#she's the Big Bad

[d-issent]

You guys ever thrown a massive tantrum over things not going your way, to the point that it actually ruins the lives of those around you?

Hopefully not - but Cora absolutely has.

While "Dissent" was focused mainly on the Mid Sodor Railway, I had planned to only show the railway in flashbacks throughout the story. A huge chunk of these flashbacks involved Duke, Smudger, Stanley, the railway's manager and his daughter Cora.

I've talked before about how; due to pretty shitty circumstances, my TTTE AU is focused on the engines being sentient and mobile enough to essentially make up for the lack of humans, hence why they're cyborgs and not trains. However for some people there's a pretty fine line between the engines being there to assist humanity and being there to replace humanity.

The latter is unfortunately what Cora believes. By the time the comic reaches the 80's, there is a definite but not aggressive effort to start phasing engines out of public service as humanity begins to recover from the chunk taken out of its population. However, Cora ultimately reaches a high enough position of power that she can speed up that process, so much so that it ends up being more like a total decommission effort.

However there was/is one engine who - in her mind, she had planned to spare, though to most everyone else, he got arguably the cruelest treatment from her - and that engine was Smudger.

Cora's initial grudge against the engines stems from when her father - the Mid Sodor manager, tried to introduce one into the family after the death of his wife, Cora's mother. Hence where Cora's mindset on engines replacing humans comes from.

It's essentially deep-set and unaddressed grief and anger all mixed up into one, big mess, and unfortunately quite a lot of engines get caught up in that mess, with Smudger being the one who bears most of the brunt. Unfortunately for Smudger, the fact that his personality chip didn't come with a set personality - and he's essentially like a sponge, soaking up little bits and pieces of everyone he's been in contact with - makes him stick out like a sore thumb in terms of the way he acts.

To put it simply, he's really not like other girls! And that isn't lost on Cora, he's a breath of fresh air for her. In her mind; each time she visits the MSR in the story, she's surrounded by cookie-cutter, mandated-personality engines with no individuality, she sees them as nothing else but soulless machines, until Smudger. In her eyes, he's the only one who could actually pass as human.

So! She develops quite the soft spot for him, a soft spot that quickly turns detrimental when she confesses to him that she dreams of a perfect world where humans outgrow the need for engines, by any means possible! But as it turns out, he doesn't actually appreciate being her "only exception," and he also doesn't appreciate her confidently saying that she wants all of his friends and coworkers scrapped, so he quits being his usual feisty and warmhearted self and tells her that to her face.

From that point on, the plot becomes kind of fuzzy, but I remember that she was actually the one who convinced the MSR's manager to convert Smudger into a generator after all of that. I imagine the manager was already thinking of putting him to some other use, because it was very evident by then that his prototype bodywork wasn't anywhere near as durable as the rest of the engines. But Cora's influence was the killing blow.

I honestly can't remember much about her motives? I think her intention was to stop Smudger from blabbing about her whole "perfect world" vision, but I think what she really wanted was a way to punish him for rejecting her, and also to get hold of his personality chip. Going the generator route meant that she could put his bodywork to some other use and then take the chip so she could maybe build him another body later? I don't actually think I got that far back when I first thought up the story! But she definitely wanted to keep him with her, regardless of what he wanted. Ironic, since his "individuality" and his "ability to think for himself" was what endeared him to her in the first place.

But - that's Cora! She was meant to be a kind of "surprise" villain, but if I'm honest it probably would've been obvious that she was no good. I think she was also responsible for decommissioning Stanley too, since he was actually the first engine on Mid Sodor to realise that she wanted them all scrapped. Though she probably had a much easier time convincing the powers that be to convert him into a pumping engine, as he was clearly unstable and still had the weaponry he'd used in the war just, sitting on his shoulders lmao.

If I remember more - I'll be sure to add onto this post. But, man it feels great to get some of these ideas down after 7 or so years.

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[artkaninchenbau]

People keep on asking for more Baby Robin and Papadile so here is more Baby Robin and Papadile. Now never ask anything from me ever again

[zaana]

Crosshair being a big brother

[bibbysstuff]

[barissoffee]

"You're our kid, Omega. You always will be."

[taffywabbit]

I finally watched breaking bad (all within the past week or so while I worked, finished it and watched el camino last night) and I'm confident this isn't a new thought I'm expressing or anything but genuinely how DID an entire generation of dudes convince themselves Walter White was cool and admirable and intended to be sympathetic. I know ppl just lack media literacy sometimes but I'm still so confused

I don't think I've EVER watched a piece of media that so blatantly depicts a guy making the worst possible decisions at every turn and having his life ruined for it and not being redeemed or made sympathetic in any significant or lasting way. the kinds of justifications villains USUALLY give that make people consider them "morally grey" or "tragic" or whatever (everything I did was for my loved ones, I did what I had to to survive, once I was in this I couldn't get out, I just needed you to trust me so I could keep you safe, etc etc) is ALWAYS framed as complete self-serving bullshit when Walt says it, and one of the only shreds of personal growth he ever exhibits in the whole series is when he finally fucking admits that. every time he does something even remotely cool or drops a quotable one-liner, something terrible immediately happens that makes everything worse and makes him look like an unreasonable idiot asshole again. by the end of the series the ONLY characters they can still contrast as being morally "worse" than him are literally a bunch of bloodthirsty neonazis who kept a guy in a cage for several months. this show is practically SCREAMING at you the entire time not to admire Walt. why did every dude I knew in highschool have his face on tshirts and Facebook pfps.

I just don't get it. at least with The Dark Knight's Joker it was like, a feature-length movie and that's it. you spend a lot less time with the Joker and it has a lot less time to delve into his motivations, so there's way more room for flanderization and misinterpretation as people extrapolate the few cool/interesting/sad things they saw into a whole nuanced misunderstood guy in their heads and online. Walter White has 5 seasons' worth of 45min episodes to convince you beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a miserable fucking loser who ruins everything he touches because of greed and selfishness. if you weren't watching it for that, what WERE you getting out of this. what DID you think this show was about. am I just missing some key piece of context from 2012 or whatever that would help me understand this

[tizzymcwizzy]

so..... there's another blonde guy................

[bluerosefox]

Drake Siblings

Have I read this prompt somewhere or was this a fever dream from my bored mind.

What if, now hear me out.

What if we bring up Dana Winters-Drake (whose confirmed to at least be alive in the DC verse but no one knows where she actually is)

What if instead of when she had a mental breakdown and getting committed to an Bludhaven clinc she wandered away before anyone noticed and by the time Tim or anyone did notice a lot of stuff started happening at once in both Gotham and Bludhaven (Steph dying, The Bludhaven crisis, etc etc)

Tim still tries to find her though but even with best resources it was like she just disappeared into the wilderness and the stress of trying to handle more and more problems get worse.

So when out of the blue, a couple of years later, he gets a call from an unknown number. On his private, only for friends and family, phone and when he answers he meet with a young girls voice on the other end.

A very young, maybe six or seven, girl who informs him about his apparently half-brother Danny Drake-Fenton. And how she loves Danny so, so, so much but knows her home is dangerous for him to be in.

Tim is stunned and before he could question her, she says Danny is Dana and Jack's baby and that her parents had adopted him years ago and put Dana's stuff that the hospital had away for him to look at when he was older but she just had to fight off their lunch from eating her brother and she knows he needs a better place to live and so she snooped around and found Dana's diary and that she had to unscramble the nonsense Dana wrote and found Tim's number with the words 'tell him about his brother Danny' hidden in it. And-

But before she could keep rambling she hears Danny screaming "JAZZY THE MILK WENT BAD AGAIN AND HISSED AT ME!"

Tim is left with silence after hearing Jazz yell to Danny to lock the fridge and step out of the kitchen as she gets the bat.

[mroddmod]

she’ll be alright because she had you.

[boojangs]

Enid: Wednesday, go apologize to Thing or I won't help you.

Wednesday:

Enid:

Wednesday: Yes, querida.

Enid: Wednesday, I made a black cat costume for you.

Wednesday:

Enid:

Wednesday: Yes, querida.

Enid: Wednesday, I made us matching snoods!

Wednesday:

Enid:

Wednesday: Yes, querida.

Enid: Wednesday, please get rid of your creepy crime board.

Wednesday:

Enid:

Wednesday: Yes, querida.

Enid: Wednesday, please hold me in your-

Wednesday: Yes, querida.

[minionsuncle]

Kipperlily..?

[llitchilitchi]

more Slovak Miku! this time in folk dress from Čajkov with its iconic horned cap

[131-vr]

Perfect family

[tenderjock]

SPIKE: do you need a dog. i can bark caps frm

[welcometogrouchland]

ANOTHER SKETCH DUMP! Featuring more of me playing with lineless art. Batman reborn era trio (dick, damian and steph) I miss you...when will you return from war. Also featuring Steph designs bc I've seen ppl dissatisfied w/ her current look, some good mom Talia, and Jason Todd poetry club. Duke is confused not that Jason would start a poetry club but that he'd have such mid poetry opinions. (ID in Alt)