#the griffins are the worst

[prothos]

Blodreina is Abby's fault. She turned Octavia into Blodreina and then called her a monster.

[tiercel]

Nothing worse than a reboot of a piece of media arguably being the most popular version yet also being one of the worst versions of it period

[wanderloveshater]

𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑘𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝘩𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑒𝑟

𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑐𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑟

🌸🌺🪷🌹💐🌷🌼🌻

[vickyvicarious]

“I made a mistake, Kemp, a huge mistake, in carrying this thing through alone. I have wasted strength, time, opportunities. Alone—it is wonderful how little a man can do alone! To rob a little, to hurt a little, and there is the end. “What I want, Kemp, is a goal-keeper, a helper, and a hiding-place, an arrangement whereby I can sleep and eat and rest in peace, and unsuspected. I must have a confederate. With a confederate, with food and rest—a thousand things are possible. “Hitherto I have gone on vague lines. We have to consider all that invisibility means, all that it does not mean. It means little advantage for eavesdropping and so forth—one makes sounds. It’s of little help—a little help perhaps—in housebreaking and so forth. Once you’ve caught me you could easily imprison me. But on the other hand I am hard to catch. This invisibility, in fact, is only good in two cases: It’s useful in getting away, it’s useful in approaching. It’s particularly useful, therefore, in killing. I can walk round a man, whatever weapon he has, choose my point, strike as I like. Dodge as I like. Escape as I like.” Kemp’s hand went to his moustache. Was that a movement downstairs? “And it is killing we must do, Kemp.” “It is killing we must do,” repeated Kemp. “I’m listening to your plan, Griffin, but I’m not agreeing, mind. Why killing?” “Not wanton killing, but a judicious slaying. The point is, they know there is an Invisible Man—as well as we know there is an Invisible Man. And that Invisible Man, Kemp, must now establish a Reign of Terror. Yes; no doubt it’s startling. But I mean it. A Reign of Terror. He must take some town like your Burdock and terrify and dominate it. He must issue his orders. He can do that in a thousand ways—scraps of paper thrust under doors would suffice. And all who disobey his orders he must kill, and kill all who would defend them.”

There's so much going on in this conversation. First, the obvious irony of Griffin telling Kemp how he understands now that he needs a helper he can trust, while Kemp is trying to ensure he gets caught in the next few minutes. Griffin saying that he will be easily imprisoned once caught but that he's hard to catch, as Kemp frets over whether they will be able to catch him now. That's pretty obvious, and both funny and also sad. It's perfectly understandable for Kemp to want Griffin to be caught even before he talks about this plan, but it sucks that Griffin's sincerity is just completely bouncing off him. Griffin is for the first time trying to make a connection with someone (something that could potentially turn this situation around) but he's been rejected from the start.

But there's also... what is Griffin talking about? This goes from 'yeah, Griffin, you shouldn't be going it alone' to 'no Griffin not like that holy shit' real damn fast. And it's really interesting in the context of the rest of his behavior, because... this really doesn't seem to match it throughout most of the book so far.

Griffin has used plenty of violence before now. He defaults to threats or physical harm when he feels too vulnerable or powerless. But while he's been reckless and careless with it, there has never really been premeditated malice to anything he does. He's not scheming evil upon others. He's mostly reacting, again, often in what seems a kind of panic. When he gets most violent, at least. He has done harmful things with forethought, but those are mostly limited to theft, and are informed by selfishness and a lack of consideration/awareness of potential consequences.

He also has been consistently motivated by curing his invisibility. He wants his resources back, and privacy/freedom to work in order to do just that. He very quickly decided making himself invisible was a shortsighted mistake, as he encountered drawback after drawback in the immediate aftermath. He also wasn't motivated by any particular single goal of seizing power when he made himself invisible. He was deeply depressed and clinging to 'seeing it through', and then panicked when he came into conflict with his landlord. His paranoia about his invention was intense, but that too is linked to him seeking control over his own life, not others' as such.

So then, why this turnaround? Well, last chapter he said this:

"I had one hope. It was a half idea! I have it still. It is a full blown idea now. A way of getting back! Of restoring what I have done. When I choose. When I have done all I mean to do invisibly."

So, now it seems Griffin's motivation has shifted. He no longer wants immediate relief from invisibility. Instead, he wants to do things while invisible first. He wants to establish a Reign of Terror, to take over a town by utilizing his invisibility in the only way he can see it being of practical use: murder and the spreading of fear. But he says that as a 'must' as 'judicious'. So it's still not for the pleasure of it. Then, why?

First, I frankly don't believe Griffin is actually capable of enforcing the kind of siege he describes here. Physically maybe (depending on how unprepared others are), but emotionally I don't think he could keep it up. He'd collapse, he'd succumb to the guilt he clearly does feel at times. When he's not in a constant state of high emotion (largely fear, which with Griffin transitions seamlessly into rage) he wouldn't be able to keep murdering people so coldly and logically. He can of course work himself up over time, and can hold a grudge, which might be enough to get him started enacting this plan, but I don't believe he could see it through all the way. Still enough to do monstrous things, of course, just not enough to be effective at establishing his goal. (And even that shows his typical lack of forethought. Does he think that no one else would help them? That this town would just succumb to him in total isolation?)

But why does he even want it? I think it actually reflects all his same motivations until now. He feels cornered and he reacts badly, lashing out at others. As the rejection builds all around him, as his options dwindle, as his fear and helplessness grow - he consistently reacts by escalating and proving everyone's worst assumptions about him correct. And right now, even though he has found Kemp and thinks he can mostly trust him, it's not enough to make him feel safe. There are lots of people actively hunting him, now. And he can't just stay in Kemp's rooms forever. He would hate the idea, would feel imprisoned. He doesn't think much of stealing from others, but absolutely hates being stolen from (and he has so little, that the loss feels correspondingly huger), especially something like his books which contain the key to freeing him. So being here is a brief reprieve but he's still deeply afraid. And that makes him deeply angry. And so he wants revenge, he wants to punish them (in general, who make him feel afraid - and Marvel in particular, who has 'betrayed' him).

He also quite likely knows even with his idea it will take an unknown but likely significant amount more time to perfect his cure. So even if all he wanted was to be cured, he would need a safe place to work until then. And the tension is so high right now, his fear of being betrayed is so strong, that I don't think he believes it would be possible to do the necessary work unless he has the town cowed under his invisible heel.

“I don’t agree to this, Griffin,” he said. “Understand me, I don’t agree to this. Why dream of playing a game against the race? How can you hope to gain happiness? Don’t be a lone wolf. Publish your results; take the world—take the nation at least—into your confidence. Think what you might do with a million helpers—”

This line is also key. Kemp urges Griffin to confide in others. All his considerations of the usefulness of invisibility were from the perspective of a lone man against a cruel world. Very selfish and very assuming of a hostile environment. This too is reflected in Griffin's treatment of the few people he has reached out to - Marvel and Kemp. In both cases, he seeks understanding and sympathy. But he also seeks it at metaphorical gunpoint, by threatening them with what he could invisibly do to harm them. It's because as much as he may pour out his heart to Kemp here, he doesn't fully trust him. He doesn't fully trust anyone. By collaborating with them, all he is doing is giving them power over him, and that means they have power to hurt him. So instead he clings to his own power to hurt them first.

In Griffin's eyes, there is no such thing as an equal relationship. There is such thing as trust rewarded, or even given freely. And so in order to ensure his own safety he has to be the one in charge. He has to convince Kemp that they will both reap great rewards, he has to be able to hurt him and get away should anything fall through.

It all ties in perfectly with his backstory of being an outsider (albino, not socially adept at all), and being poor (in many ways powerless). And of course, it is such a self-fulfilling prophecy of terrible outcomes. If you only give violence, you're only getting violence in return. Someone has to let their guard down first, someone has to be willing to trust and be vulnerable for things to ever change. But Griffin is convinced that would be a mistake to ever fully do. And as much as I want to tell him he's wrong, his experiences corroborate that view. Everywhere he goes, he's experienced rejection and hate, or nosiness and distrust at best, no matter how much he tries to be on his best behavior. Every time he even partially lets down his guard or reaches out to others, they turn on him. And of course so much of that is because of the way he never fully relaxes, the way he always keeps a threat hanging over their heads, but he's not gonna see that. All he's gonna see is that he's been right all along. That he truly is in this alone. That he has to be selfish and he has to hit first and hit harder because he is outnumbered and if they catch him he won't be able to get away.

[monkey-network]

"Holy crap, Chilchuck from Dungeon Meshi" "Hey Peter."

[pigeonguy]

i’ve gotten myself into an autism hellhole where all i can listen to is til death do us blart and watch paul blart mall cop two and i’m severely worried for my mental state

[maintitle]

In which the boys deify Paul Blart.

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

I tend to view Riddle of the Sphinx and Misdirection as kind of partner pieces: familial revenge plots deeply involved with Steve and Reece's own interests - with the main communicator of the topics being arrogant arseholes who clearly know a lot about their craft, but obtained their status in shifty and immoral ways (to paint a VERY broad brush of things ofc).

However, I rewatched Misdirection yesterday and, in comparison to Squires at least, god Neville is horrible at all of this.

He really pulls out all of these very ominous and purposeful bits that only he'll get and can find amusement in, such as claiming that "not another living soul" knows "his" trick or that, to him, the theft of an idea is "worse than murder"...

... And then he gets rattled and completely squirms at the ever so-slightest threat from Gabriel. At the mere mention of him having a Grandad as an inspiration for his own interest in magic, Neville is so clearly on edge.

He also immediately folds at Gabriel's Mountweazel note and burns his secret of nine years - turning off the security camera so that there's no proof of anything happening. This is what leaves him with no alibi at the one point he actually needs it.

(Although I do think he could have come up with literally almost anything else to say when questioned about why he removed his security footage other than "no reason". It might not have helped much but it would have made him at least a bit less suspicious).

I think it's clear that Gabriel's plan relied on Neville's unyielding arrogance, but I think it's his paranoia that ultimately ruined him.

Plus, his own lack of creativity - literally keeping the name "A Chair Raising Experience" - also didn't help AT ALL.

Neville's security set up is honestly a really good reflection of himself and ultimately what dooms him. He has the security cameras set up at every angle to protect "his" ideas within the safe that he himself stole, whilst actively bragging in his published book about how well kept a secret he has. He wrote down the secret years ago and yet keeps the original copy and sets up this entire system around a point of potential exposure that does not even need to exist. He's paranoid at every opportunity at the idea of being exposed and yet cannot help himself but to show off.

Arguably, Squires does the same. He was ultimately pushed into a corner by Jacob when he had created a crossword about the current circumstances that easily acts as his own murder confession. Why? "A bit of fun" and to "teach" the girl who he knew was planning to kill him. It's to show off. However, this display of arrogance was done through a belief that he was in control of the situation. He was "aware" of the plan to kill him prior and so felt he could act in complete security and without consequence.

Squires' arrogance that got him in the end was without any nervousness or insecurity. Meanwhile, Neville's arrogance and desire to show off was in spite of his own insecurity.

[cirqueduroyale]

Some rich clown family doodles

[amarithecat]

Based on true events.

[evenaturtleduck]

Parenting lesson #17 from the Whyborne and Griffin series: if you're racist or homophobic about your future son in law you can fuck right off and out of the story, but if you merely attempt to sacrifice him to an eldritch god you can definitely come back from that one ❤️

[dathen]

Every chapter in the book makes me go ??? about every choice the LXG comics had done with Griffin. Even if you ignore the everything revolving him getting recruited as the spy, he straight up beats the shit out of Mina in cold blood when she's defenseless. You'd think he's a violent maniac like Kemp describes him when in fact he's way more bark than bite.

I think on top of LEOG making everything as edgy as possible, they have to be drawing mainly from the Universal movie, where he does kill hundreds of people and murder indiscriminately. (Re: "the violent maniac like Kemp describes him," I love how this page of LXGentlefolk parodies the Universal movie with exaggerated rumors about Iping's local monster)

But yeah I had like two seconds of a jolt in today's chapter when Ayde mentions that Griffin assaulted Kemp's maid, only for it to turn out that he just jump-scared her by snatching a piece of paper from her hand. That and goofily shooing Mrs. Hall out of his room with a floating chair are the extent of his interactions with women.

[diagoose]

taking a break from drawing for even a week or so sucked, have blorbo doodles from this morning as i try to remember how to draw.

[michameinmicha]

Me: can we have The Raven Boys?

Mom: we have raven boys at home

The Raven Boys at home:

[vickyvicarious]

Today's chapter is in so many ways the culmination of the book. There is only a single brief hint of Griffin as a person:

They stood on the landing, Kemp speaking swiftly, the grotesque swathings of Griffin still on his arm.

But the reminder isn't so much that he's a person, naked and scared as much as he is angry. The mention of his bandages here isn't focused on him being injured, and now no longer receiving any treatment. Instead, they're called 'grotesque', the focus is on them being disgusting. The fact that Kemp has them means that the Invisible Man can no longer be seen, that is all. And while the narration doesn't mention Kemp casting off these wrappings from his own arm, I certainly get the impression that he does. Certainly he metaphorically does, when he immediately begins to assert:

“He is mad,” said Kemp; “inhuman. He is pure selfishness. He thinks of nothing but his own advantage, his own safety. I have listened to such a story this morning of brutal self-seeking…. He has wounded men. He will kill them unless we can prevent him. He will create a panic. Nothing can stop him. He is going out now—furious!”

Mad. Selfish. Furious. Will kill, will cause panic. Inhuman.

All those descriptors could be used for a person, except the last. Still a dangerous person of course, but a fellow human being. But Kemp denies Griffin that. As he continues to talk with the police, it becomes clear that in all his listening to Griffin's tale, the only things that have stuck are the bad parts. We knew that often when Griffin was at his most open/vulnerable, Kemp was distracted. The narration outright told us so. But he demonstrates that he was alert to all the things that confirmed his own fears... and even when he did hear the other stuff, it wasn't pity or understanding that he took from it.

He knows that Griffin wanted to get away. He knows Griffin wants his books back. He doesn't think about how that was originally in a desire to become visible again.

He knows Griffin has hurt people before. He knows Griffin said he wants to kill, to start a Reign of Terror. He doesn't consider how Griffin said it was a necessity rather than a desire, doesn't consider the many times he tried to avoid harming others until forced into a confrontation or overcome by anger.

He knows all of Griffin's weaknesses. He knows that in the past Griffin has been exhausted, starving, cold, sick, unsheltered, hunted by dogs. He tries to recreate all these worst moments.

He knows Griffin is more visible in certain situations. Rather than suggesting people start carrying mud or paint around to try and mark him, or that they use smoke or colored powder in the air, he goes straight to the most vicious option: powdered glass. The one that Griffin himself mentioned.

In every way, he is turning all that Griffin told him into a weapon he can wield against him. And to a certain extent, it could simply be precaution. It is hard to fight against an invisible foe - more specifically to find one or to defend against one that you don't know is there. That does indeed require strategic thinking if you want to ensure success.

But Kemp dives right past strategy into cruelty. He goes to the greatest extremes immediately, proposes ideas that would never be put into use against another person. The powdered glass is case in point. Not only could other less violent options come to mind if he'd spent some time thinking about it, but there's a reason he hesitates before suggesting it.

“It’s cruel, I know. But think of what he may do!”

That sums it up, doesn't it? Yes, the method is cruel. But the ends are worth the means, because the consequences would be... Well, the idea of the consequences is too frightening. There's nothing he'll put past Griffin now. Because, as he says next:

“The man’s become inhuman, I tell you,” said Kemp. “I am as sure he will establish a reign of terror—so soon as he has got over the emotions of this escape—as I am sure I am talking to you. Our only chance is to be ahead. He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.”

Kemp is utterly convinced that Griffin is a monster now. What's more, he considers it something that Griffin has done to himself. And while in many ways, both literal and symbolically, there is some truth to that... it doesn't have to be so final. Even if he has cut himself off from his own kind, that doesn't have to be a permanent state of being. He is still a man, he's never stopped being human this whole time.

But Kemp doesn't think that's true. And so in the end of the chapter he blames Griffin. For all that has happened: what he's done and what others have done to him in result. For all that will happen: for what he might do and what others will do to him first to try and stop that. It's Griffin's fault, all of it, and because Griffin did something inhuman first, that justifies all lack of humanity in hunting him down.

Hunting him. Like a dangerous animal.

[supernightboy08]

My worst/despised mothers of all time:

1. Lois Griffin

2. Mommy

3. Liane Cartman

4. Petunia Dursley

5. Nancy