#superhero logic am i right

[mangoisms]

WAIT A SECOND. just saw something. remember when i was wondering if people knew what batarangs were. because i constantly wonder about the level of knowledge ppl have in-universe in gotham. WELL

i didn’t even realize it when i read this issue but. PRESUMABLY. it IS because they’re at a party and she thinks he’s just ‘dressed’ as robin. so people do know that batarangs are. well. called batarangs. right?????

sorry i just saw this posted again on instagram and it BARELY hit me. ok. wow. it was for a thing in ck that i ultimately solved by having him call it that. but. that’s not necessary. apparently. well.

(also this page and the few after are so funny to me. this entire thing. bc bart and kon step in and then he gets mad 😭)

[thestargayzingheroine]

Why A Better World is my favourite "Evil Superman" Story

So in the last two decades or so, there's been a notable amount of dark and edgy stories around superheroes turning evil and whatnot and most of them really love to do their own expies of Superman. I've never been the biggest fans of these kinds of stories.

And then there's the actual stories of Superman and other heroes being outright villains or at least just massive assholes. In recent years, this has been largely thanks to the influence of media like the Injustice Games or the Synderverse DC movies. It's... honestly become a trope I am tired of.

Because you know the damnest thing? There is a story that does all these ideas really damn well and arguably better. It is the two-parter from the Justice League cartoon "A Better World".

Now, I am aware how most people favouring the DCAU has become a bit of toxic nostalgia at times and it's something I myself am trying to work through a bit. But in this case, I do think it's the best idea of doing an evil DC story, much better and more interesting than the Crime Syndicate, who if you ask me are not very interesting, though I do remember liking the Crisis On Two Earths movie a lot, which funny enough, was originally going to be this two parter before various things led to it being canned and then later repurposed as a direct to DVD movie.

Anyway, my main crux of why I love this story is simple... The entire Justice League turns evil... and the reasons are very much in-character for all of them. You look at the scene with Justice Lord Batman for example.

As fucking evil as the Justice Lords are... Batman can't quite fully hate his alternate self for his reason for taking part in all this being basically one-step further than his own mission, that no child should ever go through what he did. Hell, I recall reading that the reason the writers had Batman drop his batarang at the end of this scene... was because he genuinely wouldn't be able to come up with an argument to that.

Superman likewise kills Lex Luthor because yeah, Luthor literally exploited the flaws in Democracy and became president of the US, threatening to kinda basically start world war 3. It's obviously horrible... but Superman is a character whose main motivation is making the world a better place. And if people who abuse the systems of power of the world are hurting people, why shouldn't Superman put a stop to that?

And yeah, Superman should obviously never kill, he's the most paragon of paragons of the DC universe, a man committed to always being better than the villains he fights... but this is him pushed to his most logical extreme. Hell, the main Superman knows this and its why Lex used his knowledge of this alternate universe as part of his plan in the season after this, to goad our Superman into crossing the line because yeah, there's a part of him that could go this far.

But right as Superman is about to apparently finish him, the big guy says this.

"I'm not the man who killed President Luthor. I wish to heaven that I were but I'm not."

Because Superman like everyone else, obviously would have those same thoughts and same urges. He's human.

I've kinda gone off Injustice a bit because to be honest... the injustice games were kinda just this but a bit too edgelordy. Hell, in A Better World, Lois Lane still lives and the whole genesis of it doesn't revolve around her getting fridged.

So yeah, A Better World is probably one of my favourite mirror universe stories because of the fact that well... it really is like looking in a mirror and seeing just how easy the greatest heroes can become evil and how they wouldn't be massively out of character doing so. But also it reminds us that as much as this darkness can tempt some of our finest, the ones who don't go down this dark path are stronger in heart than anyone else. Because when the world becomes a dark and horrible place, it becomes very easy to be just as dark. But even though it can be hard to still try and be a good person even in dark times, it's ultimately worth it. Because good always triumphs over evil.

[spidey-x-male-reader]

Pairing: Roy Harper x male!reader

Warnings: a bit of swearing. spiders. god i hate spiders

Summary: You're aggresively texting your boyfriend when you realize that there's a very scary spider in your living room

A/N: I've just been driven out of my living room by a spider so I did the only logical thing and made a small thing out of it instead of working through requests

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

MASTERLIST

It was a little before midnight and you've been chilling in your living room with your two dogs and your laptop for a while already, working on some different personal projects. 

That had been what you were doing, at least until you saw the large spider on the ceiling. No problem. You could deal with that.

But then it lowered itself down, and up again, and further down, and you were sure you were going to die of paranoia of it just jumping top of you. So you did the only sensible thing: texting your boyfriend.

Babe. Babe, I need your help. It's urgent.

You only realize that this was quiet shitty wording when his answer seemed to be incredibly panicked.

Are you okay??

Ah right. You were dating a superhero. His version of urgent was probably more concerning a supervillain.

Spider. In the living room.

For a few moments there's no answer. Then there's typing for a bit before a short answer arrives

Be there in five

Five long, agonizing and paranoid minutes later your boyfriend, in full gear, climbs in through the window.

"Now where is the dangerous beast that's threatening the love of my life?" he asks in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh come on." you huff but then point up towards the ceiling.

"What? I just find it funny that you're– holy shit that thing is big."

"That's what I've been saying!"

For a few seconds your boyfriend just stands there.

Your boyfriend, who has fought some of the most dangerous people and creatures there are. Who's been a hero for years.

And then he turns to you.

"You know what? I'll call Jaybird."

You stare at him. "You'll call the scourge of the gotham underworld to take care of a spider?"

"I am not going anywhere near that thing."

You both led out equally manly screams when it moved further down.

"...it's just a tactical retreat." he says while getting out his phone, dialing a number. A second later he starts to talk. "Hey Jaybird. I need your help with something…yeah…yeah let's call it a mission."

He looks at you with a slight smirk that already shows you that you'll be the one who will have to explain this to Jason.

But you don't care. Not with your perfect boyfriend at your side.

And the option to finally get that fucking hell beast out of your apartment.

[avelera]

I am never going to be over what the movies did with Steve and Tony's dynamic, because- listen, listen. The reason Civil War was (supposed to, it was kind of a hot mess) hit so hard in the comics was that these two were *best friends* and had been for decades of comic time. In the movies, they never are friends, so Civil War is just two colleagues who never really got on, and not the devastating tearing apart of a long-established friendship group.

Dude I literally burst out into like... outraged, furious laughter in the theater when Tony said, "I thought I was your friend?" because, umm, footage not fucking found?

I completely get and respect the comic readers here for whom Steve & Tony and Steve/Tony were, in fact, the best of friends! But the MCU never ever actually showed it.

To cram that line, which felt lifted from the comics, into the MCU was genuinely laughable. How could Tony possibly think he compares to what we've seen of Steve and Bucky's relationship, since childhood even if you don't ship them, as the only person Steve has left from his entire life pre-WWII? How could Tony possibly think he compares except through the lens of a galaxy sized ego and being totally self-involved to the exclusion of all else? How could any work colleague, since that's what they are at best when not outright antagonists to each other in the MCU, think they'd compare to a childhood friend in danger, that Tony is actively putting in danger? Who Tony is blaming for the death of his father despite the fact they've got piles of evidence that Bucky was a mind-controlled prisoner of war being actively tortured at the time?

It's literally staggering, it beggars belief that this line was uttered. And wildly enough, it's not even my least favorite line in Civil War. (That one goes to Vision's stupid fucking comment about how strength invites challenge, basically victim-blaming the superheroes for having villains, which only possibly makes any sense if you ignore Thor, the greater galaxy, all of the infinity stones, and basically every other part of the MCU timeline before Steve Rogers got the serum, Christ that line makes me mad.

Oh, and the line about Tony just handwaving signing the accords because their lawyers can fix it later as the most boneheaded line of insane privilege I've ever heard. Kids, never fucking sign something just because you can supposedly fix it later, christ it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.)

ANYWAY, I have major beef with Civil War's logic. It never should have happened where it did in the MCU. Cap 3 should have been dedicated to its original plot before they found out RDJ was staying on in the MCU and they had the pieces to make Civil War (the original was the hunt for Bucky and an examination of Captain America's legacy through the lens of Bucky killing off the pretenders the US government set up to be him over the years, and I still weep that we never got it) But I do honestly, deeply, have sympathy for comic fans and why they're mad about the Steve and Tony friendship never actually appearing on screen in any meaningful way.

Civil War shouldn't have happened then. Civil War is a plot you run now, when you've got the rights to the X-Men and too many damn characters running amok. Civil War would be perfect now for pairing down some of the ballooning MCU nonsense. The cast was literally not big enough circa Cap 3 to make Civil War. And I'm eternally bitter that they pivoted away from the smaller-scale Cap-centric movie we should have had and instead made another Avengers movie in its name.

[suzukiblu]

Been looking through your assorted aus page and the link for "weird amnesia Timberkon"/"for the game young" is broken (as in, the tag does not appear to exist). It seems like you put a lot of time into that page so I figured you'd want to know (and also selfishly I am very interested in finding out what weird amnesia timberkon entails)

WHOOPS, my bad, messed that one up. Should be all fixed on the page now, though! Oddly I only seem to have one teeny lil' snippet up for that AU, to my surprise, could've sworn I'd posted more? Sooooo as thanks for catching that busted link for me, have a nice big chunk of the WIP behind this read-more, hah.

So Superboy is apparently an idiot. Then again, whatever, if Bernard were an indestructible telekinetic half-alien he would probably also not worry too much about looking subtle in his civvies or maintaining a secret identity, and also it's been a while since he's heard anything about the guy doing any active superheroing anyway so maybe Superboy is just assuming that the entire planet somehow forgot about his teen heartthrob superhero posters and all those close-up high-def publicity shots of his very public face and whatever? Oh, and also that one time that he literally fucking died to save the whole freaking world and the big ol' memorial statue. Statues? There might've been two, come to think. 

So maybe an idiot. 

A very hot idiot, though. 

Well, whatever, Bernard figures, taking a sip of his boba tea and idly watching Superboy check out his boyfriend from the far side of the cafe like he's a sad puppy in a shop window who just wants a little love. Tim is looking at his phone and appears oblivious to Superboy's existence. 

Bernard assumes Tim's doing that thing where he pretends to not be Robin, for obvious reasons. That thing remains adorable but is getting increasingly less convincing as time goes on. Like, he really doesn't know what Tim actually thinks he thinks he does in his downtime? There is no logical reason for a civilian to be either as ripped or as scarred as Tim Drake is, but part of being Tim Drake's boyfriend is pretending to be oblivious to those facts and also never questioning his flimsy excuses to run off at a moment's notice or disappear during a crisis or whatever else. 

Bernard tries to figure out how to politely extricate himself from the situation for long enough for Tim to go check up on Superboy, because Superboy very clearly needs to be checked up on. Unfortunately he went to the bathroom like ten minutes before the guy walked in all sad-puppy so the obvious option is out, and Tim knows damn well he isn't gonna call his parents for anything less than a full-on emergency, and his friends it'd be weird not to just text, and . . . fuck, he doesn't know. He needs an angle here. 

"I'll be right back, babe, just gotta duck into the bathroom real quick," Tim says, glancing up from his phone with an apologetic smile. Bernard relaxes slightly. Okay, that works, thank you, Bat-planning. Superboy can just follow Tim back to the bathroom and they can do whatever superhero sidebar they need to do back there. 

But then Tim gets up, gives him a peck on the cheek, and heads back to the bathroom, and Superboy . . . doesn't follow him. 

The hell? 

Bernard represses a frown and takes another sip of his boba. Superboy continues not to follow Tim. He just sits there at his own little table with his completely untouched drink, looking like the saddest puppy that has ever sadded. 

Bernard is mystified. 

Are they having a fight, maybe? Is Tim ignoring Superboy because of that, not the secret ID stuff? That seems weird and not very Tim-like, fighting or not. But Superboy's in Gotham and came into the cafe after they did, so he can't be the one avoiding Tim. But also he didn't follow him to the bathroom when presented with the very unsubtle opportunity to do so, so . . . what the hell? 

Weird. 

Bernard takes yet another sip of boba and keeps watching Superboy. Superboy seems oblivious to said watching, but he guesses the guy is pretty famous and is a very public superhero and is always doing impressive shit and all that, so he's probably used to being watched. Oh, and also he's stupid, stupid hot. 

Bernard cannot imagine being this used to attention, but apparently Superboy is. Bernard, of course, is not a punk idol superhero built like a porn star and a supermodel had a threeway with a bodybuilder. So like, that particular bit of mental dissonance probably makes sense and all. Life experiences are not universal, and all that. 

Especially not when the life experience one is comparing oneself to started in a cloning tube. 

Well, it's not like it's a burden for Bernard to have a free pass on checking out a hottie while he waits for Tim to come back from, presumably, waiting for Superboy to come and talk to him. Which Superboy is just . . . not doing, still. Inexplicably. 

Still, sad puppy or not, Superboy's civvies look damn good on him, so that's something. Bernard's enjoying them, like as an aesthetic experience and everything. Superboy's wearing an unbuttoned red flannel shirt with rolled-up sleeves over a very tight black tank top and even tighter light wash skinny jeans that are bafflingly intact, considering the fact that a dude with Kryptonian-level super-strength is currently vacuum-sealed into them. 

Does tactile telekinesis work on skinny jeans? Is that a thing? Like, are Superboy's jeans currently indestructible? 

That sounds amazing, actually. 

Also, those buckled-up black leather boots he's wearing look like they could straight-up kill a dude, Kryptonian power-assist or not. And the shiny mirrored sunglasses and ridiculous multitude of even shinier gold piercings all suit the guy, somehow, and even without looking like too much. 

Relatedly, Superboy's tank top is very, very tight. 

Also relatedly, his nipples are apparently pierced. 

And so is his belly button, it looks like. 

Ngh. 

Superboy's vacuum-sealed jeans are not quite tight enough for Bernard to figure out if he's got any below the spike-studded belt piercings, but his imagination is happy to fill in the blanks there. He's tempted to ask for Tim's theories on the existence of any such piercings, because yeah Superboy has super-hearing but Bernard has no shame and Tim logically should know, buuuuut he's still pretending not to know Tim is Robin so yeah, probably he shouldn't do that. 

He could start a new conspiracy board for it, maybe. That'd be fun. 

Superboy also has leather cuffs on his wrists and mismatched rings and necklaces and a really hot fade haircut that is noticeably windswept, and really, really looks like something that Bernard would like to see somebody dig their fingers into. Just–look, there's curls. Bernard cannot be blamed for curls. 

And he's trying not to eye the cuff bracelets too much, but they provide very nice inspiration for a certain style of kinky thoughts. Not that Superboy couldn't snap basically any set of cuffs that wasn't made of kryptonite or promethium or like a magical kryptonite-promethium alloy or whatever without even trying, obviously, but like, somehow the thought of the guy having to restrain himself more than anything else makes the whole mental image hotter? Like, somehow? 

Bernard pictures Superboy wearing a pair of cheap flimsy sex toy handcuffs and trying very, very hard to keep himself in them while someone else takes very careful inventory of all his piercings, wherever and whatever they all just so happen to be. 

Jesus. Yeah, there's a thought. 

Is it weird to consider flirting up your boyfriend's superhero bestie while he's badly pretending to be a civilian, Bernard wonders? Is that a thing? 

Probably, but he still has no shame and is also in an open relationship, so whatever. 

Hell, who knows, in retrospect maybe Tim actually arranged this setup specifically for Bernard to get an eyeful of his work crush. Like, Bernard always felt like Robin and Superboy had some significant UST going back in the day. Maybe Tim wants to finally do something about that, and the setup idea sounds like a very "Bat" approach to doing said something. And it'd explain why Superboy didn't follow Tim to the bathroom and maybe even why he's coming across kind of anxious right now, if he's trying to psych himself up to come over or something. Like, if he's nervous about making a good impression, though Bernard cannot imagine why he ever would be. Well, not like Supers are known for their undercover skills, so . . . 

Either way, if that's the plan, Bernard is very fine with it, so he decides to go find out for himself and picks up his drink to head over and chat the guy up. Worst case scenario, he’s just gotten his hopes up a little, he figures. Best case, he’s putting Superboy out of his “oh god, how do I do undercover” misery. 

"Mind if I sit?" he asks, and flashes Superboy a grin as he gestures at the empty seat at the other half of his table. Superboy looks weirdly startled, like he somehow expected to go unnoticed despite being a literal superhero who is also unspeakably hot and is also wearing very, very tight clothes that he's this close to busting out of. Like, at least half a dozen girls are actively checking him out right now, as is the dude behind the counter and the old guy on the sidewalk outside who’s busy badly pretending to be reading the outdoor menu board instead of checking out Superboy’s ass through the front window. 

So yeah, Bernard really does not understand that apparent assumption. 

Come to think, maybe Superboy has some self-esteem issues or something. Bernard admittedly might also have self-esteem issues if he were Superman's clone. Then again, if he were Superman's clone, he would look like Superman and also be very aware of how Superman himself looks, sooooo . . . 

Seriously, "younger and sexier punk rock Superman" is not a vibe that Bernard can imagine going ignored all that often. Or ever. 

“Uh–what?” Superboy says. 

“I’ve been temporarily abandoned by my boyfriend and I’m easily bored,” Bernard clarifies politely, though obviously Superboy was staring at Tim long enough to have noticed said abandonment the moment it happened. “So, mind if I sit?” 

“I–sure?” Superboy says, looking nervous. Bernard puts another tally in the “too bad at undercover work to follow the Bat-plan” column. Whatever, the guy’s trying his best, he’s not gonna judge him. 

There's a pin on the inside of Superboy’s flannel, Bernard notices as the other shifts awkwardly in his seat, and is vaguely puzzled by the sight of it. Like, it's just a little thing and he doubts he'd have even seen it if he weren't in this close to the guy, but . . . 

Just–yeah. Little pin. Just like a cheap little round button, like the kind that comes out of the dollar bin at all sorts of random stores. And it's hidden inside Superboy's flannel, mostly, but it's definitely got the S-shield on it. 

Bernard is perplexed. Even in Gotham, it's not like it's weird to see people wearing Superman merch. So like, why is Superboy hiding that?

“Cool,” he says as he files that away as a little oddity, and takes the empty seat. Superboy continues to look nervous. Bernard continues to work on figuring out if his weird Bat-boyfriend who he’s not supposed to know is a Bat set him up on a blind date with his superhero bestie. The nervousness supports the theory, anyway. 

Man, this dude really is even prettier up close. How was he Tim’s bisexual awakening with this guy around and in close quarters with him? Like, he’s flattered, don’t get him wrong, but also maybe Tim has some vision problems and he should get that checked out before it inconveniences his nightlife. 

"Sooooo like . . . what do I call you?" Bernard asks, peering across the table at him curiously. "Because the obvious option seems like a bad idea, obviously.” 

"‘The obvious option’?" Superboy stops looking nervous long enough to look confused instead. 

"Yeah?" Bernard says, cocking his head. Superboy cannot possibly think he’s being subtle here, so . . . "I mean, I assume you don't go by 'Superboy' when you're dressed like that. Like, that's the whole point of being dressed like that, right?" 

Superboy stares blankly at him. Bernard cocks his head the other way, now officially the confused one. 

"What?" Superboy says. 

"Okay, sorry, this is the thing where you-know-who still insists on pretending he's not Robin, isn't it," Bernard realizes, which he really should've realized would be a thing from the start. He supposes that makes sense even with Superboy’s total lack of subtlety, though, superheroes probably do have to really commit to that thing. Especially ones who work for Batman and Superman. Or . . . just around Superman, maybe? Bernard is not fully clear on that particular superhero hierarchy. "My bad. So, uh, what do I call you, because there is obviously no obvious option. Obviously.” 

"You . . . recognize me?" Superboy croaks. 

"Uh," Bernard says, brow furrowing in bemusement at the very weird expression the guy's currently wearing. "Yes? No offense, you're kind of recognizable. Like, do you even have a secret identity? I mean, you're a clone, right, and I know you were just doing the full-time hero thing in at least Hawaii, so I actually have no idea if you ever bothered making one up or not?” 

"You recognize me," Superboy chokes, just staring at him, and then bursts into tears. 

. . . well, that can't be good.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Ill Met by Moonlight

Khonshu x Fem!Stripper Moon Knight!Reader

Summary: You are Khonshu's Moon Knight. Although your "normal" job isn't what many expect from a superhero...

Nor does your god realize just what his presence means to your peers.

TW/CW: Reader is a stripper, Exotic dancing, strippers, lap dances etc. All the NSFW stuff that comes with that job, don't ask Khonshu where he gets the money because I don't know. Predator featured, but don't worry he dies :D

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: This came to mind because I've been constantly thinking about the little AU that @drinkingwithkhonshu and I came up with in my little "Moonlight" post. I figured a nice way to wind down from the chaos of hurricane Helene, indulging my brainworm would be fun.

"And that concludes our little Moonlight's song and dance. Pretty as a painting, am I right, fellas?" The DJ said over the stereo system as you walked back behind the curtains.

Your set on stage concluded with a rather decent haul. Although you did have half a mind to kick one patron in the face when he threw literal nickels at you...

You sighed, pulling your mask down long enough to wipe the sweat off your face and adjust your hair beneath your hood.

Then, you reached down and adjusted the pasties covering your nipples--shaped like crescent moons--and re-examined yourself in the mirror.

Surely, not what many would expect the Avatar of an ancient god to wear in place of ceremonial armor, but.... Well. Sometimes video game logic worked in your favor.

Many of the cruel and evil men Khonshu dispatched you after often came to these clubs. You were an "amateur" dancer--meaning you would hop from club to club, working there long enough as a temporary hire to make pay but long enough to build a rapport with your targets before eliminating them for your god.

Your nose scrunched as you adjusted the ties to your g-string, fidgeting slightly to get comfortable in the scrap of clothing once again. You then slipped your fingers beneath the edges of your thigh-high platform shoes and let them loose with a soft snap! to your skin; the latex material hugging your thighs once more.

As you ensured your mask was securely in place, one of your fellow dancers, who went by the stage name "Khandi" (pronounced "Candy") walked up to you, her heels clicking on the glittery floor of he dressing room.

She wore a thin, sequined mini-dress that cut just beneath her bust line and was cut so short you could easily make out the panties she wore beneath.

"Hey, girl." She smiled at you.

You smiled back. You always treated the dancers with respect--male and female--because their line of work was dangerous as well as entertaining to many.

Which is another reason they were your preferred hunting grounds for you to dispense Khonshu's "justice".

"Khandi. What's up?" You asked curiously, leaning into the mirror to apply just a bit more silvery eyeshadow.

"Oh, y'know..." She snickered, leaning her hip against the dressing table, "Just that your usual guy is here. Again. And wants to see you. For another private dance."

Your hand stills and you look at her, "Again?"

Khandi grins and crosses her arms, "Mhmm. God, I wish he'd ask me to dance for him once in a while. Dude has it bad for you."

You rolled your eyes and laughed softly, "Mmm, if you say so."

"If she says so?" Another coworker, Mina grins, the shorter woman bouncing up to you.

"You're the only girl he ever asks a dance from. I swear, is he your boyfriend or something? Didn't picture you as the DILF-lovin' type..."

You sigh, trying not to laugh, "I--hah..."

Shaking your head, you roll your eyes again, "It's.... complicated? I'm not entirely sure how to categorize our.... situation."

You had some affection for him, sure, but--

Mina shoves your shoulder with a snort-laugh, "I knew it!"

Khandi grinned at you once again as you peeked out of the curtain to see a certain tall, bronzed, serious-faced man looking right at you, as if he knew you were going to look out at him.

He gives you a ghost of a smile, and nods his head ever so slightly, the slight wrinkles at the corners of his eyes creasing a bit more, the silver in his dark hair and beard almost shimmering beneath the pulsing lights.

He then turns and dips into the private room, waiting for you.

Khandi grins and nips her bottom lip, "Ugh, okay, I don't normally like the older guys who come in here because they're creepy--but god is he hot! He's really rocking the silver fox look."

You roll your eyes and look at her as Mina snorts again, "Well, he's not my type, but he is kinda nice! One of the customers got too grabby with me after I told him I didn't want to dance because i was on a break, and your mysterious stranger over there practically twisted his arm off and walked him out the door!"

You smile beneath your shroud, "Yeah... Sounds like him. He hates it when people take advantage of others. Has a bit of a moral code, that one..."

"Oh, so you do know him more than just the occasional lap dance!" Khandi grinned, waggling her eyebrows.

You shove her playfully and walk past her, "And it's none 'o your business, nosey!"

You could hear the gaggle of giggling fall quiet behind you as the next song pulsed through the air, the base vibrating the floor beneath your feet.

Your hand closed around the knob to the room, and you swiftly closed it. The lights were a very very low shade of purple-red, pulsing in slow waves along the LED strips that lined the couches along the walls.

And perched oh-so casually on one of those chairs, was not the same man who walked into the room a minute prior.

He was no longer the tanned handsome older man who walked in; though he wore the same crisp, white suit.

Khonshu nodded his head to the side, his large bony beak sweeping a bit as he spoke, "Your most recent performance was interesting. Though I have a suspicion that many of those men's wives will not like the glitter you threw over the crowd."

He patted one of his gloved hands to his thigh expectantly at you, and you silently obeyed the request, walking with a slight swagger to your hips before you straddled his lap; your hands coming to rest casually on his chest as you smiled.

"Well, I didn't just name it the Starlight Shower for shits and giggles, old man." You tilted your head, "And besides, if their wives find out they're getting lap dances in some dingy club instead of staying home and loyal that's on them. My work is done. They deserve whatever fate they made themselves."

Khonshu laughed, "Or the occasional embezzler using his partner's money to hire companionship for the evening."

His hands found their way to your hips as you settled yourself more firmly in his lap, the soft fabric of his suit pants wonderfully smooth beneath the cheeks of your ass.

His hands slid over your curves, almost possessively as his beak brushed the side of your face gently, "Speaking of which...."

"Already taken care of." You hummed, rubbing your cheek along the smooth bone of his skull; "I left the fool with his pants around his ankles and his laptop open in the hotel room."

Khonshu hummed his approval--the man he'd sent you after was a predator--for both women and underage girls. You'd been impersonating a child in an online chat room for weeks, using filters to appear much younger than your actual age, slowly manipulating him into agreeing to meet you in a hotel somewhere.

From there, you met him in the hotel, smugly noticing how disappointed he was that you weren't some young girl; his disappointment morphing quickly into rage as he realized you intended to trap him.

He had told you too much, sent too much--confessed too much. He needed to cover his tracks. That's how he thought his night would go...

With him dumping your body in a drainage ditch, hoping to read in the news about some poor "hooker" being murdered by a John.

He didn't expect for you to fight back--let alone summon your crescent darts and fling them into his chest, taking the last to plunge it into his heart.

You staged the crime scene; used a USB to get past his laptop's security, and opened every single incriminating file--and you felt like your soul needed a cleansing at those images afterwards--and left out of the back entrance, letting your darts dissolve into thin air to further stage the crime scene.

It would look as if he was meeting one of the young girls he was grooming--perhaps a parent, guardian or older sibling got there first.... Perhaps they killed him in a rage at how he was abusing their relative.

They wouldn't know it was you he was meeting. Not with how you paid off the security officer to conveniently stage the cameras to be "down", and the clerk at the front counter to forget you were there, and to "forget" to have you sign in....

It went off without a hitch. You uncovered an illegal human trafficking program, and saved many lives. Both women and girls.

A wonderful dispensation of justice, and Khonshu was proud of you for how wonderfully you orchestrated it all.

You leaned back as you feel his large hands smooth over your cheeks, tugging your hips closer to his, "A wonderful job, my little Moonlight. There is another man here I want you to go after. He is the leader of a gang of criminals and they are intending to bomb a business that will not pay them for "protection". He holds many innocents under his thumb."

"I'm guessing he's the douche who likes to play grab-ass with the other girls when they walk by? The guy with the tattoo on his fingers?" You sighed.

"Yes." Khonshu said simply, not surprised that you already sniffed him out.

"All right. I'll try to get him away from his friends and "take care" of him. It'll be a little bit difficult, though. His cronies like to hover."

"You will figure something out." Khonshu hummed, his thumbs plucking the straps to your g-string almost playfully.

When you went to try and stand up, his hands gripped your hips once again and pulled you down; his voice dropping to a low timbre that was on par with the base that thumped through the walls.

"Where are you going, pet? I believe I hired you for a private dance, did I not?"

Unlike your usual methods of operation, you stayed at your current club. You'd grown a little attached to the girls.

Often coming to their defense and fending off clients who got too handsy or rough with them.

Once, a man had grabbed the youngest dancer, Millie by the wrists and yanked her into his lap; grabbing her so tight her delicate wrists bruised.

Khonshu had stepped in first--scooping his arm around Millie's waist and whisking her out of the man's lap--before you grabbed him by his greasy shirt and shoved him towards the door.

"She said no, you fucking pig." You snarled from behind your mask.

"You bitches 're paid to be sluts." He slurred, sneering at you. "Th' fuck she turnin' me down for? I got money!"

"We aren't hookers, you piss stain." You replied, eyes narrowing dangerously as your fists tightened.

"Now leave. Touch any of these girls again, and I will gouge your eyes out with my heels myself. Go home with the friend attached to your wrist--it's obvious the two of you are well-acquainted with each other already. You won't get lucky with a woman around here, anyway."

"You fuckin' bitch!" He barked, face red with rage as he lunged at you.

Despite wearing your clunky, impossibly high platform heels, you were able to deftly drop to the ground, sweeping out your leg and tripping him, making him smash his face on the floor and breaking his nose in the process.

You stamped your foot on his chest as he rolled over to glare up at you, attempting to staunch the flow of blood form his nostrils.

"You should go back to school." You sneer as everyone in the room laughs. "Or maybe take a kick-boxing class. I'm a stripper and I just kicked your ass in heels."

You grabbed him by his disgusting shirt and shoved him towards the bouncer, "Get this piece of shit off my floor."

After that, Khonshu got an even bigger reputation with the dancers in the club. He would sit in a booth, watching from the shadows. All of your coworkers knew Khonshu did not mind if they sat near him--he was a safe space. He would help protect them when they were on break; he would even ensure they hydrated and fed themselves after an exhausting performance.

It had gotten to the point where your manager usually waived any purchases he made--not that he needed or wanted to drink, but he had to keep up appearances--and the dancers began to bring him things.

Takeout, bottles of water... things like that would often accumulate around him where he sat.

Half of your coworkers didn't even find him attractive, but they all agreed he was hot simply for the fact that he was willing to keep them all safe--both the guys and girls--when others would simply say they "had it coming" for being strippers.

Those that did find him attractive were shameless flirts. They knew he apparently only had "eyes" for you, but that didn't mean they didn't want him to know just how attractive his chivalry and good looks were.

Khandi was probably the most shameless, she would plainly lay across his lap and chat his ear off as Khonshu's eyes tracked your every move in the club. She knew what he was doing, but lavished being in the attention of such an attractive customer.

One night, Khonshu had inquired as to what a "DILF" even was, and why Khandi and a few others had apparently likened him to one. You couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him. You never did, and it annoyed the fuck out of him.

With every little thing left to Khonshu, every whisper of his name on the lips of your coworkers, you noticed his powers gaining in strength.

It took you only a few days to connect the dots--the things they were leaving, the "hopes" your coworkers would utter that he would be there if you couldn't defend them from some jerk in the night, the attention they were giving him...

You had doubled over on the couch next to him, kicking your feet with tears in your eyes as you finally realized what that meant.

He had followers again. Even if they weren't in the practical or traditional sense--

Khonshu had essentially became the god of the strippers.

And the mere idea of the situation had you nearly crying and gasping for air as you laughed and laughed, and laughed...

Until Khonshu had pulled you across his lap and growled rather impatiently,

"Impudent little... I guess you need to be punished now, hm?"

Khandi certainly noticed how you didn't want to sit down for a little while after you came out of that room--and how smudged your meticulously applied mascara was...

[bleue-flora]

You're so right it's so rude of me to forget about Punz

I am sadly sick with silly idea disease right now so I'm spinning the kids getting on the dsmp in my head rn

(First of all, C!Dream immediately glaring at C!Techno and C!Phil when he realizes that you just told the kids everything????)

(He suddenly understands how C!Tommy got like that a lot more)

I imagine the kids would extra love C!Dream (and probably C!Techno but he's terrible with kids and they know from their own Techno that he gets overwhelmed by people quickly) because he has a big cool cape they can hide under. P!Tommy says he looks like batman

C!Dream builds carves a quick room for nap time in a mountain and when someone goes to check on them they find C!Dream passed out and several kids napping under his cape like baby chicks hiding under their mom's wings

(Okay, also silly ideas: P!Punz pointing at C!Dream super excited because his best friend is gonna be the coolest person in the world, P!Sam trying to put on a brave face and protect C!Dream from other adults when he sees he's uncomfortable, any time any adult gets too angry or shouty the kids will side eye them an ask if they need nap time)

Okay that's it *explodes*

P!Punz being protective of c!Dream for some reason is so funny to me. I imagine p!Dream, p!Punz and c!Sam watch all the superhero movies and stuff including The Avengers and Arrow. So even though they were too young to see c!Dream when he was bleeding out into the table, they still put together a rough picture of what happened (lots of scars like Oliver Queen -> torture). But in general I imagine all kids younger than 13 (ya know PG13 lol) weren’t allowed to see c!Dream until he was properly healed and such, so they didn’t get the download on what happened. C!Dream would still be glaring at c!Phil and c!Techno because they let some of the kids see him so vulnerable and more or less told them everything.

Yeah c!Techno is not good with kids but they think his (backup cape - c!Dream refuses to return the one he left in prison something about finders keepers… damn children encouraging him to use kid logic…) cape and pig appearance is so cool. One afternoon Dream indulges the kids and builds a little bat cave in the mountain next to Ranboo’s house. It’s hard work though and eventually he gets tired and in need of a “batnap” forcing some of the younger ones to join him, they snuggle under the warm cape a little closer than is comfortable for Dream but he falls asleep anyways… it’s the first sleep he’s had in ages without a single nightmare. C!Phil and c!Techno make sure no one pounces on the group, p!Tommy does anyways. Understandably, c!Dream reacts badly to a kid attacking him and his baby chicks and ends up punching p!Tommy, breaking his nose. P!Tommy precedes to whine the rest of the day about how both Dreams are his “abusers”… both Dreams role their eyes, making p!Tubbo and p!Ranboo giggle.

P!Punz is pretty proud to have great taste of best friends in both worlds. C!Phil points out that c!Punz actually betrayed c!Dream, so p!Punz decides he shall take over his job as c!Dream’s bff. C!Dream finds it cute and his mannerisms make him miss c!Punz.

Both Dreams flinch at the sound of angry adults even if it’s not directed at them. Whenever the adults get angry p!Techno, p!Sapnap and p!George run off and hide while p!Dream stays put, ready but scared. P!Sam and p!Punz both know about c!Dream’s parental abuse in some manner and automatically go into protective mode whenever p!Dream looks even remotely uncomfortable around the adults. And after p!Sam notices c!Dream acting similarly, he starts taking a protective stance for him too. C!Dream finds it sweet even if sometimes his brain conjures imagines of c!Quackity killing p!Sam in seconds just to get to him, other times be thinks about how it should’ve been the his Sam, the Warden, standing over him protecting him…

[gayofthefae]

Mike has never described how he feels about El in the entire series - and this was somewhat acknowledged in season 4. He always took an out: his out in season 1 was kissing her. He got lucky in season 3 when she came back to him before he had to.

But in season 4, volume 2, we are lied to. We are told that he is telling her how he feels about her......So let's go through it, shall we?

So we have 4 categories:

Shorthand. He has established in 3x07 that he cannot define "I love you", so we know it is an out for him. In this category: "I love you" "And I knew right then and there, in that moment, that I loved you. And I've loved you every day since. I love you on your good days. I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are." "I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods."

Statements. These can be emotionally delivered, but the words are simply facts or claims. Facts that would be true regardless of feeling or claims of how he feels with no elaboration on the experience of feeling that way. In this category: "But the truth is, El, I don't know how to live without you." "You were wearing that yellow Benny's Burgers T-shirt. And it was so big, it almost swallowed you whole." "And I can't lose you. Okay? Do you hear me? I can't lose you."

Compliments. These focus on her positive qualities, but positive qualities are more reflective of admiration than love. He shifts the focus from himself and what loving her feels like to the logical reasons 'one' should love her. In this category: "You're my superhero." "You can do anything. You can fly. You can move mountains. I believe that; I really do."

Apology/Explanation. He regrets not saying he loved her before because he regrets making her sad. He wants her to know the reasoning behind it is not that she is an unlovable monster or because she is without her powers. In this category: "I'm sorry I don't say it more. It's not because I'm scared of you. I'm not. I've never felt that way. Never." "But I am scared that one day you'll realize you don't need me anymore. And I thought if I said how I felt, it would somehow make that day hurt more."

Adjustments I would make:

Describe "how" he feels instead of just "when" or in which situations he feels it. Will uses a good example of this in saying that Mike gives him courage.

Elaborate on claims. A great way to do this is to use contrast. You're scared of losing her, well then what does being without her feel like? Your life started that day, what was your life like before you met her in contrast? Will does this by saying that without Mike, he feels like a mistake, but that that feeling goes away when he's with him.

Keep the focus on himself and his feelings. Logical reasoning keeps the focus logical instead of emotional. "She is amazing" that is a biased statement but it is still a statement. There is a difference between "you're a superhero" and "you make me feel safe". Will does this when he says that Mike leading the party is "inspiring". That is a feeling that Mike's leadership evokes, as opposed to simply calling him a leader.

These are helpful and heartfelt but they are not romantic. They are the closest we get to romantic emotional descriptions. Yet, they still aren't. Being scared of losing her is not even categorized by him as a definition of love, it is part of his apology. He is not explaining "how" he feels about her, he is explaining "why" he acted the way he did. Instead, a romantic modification would simply be to keep this but add a description of love in the other categories. Will includes an explanation as well in saying that pushing Mike away was just because he was scared of losing him. This works in his speech but not Mike's only because all other content of his speech is romantic. This is simply an explanation of behavior, not a description of emotion.

Will uses Mike's tactics only once in that van scene. "Of course she needs you, she'll always need you, Mike." A baseless claim before he adds story and proof to it. This claim does not work. The only tactic of Will's that Mike properly uses is the only one that failed on him.

Every confession he makes boils down to "I have every reason to love you. I should love you." But he sticks to logic in description every time without fail.

Women are "emotion, not logic". He does not feel romantic emotions for her. He feels romantic logic. That it makes sense for him to love her.

Mike states that he loves El. But Mike never describes himself as loving El. He only ever describes El as being lovable.

See here: Mike's speech is a beat for beat recitation of Will's but without the emotion

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Someone said here that in order to actually enjoy hotd it's necessary follow "no brain cells allowed " motto and it really is true. One example - how is it possible that there are still so many gold cloaks loyal to Daemon. How come the greens, Larys, Aemond, even Aegon who executed the ratcatchers didn't purge them and put there men loyal exclusively to them?? Especially after B&C. Another thing, why is the name of "lady" Mysaria so powerful in Flea Bottom? It's like valar morghulis" and a iron coin for the Braavosi and it's getting ridiculous. She is a smugler, a political mastermind and a human rights ambassador. Are we supposed to forget that this is the woman who offered virgin girls to daemon and had a spy network in the red keep? I guess that was also for a noble cause and the "Hightowers" are evil for getting rid of her spies . I can't with this character, every time she's on screen I'm internally screaming "shut up, shut the f**k up".

Hello!

As I am not 100% sure whether you read F&B or not, I'd rather keep it vague on the matter of gold cloaks and their loyalties - so as to avoid potential spoilers. I could only say that, while keeping people who were granted their posts by Daemon in charge of maintaing law and order in the capital was quite unwise indeed, at the very least it is not inconsistent with the source material (though in the book Otto took at least one precaution in this regard but it turned out to be insufficient). Maybe, the Greens were supposed to believe themselves unable to find suitable replacements for the unreliable City Watch soldiers soon enough or simply to be distracted by other issues. However, a plot hole is a plot hole, true.

As for Mysaria... Well, HotD is apparently dead set on showing us just how much (and in how many ways) women could suffer from the evil deeds of men - and so some of female characters turn into a superhero + perfect victim mix. Remember how Rhaenyra, apparently just some hours after suffering a terrible miscarriage, was able to make an impressive entrance on Syrax to gag the Green emissaries and Otto himself - in a perfect parallel with her doing a very close thing in episode 2 of season 1? Mysaria is one more example of that. She lost everything because of evil Greens (who are against the true Queen Rhaenyra) - but she also somehow retains an impressive amount of power that she now wields in the name of said Queen who showed her mercy. Plus, Rhaenys is gone now, but someone has to utter those one-liners full of wisdom and experience for Rhaenyra to hear, right?

Once again, a character does what the agenda of the show needs them to do without any regard for logic, consistency and common sense *heavy sigh*.

[deusvervewrites]

honestly i think that AFO's "trys to kill midoriya even though he knows that midoriya's got to stay alive for him to get OFA" thing can actually be attributed to his "thinks everything runs on superhero comic logic but specifically the logic where he wins" thing.

because after all, whoever holds OFA is supposed to be the hero of the story! Obviously, this plot armor is how the quirk/user always manages to survive, and this will protect the current user until either AFO can steal the quirk or they can dramatically pass it on. <- (sarcasm) (unfortunately how i think AFO's brain works) (because this is the only reason that makes his stupid plans make sense to me)

Basically AFO doesn't comprehend that a OFA user can die at any time, not just when the quirk is passed on/he takes it himself/or the situation is deemed narratively dramatic enough. hes gotten extremely lucky on this part, that the story (the manga itself, not the story that AFO believes in) actually needed OFA to be passed on and for midoriya to mostly survive the murder attempts.

It is kind of funny to me how trying to be genre-savvy in mha technically works sometimes and occasionally makes for very interesting characters and moments that play on or subvert well established tropes (i am a monoma enjoyer and i find his technically correct observation that he, himself, is a side character and more specifically a low-stakes antagonist/heel both kinda funny and very intriguing in how this affects his frankly abysmal mental health and how it plays into his "performance"/facade of who he is that he presents to the rest of the cast) (also that somewhat recent moment w kaminari thinking that his "line"/"part" was to be the guy who 100% believed in the protagonist and cheer him on but he was genuinely and realistically worried about midoriya instead) BUT for the most part. It just makes characters act stupid as hell. And its especially funny when they are actually completely wrong about the general role that they play/what tropes are actually in action.

Now that im thinking about it. the fact that characters trying to think of their lives as a story, specifically a superhero story, is an in-universe flaw because they are supposed to be actual people in-universe and run the risk of greatly misunderstanding people and brushing off others issues/depth because they are not actually supposed to be in a written story in their universe. Yet they are technically right and can occasionally predict outcomes due to the fact that mha itself can't subvert every trope if it wants to stay as a superhero story. Is very interesting and both fun and maddening at times to witness. I feel like i didn't word this thought too well but besides that. Layers upon layers here. some of those layers are ridiculous but hey.

In conclusion because oopsies this ask came out much longer than i thought it was going to sorry for dropping this brick in your inbox -

Attempting to be self-aware is a massive hit or miss thing to actually work out in a character's favor in mha. And when AFO tries it. He makes stupidly convoluted plans that genuinely shouldn't work. Solely because he thinks that is how being a supervillain works. The fact that the plans actually work doesn't change that everything afo does is stupid as hell once you actually think about it.

One of the big ways that AFO is demonstrably an idiot is because this is genuinely how he thinks

[ladyfromaspookyforest]

Jancy vs M11

Stranger Things 4 and the Long Distance Relationship

Trying to learn the art of brevity. Bullet points, lez go. Jancy Mildew

Jonathan has a photo of him and Nancy on his dresser. El has a shrine to Mike. Note that Jonathan's photo is of both of them and El's photos are mostly just of Mike.

Jonathan is not being honest with Nancy about college. El is not being honest with Mike about high school. Both of these come in the form of letters: one withheld and one sent. One is a secret, one is a lie.

Jonathan: "No, because if I told her the truth, then she'd just throw her dreams out the window to come out here and be with me." Mike: "But what if after all this is over, she doesn't need me anymore?" Jonathan is worried Nancy will sacrifice her own happiness for him because she loves him. Mike is worried El is going to leave him behind. Opposite ends of the spectrum.

Jonathan: "Before you know it, we're just like my mom and dad. We're divorced, my kids hate me--" Mike: "Maybe I should have said something and if I'd said that thing, then maybe she'd want me there with her." Jonathan is stating that the consequence of conforming to what one party in the relationship thinks the other wants is a one-way ticket to the Joyce and Lonnie Show. Mike is talking about doing exactly that so he won't be alone.

Jonathan: openly discusses his specific lie to Nancy with Argyle. Mike: dances around what he didn't say to El while talking to Will.

Jonathan and Argyle discussing relationship problems: stoner comedy and farting. Mike and Will discussing relationship problems: [Tender, emotional music]

Jonathan: "[She's] incredibly ambitious and she's never done a single thing halfway in her life...That's why I love her." Nancy: "He's caring and compassionate. He's so protective over the people that he loves and he'll never back down from what's right...no matter the pressure, no matter the personal cost. That's why I love him." Mike: "I love you for exactly who you are. You're my superhero."

Jonathan: "Nancy, I'm sorry I wasn't here...Are we okay?" Will: "Does she talk to you at all?" Mike: "Not much. I mean, a little bit." Despite the fact that Jonathan's secret has still not been revealed, he makes sure he and Nancy are okay. Despite having supposedly given El what she wanted, Mike and El aren't really speaking.

Nancy: "Your application letter. Did it ever come?" Jonathan: "No, um, not yet." Jonathan's secret is still looming over them as they head into season 5, a conflict that will require later resolution. Mike's inability to tell El he loves her has been resolved. Will's lie to Mike about the painting, on the other hand, is still looming and waiting to come out (ha) in season 5. Dishonesty is a theme for both Jancy and Melvin, but one of them has been "resolved." Note that Jonathan's secret has evolved into a lie.

While I am biased, I'm trying not to lean TOO hard on my Byler brain here because that's not really the point of the post. It's about the parallels between Jancy and Mildred. So let's say Mike's telling the truth. His whole monologue was honest. The conflict between the two has STILL NOT BEEN RESOLVED. What is the reason for this? Even if we choose to interpret Mike not telling Eleven he loves her as his secret like Jonathan not telling Nancy about college is his, Jonathan is keeping this secret to protect Nancy while Mike is keeping his to protect himself. This still reveals the unhealthy mentality of Miller Light's relationship. Additionally, Mike's "secret" has come out, so there should be no conflict. Jonathan's hasn't yet, so conflict logically remains.

And if we choose to look at the speech as dishonest, this is Mike's act of shaping himself to his partner's desires. AKA his act of conformity that Jonathan spoke about earlier leading to them ending up just like his parents. Jonathan expressed that resentment would grow and we can already see that El is not satisfied with the outcome of this "confession."

Lastly, for the sake of fairness, I can't tell if there's a photo of Jonathan on here.

And there's no evidence of El in Mike's room. Mike and Nancy are the two characters in the love triangles and neither has immediately apparent evidence of their SO in their room.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that Nancy has a poster that used to be Jonathan's, but what I find a lot more interesting is the suggestion that the photos Nancy has on her walls and not on the corkboard are Jonathan's. That actually makes a lot of sense as we know he is a photographer and they look similar to some of the photos he has in his room. Additionally, I went back to season 1 to look at Nancy's bedroom prior to Jonathan and there are no photos like this present.

And while I had every intention of keeping this as focused on Mlvn/Jancy as I could and not Byler/Jancy, I simply cannot ignore the fact that Nancy and Mike have both posted Jonathan and Will's art on their walls. While the camera never focuses on these details like it does the photos of Jonathan and Nancy at the Byers house or the Mike Box in El's room, like Will's drawings on Mike's walls, the photos are background details that show how much the Wheelers' respective Byers has integrated into their lives. Moving on.

El spends the season getting to know herself. Nancy spends it getting to reknow Steve. This could hint at Mike and El breaking up for El to be on her own and Nancy and Jonathan breaking up to get Stancy back together.

However, I think there are two major indicators that this is not what will happen.

The scene when Nancy and Jonathan talked about why they love each other, providing genuine reasons.

A large part of S4 focused on the Mike/El relationship and concluded with a "resolution" of the supposed problem. A large part of S4 focused on the Nancy/Steve relationship, involving Steve laying out his desires for the future. In both situations, all cards are on the table (unless, you know, gay). There isn't a lot left to drive the dynamic in the following season (in a positive direction), while Jonathan's letter and Will's painting are still lies waiting to instigate conflict and subsequent resolution.

So once again, for the sake of fairness, Jonathan's lie blowing up in his face after their seemingly happy reunion could parallel El's lie blowing up in her face after Milkvan's seemingly happy reunion. However, timing really is key and Will's lie is still in play. It's really impossible to parallel Jancy and Marvin without also paralleling Byler. (I keep trying)

Anyway, that's that. Two lying long distance relationships on the verge of potential collapse. FTR I have no stakes in Jancy versus Stancy, I just THINK it will be Jancy. I am clearly biased towards Byler. That being said, even if Byler does not happen, Moldeven appears to be heading in the direction of break-up while Jancy seems recoverable, based primarily on the extent of the lies, the intent (once again, I have to tie Byler back in because Will and Jonathan both lied in an attempt to make Mike and Nancy happy while Mike and El lied to one another to protect themselves), and the timing.

LOL remember I said I was going to try to be brief this time?

[fonulyn]

fon's 2023 in fic

so in order to distract myself from yet another fic flopping miserably i'm gonna do the compilation of all the flops from the entire year! :'D

a big big thank you to those of you who said nice words about my stuff, who left comments on the fics, and who helped me finish surprisingly many works this year. i am truly grateful for every single lovely comment i got! 💖 that is what kept me going, what made things feel worthwhile, and what helped me through many a dark moment.

i do still have works in progress but at the same time this sort of feels like a goodbye. idk. we'll see. but I can't keep pouring from an empty chalice and the fandom clearly does not want to help me fill it so we're at an impasse :'D it feels increasingly much that exiting stage left is the right move, as much as i don't want to and as much as it hurts to let go. but I digress.

on a more positive note, I can, hand to heart, say that I am extremely pleased with pretty much everything i wrote this year :D it's got to count for something, right!

ANYHOO I posted 217k words this year, and it includes:

21 Piers/Leon

5 Krauser/Leon

3 main Piers/Leon and heavily featured past Krauser/Leon

2 OT3

1 Chris/Leon

1 Tyrants/Leon

1 Jake/Piers

1 Marcus/Dom (Gears of War)

fic links and short summaries under the cut.

Piers/Leon

good to be prepared | E | 9k | Leon gets stuck in a snow storm when his car breaks down, and a handsome stranger saves him from the roadside. It ends up in a fun night together but that's only the very beginning for them.

'cause you know the love we have is always gonna be | T | 6.7k | Finally they get to say "I do" to each other.

bad exes and a better future | T | 2.9k | Leon's very jealous ex does not know when to quit, and refuses to believe Leon wants nothing to do with him. So, logically, Leon kisses Piers to prove a point. Thankfully Piers is all in.

i crave therefore i am | E | 7k | Piers has been half in love with Leon for what feels like forever, but there's nothing he can do about it when Leon is in a long term relationship. ...Except he's not.

as long as you'll have me | T | 5.2k | Leon gets infected on a mission, then has to suffer through treatment for an infection. Thankfully Piers is there to help, in more ways than one.

you're a dream | E | 23k | Piers Nivans is eleven years old when he starts dreaming of death and monsters. It takes him well over a decade to find his soulmate, and even then, it's not all easy.

that heaven in your eyes | E | 2.7k | They finally get the honeymoon they deserve.

light in the darkest place | M | 3.6k (WIP) | Leon and Piers grew up together, and when at twenty-one they both got a job at the RPD they thought it was a giant stroke of luck. They had no idea their first day was going to be one hell of a long day.

a shadow of devotion | M | 6.9k | There's a new superhero in town, and Piers ends up being more closely acquainted with him than he ever expected. He's not complaining, tho.

before i even knew your name | M | 6.6k | Leon gets an accidental text sent into the wrong number and it ends up changing his life for the better. Soon he's flirting via texts with this stranger, and before he even notices he's grown feelings.

a dinner to remember | E | 4.4k | Leon wears a nice dress to welcome Piers home.

too much is all that I can feel | T | 4.2k | Leon gets hurt, again, and while he’s concussed and loopy from bloodloss he tries his best to flirt with Piers.

memories beneath the dust of years | T | 1.2k | Piers relives the worst time of his life in a dream, and Leon is there to support him through it.

in the end it's you and I | T | 3.5k | The sound of metal crushing was the worst. It screeched in Leon’s ears even when the car had stopped completely, finally meeting a big enough tree trunk down the hill. He's alone, injured, and unable to leave his car. Might this be the end?

time to finally breathe again | T | 3.4k | Leon tries to bury his feelings but then gets buried underground. Thankfully Piers is there to help. On both counts.

those nights | M | 5k | Leon and his difficult relationship with sleep throughout the years.

life is a chance to try | T | 5.2k |  Piers and Leon have been parents for mere months, and it’s become obvious their daughter isn’t entirely an ordinary human.

everything I've kept inside me | T | 5.5k | The one with severe injuries, some reminiscing, and finally sort of a retirement. Oh, and a blowjob pillow.

at the shore of the unknown | M | 26k | The world ends, but Piers and Leon find each other.

a merry little christmas (make the yuletide gay) | T | 5.7k | Piers and Leon and their first holidays as a married couple in their own home, of course with a visit from those closest to them.

right from the start | E | 19k | Leon gets some unexpected backup on his rogue mission in the Eastern Slav Republic. And it doesn't end there. (Much to his delight.)

Krauser/Leon

question all my doubts | E | 10k | Leon gets back home from Spain only to find none other than Jack fucking Krauser bleeding onto his living room floor. And no matter how many times Leon tries to walk away from Krauser he always ends up back to him.

(it might've been love but) it's over now | T | 1.4k | Krauser is dead and had no next of kin, so Leon goes through his scarce apartment to sort through the meager belongings left behind, while also sorting through his own mess of emotions.

(no one ever died from) wanting too much | M | 1.4k | Krauser gets injured but he can only focus on the dirty thoughts he has about Leon, while Leon tends to those injuries.

my tragedy and my desire | M | 2k |  Leon struggles through the mission to rescue the president's daughter, constantly feeling like he’s being stalked. He has no idea how right he is about that. And how bad things will end for him.

my religion my certain death my salvation my sacrilege | E | 2k | Krauser keeps Leon as his sex-slave. (sequel to my tragedy and my desire)

Piers/Leon with heavily featured Krauser or Krauser/Leon

all the tears and the fears and the lies and the cries of the past | E | 16k | Krauser kidnaps Leon on Wesker’s orders to use as bait. Piers heads out to save him, together with Chris and Jill. Things get really messy.

tear me open (and make me whole again) | M | 7.6k | Piers disappears, and soon after Leon starts receiving videos from an unknown email address. It's bad enough that Krauser is back, but watching him torture Piers to get back at Leon might just be the worst thing Leon has ever been through in his life.

haunt you like it's part of you | E | 3.7k | Krauser brands Leon as his own, ruining him for all others. For a while it seems he's won, but eventually Leon gets the happy ending he deserves.

OT3 (Chris/Leon/Piers)

never without you | T | 1.6k | Leon is tired, so tired, but Piers and Chris will not let him give up.

wish you were here | T | 2k | (pre-OT3) Chris is pathetically pining after Leon, doesn't even let himself examine his feelings for Piers, and then on top of it all he gets kidnapped.

Chris/Leon

whatever comes our way | T | 1.1k | Leon almost drowns and Chris panics.

Tyrants/Leon

buried so deep within | E | 3.6k | Leon finds out there's two tyrants. The tyrants find out that Leon can be used for all sorts of fun things.

Jake/Piers

pull me closer to life | T | 3.8k | Jake and Sherry save Piers when he thinks he’s left behind to die at the underwater facility. Then somehow, Jake never leaves.

Marcus/Dom (largely featured past Maria/Dom)

no battle like that of life | E | 3.7k | After losing damn near everything, Dom learns to live again. Marcus helps.

[sabugabr]

RRR, Black Adam and the Response of the Oppressed

OR: The Colonial Wound and how to approach Violence as a solution against the mechanisms of oppression

OR: how to get the debate right VS how to ruin it completely

Spoiler: RRR gets it right

So, I was keeping this one to myself because it's a very delicate subject, but rejoicing in RRR's recent Golden Globe nomination, I thought hell might as well talk about it.

First of all, a very important disclaimer:

I am not here, in any way, defending or endorsing any side in this debate. My personal views on violence and armed struggle and guerrilla warfare are not what I will be addressing. Armed struggle, is an extremely complex issue that is still being debated today by theorists and academics much more qualified than I am, so no.

Rather, my aim here is simply to address how this debate has been represented, and my take on this issue: media portrayals of social, historical and most importantly, decolonial debates. And recently in 2022, we've had two approaches (And yes, I am fully aware that this topic is much better covered in dozens of media that have this debate entirely as their main focus, but I am talking about superhero blockbusters here, so keep that in mind) that may seem similar, but are fundamentally completely divergent:

The Telugu movie RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)

And curiously, DC Film's Black Adam

No need to say, there'll be major spoilers ahead, so be warned

1. THE RESPONSE OF THE OPRESSED

Before I start, I would like to clarify as briefly as I can some terms and concepts that I consider necessary to begin to understand decolonialism and the response of the oppressed, a term that was coined in the famous quote by Jaylen Brown during the height of the BLM movement, "Do not confuse the response of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor".

Pierre Bourdieu differentiates the violence of the oppressor into two categories:

explicit violence – in which the action of the dominant subject is visible (and therefore, in our current society, subject to questioning and legal or moral limitations)

and symbolic violence – conceptualized by Bourdieu when he addressed the issue of male domination in society and all the faces in which it presents itself – and we see it everywhere, from racial demographics in income distribution to that homophobic joke your uncle always makes.

This relationship of systematic domination can be understood as a chain, and in view of the necessary rise of awareness and consequent rupture of this chain, Audre Lorde presents the uses of anger.

By connecting the idea of symbolic power and the breaking of the domination relationship with the use of anger, we have the explosion of a natural reaction of the oppressed triggered by centuries of imprisonment in their own fear and, bringing this reality specifically to colonial relations, using anger over your own fear results in liberation. (source)

And although it wouldn't hurt to address the revolutionary terms in its most famous roots in the French Revolution and etc, here it seems more fitting to comment on Marx. And class struggle.

Briefly, Marx and Engels saw revolution as the result of organized political action by the exploited. Therefore, one can only speak of revolution when there is a rupture with the old political, social and economic order; and in its place, new standards of social relations are established whose principle is to ensure freedom and social equality among men.

This is what we mean when we talk about inverting the social order, and Marx will also use the terms infrastructure (productive forces + relations of production) and superstructure (politics, police, army, law, morals, religion, etc.).

The superstructure, for Marx, is created by the most favored and dominant class, but determined or conditioned by the infrastructure.

Therefore, the revolution would happen when the working class (and in that logic, any oppressed group) reversed the order and took control of the superstructure.

In short, this can be understood as the basis of revolutionary thinking.

Now apply this to the invasion, colonization and genocide scenario, and you'll see where I'm going here.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKK THAT'S A BIT EXTREME EXAMPLE SORRY but actually in Black Panther I the plot could very well be read through Marxist lens (and that has certainly been done), but I won't even go into that here, god forbid Wakanda Forever hahahah imagine that, anyway going back to my thread

2. ARMED STRUGGLE

A quick definition of armed struggle, which can be found in dictionaries, is armed resistance against oppressive regimes. In the armed struggle, the militants understand that the situation of society requires drastic action so that it can be modified, and for this reason they decide to take up arms and declare war on the oppressive regime. Guerrilla warfare is an example of armed struggle.

In the armed struggle, a group of militants opposed to the current regime in a given society, organize actions that can be strikes, attacks on barracks or public buildings, etc, aiming to destabilize the current power with the aim of overthrowing it and placing a different regime in its place, like a democracy, for example – in general, the armed struggle follows a leftist tendency. (source)

In Brazil, for example, the armed struggle appeared mainly as resistance to the Military Dictatorship between 1964 and 1985.

All of this goes along the idea of using violence as resistance to oppression (as already pointed out before): fire is answered with fire. In the specific scenario of the guerrilla, the French philosopher, journalist, former government official and academic Jules Régis Debray writes the controversial book Révolution Dans La Révolution, where he points out that "The main objective of a revolutionary guerrilla is the destruction of the enemy's military potential"; the enemy is stripped of it's military power (it's weapons) to ensure a greater chance of victory.

"To destroy an army you need another army.", Debray says. "Precisely because it is a mass struggle, and the most radical of all, the guerrillas need, in order to triumph militarily, to gather politically around themselves the active and organized majority, since it is the general strike and the generalized urban insurrection which will give the coup de grace to the regime and destroy its latest maneuvers - last minute coup d'état, provisional junta, elections - by extending the struggle throughout the country." (source)

Does that all ring a bell?

Sure it does.

Now, these are all historical scenarios, and nowadays the moral debates about armed struggle have become extremely more complex (as they should), and the disarmament discourse is taking more and more space in these debates. Is armed struggle the only solution? Wouldn't there be others?

But it is still a complex debate. The Brazilian rapper (and political thinker and, dare I say, philosopher) Mano Brown, a strong advocate of disarmament, staunchly defends that violence, most of the time, bounces back on the oppressed, not the oppressor.

Look at him all precious

He argues, however, that one cannot simply condemn the oppressed who react violently. Already in 2006 he presented in an interview that:

"I am in favor of disarmament, but this argument is difficult, things should be done differently […] People are coming as a class struggle, you know? Rich people don't want poor people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. And poor people don't want rich people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. Did you see the kid's argument: "How are the police allowed to carry guns while I remain unarmed? " It's kind of uneven. It's confusing." (source - translated by me)

Mano Brown is part of the Brazilian rap band Racionais formed by 4 black men from the periphery, who revamped their music after realizing that it could be used to foment violence. They front a series of social programs, and revolutionized the way peripheral music is seen and consumed. Nowadays, in 2023, Mano Brown hosts one of the biggest political interview podcasts in Brazil (having even interviewed Angela Davis), is considered one of the most active leaders of the racial struggle, and along with the other members of Racionais, has taught open classes in estate universities.

The Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, considered one of the most notable thinkers in the history of world pedagogy, inaugurates in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (you can read it translated right here) the idea of the liberation pedagogy. He strongly emphasizes that liberation pedagogy is a political process that aims to awaken individuals from their oppression and generate actions for social transformation – through education.

NOW WITH ALL THAT IN MIND WE CAN FINALLY MOVE ON TO WHAT MATTERS,

3. THE MOVIES

I'm going to talk about RRR here first because it makes me happier, but for reasons of time and your patience I'm not going to extend myself so much in the analysis of this film technically, and if you want a more detailed look at the grandeur and the importance and the genius of this film, please watch any of the many videos that are now appearing on youtube on the subject (I recommend RRR: Make Movies EPIC Again, by Jared Bauer, and The Importance of RRR, by the wonderful Accented Cinema)

ONCE AGAIN ATTENTION FOR BIG, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The story therefore revolves around two men: Raju, who infiltrates the British army to steal fireguns and deliver them to the people's guerrilla, and Bheem, a Gond leader who is after Mali, a child of his people who was kidnapped by the British to basically serve as a pet.

They meet under false identities, and unaware that they were both fighting for the liberation of India (through different methods), the two men form an extremely strong bond of love and friendship, which results in their struggles coalescing into an evocation of patriotic unity and popular resurgence against the colonial forces.

First of all, RRR is a fictionalized biography of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. So, in real life, Alluri Raju actually stole guns from the British to stage uprisings against the British Raj, and Komaram Bheem really was a Gond revolutionary leader who coined the slogan Jal, Jangal, Zameen (transl. Water, Forest, Land) wich became a call to action for Adivasis (or Scheduled Tribes) peoples.

You can see the flag in the last scenes

This "historical aspect" (in addition to the incredible, completely impossible and impossibly glorious action scenes) makes it plausible to draw parallels between RRR and Tarantino's historical revisionism films like Django Unchained (2013) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), where in all cases we see scenes of extreme violence that somehow feel justified, or cathartic, for being directed against oppressors (slave masters, Nazis, British colonizers, etc etc)

The parallels are just there.

Black Adam, on the other hand, states in its synopsis that "After nearly five thousand years of imprisonment, Black Adam, an anti-hero from the ancient city of Kahndaq, is released in modern times. His brutal tactics and righteous ways attract the attention of the Justice Society of America, who try to stop his rampage by teaching him to be more of a hero than a villain, and they all must band together to stop a force more powerful than Adam himself."

So we have a superhero story set in the present day in a fictional country on the Sinai Peninsula (that means, right there besides the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal), occupied by a mercenary crime syndicate called Intergang, who brutally oppresses the Kahndaqi people while robbing their mineral resources. All good, all great.

But as stated in the synopsis, the film's great moral conflict revolves around whether the use of violence against mechanisms of oppression is justified or not.

Basically,

And while these two scenarios may seem similar, the approach the two films take to this debate, which, as I've said before, is EXTREMELY DELICATED, and EXTREMELY COMPLEX, is completely different. Firstly, because RRR is the only one of the two that treats it as, well, a debate.

From the beginning, RRR establishes the two characters as essentially polar opposites; Raju is fire

Look at the scenery with the european buildings in the background

Bheem is water

And here, the native, untouched forest with pure cristaline water

Bheem is the god Bhima, immovable, patient and resilient

(like water)

And Raju is the god Rama, heroic, springy and skillful

(and hot)

Bheem is the legs (the foundation) while Raju is the arms (the action)

They ✨ complement ✨ each other

And this is translated into their different approaches to the revolution: Raju with his arms policy (inherited from his guerrilla father), who operates within the system to overthrow it, and Bheem with his native philosophy, using the land, the fauna, the culture, the religion, the people themselves as agents against oppression, operating from outside the system to overthrow it.

At the beginning of the film, Raju dresses Bheem in western clothing so that he can attend a British party (which allows him to know the building and locate Mali), and at the end of the film, Bheem dresses Raju in the traditional clothing of the god Rama, and arms him not with european firearms but with a sacred bow and arrow, evoking his native homeland in what configures the real defeat of the colonizers.

Not even getting into the merits of comparing these two films technically, just talking about the discourse itself, what for me fundamentally separates RRR from Black Adam, and even Django and Inglourious Basterds, is precisely Bheem's character. It's the other way to fight (but fight nonetheless)

This does not mean that the armed struggle is delegitimized, or diminished. On the contrary, it is explained, justified (within that historical and social context) and respected. People who fought in the armed struggle, and died in the armed struggle, are honored and respected. It allows you to understand where the idea of arming the population is coming from (in a certain parallel with Mano Brown's interview that I mentioned above), but it also presents other discussions on the subject, that happened at the time, and still happens today.

And above all, as I mentioned before, the film presents and reinforces the idea of inspiration. Even if education is presented only very briefly, in a popular assembly, in the long term, the film still gives extreme focus to the importance of raising awareness among the oppressed people.

This can be clearly seen in the scene where Bheem is being tortured in a public square by the British government, and refuses to kneel.

So when the torture becomes too much to bear, he starts to sing

Now, this is the most important scene in this movie and I'll die on this hill

And then, this happens

Bheem inspires not only the population, but also Raju, who even after years of enticement by his own father, steps back on his original (armamentist) plan when he realizes that "I was under the impression that guns would bring us freedom. But Bheem inspired a whole crowd with one song"

Even though in the context of the film the "path of choice" was still violent (this still is, after all, an action superhero movie), the message of this scene is extremely metaphorical. The idea of a song (art) inspiring all people to "become a weapon" against an oppressive regime is very powerful, and it resonates deeply in anti-opression movements all over History. It is, literally, the power of the people.

Furthermore, at crucial moments in the plot, both Bheem and Raju put aside their collective struggles for the other's individual good; Unlike his father, who readily accepts the militarization of his child son for the greater good, Raju, when questioned by his guerrilla companion for abandoning 15 years of work to save Bheem, says that "I will bear it for another 25 years, but I won't sacrifice Bheem for my goal".

Bheem, here, represents not only the friendship and love between them, but, metaphorically, an entire ideal of the people. Ultimately, one can say that this film addresses the idea of "what are the limits in my revolution": I will not sacrifice the other for my revolution; the limits of my revolution must be the wellness of the other (and in our metaphorical reading here, the wellness of the people).

Parallel, the torture scene can be metaphorically read as: the only valid sacrifice is my own, never that of the other. (and I won't be commenting on the revolutionary character of ideas like martyrdom and self-sacrifice, but yes). That's what Bheem and Raju do throughout the entire film, they put the other above themselves.

And in the end, they kill the british defeat oppression together✨

Now, as I've mentioned before, yes, this movie still ends violently, yes, it still glorifies and celebrates this violence in some of the best action scenes I've seen in my whole life, yes, it is heavily patriotic and sometimes a little bit too on the nose about it, yes, and did I rejoyce in it? Yes.

But it cannot be denied that RRR at least presents a reflection not often seen in films of the genre, which is the mere existence of real debate. In addition, the film is placed in an extremely specific historical context, portraying real historical figures, real life revolutionaries, folkloric parallels, a gigantic symbolic charge, in short, a whole other deal.

Besides it, the only difference between this film and idk, Braveheart, or Star Wars, is that in this film the social and racial parallels, the guerrilla warfare and class struggle (and the colonial wound) become clearer – and perhaps this is a more responsible way of representing a revolution.

NOW, BLACK ADAM ON THE OTHER HAND KKKKKKK

As mentioned in the synopsis, the background of Black Adam is curiously similar: we have an oppressed people, we have the militia, a clear racial reference to a real-life conflict, which affects thousands of people daily, and the figure of a mythologically evocative hero with super powers who will free the people from oppression through violent means. And yes, there is debate: we have the Justice Society, which condemns Black Adam's methods and questions his use of violence, only to be proven wrong at the end of the movie.

But the "proved wrong" isn't really built, or developed (as Intergang is quickly forgotten when they all start fighting each other and then… Satan? For some reason??), and it basically boils down to this:

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

And that's so funny because he actually just… killed like 3 soldiers in the second act of the movie. That's all he did.

And it gets even funnier because at some point we have a scene that genuinely makes a VERY VALID point that made me very hopeful when I was in the theater watching it

Like, this is SO VALID and she is SO RIGHT and this is such a great argument and a great debate point and then it just... goes nowhere

He just killed like 3 guys he didn't even talk to the people he just, quite literally, killed some pawn soldiers and went on to fight his own individual battles that had nothing to do with the actual opression state of the country besides them telling you that "it was bad".

The problem with Black Adam's is ac how shallow the argument is. Nothing is justified, nothing is not even debated, we just have Hawk Man going "killing is bad" and Black Adam going "yeah but I do it caused I'm disruptive like that", and even when we have this "inspire the people" moment is just... this kid with a cape doing this symbol and yes, symbols of struggle are a great tool in fighting oppression, and yes they work and they're so, so great, but this one specifically kind of just…was there?

LIKE OK THIS IS ALL GREAT but then it lead to people… fighting zombies?????

zombies ??!?!??!!!????

Like, how, seriously, how does this have to do with any of your previous state of opression? How does this change absolutely anything??? Are we going to have elections after the zombies thing, or... ?

And that, to me, is such a poor and wasteful way of representing people power that, even though I didn't take this film seriously, I couldn't help but feel mildly frustrated. Much of the recent wave of blockbuster media about decolonialism, in my opinion, has been making this same mistake, which is apparently thinking that just because a movie is made to be a blockbuster, or a superhero movie, or an action movie and easy entertainment, it cannot tackle complex topics. It cannot deepen a discussion. It can't take 10 minutes off a fight scene to establish a full dialogue. As if that would, idk, tire the audience maybe? Idk.

As if a universe of superheroes, or fantasy and action, couldn't contain a scene like this:

This scene seems so simple but it is so, so huge

Andor is perhaps an example out of the curve, because Andor is a series that makes a great effort to represent the fight against oppression in a very serious and responsible way, making it its main theme, of representing what a fascist government is,how a fascist government acts and affects all layers of a population, what is the immigrant cause, what is the armed struggle, what is it like to be a person of color in an far-right government. And it does all of this in an unprecedented way in the genre so far, indeed.

But as I said before, perhaps this should be how all media represent these themes. Because otherwise, even the best of intentions can turn against the causes you sought to defend. And ok, I know that Black Adam is "just a superhero movie" and that maybe it's unfair to demand so much from a movie that only came to propose a simple entertainment with fight scenes and jokes, and I had fun watching it indeed. I love Dwayne Jhonson we all do. But the thing is, if you're going to represent that debate, I genuinely believe it can't be done as simply, or as poorly explained, as it was in this film. A poorly presented arms discourse can become an attack on the legitimization of the armed struggle in its historical context, it can become a justification for a shootout against anti-oppression demonstrations, it can become the excuse for why a policeman mistook an umbrella for a rifle, or a piece of wood for a gun, and killed innocent (and peripheral) men.

In the best of scenarios, the intent is simply forgotten, or it's so hidden in the metaphorical layers of the work that it's easy to miss them. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't be so many racist, misogynistic, right-wing Star Wars fans, for example (just to be clear, I'm not attacking Star Wars here at all, ok, I'm just using it as an example – you'll agree with me that I've never seen any Cambridge professors attack Star Wars)

And fair is fair, Luke did explode a moon-sized military base full of millions of people and all that...

SO ANYWAY

Armamentism is an extremely serious issue, and it must be handled very, very carefully. As I mentioned before, RRR has a historical context, and an argument builded throughout the entire film; I hardly think anyone comes out of RRR, or WomanKing, wanting to pick up a gun and simply shoot someone (I hope). But the way this idea was presented in Black Adam, it is not an exaggeration to say that someone might have had this impression after watching it. At the very least, the movie took no care making sure this wasn't the case, and that for me is troubling enough.

The struggle against oppression and decolonialism are extremely important topics, and I am happy that these themes are increasingly making themselves present in more and more media works (and we have had several very good ones recently) – and Black Adam does have good ideas in the middle of the mess. But if you're going to make a film to talk about oppression, without actually commiting to approach it responsibly, why do it?

And ok, RRR does have a very imperative call to action but well, look at them, would you not answer???

[clownprince]

Batjokes in Batman: Last Knight on Earth

I'd highly recommend reading LKOE before reading this meta, but I'll quickly summarize utc (spoilers, obviously).

Basically, Lex Luthor challenged Superman to a debate for evil versus good. Luthor won, Superman died, and the population picked off most of the superheroes. The remaining superheroes had a final meeting to try and decide what to do. The public was outside the hall. Batman opened the doors and let them in. They massacred everyone. Batman survived but barely and when he recovered his mentality was broken. He returned as Omega to try and save the population by acting as a dictator, essentially. The story follows Joker (who stayed alive as a severed head, somehow) and a Bruce Wayne created by Bruce's perpetual Batman machine, on their quest to stop Omega and save the world from being mind-controlled.

So, an idea that I've heard quite a bit is that Joker loves Batman, not Bruce. I've always been of the mind that it's more complicated than that.

A major theme in Batjokes is the idea of duality, Batman and Joker as opposing forces who complement each other. "You complete me." There are different interpretations of this idea, both from creators and fans. In The Dark Knight, Joker loves Batman because in Joker's own words, he's "too fun to kill". Joker is fascinated by Batman, and his interactions with Batman satiate his sensation seeking/need for stimulation. 

Scott Snyder frames it as more of an ideological battle: "... the romance between them for me has always been this sense of them locked in this dance. 'We love each other. We can never leave each other. I am the other half of you. You complete me.'"

And then there's the aspect mentioned in Endgame: "fighting for meaninglessness but giving meaning by virtue of the fight." Engaging in this ideological battle with Batman gives Joker a reason to continue existing; it gives him a purpose in a reality he perceives as cruel and absurd and ultimately futile.

There are different aspects of this and different viewpoints and they're all valid. But I interpret the whole "you complete me" thing in somewhat of a different way.

To me, it's more like: I love you because in another world, our roles our swapped. I love you because you care about everything and everyone so deeply even though it doesn't matter in the end and you know that. I love you because you experienced the same kind of world-shattering trauma that I did, but rather than giving in to the futility of everything and embracing the chaos of the universe, you chose to fight back. I love you because you choose to try and save everyone even when logic says it's impossible, because you keep getting back up even when you know you're just going to get knocked right back down again. I love you because the world told you "life is meaningless" and instead of accepting and internalizing that, you said "then I'II create my own meaning". I love you because you are everything that I'm not. 

I've always believed that Joker loves Batman for his humanity, for his hope and faith in his fellow people and his desire to help, his striving to make things better and to save people even if it doesn't ultimately change anything in a major way. But as I said before, it's complicated. I think that Joker is simultaneously frustrated by Batman continually trying to save everyone, in part because it's pointless to him, but also in part because of how it reflects on him and his worldviews. He hates the possibility that his way of dealing with the meaningless of everything is wrong. His nihilism is a survival strategy and not something he can easily let go of. Hope, optimism, and belief in the goodness of people are not luxuries that he can afford.

In a very real way, Batman embodies what's left of Joker's hope. Batman represents the possibility that people can go through the worst the world has to offer and still retain their compassion and belief in other people and desire to make things better. I think that's one of the reasons Joker pushes Batman like he does, and also one of the reasons Joker wants Batman to break his no killing rule on Joker specifically and not someone else; he doesn't want to be alive in a world where Batman is no longer a source of hope. I also don't think that he can admit this to himself, if he's even consciously aware of it.

Joker's conflict with Batman is his way of clinging on to hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe he's wrong. Maybe kindness and compassion and trying to help isn't futile. Maybe not everyone is bad, maybe people are deserving of help and the faith that Batman puts in them. 

Joker is so traumatized that he genuinely cannot allow himself to have that kind of hope again. It's a common thing with complex trauma to have negative core beliefs about the world and humanity in general. Joker's nihilism is a coping mechanism. He cannot allow himself to be anything other than nihilistic, he can't afford the luxury of hope because if he dared to hope and it backfired it would break him (or that's his perception, at least). This is kind of echoed in TKJ, although you could argue that's more about trust. I think it's both.

I think that Joker loves the part of Batman who wants to save everyone, who puts on the cowl with the intention of not letting anyone else go through what he experienced as a child, who has compassion for even the worst of his rogues, just as much as he loves the part of Batman who is violent and pathological and wants revenge for what he went through. And he wants Batman to get the joke, i.e., accept that everything is meaningless and stop trying to fix things when it's ultimately futile, and stop trying to help people when they're fundamentally bad. But he also wants Batman to keep pushing back, to keep trying to prove him wrong.

Unfortunately, there isn't much evidence for this in comics (largely because not a lot of creators dare to tackle what's going on in Joker's mind and instead just use him as a chaos edgelord villain). The closest thing is this excerpt from TDKR:

You could make an argument that Batman keeping count isn't an expression of him caring about the victims, but l've personally always interpreted this quote as meaning "I love you because these people's lives mean nothing to me, but you care about every single one I take."

Asiide from TDKR, LKOE is one of the only comics that actually has some evidence for this idea. 

This is obviously a reference to Bruce holding the door open for the mob of people. But you could also interpret this as a metaphor for a lot of things. Really any of those concepts I mentioned that Batman represents/embodies and that Joker denies himself, like hope, optimism, belief in the goodness of people, etc. So what he says next, "It's why Bats was always the best act in town in my opinion!"

You could also interpret this in a few ways. One is that he's saying that Batman was the best act in town because he was crazy, and Joker derived entertainment from that. But you could also interpret it more as Joker loves Batman because he would hold the door open, because he believes in people and he because he tries to save people, tries to help even if its dangerous or ultimately doomed.

Here we have Joker finally allowing himself the luxury of hope. He allows himself to believe in Batman's cause. And just prior to this, Joker took Tim's old Robin robot suit, which is significant of in itself. Obviously it varies with the person behind the mask, but the actual role of Robin represents the lighter side of Batman's crusade. Hope for the future, childlike optimism, belief in people and belief that things could be better, that people's actions do have the capacity to make things better. Batman needs a Robin to avoid getting sucked into a pit of anger and vengeance and despair. Aside from the human connection, needs someone to remind him of the lighter side of things.

So obviously having Joker take up this role when he usually represents pure nihilism and chaos, the idea that life is meaningless and people's actions and efforts to change things don't matter in the long run... It's a role reversal that shows how Joker and Batman's dynamic has been forced to change in this post-apocalyptic world. Earlier, Bruce says that Joker can't be Robin because Robin "was just a good person trying to help." Whether Joker fits that description is debatable, but he certainly has changed.

Joker's character development is further emphasized in this page, staring at his old costume, what he used to represent and fight for with his reflection showing where he is now. You could also argue that the next panel with Joker talking about the echoes is him trying to comfort Batman in his own way; that's more debatable but it would fit in nicely with the idea of him filling the role of Robin.

"All I've ever do is tried to challenge you, make you stronger. If you ever broke, you weren't worth it. But this time... this was it... you'd fall if you didn't see." For all the times Joker has said that he wants Batman to be in on the joke, for him to see that everything is meaningless and that what he's doing as Batman is insane and won't help anything because people are not good and don't matter anyway…. Well, imo this quote shows that it's not the entire truth.

The key here, I think, is in the quote "if you ever broke, you weren't worth it." Joker wants to push Batman to the point of breaking, but he doesn't actually want him to break. He wants to challenge Batman and his worldview, but if he ever actually changed his worldview to match Joker's, if he actually stopped trying to change things for the better and gave in to the idea that everything is meaningless, then he wouldn't be worth it.

He's constantly pushing Batman to try to get him and break, to see the joke and stop trying, but also if Batman stopped trying, if he stopped being a source of hope and stubborn determination in the face of a meaningless universe, Joker wouldn't have the same interest in him.

As stated in the I Am A Gun arc, without Bruce Wayne, Batman is just hollow anger. His hope and compassion and desire to help are what differentiate him from all the other dark angry edgelord vigilantes out there. Bruce Wayne is the soft, tender, hopeful human part of Batman.

Joker does love Bruce Wayne, or at least parts of him. He just either isn't necessarily aware of it, or can't bring himself to admit it under normal circumstances.

The circumstances in LKOE are anything but normal, though. Usually Joker wouldn't be able to admit this, that he values Batman's belief people and his has hope and faith and compassion and softness. But things have changed.

Omega is a Batman who has broken. He's lost his faith in people. He's lost his hope. The only way he can imagine a world that isn't violent and awful is by mind controlling the populous. He doesn't believe that people could be good enough to make the world good. He's become a dictator rather than a source of hope.

Omega has given up on the world, and he's trying to create a new, better one. But the thing is, Batman would never give up on the world as it is. He would try to save it regardless of whether his quest to save it is doomed, and regardless of whether it even wants saving.

I think this really encapsulates what Joker both loves and hates most about Batman. In a world that says "I have no place for your optimism, there is no room for your point of view and your futile attempts to save everyone in this meaningless, doomed world", Batman says "I'll make my own place. I'll try to save everyone regardless of whether it's doomed to fail and regardless of whether it's ultimately meaningless or futile. I'll make my own place and my own meaning."

Joker's Batman would hold open the door. Because Batman believes in people, has faith in them and their goodness. And Joker knows this, and he loves and hates it.

Ultimately, Joker is the one who helps talk Bruce into not giving up in his fight against Omega. He's usually advocating for the futility of trying to fight for good or trying to change anything, so this is clearly an inversion of that.

As for Joker's apparent hatred of Bruce Wayne; I could make a whole additional meta about this but basically I think it boils down to jealousy and fear of being abandoned by Batman. He hates that Batman is spending time with and energy on people other than him and he's afraid of becoming insignificant compared to the Batfam, essentially. He sees Batman growing as a person in the sense of him making connections, and he feels like he's being left behind because Batman is changing but he isn't. And then there's the jealousy; Batman has connections and people who care about him but Joker has no one.

While LKOE isn't canon, I would argue that Snyder's characterization of him and his motives is consistent enough to generalize across all of his work. So with LKOE in mind and the idea of Joker loving Batman's hope and compassion but not being able to admit it, and him framing it as an ideological battle as a way to rationalize it so he doesn't have to admit to himself that he loves Batman for the softer parts of him (in addition to his darker qualities ofc). There are some examples that hint at this, too.

Here we have Joker admitting he doesn't want either of them to win. To me, this has always read like Joker wants to believe in Batman's message, he wants to believe that things are meaningful and that people can be good but he can't, and this eternal fight is his way of preserving a shred of hope and creating meaning for himself. He doesn't actually want to win, he wants to push Batman and see him continue believing and being a source of hope and trying to change things even though Joker is trying to break him and his worldview. It's almost like every time Joker challenges Batman's worldview and he doesn't break, it gives Joker just the tiniest little additional bit of hope.

And then we have this. It's not as direct as LKOE, but I think the sentiment of Joker loving Batman for his caring and trying to change things and making his own meaning in the face of a meaningless universe is very much present in this panel. I suppose you could read this as sarcastic or trying to make fun of him, but I still think there's at least a shred of truth to it.

So, while LKOE isn't canon, I still consider all of this to be accurate to Joker's character in general, including in canon continuity. Although you're more than welcome to disagree with me.

[flowery-laser-blasts]

Headcanon: is Shego actually 'goth'?

my short answer: no, but it depends really.

I often see people talking about Shego as a 'cartoon goth girl' and I'm pretty sure that everyone is only basing it on her looks and 'attitude'.

The stereotype of gothic and any other type of alternative 'dark' subculture, is wearing black clothes, black lipstick and having a pissed or 'whatever' attitude.

Basic rule for goth: if you listen to goth music, you're goth. That's it. You can dress in 'normal'clothes and still be 'goth' at heart. It's your choice to express it.

Shego's appearance:

I've heard some people say her look and all screams goth but, it's just her ex-superhero suit??? That would make all of the Go siblings (or anyone who has black work clothes) 'goth'.

In 'stop team go' we find out that Shego's casual clothes are actually fairly 'ordinary' and match with Kim's tastes. Actually, Kim and Shego are REALLY close to one another when it comes to what they like and is Kim a goth? Most definetely not. (And that's OK).

"But in that episode, all of Shego's evilness got taken away" yeah, so? Does that mean being goth is evil? Heck no! It took away 'evil' not interests!

'Regular' people can wear black lipstick. Because doy, it's just make up!

If I put on pink lipstick, it doesn't mean that I am no longer goth or anything. It's always odd to me that if someone doesn't dress 100% goth 24/7 that (most of the time normal) people say "oh you're not a 'real'goth".

'Kay by that logic; where are Shego's platform boots, chains and spikes at ?

Also the stereotype that goths don't go into the sun? I've got news for you buddy; we kind of have to. I despise it because of my sun allergy and getting blinded by it but you can't go around it...

But for a stereotypical gothy cartoon character, Shego really does enjoy sunbathing huh? (And pft ofc goths can sunbathe but look at Sam Manson from Danny Phantom for example, she's covered from head to toe during the pool episode).

Shego's attitude:

I'm honestly puzzled because so often in media you see that the 'goth' is mopey, evil, depressed, dramatic, sarcastic or down right rude when that's the furthest from the truth!!!

Heck if you give Shego a blonde wig, pink lipstick and pink clothes, not only would you get evil 'Barbie', but you'd get a mean girls type-a girl. Think of it as Bonnie2.0. Except with a go-getter attitude and a larger range of skills.

Shego is an antagonist with a strong character with even stronger opinions. But that doesn't make her goth.

Shego's music tastes:

In the show, it's only ever established that she enjoys listening to MC Honey.

She seems to be kind of 'eh' about Oh Boyz, but perhaps it's because of Drakken who sings it.

I doubt she'd listen to 'goth' (or alternative) music because to hear it might be too... moopy.

The gothic scene is heavily based (started with) the gothic music genre, so if you don't listen to it then chances are: you're not goth.

Does that mean that goths can never listen to any other music genre? Heck no! You can listen to whatever you want, but you've got to know the roots and origins from a subculture.

My conclusion:

In terms of looks, Shego could be considered a 'goth'. But is she actually goth? I think noth.

And unless a cartoon character shows actual participation in the goth culture or states "yeah I'm goth", they're probably not goth.

But that's just my take on it and I'm also not going to be a gatekeeper of what is goth and what's not.

if you consider her 100% goth, that's a-ok!

MIGHT update this in the future but this is it for now.

Bonus:

Dr Drakken however, the man DEFINITELY had an angsty goth teen phase in his life and 100% listens to some punk, rock and new wave when working on his projects along with country, rap and poppy boyband songs.

+ that dark themed Victorian labcoat that he wears? and headcanon eyeliner to hide his eyebags? Sheeeeeesh! 😫👌

[thwackk]

kinda want a summary of the morals of Henry Danger discussion...

I mostly talked about one thing because I saw one post from like 4 years ago that pissed me off LMAO. And it’s not that deep, but i’m making it that deep for a minute:

So long story short, I got mad at people treating Ray like he’s some bad and horrible person for allowing Henry to basically sign his life away at 13 years old. Now obviously, that’s not a good thing or responsible. But we gotta remember that Ray got his powers at a MUCH younger age than when Henry started and was basically forced into the superhero gig by his father and quite literally MISSED OUT on having a childhood. So i’m pretty sure this guy doesn’t know shit abt acting normal, or having normal morals, and he definitely doesn’t know shit abt kids.

He’s been living in a cave fighting crime mostly by himself for like 20+ years like fucking batman or whatever, of course he’s not normal. Yeah this is irresponsible, but he didn’t really know how BAD it was. Also bringing up the fact that Henry had the choice to leave or quit literally any time, Ray was never FORCING him to be there. Henry loved it most of the time, and he got a good friend/mentor figure out of it. He’s not the greatest, but he’s not a bad one, and one he genuinely loves and cares abt, and vice versa.

It’s like saying batman is a horrible father and then acting like he’s completely evil, like it doesn’t make sense. Yeah Batman’s a bad father that’s true, BUT IT MAKES COMPLETE SENSE OF COURSE HE’S A BAD FATHER, LOOK AT THAT GUY. That doesn’t make him evil or mean that he doesn’t love his kids genuinely. (there are some versions of batman out there that do NOT make sense however but I am just bringing this up to make a shitty point). An extremely unfair point actually because Ray didn’t adopt henry first of all, and he’s SIGNIFICANTLY kinder, more patient, and emotionally available to this kid. they are genuinely friends, it’s a pretty healthy relationship.

anyways, gist of it is that just because an adult logically knows better (usually) doesn’t mean they are going to make good choices about it all the time. No adult actually feels like an adult, and no adult is right about everything so stop expecting them to be in fiction. that’s unrealistic, stop putting characters on pedestals they’re allowed to be human and do bad things sometimes because that’s what human beings DO.

does this mean it’s excused?? NO, all i’m saying is that we gotta stop being immature abt characters and expecting them to be perfect, it makes them infinitely more interesting that way.