#that's FINE

[angualupin]

One area where I feel like modern storytelling has let us down is this:

Sometimes you have to choose between evils.

I'm not talking about "situations in which it is unclear who is actually the villain" -- IMO there are too many of those stories recently -- but stories where it's clear that the good guys have no good options. Where the only choice you can make is the wrong one, because all of the choices are wrong, because not choosing is also a choice. Where the best you can do is to choose the lesser evil, or maybe, the greater good.

Because the preponderance of stories in which the hero, through virtue of his heroism, manages to make a good choice appear when the narrative has set him up to fail leads people to have little or no framework for making such a choice.

Because -- and let me be painfully clear about this -- in life there is often no good choice. The best you can hope for is the lesser evil.

But too many people have a moral framework wherein only bad people can choose a bad option, so when only bad options present themselves, people...... don't choose? Which is also a choice, and usually a worse one. Or they insist that if people only try hard enough, are "good" enough, then a good choice will present itself.

Most of the time, that doesn't happen. Most of the time, you have to choose harm reduction over harm abolition, and wishing the world were different, were better, means the world just gets worse while you sit around waiting.

[ohhamlet-art]

magician-shaped

[esmiara]

Eyes of glass and night of cold. I once foretold my end would come in nothing but my own hands, a death of sorts brought by a soul hidden in this cryptic mind. Impossibility for it to find a companion. Iris fixed on watery surface below a balcony, the window on my back opened in a swipe. Eyes of light and night of warmth. I raised my hand to this familiar silhouette of red. "Mind a dance, sir?" i said. A smile grew on my silent face, reflecting what i never thought could exist in this pit of mine. Maybe "impossible" wasn't a suited word, after all.

[sapphic-agent]

Bakugou stans who hate Endeavor and Endeavor stans who hate Bakugou make me laugh.

Because when you get down to it, they both benefit from the same things: in-universe privilege, narrative advantages, and plot manipulation. Their arcs enable each other in a way, they're both abusers being given more exposure and grace than their victims. They're both constantly being propped and accepted by the other characters despite being horrible people.

Criticizing one and not the other is obtuse. They're cut from the same exact cloth, the issues with their characters are nearly identical. And the focus of both their characters contribute to the overarching problem of MHA; not only pandering to abusers but pandering to those born privileged and who knowingly abused that privilege. And neither had to face actual repercussions without being protected by the author.

The only difference between them is in the literal sense; Endeavor is a worse person morally while Bakugou is a worse character narratively.

They both still suck ass

[colorfullyminded]

TLDR

Okay I cannot believe I'm about to go off like this, but this has been bothering me for awhile, and it's only making me more spiteful. I have been enjoying the influx of Billford art lately. Amazing, great wonderful. What I have Not been enjoying, is the absolute vitriol the Billdip fans have been getting since the influx of TBOB. I was a billdip shipper for awhile. Hell I was a billdip shipper when I was a Parapines shipper-- I liked shipping Dipper with boys. I was also like 14 or 15 at the time. Obviously, if you follow me now, you'll probably notice what my main ship for Dipper is. I grew out of Billdip, and moved on to Pinescone. I have been shipping Pinescone for 10 years. However, not once did I go around saying "Lol, glad I matured and became a better person and shipped something healthier", nor did I post in the billdip tag, condeming people for a fictional ship! And saying mine was better because it was less problematic.

"I'm really glad people stopped shipping Bill and Dipper together. Bill is a 1000 year old triangle demon, and Dipper is 13--" Stop. Repeat what you just said.

"Bill is 1000 year old triangle--"

Repeat that last word to me. "....triangle?" TRIANGLE! I'm sorry what?! This ship is already completely wild enough. You're getting mad at this fictional age gap-- AND BILL IS A FUCKING SHAPE! A FUCKING SHAPE! This ship was weird from the moment GO! And Billford isn't any better. IT'S STILL A SHIP WITH A FUCKING SHAPE! And you're going to sit on your high horse and look down on the Billdip community. On top of it-- they have an age gap too! Bill is still thousands of years old or whatever-- however long it's been, who knows? And Ford was in his 20s or so when he met Bill. That's still a huge, ridiculous age gap-- that Bill could easily use and manipulate; which he did....and then also caught feelings and became a sad ex, but that's beside the point~ Both of these ships are still insane. And again, the bigger thing I think people are just ignoring about these ships--is that Bill is a TRIANGLE! THREE LINES CONNECTED TOGETHER! And this is the hill you're going to die on? ...Cause apparently it's mine. First of all-- as many people pointed out-- Ford Pines did not exist until the second half of the final season. People couldn't ship Fordbill because there wasn't any Ford to introduce.

"Well, even before Ford, I never shipped Billdip! I always disliked it." ...Okay, that's totally fine. Not everyone needs to like or agree on the same ship. Lord knows there's probably people who don't really care for Pinescone either. There's a lot of popular ships that I can't stand. But I'm don't go into a ship tag I don't like, screaming to a void for self validation. I don't go around mocking other people for ships that they had in 2014-- or even still today! It doesn't matter! I did that when I was a kid-- and then realized that was rude, and it was better to just ignore the ships I didn't like and enjoy the ones that made me happy. And grow a community of kind, like minded friends. And listen, I am all for safe spaces and being able to block things that make you uncomfortable. I am not saying people who find the BillDip ship uncomfortable to be idiots or babies or overly sensitive-- or anything like that. I think if something makes you uncomfortable, that is okay and I think it's perfectly fine to blacklist a tag that you don't want to see. I also think it's imperative that people tag things as accurately as they can so people looking at your work can know if one of your pieces has a thing that they don't like-- and therefore can avoid. What I don't appreciate is the fanhate for this ship that is sprouting up like weeds. You can not like something, you can be disgusted by it (I have my Gravity Falls ships I can not stand, nor do I feel comfortable with), but attacking real people for a FICTIONAL SHIP-- two characters who are drawings on a piece of paper and can not be affected mentally, physically or emotionally by fanwork; who still retain the same shape after everything we put them through-- to the point that you send death threats, or threaten to Doxx, or just harass relentlessly, I have always found that more childish and disgusting. You are causing real world pain to people. Me fucking up Dipper Pines is not going to do anything to him-- because he doesn't actually exist. He's a cartoon character. I could squash him and stretch him in Wonka's taffy machine--- I could throw him mock speed at a wall and watch him explode on impact-- but he still exists. He's not dead; I can pick him up and dust him off, and If I wanted-- I could decide that eh, 'Not a scratch on him'. And I'd be right. Because he is a cartoon character, and I am just a fangirl. I can not change anything about him-- I have no ability to make anything I headcanon canon. And even if I was the original artist-- it doesn't change the fact that Dipper would still be nothing more than a creation. A construct of shapes; he can not be hurt or traumatized in a way that leads to real life consequences-- because he is not real. I am not a cartoon character. My friends are not cartoon characters. Artist and Writers who stay in their lane...are not cartoon characters. If you hurt us...it will linger. It will leave a scar. If you can not tell the difference between Fiction and Reality, then I think maybe media might be too much to handle-- and I think you need to really reevaluate yourself.

And just to vent some other things that i keep seeing that are frustrating: You can't claim the twins are only 13-- and then on August 31st go "Happy 20-something Birthday Mabel and Dipper!" And then proceed to drop a picture of them as adults. Well which is it? Do they age or not? Because Gravity Falls showed them canonically aging. If you think the twins age-- then you can't suddenly turn around and go, 'no you can't ship them-- Dipper is a child!' but you drew him as an adult. So sorry, it looks like you can't draw the twins grown up anymore. You claimed they're 13, so better draw them 13 forever--. Aged up stories and works exist for a reason, especially for a fan who grew up on the series. The characters might have grown up alongside them. It's not unlikely for a person to ship Billdip when Dipper is much older.

And on that note, for people who are like 'well older billdip is fine-- it's just people shipping him during the show that deserve to die.' Okay... and like I said, this rant is coming from a recent influx of Billford shippers spitting on Billdip shippers. You know? The TOXIC Old Man Yaoi!

You're still shipping something that is problematic. You are still shipping something twisted and wrong. And I am not judging you. I am here for this divorced arc. I am thriving. But you can't just pick and choose what is and isn't okay. And let me first off explain; if there is something that personally triggers you about a toxic ship, and you want to avoid that-- again, perfectly understandable. Perfectly reasonable. You are the makers of your content space. And I am not judging anyone for that. I want people to be safe. I want people to have a good time in fandom spaces. I want people to not have to deal with the things that upset them or frighten them, or disgust them. But you can not say one is fine, and one is not. They're both bad! They're both toxic. In real life, these ships would both be charged with serious crimes! And yes, there are some crimes that are worse than others, and if you asked me what I thought was more problematic-- I'd say Billdip-- but both of these ships are extreme, and severe in their problematic content. You are still consuming problematic content. If it's a personal thing, that's fine; avoid it. But don't sit there throwing stones from your glass house.

[finemealprompt]

DP x DC Prompt #60

Alfred does not fear death. He knows what awaits on the other side, so why should he fear it? After all, he's been married to a being of death for a long time.

[allastoredeer]

Aren't you guys kinda over feminizing Alastor a little bit????? like I get it that we want him to sub/bottom, but aren't you guys doing the same thing you hate that people do with Lucifer???? Like Alastor to me would never wear a dress? unless like he's joking or something??

....Alastor wore a nun outfit....out of the two, he's canonically worn a dress.

If you're going just by the show--no headcanons, no fanon, no tropes, no fan-art--Alastor has exhibited more fem-like qualities, has acted more feminine, than Lucifer ever has. I'd go as far to say that Lucifer is actually pretty masculine in the show, he just happens to have a pretty face.

And I mean, we don't know if Lucifer would wear a dress either. He's only ever worn pants, shirt, and a jacket, we have no evidence that he would wear a dress. But people like to put him in them anyway because of ✨vibes✨ - which I totally get. Vibes are important. It's not like I don't think Lucifer wouldn't wear a dress. I totally think he would and he'd rock it.

As for Alastor only ever wearing a dress for a joke, I definitely agree, but I think that guy would do anything for the bit. He'll do whatever it takes to get the last laugh. He trolls for the sake of trolling. He's a menace. But it's not like he wore the nun outfit as a joke, it was more of a manipulation tactic when you think about it. He's as faithful as a nun 🙏 see how faithful he is, Charlie? He'll never lead you astray.

I love Alastor's masculine and feminine sides. He does both so well. If I have been leaning more into feminine Alastor recently, well, it could be on account that I haven't come across a lot of content of him being feminine, and make the content you wanna see, right?

But thing is, I don't think we have been over-feminizing Alastor, at least not to the extent that Lucifer has been feminized, in my opinion. I mean, Lucifer has been feminized to the point that he's--in some cases, not in all cases--unrecognizable from the show. Whereas with Alastor, at most, I've been posting gifs from the show of him being his girlypop self. Something's not mathing, because it's not adding up. These two things feel very different.

Tell me if I'm wrong, cuz I very well might be, but I'm getting the vibes that this is going back to Alastor's ego being the reason he wouldn't wear or act in a specific way.

I just don't see how his ego would stop him from wearing a dress. It's not like he has anything against feminine clothes or attributes, nor do we have any evidence at all that he would be against it. If anything, I get the vibes that he appreciates and respects femininity more than masculinity. I don't see why he would be against being in a dress, or appearing feminine, when he's done both in the show.

It smells of misogyny. My boy is many things, but a misogynist he ain't.

[batwynn]

I typically have a pretty healthy respect for farmers and their work, especially having lived on and worked on many different farms growing up. I've woken up at 4am to milk cows, feed chickens, chop wood. I've pulled more weeds than you can imagine, tilled rows, and run out in hailstorms to protect crops. But I can't seem to dredge up a drop of respect for the farms around where I live these days. Because these guys don't actually do anything, and yet have a serious attitude about how much of better a person they are because they 'work hard' and 'kids these days don't wanna work' yadda yadda. They've convinced themselves and everyone around them that they work like people used to work on farms. In the field, backs bent, heavy lifting, etc. Except, you know, they don't. Everything is mechanized, and more than half of the year is spent doing nothing at all while the potatoes grow/over the winter. Every step of the planting, watering, spraying, harvesting, and storing process is run by a machine. The tractors don't even need them to direct them for most of the process. I've watched these guys fart around on their phones and pick their noses for 6 hours as the tractor goes back and forth, only waking up enough to turn the thing at the end of the row. For what isn't mechanized, (kale) they hire migrant workers to do the actual work. Meanwhile, these guys drive around in their un-used-for-anything-but-driving pickup trucks, yelling about migrant (non-white) workers and people asking for 'handouts'. Ironic, of course, because every single farm up here gets massive 'handout' from the government for multiple claims of u w u growing pwoblems. These same people will pick apart every single thing that you do 'wrong' because you don't do it the way they do it. (Like have a giant bulldozer to clear their driveway vs a small snow blower) If that wasn't enough, these aren't the neighbors that I grew up with. These same people have the ability to help others, and won't. They pull up to you after 5 months of grueling shoveling and clearing the driveway of snow and say, "Oh we could have done that for you for $40." And then never offer to do it next year. They'll stand outside and crack jokes about how our house is going to burn down because of how we set up the pellet stove, but not offer advice. They'll happily run their generators and settle in during the bomb cyclone that turned off the power for over a week at -60º and not even question if they should check on anyone living around them. They're greedy, selfish, lazy, cruel people and they say the kids are the problem?

[deadfrog-and-friends]

it's been in this drawer a long time.

the witch hasn't opened it in a while. she forgot it was in there. but she opened it today for a moment, looking for something else. not really noticing the doll. her hand pushes it out of the way, searching underneath. it's invisible to her.

stunned by the sudden light. the sudden unintentional touch. the doll lays Still as only a doll can. the witch steps away, leaving the drawer open, looking elsewhere for her papers. she leaves the room.

can it even move? after all this time. a weird ache stirs in its joints as it moves its little limbs. this is a rare opportunity. it needs to figure out if it will act before she comes back and closes the drawer again with her hip, never looking inside. she has adhd so it could be a while before she remembers. she might leave it open indefinitely, become accustomed to it being open, its openness invisible to her, until she needs it closed for some reason. or she might be on her way back to shut it right now and then it will be in the dark again for who knows how long, ignored, useless, no good to man or beast. it hops out.

it finds its witch in the kitchen. "Miss," it says. "This one is going."

Miss starts, as though a piece of furniture has spoken to her.

it continues. "You know how to contact it, if you need it."

Miss collects herself, never turning to face it. "that is your right," she says. "i wish you the best." she teleports herself to another room.

"what is happening. what have i done" it asks itself as its legs carry it out of the witch's house and down the street to the bus stop bench where it collapses into a puddle of ceramic and cloth. "what will become of me. will i ever see her again"

it must find a place with other dolls. it knows there's a doll cafe in another part of town and it takes a bus and walks two hours to get there and the shop is closing and all of the dolls have gone back home to their witches. it remembers something from long ago, there's this alleyway two blocks down and usually someentity is there, though sometimes it's only a cat.

it meets a broken combat doll there, one its spoken to before, dressed in pale gray athleisure, its pale gray eyes staring dead at the other side of the alley, trembling slightly, an affectionate stray rubbing against its legs. it nods in recognition. it's been a long time but dolls don't forget their friends.

"how's that one"

"bad. how's that one."

"bad."

"this one read a book that made it feel weird."

"this one left its witch."

and that's all either of them says, but they both feel better, just by being together. and they stay in the alley together, late into the night.

🩶

[kerryweaverlesbian]

Seaon 16 Supernatural will be the new PDF

[spirk-trek]

Precessional Fanzine | Merle Decker, 1980

[spectral-phases]

Another thing I need people to stop just saying like it's the truth is that Bruce picked up Tim as Robin immediately after Jason died, or that Tim forced his way into being Robin.

Now, of course, there is the caveat that Jason can come back into town thinking that it was the case, he was dead and Talia informed him of the changes in Gotham, so we don't know how accurately he was informed. Another caveat is that Tim can grow up thinking he forced his way into it because he does argue for it at a point, but I need no one else who had a fully developed mind and was there saying it. Okay? Okay.

So, let's tackle the first one. Jason Todd gets an official death certificate in the Daedalus and Icarus Annual explaining how he came back showing his date of death as 4/27/19xx (since comics are always meant to be contemporary unless stated otherwise, we can just ignore the year). The DC Encyclopedia had a death certificate too, but it had a lot of odd details, not least his height and weight being more in line for a 10 year old than a 15 year old (the Titans comic put his height at 5'4" when he died), so I'm going to use the comics certificates over that when they conflict, but the Batman Annual also lists his date of death as 4/27 (why is it a Gotham City Death Certificate when he died in Ethiopia? I have no clue).

(Batman Annual 25)

(New Titans Vol 1 55)

(DC Encyclopedia)

Tim Drake appears after Jason dies when Bruce Wayne is going a little crazy as Batman. He specifically shows up during a break week from school.

(Batman 1940 #441)

Given that he could only have a Break Week feasibly in November for teacher conferences, December for Christmas/New Year's, or March/April for Easter, and the greenery outside show that it's neither November nor December, he's therefore shown up for his Spring Break. Since that would never be after April 27th, then he has to be there at least the first Spring Break following Jason's death, so about a year later.

He shows up and begs Dick to become Robin again to save Bruce from himself.

(Batman 1940 #441)

You see, this is interesting. He's explaining all his best qualities, not as a way to say "I'm right for the job" but to awkwardly (as only Tim Drake can) explain how much Batman and Robin mean to him, and how much they've influenced his life, to show how committed he is to this idea to back-up his assessment that Batman needs Dick as Robin again.

Dick is very adamant in his refusal to step back into the Robin role.

(Batman 1940 #441)

Both Alfred and Dick(Maybe? unless it's just Alfred being the drama again, but Dick did leave his old Robin costume out on the side before leaving) suggest Tim should pick up the costume. And he does only hours later, when Dick and Batman's signals have disappeared after going to confront Two-Face. Tim is feeling guilt over Nightwing possibly being dead because he got involved, he's worried sick about his heroes, and Tim has to go help because he is not built for sitting back and worrying.

(Batman 1940 #442)

At this point, he does start trying to convince both himself and Batman that he should be Robin, but only seriously after Alfred and Dick start hyping Tim up as well. Bruce is not having it. Like. At all.

(Batman 1940 #442)

They go to track down Two-Face and the confrontation ends with Tim nearly getting crushed to death as a pile of cars in the junkyard are toppled over onto the Batmobile, where he's been instructed to wait.

(Batman 1940 #442)

The confrontation ends with Bruce punching Two-Face and telling him that he can't kill Batman or Nightwing (Or Robin?) Or Robin!

Afterwards, after all the adrenaline has worn off and they're back in the manor in their normal clothes, Tim starts to back off of being Robin. He's still super stoked for having had the chance to fight criminals with his heroes, he's 13, give him a break. Please and thank you.

At this point it is Alfred, Dick, and Bruce who cement Tim going into training to become Robin. Yes, because of his logic, but also, like. I think Bruce knows deep down he needs someone to work with just as much as everyone else does. And Tim already knows his secret, and this is the easiest way to keep him quiet. Also, Bruce. Fucking. Communicate better. Jesus.

(Batman 1940 #442)

And then Tim's training begins, but he won't become Robin until the following Christmas. And only after he saves Bruce because he's been captured by Scarecrow and is being tortured with fear toxin with Vikki Vale. Tim was ordered to stay home, but again, he is incapable to standing back and not helping when he thinks there's a problem (this is a good and heroic character trait). This time, he doesn't wear the costume because he can't bear the idea of failing in it, so he dons a ski mask and comes in, gets dosed with fear toxin while saving Batman and beating Scarecrow and runs away before the cops show. Tim believes this means he'll never be Robin, that Bruce will fire him from training, but at least Bruce is alive. When Tim explains this all to Bruce, Bruce says the rules are there for a reason, but sometimes it's okay to break them when justified and gives Tim a new Robin costume.

(Batman 1940 #457)

[maingh0st]

I've always been puzzled by jude's decision to announce the existence of the court of shadows at the end of queen of nothing. like i understand that narratively it's the most fitting time to give them the masks as gifts, but in-story, isn't it a strategic error? isn't plausible deniability always going to be better than open transparency when it comes to your secret group of spies operating in the shadows of your throne? faeries can now just straight-up ask each other "hey are you one of those spies for the queen" and they can't lie about it

[stylish-suidae]

Being a Bethesda fan is so fun because whenever you see a complaint about Starfield online you get to play the fun game of "is this someone who actually played and didn't like Starfield, or is this someone who has a one-sided vendetta against Todd Howard who hasn't played a Bethesda game in the past decade?"

This is fun because in most fandoms, seeing people complain about the recent stuff instead initiates the significantly less fun game of "Do they genuinely have issues with the writing, or are they just upset that there's a major character who isn't a cishet white man"

So it is nice that bigotry isn't the first thing to come to mind when I see complaints about my pet game developer.

[star-lights-up]

okay you know what? reading through rp blogs has become my new source of entertainment. It's like the multiverse but messier and like fanfiction but unpredictable and also like anonymous asks bugging characters about when they're going to kiss other characters and the characters telling them to go fucking die