#the very Flawed System

[floofeeeeee]

Rereading everblaze has been so interesting and I could talk about it for so long but I’m goin to talk about this specific part that had me SOBBING when I first read it (and again the SECOND time I’ve read but for a different reason)

And this is also a reason to complain about the council (I hate them all) (yes ALL of them)

Tw mentions of eating disorders and suicide 



“Instead, all we find is wrong." He turned to stare at Sophie, making it clear he included her in that wrongness,”

I want to talk about this part first before the rest because I find it really interesting. (And because the other parts will be longer) It’s clear to me that the cancel is afraid of Sophie in some kind of way they find her threatening even though she’s proven all she wants to do is help. They’re scared because they know her existence threatens there’s she’s the savior that’s supposed to fix’s the wrongs of their world.their wrongs they know there’s another group out there they know that’s the group that kidnapped Sophie and Dex but instead they fixated oh the black swan because to them it threateners there power and control. they feel the need to keep Sophie under control they need to keep her under their control.

“Sophie foster is not normal.” She closed her eyes as the words rattled around her mind”

This part comes a bit before the first one but that’s because I knew I wanted to talk more about this specifically it hits heard for a couple of reasons I’ll get into.

Gosh…. This part man :( ok let’s start with the fact that the lost cities was a place that was supposed to be where she belong it was supposed to make her feel normal and safe but instead she met with same kind of hate that she got from the humans. Sophie to me feels like a fallen gifted kid someone who was able to get to the top of her class now at the bottom and shamed for it. It wasn’t her fault that she could read minds as a kid and not know how to stop them it wasn’t her fault that she never grew up in the lost cities to learn the ruins everyone grew up learning. And yet they still shame her, for not being normal not being like them because she grew up with humans because she some kind of lab rat someone that’ll hurt there kids and them

They never see her for the child that she is the smart brave funny individual who’s saved their lives more then once no. Because she not normal. she doesn’t act right

As someone who neurodivergent this hits really hard I was constantly told when I was younger by my peers that I was weird. And I’m sure most people who are neurodivergent have a similar experience of being treated differently just because you’re not normal.. 

 “She closed her eyes as the words rattled around her mind”

For so long she been called not normal by almost everyone around her her human mother (even if she never said it to her face) her classmates in school and her classmates now In The place she was told was perfect and safe and were she belong.

GOSH I JUST WANT TO GRAB THEM AND THROW THEM AT THE SUN DIE

She deserves to live a happy life for once :(

“It wasn't until he raised it over her head that she realized what was happening.”

“Two of the Council's bodyguards rushed to her sides, holding her in place as Councillor Emery clamped” the silver band around her forehead.

“The circlet was Dex's telepathy restrictor.”

“The Council was trying to take away her abilities.”

This part makes me sick SICK this was the part that I cried at when I first read it. The realization of what was happening to her felt like I was being hit by a truck. The fact that the council had there bodyguards hold her In Place …… UGHHHHHGGH I want to fall them to in a ditch I swear. they were trying to make her talentless in a weird fucj up way to control her if wasn’t for the fact that her powers are so strong they would’ve forcefully made her disabled. Because that’s what talentless elf’s are to them. It’s how they treat them. It’s how they treat Dexs dad it’s how they treated Brant

I can’t imagine the horror and fear Sophie felt in that moment they had other options but no the reason they chose this one is because they knew it was the best way to keep her under control.

“She knew it was slumberberry tea even before she saw the purple color, and she drank it gladly, downing the whole thing and hoping it knocked her out for a few years—decades-the rest of eternity.”

How do you fuck up so badly that you get a girl WHO REFUSES to drink any kinda of sleeping drug do to the trauma of being kidnapped and drugged against her will. To DOWN like ten of them because of the pain and trauma you’ve brought her.

HOW CAN YOU CAN YOU NOT SEE HOW F UP THAT IS

“Edaline tried to get her to eat something, but she wasn’t hungry”

“All she wanted was more tea.”

I’m thinking back to this post I saw were someone mentioned that Sophie shows a lot of signs of eating disorders. And here it pretty prevalent. Her avoiding eating and avoiding the waking world to me in way makes me think she could be suicidal. She obviously depressed and ashamed. She feels like she should be disowned by her friends and family because she useless now. Or well in her eyes she is. 

“begging begging begging her to wake.”

“So she dove deeper into her drug-induced haze, wishing she could find her way back to the nook in her mind and stay there forever. She'd been happy there.”

“Safe.”

This is where I see it most. All she wants to do is hide in this drug-induced haze, wanting to go back to the nook in her head were she felt Saft warm and happy. But once the drug wears off she back in the living full of a pain and heartache. Where she feels utterly useless and broken. All she want to do is be happy. But because the council are all absolute idiots they decided to make her life a living hell!!! I’ll still never forgive Bronte for inflicting her In Exil still one of the most F up things he’s done.

Anyways I’m tired and if I try to write more it might not come across right oop just know I hate the council !!!

Thanks for reading my nonsense I hope I made sense or a least made a good analysis :D



[dragonseeds]

love and light to everyone but if i see one more post that’s like “the point of asoiaf is that feudalism is BAD” i’m going to rip out my hair and start eating dirt and worms. like yes, it is bad. yes, monarchies are bad. yes so true it’s annoying when people ignore all of that and focus on who they think deserves the throne more. but that’s not the point—that is the premise? it’s the beginning of the exploration and deconstruction. functionally this system is rigid (specifically in terms of gender and class) and horrifically violent: so what it’s really like to live in it? to try to be a hero, a knight, to be a lady in a world where your body belongs to your family, your lord, your order? is it possible to be a good person in a hierarchal world like this, with such vast power imbalances woven throughout it and every relationship and interaction that you have informed by that? how do you navigate that imbalance in order to have meaningful relationships—can you every truly do it? and who decides what is good? how do you know if it’s truly right or it just felt right because it’s what you wanted to do? what about the people who have no name, no family, no order: what happens to them? don’t they matter? what if in a lifetime of looking the other way or actively causing others harm, you do a few things—maybe one thing—that’s objectively good: does it mean anything? does it matter, even if no one ever knows? what if the best thing you ever did broke every vow you made, every law that governs your society? how do you live with that dissonance?

what’s it like to be a ruler, to be a king or queen—is it possible to be a good one in such an unequal system? to wield power justly? who decides what is just? who decides who should rule? at which point does the amount of power someone can have cross the line into too much? is it when you stop trying to figure out how to use it correctly and worry only about how to keep it? if holding onto it costs you everything, your family and all your relationships, is it still worth it? what if having that much power available is necessary to the survival of your people, maybe even your world, but when it’s misused the carnage left behind is beyond articulation—is it still worth it? are the lives it saves worth the lives it took? how do you measure that? who carries the weight of that choice and how? how do you live with it? how do you go on living in a world that can be harsh and cruel and unfair, a world where your good intentions and your personhood seem to matter very little in the face of someone else’s greed or when compared to the yoke of your duty? and the questions never stop and the answers when and if they come are rarely easy, but the point is that you keep asking and keep trying because that’s what it means to be alive lol

[reineydraws]

had to draw this to understand the way i feel about him now that the manga's ended. 🥲 on that note: if you like hawks and his ending, maybe don't read my tags lol. it's not bashing (imo) but they're not v nice. 😅

bg + unobstructed pose under the cut!

his expression's a lil different 'cuz i only changed the merged layer, all the lighting effects already flattened onto it. 💀 alas.

[pjharvey-moved]

i’m constantly conflicted btwn “the us is a world power and an imperialistic force with probably unmatched cultural, economic, and militaristic power worldwide, so people from other countries have every right to have opinions on our politics” and like … being incredibly incredibly exasperated by all the posts by non-americans calling american progressives stupid and varyingly implying that donald trump isn't actually a real threat and we're all so stupid for not realizing democrats and republicans are just the same and not just opting out of the whole system altogether, because that’s apparently a remotely feasible option

[bookshelfdreams]

americans learn what the middle ages are challenge

[bedtimegiraffe]

Headcanon Height Chart

Here's my head canon line up for the characters along with my reasoning. I'd love to hear how other people picture them!

Actual Data

"The average orc stands six and a half feet tall." (Lore Tablet 1)

"Female orcs are stronger than males." (Lore Tablet 1)

"Elves are taller than humans, standing an average of just over six feet fall." (Lore Tablet 1)

"[Humans are] smaller than orcs and shorter than elves." (Lore Tablet 1)

Assumptions

In the real word, the average person is about 5'4" (5'2' for assigned female at birth, 5'6" for assigned male at birth). I picked 5'6" as the average human height across sexes for conceptual symmetry (about 6 inches between the average height for each race).

In the real world, males tend to be taller than females. I am applying this to humans and elves, but not to orcs, as orc females tend to be stronger (which I'm somewhat spuriously correlating with height).

For the chart itself, it's a general art rule to have a person's crotch/wrists at about half of their height. That put the 'floor' for everyone's full body sprites at about 2 feet. I did not stretch or squish anyone. It looks kind of whack to me, but I have no solution for that.

Character Specific Lines

"You bump into a tall man [Mal] heading out of the village!" (Book 1, Chapter 1) Mal is taller than the average human man.

"An exceptionally bulky cocoon thrashes and bursts apart. Prince Baldur tumbles out." (Book 1, Chapter 9) Baldur is unusually large.

"[Nia] You were puny and insignificant before." and "Leave me alone, tiny man [Mal]." (Book 2, Chapter 12) Valax may just be trying to insult everyone, but I'm taking this as she's taller than both of them.

"The bed's too small." (Book 2, Chapter 17) This could be Imtura just wanting an excuse to go at it on the desk, but I'm choosing to believe she's taller than her mother. I cannot imagine Queen Ventra putting up with a suboptimal bed for herself.

Just Vibes

Nia just gives me short girl energy.

I could have sworn that somewhere Aerin is described as the smaller prince, but I couldn't find it. We know Baldur is stronger than Aerin, so I guess I just assumed he's also taller?

I picture Aerin as shorter than average, contributing to his whole *gestures vaguely at him* complex.

For Mal, I feel like it's easier to do rogue-ing if you're not super tall.

I just think it's neat if Valax is big.

Bonus Imtura next to Aerin to drive home how terrifying I imagine her 'lifting him off his feet by the scruff of his shirt' would be-

[martyrbat]

habeas corpus – detective comics #1086

(ID in alt!)

[tomlivingspace]

misogyny was still rampant in the first series but its interesting how much it was also a part of the plot. bluestar had to give up her kits in order to be deputy because a nursing mother wouldn't have been fit to be leader. yellowfang is blamed by starclan for being brokenstar's mother despite him never even knowing she was. it's just interesting how much the tragedy of how misogyny manifests within the clans in the first series is present and just kind of goes away. there's still misogyny but most of it isn't an intentional flaw of clan culture. the flaws of clan culture are focused more on forbidden romance romance crap

[great-raven-parade]

Good Fences

Word count: 2,326 Summary: Astrid investigates a strange rash of garden thefts. After all- It's her obligation as a Good Neighbor. Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53098198

FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14318465/1/Good-Fences The new oneshot I've been working on is here! Pooka enabler gang this one's for you

[ghost-bxrd]

which one was the jason death episodes aom prompt?

I have no clue, it’s lost to the ether somewhere in the “antithesis of magic” tag 😥😭

[yuridovewing]

when yellowfang feeding deathberries to brokenstar is paralleled with hollyleaf attempting to feed deathberries to leafpool

[dhs-in-distress]

Well now I'm curious 👀

God, I wish I could project my brain waves onto this screen cause words do not do the absolute insanity that is Scatters’ choices justice.

Like, it‘s complicated. He has issues and traumas that caused a lot of his personality quirks and in the end it‘s possible for him to learn, become a better person and ultimately be the truest and best version of himself. That‘s later down the line though, a large portion of his character journey is just,, pain and suffering, often self inflicted as well. Like that one guy said: „It‘s like a car crash in slow motion, terrible and painful to watch, but you just can‘t look away.“

To name a few things Scatters actively does to self sabotage:

- hurting others on purpose, sometimes physically but mostly just by being terrible to them. This is solely so he doesn‘t have the opportunity to form meaningful connections (one of if not the only exception to this is Cliffjumper, who also does this exact same thing (only on his off time ofc, mostly…), which made the two kind of gravitate towards one another because they remind each other of themselves. They only call each other „acquaintances“ but do care deeply about one another. Which leads me right into my next point!)

- delusion. Telling himself that everyone (even the people who despite everything still believe he can change for the better) hates him and that he hates them even more and that he shouldn‘t form bonds with others anymore. That it‘s better for everyone involved that way. That he doesn‘t have to hurt them and push them away if he just never gets involved. That he should di- ANYWAY.

- running away. Yes I mean that literally. I‘ve managed to accidentally make Scatters physically running away from people and problems alike a,, thing he does regularly. If you can‘t keep them away metaphorically you gotta improvise I guess!

- betrayal. In the non-lethal way, not the Scar and Mufasa kinda way. Though if it had gotten too bad too quickly in the beginning he might‘ve… . Anyway, betrayal is similar to the first point, just even worse. If someone somehow manages to attach themselves emotionally to him, and he‘s failed in making himself believe that they hate him and that he hates them, only disappointing and betraying them will make them see that he‘s not worth having around. „It‘s for their own good“ he said angstily before disappearing into the shadows (probably to cry).

So yeah, in a way the consequences for his actions are the entire goal, doing terrible things so that others will see him as a bad person, treat him badly and ostracise him. But the real consequences are that he wasn‘t ready for team prime. Cause he betrays them, on purpose, three times. (Well it‘s 4 but I‘m not getting into that right now.) The first time everything goes according to plan, bad actions, getting hated. Somehow they (mostly) manage to forgive him, begrudgingly take him back in after he almost dies „because no one deserves to die, even if they‘re a bad person“ (or something like that). It severely throws Scatters off his game, cause that never really happened before and he doesn’t know how to feel now. The second time he lets it slip that „that was the whole point“ when they question him about his intentions and that he‘s (being) a terrible person. He‘s also a lot less enthusiastic about it and does something a lot less bad, which helps in getting OP suspicious and accepting him back him again. The third and final time Scatters finally breaks down about how everything was really just about getting them to finally hate him, so that he can let himself hate them again too. Because somewhere along the way he‘d grown fond of them and that‘s just not right. He can‘t explain why though, other than that he can‘t let anyone else do this to him, or let himself do something to them… that things such as these never well.

Then emotional honesty happens,, or something, idk I might need to stop now while I still can before I fall over into another rant about the team dynamics and the actual work Scatters needs to do and begrudgingly does to let himself like other people again and let himself be helped and MOVE ON FROM HIS 1 MILLION YEAR LONG DEAD BOYFRIEND FFS. THAT GUY CAUSED ALL OF THIS SHIT ANYWAY! Where was I,,, right I should probably stop and go to bed now. If some of this comes across weird or wrong or completely incomprehensible it‘s because I didn‘t prove read ANY of it. Wow now I‘m sabotaging myself, I‘m just like him fr! (/j)

Anyway, tldr: the consequences are everything that happens to him which is sometimes his goal but surprisingly even more shit happens to him that wasn’t on purpose which is absolutely terrible,, and therapy hopefully. Oh and prison too technically, they do lock him up each time cause he always steals something along the way, sometimes a little more than others (cough bank robbery). But yeah uuh the vulnerability problems are only one thing, there‘s also the stockades ptsd, which I already ranted about, the OTHER dead boyfriend trauma, which I could go so in depth about I might dig myself into an early grave and also the earth‘s core, and all of the war stuff.

God I should stop torturing my OCs at some point, I think they‘ve bad enough…

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

hands too cold to draw but i after that wip i am imagining Tesoro dying in a glue trap or prehaps being beaten to death. Hate him so much [lying i love him as a character]

[nthflower]

Everything that is about powder gangers makes me so uncomfortable in a bad way.

[boysborntodie]

When I say the greasers would be prejudiced, I mean they grew up and live in an environment and time period where stereotypes, ideas, propaganda, etc, were more common than today (also they still are common, to the point I don’t think there’s anyone without them to some degree) and exploring those ideas as how they culminate and manifest and how the greasers can unlearn them is much better than erasing these very real concepts and themes within the Outsiders itself as well as the era, thus doing a disservice to both.

[incogneat-oh]

Hi! Hope you are doing well. Loved your work from way back but I'm only a lurker. I hope I'm not overstepping, but would you consider posting more of your shorter fics and drabbles to ao3? I'd love to see more of your writing there. Thanks.

Hello friend! Thank you for your kind words, and I’m glad to know my fic made a lasting impression.

You aren’t overstepping, but I literally have 80 Batfam fics uploaded to ao3. I really think that’s all of them, and, if it’s not I’m calling it close enough 🥲