#they use nostalgia bait well

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

Unfortunately I loved the dangerously heterosexual Wonka movie so I gotta turn in my gay card. I’m so sorry

[mechieonu]

it actually hadn't occured to me until just now but love & betrayal are @ the site of every villain's spiral. like. "Shifu had to destroy what he had created. But how could he?" vs. "They loved you so much that having to send you away killed them." vs. "I loved him like a brother, and he betrayed me."

it's super neat how love isn't only one of the major themes of the series but also a vicious motivator too

[krytus]

cobra kai is the opposite of "this must hit if youre stupid" the narrative is actually so sexy if you have a brain

[afterlifeoftheparty]

"it's a cash grab it's nostalgia bait they should do more than just a tour" okay well i don't give a fuck. can all of you stay out of the ticketmaster queue so the rest of us get tickets

[kataraslove]

how do you feel about people saying Katara post the show was just a “house wife” and a “baby maker”? I personally think it’s super stupid and fucked up…while I do understand the criticisms for the comics ESPECIALLY the promise. TLOK criticisms for her character are pretty damn dumb to me…honestly the only thing I can get is the critical for her not being at Jinoras ceremony.

something that the original show does really well is present the dichotomy of katara; she's hot-headed, stubborn, determined, argumentative, protective, a fighter and a warrior. at the same time, however, she's presented as compassionate, kind, caring, nurturing, a healer. atla does an incredible job to avoid caging katara into one facet, unlike other media that tend to restrict their female characters who present feminine personalities into the group's resident healer/mother teresa figure. fighting and healing are core tenets of her identity. she uses both of these aspects of her identity to win the war, to save the lives of her friends and family, and most importantly, connect to and honour her decimated culture.

i don't think tlok makes an attempt to capture the fighter aspect of her identify, hence where the argument that "she was reduced to a healer" comes from. yes, she's incredibly old. yes, she deserves to rest after a lifetime of fighting. however, you could make the argument that toph and zuko are still in active combat mode during their old years. it's an all or nothing scenario; either everyone in the remaining gaang deserves a fight scene or no one gets one. so i can see where that criticism stems from. however, much of the criticism also stems from the fandom's refusal to correlate power with healing; to see how being a healer is an honour in it's own right, especially in the atla world where it's the equivalent to being a doctor (and katara would be the most renowned doctor there is).

katara does not deserve a shoe-horned fight scene where she's going to be tossed down in the snow five seconds later (like zuko) or where she's going to complain about her back problems (like toph). i can go on and on about how toph’s depiction in tlok is another form of sexist writing, but i think this post highlights it perfectly well and captures everything that i wanted to say.

if it were up to me to write tlok katara, i would:

have spent more time exploring her role in the white lotus. how much input did she have on korra’s training during the south, because i doubt caging her up until she’s 17 and delaying her spiritual journey is something that katara necessarily would have agreed with. i imagine that she would have (should have, at least) a lot of sway in the decisions surrounding korra as a world leader and legendary hero [per avatar legends]. if not that, even as korra’s waterbending master, the companion and spouse of the previous avatar, and the mother of the only airbending master in the world, would be enough to earn her decision-making title.

actually have her take part in the council of elders, especially during the civil war in book 2. no bryan konientzko, a tumblr post explaining that you can see her on the council of elders while your show is airing isn’t enough. we should have gotten katara’s perspective on the independence war currently happening with her tribe. particularly, it would have been an excellent opportunity showcasing her leadership abilities that we saw in imprisoned and the painted lady, encouraging her tribe to fight for their justice and independence.

expand upon her relationships with her children and grandchildren. yes, the legend of korra isn’t about katara or any of the former gaang members. but jinora, tenzin, kya, and bumi are all important characters that should be defined by their respective relationships with katara, much like how they’re defined by their relationships with aang. bryan and mike shy away from featuring former members of the gaang to avoid nostalgia bait, but there comes a point when deliberately avoiding the presence that your original characters play on their successors ends up hindering the success of your show. i think katara should be a critical character in the subplot between her and aang’s children, providing her perspectives on her husband’s parenting and relationships with their children.

have her actually leave the southern water tribe. if toph can leave the swamp to stop kuvira, and zuko can leave the fire nation to stop the red lotus, then why was katara constantly portrayed in the southern water tribe? there was an excellent opportunity to have her attend her granddaughter’s air mastering ceremony. i actually disagree with claims that the writers were avoiding having katara and zuko in the same scene specifically because of zutara; i think they didn’t want any of the former gaang in the same place. hence why we don’t ever have zuko and toph meet, or katara and toph (i know toph mentions katara by name, but i truly believe that that was a throwaway line serving as a substitute to appease the audience’s thirst for old gaang interaction. kind of like a, “here you go!! toph mentions her. now shut the fuck up.”)

give her a statue representing her bravery, courage, and determination. this one’s self-explanatory.

she didn’t need to be present at the bloodbending trial if the focus was for the avatar to take away yakone’s bending (and her being a bloodbender, i mean.. there’s NO WAY for anyone else to suspend yakone if she’s there). but i do believe the show should have mentioned something about katara not being able to there last-minute, due to tensions in the south or whatever, and how they cannot delay yakone’s trial even by one week.

i disagree with criticisms that katara became a “baby-making machine” for the air nomads. there’s no substantial support that katara and aang had children solely to repopulate the air nomads. there’s contrary evidence, in fact:

tenzin was the only airbender. if katara’s purpose was to serve simply as a baby maker, aang would have tried to have more children. from a writing standpoint, i think the narrative would have gone out of its way to portray kataang’s family as only having airbenders, or having more airbenders than non-benders or waterbenders.

we would have seen a lot more children in a relatively short time period. bumi, kya, and tenzin have sporadic age gaps, indicating that their conception wasn’t really at an urgent pace, but something that katara and aang took their time with, due to life events and circumstances.

as for whether the show turned katara into a “baby-maker,” by highlighting her family relations over her career prospects, i disagree. i don’t think we’re shown anything about katara in the legend of korra; i think we’re presented with limited information about her on all aspects. from a family perspective, all we know is that she had three children with aang. the narrative goes one step further to even separate her from the family conflict, such that the cloudbabies do not pull her into their grievances with their father and childhoods. kya and bumi’s overall arcs are about embracing their father’s legacy, while tenzin’s arc is about moving away from his shadow. from a career perspective, we know that katara at some point banned bloodbending, became one of the best waterbenders and the greatest healer in the world, then trained korra. in fact, katara’s relationship that is given the most narrative weight is her relationship with korra. i can understand if people’s criticisms are her being reduced to korra’s mentor and a healer, but i will not be able to understand the baby-maker or housewife claims simply because there is no proof.

if we’re examining tlok katara, i think there are many criticisms to be held, many missed opportunities and abandoned threads, but i do not agree with fandom extremes that she was ever presented as a “baby-making housewife turned healer.” i disagree with claims that tlok emphasized katara’s legacy as only having children (particularly her one airbender child). especially because tlok goes out of its way to separate her role in her children’s life, instead emphasizing her role in korra’s life. narratively, we get more exploration of toph’s storyline with her children than we get with katara.

as for the shitty gene yang comics that mischaracterizes just about every member, even momo and appa, i’ve got much to say on that. i think the only comic worth exploring is north and south, and katara’s portrayal in that. rather, there’s a particular criticism of katara’s portrayal in north and south that i want to rebut.

[petr1kov]

i was asking myself how many movies does disney even have left that can be turned into nostalgia bait live-action remakes, at this point. i think they have exhausted all of their biggest hits already. this trend as we know it now pretty much started with tim burton's alice in wonderland, then maleficent, cinderella, and the jungle book. they have also already done or are doing nearly all of their 90s renaissance era movies, arguably their most beloved, like the little mermaid, beauty and the beast, aladdin, the lion king, mulan, and the upcoming hercules movie. they have also made earlier classics like pinocchio, dumbo, lady and the tramp, peter pan, and the upcoming snow white, bambi, aristocats, and robin hood movies. they are even doing movies of this century now, with lilo & stitch and moana remakes being in the works.

they honestly don't even seem to care if the movie is a well-regarded classic or not, anymore. in one front, they are going from their a-list to their b-list and are now scraping the bottom of the c-list of their catalog to see if anything sticks, while on the other front they are trying to make us nostalgic for movies that are barely a decade old (and considering how scarce their recent offerings of new animated classics have been, this well will dry up even sooner). so considering all of this, here are the only movies they have left to work with:

the sword in the stone (kind of obscure but could pass as nostalgic)

complete cgi animal extravaganza: the rescuers & rescuers down under, the fox and the hound, the great mouse detective, oliver & company (considering how they're doing robin hood and the aristocats, very likely to happen)

the black cauldron (will they dare to touch this flop again?)

the hunchback of notre dame (bad idea)

pocahontas (TERRIBLE idea)

tarzan (no phil collins soundtrack)

the emperor's new groove (impossible)

atlantis & treasure planet (probably a last resort for them imo)

brother bear (no phil collins soundtrack)

home on the range (home on the range)

bolt (why)

the princess and the frog (old enough to be nostalgic)

tangled (of course)

frozen (can't believe they haven't done it yet)

then there's the maybe pile, which is:

101 dalmatians (they did the 90s glenn close movies already so it's hard to sell it again, AND they also recently made the cruella movie, but they might make a remake-ception if they feel it's worth it. who knows)

sleeping beauty (they did maleficent, but that wasn't a true adaptation, was it? they might pull this excuse to make another movie)

i don't believe they'll dare to make another chicken little. even as a joke.

zootopia (if things go well with the robin hood remake)

big hero 6 (unlikely)

encanto (if they're feeling particularly desperate)

[winteriron-trash]

rdj the (whitewashed) electric boogaloo

This is a reminder to everyone who's excited about RDJ's casting as Doctor Doom that this casting is whitewashing. Victor Von Doom is a Romani character and has been a Romani character since his introduction in the 1960s. (Fantastic Four Annual #2 [1964]) Not only that, but his Roma identity and the persecution he and his family faced due to it is integral to his character, it is what forms his identity. (Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker) Even if on the off chance this casting is meant to not be Victor but instead be some variant of Tony or whomever else becoming Doctor Doom, it is damaging to the character to rob him of that important cultural background. Doctor Doom does not exist without that history. Fans have been pushing hard to cast Doom as a Romani actor for years, especially since the MCU has whitewashed other Romani characters. (Wanda, Pietro, etc) This casting is not a celebration moment, it's fucking heartbreaking that the MCU repeatedly ignores the important and nuanced cultural backstories of characters.

I know I can't change anybody's mind on whether or not you want to be excited about RDJ's return to the MCU. But I do think at the very least you should be mad that the MCU is baiting us all and destroying nuanced and interesting characters for the sake of self-referential easter eggs and nostalgia bait. Because that's what it is. Feel how you'd like to feel about RDJ's return, but personally, this is soul-sucking. I had such a deep love for the MCU as a teenager, it was obviously something incredibly formative to me, especially Tony Stark. This isn't recreating what I fell in love with the MCU for. This is turning a well-planned and artistic storyline of adaptations into cheap cash grabs and fan service. Because, I think we're past the point of being able to call the MCU an adaptation of anything. They can use existing characters' names and powers, but to say they're being properly adapted is laughable.

This is not an adaptation of Doctor Doom. This is RDJ the Electric Boogaloo because Marvel's fear of losing the interest of dedicated MCU fans overrides their willingness to tell stories that are genuine to the characters. I don't know what there is to be excited about that. The MCU has lost its authenticity and aside from a few projects, feels heartless. Every movie is a copy of a copy. This announcement isn't something celebratory, it feels like a death knell of a cinematic universe that's so desperate to cling to relevancy it's resorting to nostalgia for a character/actor who hasn't even been dead for a decade. We're not getting anything new, we're just rinsing and repeating the same song and dance.

I get it. I love Tony Stark, his death destroyed me and I to this day, rue the ending he got in Endgame. It misunderstood his arc and it robbed him of a satisfying conclusion. But the solution to that isn't dragging the corpse out of the grave five years later to whitewash an existing character with rich and interesting nuance, just to forcibly tie his existence in the MCU to Tony. Whether he is a variant or not. Why would you want someone else's fave's legacy to be destroyed simply so your fave's legacy can go on? Hell, if we were really all so hellbent on the return of RDJ and/or Tony to the MCU, we have the multiverse for a reason. There were other ways to do it that didn't whitewash and ruin someone else. This just. Isn't something to be happy about.

[katlyntheartist]

I worry that Hollywood won't learn anything from how bad the Minecraft movie looks/will be. People with kids will go see it (which is fine I'm not judging) and it will make enough money to justify it's existence.

I'm worried this formula may become the norm with such franchises. What do you think?

Anon, this has been happening since forever. Illumination helped pioneer this mindset, for sure, but studios like Disney, Dreamworks, and Sony have already been making kids films with nothing but money in mind.

But the difference between them and Illumination is that they've also crafted some of the most well known and beloved movies that both kids and adults can enjoy. Disney lately has hit a creative rut (among other things), Dreamworks is hit or miss in terms of what quality movie your getting (that's nothing new this is same the studio that gave us Puss in Boots 2 and the Boss Baby), and Sony seems to be focusing on more Spiderverse quality films but that can always change, they have made more garbage films than gems.

I also blame Baby Shark, Cocomellon, and other Youtube Kids properties for this mindset because when you look at the numbers for those videos, it's easy to see why big studios would encourage that kind of mentality, especially since those videos are made to keep children quiet. I babysit for my neighbors kids and they watch some of the most mind-numbing garbage I've ever scene. Makes me sad that they never got to watch the movies and shows I grew up with. Then again the parents just do not care about what goes into their kids' minds but that's another story for another day.

So yeah, I doubt this mentality is ever truly going to go away. And if you're someone who likes the Boss Baby, or the Emoji Movie, or most Illumination movies then ok. I'm not going to hate you if you like them. I just don't. I don't mind a movie being simple fun but it has to have substance and can't just essentially be crack for kids. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for and they are getting dumber because studios keep making them dumber. (Also with how parents are raising their kids but again another story for another day)

Anyway, while I have no plans to see the Minecraft movie, I'll wait for an official trailer to come out just to see what the story is going to be like. I wanna see if they had an actual story for this movie or if is just going to be a "things happen but we through in bright colors, fart/poop jokes, and nostalgia bait to keep the kiddos engaged".

[elizabethemerald]

Flying Grason and Circus Gothica DPxDC

AO3

Prompt by @hypewinter ;

Richard Grayson crouched next to one of Gotham’s signature gargoyles, dressed in his Nightwing uniform. He stared down at what had, until just the last week, been an empty lot. Now the lot was filled with the lights and color of a traveling circus. Circus Gothica had come to visit Gotham and Dick’s family wanted to give him a pick-me-up. They had attended the circus, and while Dick had been filled with nostalgia at the displays, he couldn't help a feeling of dread. The tightrope walker… she didn’t seem… The sound of a pair of heavy boots landing on the roof behind him shook him out of his thoughts. 

“What are we doing here, Dickard?” Jason, wearing his full Redhood get up, including his helmet, asked from behind him. Dick turned to face his frequently estranged brother for a moment before returning his attention to the circus below them, now long closed for the night. 

“We are going to investigate this circus for anything suspicious.” Dick said, keeping his focus on the circus. He heard the rattling noise that he knew came from Jason sighing into his voice modulator. 

“I meant, what am I doing here? If you needed to investigate this place why didn’t you call the Brat or the Replacement. Either of the girls would have worked as well.” 

“I needed you here.” Dick said. Jason walked up next to him on the other side of the gargoyle. “I knew if I said I have a bad feeling about the circus without proof everyone else, except for maybe Cass would have dismissed me. ‘Oh it’s just the trauma speaking.’ But I know what I saw. The tightrope walker, she wasn’t willing. I think she was being forced to perform, her motions were too mechanical, as if she wasn’t all there.” 

“And you needed me over Cass because if they are abusing their performers you’re going to beat them to within an inch of their lives and Cass would have stopped you.” Jason said. “Well if you want to save that girl, I’m here for-”

Jason whirled mid-sentence, drawing both guns from his sides and aiming them at something behind them. Dick turned with him, pulling his escrima as he turned but he couldn’t see whatever it was that Jason had reacted to. Jason stayed focused on a single point in space at the far end of the roof. 

“Show yourself!” He barked. 

After a few seconds, during which Jason didn’t waver in his focus, someone faded into view. The kid looked like he was eighteen, maybe nineteen, just a year younger than Jason. He had wavy black hair, blue eyes and was wearing a NASA shirt. Total adoption bait, Dick thought to himself. The guy was holding his hands up in surrender and had a desperate look in his eye. 

“You two are heroes, right?” He asked, his hands still raised. 

Jason and Dick glanced at each other. 

“Yeah, we’re heroes. I’m Nightwing, this is Redhood. Why were you spying on us?” 

“I heard you talking about the tightrope walker, you’re right she is unwilling. Please, I need you to help me, the ringleader, Freakshow, is using mind control on her.” The boy fell to his knees as he begged. “Please, Ancients, please help me. They’re killing her. Please, they're killing her.” 

There was an undeniable desperation in his voice. Dick hesitated for a moment, there was a chance, however slim, that this person was merely a fantastic actor, especially now that the topic of mind-control had been brought up. He was trying to formulate some way to confirm what this person had said other than his own gut feeling when Jason stepped forward, holstering his guns as he did. 

“He’s telling the truth.” Jason said. 

Well Dick had asked him to come because they were team gut instinct, so might as well trust Jason on this one. He returned his escrima to his back. The boy practically collapsed in relief onto the rooftop, falling to his hands and knees for a moment before he started to rise. Jason helped pull him to his feet. 

“Alright, talk. What do you know?” Jason said. 

“Freakshow is the alias used by the Ring-leader. He uses a staff to control… people. The staff should have been destroyed.” He practically growled when he said that. Actually, Dick was certain he really did growl, he arched an eyebrow but didn’t interrupt. “If the staff is taken from him then he loses control over the… people.” 

Dick could hear that the boy was hiding something. Considering the inhuman growl and the slight flash of his eyes, along with the invisibility, he was going to guess that by people, he meant metas. The last thing Gotham needed was mind control focused meta trafficking ring in the city. 

“You said they were killing her? How? Why?” 

He looked away from them, his eyes flicking side to side as he tried to order his thoughts. He was either coming up with a lie or trying to decide how much information to share with them. 

“Ellie… she’s… sick. I have medicine for her. If I can get it to her in time I can save her, but if I get close while Freakshow still has the staff he’ll take control of me. I have some training and some resistance, but it might not be enough. The staff he’s using is ancient, he’s controlled me before but I was able to fight it off. I’m not certain I would be able to do so again, and it’s too much of a risk to try.” 

It seemed the boy had decided on a half truth. The girl, Ellie, was certainly unwell, and her life was in more danger with every second that ticked passed, but what she was sick with and what the medicine for her were were unclear. Jason seemed to pick up on that as well. 

“We’ll get her out of there. And all the rest of them. But when we’re done we’re going to have a long talk.” Jason growled. 

The boy looked up at them, desperation once again shining naked on his face. 

“If you save her I will tell you anything I am able to. I promise. Please just save her and bring her to me.” 

“We will. We’re heroes. It’s what we do.” Dick said, trying to project all the confidence he could to assure the boy. Speaking of which… “By the way, what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘kid’ in my head.” 

“I’m Danny. And I’m not a kid.” Danny had grimaced when Dick had mentioned being a hero, perhaps he had a bad history with heroes? Now he kind of wished he had brought Cass along with him on this venture, she would have been much better at reading this kid. And he was definitely a kid, a teenaged father to an even younger, kidnapped daughter. 

“Ok, Danny. Is there anything else you can tell us about this Freakshow?” 

Danny pulled a backpack from…somewhere, then rustled around on the inside for a few seconds. He slowly stuck his arm further and further inside until his shoulder was ready to disappear before he pulled back. Certainly the bag wasn’t large enough by itself for him to do that. Dick shot a glance at Jason and he could practically feel the matching raised eyebrow even through Jason’s helmet. Danny finally leaned back and tossed two bracelets to the two heroes. 

“I’ve had these built for years just in case, and I’ve been carrying them with me since Ellie was taken. These will keep you safe from Freakshow’s mind control.” 

The bracelets weren’t exactly high fashion, but they didn’t look bad. If Dick was going to place a guess, he would say that Danny had modified and improved upon another’s design. That would be something they would have to ask once this was over. Jason grunted in discomfort when he snapped his on. 

“If these work so well, how don’t wear one to better resist Freakshow?” Jason had a hint of strain in his voice that Dick couldn’t quite figure out. 

Danny reached over as if to grab Dick’s wrist except a spark of toxic green electricity arced off the bracelet to shock Danny’s hand. He gave the bracelet a grim look. Then looked up at them apologetically. 

“If only it were that simple. I haven’t been able to find any technological protection from Freakshow’s mind-control that doesn’t also harm me.” Then he turned to Jason, a look of concern on his face. “Speaking of which, it doesn’t hurt you too badly does it?” 

Dick was confused by that statement. He hadn’t noticed any pain or discomfort coming from the bracelet he now wore on his wrist. Jason however, waggled his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. 

“It’s not the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.” He said shortly. 

“No, I imagine it wouldn’t be.” Danny said as if sharing an inside joke with Jason and considering his snort he apparently got it. Dick hated not being on a joke, but he figured this one he was probably happy not to have personal experience with. Danny’s face settled into a more determined look. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything else to help you, please, just get Ellie out and safe as quickly as possible. Please, I can’t lose her too.” 

They nodded and turned together and jumped from the roof. Dick wanted to think more about Danny and his various strangeness, but he needed to focus on the task at hand. They had a little girl to save. 

.

In the end, stopping Freakshow wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t nearly as difficult as some of their usual rogues. On the one hand, the performers that Freakshow controlled had powers, something Danny completely failed to mention. They could fly, turn invisible, phase into the ground, even fire off some kind of green energy bolts that reminded Dick far too much of Starfire’s starbolts. On the other hand, none of these powers seemed to be very effective against the two heroes. 

The starbolts didn’t do anything more than tickle Dick, and while they seemed to hurt Jason more, the two of them were well used to avoiding incoming fire from their enemies. They were usually dodging bullets, which moved faster, hurt more and were more lethal than the starbolts, so the performers were mostly useless at range. 

Up close whatever shield Danny had given them kept the performers from touching them, each of them falling back with arcs of electricity jumping between their fingers. It helped that under Freakshow’s control the performers just kept trying to jump or fly into them with a full bodied tackle. Any goon in the goonion knew better than to try to just tackle one of the bat clan. Dick guessed it had something to do with the powers the performers demonstrated, but he set it aside as something to ask Danny about once they were out of there. 

Just when the two Bats were within sight of Freakshow the lights of the big top came on, including a spotlight focused on the high wire. Freakshow stepped back and gestured with the staff in his hands towards where the lone acrobat, the little girl, Danny’s Ellie, stood balanced on the wire. 

“Now, now, little bats! If you take even one step closer a little ghost child will fall to her second death. I’d hate for her to splatter all over the ground of the Big Top!” Freakshow said, with a grin as demented as one of the Joker’s. 

Ellie moved slowly across the tightrope. Dick could immediately pick up on that same mechanical, emotionless movement that had first drawn his attention. He could see that she was being controlled now that he had the confirmation. He could also see just how tired she was, she sagged against the control of her body, any part of her that wasn’t actively being controlled by Freakshow drooped as if she wanted to pass out from exhaustion. Dick just hoped that whatever medicine Danny had for his daughter worked. 

“I’ve got another idea. Nightwing?” Jason growled the words, his modulator making him sound even more inhuman. Dick glanced at his brother and gave him the subtlest of nods. They moved immediately, perfectly in sync. Jason pulled his guns and fired off a few rounds, rubber bullets and all. Dick fired his grapple and rose as the control staff was shot out of Freakshow’s hand. 

Ellie came back to herself and wobbled for a second before she slipped off the wire, gravity immediately taking hold of her. For a second, Dick flashed back to another family falling from the peak of the big top. He remembered the feeling of horror that filled him as his parents fell to their death. He couldn’t allow another family to go through that. Not this time. Ellie falls and Dick was there to meet her. 

The poor girl shivered and shook in his arms as he carefully lowered the two of them to the ground. Large green tears fell from her eyes and her breath rattled in and out of her chest. She grabbed onto his uniform with desperate fingers and seemed to pass out immediately in his arms. Dick dearly wanted to beat Freakshow into submission for what he had done to her, but she very clearly needed her medicine more. Jason settled for breaking Freakshow’s arm before knocking him out and cuffing him. Surprisingly the rest of Freakshow’s victims had vanished into thin air once the staff left his hands. 

Dick carried Ellie back to the rooftop where they had left Danny. The whole time she kept her eyes closed and shook in his arms. Jason carried the staff Freakshow had used, though he held it like it was something foul and offended him personally. Danny had been watching them come and as soon as they were on the roof as well had his arms out for his daughter. Dick handed her off willingly, and Danny almost immediately collapsed to his knees in relief. 

“Daddy?” Elllie croaked the word, barely able to open her eyes. 

“I’m here, Ellie. I’m here. I’ve got the ecto-dejecto.” 

“I tried to fight him.” Her voice was soft and hoarse and hurt Dick just to hear. 

“You did amazing, sweety. You were absolutely amazing.” 

Danny pulled a syringe out from what looked like his own arm. A syringe filled a green gel that glowed softly. Jason stared at the needle as Danny readied it for Ellie. She tried to shove his hand away, but he moved around her. 

“I know you hate it, I know. It’s awful. But you have to take it. Please Ellie, I’ve got you, you’re safe.” 

Dick flinched back in horror as Ellie’s hand melted into a similar green goo. The glowing goo fell from her body to the rooftop but she didn’t seem to react, only mewling softly at Danny as he pushed the needle into her chest, close to where her heart would be. Danny pushed down on the plunger and Ellie threw her head back and screamed. Dick had to cover his ears while even Jason with his helmet stumbled back before the force of her scream. 

Their horror only increased when her entire body fell apart, glowing chunks splashing onto the roof leaving a pale green pearl in Danny’s hands. The puddles of green flowed up into the pearl until there wasn’t a trace of Ellie left other than the pearl. Danny rocked back and forth as he held the pearl, and whispered quietly to it. 

“Please, Ellie. Please. Come back. I was fast enough, please Ellie, just this once, please let me have been fast enough. Please, Ancients, don’t let me lose anyone else. Please, Ellie. Please.”

Danny’s voice was broken with grief and desperation as he begged the little sphere. Dick stepped forward to comfort the grieving father, his own regret heavy in his heart, but Jason’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. The two of them could only watch as Danny begged and begged, still rocking. Only the slow tightening of Jason’s hand on Dick’s shoulder showed his grief and fear rising as well. The three men stared at the little orb in Danny’s hand, two of them hardly daring to breathe as any last remnant of hope faded. 

Then, just when Dick was certain he had been too late, a flash of light came from the little sphere. He blinked the light from his eyes and when he could see again he saw Danny clutching a much more lively Ellie to his chest, sobbing in naked relief. 

“Oh Daddy! I knew you would come and that stupid jerk would pay.” Ellie cheered, hugging him back just as strong. 

“That’s right baby, I’m always going to come for you. I’ll always protect you.” He stood, lifting his daughter easily and turned to show her the two bats. “And these two heroes were the ones who stopped Freakshow and brought you back to me.” 

Ellie smiled at them and they couldn’t help but notice that her smile was just a little too wide, and showed just a few too many teeth. Then she seemed to recognize them and they saw actual literal stars in her eyes. 

“Oh my gosh! You’re Redhood! You’re Aunt Jazz’s favorite hero!” Jason preened for a moment before Ellie continued. “She says there’s something deeply wrong with your entire family and she wants to study you like a bug. She says all of you need ‘like decades of therapy.’”

Jason and Dick didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended by the kid’s words. And they had both rescued children often enough to know that they were often brilliant mimics and considering the intonation she had used, had probably heard that phrase way too often.

“Now Ellie, be nice. They did rescue after all. Give them a proper thank…” Danny’s voice petered out as he saw the staff that Jason still held in his hands. Ellie happily thanked the two heroes as he glared at the staff, analyzing and examining it, his face twisting with more and more rage. 

The staff itself seemed to have been broken before and then sloppily repaired with glowing green and silver technology. It was at this modified portion of the staff that Danny focused his ire. Ellie seemed to notice her father’s fury as her babbling words to the heroes ceased and she turned in his arms to lightly pat her hands on his face. He blinked and looked at her before letting his face relax. 

“Daddy, are you ok?” 

“Yeah, Daddy’s ok sweetie. This is just something bigger I’m going to have to deal with.” 

“Ok.” She hesitated for a moment. “Just promise to be safe, I won’t be able to protect you until I’m bigger.” 

“I promise, munchkin.” 

Jason quietly cleared his throat. They both hated to disrupt the tender moment, but if this was a larger threat they needed the facts as soon as possible. 

“I know, I know. I promised you details.” Danny said as he adjusted how he was carrying Ellie. “This isn’t exactly a topic for the rooftops. Do you have someplace private we can talk? Preferably somewhere I can put the kiddo down for bed after the hard week she’s had?” 

Dick and Jason glanced at each other. There were a variety of safe houses and interrogation rooms the Family had available in the area, or the Batcave, but none were exactly the best for putting a potential ally at ease where they could also have a child sleep over. Hell, Dick’s apartment was barely safe for him to sleep, the pile of dishes in his sink practically counted as a biohazard. Well… there was one place… but that meant revealing…

“B’s out of town for the week for that JL thing isn’t he?” Jason asked, clearly having read Dick’s mind. “He’s not here to disapprove.” 

“Seems like the perfect place for a conversation.” Dick agreed and turned back to see Danny’s slightly worried glance between the two of them. “How about it Danny? Would you like to ride with the kiddo on one of our motorcycles?” 

“Oh, don’t be silly!” Ellie said with a smile. “Aunt Jazz is the one who likes motorcycles. Daddy and I will fly!” 

.

Danny did in fact fly, invisibly and intangibly, with Ellie still in his arms. He followed along in the air over the two bikes as they weaved dangerously in and out of traffic. The two were obviously brothers in so many ways, but their playful daring of each other to push a little faster, to get a little closer to the cars made it even more obvious. Danny couldn’t help the small smile that crept up his face, but speaking of siblings he had to make a call of his own. Jazz answered on the first ring. 

“Danny? Did you find her?” Jazz asked, she had been driving herself crazy for the past week trying to find where Ellie had been taken to. 

“Yeah, I’ve got her safe and sound-”

“Hi Aunt Jazz!” Ellie interrupted to yell into the earpiece Danny was using. He could practically feel Jazz’s wince at the volume, but they were both used to Ellie’s exuberance. 

“Hi Ellie! I’m so glad to hear you’re safe!” Jazz shouted back, making Danny wince this time, but Ellie nodded even though she wasn’t wearing the earpiece and settled back against Danny’s chest. “Talk to me Danny. What happened?” 

“Freakshow was controlling her. And a bunch of other ghosts, but I was able to scoop up the rest while the heroes had their backs turned. I’ll be dropping them off in the zone as soon as I can.” 

“Heroes? What heroes?” 

“I had a little help from Gotham’s beloved Knights. Or at least two of them. They were the ones to take out Freakshow since I couldn’t risk getting closer to him while he held his staff.” 

“I thought you broke that staff the last time you faced him.” 

“I did. It was fixed.” Danny hesitated for a second before dropping the bomb on her. “It was fixed with Fentontech.” 

He could hear the gasp from Jazz at the same time Ellie shivered in fear. Jazz took a steadying breath and Danny could practically see her going through her breathing exercises to control her own panic. 

“I guess that problem will need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.” 

“Mm. I’m hoping that with the help of the local heroes I won’t have to take care of everything myself, but…”

“Some things are personal.” Jazz finished for him. “I understand Danny.” She took another breath before changing topics, now sounding calm and professional. “Could you stay on the line? Tucker is tracking your location, and I would like to confirm for myself that the two of you are ok.” 

“Of course Jazz. Do you want to talk to Ellie?” Danny was already removing the piece from his ear before Jazz could even confirm. Of course Jazz wanted to talk to Ellie. Jazz loved her niece more than oxygen. He slipped the piece into Ellie’s ear so they could talk. 

“Hi Aunt Jazz! This is Ellie, I’ve missed you so much!” Ellie started talking excitedly greeting Jazz again as if Danny would just hand his earpiece to anyone. 

Danny mentally checked out from their conversation as he stayed flying over the two Bats. His parents had already shared their technology with the GIW making it more dangerous to be a ghost or liminal. Even Jazz had been attacked once by GIW agents, though she had left all the agents with concussions and multiple broken bones once she was done with them. 

If they were sharing their technology with other criminals like Freakshow, it was going to be even more dangerous. How long would it take until some of the big rogues get their hands on anti ghost tech? What could someone like the Joker or Luthor do if even the dead aren’t safe from their machinations? 

.

Jason and Dick lead the two ghosts to a large manor on the outskirts of Gotham. Danny eventually recognizes it as Wayne manor. He would have to tell Sam she won their bet on Batman’s secret identity, not that they would ever tell anyone. He and Ellie were welcomed into the house by Alfred, the manor’s butler. The two of them settled in the dining room where Ellie was plied with dinner and dessert after her stressful time with Freakshow. Danny makes a mental note for his daughter to spend time with Aunt Jazz so she can talk things through free of judgment. 

The two bat boys joined them shortly out of costume and the rest of the family trickled in throughout the day as their patrols ended. Damian, who was probably the stabby Robin, glared at them as if they were a threat to his family. Danny couldn’t help the thought that he puffed up like an angry cat. Cassandra and Stephanie, Black Bat and Spoiler respectively, worked together to pull Ellie from Danny’s lap to keep her entertained away from the serious discussion that was happening at the table. Timothy, or Red Robin (Yumm!) was on the receiving end of several stern looks from Alfred for having a computer at the dining table but he was taking rapid notes on everything Danny said. 

Danny told them as much as he felt comfortable with. About ghosts, and over shadowing, and Infinite Realms. He tried to keep the conversation light and focused just on the simple details until Alfred escorted in Jazz at close to three in the morning. 

“Aunt Jazz!” Ellie ran to her and jumped into her arms, Jazz swinging her up into the air easily. As if Ellie had been waiting to be reunited with her family she almost immediately fell asleep in Jazz’s arms. Alfred escorted the two to the guest room he had prepared hours ago. 

Once Jazz had returned to the dining room it was time for the serious conversation. The GIW. The Anti-Ecto Act. The very real threat of extermination that every ectoplasm contaminated person now faced, which included more than half the bats currently at the table as well. Promises are made to get the League looking at the laws. Eventually the conversation turns to talking about Danny and Ellie. 

“Technically she’s my clone.” Danny confessed. “My fruitloop god-father wanted to make me his perfect son, so he stole my DNA and cloned me. She was unstable for a long time and had to keep coming back for injections. We finally figured out what was going on two years ago.”

Danny rubbed a hand up and down his face as he gathered himself. He always hated that it had taken him so long to understand what she needed. 

“Because he’s terrible at biology, he forced her human half to grow at an accelerated rate to match my age, but he couldn’t do the same with her ghost half. The two sides were at war, and it turns out she really was a baby ghost all along, but didn’t have an adult ghost around to be able to depend on. She changed her form to match her actual age, and I’ve been her ghost parent, so I’ve helped steady her core. Until Freakshow came along and stole her away while she still needed me.” 

He glared at the table top as the temperature around him plummeted. Freakshow could have killed his little girl. It would have been all too easy and if Dick and Jason hadn’t helped take away his staff, Danny might have been too late. If Freakshow’s actions had led to Ellie’s death there would have been no safe haven for him in this life or the next. Jazz grabbing his hand brought him back before he sent the dining room into the next ice age. 

The arrival of the daylight hero, Signal, aka Duke, reminded the lot they should have been asleep hours ago. Jazz and Danny retired to the same guest room Ellie was currently snoring away in. They settled down on either side of the bed from her, cuddling Danny’s daughter in the middle. 

“What are we going to do about the Fentons?” Jazz whispered from across Ellie’s still form. 

“If they’re helping villains, they’ve crossed a line. I’ll have to deal with them myself.” Danny hesitated for a bit. “I’ll have to wait until Ellie’s stable again, but then would you mind if she stayed with you? You’re family too, even if you don’t have a ghost form, so she should be stable with you too.” 

“Of course I will, Danny. You don’t even have to ask.” Jazz said, she hesitated as well. “Are you going to bring them in to serve jail time?” 

They had been his parents once. His mom and dad. Jazz still caught herself sometimes referring to them as their parents. But they had crossed too many lines. With Jazz’s childhood, after Danny’s accident, now with Ellie’s health. He took a shaky breath and shook his head. 

“Their crimes are against the dead. And the dead are going to come for their due.”

Jazz nodded, small tears shining in her eyes, before she closed them and let the tears fall. The trio fell asleep, a small, strange family, reunited again after so long. Tomorrow would be a new challenge, but eventually they would know peace. 

[decepti-thots]

also, speaking of Chinese TF fandom, it's honestly so funny the mythologized 'but WHY did bayverse do SO MYSTERIOUSLY WELL in CHINA, we may never know!!!' narrative persists bc like. there's actually a very simple explanation there. it's the exact same reason bayverse did well in america; G1 was popular enough in China among people who were kids at the time and were in like 2005 or whatever adults who remembered it fondly. that it was a nostalgia bait movie that tapped into 'oh shit, we remember those, i loved that as a kid!' just the same as it did in the US or whatever. so much of the discussion around Bayverse's popularity in China just. ignores that Transformers was just a popular property in China? and also a large proportion of people in the world live there. why did we have endless attempts to 'explain' this for years it's extremely simple

[andhaveapleasanttomorrow]

if you could scientifically engineer a new boy band what do you think theyd be like. what traits would they have

you've successfully baited me into writing over a thousand words on a topic I don't know very much about

as far as scientific engineering goes I don't need much aside from a willingness to let me puppet them around and make them dance. it's better if they're not engineered, I think, for the concept I've been tossing around in my head. I've been thinking about a few different things in tandem, one of them being some recent attempts to create a "western kpop[1] group," which haven't really been crazy successful, and wondering what it would take for something like that to work. for one thing, the only western kpop groups I know of have been girl groups, and at the risk of overgeneralizing I don't think the idea would work as well for a boy group, mainly because there are less male kpop fans and therefore less guys who would be eager to undergo that kind of training/lifestyle or have dreams of becoming that kind of "idol." I've also seen people say that a north american "mindset" isn't conducive to the idol lifestyle as it exists in korea because of cultural differences but I don't know how much I'd agree with that. I do think that rather than trying to get them to be precision-built silicon dolls like modern kpop idols it would make more sense to counter that and have them be more "real" and perhaps a little "rebellious," but like, not in any actually potentially subversive or offensive way. so I guess it would help if they had that feeling.[2] I think that would also make them more appealing to the general public, which is where kpop falls short. the language barrier doesn't help.[3]

another thing I've been thinking about is how important the accessibility (or perceived accessibility) of a star's personal life is now, in american pop. this is a big part of why taylor swift is so huge and I think another snagging point for kpop. people feel that it is very important that stars have "authenticity" and things like this, and like to do things like compare their lyrics to things that happened to the star, and so on. so for my perfect boy band there would have to be a sense that they were heavily involved in the creation of their songs somehow. (to be fair, I don't think this is unheard of in kpop.)[4] a third thing I've been thinking about is this idea of the "fictional real boy band" (the monkees, the jonas brothers, big time rush.[7]) I've been thinking about it because I don't really understand it. the first two at least were genuine stars, and big time rush wasn't like, globally renowned, but, you know, they did okay. where I get stuck is in understanding why people liked them, it doesn't seem like it should work; the contract between the pop star and the audience already has a fiction/reality dissonance that both parties just sort of have to accept, but starring in a television show with fictionalized versions of yourselves seems to be turning that upside down and violating it somehow. but people liked them.[8] the jonas brothers managed to make something of a real comeback, at least for a little bit, although I'm sure that was 90% fueled by nostalgia.[9]

anyway the fact that there's a precedent makes it odd to me that no one has attempted to modernize it with social media. I mean, obviously pop stars use social media, kpop idols do livestreams and tiktoks and things like that, there is a connection to the fans in that way, one direction even had their video diaries when they were teens, I'm more thinking of like an "influencer house" type of situation. this is where I think it becomes a bit unethical. I think as it is there's another little contract, where the audience understands that celebrities make certain kinds of posts online as promotional work and most of what they're saying isn't actually "coming from the heart," and celebrities know the audience knows. there's probably two ways to curveball this; lean way into it and turn it into an "I-know-you-know-I-know" thing, or obfuscate it entirely and pretend it doesn't exist.[10] the latter is really hard to accomplish and I'd really like to see it done successfully. the drive to call people nepo babies or industry plants is really strong these days, but so is the drive to feel like you know a celebrity on a personal level, so there's a bit of a tightrope situation here. basically my idea is to put the monkees on tiktok. but I don't want the audience to know they're watching the monkees, I want them to think it's real. also yaoibaiting is mandatory (also not unusual in kpop). imagine you follow a group of roommates online because they make funny posts about each other, but they're also incredibly famous, and they make music together, the lyrics of which can easily be interpreted to be about each other, like fleetwood mac. I want to create parasocial bonds that could topple empires. not for money I just want to see it happen

there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge because I don't know anything about the music industry and I'm also not entirely sure why kpop (or anything) "works," in a societal sense, or why exactly american pop has been so heavy with soloists for so many years when that wasn't the case before. I also don't even really listen to pop music, I mostly read what other people say about it because I find the social aspect of it more interesting. I like thinking about it so I'm going to continue thinking about it

[1] here used to refer to the specific management/training/production model of the idol industry in korea rather than a catchall for "korean pop" [2] I don't know how exactly that would be executed, I'm bad at predicting what people will clock as "cool" or "phony" because I have my own axis of how I perceive that kind of thing. [3] I do have a theory that part of the reason western kpop hasn't been panning out so well is that kpop fans are largely koreaboos and even if the idols are managed by korean companies they won't go as hard for them if they're not korean because they lose that sheen of the "culture," and because they don't get to call them unnie. if you don't create a group that's mainly geared towards kpop fans (because, I think, the american general public doesn't have an appetite for that kind of group anymore), you don't have that problem [4] I've also been thinking about 5 seconds of summer, and how they were, I think, the last really big actual band boy band, who like played their instruments and shit. don't talk to me about waterparks and twenty one pilots and fall out boy [5] and whatnot because that's not what I'm talking about and besides waterparks is overrated. I've never listened to their music but I can tell they're overrated. my point is my boys wouldn't need to play instruments, and anyway if they did then how could they do their little dance moves?[6] [5] they're all too old to be boy bands. [6] granted… I do think the general public would be more responsive to a real band-type-band than a pop group right now, but I don't have any real reasoning behind this [7] hannah montana's not a boy band but I suppose she also did this, the difference being that the actual star is "miley cyrus," not "hannah montana." [8] obviously there's something to be said that the target audience for most of these were like, 8 year olds, who don't have a very good grasp on the reality/fiction thing anyway, which is probably why I can't understand it [9] nostalgia is, of course, the only thing running the cultural engine these days, which is why I'm even thinking about this in the first place- it's weird to me that with the "y2k" thing being very popular there are no really big mainstream american pop groups like there were then [10] you could also just violate it and not filter the pop star at all, but that's less of a curveball and more of a foundational destruction, and would fall apart very quickly

[arcadiabaytornado]

I have frankly TOO MANY opinions on the new game, but by far my biggest greivance is how it seems at least contextually that Max and Chloe did break up OFFSCREEN. In the version of events where Chloe is alive, of course.

It's so unsatisfying. It just stinks of the writers simply not wanting to bother accounting for Chloe being in the game or not. Which I know is hard to do, but I think they should've just put their foot down and decided a true ending for this game's universe. Either decide it's sacrifice bay or sacrifice bae. I don't want Chloe to be dead, but it just feels cheap to me the way they did handle such an important character. Hell, I'd even take them just not using Max at all, either. It just feels like nostalgia bait with minimal thought put in. As much as I adore Max.

Same here! Every choice based sequel that I've seen ends up unsatisfying on some level because it's way easier for the developers to just pretend the final end choice only vaguely exists. Which means all the endings end up kind of being "written out" so the new story can go on without any hiccups, and that's likely why Double Exposure is going to be a Max story instead of an optional Max and Chloe story, because if it was an optional Max and Chloe story then they'd have to make practically two different games.

And then there's the trouble of choosing a "canon" ending. That's going to make half the fanbase pissed off no matter what you do, and for a company means less money if someone doesn't want a game that doesn't follow their choices. So it's a safter bet to just canonize both choices in the easiest way possible...by making references to the choice or having a few flashbacks about the choice, but not actually exploring the choice in full.

I'm going to hold off my full judgement about how the ending is handled until Double Exposure comes out. Maybe I'll be wrong and it will be handled as well as it can be considering how majorly different the two choices to the first game are, but I am having a lot of opinions already just based off how choice based squeals have historically handled previous game choices. (TWDG season 3, TWDG season 4, Batman The Enemy Within, Before The Storm it's in own weird I could elaborate on, BG3, etc.) Though hopefully we'll both be wrong and both routes will be explored in a satisfying way that makes everyone happy...but ngl I'm scared about that aspect.

[bloodlust-1]

The Consort ₊⁺જ⁀➴

NSWF | Explicit 18+ | Angst | Blood | Ascended Astarion | Spawn Tav | Dark | Smut | Trauma | Stockholm Syndrome | Violence

Ascended Astarion x fem Tav

Chapter: 10 | Deceit

Summary: In a tumultuous tale of love, power, and betrayal, Tav finds herself entangled in a complex relationship with Astarion, a heartless vampire lord who will stop at nothing to maintain control over his newfound spawn. As Tav witnesses Astarion’s transformation and descent into darkness, their love is put to the ultimate test amidst love triangles, drama, and the pursuit of world domination. Redemption seems like an elusive goal while Tav grapples with the realization of who her lover has truly become.

Notes: hi hi!! This month has been super busy for me BUT I'M BACK AT IT AGAIN! >:D enjoy reading tho ~ Unedited atm

AO3 LINK | MASTER LIST

Lovely photo by @astarionposting

In an almost scolding shocked tone, Tav exclaimed, “Astarion..!” Her eyes widened as she gazed at the shimmering rings in his hand, then back at him. The sunlight twinkled off the rings.

Astarion was never the sentimental type for events like these. Being undead for so long tainted many things people would celebrate.

Was he doing this for me…?

He thought about me…

Tav’s mind raced with questions and emotions, and she finally mustered the words, “Y-You did this for me, Astarion?” Her voice quivered with a mix of surprise and joy.

With a soft smile playing on his lips, “I know you care about it a lot, love. I would do anything in my power to give you everything.” He cleared his throat, His voice showed a hint of vulnerability. And with a sassy remark, “Now — do you accept my proposal?”

“Of course, Star!” Tav gave a fangy smile as she threw herself onto Astarion, causing them to fall back together.

Astarion’s expression shifted from surprise to pure joy, hugging each other before composing themselves. Tav extended her hand, and Astarion gently took it, sliding the gold band around her finger and then his own.

As he slipped the ring on Tav’s finger, a tingling sensation scratched along her skin.

Ouch...It kinda hurts.

“There. Just as beautiful as its owner,” Astarion stared down at her hand in his, admiring the jewelry.

“It’s very pretty, but why -“ Tav began to question but was instantly cut off.

“The slight discomfort? You’ll get used to it." A hint of possessiveness in his eyes, he smirked while clutching her hand, "There’s a sharp edge in the band; if pulled the right way...Well - you get the idea."

"You see, my wife, it’s meant to be worn and never taken off. If you do, you’ll feel its sting,”

A ring that cuts you if taken off.

It was so....him.

With a challenging smirk of her own, "Aren't you just soo poetic." Tav adjusted the ring with a nod and a smile.

I like the sound of that.

'My wife'

I must be just as twisted as him if I'm okay with this...

Tav peered into Astarion, her eyes shimmering with the sun's light. She fluttered her eyelashes, subtly baiting him into what she would say next. “I have a request,” she said softly.

Intrigued, "Yes?"

In a whisper, Tav leaned in closer, her breath softly dampening the skin of his ear, "Kiss me like how you used to."

His pupils dilated and a rush of nostalgia created a cold sweat down his back.

Astarion knew exactly what she meant - the sweet intimacy of their early days together when their love was just beginning to bloom. Back then, his kisses were shy, filled with a sweet innocence that was unlike their usual roughness.

Tav's request hung in the air, and Astarion blinked a few times, "I-I...Yes," He caught his words finally, "Of course, I can."

He was completely taken aback.

A kiss like before?

I'm way more confident now.

Why would she ever want that?

In that fleeting moment, Tav gazed up at Astarion with hopeful eyes and parted lips, she waited for him to take the bait.

Their lips met in a soft collision, weaving every emotion from the past to the present. It was so gentle that his lips tickled over hers as if Tav was made of glass.

Tav could feel Astarion's eyelashes flutter against her cheekbones, the phantom feeling of the softest kiss he's ever given sent chills all through her body.

Something about that old innocence melted her inside. She was like butter melting in the palm of his hands.

Astarion's hand rested in the crook of Tav's neck, tilting her head ever so slightly. He leaned into the kiss more and Tav's breath hitched in response.

It was starting to become more intense.

That softness Tav craved slowly washed away with each stroke of a kiss and she quickly pulled away with a small gasp, "W-Wait..."

He waited for her to speak, eyes dazed.

"Let's...not have sex."

Bluntly, "Why not?"

Tav scuffed into a chuckle, "Because intimacy doesn't have to always end with sex. I just want to enjoy my husband."

Her ears went floppy with a flush of her cheeks, "Even if I would enjoy that...very much...my point still stands."

Tav darted her eyes away until Astarion spoke, scared of how he might take it.

He tilted his head, intrigued, "Disappointing, darling, but granted."

Astarion gave a kiss to Tav's forehead. "Thank you."

200 years of sexual slavery still lingered from time to time. Trauma wasn't something Astarion could just throw away. It still very much lived deep within him.

Tav looked over her shoulder both ways, her eyebrow cocking up with disdain. "Love, have you noticed we're surrounded by Cazador's family headstones, right?"

Astarion narrowed his eyes with a single nod, "Indeed we are."

"Sounds - smashing." Tav winked at Astarion.

"Yes, it does." A sinister smile spread across his features and their eyes went dark.

~

DAYS LATER

Tav opened up the front doors, taking in a deep breath of cool air. The wind pushed back her hair in a gentle breeze. Just as she took a step forward, the crinkling noise crumbled beneath her feet.

a letter?

Tav picked the paper up. It was stamped with a red wax, a delicate hand-scripted name on the front in black ink.

Lord Ancunin.

Tav's eyebrow cocked up and just as she went to open it, Astarion snatched up the letter between her hands. His frame completely dominated her from behind.

"Hey..!" Tav crossed her arms with a puff of her cheeks.

Astarion shook his head with a chuckle, clearly amused by Tav's frustration, "Now, now, I'll share in just a moment."

*Rip*

Astarion flicked his wrist out, forcing the paper open with a loud 'pop'. His eyes were relaxed but they suddenly narrowed in concentration.

"hmm.."

"What?" Tav grabbed Astarion's shoulder, tip-toeing to get a glimspe of the letter, "Who is it from?"

Tav's questions came quicker than Astarion's answer and before she got the chance to ask one more, she saw at the bottom of the letter in the prettiest hand-writing she'd ever seen signed,

Rosaline.

Tav ripped the letter from Astarion's hands, "What does she want?" Tav's eyes skimmed threw the letter.

----------------------------------------------

Dear Lord Ancunin,

I am writing to invite you to meet over a bottle of wine at the Inn in the lower city. It would be of benefit to discuss matters of mutual interest in a more relaxed setting. I will be there at dusk.

Feel free to bring your partner along if you wish. Their presence would only add to the enjoyment of our gathering.

I look forward to see you and your partner,

Rosaline.

----------------------------------------------

Rosaline knew Cazador was no longer alive, but what did she want with Astarion so bad?

Hmph.

Tav crumbled the paper, annoyance on her features.

"Isn't someone jealous?" Astarion crossed his arms, leaning his shoulder against the door frame, "I quite like you like this - hah."

Clearly unamused Tav shook her head, "We're not going."

A cocky smile on his lips, "We're not? Are you sure about that? It's...cute - to think you make any of my networking choices."

"Nuh-uh. No way. Not with her."

Astarion heaved out a simple sigh, "Such a fussy little thing." He cocked up an eyebrow and shrugged off her unwillingness, "That's just too bad because we're going."

"Oh really?"

With a sassy tone, "Yees - really, am I supposed to show up alone?" Astarion flashed his hand, the gold band glittering in the light, "Especially with this? Hah - Never."

There was a cockiness in his voice and a daring glare that told Tav everything she needed to know. Astarion meant it and Tav instantly remembered her words to him: "I will learn to love you even if it pains me."

Tav shook her head of intrusive thoughts, "Okay, fine."

Maybe I should calm down a bit. I wouldn't want to come in between Astarion's business proposals.

But I still don't like her.

The first time Tav ever met Rosaline, she completely ignored her and swooped Astarion away with honeyed words. What if that happens again?

"Nothing says 'I love you' more than a jealous lover, scornful of anyone who bats an eye at me." Astarion grinned with a fangy smile. He loved seeing Tav get riled up over him. It made him feel wanted.

Tav went deadpanned with a grumble.

A total 'I will kill you' kind of face.

And all Astarion could do was relish in it, laughing and poking fun at Tav's obvious jealousy.

~

The sun dipped below the horizon, and Astarion and Tav made their way towards the Inn at dusk. Both dressed in formal attire, they stood out amongst the common folk.

Upon entering, they were greeted by a cacophony of noise and loud cheering crowds. And then the thick smell of ale hit them instantly.

Astarion's nose crinkled with disgust on his face, "This better be worth my time."

A man approached them, in a simple worker’s uniform. “Lord Ancunin, our esteemed guest has been waiting for you,” he said respectfully, gesturing for them to follow.

With a nod, Astarion and Tav fell into step behind him as he led them through the crowded common room toward a secluded area of the inn.

I don't care what Astarion says, the common area seemed waay more fun than where we were heading.

It was as if they had stepped into another world entirely. The atmosphere shifted dramatically - no rowdy people and loud laughter. Instead, they found themselves surrounded by snobs and people who exuded an air of wealth and power.

Tav gulped to herself.

I hate when people look at me all at once.

Obviously this space was reserved for those of high status, away from the commoners. Not that Tav wished to be here with snobby rich people.

They were soo stiff.

"Ah - Lord Ancunin, I'm happy you accepted my humble invitation," Rosaline called out to them and as they sat down across from her, she flashed a knowing smile.

Astarion, pulled out Tav's chair and she sat down wryly in Rosaline's presence.

"And you!" Rosaline lifted an eyebrow, scanning Tav up and down, "You must be Tav, Astarion's partner in crime, huh?" Her words ended off in a joking tone.

But Astarion pushed Tav's chair in and he flashed Rosaline his hand, showing off the new gold ring, "Her husband, actually." His face was completely unamused but not so much his tone. He loved to brag.

Astarion was more than happy to show off his new title.

Husband.

Deep down, Rosaline masked her shock with fake happiness as she clasped her hands together. But this didn't go unnoticed. Tav saw just how oddly Rosaline clutched onto her own hands so hard...The tips of her fingertips turned white, "Forgive me, I didn't know your title changed since the Waterdeep ball. How....exciting." Rosaline chuckled off the conversation.

Tav chimed in eyeing just how hard she was clutching her hands together, "Things change so quickly, I haven't even had the time to think of wedding plans."

"Is that so?" Rosaline blinked away her feelings and unclasped her hands, "You must! Weddings are quite the commitment."

She tilted her head with a smile, eyeing both Astarion and Tav. "I hope I'll be lucky to be on your invitation list."

Tav blushed at the thought but Astarion replied quickly, leaving no room for promise, "Perhaps...Although I would love for my wife to brag all night long about wedding ceremonies, I know I didn't come here for that."

"Straight to the point." She leaned back into her seat, reaching out to pick up the bottle of wine and pouring the alcohol into her glass. "I like it."

"You know a great deal about Cazador." Astarion leaned over the table, his expression unwavering.

Tav crossed her arms, chiming in after Astarion. "Start talking."

Rosaline took a sip of her wine, batting her eyelashes before gulping the drink. She took a moment and swirled the drink in hand, "Relax, the both of you. Have some wine and I will speak my peace."

Rosaline snapped at the waiter and they quickly scurried over, pouring their glass full of the red wine.

Tav rolled her eyes, "You're deflecting."

"Alright." With a cocky tone she began to lay everything out, "My name is Rosaline Bmuarr, I have a brother Ross; I'm sure you're already familiar with his company, Tav." Rosaline's eyes landed on Tav for a brief moment of silence.

Astarion narrowed his eyes and stared at Tav questionable before she continued to speak, "I've been aware of Cazador's true form for some time now. I, myself, was planning on ending him and the rest of his kin. All those poor souls." Rosaline paused and stared like daggers at Astarion, "But suddenly he dies along with his spawn...and do you know the most interesting part?"

On guard, Astarion listened carefully to her words, "Speak."

"That everyone is dead except one." Chin in palm Rosaline leaned over and sipped from her cup, "You wouldn't happen to take his spot, dear spawn?"

Astarion snorted with a cocky attitude, "Spawn - Hah."

Tav wasn't as amused as Astarion was, "Cazador is dead. What's the big deal with Astarion?"

A glow lingered in Tav's eyes, she needed to calm herself down before losing complete control of herself. She took in a deep breath.

Don't let your emotions get the best of you..

"To be honest, I'm livid. You stole my kill, my revenge, all my wasted time." Rosaline crossed her arms a lingering annoyance on her face, "For as annoyed as I am, I'm a woman of opportunity, not a savage like your brothers and sisters."

Astarion glared at Rosaline and the air became intense, "Oh please, do continue. It's getting better."

"We all want the same thing. Power, riches, and authority."

“My proposition for you still stands. I find myself in need of some quick cash, but I’m not one to beg or borrow. No, I prefer to make deals that benefit both parties involved.”

Astarion was curiously intrigued “And what kind of deal are you proposing?”

Rosaline smirked shyly, “Oh, nothing too scandalous, I assure you. I have quite a network of influential friends in high places, especially among politicians. Imagine the doors that could open for you if you had access to such power and connections.”

Tav raised an eyebrow, budging in, “And what do you want in return for this 'golden opportunity' ?”

Rosaline leaned in even closer, her voice dropping to a convincing whisper “I simply ask for a small token of appreciation in the form of gold. With your resources and my charm, we could be unstoppable together. Think about it - power, influence, success… all within your reach with just a little investment in me.”

He paused to consider her offer, captivated by her persuasive words “You certainly paint an enticing picture. How do I know I can trust you?”

Rosaline clinked her wine glass against Astarion's with a reassuring smile, “Darling, trust is the foundation of any successful partnership. And believe me when I say, I always deliver on my promises. You won’t regret taking this chance on me.”

A truth and a lie.

Yes, she needed cash. But at the cost of working hard to tare down Astarion piece by piece.

Rosaline's words lingered in the air, and astarion was drawn into her web of deceit and allure, tempted by the prospect of power and influence at his fingertips.

It would be so easy to have Rosaline do his dirty work behind the scenes. He would never think to ask Tav of such things with perverted and sketchy businessmen.

"I don't make promises, but ill give you a trial run. Don't disappoint me."

Rosaline smiled, but there was a subtle sultry in her voice, and if Tav didn't overlook it herself; it felt like a flirt. "I don't disappoint."

ROSS'S POV

Truthfully, I wasn't going to come. Me and Rosaline haven't been getting along lately, she's more irritable than usual and I couldn't stand being around her.

But I can't let her drown on her own, no matter how frustrated she gets me.

Plus, I'm worried for Tav. I haven't seen her in some days now.

I hope she's well.

Tav forcefully made her way towards the exit doors, completely disregarding Ross's presence. She pushed past him with an accidental shove, continuing her exit without so much as a glance in his direction.

"Tav?" Ross called out for her but she was already outside.

He weaved passed on comers into the Inn and hurried behind Tav outside. It had already gone dark and that's when his eyes finally landed on her.

She was pushing her locs behind her ears, pacing back and forth with deep breaths.

She seems like she's blowing off some steam.

"Something upsetting you?" Ross tilted his head, his eyes softening at hers.

Oh no, Tav wasn't in any kind of mood to smile and give greetings. Her blood boiled and she snapped at Ross with a quickness, harshly spitting out, "Your sister. I can't stand to watch her sit there and be all friendly with Astarion when she barely acknowledges me at all!"

She waved her hands around dramatically with each word, "I want to support Astarion and keep calm, but Gods she makes it soo hard!"

Ross glanced at her hands.

A new shiny addition to her fingers that wasn't there before.

A wedding ring.

Ross felt his stomach turn, a horrible taste in his mouth to the mocking band waving in his face.

He reached out and stopped Tav's hot-headed blabbering, catching her just at her wrist and pulling her hand close to his eye level.

"Excuse you!" Tav tried to pull away but his grip was taut.

He swallowed, an anger in his eyes, "Are you - engaged?"

Her eyes faded from anger to softness with a single nod, "Yes."

Ross let go quickly, a look of disappointment etched on his features. But what made him even more bothered is that Tav didn't even seem guilty about it.

How could you confide in me for His toxic behavior and then accept a marriage proposal?

And to think she'd want better for herself.

Sarcastically, "Thanks for saying congratulations. I can see it all in your face that you're soo happy for me." Tav sighed and rubbed the side of her temple.

Ross crinkled his eyes, shaking his head in shock, "Happy?! Am I the fucking crazy one or what? You can't expect me to just wipe a smile on my face after what happened the last time I saw you."

A slip of the tongue, a confession sighed off his lips, "I've been thinking about you."

Tav turned her head, maybe shocked, confused, curious? The way her eyebrows narrowed didn't seem too welcoming, however. "About? I'm just fine."

"Wasn’t 'just fine' the other day."

And just like that Ross changed the conversation, "Welcome to the annoyed club with Rosaline. She can be really tunnel visioned so get used to it if your fiancé is working with her."

Ross patted Tav's shoulder, the anger was still so visible on her face, "I'll go back with you, and I promise I'll try my best to keep her in line."

Tav pouted and shrugged his hand away, "I'll believe it when I see it."

With a roll of his eyes and a chuckle, he extended out his arm towards the doors, "You first."

She's so hot-headed. Dramatic.

What a disaster.

END POV

Ross and Tav walked back into the inn, the wooden door creaking softly as they entered. With her arms crossed, Tav followed Ross closely behind.

Astarion's eyes fell on Tav, he was starting to get worried about her absence.

His eyes soon followed Ross, the uncertainty in Astarion's eyes felt uncomfortable and threatening for this random man he'd only seen once.

Once at the Waterdeep ball and now again with his wife.

Tch.

And then if Astarion's guard couldn't get any worse -

The scent of Sage wafted past him when Ross took a sit next to Rosaline.

The same scent he had smelled on Tav that night she ran off from their fight.

Astarion flinched involuntarily at the smell as if assaulted by the aroma.

Astarion’s eyes narrowed, fixing a piercing glare on Ross, a clear malice brewing beneath the surface. Sensing the tension in the air, Tav stepped in smoothly, placing her hand over Astarion’s and offering a wry smile.

“Sorry I stepped out I just needed some fresh air,” she remarked casually.

Astarion’s expression softened slightly at Tav’s gesture, though his gaze remained wary as he acknowledged Ross with a curt nod.

“This is my brother, Ross.” Rosaline's tone held a hint of amusement, nudging at him under the table to introduce himself.

Ross gave a daring glare at his sister, "Hello, Ross Bmuarr and uhh - I'm just a simple man with simple pleasures."

"Simple pleasures, indeed." Astarion drank from the glass, his hand sneaking onto Tav's thigh.

He slid his hand onto her upper thigh with a squeeze; painting her face with wide eyes and red cheeks.

The atmosphere in the inn seemed to shift subtly as the group settled into their surroundings, each person silently sizing up the others in their own head.

Ross's eyes traveled to Tav's face, studying the nervous look in her eyes. Those same red cheeks he remembered that night. It made his stomach tingly slightly until Astarion locked eyes with him.

Ah, awkward.

Ross averted his eyes away.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to use the restroom." Rosaline stood up, patting down the curves of her beautiful dress, "Tav, why don't you come with? Let us freshen up." She circled around the table practically pulling Tav up her seat with a mischievous giggle, "Just us girls, hmm?"

With a hesitant glance Tav was sending so many help signals, but it was already too late, Tav was being pulled by Rosaline to follow.

Astarion gave a nod with an amused smile to his dear wife, he knew she didn't want to be dragged away.

And just like that…

The men were alone at the table.

Next part here (coming soon)

Any thoughts? Comment 👇🏼 I love to engage!

the boys are alonneee oh noooo. ASTARION IS CATCHING ON?! yikes. Lemme know your thoughts!

[tweedfrog]

Hater asks-Cat and Sansa (mostly because I know you tend to support them against the stupid criticisms launched their way so I’m curious if there’s something you do dislike about them or their writing)

Cat - show version i hate that stupid monologue they gave her about not being able to love a motherless child shut upppp. Book Cat is harder to think of something for but I hate that Cat got tricked by Baelish into trusting him like logically i know she wouldn't suspect him and hell even I wouldn't suspect him if i were her but oh my god reading her AGOT chapters is painful im screeching DONT TRUST THIS FREAK and she keeps trusting him....pain

Sansa - book & show version I hate that we dont get as much on her relationship with Ned. I actually wish we'd gotten a bit more from Sansas end about her cooler relationship with Ned.

Like I don't think (like some people) that Ned hated Sansa and was like urgh my BITCH FEMININE daughter is bothering me again time to use her as bait to solve a murder mystery. But I do think that he was a classic medieval dad and would have spent far more time with his male children, as Sansa and Aryas care would have primarily fallen to Cat. Now with Arya I think Ned's probably a bit more comfortable because she is a bit more of a tomboy and reminds him of Lyanna as a kid (pre-rhaegar) so there's common interests they can discuss + nostalgia for Kid! Lyanna before everything went pear shaped.

Now Sansa is a different story. She doesn't really have a lot of interests in common with Ned so there isn't much to talk about, As a mother in a medieval society Catelyn would spend way more time with her, and I think Sansas love of songs and pretty things and chivalry maybe reminds Ned of an older Lyanna which subconsciously freak him out.

I think the show did this well with the scene where Ned tries to comfort Sansa by giving her a doll but she's like 14 so she's way too old for those kind of toys and she's resentful that her father doesn't understand that. In the books we only get the line about Arya flouting the rules and Sansa being exasperated that Ned doesn't tell her off.

All this to say that I wish it was stepped out a bit more in the books and it was easier to grasp the disconnect between Ned and Sansa because then it'd be easier to see *why* she goes to Cersei at the end of AGOT and rats out Ned.

Of course this probably would have spawned even worse "Sansa is a villain on par with Euron Greyjoy" discourse so maybe in hindsight it was a blessing.

[greenfiend]

How BttF and Terminator Subtext Told Us How Important Will Is…

And how important Joyce and Hopper are in relation to Will.

Upon first glance, the BttF and Terminator references seen gratuitous and nostalgia bait but- they offer subtext that run a lot deeper than you might think.

First of all, both movies involve time travel and an important mother, father, and son dynamic.

For Back to the Future: Marty (son) travels back in time and tries to make sure his parents (George and Lorraine) get together. He has to really push George to ask Lorraine out. Now, thinking of the flayed Hopper theory- Will does the exact same thing as Marty! While Hopper is flayed by Will- he asks out Will’s mom. Will influenced him to do so!!! Don’t believe me? Well… remember the episode where Murray basically pushes them to have sex? By them I mean… Joyce and flayed Hopper (Will…). That’s the same episode Robin says “I’m pretty sure that mom wanted to bang her son” (her comment is about the movie BttF because Lorraine at one point “has the hots” for her son Marty.) Plus, Hopper refers to Murray as “Freud” (who is known for the Oedipus complex…)

Now for The Terminator references. The Russian man with the appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator first encounters Hopper at Enzo’s where his “date” with Joyce was supposed to be at. It’s very suspicious that he happens to be there. If you’ve seen The Terminator, you’d know that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character’s goal is to kill John Connor (son)’s mother Sarah Connor (mother) before she gives birth to him. Kyle Reese (father) travels back in time to protect Sarah. So, I’m thinking this Russian man had the same goal- targeting Will’s mother, Joyce. Luckily Joyce stood Hopper up for their date and after Hopper and Murray managed to keep Joyce safe the entire time but OH BOY it’s suspicious.

So yeah they’re really pushing this mother, father and son dynamic…

[cryptovalid]

The politics of Operation Zero Tolerance

If you've followed X-men '97, you know that's it's more than competently executed nostalgia-bait. It's a deconstruction of the original ideological framework of the X-men. I'll be riffing off of the way that Operation Zero Tolerance mirrors real world alt-right ideology and where the show might lead this theme. Spoilers ahead up to episode 8. It's a long one.

So the reflections of the January 6th insurrection, Great Replacement conspiracy and stochastic terrorism are pretty spot on. But what do the Prime candidates actually believe?

Mutants are constantly referred to as 'the next step in human evolution'. This frightens some non-mutants, who see themselves being replaced. Their solution is to subjugate mutants.

I want to focus on some of the ways this doesn't make sense first.

1. Evolution doesn't have well defined 'next steps': every new generation is slightly different from the previous, so that over time new traits will emerge and become common, and others will become less widespread. In the comics, this is not why mutants exist: the are the result of alien tampering with human dna: the Celestials implanted the X-gene in some humans. So 'mutants' are demonstrably just a strain of humanity, and the main reason humans have mutant babies is that their own genes are getting expressed in a new way.

2. No amount of control or violence can stop this. The rate at which mutants appear isn't even dependent on their own reproductive success since most mutants have human parents.

We don't know why more and more mutants are being born now, but OZT will not stop this. It's not even their goal. When they say human being are being 'replaced', they actually mean replaced as the ruling class of the planet. Bastion's 'utopia' doesn't have less mutants being born, just used as slave labor.

This really puts the anxiety of OZT into focus: they want to maintain privilege. They aren't really being 'replaced', any more than older generations are always 'replaced' by younger generations. They are primarily afraid that mutants will render them obsolete in the labor market. But if mutants can be forced to do unpaid labor for their benefit, that doesn't threaten them.

The way this parallels the rhetoric of the alt right is striking. Obviously, the reasons why jobs are moving overseas are different: colonized populations are more exploitable by capital. But the fears are the same: my children are different from me, and if I'm not valued for my labor, I will become poor. Like OZT, the alt right also chooses to enact violence even though it won't solve either of these issues. the MAGA-crowd threatens non-conformity and asserts its dominance to maintain its relative privilege over other groups. This is why it's all culture war stuff. The alt right isn't interested in striking to improve conditions for workers, it will attack immigrants and minorities they perceive as competition. Never the bosses that make the hiring decisions. It's scapegoating.

Even child and slave labor are on the table. Because again, this 'economic anxiety' isn't triggered by other people doing the work, just by other people getting money, care and respect that they feel they are owed.

It's not the solution that matters to OZT or the alt right: it's the catharsis of violence and control. It's interesting that OZT actually has a better point: mutants are inherently better at some jobs, some mutants ARE inherently dangerous. Their anxiety is way more warranted.

And I think that is what makes OZT hit so hard as an allegory: it is a steel man version of every bigot's rhetoric, and it is horrifying.

Where might the show take this theme? I don't think the show will end with the X-men fighting Magneto, as that would undermine the show's thematic support for his ideals. Magneto might be defeated, but that will not be the finale. I think the institutional support for OZT will be the closing statement.

The events of episode 8 will be blamed on the X-men. There's just too many ways that a sleeper that Wolverine cut to ribbons can be spun and Bastion has stated multiple times that he understands the optics of martyring mutants. In my opinion this explains how the primes failed to kill a single X-man, even though Trask could take down the whole team.

This twist will (I think) be used to set up the Avengers as the final threat: the X-men try to reason with Magneto, the Avengers attack him, and maybe Xavier erases Magneto's memory as a prelude to Onslaught.

Onslaught can then lead into Heroes Reborn; when Onslaught threatens to kill the Avengers and Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards creates a parallel universe, where they live out their lives in blissfull ignorance of mutants. I believe this could explain why the MCU does not have mutants: it's the Heroes Reborn Universe (The FF could live in a separate universe).

So how to put a button on OZT? I don't think that they will end as a political force (these ideas will remain relevant in the fiction as in the real world). I think the show will obviously set up a fight with Bastion, but the ideological refutation will have to come from Mrs. Da Costa. She is the poster child of an apathetic liberal, who will only support mutants in fashionable ways. If she ends the series giving up her social status to save her son, perhaps even dying, it will thematically reinforce the need for allies to be traitors of their own privilege.

This ties in with my final speculation. This is a weird one and a reach. We have not seen Roberto Da Costa's father. We also don't know where Bastion's father is (who is essentially Nimrod). Is it possible that they are half-brothers? Emmanuel Da Costa is a prominent anti-mutant member of the Hellfire Club, and it's strange he hasn't shown up yet. Honestly, this could possibly explain why Roberto is so light-skinned. Which I do not want to make excuses for otherwise.