#so artemis was so important to me as a kid- seeing that kind of representation (even if unintentionally done) did sm for me as a kid

[daisies-on-a-cup]

tbh i like artemis from the young justice tv show so much because she was a mixed asian girl who didn't really look asian. that could be blamed on just how the show's animation style looked, but her sister jade looked way more like their mother than artemis did, who resembled her white father very much. i saw myself in her, someone disconnected from her mother in phenotype and culture. the genetics are there, but one has shown through dominant and the environment has raised her away from any kind of asian influence or culture that might have been hers. it was so important to me, and still is, that i got to have her as a character i could look up to because even though her asian heritage is hardly ever spoken of and isn't a plot line integral to her character in the show, it still mattered and made artemis more than whatever biases or standards were placed on her from looks alone. we can talk about how her mother was represented in the show, and how her sister jade subsequently fell to the same fate, and how neither of their stories or heritage matters a lick to anyone except to the characters themselves, but i just want it to be known how important a mixed girl like artemis was to me

[silkhy-john]

HEADCANON:

Nico saying "I smell like death and animals fear me for it" is incorrect. Here's reasons why:

1. It's really no secret at this point that Nico is the most powerful demigod alive in-canon. He's so powerful that he has enough reserve strength and vitality (after recovering as much as he possibly could from Tartarus, starvation, and using the seeds in the state he was in. You don't ever fully recover from things like those) to constantly have his fear aura and cryokinesis emanating low-key, kind of like his wavelength.

But, it's at its lowest when he's with Will/Jason/Hazel/Reyna/Gleeson/whoever you ship him with, but never fully off. The fact that he emanates an aura puts him one step closer to god than mortal by the way.

ANYWAY, the constant emanation of the fear aura definitely makes animals skittish, but as he doesn't really let it off when he's alone with animals, they crowd him and glomp him whenever he's alone with them.

2. A lot of the animals he interacts with are probably animals tied to gods who don't have the best of relationships with Hades.

This one should be pretty self-explanatory. When you make an enemy of a god, you make an enemy of practically everything they represent (imagine permanently pissing off Hygeia or Asclepius... yeah, let's not).

Think of Annabeth and cows. Her Bovine Majesty, Hera, that goat skin gal, Queen of the gods, doesn't like Annabeth, and cows, by extension, do not (why are there so many commas???). The difference here is that Hera actively does things to screw around with Annabeth, and the only thing stopping her from screwing up Annabeth's relationships and (eventual) marriage is Athena giving her the look. Enough about my Annabeth|Hera head-canons though.

So whenever Nico interacts with a horse and equine creatures, or an eagle, or a cow, they get skittish and violent because of the gods they're tied to not liking Hades, and by proxy, him (exception here is Zeus, who genuinely dislikes Nico and would kill him if that didn't mean dying at Hades' hands, quite literally btw).

3. Animals don't really fear death (itself), which Nico represents.

Here's an important distinction for you and a head-canon from me (one I might write a piece on): Hades' children are representations of death itself, while Thanatos' children, as children of the god of death, represent it's causes.

I don't want you to think of to confuse it with him repping death by old age (that would be children of Geras).

Anyway, all creatures seem to take comfort in death, and thus Nico. And when an animal is comfortable with you, it tends to either leave you to your business, or seek your attention.

This one is cracky and feels like something I'd write a piece for at 3AM when I can't sleep.

4. This one is about Artemis|Nico.

Basically, as a sort of apology to Nico cause she knew what it meant to take away the only person he had at the time (and for a long time, really), I head-canon that Artemis has marked Nico with one of her blessings (a boon for my Hades players out there).

This specific mark is the one that numbs wild animals'/animals with violent dispositions' instinct to attack creatures they perceive as "dangerous".

Animals aren't daft. They can tell a dangerous individual, and some attack on sight to get the upper hand. Of course, Nico is too powerful for a non-mythical beast to so much as scratch him (he wouldn't kill them, just scare them off).

Anyway, with the mark, wild animals basically act as their domestic counterparts would around Nico.

I head-canon that when he first started shadow-travelling and would wind up passed out on totally different continents or in different places, he woke up one day in Tsavo East National Park with man-eating lions (look it up, fairly interesting) curled up around him and purring.

Anyway, now that we've dived into my mind and swam steadily downwards, we've finally reached the bottom where one thing is left: SHITPOSTING. Let's do it.

Animals when nico's fear aura is on: I do not know this man. I could see him walking down the streets and I would not recognise him. Sorry to this m–

Animals when nico's fear aura is low: cuddle time. Time to cuddle. Yup. Did someone say snuggling? Come here, boyo *glomps said boyo*

Nico:

Nico: so do you like me or not???

Zeus [on mount olympus]: I think it's about time I sent an eagle to pluck his ey–

(ground rumbles)

Zeus [nervously]: *clears throat* –to pluck the twigs out of the boy's hair, why is he so bad with maintaining his hair?

(Will is doing some stuff for a Veterinarian son of kymopoleia. Nico accompanies him to the vet's like the supportive boyfriend he is)

Will: why are you covered in cats???

Nico [covered in cats and enjoying every second of it]: cause you're giving the dogs a check-up, doctor

(Will got turned on when nico said doctor, guys, don't blame me)

(Hades and Hera get into a cat fight. It's for a very petty reason; their pet peeves with each other's children)

Hades: time-out! Can't we just try to get along now that our boys are dating each other?

Hera [pensive; the expression looks fake]: *adjusts goat skin on shoulders*

Hera: . . . no

(Cat fighting continues)

(Snow-white!Nico AU with Reyna and Hazel as main supporting cast, Percy as prince, and Hera as misunderstood evil queen with her own character arc? Closer than you'd think)

Reyna: stop singing nico

Nico: why?

Hazel: You're covered in birds nico. BIRDS, PLURAL!

Nico: makes me even more fly :)

Percy: omg literally so hot *swoons*

Hera: *strokes cow behind ears* can we skip to the part where he eats the apple and gets trampled by my trusty cow?

(The story falls apart. Not even the Apollo kids can save it. Lesson is not to let the aphrodite cabin do storytime at the campfire).

Hazel: oh, I didn't know you had pets, Nico

Nico: I don't

Hazel: why all the random animals, then

Nico:

Nico: you're not trying to kick out my other visitors, are you

That's it, guys. Deuces. Yes, some of the head-canons here might feature in my next nico-centric (ooohhhhh, *interest sounds*).

I'd like to do more posts like these, but they're a bit time-consuming to write up. It's still so worth it though.

Should I do more like these? (The "head-canon/opinion dump-into-shitpost" format). You tell me. I mean, I'll still make them, just more frequently if yes is the answer.

[trenchcas]

ok what if i dropped my fancast for the greek gods for the pjo show 😳 Disney if you see this hire me (jk)

Zeus: I think they should just bring back Sean Bean bc I love sean bean (maybe hugh jackman idk OOH or jeff bridges)

Poseidon: Logan Lerman should play Poseidon and this is the hill I will die on. Please. Otherwise, I would want an Pacific Islander to play him. I think Poseidon’s casting depends heavily on Percy’s so, (maybe Jason momoa, but it feels too basic)

Hades: okay I heard Mads Mikkelsen and Luke Evans and ngl I’m kinda invested in those (update someone said Tom Hiddleston and I- I don’t know)

Hera: I really want to say Angelina Jolie bc she gives me big Hera vibes but

Hestia: Lily Collins for an older Hestia, but PJO Hestia is a little younger. She’s like 8 years old or something.

Demeter: okay hot take but either Beyoncé or Lupita Nyong’o or a little older Demeter as Angela Bassett , because I’ve always pictured Demeter as being dark-skinned. For lighter skin: Keira Knightley

Persephone: I’m not sure who played her in the original movies but that was a really good fit and she should come back (just maybe not with the same character writing). For a new Persephone casting, idk

Ares: someone really buff like the rock

Athena: Brie Larson. That is it. I want Brie Larson to play Athena. (Or Zoe Saldana, I love both of them)

Apollo: this one was kind of hard, because in my mind Apollo was always tan with golden hair, but he was never actually white. I heard Lucas Till and it’s not a bad fit, but I want him to be tanner. Also, I cant look at Lucas Till and see anyone else except the guy from YBWM, which makes watching X-Men very fun. (Someone said Sam Claflin and sixth grade me is literally sobbing because we had the biggest crush on Finnick)

Artemis: Artemis, I feel like as goddess of the moon would be a little paler than her brother. I heard someone say Keira Knightley, and she does sound like a good fit. Only Artemis in PJO is a teenage girl, so it doesn’t work out. I think they should cast an unknown kid like they did for the demigods.

Hephaestus: I really want a disabled actor to play Hephaestus, because in the myths he’s got kind of disabled legs, and I think it would be great representation for children watching. I don’t know many disabled actors, but after some research I found Robert David Hall. He’s a little bit on the older side but I would want someone with a walking disability to play Hephaestus. (I heard Peter Dinklage once)

Aphrodite: I think she should be played by a bunch of different women, but none of them should be a “blonde bombshell”. For example, she should change forms from a plus sized black woman, to a dark skinned East Asian woman, to a dark skinned Indian woman with body hair, etc etc. if i had to settle for one person, Lizzo. Why? I don’t know. Anyway no one playing Aphrodite should fit the “blond hair blue eyes” beauty standard. DIVERSITY IS IMPORTANT.

Hermes: I would love to see Jake Abel play Hermes, honestly. He’s old enough to do that now so I wouldn’t complain if he did. (Someone said Misha I’m literally crying)

Dionysus: normally for Dionysus I’d say someone young like Timothee Chalamet, because that’s how he’s described in the myths, but since PJO Dionysus is a middle aged dude, Jack Black. He would be a good Bacchus and I think PJO’s Dionysus and Bacchus are close enough for it to work.

That’s really all I have so thanks for reading this far if you did lol and feel free to add on in the notes!!

[eyrieofsynapses]

on YJ’s time-skips, and why I see value in them

I know a lot of people in the Young Justice fandom aren’t very pleased with the long time-skips, because they end up cutting out mass amounts of character development and important events. To some level, I agree. It feels as though we were cheated of some amazing moments.

But at the same time, I have to admit it: it’s one of my favorite aspects of the show. In fact, it’s something that I’ve been drawing a not-insignificant degree of comfort from lately. Because here’s the thing: we watch the original Team grow, and change, and develop into full-blown adults in a way that, had they chosen to eliminate the time jumps, we would never have seen. (Don’t kid yourselves. If they’d gone year-by-year, we’d be in Year 4, maybe Year 5, not Year 10, by this point. We never would have gotten to Year 10, because of how long seasons take to produce. We might never have even gotten the show revived.) There’s a massive amount of value in that, because A) we get a very fascinating look at character development that we don’t usually otherwise see, and B) on a more personal note... it’s a little reassuring to me, as someone in their late teens, to see the tangled, young, naive Team from the first season grow into a maturer, wiser, stabler, and in many ways better Team from the third and presumably fourth season. 

See, Artemis and Dick might still be going through all kinds of grief, and M’gann may still be struggling with learning that she can’t lie to people to make them feel better, and Conner might occasionally still have angry outbursts, and Kaldur may still be learning how to be a leader, and Wally- well, you know. But here’s the flip side. 

Conner’s learned how to control his anger, and he’s made huge amounts of progress, and he shows that anger management works, shows that you can choose who you become. We even get to see him pass down that knowledge to Brion. He’s found peace, even through all the turmoil. He’s discovered that he doesn’t have to destroy things: he can build them, instead.

M’gann is still struggling with knowing how far to go, but she has made progress. She represents the idea that sometimes, learning what’s right and what’s wrong is a process, and it may take a long time but you can change, you can learn, and even a little progress is better than none at all. Becoming a psychologist shows she’s trying to learn why what she did was wrong, and she’s trying to keep others from going down the path she did. She’s trying to learn how to help and understand people without the crutch of her powers. 

Kaldur has moved on through some horrible things. He has a boyfriend, now; he’s moved on from Tula, he’s healed and made it through. He hasn’t let himself be defined by his father, and instead has grown far past him, much like Artemis. He’s a confident and stable leader: he believes in himself now. He knows what he can and cannot do, and he knows he’s worthy of the mantle of Aquaman.

Wally- well, we’ll see how the fourth season goes, but we even saw bits and pieces of how he changed in the second season. He was comfortable with handing down the Kid Flash mantle; he knew that he was worthy of it, had found the security he never had five years ago. The Wally West of Season One would never have passed on that mantle for fear that he was being replaced. But five years later? He knew he’d earned it, and knew that Bart needed it more than he did, and took great joy in passing it on.

Dick’s still learning, but he’s found a place where he can be comfortable leading. He’s still figuring out how to separate himself from Bruce’s methods- no better representation of that than the utter chaos that was Batman Inc.- but he is figuring it out, he is figuring out how to build his own legacy, how to be himself and not the big bad Bat. That’s evident in something as simple as how he trains with the team, in how he allows himself to be a little more open- if not very much- than his mentor, in how he’s left behind constantly keeping his secret identity. He trusts much more than Bruce, and though he has a long way to go, he’s learning.

Artemis... oh, where do I begin? Losing Wally hurt her, but we watch her learn to pick up the pieces, learn to move on, learn to find herself in the mess. The pain is there, and she acknowledges that, embraces it, and then moves past it. She knows now that her family and upbringing don’t define her; she’s confident in her identity in ways she never was in the first season. There is no desperate desire to prove herself anymore. And more than that, she’s beginning to work toward helping others who struggle with the same things she did. She sees herself in Tara and she does what she can to help her heal. Her story is powerful and relatable: healing from something terrible, and then using her  experience to help others heal too. I can’t tell you how much I look up to Artemis.

I could go on. Will, Zatanna, Gar, Ed, Jaime, Cassie, Bart, even Jade, I could go on and on and on- I won’t, because this would get to be ten thousand words if I did, but you get the picture. 

See, they’re all still growing, all still learning; they’re not finished by any stretch of the imagination. But they have learned, they have grown. That’s what YJ is: a story of growing. And things have gotten better. They have futures. They’re more confident in themselves. And as someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of hope for the future, some days? That means more than I can say. 

We wouldn’t have gotten most of that without the time jumps. The events that pass and shape YJ couldn’t have all occurred without them. That kind of development doesn’t happen in a year. You don’t change that dramatically in a few months. Life just doesn’t work that way.

So look, you can hate the time gaps as much as you want; if you’re someone who didn’t like season three, that’s your opinion, and I respect it. If you disagree, I respect that. But I think they make the show unique, maybe a little better. It feels like something I can learn and grow beside. It feels like a reminder that despite things being truly horrible right now in the pandemic, the world will move on. It feels like a promise that I, too, like the Team, will grow and learn and find hope, even in the darkness, even if I’m flawed. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.