#these poor kids make me sad

[outlawruben]

I often think about Young Arthur/John experiencing a culture shock when receiving positive feedback from Hosea/Dutch when they do something well.

Like for instance; Arthur learns how to shoot a bottle from a distance, and he finally hits it dead on.

Hosea, earnestly impressed with the kid, compliments him wholeheartedly, and seeming a little more giddy this time, runs to grab another bottle.

Arthur, not really used to this kind of affection, sheepishly looks down at the gun in his hand with a small smile.

Or for John; I can imagine him and Dutch practicing how to write his name.

“J O H N M A R S T O N” he reads out every letter as he writes it. Dutch, impressed that he got it on the first try today, happily congratulates him. “Can you read it?” He asks. And John sounds out the letters with perfection, and recites everything he’s learned about pronunciation rules, as he reads it. To which Dutch is VERY impressed.

John embarrassed about all the praise, asks to move on with the lesson, which Dutch is happy to do. However John thinks about the interaction for the rest of the afternoon.

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Julian Blackthorn’s constant awareness of his siblings is both so heartwarming and so heartbreaking to read

[demigods-posts]

it just dawned on me that annabeth probably has repressed memories. think about it. the only thing she really remembers about her childhood is being and feeling neglected and insignificant at home. then running away at seven. and she has vague memories with luke and thalia. but once she watched thalia die. the next couple years are a blur. maybe the most consistent and prominent thing her brain lets her remember are her moments with luke bc those were the good ones. and that's why she's so adamant on justifying his mistakes throughout the first series. bc he is the only proof she has of something of an identity. who is she without him?

[shinischis]

Just had the thought of kaito having severe identity issues because of how many disguises he has and how often he has to play as different characters.

I imagine that he'd have a slight crisis in his room, locking himself in and closing the lights, heavy breaths and feeling slightly panicked, not really knowing who he is or who he's supposed to be, it has to come crashing down on him every once in a while.

It'd come more often if he's back from a heist or an even where he had to play as more than one person in the same night, but if someone asks him if he's okay he'd easily hide it, he is a master actor after all.

I think only jii would be able to see through his mask of acting, but he wouldn't directly say anything as to not make kaito feel worse in a way.

As much of the extrovert he is, he needs to lock himself up and be unsocial until he figures his life out , until he's sure that he is kuroba kaito and he can go out at kuroba kaito

[elleniemae]

Still drowning in the artiest of blocks but hey, at least I can doodle.

MAN I hate Belos but THIS right here is FREAKING PEAK character design, I’ve always really really loved possessed!Hunter’s look. Drawing him is always SO FREAKING FUN

[hellsquills]

BREAKING NEWS: your evil dying child that keeps guilt-tripping you and just killed your wife kicks it up a notch by pretending to care

Endless SFTH gifs [ 13 / ?? ]

[notthecommercialism]

Ok so I recently rewatched ghoul’s rule after a decade and like

It held up surprisingly well hahahahahahahah

The whole movie truly was Jackson’s (and holt’s) no good very bad very horrible extremely terrible day! The whole time he was just going through it!

I’ll draw them properly one day but for now here’s some memes

[illuteridae]

been watching twd with my mawm

[boyfriendgideon]

as yr favorite local jason todd fan sometimes i get so fed up with the apparent inability of most dc comic writers to write a class conscious narrative about him.

and yes, i know that comics are a very ephemeral and constantly evolving and self-conflicting medium.

and yes, i know they’re a profit-driven art medium created in a capitalistic society, so there are very few times where comics are going to be created solely out of the desire to authentically and carefully and deliberately represent a character and take them from one emotional narrative place to another, because dc cares about profit and sometimes playing it safe is what sells.

and yes, i know comics and other forms of art reflect and recreate the society within which they were conceived as ideas, and so the dominant societal ideas about gender and race and class and so on are going to be recreated within comics (and/or will be responded to, if the writer is particularly societally conscious).

but jesus christ. you (the writer/writers) have a working class character who has been homeless, who has lost multiple parents, who has been in close proximity to someone struggling with addiction, who has had to steal to survive, who may have (depending on your reading of several different moments across different comics created by different people) been a victim of csa, who has clearly (subtextually) struggled with his mental health, who was a victim of a violent murder, and who has an entirely distinct and unique perspective on justice that has evolved based on his lived experiences.

and instead of delving into any of that, or examining the myriad of ways that classism in the writers’ room and the editors’ room and the readers’ heads affected jason’s character to make sure you’re writing him responsibly, or giving him a plotline where his views on what justice looks like are challenged by another working class character, or allowing him to demonstrate actual autonomy and agency in deciding what relationships he wants to have with people who he loves but sees as having failed him in different ways, or thinking carefully about what his having chosen an alias that once belonged to his murderer says about his decision-making and motivations, you keep him stuck in a loop of going by the red hood, addressing crime by occupying a position of relative power that perpetuates crime & harm rather than ever getting at the root causes, and seesawing between a) agreeing with his adoptive family entirely about fighting nonlethally in ways that are often inconsistent with his apparent motivations or b) disagreeing and experiencing unnecessarily brutal and violent reactions from his adoptive father as if that kind of violence isn’t the kind of thing he experienced as a child and something bruce himself is trying to prevent jason from perpetuating. because a comic with red hood, quips, high stakes, and familial drama sells.

it doesn’t matter if it keeps jason trapped, torn between an unanswered moral and philosophical question, a collection of identities that no longer fit him, and a family that accepts him circumstantially. it doesn’t matter if jason’s characterization is so utterly inconsistent that the only way to mesh it together is to piece different aspects of different titles and plotlines together like a jigsaw. it doesn’t matter if you do a disservice to his character, because in the end you don’t want to transform him or even understand him deeply enough to identify what makes him compelling and focus on that.

and i love jason!!!!! i love him. and i think about the stories we could have, if quality and art and doing justice to the character were prioritized as much as selling a title and having a dark and brooding batfam member besides bruce just to be the black sheep character are prioritized. and i just get a little sad.

[sukibenders]

One of Rhaenyra's biggest opps (in HOTD) really was her own father. Because how are you going to proclaim your daughter as heir, only to then marry her best friend and have four kids, three sons, in an environment that is against women already as is but even more so with one sitting on the Iron Throne? And then, not only, do you not prepare her for anything political but scold her publicly, which isn't good for her image, and just....hardly do anything to aid her until you're on your last leg? And yet there are still fans saying he was a "great dad" and that he "did all he could". HA, I THINK NOT!

[moeblob]

Erin, to her crush: You're a dick

Mason, the crush: I won't argue! But to clarify -

[megumi-fm]

.

[getvalentined]

Look. I'm just saying.

If Character A's first description of Character B is based entirely on how much better-off Character B was growing up and the things he had that Character A didn't have himself

And Character A goes on to be shown regularly inserting himself between Character B and others at every turn, often implying that Character B is incapable of doing the things he is attempting to do

And Character A's biggest concern upon the apparent death of Character B is that someone else killed him instead of Character A doing it himself

And then years later we get new media that shows Character A having an intense fantasy where he is responsible for everything that is canonically intrinsic to the backstory of Character B

I feel pretty justified in saying there's some pretty intense jealousy going on with Character A!

[greasydumbfuck]

the holy trinity of frank castle character traits. to me

[jrueships]

sometimes i'll think abt a Fandom and wish it were bigger, and sometimes i'll read something from a fandom.. and wish it were smaller

[anxiously-sidequesting]

I know we as a fandom all love to shit on Duncan whenever we get the chance (see: me posting Duncan GruncanWuncan) especially since the like, two times we ever see him he's shitting on us for being ourselves then tries to kill us because of his own delusions of grandeur but I thought about it and I was like, "......man that's kinda Sad actually"

BECAUSE seeing this from Duncan's perspective; he's The Best, he always has been the best, but reality constantly shows him that isn't true (Malorn, The Wizard, anyone else)

Like imagine how painful that can be when you think something that you truly deserved and something that you've fought for, maybe for your entire life, is seemingly handed to others who aren't nearly as deserving as you

And yeah WE know that Duncan has neither worked (very hard, at least) for his perceived greatness NOR does he truly """deserve""" it (Duncan has been shown to be shirking his duties off to us and possibly others for his own gain), but DUNCAN doesn't know this. Like in his mind he truly, honestly, genuinely believes with his whole fragile heart that he is just above everyone else and puts more effort in trying to convince others of that rather than literally just trying to work towards that himself

And then there's the extra added insult that even in his own class he's pretty mediocre. Duncan INSISTS that he was Malistaire's best student and that he praised Duncan maybe once and that all other Death students only wish they could be like him, but... Malorn. And I bet deep down Duncan KNOWS that in fact Malorn was Malistaire's best and most talented. And Duncan can't even really twist that in his mind because it was made solid when Malorn took over Malistaire's duties instead of him. It was proven as a hard fact that Malorn was more suited to the job than Duncan was and is widely recognized as being The Best Death student (if the YW isn't a Necromancer)

Okay so fine. Whatever it's just Death right? At least Duncan can be the best at ANYTHING ELSE, maybe he's not the most talented Necromancer but there's 6 more types of magic to excel in!!!

But then another person ruins that. The Young Wizard poofs in from another world and suddenly, Duncan is overshadowed once more because a literal child prodigy and Local Hero arrives and literally saves their world and then, the universe. Multiple times in fact

Like bro I can imagine that could be at least a little bit painful for anyone, but imagine with Duncan's already low self-esteem and his fragile, large ego, he literally and genuinely took that personally and a hit to your pride is devastating for anyone, no matter who you are. That was like, Strike Three for Duncan and it was so very personal and important to him that it left him in a deep and vulnerable state

But I think the absolute saddest part of Duncan's downfall is that near the end, he was ultimately manipulated by an adult. A grown ass adult noticed and acknowledged his insecurities and purposely struck where it hurts the most, in his weakest state. Duncan already wasn't thinking clearly from the start but when everything went to shit for him and he was clinging, Gretta DarkKettle approached him and completely broke him down to make him into something else entirely for the Schism's benefit.

Of course Duncan was a piece of shit from the start but he truly didn't have any malicious intentions until Gretta messed with his mind. Like, he went from a pretty much harmless bully to an actual criminal of the state and a threat to the literal universe. Duncan was CORRUPTED and all of his worst fears and delusions were solidified the moment Gretta """validated""" those feelings Duncan had.

Is Duncan completely blameless? Fuck no he did some fucked up shit actually and I'm glad he was held accountable for it by the narrative and the fandom!!! But I think it's something to be said that at the end of the day, Duncan was still a child that was suffering from many type of issues before being recruited and manipulated by a powerful literal cult. Wizard101 does have a theme of malicious intending and less than responsible adults using children to get what they want (Malistaire, Morganthe's brother, GF Spider, GM Raven, coughcoughAmbrose) but unlike the Young Wizard who successfully stays true to themselves despite that, Duncan had a more Morganthe-like route and ultimately succumbed to it. Of course their situations are a lot different since the YW wasn't brought in by a cult, but you can't help but feel bad for someone so young being preyed on by older people who are supposed to look out for them and protect them from something just LIKE that.

I will always shit on Duncan because it's funny and hold him accountable for his actions because he should, but I also feel bad for him and I hope he had a better ending after he was defeated