, Toga a teeange runaway. Harley is pretty much the victim of love, while Toga while a victim in other senses, does have a tendency to stab her victims. Harley is a psychiatrist while Toga is mentioned as being the victim of “Quirk Counselling” a flawed system of trying to assimilate children with deviant or different quirks. You could even count her as a victim of psychiatric abuse. 

If you were to just list their similarities and differences, they’re as different in as many ways as they are alike, so let’s look at something else instead. Harley’s origin comic is called “Mad Love” (I’m going to be using the BTAS version of Harley because that is where her character orginated from and the most well known version) and Toga’s “Bloody Love.” 

Their origins go to show both of them are characters of transformation. Both stories start with the characters around them questioning just how they could have changed so much into the person they are now. 

Toga’s backstory makes use of masks as a symbol, of Toga having to continuously mask who she was in front of others in order to appear normal. Batman goes to mention that Harley’s goofy behavior hides a really devious mind. 

They are both characters who exhibit a behavior of wearing masks. For Harley it’s much more literal, unlike the joker who’s skin was bleached she puts on clown makeup and a mask. When she takes it off she could be any normal person, she even does so in the events of the origin comic herself to convince Batman of her innocence and lay a trap for him. Toga also, physically transforms but she started out hiding her quirk in front of nromals and appearing as a normal middle school girl.

They are two characters who are seen as having two distinct selves, their normal original self, and the deviant villain they became, and most people around them can’t possibly understand how the girl they used to be had fallen so far. Except for them, there’s really not that much of a change. 

Harley and Toga are people who have always worn masks, so for them, the change from hero to villain is something as simple as changing the mask they wear. Curious the PLF member fighting against her asks how a girl could run away from a normal life and turned into such a mad monster, but for Toga this is her normal, this is the person she’s always been she simply stopped trying to hide it in front of others. 

Of course as I said there’s another layer to this. Toga’s outright villain persona where she selfishly sucks the blood of people she loves and kills them, is yet another mask she wore. There are different sides of Toga depending on who she is interacting with, for all the bloodshed she’s capable of, she’s also capable of being a generally empathic and nurting person towards Twice. Twice even goes out of his way to say this to Hawks, that Toga isn’t the kind of person Hawks would think twice about killing, and yet Toga is a person who showed him kindness and understanding when no one else would. 

Harley and Toga in their previous lives were lacking in something, something made them feel unloved and isolated to such extreme extents, that they were driven to snap and become someone else entirely in pursuit of that love they were missing. What is seen by everyone else around them as them descending into insanity, is actually just another mask they chose to wear. What’s seen as a total change in personality, is just an expression of who they are. 

The strongest similarity between Harley and Toga is that they are both essentially chameleons, they are characters who continually change who they are in pursuit of love. Toga does this physically, her quirk involves her taking on the apperaance of anyone who’s blood she has sucked. Harley however, puts on a physical costume. Of all Batman Villains, Harley doesn’t make her own costume, rather she steals the identity and motif of the Joker the object of her affectsions. Just like Toga steals the appearance of those she loves, Harley puts on a costume that makes her a mirror image to the man she loves. 

When Harleen Quinzel adopts the identity of Harley Quinn she is essentially becoming a mirror image to the joker. Batman even says, he doesn’t love anyone except maybe himself, and therefore what he sees of himself in her. 

Of course, even after trying to take on their new identity in search of the love they found missing in their old lives, they both suffer just as much. Toga’s desire to be normal is undercut by her actions with the league of villains, because the more destruction she causes, the more she can’t be accepted by normal people like Ochaco. Toga dreams of becoming more like her, but she also finds herself rejected again, because Ochaco is not able to swallow some of the unsavory aspects of her personality, and the bodies she’s left behind her. 

Toga created her mask to find acceptance with people, and for a time she did find it with the league, however with the league currently torn apart with the death of twice and AFO’s machinations, and her continued rejection by the heroes, the mask is now something that Toga cries underneath. She feels just as rejected as she did when she was a middle schooler, even though she became a villain in the first place to escape such a thing. 

Harley suffers under her mask in a similiar tragic fashion, she ran away from her perviously life  and changed everything about her identity to be loved, and finds herself continually abused and taken for granted by her lover. When she suffers that rejection again, it pushes her into further and further extremes as it does Toga. 

Toga after the death of Twice and rejection by Ochaco is at her lowest point yet, where beforehand she was willing to talk and looking to come to some sort of understanding between them, now she’s become her moth lethal and aggressive. Toga and Harley are both characters who center both their entire identity around loved and being loved, and also the pursuit of their goals around finding that love, and it’s behavior that causes them to crumble beneath the masks they wear to try to be loved. The more they change themselves in pursuit of love, the more unstable they get, and the reason why is because they probably weren’t even seeking love in the first place, but rather acceptance. 

They changed themselves so much trying to be accepted, they forgot what they wanted was to be accepted for who they really were. That’s why, both characters deranged and violent as they may be are also truly tragic at heart (pardon the pun). 

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Best of 2020

Better late, than never. I enjoy seeing other people’s top-10 lists and I said I’d do one for 2020, so here we go. I haven’t had the chance to watch EVERYTHING I wanted to, but you’ve got to pull the trigger at some point. When the Academy Awards took place on Sunday, I felt like I hadn’t seen ANYTHING nominated but I could remember dozens of times where I felt like I wasted my precious minutes with cinematic detritus. I assumed putting this list together would be easy. It wasn’t. I’ve got a lot of runner ups but for now, here are my Top 10 “Best” (by which I kind of mean my favorite) movies of 2020:

10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always gave me a lot to think about. On the surface, it's about a teenager who has to travel outside of her hometown to get an abortion, but it could've been any kind of procedure she's uncomfortable (or unable) asking her parents for. It's about the lengths she has to go to when her main source of support is cut off. You feel uneasy throughout, wondering what lengths the girls will have to resort through and whether something horrible is just around the corner. For this reason, I think many parents would find the film enriching.

9. Mank

I haven’t posted my review of Mank yet - just haven't had the time so consider my star rating for it "spoiled". If you don't know, it's about Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and the time he wrote Citizen Kane for Orson Welles. I can’t call Citizen Kane one of my favorite films, but I do often think of it. The story, the characters, specific shots, the overall look, etc. Every time I revisit it in my memory, my appreciation for it grows and in a way, Mank helps complete my relationship with the film. For that reason, I foresee myself revisiting Mank in the future - probably as part of a double-bill. I’d love to see it enough times to memorize some of Gary Oldman’s best lines.

8. One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami addresses the present while being set in the past but something about it clicked with me more than Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. It's essentially a series of long conversations, the kinds that force you to really examine tough questions and see these legendary figures as normal people. Unlike Mank, it isn't so much the individual lines that stand out, it's more the vibes you get from the exchanges. Out of all the movies on this list, it's probably got the best ensemble cast.

7. Sound of Metal

I'm sure you've seen that clip from Un Chien Andalou where an eye gets sliced with a razor? It gives me the willies just thinking about it because if I were blind I wouldn't be able to watch movies or draw. In Sound of Metal, we're dealing with a career cut short because of deafness but the dots are easy to connect.  I immediately connected with this movie, which made its ending feel like a punch in the gut.

6. Tenet

I keep telling myself that I won’t love a movie Christopher Nolan directs just because his name is attached to it. Hopefully, this doesn't make me a fanboy, despite my falling for pretty much everything he's released. I love how ambitious Tenet is. The plot is so complicated but then again it isn't because once you're able to grok the mechanics of its reverse-entropy technology, you'll probably figure out most of the plot's mysteries. For me, that was the fun part. It felt good to see my understanding of the story and theories confirmed. I'll be watching it again once groups can gather so my friends and I can discuss everything in detail.

5. Trial of the Chicago Seven

I know The Trial of the Chicago Seven fudges history in ways certain people would say is irredeemable but I never go into a film “based on true events” assuming liberties won’t be taken. At the end of the day, I care about being entertained. My enjoyment was also amplified by the fact that I didn't know what the verdicts would be - my American history is spotty, at best. It's got laughs, outrage, drama, and inspirational moments. Aside from romance, you've got pretty much all the bases covered.

4. Palm Springs

Out of all the pleasant surprises of 2020, Palm Springs was the biggest. I thought the Groundhog Day thing was played out and the 0-star-worthy Love Wedding Repeat did nothing to convince me otherwise. Then, this movie comes along and does everything you want in one of those movies, and then some. Not only did Palm Springs give me the romantic comedy I'd been craving for (feels like we haven't gotten a good one since "Crazy Rich Asians" it also examines what love and relationships mean through smartly written metaphors.

3. Possessor

No, I didn’t put this movie on the list just because it’s Canadian; Possessor is on this list because it’s the most unsettling movie of 2020. I mean that in a good way. I've already talked about how unsettling the premise is but it's also the execution. Those bizarre “dream” scenes with the different identities merging in unnatural ways is unforgettable. That mask of Tasya's face, half-melted is already creepy enough, when worn by Christopher Abbott as he re-enacts her memories is just so weird it makes you wonder if you’re actually seeing what you’re seeing, or if you’re going mad. Then, there's that shot with the fingers at the end! Makes me wince just thinking about it.

2. Soul

During the Oscars, I get a little mad at Pixar. They effortlessly churn out these masterpieces that mean no other studio has a chance of winning an Academy Award for the Best Animated Film category. It makes me wonder if the voters even bother to watch the competition but I don't think anyone could argue against Soul. It's among their best films. It’s gorgeous, profound, and modern without showcasing any issues that might flush your day down the toilet.

Runner-Ups:

Enola Holmes

I never believed Enola Holmes would end up on my "Best of the Year" list but this movie is a lot of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Just wanted to remind you.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) I was disappointed when audiences didn’t seem interested in Birds of Prey. Seeing Margot Robbie go all-out and given a script that actually makes good use of her character was lots of fun. I also found it refreshing to see a superhero movie (not really, but kind of) that didn’t involve a plot to destroy the world, upheaval all of civilization, or shoot a giant beam into the sky. I think this is one people will discover down the line and go “why didn’t I go see this in theaters when it was playing?”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm I’m not 100% in love with Borat 2 but boy am I looking forward to showing it to people who have no idea what’s coming. That scene with Rudy Guliani might not have the same impact down the line as it did when I first saw this sequel, but that’s ok. It’ll still have you picking your jaw off the floor.

Nomadland It’s a great movie and I might’ve put it on my list of the best… but I just don’t see myself watching this one again anytime soon. Great movie though. It deserves every accolade you see directed towards it. Chloé Zhao is shaping up to be a major talent. While before I might’ve said “Eternals who?” Now, I’m excited.

The Vast of Night Until I saw Possessor, this was my favorite horror film of 2020. I love the way this movie does so much without showing anything. It’s all about letting your imagination do the work.

Hamilton I’m still unsure how I feel about the casting in Hamilton. Everyone does a terrific job. I understand why actors of color were chosen to portray the historical figures we meet during this story. It still doesn't sit 100% comfortable with me. Then again, who can argue with those results? I’ve seen the movie twice and the songs are still playing in my head.

1. Promising Young Woman

I only had so much before this post went up. Enough for one more movie. It was a tossup between The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Promising Young Woman. As you can imagine, I’m pretty satisfied with the choice I made. Writer/director Emerald Fennell takes the rape-revenge genre and reshapes it into something that feels completely new. Like many of the other films on this list, it also feels relevant to what’s going on today. There are many reasons why I could’ve given it this slot. The writing, the performances, the way it puts your stomach in knots as you wonder what’s going to happen next, the pitch-perfect ending… but I’m going to pick a more personal reason. I try to look at films as snapshots of when they were made. There’s a part of me that winces when I look at Gone with the Wind but I’m also able to take a step back and say “but other than that…” and then just enjoy the movie. In Promising Young Woman, the past is confronted in a way that made me pause and think about two movies on my shelf: Wedding Crashers and American Pie. The Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy, in particular, has a lot of questionable bits of comedy, bits made even more eyebrow-raising by the fact that it isn't an "old" movie whose entire cast is now dead. Let’s just say that when a movie makes me go “This movie is replacing X”, makes me think this hard about things, and does everything else you want in a thriller… it’ll stick in your head for a long time. That's why I'm calling it the best/my favorite movie of the year.

[miqojak]

5.Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Will they give one, and what about?

This has been sitting here forever, while I debate what to write...and I figured that since Jak isn’t the speech type, I’d find some examples of what sort of speech she’d give - in what vein, etc. While I’m not the biggest DC fan, the Batman-verse has its hooks in me, and many of its villains/anti-villains/anti-heroes have inspired Jak - Cat Woman, Harley Quinn, and the Joker, especially. While she lacks the true narcissism and absolute cruelty of the Joker, and often leans more towards the chaotic neutral area Harley resides in, there’s an area where she and the Joker have a lot in common:

“You see - their morals, their code - it’s a bad joke...dropped, at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you - when the chips are down, these uh...these ‘civilized’ people? They’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster - I’m just ahead of the curve.” - The Joker, The Dark Knight

”The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.” - The Joker, The Dark Knight “You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things ‘go according to plan,’ even if the plan is horrifying.” - The Joker, The Dark Knight “Comedy is subjective...isn’t that what they say? All of you, the system that knows so much - you decide what’s right, or what’s wrong - the same way you decide what’s funny, or not...Have you seen what it’s like out there? ...Everybody just yells and screams at each other - nobody is civil anymore. Nobody thinks what it’s like to be the other guy. Do you think men like [him] ever think about what it’s like to be someone like me? To be somebody but themselves - they don’t. They think we’ll just sit there and take it like good little boys - that we won’t werewolf, and go wild.” - The Joker, Joker (2019) “Memory’s so treacherous. One moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights, with poignant childhood aromas, the flashing neon of puberty, all that sentimental candy-floss…The next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go…somewhere dark and cold, filled with the damp, ambiguous shapes of things you’d hoped were forgotten. Memories can be vile, repulsive little brutes. Like children, I suppose. HAHA. But can we live without them? Memories are what our reason is based upon. If we cannot face them, we deny reason itself! Although why not? We aren’t contractually tied down to rationality! There is no sanity clause! So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your past where the screaming is unbearable, remember there’s always madness! Madness is the emergency exit...You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away…

FOREVER.

-The Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

“I've demonstrated that even the sanest man alive can be driven to lunacy! All it takes is one bad day. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. Am I right? I know I am. You had a bad day, and everything changed! Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else! Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense. That there's some point to all this struggling. GOD you make me want to puke! I mean what is it with you? What made you what you are?”

The Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke

Maybe the post got a bit long, but there’s a common thread here - she sees morality much how it’s described here: as something that’s mutable. Different, from person to person. Who decides what’s good, and what’s bad? Why is it bad when someone has had too much, breaks under the pressure, and bites back? Where was all the concern, when the world was kicking them while they were down? This world made her what she is, and why shouldn’t she test the limits, and prove that everyone else is just as twisted as she is, inside? Everyone is, after all, just one bad day away.

[aion-rsa]

The Suicide Squad: Amanda Waller Is The Greatest DCEU Villain

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This article contains The Suicide Squad spoilers.

If you’ve spent any time in the last few years among comic book fans, be it socially or online, then it’s easy to remember one of the most repeated criticisms leveled at the tangled madness we call the DCEU: The villains are terrible. This critique is not without merit. 

Despite DC Comics being home to some of the greatest villains of comicdom—who have in turn inspired some of the greatest movie baddies like Heath Ledger’s Joker, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, and Terence Stamp’s General Zod—Warner Brothers’ more recent DC Extended Universe has struggled to live up to that legacy. The studio’s helter skelter efforts started serviceably enough with Michael Shannon’s take on Zod in Man of Steel, but it quickly derailed with whatever bad advice Jesse Eisenberg was getting for his version of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And the less said about CG oddities like Doomsday and Steppenwolf, the better.

Even 2016’s Suicide Squad seemed to struggle with this problem despite being a movie populated only with supervillains. With the exception of Margot Robbie’s fantabulous Harley Quinn (who is more antihero than villain), few of the bad guys worked in that film, with actual heavies like Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress and Jared Leto’s hammy Joker falling completely flat.

What irony it is then that it took James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad to reveal five years later that the franchise and larger DCEU has had a great villain this whole time. Viola Davis did not originate the role of Amanda Waller in this weekend’s R-rated superhero sequel, but she certainly perfected it. What was already a formidable screen presence in an otherwise cluttered mess of a movie a half-decade ago has come into chilling focus here, and Davis has revealed she can give the scariest of performances within only a handful of scenes. Despite Gunn’s semi-sequel/semi-reboot being full of laughs, there’s nothing smirking about Davis’ constantly simmering ferocity.

In 2016’s Suicide Squad, Davis had more screen time and ostensibly more “badass” moments than she would in Gunn’s movie. In the final cut of that earlier film—which it should be noted is a version director David Ayer has more or less disowned—Davis gets the pre-title cards’ biggest entrance, with the soundtrack unimaginatively playing “Sympathy for the Devil” as she walks into close-up toward the screen. She also factors much more centrally to that movie’s plot, including in a scene where she is shown to murder her own technical engineers and assistants in the hope of covering up her culpability in that film’s messy plot.

Nevertheless, all of these moments intended to highlight her as a scary presence are as ham-fisted as the “damaged” tattoo on the forehead of Leto’s Joker. Davis, a powerhouse performer and one of the best actors of her generation, will always give a hundred percent on screen, but the characterization of her government mastermind always seemed underserved by the script’s broad characterization back then.

In The Suicide Squad, Davis plays the same shady lady: a morally ambiguous figure who finds different ways to blackmail incarcerated supervillains into going on suicide missions to “save the world.” Yet despite being far less central in this movie’s plot, Davis comes to dominate it as the true ultimate big bad. To be sure, there’s also a giant starfish called Starro the Conqueror, who acts like a cross between Godzilla and the facehugger in Alien. And yet, that creature is largely a physical menace in the end, and one that Gunn’s screenplay even sympathizes with. Starro ultimately comes off like an intergalactic King Kong who’s been kidnapped by humans to perform in the big bad city.

But Waller? She isn’t empathized with once by Gunn, and she is given ample opportunities to reveal a utilitarian cruelty that feels grotesquely real. It’s all fun and games at first in the opening sequence where Task Force X’s A-team is sent to be butchered on the shores of the Corto Maltese beachhead. When poor, dimwitted Savant (Michael Rooker) attempts to run away from the slaughter, Gunn’s camera almost fetishizes Waller’s power as she detonates the bomb in his neck, splattering his brain matter across the waves.

A sequence like that is expected in a movie like The Suicide Squad, and the coldness of her choice to pull the trigger on one of her own men is almost a gleeful confirmation that this movie will be going much harder than the 2016 version. However, as the picture progresses, the absolute indifference toward human life Davis embodies stops being a laughing matter.

Early on, the script does a lot of that heavy-lifting when we learn that Waller’s ace for blackmailing Bloodsport (Idris Elba) into working for her is that she’ll lean on the courts to have his daughter tried as an adult for shoplifting—thereby getting her sent to a maximum security prison where she wouldn’t last a day. It’s a vicious moment. But where Davis really brings the callousness out is at the end of the movie when we learn the story’s whole mission is not about destroying Starro, but erasing the records which prove the U.S. government is complicit in Corto Maltese’s experiments on the alien, which has resulted in the murders of thousands of civilians, including the children of dissidents.

When Starro inevitably breaks free and starts running amok, Waller doesn’t ask her team of supervillain rejects to save the day; she tells them to come home. Starro destabilizing a nation that’s become antagonistic to the United States will be good for strengthening U.S. influence in Central America, and if this alien kaiju has to kill a million people to do it, all the better.

There is a creepy cynicism to this plot twist, and it rings with an uncomfortable authenticity after a century of American foreign policy in the western hemisphere. Is it heavy-handed in a film where a giant starfish ends up battling an army of rats? Sure. But in a world where an American administration sanctioned the funneling of Iranian arms to Nicaragua in order to destabilize that country—and the said presidential administration which did this would go on to be lionized for decades to come by one of America’s two major political parties—it feels depressingly believable.

And Davis plays it all with the relentless conviction of a bureaucrat who’s seen it all and doesn’t really give a damn what anyone else in the room thinks. In fact, for most of the movie, the most compelling and unnerving thing about her Waller is how still and immobile she appears. She’s a rock for all the nuttiness of this film’s sea of supervillains to impotently crash against.

Read more

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The only time she ever raises her performance above a monotone is when Elba, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, and the rest disobey her orders. In that moment, the actor who won an Oscar for wrestling a film away from Denzel Washington in Fences lets the fireworks fly. The loss of control turns Davis’ Waller into a monster far more fearsome than anything to do with starfish. She overwhelms the screen like a D.C. beltway variation of the Red Queen bellowing “off with their heads.” Her rage so consumes the screen that for the briefest of moments, it seems like the film could really end with her killing off the rest of the “good guys.”

Of course it does not go that way, and Waller is taken out of commission by her own minions in a nondescript control room for the rest of the climax—and her overlooking this blatant act of insubordination is probably the most absurd thing in The Suicide Squad. Even so, Waller remains undiminished and unchastened when the credits roll.

And that’s the most satisfying thing about Davis’ villain: unlike giant starfish or magical witches, she can’t be defeated or toppled. At best her type of realpolitik power can be merely evaded or sidestepped for a time. She doesn’t have any grandiloquent speech about gods and devils, or communion with CG beasties that lead her to babbling about “bells being rung.” She is simply a brutally efficient administrator whose effectiveness is actually a drag on the entire world around her—including the hapless antiheroes she will continue to force into suicide missions.

In a world where blockbuster antagonists more often run together in their search for MacGuffins and the ambitions to conquer the world, Davis’ Waller stands all the starker because you realize she achieved that domination long ago.

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[madihopperforeverxx]

so i dealt heavily with my mental health this year, as we all did- but i’m finally at the best place mentally and i just wanted to make a post about what actually!! helped me get through these times

-the secret audiobook by Rhonda Byrnes. the biggest difference in my life was realizing my inner power. you are a divine being. you are made of magic. and i guarantee you, you are so so much more powerful than you realize. manifest, believe, send the energy out that you want to return to you. thoughts become things. if anything, this is your reminder that YOU are in charge of your reality.

-mantras!! my personal one has been “she is not a victim, she is a warrior” i am a fucking warrior. i went through it but i’m still fucking here. and nothing is more empowering than choosing to fight. fight for your happiness, your future, love, a cause. fan any flame that ignites something in you until it BURNS. feeling firey is good-way better than depressed, let me tell ya. i love feeling crazy and feisty! i stand for what i believe in. i am outspoken. and best of all, people know not to fuck with me and my peace anymore. people pleasing kills the soul. be unapologetic. be an asshole. be honest. if someone hurts you, fucking tell them. don’t hold it in. life is way too short to not say it like it is. liberate yourself. you owe nothing to anyone!! (and this is coming from a girl whose kindness was constantly taken advantage of) !!!!!! be a fucking warrior !!!!!!! you weren’t put on this earth to be miserable and walked all over. stand up for yourself. you’re going to have an easier time falling asleep at night knowing that at least you’ve respected yourself and carried yourself with dignity

-finding a fictional character you relate to or that inspires you. my personality is 100% a mix of Harley Quinn, Maddy Perez, and Sailor Moon. watching birds of prey not only boosts my serontonin X100 because it’s a feminist action comedy but also because HQ is my ultimate alter ego. if i can’t deal with something, HQ can and you can bet your sweet ass i’m going to tap into her kickass energy to get through the day if i need it. life is magical and mystical. don’t be afraid to get a little weird if it makes you feel better. make your own religion. i’ve chosen strong fictional female figures + Aphrodite to guide me and i’ve never felt better. at the end of the day, your world is based on your consciousness. realize how in control you !!can!! be. i don’t know if this bullet point necessarily makes sense but if u get it u get it & ily for it

-i am on antidepressants but that doesn’t mean i haven’t felt less than great while on them. if anything, they really increased my suicidal thoughts which is an issue in it’s own. but, i personally feel much more myself and whole when following a more holistic approach. i’m sure it’s a combo of mental and physical influences but whenever i eat a diet of mainly fruits & vegetables i feel fucking phenomenal. i am vegan but whenever i’m spending more time eating out, eating mainly carbs, sweets, and all that the difference in my mental state is incomparable. “let thy food be thy medicine” starting my morning off with some pomegranate or avo toast is an offering to myself. i show love for myself through taking the best care of me :) moisturize, wash and style your hair just to feel cute, have some “me time” also, even if it’s cheesey, say some mushy gushy shit to yourself. be your own lover! no one needs to know you refer to yourself as “angel face” in your inner monologue <3

your soul chose this body to be your home for this carntion. love it, cherish it, make this house a home, baby!! i believe in you. i’m sending nothing but love & positive energy your way. i wish you nothing but greatness. and don’t forget you’re a fucking warrior

lots of love,

mads :)

[vicky-shitposts]

12th March 2021,

So what's been happening? Beck saw my Instagram story. Fair enough it may have been his management or whatever, but let's say it wasn't. I tagged him in a story photo of my copy of his Blue Series single and he was one of the 28 people who saw it. Madness. Beck possibly knows I exist. A few days ago a friend of mine was kind enough to hear my entire album, and they're studying music at university so they must know their shit about music. The way I make music is so different to how people normally do, and because of this I thought it would be rendered unenjoyable and "not right". But she heard it and she liked it? The biggest compliments being to the bass, my vocals (a pure fucking miracle) and the piano. She said it sounds very 80s crossed with a John Carpenter soundtrack. Seeing as my music is inspired by horror film soundtracks and 80s new wave, i felt VERY fucking understood. It's got to have been one of my favourite feedbacks I have ever gotten for my music. Amelia messaged me last night saying that I seemed a lot more myself and happy, which was really sweet. I didn't even notice or detect a change in me but I think she might have been right. I did feel a whole load more upbeat yesterday at college, beside the fact that I was the only one with my camera on in sociology so almost the entire class was looking at a screen full of me. I feel sorry for the poor fuckers. My oldest sister has come to spend the day with us today, and I've started making a habit of wearing my pronouns badge so it's going to be interesting to see who adheres to it while she's here - probably nobody - but I have referred to myself as she once already and it isn't even 11 am. Of which I have a catch up history session at that time as I was absent on Monday, and then the Batman video game I ordered should be here soon (it didn't come today, big sad). I'm having major Gotham withdrawals already. Now I have time off from college I might try and go through some songs from my next album, see how much work needs to be done on vocals and such. Before I shelved it, I got to a point where it was almost done and ready for release, so fingers crossed that it won't take much to complete. I think all I really need to do is edit the vocals, try and add guitar to some songs, and record the opening song from scratch (didn't work on anything for reasons I will momentarily explain). Me and Billie have also been talking about fans of people we love pissing us off by complaining about the new material they've put out. Some fuckers can't ever be satisfied, can they? I love how I said literally a few days ago that I was going to start enforcing people using the correct pronouns for me, one way in which has been wearing my she/her/hers pronoun badge around the house. I had my sister over today to spend time with me, mum and her boyfriend. None of them adhered to the badge and quite honestly, it ruined my day. It really upset me to hear "he" and "him" being thrown around. By 3 pm I was in bed having a depression nap, and people have picked up on me not feeling so great because at least two people have asked me. Just call me by my fucking pronouns and I won't sit around with a face like a slapped arse!! It's literally in my fucking chest guys, please, just call me HER. In other news, I just got done watching Birds Of Prey at last and man, that film FLEW by. Normally when I watch a film for the first time I sit and kinda get bored or look on my phone every now and again but NOPE, didn't do any of that. I was sucked right in and seeing five strong, badass female characters of different ages and ethnicities was so inspiring. I really wish I could be like Harley Quinn. There was so much big pussy energy in that film, and seeing Ewan McGreggor in eyeliner was major eye candy. Just made me a little sad we didn't see as much Black Mask as I would have hoped, but when he put that mask on it clicked. That's fucking Obi Wan Kenobi and he's now officially in the DC universe. Absolutely amazing, inspiring stuff that I can only DREAM of being anything like.

[caffeinetoons]

Name: Quinn

Nicknames: Q, Lori (like a Rainbow Lorikeet)

Voice: Penny [The Amazing World of Gumball] www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjh7V…

Species: Avian

Age: 15

Gender: Bi-Gender (waves between male and female)

Personality: up-beat, enthusiastic, cheerful, usually never angry, sad or scared, determined, kind, inclusive, wise, bit of a tom-boy sometimes

Likes: dancing, suits, dresses, colors, jokes, flying-based sports, musicals, making others happy, rain, friends and family

Dislikes: negative thoughts, people being unhappy, greyscale, confrontation, people eating bird related food, Drake’s bullying and flirting

Family: Alanzo [father], Jackie [mother], Kess [aunt], Kestral [cousin]

Quinn would have to be one of the most optimistic, enthusiastic and just the happiest avian you would ever meet in Safe Haven. Like both her parents, she has a talent for dancing and a burning passion for it when expressing her emotions. She can shape shift into a Rainbow Lorikeet as seen by the multiple colours in her hair, and has been given the nickname, ‘Lori.’ It’s easy for her to socialise and always be inclusive towards others, even if some of them (like Maria) are complete grumps. Quinn does try to make people around her as happy as they can be, and whenever she sees someone upset, angry or scared, she will try her best to make them smile. Sometimes she will do this with either jokes, funny little dances that her father taught her, help them cool off or just simply talking to them. Her biggest fear would have to be people eating bird related food, as the very thought of it makes her feel sick.

Quinn loves both of her parents, Alanzo and Jackie, dearly and vice versa, she’s the apple in their eyes and couldn’t be happier with each other. It’s thanks to both of them why Quinn has such a compassionate and cheerful personality, and why she loves dancing so much. Alanzo has always looked at his daughter with complete joy, though the difference now is that when she was little it was extremely hard for Jackie to get Alanzo to rest when he was always making sure Baby Quinn was alright. The poor man got completely freaked out whenever Quinn sneezed as a baby, thinking that she was getting sick, but his wife was always there to reassure him that Li’l Quinn was okay.

Other than her father, Quinn and her mother, Jackie, share a strong mother and daughter bond, and pretty much gets most of her enthusiasm from her. It was also Jackie who taught Quinn how to shape shift and fly when she reached 3, and to this day the two of them will bond over dance lessons, shopping or just flying above the city and watching it from above. The two love each other dearly.

Though it’s been so far fruitless, Quinn has always tried to make Maria at least smile once. Ever since they were in kindergarten, Quinn saw Maria with a grumpy expression and has since then been trying to make her smile so that she can feel happy like everyone else. However she doesn’t know if the two of them are friends.

She has teamed up with Eboni at times to try and get Maria to laugh at some jokes, even if some of them were annoying. Within the dance wing of the ZPA, she had met her dearest friend, Charles.

The two are often seen hanging out in the dance wing practicing dance moves for assignments, and sometimes she will listen to Charles play the guitar and look at one of his paintings, each with an inspiring look as she finds his talents to be amazing. Once she heard that his grandmother, Latika, had passed away, her instincts kicked in and immediately rushed in to be there for Charles through his emotional loss.

She is also best friends with Charles’s cousin, Andrew. Ever since they were little Quinn has been by Andrew’s side through thick and thin. She would be there to compliment how tall he was when others picked on him about, and doesn’t at all mind if he’s clumsy, he’s still a loving person. She was also the first person to notice Andrew’s poetry skills by reading over his shoulders at what he was writing, and she has never seen such skill and detail within someone! To this day she’s his biggest fan of his writing, though is completely oblivious of his crush towards her. However the worst part she’s seen about Andrew is the number 1 person that has tormented him since they were little: Drake Starlena!

To Quinn, she is willing to be flat faced and not at all impressed towards Drake. She can barely stand the way he treats Andrew, and even his own brother! What makes her even more mad is that he has the nerves to try and even flirt with her! Why out of all people would she want to date someone who’s only goal is to care about nobody but himself and his own needs! She tries desperately to avoid him, but unfortunately he finds her every time. When he tries to swoon her she instantly denies it, sometimes even before he speaks.

She is completely sympathetic towards Drake’s younger brother, Reginald, he’s a sweet little boy and shouldn’t be treated like he’s a villain or be given disrespect towards. His. Own. Brother! She is afraid of how Reginald might turn out if he’s treated horribly to everyone, even scared that the idea of him just being seen as an enemy might make him think that’s all he’s good for. She is however glad that he does have Tina, Andrew’s younger sister, as a friend, and is more than impressed at Andrew for allowing his sister to hang around his bullies brother.

She is friends with the ZPA trio, she finds James’ determination and curiosity both intriguing but also a bit dangerous and Zacks laziness to be amusing at times and his chill personality to be calming.

She is also pretty close with Alice, as both get along well with each other. She’s been an expert at cheering her up at times and dealing with any bullies in the right manor, by holding back Zack and James for as long as she can before they tear them to shreds.

Quinn/Maria/Alice/Zack/James/Charles/Eboni/Andrew/Drake/Reginald/Tina -> Me

Alanzo/Jackie/Kess/Kestrel -> VivziePop

[jazziehart]

Character Dissection [Rachel Berry]: Episode by Episode - Season 2B

Hello and welcome back to the second half of my Season 2 character dissection of Rachel Berry. Once again I want to leave a warning that my review of Rachel this season isn’t positive so if you are a huge fan, I think it’s best of you click off of this. If not, here are my thought on Rachel for the second half of Season 2 from The Sue Sylvester Shuffle to New York

Let’s start off with the superbowl episode of Glee the Sue Sylvester Shuffle. This episode is one of the 2, 90 minute episodes in Season 2. In this episode the Glee Club and the football team are made to work together after their personal conflicts are hindering the team. Rachel is very unhappy with the newest additions as are most of the club but she’s especially upset about Karofsky. Will soon asks her to perform a new duet she’s been working on with Puck, something that confuses and upsets Finn at first. The performance doesn’t go over well and ends with the clubs fighting. Sue soon decides to make the Unholy Trinity choose between Cheerios and Glee which proves to be a conflict for them but Rachel insists that she knows Quinn will choose Cheerios which pissed me off (avid Quinn fan here but I think you knew that). The Unholy Trinity do end up choosing Cheerios for awhile due to Quinn being scared to losing her status, Brittany worrying about the baby cannons, and Santana just liking being a cheerio more than being in Glee. The football team and Glee Club however seem to be really together, that is until the team gets slushied and quits on Coach Beiste. Rachel and Mercedes meet up with Kurt and Blaine who reveal that they only need 9 players and they come up with a plan, to have the Glee girls fill the team but not play the game, something that is accepted. Rachel is enthusiatic about playing and follows what she said she would do unlike some of the other girls who end up playing. Once Quinn, Brittany, and Santana rejoin the Glee Club, Rachel and the other glee girls help cheer on the game and that’s where Rachel’s storyline ends in that episode.

Up next is Silly Love Songs. Rachel is excited when Finn announces his kissing booth, declaring she will show up with a $50 to kiss him until he realizes that he still loves her, once again proving she isn’t able to give him the time to move past their incident or the space he needs to actually be with someone else who might be better for him. She is shown saying this at a sleepover where she’s with Mercedes and Kurt. I actually did like their friendship moments and the fact that Mercedes told them both not to emphasize on relationships and focus on themselves. Rachel does end up going to Finn’s kissing booth but only with a dollar. She is mad when he kisses her on the cheek instead of the lips which she was expecting. He soon gives her a delayed Christmas present, a gold star necklace. He tells her that he still needs space to get over what happened but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about her. Rachel upset accepts his answer and walks away. She later finds out that Finn and Quinn have kissed when she’s taking care of Finn after he gets mono. When Rachel realizes he cares about Quinn and not her she is unhappy but decides that Mercedes was right that she needed to be single for awhile. Some minor storylines she’s involved in are when Santana is insulting the club like she usually does and Rachel strikes back at her leading Santana to leave visibly upset. She also is seen confused by Puck singing ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ to Lauren but soon gets into it. Finally, she’s seen at Breadstix where Kurt says to her and Mercedes that this is the year for the singles. 

Moving onto Comeback. After losing Finn, Rachel decides she wants to make a comeback for her career and be trendy within the school so she enlists Brittany to try to popularize her looks. Funny enough this does work and people are copying Brittany but Brittany wore the leg warmers on her arms leading the other girls to do the same and once she finally wears the same look as Rachel, people can only credit Brittany with their ideas which makes Rachel hurt and upset. Brittany explains to Rachel that no one in school sees her as a trendsetter which Rachel is obviously hurt about but soon Rachel finds what she is a trendsetter in and that’s Glee Club. She gets a new idea that would continue throughout the season of wanting to do original songs. No one supports the idea at first but Finn tells her that he does in private. Rachel is obviously upset that he didn’t speak up but he tells her the only way to prove she’s right is to write a great song. He also says he liked the Rachel he saw in Glee Club and said that she’s making a comeback which Rachel is happy about.

Up next is Blame It on the Alcohol one of the more entertaining episodes. We start off with Rachel’s hilariously bad original song ‘My Headband’ which Finn tries to tell her gently that it’s bad. Rachel takes this opportunity to take Puck up on his offer for a party while her dads are out of town hoping it would help with her songwriting. She hosts a party which almost ends before it begins but with Puck breaking into the liquor cabinet, everyone drinks and has a good time. While drunk Rachel starts to hit on Finn leading Finn to walk her through the types of drunks saying Rachel was a needy drunk. She gets upset by this and decides to start a game of ‘Spin the Bottle’ which leads to her and Blaine kissing which progresses into more for Rachel. After the party Rachel drunkenly asks him out on a date which Blaine accepts. The two go on a date but have yet to kiss which Kurt believes is proof that Blaine is gay. Rachel tells Kurt that she’ll kiss Blaine again sober and they’ll see who’s right. Rachel throughout the episode continues to drink as do most of the other members of the club but it leads to probably one of the most iconic moments during the pep assembly where Brittany pukes on Rachel. Rachel swears off drinking after this happens stating it did nothing for her song writing. She then meets Kurt and Blaine at the Lima Bean where she kisses an unexpectant Blaine who declares that he’s definitely gay. Rachel actually takes this well thinking it could be a great song. 

Up next is Sexy. Rachel has joined the celibacy club for some unknown reason and she and Quinn are the only two members. Rachel is constantly asking Quinn about her relationship with Finn which Quinn doesn’t want to answer about since she agreed not to tell Rachel about their relationship since Finn didn’t want her to get hurt. Throughout the episode Rachel isn’t into Holly’s Sexy lessons even though she does join in on the number towards the end after Holly brings her and Quinn into the number. Puck soon joins the celibacy club much to Rachel and Quinn’s surprise and joins them in on the celibacy club’s number of ‘Afternoon Delight’. Other than that Rachel doesn’t have much of a storyline in the episode.

Moving onto one of Rachel’s most important episodes Original Song. This episode starts off with Rachel once again trying her hand at an original song delivering the slightly better ‘Only Child’. Finn tells her that her writing isn’t there and the song should be more emotional. Later on when news breaks that ‘Sing’ was taken away from the New Directions, Rachel once again tries to suggest original songs. This time she gets support from an unlikely source of Quinn who is trying to keep Rachel closer to keep her away from Finn. Once Quinn is onboard the entire club seems to fight over who’s going to get to write a song and the club now has decided to do original songs. Rachel soon notices how Finn and Quinn are with each other in the hall and decides to confront Quinn about it. Rachel finally asks her if she and Finn are together which Quinn tells her it’s true. Rachel is clearly hurt by it and adds that Finn had once chosen Rachel over her. Also hurt Quinn snips back asking how long did it last for. Rachel, playing the victim claims Quinn is being ‘so mean’. Girl you started it bringing up that he chose you over her which you know is a sore spot. Rachel claims she’s not going to give up on Finn that it isn’t over to which Quinn exclaims that it is and that Rachel keeps making the same mistakes looking to be with Finn and that if she keeps it up she’ll never Get It Right. This conversation inspires Rachel to write her original song of the same title. While at Regionals Rachel tells Finn that she means every word, once again trying to get Finn away from his girlfriend. The two really bond at Regionals and are thrilled when the New Directions win. The New Directions soon award Rachel the MVP award which everyone voted for her for, even Quinn. Rachel is touched by the award and the New Directions all hug her afterwards.

Up next is A Night of Neglect, probably one of my least favorite episodes of Season 2. Mostly because there isn’t too much of a plot involving the New Directions. Rachel’s biggest plot point is the fact that she wants the closing slot and like everyone else is pushing Mercedes aside. This eventually has Mercedes turn into a diva and make demands. Rachel eventually goes to talk to her and tries to encourage Mercedes that she is good enough and that she didn’t need to make the crazy demands to be respected. Eventually she convinces Mercedes to come back and allows her to have the closing number. 

Moving on to one of my all-time favorite episodes Born This Way. This episode actually focuses a lot on Rachel and her insecurity with her nose and how she contemplates getting a nose job. I just want to point out that this was completely out of character for her and a stark contrast to how she was in Acafellas where she rejected the idea of a nose job and told the club that their quirks were what made them special. I know she wanted to look more like Quinn which is unsurpisingly driving her nose job but it was a little strange that she considered it. Her nose was injured and the doctor did suggest it but she always seemed to want to keep her nose the same up until that point. Anyway, she asks Quinn to accompany her to the consultation which Quinn does (as it’s revealed in the episode that Quinn herself had a nose job so she’s not against helping Rachel do the same, sorry Faberry shippers this has nothing to do with Quinn being in love with Rachel). Rachel is admant about wanting to get the nose job not even Finn can convince her not to. But you know who arranges something that actually helps her decide against it? Puck. He enlists the help of Kurt who have a flashmob saying that Rachel is like Barbra Streisand and that she shouldn’t get a nose job which leaves Rachel convinced not to do it. She does have the septoplasty but avoids getting a nose job and wears a shirt embracing her nose.

Up next is Rumours which is one of Rachel’s worst episodes in my opinion. She starts off innocent enough asking Sam to the prom which he declines saying he doesn’t think he’s going to prom. Rachel keeps insisting that they go to prom which leads Sam to tell Rachel he’s just not into her like that. Rachel is shocked but soon reads an article in the Muckraker that she shows to Finn saying that Quinn was at a motel with Sam. While it looks bad on the outside, Quinn is actually helping Sam’s family out by babysitting his siblings. Quinn won’t say what’s happening leading Finn to accuse her of cheating, much to Rachel’s delight. Finn soon asks Rachel to stake out with him in an attempt to catch Quinn and Sam in the act. Their first stake out only sees Sam hugging Kurt goodbye which they mistakenly interpret as Sam having a relationship with Kurt as well. While I get Finn thinking this, Rachel should’ve known better. Quinn confronts Finn about staking out with Rachel and they perform a duet clearly upset with each other. Rachel comments that she thinks Quinn’s duet with Sam was better and Quinn knows exactly what Rachel’s doing and calls her out on it and insists that Finn and Rachel no longer sing together declaring that she doesn’t trust Rachel. Rachel and Finn once again stake out and see Sam and Quinn together. Rachel soon decides to sing a song mostly directing her attention to Finn to piss off Quinn who is upset by it saying what Rachel did was inappropriate and then Rachel goes off saying awful things about how Quinn’s a hypocrite which leads poor Sam to reveal that Quinn wasn’t lying but that his family lost their home and were living in a motel. Rachel and Finn go to make amends with Sam and it all works out. This episode is a good one but Rachel’s actions especially piss me off. This is probably her worst episode in my opinion.

Now moving onto Prom Queen. Rachel sees how upset Mercedes is about Prom and actually does a good thing and talks to her coming up with a plan of Prom on a budget for the two of them to go with Sam. Sam accepts their offer and the 3 of them were going to prom together. All is fine and well until Jesse comes back. Rachel is surpised to see him and Jesse admits he came back for her then asks her to prom. Rachel accepts and Finn soon finds out and is annoyed. Rachel tries to help him with picking a corsage for Quinn, something many Faberry shippers try to say is how they know Rachel loved her because she knew what matched her eyes. Honestly she only made the suggestion to Finn to get something that was green, Finn was the one who picked it out. Anyway Rachel is clearly in love with Jesse as they go on their date with Sam and Mercedes but still seems constantly torn between him and Finn throughout the prom. Jesse and Finn get into a fight over Rachel something both girls try to put a stop to. I feel awful for Quinn since Prom was such a big deal to her and to have it be ruined by the one person who you are insecure about sucks. When Quinn loses Prom Queen Rachel tries to go talk to her. Quinn blames Rachel because everyone knows Finn would rather be with her. She slaps Rachel clearly getting out her frustration for the night but soon apologizes. Rachel comforts Quinn who’s scared because she’s pretty much lost nearly everything she cares about. I know Faberry shippers look at this as a romantic moment between them and I’ve addressed this before, but Rachel only went after her because she knew Quinn was angry with her. She comforted Quinn because she wanted to be her friend. There is nothing romantic there. Sorry for my ranting about them. Anyway the two agree to support Kurt and go back to the prom. Rachel dances with Mercedes and Sam and Quinn dances the night away trying to forget what happened.

Moving onto Funeral. This episode Rachel is competing to be the star of the New Directions and tries to encourage Finn that he’s good enough. She kills her audition but is fighting with the others who want the lead, Santana, Kurt, and Mercedes which leads to Will nixxing the competition. Her only other storyline is with Jesse and her unresolved feelings for him. Jesse promises Rachel that she’ll win and Rachel is so thrilled with that they hug. Rachel is upset when the competition is taken away but agrees to help the club write a song for Nationals something she’s been looking forward to.

Finally, we close with the season finale of New York. Rachel is obviously enthuiastic about New York but makes an error that’s unlike her, saying she got tickets to Cats which had been closed for 10 years. It took Quinn of all people to tell her that. Rachel was Broadway obsessed why would she even think there was a chance that those tickets were real? Anyway she’s incredibly conflicted throughout the entire episode about following her career or getting with Finn. She originally chooses her career but that’s overshadowed when she and Finn kiss after their duet, something that ends up costing them Nationals. Santana is pissed and tries to attack Rachel after they lose. Finn and Rachel soon have a conversation about their relationship and Rachel gets back with him realizing she has another year to go after her New York dreams.

Let’s go to the overview. Rachel is once again selfish with many decisions she makes especially when it comes to Finn. She has somewhat of an obsession of getting him back and is willing to do whatever it takes, something that is constantly hurting Quinn who is his girlfriend for the majority of this half of the season. She is however a really good friend to Kurt and Mercedes which is something that wasn’t truly defined in Season 1 due to her not getting along with everyone. Overall this version of Rachel is still my least favorite even though Season 3 will be coming in a very close second. Stay tuned for the Season 3 post coming your way. Until then, be respectful and kind.

[angel-emmerson]

Ángel’s 33rd Birthday Letters 

Every year Ángel writes brief letters to the people in his life who have made a big impact on him in the past year. 

Tagging: @bradyemmerson / @quinn-hawthorne / @frankieblackwood / @alli-pellisier / @emily-duncan / @isaiahxcruz / @sanemreid / @julianeldridge / @graysoneldridge / @ryderirving

---

Mama Bears, J&D, The best women in the world,

I know how much you love my birthday letters but it’s not nearly as much as I love the two of you. 33 years and I still don’t have the words. I know you hate when I say that you saved me but I mean it. You saved my life the day you decided you wanted me to be yours. You changed the way I saw myself. You changed the way I saw love. I used to think love was made up. And then you two proved me wrong. Taught me the way you always have. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. You know that and I sure as hell know that. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life if it meant it wouldn’t lead me to you guys. Being an Emmerson was just my destiny, you know? Having two moms is the best fucking thing in the world. Sorry for cursing, J. 

You’re my two favorite people in the entire universe. You always say I’m your angel but you two are mine and I’ll never forget it. Thanks for giving my life a chance, for giving me a chance time and time again. 

Love you forever, mamas!

Your grateful af son,

Ángel 

---

To the best sister in the entire universe,

I know you think my bday letters are cheesy but you shouldn’t be surprised to get one every year. My life is always better with you around in it, B. You’re a freakin doofus and the biggest nerd I know and I love that about you. The day you walked up those steps and gave me the cold shoulder was the best day of my life. You taught me what it meant to really care about someone outside of myself, to take care of someone, to protect them and love them no matter what. I know we haven’t always been at our best but being your brother is the coolest fucking thing I’ll ever be. I’m so proud of what you’re doing. I’m so proud of how you’ve built up your business, all the ways your gonna continue to thrive and be your best. You deserve every bit of it. Every single bit. Don’t forget to celebrate, don’t forget to let yourself feel loved, don’t forget to take it all in before it’s too late. 

I know I’ve really put you through it recently and I’m really sorry for that. I promise you that I’m getting my shit together and I’m gonna start to take better care of myself. Really try to, at least. I’m always gonna be here for you. I’m never gonna leave you. That’s a promise I’ll always keep, B. 

Make sure to drink some fucking water!!

Love your big bro,

Ángel

--

My love, my light, my homie 4 life,

Another year with you and you know I wouldn’t have it any other way, Q. Well okay maybe there are some things I’d change for both of us but that’s all part of the journey, right? I’m happy as shit that I get to write you a letter every year, I’m happy as shit that we’ve been friends as long as we have. Though I gotta be honest man, the word friend feels like it doesn’t even begin to describe what you mean to me. You’ve known for a long time that you’re my fucking soulmate man. Recently, my therapist asked me to think about all of the relationships I’ve had and to think about which ones have taught me the most about love. Guess I realized I never loved someone the way I love you, bro. I know it’s harder for dudes to say it, I know we’re some tall ass, masc ass dudes and people are surprised when we show just how much we love each other. But I love that shit, I love us, I love us being loud as fuck, proud as fuck, angry, sad and mad as fuck. I love us in any form, I loved us in high school, I love us now. And I love you, always, unconditionally. 

I will always be there for you. Even when things change, even when new shit happens in our lives, I’m never going anywhere far from you. This bond is for life. Don’t ever doubt it. A lot of crazy shit has happened lately but that doesn’t erase all the good shit we did this year. All the work we did, all the shit we created. I know we’re just two clowns but we fucking inspire happiness man. We put a smile on people’s faces. And I never want that to change. We’re just gonna keep shining, keep thriving, keep surviving. 

I believe in you. And I believe in us. More than anything. 

Love you more than I love JLO. That’s big big love. 

Yours for life,

Ángel

--

Frankie, buttface, apple of my eye,

I know being home blows but I gotta say the Frankie shaped hole in my life was getting pretty big and I kind of hated that. I love having you around, I love having you as a friend, I especially love when you laugh at my jokes. But I love it even more when you clown my ass. Thanks for reminding me that sometimes shit ain’t that deep, that the bad comes with the good and it really just be like that sometimes. I get to be sappy because you’re reading this and don’t have to stare at my face but you are so damn special to me, FB. I want you to know that I love you and I would care so much if I lost you. You’re fucking amazing. Wicked smart, wicked talented and wicked fucking cool. The coolest chick I know. You make my life better, you sure as hell make me funnier and you always catch my angles. I’m really lucky to have you in my life. So don’t leave me, alright? Don’t forget that I’m always here for you, til a really cool death do us part, yanno? That’s how you say it right? That’s what Google says at least. 

When you finally read this call me and we’ll get burgers so you can call me a butthole and make me feel loved. Can’t wait to cause shit in the nursing homes with you one day. 

Love you long time baybee,

Ángel 

--

Allison, Alli P, Hermanita,

God really said I’m gonna add another thing to your list of blessings and then BOOM there you were. I hope you know I mean it when I say I got your back, that in me you got another big brother and in my siblings, in my moms, you got mad family who will always have your back. That’s how we roll and we’re forever loyal. So don’t you ever think you’re alone, alright? No matter the time of day, no matter how far away, you call on me, I’ll be there. You can just picture me somewhere singing lean on me. I know it’s not always easy to let people in or trust that people won’t leave you but you can trust in me. Quinn is my man, the light of my fucking life and I promise we’ll take good care of him, I promise I’ll take good care of you too. 

Thanks for always having the best taste and for always reminding me to level up. 

Love you lil one,

Ángel 

--

E-Money!!!!!!

You may not know this but you’re one of my favorite people to spend time with. Your energy, your laugh, that bright af smile and your sarcasm are the fucking best. I know I talk about how grateful I am that my sister has you but I never tell you enough how grateful I am that I have you in my life. You’re always there for me, always ready to hear me out or convince me to be on your stream. You make me laugh deep belly laughs and you help keep me grounded. I fucking adore the shit out of you, Em. I hope you know how much I care and love about you, how much I have your back no matter what. You’re a real one, a beautiful one, a true one. Anyone who can’t see that can kiss my big puerto rican ass. 

Know that you always got love and family in me. We’re bonded for life which just means you’ll never get rid of me. Not such a bad thing, right? Thanks for sharing parts of your life with me. I’m a better man for it. 

Love you always, boo, 

Ángel 

--

Zay! My Man!! The mothafuckin champ!!!!!

In case no one’s told you lately, I’m fucking proud of you. I know it ain’t easy, you’re always trying to do the best thing, always trying to make people proud and make your mama proud. I see you man, I see how hard you work, I see how big you love and you should never lose that shit. You got some real power and not just in the ring. You inspire me to be better, homie, you push me to be stronger and not just cause you’re always challenging my ass to a race. But that too. you keep me on my toes! 

This world is rough but you shine bright, hermanito. Don’t ever let anyone dull your shine. We’re gonna get you that savings account and shit is gonna take off. I promise you. Remember your big homie, Ángel always got your back. Siempre, papito. 

Mad mad love,

Ángel 

-- 

Sanem!! My girl!! My favorite teacher!!!,

Girl you have been through it this year and it hasn’t always been the hottest or the greatest but I see you trying to be better. I see you trying to put yourself first in a way that benefits you and others and doesn’t do harm. It’s hard to forgive ourselves, hard to see the goodness when there’s been so much badness, you know? I know you know what I mean. But you’re trying and that matters. Thanks for helping me stay in shape, for helping me fucking slay the competition and for always keepin me on for all the new dance trends. 

You always got a friend in me!

Love,

Ángel

--

Julian, you beautiful, weird, amazing, pain in my ass of a man, 

I love you dude. I know you brush off half of my sappy shit and I know you still beat yourself up plenty but we’re past that. Only thing I’m worried about right now is you changing the world with your art and for you to keep asking me questions that blow my fucking mind. I know this shit ain’t easy. I know I can’t ever understand how you feel but I know that what I can do is be there for you no matter what. And I am, forever, dude. Like forever and ever and then whatever fucking weird afterlife, after rave comes, yanno? Either way, I hope you know I always got your back. I’m proud of you man, not just cause you’re sober but because you keep trying every day. And that’s a hell of a lot than most people do. I know, the bar is low but fuck if i’m not gonna celebrate the little things. 

I’m really fucking happy you’re alive, J. I’m never taking that for granted. 

*hulk hogan voice* Love you brother,

Ángel

--

G--G-G UNiT! My favorite fucking politician, Grayson

Man there’s never a year I’m not happy you exist. You’re the best, my dude. You inspire me, you’re smart as hell and you got a smile of gold. I know there’s a lot of shit that we’ve been through but I’m glad you’ve always had my back and I hope you know I always have yours. Keep doing the work that you do, keep making us proud and don’t let these crazy motherfuckers out here get you down, alright? You inspire me to fight the good fight, to make sure I’m not out here looking like a dumbass and I’m always proud to support you, brother. Always. 

Remember to kick back and relax once in a while, alright? You deserve it and then some. 

Love you always, 

Ángel 

--

Ry-Dawg! Crazy motherfucker, Sunshine,

Drink some fucking water, okay? Love you forever. 

I mean that, 

Ángel 

--

Levi,

Not a day goes by where I don’t think about you, homie. I know that eventually I’m supposed to like move on, accept it all but they never tell you how hard it is. Other day these flowers in my garden bloomed and I wanted to tell you about them so badly. I keep thinking about all the shit you won’t get to do, the life you won’t get to live. I keep telling myself I gotta live it extra hard and enjoyable just for you. But how do I do that when I’m still so sad? I guess it’s stupid for me to be writing you a letter when I won’t get an answer, but sometimes it helps to think that you can somehow hear me, that maybe you’re still by my side seeing all of this shit. I hope that’s okay. 

I just miss you man. I wish I could tell you I love you one more time,

Ángel

[what-if-rpg]

Welcome to the family, JAY! Your application to SANTANA LOPEZ was accepted. I am really happy to have you around! Make sure to read the beginners checklist, and remember, have fun! I can’t wait to roleplay with you! Have fun!

IN CHARACTER

CHARACTER NAME: Santana Lopez CHARACTER AGE & DATE OF BIRTH: August 27th, 1993 OCCUPATION: Agent FACE CLAIM: Naya Rivera HOMETOWN & CITY WHERE LIVES NOW: Hailing from Lima Heights in Lima, Ohio, she’s a proud New Yorker these days SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER: Lesbian, female RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Married POSITIVE TRAITS: Protective, smart, tough NEGATIVE TRAITS: Prickly, hot-headed, can be mean CHARACTER QUOTE/LYRIC: The only straight I am is a straight-up bitch.

HEADCANONS

Santana used to be the cheerleading stereotype. Quick to pass judgment, and insult and even bully other people. She views her bitchy behavior as honesty. Santana seemed to find no issue flaunting her spot on the social ladder that was High School l or to be promiscuous to remain on top. Santana also used to demonstrate occasional signs of kindness, usually with the Glee Club after a good performance or with Brittany. Deep down Santana is less conceited than she appears to be. She admitted that she loved being in Glee Club and that it is the best part of her day, Glee Club was her real family. But whenever someone asked if she loved it, she would say she hates it, showing that she cared a lot about her image.

Santana has grown to be a better person through Glee, she actively admitted to hating the people in the club before joining, but then started to see them as her equals, closest friends, and even considers them her family (whom she was and still is highly protective of). Now she is more caring and compassionate toward others, still, she can be seen as a mean girl because of her mean streak.

Santana described herself as a “closeted lesbian” when she was still in high school. She was seen to be something of a nymphet in her first years of high school. She dated and slept with many guys although she didn’t have any deep feelings for them. Most of the time she was involved with them only in exchange for popularity/status, but she also had sex with Brittany on what was implied to have been multiple occasions. She was afraid of her same-sex attraction, but when Finn outed her in her senior year, she stood strong and proud.

Santana acts confident, but she’s actually insecure, she even got a breast augmentation over the summer so people would notice her more. She gets incredibly hostile when her weaknesses are exposed. While she has no problem insulting and putting down others, she can “dish it out, but can’t take it,” and gets upset when her friends turn on her, showing she cares a lot about what people think of her.

These days, Santana has grown softer, especially with her family. But make no mistake, she’s still willing to cut a bitch if needs be. She’s known as a bit of an iron lady professionally as well, both awe-inspiring and intimidating. She loves her job and finds it very rewarding, and she’s very happy to be where she is, family, friends and career-wise. A part of her, however, is terrified that something will go wrong and the other shoe will drop.  

CONNECTIONS

MARIBEL & MR. LOPEZ (Parents): Santana is now very proud of her mother, she was able to show her that true love can also mean gay love, and is still very proud to this day of being her daughter. While with her father is a little different. She knows he got different views from what love is, but is always trying to help him see the real world. BRITTANY S. PIERCE (Wife): Brittany is the love of Santana’s life, ever since they first joined the Cheerios, Santana was head over heels for the doe-eyed girl. They had their ups and downs over the years but Brittany was the one person that Santana would always go back to. She was the one that Santana could always be herself around and never had to worry about being judged by. Brittany is her safe haven and she will love Brittany till the end of time and nothing will ever change that. There is nothing that can get in between them, Brittany is literally her anchor to the world. Santana would be completely lost without Brittany at her side and the moment that the bubbly blonde said that she’d marry her was a blissful day. With a happy marriage and some adorable tiny humans, they could quite possibly be one of the most, if not the most, successful couple that has ever come from Lima. BRETT, SAVANNAH & ARIA LOPEZ-PIERCE: (Children): These three tiny humans are the ones that Santana would do anything and everything for. She would lay down her very life to ensure that they were always safe and protected. She loves her children more than anything in this world, Brittany included, and lord help whoever decided to hurt one of her babies because hell hath no fury like Santana’s scorn. RACHEL BERRY & QUINN FABRAY (Best Friends): Santana was always more or less a side-kick to Quinn back in high school. Since then, they’ve maintained a frenemy-relationship. Santana was always mad at Quinn for stealing the head-cheerio spot, or Quinn was always mad at Santana for doing the same thing. It took them until Senior year to finally accept that they needed to stop fighting, their friendship was bigger than anything else, and there was no need to fight over such a stupid thing. They ended up sleeping with each other at Will and Emma’s failed wedding after getting drunk. No feelings, just a good friendship. Yes, Santana used to hate Rachel, but after high school, she ended up sharing an apartment with Rachel and Kurt, two of the people she used to hate the most in high school. But, as they started to get to know each other, they got closer and closer, and now, they call each other really close friends, and can’t pass a day without calling each other. Santana has been there when Rachel needed a friend the most, and now, she is even the brunette’s agent. Santana knows some of Rachel’s biggest secrets.

[mojave-musing]

No one tagged me to do this but I’m gonna do it anyway

Rules:

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer them as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same. 

I’ll be doing this for Nat.

1. What is your name?

Natalia Quinn, or just Nat.

2. How old are you?

I’m twenty-three. Born two years after Vault 76 closed.

3. What do you look like?

Black hair in an undercut style. White as shit since I’ve never been in the sun. Brown eyes uh I have an x shaped scar on the left side of my face. The first one was from falling down the vault stairs, the other was from home trying to spin my knife.

4. Where are you from? Where do you live now?

I’m from Vault 76. Right now, I’m bouncing between towns but I guess Flatwoods is home. It feels like home at least.

5. What was your childhood like?

It was okay, I guess. I have nothing to compare it too.

6. What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions?

Well, I guess I would consider myself a Responder; I went through all the automated training for them.

7. Tell me about your best friend.

I didn’t really have a best friend in the vault. All us kids got along pretty well and there weren’t a ton of us so there weren’t options.

8. Do you have a family? Tell me about them!

My mom and dad are still alive. They set up a home closer to the Vault. We didn’t always get along, they don’t like that I’m going with the splinter group to fight the scorched.

9. What about a partner or partners? 

I don’t have anyone yet, but I really like this girl I grew up with in the vault. Her name is Nellie. She’s nice.

10. Who are your enemies, and why?

Scorched are the obvious answer. Spreading a plague and ruining Appalachia. I guess a runner up is Raiders; but I can see why one would turn to that life. Circumstances of life and whatnot.

11. Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them?

I have found a few of their camps and holotapes. Fort Defiance is an impressive fortification. It seems like they were trying had to fight the Scorched; Roger Maxson sounds like he was an inspirational man.

12. What about The Enclave?

Considering they were the pre-war government, I hate them. I don’t trust MODUS; he’s definitely using us Vault Dwellers.

13. How do you feel about Super Mutants?

I feel sorry for them. They were once human and some of them are so angry, losing their humanity and not knowing it. I like Graham; he’s nice and he gives me a discount.

14. What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in?

A fire fight with raiders, in the middle they over took my cover with an older vault dweller, Maxwell. The Raider was someone Maxwell had went to high school with, they knew each other. The raider got mad at Maxwell, for surviving in the Vault, a luxury he didn’t get. He shot Maxwell when I rushed him. Now Maxwell can’t use his right arm, I feel a little at fault.

15. Have you ever fought a Deathclaw?

I have not. I don’t want to.

16. Do you like fighting?

Back in the Vault, when it was strategic knife-fights and boxing, Yes. Now, I don’t like it, it’s senseless violence.

17. What’s your weapon of choice?

Combat knife, mostly. When I’m at a distance, bow and arrow or crossbow, silent and arrows I can make and retrieve easier.

18. How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?)

I feel like I’m smart enough to avoid fights I don’t need to fight. I also feel like I’m incredibly lucky most of the time.

19. Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them? 

Born and raised in one. Now that I’ve seen the outside world I never want to go back.

20. How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you?

Protective gear, rad-x and rad-a-way. I haven’t gotten terribly sick yet. Some of the people who I travel with haven’t been as careful and have mutated, their eyes are glowing in light shine like an animals, or their skin turning blue. I worry about them.

21. What’s your favorite wasteland critter?

Foxes. They are one of the few animals I’ve seen not mutated beyond recognition, I have fed a few my jerky, their fur is soft.

22. What’s your least favorite wasteland critter?

Scrochbeast. Ugly fuckint mutated bat.

23. How do you feel about robots?

Their are a few that are cool, the robots at train stations that trade. Rose is something interesting...—that insult bot though, I want to scrap him for parts.

24. How many caps do you have on you right now?

About one hundred. I need to save up more.

25. Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla?

What’s sunset sarsaparilla? Nuka all the way.

26. Do you do chems? 

No.

27. Do you ever think about the Pre-War world?

The dwellers who lived it have some serious nostalgia for it. From the stories I’ve heard it was terrible, shortages and injustice. But the idea of these small towns having life in them...I would have liked to see that. I would have liked to meet Dassa and all these people I’ve heard in holotapes.

28. What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently?

I shouldn’t have charged the raider than was fighting with Maxwell. Maxwell would still have both arms if I had waited a tad longer...but the raider could have taken the shot by then...I don’t know.

29. What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve?

Well, so far getting the scorched vaccine was a good accomplishment. I want to see Appalachia thriving again, though. I want all this hard work against the scorched to pay off and people to have a safe place to live.

30. What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world?

I want the scorched gone, people happy, maybe settle down with Nellie in Flatwoods. I don’t think we could have the pre-war world back, but something stable and at peace would be nice.

Thanks for reading this all! I tag @bbbetty @undeadcourier @courierspikeee and @osseincactus

[radramblog]

we live in a society (that has progressed)

There’s always an interminable shift, a flux, in culture that can be hard to spot if you don’t quite know what you’re looking for. As times change, people grow, and media is released, causing perspectives and opinions in the general psyche to sway over the course of human cultural history.

Basically, the Joker is allowed to be funny again, and that’s a good thing.

I’m not going to bother explaining who the Joker is to you, like I often do when I’m introducing a post like this. It’s the fucking Joker, I’d be shocked if you didn’t know what the character is. You have to be online to see this post, after all, and if you’re on the obscure rabbit-hole known as My Tumblr, you’re online enough to see Joker memes and such.

The Joker is an inherently ridiculous character. He’s literally a clown man, a foil to the deadpan Batman, humour literally written into his name. And while I cannot possibly capture the full breadth of his various iterations and interpretations over the course of DC Comics’s long history, a lot less people are going to have read the comics than seen the adaptations of such, and those are what has stuck out in the public consciousness. There’s a few versions in particular I’d like to highlight before I get into the meat of this.

In particular, the early visual interpretations of the character are, well, monumentally silly. It’s impossible to talk about the 1966 Adam West Batman series without an understanding of just how camp the whole thing was, and the Joker is no exception to this. Even Jack Nicholson’s performance in the 1989 film is inherently silly despite it’s overall serious tone, a villain who kills people with a chemical called, I shit you not, Smylex. Considering the actor, and especially considering what came just a year before that film, such a portrayal is actually kind of a confusing cultural milestone.

And that thing that came a year beforehand is The Killing Joke, potentially the most iconic Batman comic, nay, DC comic there is. And with it, potentially the most sympathetic portrayal of the Joker that there had been so far. A man driven mad by exposure, a situation he was only in to afford his family’s bills. It presents the most clear image of him as Batman’s mirror- literally, at times, and yet shows some of his most shocking brutality at the same time. The idea of the comic, if I may be so bold, is to imply that the line between Batman and the Joker isn’t quite so thick as it appears at first glance.

We don’t talk about the animated version of the Killing Joke.

I’m going to move right past the Animated Series in general, not because it’s bad or anything, but because I’m relatively unfamiliar with it (this may be a reoccurring theme) I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, the ones my family had on VHS, and they sure didn’t have the Joker in them. (The Gray Ghost and….I think a Scarecrow episode? Which was a hell of a thing to see as a kid). It does have his portrayal with Mark Hamill as the voice actor, though, which is frankly such a choice decision.

The thing that made the Joker, and the Batman franchise as a whole, come back into the limelight was obviously the Nolan movies, specifically The Dark Knight. Being the face of such a critically acclaimed movie with such an incredible performance by Heath Ledger (I am obliged to stan, he’s from Perth, I’ve met his stepdad) is obviously going to get the name back in the books, even if it’s such a different version from what had previously been seen.

Ledger’s Joker has a humour, sure, but it’s a significantly more morbid one than previous incarnations. Previous Jokers killed people, sure, but The Dark Knight added a level of brutality to the whole thing that made the character so much more serious, pun not intended. One can largely attribute this to the darker tone of the film he appears in compared to previous Batmans (especially the 90s films), because in those versions the Joker was, well, not a serious character. He doesn’t interact with the world in the same way other people do, his values are completely alien. Ledger’s Joker has a very specific ideology, one people can understand, and more relevantly, one people can misunderstand.

The actual post begins here.

Ledger’s Joker has been the icon of the edgy teenager since The Dark Knight came out and was watched by millions of them. Something about the character speaks to them, something about being an outsider, not like the other people, and also both smart and violent, which are attributes that 13-year-olds idolise.

A Joker profile picture has long been one of the biggest red flags on the internet. A sure sign that someone is going to say the dumbest fucking thing imaginable, or something hideously offensive apropos of absolutely nothing. This isn’t even getting into how the character became an icon for the Gamers Rise Up movement, which I will remind you that a fair few people actually took seriously. A legion of the worst of nerd culture- misogynistic, racist, and toxic folks who have nothing better to do than yell at people on Reddit.

Where as I, the cultured individual, explain things to people on Tumblr. Very different. But the point is, this specific version of the character is an anarchist, out to prove that, at the end of the day, every single person has the potential to become a monster, that chaos is the nature of humanity, somewhat akin to his portrayal and point in The Killing Joke- all it takes is the right thing to set you off. This twisting of the message into “im better and smarter than u also I will kill u” is frankly kind of disgusting.

The point I’m trying to get to is that for the last decade-ish, The Joker, a character built around humour and gratuity, has become incredibly unfunny. From the internet fuckwits to the grim Ledger portrayal, the character with Joke in their name has been impossible to laugh at.

Another factor contributing to this is the growing awareness and increased sympathy for mentally ill people, which is where Joker (the film) comes in. Now, obviously, the understanding of mental issues is not a bad thing, and I’d love to see this trend continue. But my understanding is that Joker and its titular character are not a particularly humourous time, despite the character literally being a comedian this time.

To be clear, I have not seen the movie, and I have no intention to, so feel free to completely ignore my opinion on this. But the fact that the film seemed to have made all the GRU stuff worse is not a good sign for it.

However, as in life and in media, all things shall pass, and that does include the Joker. Ignoring Suicide Squad (because I know like nothing about the Joker’s place in that film and don’t want to research it), late 2010-s on portrayals of the Joker appear to be returning to the characters roots somewhat, though to be fair, both of the things I’m basing my judgement are comedy features.

The first is, oddly enough, the Lego Batman movie. I can understand not having seen this film, because from the outside, it didn’t look or sound good, but the whole thing is basically a love letter to Batman/DC as a franchise, complete with possibly the silliest incarnation of the character so far. This Joker is utterly obsessed with proving himself as Batman’s equal, as the greatest villain to rival the greatest hero. He’s probably the most potentially homoerotic interpretation, which is kind of silly considering he’s literally a Lego dude. But the movie is funny, and so is he, which is the key point.

The other recent addition to this list is the Harley Quinn animated series, where the Joker obviously plays a significant role. Now, I’m not really familiar at all with this interpretation, having not seen the show, but considering the memes going around about Batman apparently not doing oral, and that having stemmed from this show, it’s not hard to imagine the Joker’s portrayal being similarly silly- even if his canonical abusee is the protagonist. Like, I’m pretty sure he’s a bastard in this one, but he’s also the butt of the joke, considering the series is in large part about Harley getting over him and moving past that part of her life (and ideally hooking up with Poison Ivy, because, come on)

I guess my point is that the Joker is an inherently comic character, in all that entails. You cannot have the Joker not be in some way silly without making massive changes to his design, his characterisation, and his ideals- which is pretty much what has happened in the past few years. I mean, the guy’s got bright green hair, he wears purple suits, he kills people with laughing gas.

This comic, by artist FruitEater, is kind of what inspired this whole post. It’s such a silly little thing from a silly little trend, but it really stuck in my head, and not just because it reminded me of my past self- a child who was super into Crazy Frog when I was, like, 10. It’s a comic that couldn’t exist were it not for the passage of time beyond the era of edgy Joker. Time has moved on- Gamers Rise Up is dying (the subreddit got banned, where else are they supposed to go?), cringe culture is dying, and the Joker is a character that’s allowed to be funny again.

We can laugh with the Joker again.