#scarecrow has become a huge comfort character for me

[scribble-pillar]

sorry ive been dead for so long but now im back and i got oz on the brain blehhhhhhhhhhh

i couldnt decide what version of these 4 i like the most so i made my own :o3

(plus a bonus oz no mahoutsukai tincrow doodle)

[stxleslyds]

MY THOUGHTS ON TITANS’ RED HOOD,

BEFORE WATCHING THE LAST EPISODE.

I will start by saying that I haven’t been able to watch the show, these are my thoughts after reading a very well-written and detailed review of the last episode. The review is also written by someone that enjoys the show, this is important because my thoughts don’t align with theirs.

I understand that Titans is known for being garbage, I know their writing is messed up, and I had no hope whatsoever for them to actually write a good Jason Todd/Red Hood story. I would also like to make clear that this post is in no way hate towards the actor playing Jason, this post is just my thoughts on Jason’s characterization.

What I really don’t like is these shows/movies taking the names of loved characters and making an “original character” out of them. Yes, there are different takes of the character and you can build their story differently but I do feel that what they did with Jason is beyond all that. They twisted every concept from his origin and his story, nothing really fits, but someway, somehow, they still managed to push all the wrong narratives when it comes to Robin Jason.

Two of the most horrible narratives that DC has decided to push are “Robin Jason was reckless and a troubled kid that never did what he was told” and “Jason Todd is to blame for his death”.

The show does push the one where Jason is reckless. Jason is consumed by fear, and Bruce Wayne pays attention to that but he doesn’t only do that, he also offers comfort and help, he tries to make Robin Jason go to therapy.

This is huge, they build up the perfect scenario for Jason to not become the Red Hood. But for some reason, they decided to make Jason reckless and too eager to prove that he didn’t need that kind of help. And then they didn’t help Jason’s case because they wrote their Bruce as a caring father that does not want to see his son get hurt or end up dead.

This Bruce Wayne is doing everything that comics Bruce Wayne didn’t. This Bruce cares, so once more, one would think that this Jason wouldn’t become the Red Hood. But, surprise! Jason Todd doesn’t take well the news of him not being able to be Robin anymore.

Here is the thing, if you were Bruce in this situation, would you let this Jason continue to be Robin when he is a danger to himself? I know I wouldn’t.

Here is where Titans’ terrible writing reaches its peak. They have a vulnerable and reckless Jason try to prove that he can still be Robin by working on *something* that can take his fears away. Jason Todd wants to make a drug, let that one sink in.

Jason Todd wants to make something that is basically a drug. Did Titans really erase the fact that Jason’s mother overdosed? Because that’s one of the most important things in Jason’s life and that built up his hate for drugs and what they do to people. His mother was in an abusive relationship and that led her to do drugs and later led her to her own death.

This might not sound too important to other people but to me, it’s something that has always been important to Jason’s character before and after his death.

Going back to the actual show, Jason goes to Scarecrow, willingly, and asks him to make him a drug that will make him don’t feel fear. I know that this Jason is vulnerable and that he probably thinks that therapy isn’t working for him, but why on earth would Jason think that making Scarecrow make a drug for him would be a good idea?

How does that make sense? The show is basically telling us that Jason had a support system and that he was going to therapy because Bruce wouldn’t want to lose his SON. Why does this show go far and beyond to make Jason look reckless and dumb?

This is not me comparing Comics Jason to Titans Jason anymore, this is me finding Titans’ logic unnecessarily stupid, they really went out of their way to write pure stupidity.

Why would they write Bruce as a caring father and as actively working so Jason can be in a better mental state so he won’t lose him as his son if they are also going to write Jason as an incredibly reckless man? Are we supposed to be on Bruce’s side? Because as of now, Bruce is the only one with brain cells.

There is absolutely no way to compare that to comics because in comics Bruce neglected Jason’s needs and refused to see that Jason had different morals even back then, and that neglect was key in Jason jumping onto the idea that he needed someone that he could call family and actually care for him. He wanted love and attention from a parental figure because he didn’t feel like he had one. Robin wasn’t everything that Jason was, he was also a kid with normal needs.

So, you build that completely different and actually give Jason the support that he also wanted in the show but for some reason, he is fiercely attached to Robin even though his fear comes from the fact that he almost died for being Robin. There is no logic to this Jason’s actions and that isn’t on Jason it's on the writers’ incredibly garbage writing. It is like they come up with ten different ideas and they put all of them but none of them are actually solid and well-developed concepts.

And you can’t tell me to get over it because “Titans has always had bad writing, there were two seasons of bad writing”. Listen, if you are happy to consume media that is badly written then that’s on you, Jason is one of my favorite characters, I don’t want him to be written badly just because that’s the show’s style. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with me wanting writers to actually care about the characters they are writing for, all three seasons have had different writers, is it really so far-fetched for me to want one of these people to write something that makes sense?

Jason's death was tragic in both comics and the show, and he was a victim in both of them, yes. But the show really pushes the limits of that, Jason wanted to take something to make him not fear, he looked for Scarecrow (not Dr. Jonathan Crane, Scarecrow, and he was an already established villain) to make him this drug when he couldn’t make it himself. He trusted Scarecrow (for some weird reason) and then as a test he went to fight Joker? It’s tragic because it ended with Jason dying but it's also tragic because the writing is just bad. It just is, and that is a problem for me.

From then on, we have the “big connection” to comics, the Lazarus Pit! Wow, you guys did it, yeah, everyone loves the Lazarus Pit, every time I think about Jason, I only think about that one time in which he was thrown in a Lazarus Pit to recover his mental injuries or all of his injuries after he came back from the dead.

This Jason has no training, there is no Talia, no League of Assassins, no Ducra or All-Castle, there is only Scarecrow and his new puppet, the Red Hood.

It changes everything and I don’t like it. Once again, I understand and know the concept of the multiverse, the various earths, and the Elseworlds, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like this take on Jason Todd/Red Hood along with its horrendous writing.

I don’t have to like it, just like I understand that others do like it because it is their first contact with the character or because they are fine, as fans of the character, with a new take. I am not gatekeeping Jason Todd or Red Hood; I am just saying that my being angry at this version and absolutely hating it is just as valid as liking this version of Jason.

Red Hood in Titans is just Scarecrow’s puppet, that’s how things are, and I just think that it is too big of a change from the original reasons for Jason to become Red Hood. And I will never get tired of saying this, Red Hood wasn’t only all about the Joker killing him and Batman not killing the Joker. The Red Hood was Jason’s way to make things work, to prove to Bruce that Batman wasn’t enough for Gotham. Red Hood came back to Gotham to stop bad people from introducing children to drugs and to make Gotham’s people feel safe.

He thought that Red Hood was the better version of Batman for Gotham and its people.

But I am not blind, I can see how Titans can twist it again to give us Red Hood as a protector of children and Gotham in general. I can see the “I used to do drugs and now I will fight so no other person goes through the same”, I see it and I am aware of it but it does also bring me to my other problem with Titans and DC in general: story swapping.

Story Swapping is something that DC loves to do, they thrive when they make change people’s origins for others and when they take character traits from one character to another.

And Titans’ Jason Todd is just that, he has characteristics and plot concepts from Dick Grayson and if what I just predicted happens then he will have some of Roy Harper's characteristics. And that is exactly what Lobdell did, but somehow, they managed to get different results. I cannot praise Titans for giving us a new Red Hood origin because they made his characterization with the help of other character’s origins and/or stories.

This is the first time that we see a live-action Jason Todd/Red Hood, was it really that hard to just stick to his origins as both Robin and Red Hood? There is so much to explore from Jason, there is so much between his death and him becoming Red Hood, from both before and after New 52.

Jason becoming Red Hood under the influence of Scarecrow in moths is lazy, bland and an insult to Jason’s character. They could have done things by the book and then explore things that we have never seen before in a show or movie.

Jason has had so much training outside of Gotham, why did Titans think that they could do acceptable work at bringing this amazingly complex character in a show that has nothing to do with him.

They could have had him killed in the Titans show and then wait and make a Red Hood show to actually tell a good story. What is Jason Todd doing in a show that is called Titans? Where are the Titans? They chose the most recognizable Titans’ line-up and they are not using it. They butchered Garth and Donna and for what?

DC gets away way too much with selling their stupid shows and movies by telling us that x character will appear but then when you watch the thing for that x character, they are nowhere to be seen. That’s exactly what they did with Cassandra Cain and what they are doing with Red Hood.

I don’t know how this tv show is doing, I only know that as a non-American that pays the same money for an HBO Max subscription, I don’t get to see any Titans content, not even a miserable trailer.

But I know that if non-comic readers are watching it, they will love it and if they actually were to start reading comics because of the show, then they wouldn’t find that Jason there. So, either that leads to Jason’s characterization being messed up even more within comics or it does nothing for Jason or comics.

To end this post, I just want to bring up the animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010).

That movie was widely praised and loved by critics, comic readers, and non-comic readers. It was fantastic, the story was amazing (even though it had differences with the comic, one might say that the differences improved the story), the voice acting was phenomenal, everything was done beautifully. Do you know what made it that way? The writing.

And you know who wrote the animated movie? The same person who wrote the comic the movie is based on, Judd Winick.

With that I am not saying that Titans should have had Judd write for them, what I am saying is that given the fact that they are using a pre-existing character they should chat with the Red Hood’s creator or even the writer that wrote for him for ten years after the character came back to comics.

This show obviously didn’t do that though, they preferred to write Jason Todd/Red Hood as if he were a Titans original character, but the thing is, from where I see it Titans didn’t give us an OC, they gave us an OOC.

-

So, to sum it all up, I hate Titans’ version of Jason Todd/Red Hood, I think that it is not only badly written but there is also no real logic to what they are trying to do so far. I am also tired of their bad and lazy writing in general. And I would have liked the Titans’ writers to actually respect the Red Hood lore because if they had I would have actually been excited about a Red Hood spin-off show.

Using the material that is available to you isn’t a crime, building from that material is the best thing that they could have done, but all they really wanted to do was use Red Hood’s name to get more money from a dying show.

It makes the show look cheap and actually not interested in giving us good stories, and no, I wasn’t expecting Captain America: The Winter Soldier levels of good writing or good changes to a very loved story/characters, I was actually expecting some Lobdell writing level and the way I see it we ended up getting something worse.

These are all my opinions. You can like, love, or dislike this version of Jason and the show as much as you want but you won’t find any form of love towards the show in this blog, at least not right now.

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MY THOUGHTS ON TITANS’ RED HOOD,

AFTER WATCHING THE LAST EPISODE.

Well, I will start this part by saying: Sorry. I am sorry that I believed that Titans’ Red Hood was bad, it is actually worse than bad.

I was so wrong on many things, that review really made me think that things weren’t that bad but I still hated what I read. Now that I have watched the episode because I wanted this post to be extra honest and to stop myself from saying stupid stuff, I can also say that I hated what I watched.

This show really validates the two most horrible narratives that DC has been pushing for Jason: “he was a reckless Robin that didn’t think about his actions” and “he was to blame for his own death”

Jason Todd wasn’t a victim of Scarecrow, this Jason Todd took every single bad decision that he could, and those decisions led him to his death. No sympathy for this man.

Also, this Jason is like 19? He doesn’t look younger than that, but that’s not the point, what I am trying to point out is that this Robin is extremely underprepared, he lacks training and the mental capacity to stop acting like an edge lord every time he opens his mouth. He is annoying.

And I was wrong about Titans erasing the plotline of Jason’s mother dying of an overdose, she did die that way and this Jason spoke of her as if he hated her. What is going on? This Jason really doesn’t make me feel an ounce of sympathy for him. This attitude of “no one understands my pain” when everybody is trying to help you doesn’t make you look cool or anything of the sort, it makes you look annoying.

It is even worse because this Jason is so immature and reckless that he made his friend Molly (that is just a normal teen with no training) go after a thug with him, while he was not mentally well. He made that decision for them and put himself and her in danger. If that scene had gone any other way, then Jason could have been guilty of getting his friend injured or killed.

Jason Todd is so incredibly dumb; he is not a child but he acts like one every step of the way.

Nothing makes sense in his whole ass interaction with Bruce in front of the theatre, it’s like Jason refuses to listen to what Bruce tells him, well not that he refuses to listen it is more like a “Telefono descompuesto” I don’t know if you guys have that game but you basically have to tell something in someone’s ear and then the person repeats what they understood to the next and so on, what you said is heavily distorted by the end of the game. In this scene that is exactly what happens but it’s between two people.

When Jason accuses Bruce of not taking away Robin from Dick, Bruce says something along the lines of “I learned from my mistakes” and Jason says “so, I am a mistake now?”. Jason, use your ears, if Bruce says that he learned from his mistakes when talking about Dick, then his mistake was what he did with Dick. The writing is so bad, it's actually painful and it is even worse because the acting is bad, but I can’t blame the actors, it must really be hard to make a scene work when the writing is that bad. (Also, the unnecessary pauses, and the sounds that they play after they say something stupid, it is too funny).

Do you know what made me cringe? When they were having the chat in the theatre, in my mind all I could hear was “if you are nothing without the suit then you shouldn’t have it”, not me quoting Tony Stark in my head! I haven’t even watched that movie! But it fits perfectly for that scene.

The interaction with Scarecrow was more than dumb, if Jason was already acting like a child, now, he is basically acting like a toddler. Scarecrow saw right through him in seconds and just as fast decided that he was going to have fun with his new toy. He gave him a formula that wasn’t quite correct even though it looked like he knew exactly how to make the reverse version of his fear gas. This Jason has zero detective or survival skills but we already knew that when he made himself get captured and tortured by Deathstroke.

Anyway, all the interactions with Scarecrow were allowed to happen because this Jason can’t put two and two together. He convinces himself that everyone is out to get him, dude, Bruce is a detective and he also has eyes, Leslie didn’t tell him anything. If I were Bruce, you wouldn’t be able to be Robin anymore either.

I understand that Jason is not in a good mental place and that he wants to make his fears go away, but he had support, people around him were trying to get him help, trying to make him understand that he was hurting himself. His over-the-top anger and recklessness are unjustified when you refuse to take the help that is being offered to you.

He made terrible decisions for selfish purposes and that got him killed.

This is one of the last things I want to say, Scarecrow either didn’t need Jason at all to get out of Arkham or the writers made an oopsie because at the end of the episode he had someone helping him put Jason in the Lazarus Pit and then he was out of Arkham and he had a suit ready for Jason and everything. How did he manage all that? No idea.

The Lazarus Pit, yeah, I am sorry to be that person but the Pit can’t bring back people from the dead, it can only restore or heal physical and mental injuries (however grave they were), but Lobdell messed that one up already and Titans really didn’t have time to write a single good scene so what was I expecting?

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to say is that I know why Jason or Red Hood seems to not be affected by the drug when he sees Molly at the end of the episode, it is because the executive producer of the show is Geoff Johns! He loves making Jason fall for girls and get all mushy and dumb, do you guys remember how dumb he got when he left with Rose?

Jason being written as the kind of guy that acts like a love-sick puppy with a girl but also screams at her when he gets mad is peak Geoff Johns. So, if you were wondering where that came from, well, there it is.

Yeah, that is all I had to say, honestly if you have read this whole post then you are one strong individual, I am sorry I put you through all my thinking and rambling. You didn’t really deserve that.

I didn’t want to delete the first part of the post because I talked about so much more than the show and my thoughts before watching the episode still stand. I hope this post isn’t too confusing. As always you can think the complete opposite of me about the show or anything, I am just writing my thoughts.

Having said all that, I hope all of you, Titans’ lovers, haters, and people that simply do not care, have a wonderful week!

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

just because you’re afraid it doesn’t mean you’re broken.

Titans 3.05

once more into the cold dark void of the internet with my stream-of-consciousness take on a superhero tv show...

spoilers ahead.

1. i cannot believe that among the first things i get to hear in this episode with my own two ears is the line 'eluded our overdudes'. why must you give me such pain along with so much joy, show?

1.5. scarecrow stringing jason along on this path to red-hood-dom is not something i would’ve ever expected, but does kind of make sense. 

1.55. i don’t know all the details of the original resurrection arc in the comics but i like that jason, weirdly, has a greater role to play in his own demise and rebirth? i think it makes it easier to draw a line between his past trauma, the demonstrably shitty and terrifying responsibility of being robin, the ways bruce and the titans wronged him, his responses to that, the reasons he turns to scarecrow, and his final evolution to red hood. it makes for a smoother character arc rather than a one that was interrupted for two decades before somebody went oh hey let’s resurrect that kid that the audience once voted to kill and make him an anti-hero!

1.75. what’s crane giving him? anti fear toxin? anyway, crane is a fucking creep and i’m not sure i want to see a whole lot of him on my screen.

2. oh, um, heads up: there’s a long sequence of unsteady cam + flickering lights right after the title card upto the 3:16 mark. it’s a bit headache-inducing so if you want to skip, you can go ahead and do that. 

2.45. that’s... weird... why would he dream about... donna...

ok, who am i kidding. i’m going to jump right into my theory about Why Titans Makes Sense Actually because the show itself is apparently not interested in explaining itself:

a) it makes no sense for jason to be conjuring up donna--who famously did not care much for him!--in his dreams. (he wasn’t even there when she died.) or for her to be telling him don’t go or there’s still time.

b) this leads me to think that that’s actually donna, in some sort of limbo between life and death, the kind of place where jericho used to be

c) rachel has demonstrated that she has the power to link the minds of the titans across great distances--she called jason and hank/dawn for help in 2.01, she linked up everybody later in the season, projected dick’s hallucination of his father into their brains without even realising she was doing it, and in the finale, she managed to get dick into conner’s brain. she’s in themyscira now. is this how she gets donna back to life? but reaching out to her in that non-space between life and death?

d) the next obvious question is: why isn’t donna appearing in the dreams of the other titans? she probably is, but they have better reason to be dreaming about her since they were actually close to her, unlike jason.

e) but why would she warn jason in particular? does she foresee jason entering the afterlife--however briefly? does she have an idea of what jason plans to do and what he will become?

f) anyway, more trippy mindscapes and weird psychic powers, yay!

2.5. my heart clenched when bruce comforted jason post-nightmare: clearly i’ve been reading way too much batfam fic. this is a side of bruce we haven’t really been told to expect by all the characters on the show calling him a ‘psychopath’ (*cough*unreliablenarrators*cough*) and him getting jason to speak to a professional speaks volumes about the kind of self-reflection he’s done post dick’s departure, and maybe some of the regrets he has with regards to how he dealt with dick’s traumas.

i mean, just look at him when jason dismisses his concerns! BRUCE IS TRYING JASON

anyway, i have a whole lot more i want to say about this, but i��ll save it for later. 

also: LESLIE THOMPKINS!!!!

3. i really like molly--and i love that she’s a friend from before jason got taken in by bruce, the implication that they meet up regularly and that she’s a grounding influence on him (tho clearly not grounding enough to not go along with his dumbass idea about confronting a child trafficker alone). 

3.5. aw, jason. robin was his armour against everything in the world that would throw him down and chew him to bits, but san francisco proved that even robin wasn’t enough to protect him. it’s really interesting how ‘disillusionment with the idea of robin’ is so integral to the traumas of both dick and jason but in such different ways. 

4. LESLIE!!!!!!! i even forgive her office being so goddamn blue because leslie! 

4.5. it makes so much sense for titans!verse leslie to be a therapist, because this show is so inward looking anyway, and therapist sessions are a useful tool to showcase this character work in a story. besides, at least in fanfic, leslie often seems to double up as a counsellor anyway. 

4.6. oh man. i’m not terribly convinced by walters’ red hood (tho i think that may be the point--argh. i’ll come back to this thought later. have to stop getting distracted!) but he plays the asshole kid that’s trying not to let any real emotion seep through really well.

“you’d like me to punch you, wouldn’t you”

5. not sure what to think of batman’s little trophy case other than the show winking unsubtly at us and going look look - catwoman! the riddler! two face! you excited yet?! it’s like the scene from the end of amazing spiderman 2 when they were trying to drum up excitement for a sinister six spinoff by having harry osborne walk by a bunch of display cases with stuff from iconic villains in them.

... but then again, bruce does like to display a lot of shit in his batcave, including his dead robin’s bloodstained costume, so.

5.5. bruce is so soft with jason it’s killing me. beyond just trying to learn from his mistakes with dick, it speaks to his own genuine desire to balance his dedication to gotham with doing the best by his sons, although he’s often not successful with that. 

i love that titans is really playing the long game with bruce wayne, with each season and character-perspective sliding in fresh pieces of a bigger puzzle. titans’ bruce has always been a phantom of other peoples’ making, but now we’re getting the idea that he’s a whole lot more complicated than other people make it seem.

5.75. it really recontextualises some of his actions from previous seasons: the fact that he locked dick out of his security systems in 1.06 is likely his way of respecting dick’s independence and his desire not to be associated with batman/gotham anymore. jason knowing about bruce’s tracker while dick doesn’t is probably bruce trying to be more honest and upfront with his charges. bruce sending jason packing off to sanfran to spend time with the titans is probably not him passing on a big responsibility to dick (as i first uncharitably thought) but him trying to get jason out of the toxic influence of gotham for a while and a sign of his trust in dick as a leader and a mentor,

5.8. i mean, bruce is a prick, but he’s also human.

6. i think leslie is doing some good work with jason here, though she may have overstepped the line with her line about robin as a construct being projected by a man with BPD. her speculations about bruce’s diagnosis have no place in her session with jason, and if bruce confides in her, an egregious violation of patient-therapist confidentiality. 

(about the diagnosis itself... i don’t know. i can’t really confirm or refute this without a whole lot more information, and i’m not sure if the writer of this episode means BPD in the same way an actual professional might.)

6.5. i think a huge thing that gets missed out in a lot of recent comics as well as movies/shows is that bruce didn’t create the robin persona out of whole cloth. dick did. he’s the starting point of that legacy and to call it entirely bruce’s creation is blatant erasure of that. in fact, i’m surprised that dick doesn’t feature more in the conversations they’re having about the pressures of being robin. after all, the guy had been robin--bruce’s partner--for such a long time before jason. 

6.8. (and here’s the primal part of me that resonates the deepest with dick grayson--the Eldest Daughter part--that’s sort of resentful: that jason gets the therapy and softness and the learning from mistakes when it took years and years for bruce to reach out in any meaningful way to dick.)

7. oooh that was a great scene!

it’s fun to do these stream-of-consciousness live reactions, because the moment you step down from your soapbox, the episode goes right into tackling what you were just complaining about. bruce means well, he’s learning, but he goes about exactly the wrong way to help jason: taking away robin now can’t be read by jason as anything but a devastating judgment call from bruce. and iain glen really sells the moment that bruce realises this--too late--and his helplessness in trying to get jason to see that it isn’t jason’s fault that he’s trying to do this. he loves jason enough that jason is enough. 

7.5. aaaah so jason brings up the elephant in the room at last. dick got everything makes sense from his perspective, where getting to put on a costume and fight crime means approval, means being something stronger and better than you are. dick got to be robin, then nightwing, and a leader of a whole team of other costume-clad heroes. 

8. ... how did jason just walk into arkham????? this is ridiculous.

8.3. i mean, clearly jason’s not thinking straight, but betraying batman like this puts his possibilities of being robin again even further away. 

8.5. watching that chemistry experiment montage was strangely funny. this guy is looking for an antidote to fear? well, constantly mixing up and inhaling gases concocted by a mad-scientist supervillain is something only the very fearless--reckless to the point of foolishness!--would do. what’s to say crane’s not given you a formula for a drug that will keep you tethered to his every will and whim? hmmmm?

8.7. so he sought out the joker to... test the formula??? 

9. wow the “loud and clear... boss” hits different after a whole episode of them referring to each other as father and son.

9.3. waitwaitwait HOLD UP. wait a DANG MINUTE. you’re telling me that scarecrow had enough resources that he could not only have folks on the outside steal jason away and dunk him in a lazarus pit (i TOLD you that this show would bring up and dismiss ra’s al ghul in a ten second aside! I TOLD YOU) but also have his own little chemistry lab in the basement, AND have enough resources for jason to build his red hood persona???????? all of this in barely twenty four hours?

well there goes my ‘jason orchestrated his death’ theory. it was nice while it lasted. *cups hands to the sky* fly away, my baby.

9.6. a part of me is gleeful at the rushed nature of such an iconic transformation though, especially when compared to all the character work that went before it. we’re so used to getting the opposite that it’s fucking delightful to have a show that’s more interested in exploring its characters’ minds rather than battle scenes or recreating transformations from the comics. that’s taken such bold and exciting steps to fully convey all the nuances of its most recognisable character, bruce wayne, from casting an older actor to play him to unflinchingly showing just how damaging the vigilante lifestyle has been to him and the people he loves. BRILLIANT

*sporfle*

10. again, heads up: a whole lot of flashing lights between 40:28 and 42:00. 

10.3. i guess it’s the super-compressed timeline that’s really throwing me off. where did he have the time to get/develop the mind control thing from? or is it something that he got from the cabal of villains that he intimidated at the beginning of 3.02? very messy.

10.5. i love molly, i hope she shows up again this season.

11. aaaand that’s it! that was a solid episode as flashback episodes go, but now i can’t wait to return to the present.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

My Spider-Man Ideas

Because I’m glad my good bro @kaijuguy19 asked me about this. I want to say and it’s not a secret I’m actually a big Spider-Man fan. And ever since last year. I wanted to make my own take on the character. And maybe I still will one day. But smaller maybe. But ever since this post I made. https://geekgemsspooksandtoons.tumblr.com/post/662905966119075840/to-be-honest-i-just-wanna-say-i-feel-like-maybe-i I think it’s best I just talk about it. 

In a way, I feel like this is what The Amazing Spider-Man series could’ve been maybe. Which is something I wanted to talk about. Despite some big criticisms towards that franchise. I don’t mind it’s place, and we can’t change history with it. And Spider-Man is in the MCU now.

This may not be all finished yet. Or put together much better. But this is practically my, “The Dark Knight” of the Spider-Man character. Yet also, I feel like maybe it’s best I don’t touch the Spider-Man franchise.

Because I feel like if fans, non fans, and whoever read this. They would honestly think, “GeekGem, please go back to The Mask franchise” because while I love Spider-Man, and the themes his character represent. Along with the many characters and stories. That have even inspired the likes of The Mask Rebirth strangely. But The Mask is maybe a series that is...maybe more suited for me...

I just wanted to say that I think people would be like, “Go back to The Mask franchise please. And never touch any Spider-Man related again” but I’m being way too harsh about myself. Now let’s begin. XD

Part 1.

I wanted to strangely make my own Spider-Man in a sense like Batman 1989. But I feel Spider-Man 2002 fills that hole. Including one of the old ideas that Peter has been Spider-Man for 5 years with no huge villains. But recently, it had gone to maybe his second year instead. Him being 19 and in college. With the origin not shown, but cleverly shown and told maybe akin to how Spectacular told it. And what I wanted Homecoming to do possibly. Or even something like that 2017 series. 

It mainly dealt with Quinten Beck’s Mysterio. And it was basically a more mature version of, “The Menace Of Mysterio” and basically, Mysterio’s first apperance. With Beck trying become a superhero by framing Spider-Man. But after he frames Spider-Man. He tries to showcase he’s even more of a hero by deciding to kill criminals. I remember a friend of mine understanding that he called him an evil(er) version of Neil Druckmann/Quentin Tarantino/Ken Levine.

Even though I was really gonna look into his story because comics had gone in more depth with him.

Other characters like Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, Aunt May, and the employees at the Daily Bugle would be involved. With the main story of Peter recalling why he became Spider-Man in the first place. And with Mysterio practically being a foil to him. And there is the inclusion of Silver Stable being brought to take down Spider-Man. But her job has become more troubling with Mysterio. Yet I question if I still want her in this. 

Including it developed into something like the upcoming The Batman movie. With maybe Beck losing it more because the police hate the fact he’s begun killing criminals. But anyway, I wanna leave as it is. I just remembered the Silver Stable part. I wanna talk about the one I thought of the most. The one that I really wanted to do. Forgot to put Captain Stacy in this. Since I just wrote him down in part 2.

-

Part 2.

This idea is basically my The Dark Knight for Spider-Man. Like, literally. With the idea of using the Green Goblin, and really showcasing how dangerous the character is. And I really wanted to test the words, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Think of this story if the Green Goblin replace the Joker in The Dark Knight. And you replace certain characters with Spider-Man characters. But if I recall, it’s mainly this idea of Goblin trying to teach Spider-Man the consequences of being a superhero. 

Going in line with his original version like he first appeared. This is Norman Osborn. But it’s never revealed until the end. And it’s kind of a mystery. And with Norman faking his death by a terrorist attack by the Green Goblin. With Norman before that, acting like an older and kind fatherly figure. When in reality, he’s a genuine horrible person hiding behind a persona. And with the Goblin persona, his abilities and all that. He uses the Green Goblin as an outlet to unleash who he truly is. Going with what how the 616 version of him is. There’s no split personality.

I will admit, the faking his own death thing might backfire on him if he wins. Maybe him with a back up plan that Norman was alive, and was taken hostage by the Goblin. With Norman making it look like that.

In a nutshell, the Green Goblin is practically who Norman is deep inside. And he tries to become the leader of organized crime. Until he meets Spider-Man. Where in this version, Green Goblin is like a cruel teacher, and he wants to really teach Spider-Man what it’s the huge consequences of being a superhero.

This dude is literally more like a boogeyman. He’s if Arkham Knight’s Scarecrow and Heath Ledger’s Joker were fused into one. But he‘s also basically if Ghostface was a supervillain with powers and gadgets. He has the glider, but he does other shit. Despite his original intention, he becomes Hell bent on making Spider-Man understand the responsibility of what he’s doing. 

With Green Goblin becoming more of a terrorist. That it becomes so bad. That Silver Stable is brought in likely by Captain George Stacy. That this problem with costumed people has gone too far. 

Goblin is killing members of the Wild Pack, police officers, and he’s just causing chaos to bring Spider-Man down. But when he figures out who Spider-Man is. It becomes even more personal.

At first, it seems like the story is gonna go the way of, “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”. And it’s scary because Gwen knows who Peter is, and is with him. But it’s different, with not Goblin taking an unconscious Gwen to the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s still the Brooklyn Bridge. But instead he kidnaps her, leaves her tied and gagged surrounded by a bunch of barrels that will explode. There’s no Spider-Man accidently killing Gwen with his webs. But instead...what happens is...much worse. To me personally.

Spider-Man saves Gwen, and stops the barrels from exploding. But it doesn’t go the route of, “What if Gwen Stacy had lived?” storyline. Instead, the Green Goblin’s plan wasn’t to kill Gwen. But something to destroy both her, and Peter mentally.

Instead, when Peter tries to go back to May’s house. Aunt May is literally killed by a bunch of hidden explosions. And during the same time or a little later. Captain George Stacy in his office is killed by similar hidden explosions. 

What happened is that because Goblin found out who Spider-Man was, and knew who he was dating. He felt like it was too easy to kill Gwen. But he wanted to do something possibly more extreme. Something that would still make Peter snap. But also destroy his relationship with Gwen.

He took the words from Spider-Man 2002, “The heart Osborn. First, we attack his heart” to literal heart. He kills Aunt May, and George Stacy in the most horrific way. Including destroying the home Peter grew up in. And after some time. Goblin literally calls Peter to pretty much rub it in that these are the consequences of him being Spider-Man. And that Gwen wasn’t the one he wanted to kill. With him possibly ending the conversation, talking about how it’s gonna end.

That it will end with one of them dying. But he doesn’t care. If Green Goblin kill Spider-Man, he wins. If Spider-Man kills Green Goblin, Spider-Man will be viewed maybe more as a menace. Because he likely killed Green Goblin out of pure rage. Which Goblin tried to create, he unleashes the anger that Peter tries to hold in. And with his mother figure killed in such a way, and a friend who was like a new father figure killed in a similar fashion. It’s literally a cruel test Goblin is trying to pull.

And in the end, during some stuff, with Spider-Man nearly killing Goblin like in the comics. But soon stopping himself when he learns that it was Norman all along. And it ends with Norman like the 2002 film and comics, accidently killing himself with the gilder. He never comes back, he’s truly dead.

On one point, Spider-Man stops himself from killing Goblin, and Norman kills himself instead. But the other point is something else instead. Norman is revealed to the the Green Goblin, putting Oscorp in a heap of shit, and people looking at Harry strangely. And despite comforting each other, but because of the horrible events.

Gwen decides that it’s maybe best to break up with Peter. Understanding her being with Peter seemed to have gotten her father killed. She doesn’t hate Peter. But she seems to hate Spider-Man. That persona, not Peter himself. 

-

Part 3. 

This was the most challenging one. Because I really wondered about the villains. There was Kraven with possibly a Kraven’s Last Hunt story. Hobgoblin because Peter would lose his shit at another Goblin. But also the idea of the symbiote suit being in the story. And during this whole development process from last year. Characters like Miles and Black Cat were involved. But I’m not sure now. With the idea that Miles may become a Spider-Man one day. And Black Cat being bothered by black suit Spider-Man.

Yet recently, despite it may feel overstuffed. But it’s not three villains. And it could be as long as it wants. 

This part is basically Spider-Man 2 fused with Spider-Man 3. With the big focus of the aftermath of Green Goblin's destruction upon New York City. And Peter’s grief with the loss of Aunt May, George Stacy, and Gwen deciding to leave him. Despite he fully understands and respects Gwen for leaving him. But it’s hard.

But also with Mary Jane truly becoming Peter’s true love. After the traumatic loss and Gwen leaving New York. I know and understand Gwen’s death was a huge part of changing Mary Jane as a person because they were friends with a friendly rivalry that I recall. I...wanted to make it less depressing. Despite May was the one replacing Gwen’s death. Because that seems maybe more powerful, it depends on how you see it. Mainly with the idea that May never did anything wrong, and it was such an easy kill for Goblin. It’s like Uncle Ben’s death all over again.

Yet again, the concept of part 3 is of Peter truly embracing being Spider-Man. And not letting his darkness take ahold of him after the death of the woman that raised him. With the symbiote bringing out repressed anger even more. And made worse after the death of Aunt May. 

But it’s Mary Jane that helps him overcome that darkness. And I wanna share this video that explains that more. Because I feel like that could’ve been an amazing plot point for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 if done right. 

The video is by Sevenwebheads. I loved this guy before he sadly left YouTube out of nowhere.

And with how I talked about this part. It being Spider-Man 2 fused with Spider-Man 3. The villains being Doc Ock, and Venom. And in a sense, Peter is his own villain. Because of the symbiote. 

It’s possible Doc Ock like his 2004 film version is maybe more sympathetic. And honestly more understandable as a villain than Norman Osborn. 

Quentin Beck/Mysterio is a man who is crushed by his ambitions, and being a foil to Peter’s belief about responsibility and being a superhero.

Silver Stable is a mercenary that’s more like a complex character. Yet gets into conflict with Spider-Man. Not really a villain.

The Green Goblin/Norman Osborn in this is pretty much the embodiment of pure evil. Practically enjoying what he is doing, and not caring what the consequences are. A total anti-thesis to everything Spider-Man represents. And would make other villains or anti heroes look at him like, “What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

With Doc Ock again, being more sympathetic, but still a villain. Akin to Spider-Man 2′s Alfred Molina. And Eddie Brock, who I think should have sprinkled throughout this three part story. 

With Venom and Eddie. I really like them both, I really do. But I wanted to do a version that would make sense. Instead of copying the 616 version or only the Ultimate version. Considering in a sense, the 616 Eddie isn’t much of a foil to Peter. Where the Ultimate version seems more like that in a sense.

I feel like the symbiote shouldn’t be an alien from outer space. Because that opens a whole can of worms. I seriously feel like the alien aspect doesn’t mesh with the more grounded take of Spider-Man. And it just at times makes me feel fine with the idea of Venom not being included in Spider-Man’s mythos. Despite how iconic he is.

So the symbiote’s origins would be more involved with science than from outer space. And with Eddie not only being a bit more complex. Yet he is also a foil to both Peter and Mary Jane. While you can understand him, he practically becomes more unhinged and possibly has some relations with Peter like in Ultimate and Spectacular. And when I think about, even using some elements from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 mobile game version of Eddie/Venom.

His character would be more in line with how Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie introduced the character. But while there is some dark comedy. It’s seriously more frightening. Another boogeyman in a sense like Green Goblin. With his first appearance being like in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 299. And Venom representing one of the many mistakes Spider-Man made. That being the birth of Venom and it bonding to Eddie Brock. Creating a villain that Peter feels responsible for.

I guess in a sense, I wanted to use three of Spider-Man biggest villains. Those being Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom. With Mysterio and Silver Stable included. There is the idea of Carnage. Even though I liked the inclusion of Carnage in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game. And Cletus is truly a foil to everything Peter is. I really wanted to showcase Venom as that. Still wondering about Black Cat because I love Felicia.

With this part. Considering how tough this whole trilogy is. This part is basically I guess, the light in the darkest hour. 

Where you have moments like a black suited Spider-Man nearly killing Doc Ock, and even before that, ripping off one of his arms, or maybe all of them. I’m not sure. But it’s nearly killing Doc Ock that truly makes Peter if his anger has truly gone too far. And an interaction with Mary Jane who is the biggest person who has been comforting him. Helping him through his grief, after everything that had happened with him. 

Peter chooses Mary Jane over keeping the symbiote. And because of his rejection of the symbiote, it bonds with Eddie. Who is practically a final test for Peter in this story. The dark reflection of what he could’ve became. A man despite you can feel for him. Eddie slowly became more sociopathic, became more irresponsible, and becoming more consumed with hate and anger.

The light rising above dark, and moving on with life. Because if we cling on to the past. We’ll be stuck there forever. And with Peter being a pessimist who has optimistic moments. This whole trilogy is like an endurance test of him as Spider-Man. 

I really wanted to bring to life the earlier stories of Spider-Man from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. It’s basically a love letter to the character and his mythos. Focusing on some more darker elements like Peter’s anger issues, and other things. But also dealing with the many themes about the character. But it’s even more rough when you replace Spider-Man 2′s Doc Ock with Green Goblin. And you maybe place Doc Ock in Spider-Man 3. 

Even though I feel like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is maybe the perfect representation of the character. Despite all the criticisms towards Spider-Man 3. And other people’s nitpicks among many things. I feel like those films REALLY got Spider-Man right. Along with others like The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon and others.

Think I’ve said enough. I’ll talk other stuff in the reblogs. But yeah...which I’ll say this in a reblog. Despite I don’t mind flawed films...I wished The Amazing Spider-Man franchise took a direction like this. 

[cuntycassandra]

soft asks:

1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 (asking for a friend), 12, 13, 14, 16 ( ｡◕‿◕｡), 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 (asking for a friend: the sequel), 26, 27, 28 (ahem), 29, 30

You always come through, my Princess 💛

1) What song makes you feel better?

“I have a dream.” - ABBA, covered by Lily James.

3) what’s your favourite candle scent?

Anything vanilla. Vanilla cookies, vanilla cupcakes, vanilla frosting, vanilla is just my absolute favourite.

4) what flowers would you like to be given?

Yellow roses

5) who do you feel most you around?

Nobody in all honesty, perhaps my older brother, but that would be a very slim perhaps.

8) tag someone or multiple people who make you feel good.

I’m not going to tag lots of people out of fear of leaving anyone out, so let’s just say everyone in my harem, the dark side server, the TBB server, and a few others who aren’t in those categories, such as: @echo-stan @gothicsprinkles @d1n0-dan @thisistheendtimes @iamanerd1 @prxncessfett @a-youngleia @thefeatherofhope @floatyteabag

9) what calms you down?

Listening to my older brother talk, associative scents, and quiet rooms with my weighted blankets

10) what’s something you’re excited for?

Next year I’m finally going to meet @quillsink , and I’m also going to France a week or so afterwards, so I’m looking forward to that! (I’m also looking forward to all of the upcoming Star Wars projects)

11) what’s your ideal date?

Okay okay, I actually have the PERFECT date that I really want to go on at some point.

So in the UK we have a holiday called ‘Bonfire Night’ of ‘Guy Fawkes Night.’ To sum it up briefly, we set off fireworks, have big bonfires, burn tiny scarecrows, and host big carnivals in honour of King James I’s assassination attempt in the early 1600s.

I would LOVE to go to one of the big firework displays with my significant other, wrapped up in our big coats and scarfs, eating toffee apples and cotton candy (or as well call it, candy floss), the weather makes your nose cold but youre wrapped up in one another’s arms as you queue for the rollercoasters, or to get a sparkler, the night sky is lit up with pretty carnival lights as you take a shot at the ring toss and win a big plushie. You bring your wooden Guy Fawkes to toss on the huge bonfire, watching the firedancers perform as you set your scarecrow alight. You find a perfect seat atop the chilly boulders to sit and watch the firework display after the commotion has died down. And then you huddle back into the car and blast showtunes while you drive into a McDonald’s drive-thru and get a hot apple pie to top off the evening. Ahhh it just sounds like heaven to me.

13) what’s your comfort food?

Mashed potatoes

14) favourite feel-good show?

Most likely Full House!

16) compliment the person who sent you this number.

Idk where to begin! Sevvie is honestly one of the most talented, beautiful and calming people I’ve ever met. She’s absolutely hilarious, incredibly smart, and just an absolute gem to be around. I’m so glad we’re friends and that you’re a part of my harem, I love you so much (platonically)

17) fairy lights or LED lights?

Fairy lights, 100%

18) do you still loved stuffed animals?

I do!!! I went to build-a-bear for my eighteenth birthday recently lmao.

19) most important thing in your life?

Right now, most likely my friends, both irl and online

20) what do you want most in the world right now?

I guess a big hug. In all honesty it’s all falling apart and I could do with just….a big hug :)

21) if you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

Being alone is sometimes much better than having awful friends, you don’t need to look like you fit in at the expense of your mental health, you deserve better than that.

22) what would you say to your future self?

How much longer until we figure this shit out, homie?

24) what’s something you do to de-stress?

I like to read fluffy fanfics, talk to both of my discord servers, and watch Disney and Star Wars movies.

25) what’s the best personal gift someone could give you?

Physically, I’d say a drawing, it means so much that someone would put their talent into a gift for me. But overall, just people’s time.

26) what movie would you want to live in?

Mamma Mia.

27) which character would you want to be?

In an ideal world, Princess Tiana. She went through so damn much, and not only did she become a princess, but she opened the most successful restaurant in all of New Orleans. Good for her!

28) hugs or hand-holding?

Hugs. Always hugs.

29) morning, afternoon, or night?

Night.

30) what reminds you of home?

Associative scents.

Thank you for the asks, Sevvie, you always come through 💛

[curious-menace]

ABC of Arkham Scarecrow U-Z

A-E here  F-J here !  K-O Here P-T here  U-Z here 

U: Underdog : have they been bullied? have they bullied anyone? have they been physically attacked by a bully? have they ever been doubted?  have they surprised people with being good at something?

Jonathan has been bullied practically his entire life, even as Scarecrow  the other rogues tended to poke fun at him. No one believed he had it in him to pull off what he did on halloween. I'm sure in a moment of singular clarity, he even doubted himself for a second. Yes, he’s attacked many of his bullies, his patients in the asylum and blackgate serving as stand-ins for his childhood tormentors. Unlike riddler he never put in the effort to track most of them down so he makes do with surrogates. Unfortunately that old adage of the abused becoming the abuser became more and more true over the years. He’s not as much of a bully as Riddler but he’s still pretty cruel and always seems to punch down when the opportunity presents itself. 

I like to think his most surprising talent is his musical prowess. He's able to turn his hands to most instruments, particularly the violin and piano. Everything, except the clarinet. He hates the clarinet. 

V: Vomit:do they vomit often?do they get lots of stomach aches? are they good at comforting someone ill? what do they like as far as comfort goes? do they burp, cough, or hiccup most when nauseous? when vomiting?

Gross as it is he probably does throw up quite often. You can hear him from a mile away making horrible burping and retching noises when he’s sick like the boomer from left for dead. It's really not helping the whole zombie comparison he’s got going on. If he’s nauseous he does a sort of hiccup burp and his stomach makes a lot of whining noises. Or maybe that's just him tryna breathe.

Since he can't chew his food properly, swallowing huge chunks of food and expecting his stomach to do the work has led to a lot of stomach aches and unplanned trips to the bathroom to get rid of what little food he actually eats.

No, he’s very unnerving when he’s trying to comfort people. He used to be a doctor so he can prescribe the medicinal kind of comfort, maybe share some of his strong whiskey if you're in pain but he’s really not good at hugs or back rubs. You know that gif of someone stroking a sick person's back with a broom? That's him. To be honest he's just as bad at being comforted; he just sort of whines and complains like he’s dying even if he just has a cold. 

W: Water:do they drink enough water? have they learned to swim? Do they like to swim? Can they dive? can they swim without holding their nose?

Surprisingly, yes he does drink a lot of water. Water gives him that full feeling in his stomach that means he can go longer without eating. No to the rest of the answers unfortunately. He did learn as a child, his family presumably hired tutors for him but ever since the incident with croc he’s developed somewhat of an aversion to water. Don't dare call it a phobia within earshot of him mind you, he will go off on one. 

X: Xylophone-What is their favorite genre of music? Do they have a favorite song?Do they have a favorite band/artist/singer?  Can they sing well? Can they rap?

I don't think he likes a particular genre, he just sort of listens to whatever sounds good on the radio or some stuff from his past. Maybe Johnny cash? Some volbeat? He likes ost’s from movies like Halloween’s tubular bells or the exorcist theme. He used to be able to sing a little (kinda like Johnny Cash oddly enough) but now his vocal cords are so damaged he’s hardly able to talk some days. If he took lessons, maybe talked with a speech therapist maybe he could get back to that. No he can't rap, but he does speak in rhyme sometimes when he's in full Scarecrow mode.

Y: You: how old were you when you created them?what inspired you to create them? were they different when they were first created? Do you enjoy writing them more than other characters? what’s your favorite thing about them?

Obviously I didn't create Scarecrow, if I did I would be having some stern words with DC right about now. I first started to like him when I played Arkham Asylum for the first time, roughly 2013 or thereabouts. I bought arkham knight when it came out in 2015 and that's when the love really took off. I love most incarnations of Scarecrow but arkham verse and btas are my favorites. 

I do enjoy writing for Scarecrow, although I run a riddler blog right now I'm fixated on Scarecrow so I'm writing him most often. I think my favorite thing about him is the same thing i love about the other batman villains, his depth as a character. He can just be a spooky bad guy or you can spend days going deeper and deeper into his motivations, his reasoning and all the pain the character carries. Like a lot of people, I can see myself in Scarecrow and while I deeply empathise with someone who has been abused and traumatised, this doesn't mean I condone what he does. 

Except for shooting robin, he was 100% in the right.

And btas Scarecrow did nothing wrong, don't @ me. 

Z: Zebra:what’s their favorite animal? Do they like animals? cats or dogs? What's their dream pet?  Do they have any pets at the moment?

He likes certain animals for their creep factor; spiders, snakes, scorpions etc but Crows are probably his favorite, ignoring the fact they can't really be domesticated . most animals are just...well Lab rats to him, regardless of species. That's not to say he doesn't like them, but only when they can be useful to him. I doubt he’d be purposefully cruel to them the way he is to people, but sacrifices need to be made.  I feel like he might have allergies but he does have a preference for cats because they make good lap warmers and much like him, only give and receive affection on their own terms. I think his dream pet might be some sort of nightmare animal from the nth dimension, like a xenomorph but house broken. He’d settle for some sort of hell hound in a pinch. 

Uh well, no “pets” as such. He has the crows but they aren't really pets, more like they follow him because sometimes he has corn in his pockets. I don't think he can really look after things that need feeding every day, himself included.

so arkham scarecrow is currently living rent free in my 1 braincel. i will absolutely keep writing him because i am having too much fun. 

[guide4cj]

season 1

1.01 pilot - obviously the setup for the series, should not be skipped

1.02 wendigo - direct continuation from the plot, further establishes sam and dean’s characters/relationship

1.03 dead in the water - optional, but continues to establish dean’s character, including some sweet moments between him + a mute kid with insights to dean’s trauma re: his mom’s death

1.05 bloody mary - optional, but has a scene near the end that explores sam’s guilt regarding jess’s death (it just depends on how invested you are in that part of his character on whether or not you’ll wanna watch) 

1.06 skin - the beginning of the winchesters vs. the police side plot, dean’s first public “death”

1.09 home - sam and dean return to the house their mom died in for a case, john appears briefly at the end (so tw for jdm :/)

1.10 asylum - optional but has some good moments for sam

1.11 scarecrow - first appearance of recurring character meg who becomes a huge part of the series, also one of my favorite hunts from s1 personally

1.12 faith - dean’s first actual death, reaper lore, huge foreshadowing for s4

1.13 route 666 - optional, but provides background information for dean regarding relationships and love, features cassie robinson my angel

1.14 nightmare - very important to sam’s character and the s2 finale

1.15 the benders - optional, but one of my top five s1 eps; no big lore dumps, but the monsters are human, and it’s interesting to see sam and dean deal with that

1.16 shadow - return of meg and john

1.18 something wicked - flashbacks to childhood that establish john is a shitty parent, overall a very emotional episode

1.19 provenance - optional, but features a character named sarah who is the first character sam really has an attraction towards since jess’s death (she also makes a brief return in s8)

1.20 dead man’s blood - first introduction of vampires, john is here, very important worldbuilding which sucks because like i said, john is here

1.21 salvation - penultimate ep of s1, john is here too :/  but important for the plot

1.22 devil’s trap - season finale, bobby’s first appearance i’m pretty sure (and he’s their real dad and i love him), obviously very important

season two

2.01 in my time of dying - dean is dead again, john dies in this ep, generally an important episode (though this is true for all first eps i guess)

2.02 everybody loves a clown - first appearance for ellen and jo and ash whom i love, dean and sam deal with their grief over john dying

2.03 bloodlust - optional, introduction of gordon who shows up again (he eventually tries to kill sam and dean, this ep is the setup for that. there’s some commentary on humanity and when a monster isnt a monster etc but i don’t think skipping it will cause too many issues. it just depends on your interest in this based off of the desc i guess)

2.05 simon said - spiritual sequel to 1.14, introduces a character important to the s2 finale, continues to explore sam’s psychic abilities, etc

2.06 no exit - optional; the return of jo and ellen. viewing depends on your interest in them i guess.

2.07 the usual suspects - sequel to 1.06, dean vs. the cops again, which is a pretty important part of his character overall imo

2.08 crossroad blues - optional, but has a lot of lore for demons and crossroads, foreshadowing/set up for s3 (plenty of the lore can be picked up without this ep/will be repeated but i like this one, personally)

2.09 croatoan - prequel to 5.04 ! poetic cinema. apocalypse vibes

2.10 hunted - optional. continuation of 2.03, with the introduction of another character similar to max from 1.14 and andy from 2.05 who will be important to the s2 finale, but if you aren’t interested in gordon then the recap for the s2 finale will cover it

2.12 nightshifter - continuation from 2.07, more winchesters vs. the cops, introduces victor my beloved

2.13 houses of the holy - optional, has some commentary on the way sam and dean view religion that continues from 1.12 and adds perspective to s4 but not exactly necessary

2.14 born under a bad sign - optional, but kind of an important episode for sam. spoiler is that he’s possessed by meg and there’s some uncomfortable scenes regarding what she makes him do while possessed (and is one of the reasons i dislike her) 

2.15 tall tales - optional bc i feel like i’m listing too many as essential :( it does introduce an important character (the archangel gabriel who is masquerading as a trickster) but i feel like the eps he appears in after will have sufficient enough recaps covering the events of this ep to catch you up

2.18 hollywood babylon - extremely optional this ep is just very comforting to me for some reason. dean and sam are working on a horror movie set that ends up having real ghosts and it’s just fun

2.19 folsom prison blues - optional, but the next thrilling installment in the winchesters vs the cops. victor from 2.12 returns. i like this ep a lot but if you aren’t interested in this subplot it can be skipped

2.21 + 2.22 all hell breaks loose - two part season finale. actually i won’t spoil this for you but it is important (just like with the first eps of every season i think finales will always be relevant)

season three

3.01 the magnificent seven - deals with fallout from the s2 finale, explores the hunting community a little more. introduces ruby, an important character

3.02 - introduction of lisa and ben (who are important to s5/6)

3.03 bad day at black rock - optional, but introduces bela my beloved (maggie twd). continues gordon’s plot from s2 as well

3.06 - optional, the return of bela (my beloved)

3.07 fresh blood - optional, the finale to gordon’s plot

3.08 a very supernatural christmas- optional, but there’s some childhood flashbacks and in general it’s a cute episode and i typically hate christmas eps skjfnskjn

3.10 dream a little dream of me - dean talks shit about john and in general talks about his feelings and it hurts me

3.11 mystery spot - the return of the trickster/gabriel (still not revealed as an angel), dean dies 100+ times, it seems dumb but is important

3.12 jus in bello - winchesters vs cops again! victor returns

3.13 ghostfacers - optional. i have no good reason for you to watch this im just obsessed with it

3.15 time is on my side - penultimate ep, deals with a lot of dean’s feelings, bela returns/this concludes her arc

3.16 no rest for the wicked - finale, dean dies :(

[aion-rsa]

The Batman Who Laughs and the Culmination of 10 Years of Dark Knight Stories

http://bit.ly/2MWsAEq

Scott Snyder takes us inside the dark weirdness of The Batman Who Laughs

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Want to feel old? Scott Snyder’s breakout Batman story, “The Black Mirror,” was released almost 10 years ago. He was a rising star when he got the gig on Detective Comics, and that book led to him being handed the reins on the New 52 relaunch of Batman and turned him into the character’s defining voice of the era. Snyder's time with Greg Capullo on Batman helped him redefine Bruce Wayne’s world, landed him the multiverse-reshaping Dark Nights: Metal gig and eventually saw him get to steer the entire ship of the DC Universe in the pages of Justice League.

And while he’s busy building new multiverses and starting a war across time between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom in one book, he’s also penning a culmination of sorts to his Batman stories. The Batman Who Laughs started life as a Jokerized Bruce Wayne from the Dark Multiverse, in one of the most exceptionally messed up spinoff comics from the entire Dark Nights: Metal crossover. His migration to the main DCU gave Snyder a chance to reunite with his "Black Mirror" and Wytches art partner, Jock, and to launch a new top tier DC supervillain out into the world for other people to play with. We had the chance to talk to Snyder about The Batman Who Laughs, where it fits into his broader Batman story, what he’s seeding for Joshua Williamson and David Marquez in Batman/Superman, and what other Justice groups are coming to Justice League.

Please note: this interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Spoilers for Snyder’s entire Bat-ouevre are also contained within.

Den of Geek: What changed in your approach to these characters or how you craft a story that turns the output from the cerebral, meticulously tight Batman to the bonkers anything goes Metal/Justice League/Batman Who Laughs? Because this is wild.

Scott Snyder: You know, Batman Who Laughs is an interesting one for me because it's the closest thing I've done in a while to my early stuff, where it has a lot more needlepoint, dark, psychological character work and it's paced out differently. It's more grounded and, it sounds silly, because it also has this element of cosmic, bonkers horror, where different versions of Bruce Wayne are being brought here through these portals into the Dark Multiverse. The thing I love about the series is that it's a synthesizing of all the different things I've learned to do in superhero comics, and love doing.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About The Batman Solo Movie

I started on “Black Mirror” in Detective Comics and I always thought that that was going to be my lane to drive in. I never expected to do cosmic stuff. I never thought I'd get much of a chance, even in Batman, I thought I'd be more of a kind of crime, horror writer on the side.

Really what happened was that the opportunities opened. At first things that were within my comfort zone, Swamp Thing and then Batman, and other opportunities came along, like Superman. And then eventually, Metal and Justice League. What really happened was I just went back to the comics that I read growing up and I realized that so much of the stuff that had made me want to write wasn't the stuff that I had...wasn't just the kind of stuff that I think I started to gravitate towards fully in my own writing.

It was Infinity Gauntlet...and it was Silver Surfer and Galactus and Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths. These huge, soap operatic, majestic, Kirby-esque epics. So, I just became more and more attracted to the idea of getting to do those. And so when the chance came along to do Metal, and it was a story that was sort of a culmination of so much that Greg [Capullo, Snyder’s long time collaborator on Batman] and I had built. I felt we had to give it a shot, and so it involved Justice League.

The bottom line, honestly, if there's any kind of thesis to it for me, it's just I would feel really disappointed in myself if I just kept doing the thing that I loved doing at first or played it safe. I'm familiar enough at this point with kind of hard boiled crime or horror Batman that I could do it in perpetuity or at least for a very long time. And there are a lot of stories that I wanted to do, I didn't get to do, about Scarecrow and other characters.

read more - Inside the Sheer Insanity of Batman: Last Knight on Earth

For me, I think the key is to try and continue to follow in the path of the writers that I admire the most, who I probably will never compete with or people that constantly evolve and grow and change and push themselves. So, if you're not exciting to yourself as a writer and you're not pushing yourself to do things you didn't think you could do, then I don't see what the point is. I think Batman Who Laughs is almost the perfect kind of coming home, because it involves a lot of elements and a lot of ideas and a lot of aesthetics from my very earliest work at DC. It hopefully also displays this different level of confidence and maturity.

There's obviously a ton of Batman and a lot of Metal in there, but there's also James Gordon, Jr, there's Gates of Gotham stuff in there that I didn't expect to come back and it's really neat to see that it's a synthesis of the styles and all this continuity that you've built up over the years. And, speaking of synthesis, Jock is next level in this. He's wonderful, but he's playful in a way.

He is! He was one of the first artists to ever take the chance on me. [By] “Black Mirror,” he was already a big star. He had done Losers, and he had done a ton of movie stuff and he had done all these award-winning covers for Scalped. I mean, he had done Faker, all kinds of stuff and he had a big career in concept art, in film. I knew he was a person I wanted to work with on “Black Mirror” and I actually paid my own way to San Diego Comic-Con just to meet him, to be like, “Okay, will you please, please work with me on Detective Comics?” And he didn't know me from anyone, and we just went out and had a beer. And my whole mission in San Diego that year was just to try and win him over.

I remember just drinking with him, and he's much bigger than me, and taking beer after beer, seeing if I quit. I was worried he would think I'm a wimp and I'm not Batman ready yet, which is stupid because he would have been fine anyway. Raphael [Albuquerque] and I were both new when we did American Vampire, and so [Jock] was the first superstar to take a chance on me. We've become friends, we've known each other now ten years plus and he's watched my kids grown up, I've watched his kids grow up. Our wives are friendly.

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To get to work with him on a project like this, there's just a shorthand. We did Wytches together as well, we've done indie stuff, we've done superhero stuff. It's a pleasure because when you work with somebody who you know understands what you're going for and will give you more than you ask for, will elevate it and do something that inspires you, it's better than you ever expected. It frees you up.

I was trying to explain this when I was talking about Greg on Last Knight on Earth also. I feel like right now I get to work with these people, Jorge Jimenez, Jim Cheung [both artists on Justice League], and of course Greg. We're all friends and I know them and they see what I'm going for and they're like "you write the words, we just respond to it." When I picture what Jock can do on the page with Batman Who Laughs or what Greg is going to do on the page with Last Knight, it inspires new ideas and new creations.

I wouldn't think of the Batman Who Laughs as a character if not for these artists. I get excited by what I think the possibilities are under their pen, and therefore, I can think of the idea. I keep trying to tell them, without inflating their confidence too much, so that they don't think that they need me at all, that they're much more responsible for the genesis of a lot of these story ideas, too than they think they are.

Is that a difference from when you first started working with them? You mentioned you've been working with Jock for ten years across multiple different companies, very dramatically different stories. You had a monster run with Greg Capullo, and Last Knight on Earth is kind of the culmination of that. Is that different now because you have their art in your head when you're coming up with the stories? Is their work flow different?

Yeah, it's totally different. And when I say that it's to their credit. When I started, I was really strict with myself because I was so insecure about writing full scripts, handing it to an artist and hoping they understood what I was going for. What I learned quickly with Greg and with Jock, while we were working...but with Greg especially on Batman, because he really...Jock likes to work from full script and Greg doesn't. Greg really taught me, and Jock afterwards as well, that you adapt to the artist. The fun is writing a script that inspires them and that means bending your style so that you lean in to certain areas of fluidity.

Read more: Why Batman Still Matters 80 Years Later

For example, Jock really likes having room to play when it comes to action. Whereas Greg really likes to have the acting, like the emotional scenes, written out pretty clearly. But, other scenes that are big set piece things wide open. And when you learn what your artist enjoys doing, where they enjoy having more room, less room, more direction, less direction, you get the best out of them and it gets the best out of you. I learned to be a better writer. And I'm very grateful to them for that mentorship.

Now it's much different. At the beginning, I used to just write the same kind of full script for everybody. Now I get on the phone with them...we talk about the issue...I run them through, they tell me their favorite moments, improvise a little bit. And then when I write up the script, the parts that they want loose, I make loose. The parts they want tight, I make tight.

There are still people like Jim Cheung who really like full scripts, so I write full scripts for him. I really just love being adaptable.

What about The Batman Who Laughs are you most excited to hand off to Josh Williamson?

Oh man, well I can't even begin to tell you how great the story is that Josh has plans for on Batman/Superman. There's a big hook at the end of Batman Who Laughs, it's always been there at the beginning. I'm nervous because it's dark, but ultimately, it's what we've been building towards and what it engenders in terms of Josh's story and then beyond, what it builds through Year of the Villain and to even bigger stuff come the fall into the winter. It's really out of control. I read the first four issues of Batman/Superman and it's incredible. He's going to kill it. And David [Marquez]'s art on it is just out of control. It's so good, you have to pick it up. It's gonna be a blockbuster hit, I promise you.

read more - The Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

What I hope people take away from Batman Who Laughs above all is this. I want it to stand with my best work. I'm deeply proud of it as one of my final meditations on what makes Batman so enduring and so tragic. [And] Last Knight is almost a great counterpart to this. This one is the darkest sort of notes in that same song in a way. But what it is is that I want it to stand singularly and individually as something that is one of my best books I've ever done and I've put everything that I have into it with this team and the team has as well.

If you're reading Justice League and you read Batman/Superman and you read Batman Who Laughs, those books literally come together as do a few more that we're going to surprise you with to really culminate in Year of the Villain with a giant, sort of Lex Luthor, Batman Who Laughs storyline. All of that stuff then sort of blows up into something that I can't even talk about yet because it's going to be so fun.

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Interview Jim Dandy

Jun 13, 2019

DC Entertainment

Batman

Scott Snyder

from Books http://bit.ly/2X7IrDH