#this is the root of my love for the Batman 2022

[itspileofgoodthings]

Will a man ever love and appreciate me as much as the women in my life do? Things I ponder.

[finniestoncrane]

hey i'm here to see a movie in your wee cinema!!

i'd love to see gn!reader sit in the front row with ssktjl!boomer, watching an action movie while eating strawberry ice cream<33 (sorry if the requests are suppose to be more straightforward, i like the lil set up you have and wanted to play along heheh)

also congratulations on 2k followers!! i've been following you since the peak batman 2022 days and you're a writer i always look forward to seeing on my dash. i'd love to be entered into your commission raffle too if that's okay?? thank you for your writing, you're a real treasure<33

ah, thank you bug!! i'm glad we're growing from terrible boy to terrible boy together ;-; and of course!! 💚🩷 cw: blood, injury, hurt/comfort (physical wounds), flirting, drunk george 🔞minors dni🔞 send a request • masterlist • kofi link • tag: finnie2k (to follow or to block)

Usually you wouldn't answer your door in the middle of the night. And you certainly wouldn't answer it to the loud, threatening pounding that had shaken you awake. But as you approached it, nearest solid object in hand as your only weapon, you felt your body relaxing. Outside of the door you could hear George's voice, mumbling.

Drunk. Again. And no doubt making an attempt at a late night 'root' as he often put it.

But when you swung open the door, you found him slumped between two men, beaten, bruised and bloody, and filled with questions which were quickly answered by his reluctant assistants.

"Nah, you were right, he's completely wasted. Didn't stop him trying to fist fight three guys in the parking lot, though. All because they claimed that the Flash was the best one in the Justice League. He never stood a chance."

And when two patrons had decided they couldn't watch him be beat to death, regardless of how much they felt he deserved it, your address was the one he had chosen to give them.

"Great. Well, thanks. I can take him from here."

As they passed him over to you, George smiled, his mouth filled with blood that spilled over his lips as he spoke.

"Ah, see! I knew you'd be good for it, babe!"

With his arm around your shoulder, you practically carried him over to your sofa and let him slump down into it. His eyes were closed over, but he was still grinning, a wide and stupid smile that was irritatingly pulling at your heart strings.

You snapped your fingers in front of his face, calling his name until he opened his eyes and focused, very slowly, on you.

"Hey! Don't fall asleep yet. I need to make sure you're ok, first."

"Cos you like me?"

"Hm. More that I don't want a dead guy on my couch."

He laughed, snorting incredulously.

"Yeah... it's cos you like me."

The moment you began to wipe away the blood on his face, however, he made an attempt to bat you away.

"Oi! Get off, I'll be fine! I think I can take a beating without needing to be looked after, thank you very much."

George stood up from the couch and immediately stumbled over nothing, falling back down with a heavy thud.

"Come on, Harkness. Don't act like you're so tough and brave. I think you've forgotten how many times you've been on this couch in a drunken stupor. Now, stop with the machismo and let me look at you, idiot."

You took his face in your hands, and though he stubbornly wiggled at first, he calmed down as your thumb grazed across his cheekbone, your eyes focused on his as you surveyed the damage, the blooming bruises in the corners that spread to the bridge of his nose.

"You're hands... are so soft..."

He smiled at you, a genuine, gentle grin that you couldn't help but return.

"... I can think of somewhere else that might need some attention from them."

"Aw, come on."

As you stood up and turned from him, hiding your smile, you could hear him groaning.

"What? What was wrong with that? I thought you were going to look after me? Nurse? Nurse! Oi! Get back here for my sponge bath!"

[dg-outlaw]

'The Penguin - Episode 1: After Hours' Review/Thoughts

** Mild Spoilers Ahead **

So I'll start off by saying, I'm not a big fan of mobster/drug lord movies and shows. Same goes for the rich people/corporate shows like Succession or Billions. Basically, if the general premise is; these people are rich and/or powerful, come watch them betray, kill, and/or be assholes to other people and one another to achieve and maintain that wealth or power, and there's likely to be no justice had... then yeah, not for me. If anything, watching Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) was more about catharsis than entertainment for me. IYKYK.

Obviously, I know there's more nuance than that when it comes to many of these shows and movies as there's also outstanding performances and interesting storylines, but something about them reminding me of the injustices and/or corporate greed of the real world just puts me off most of the time. If I'm going to watch media like that then I usually have to be in a certain mood for it or I'm hooked by the characters.

Early previews of The Penguin gave me the same mobster vibe as many crime shows. There will be no heroes, no Batman, and likely no real justice, but being in the Batman and Matt Reeves Bat-verse, I wanted to give it a shot.

Is The Penguin different from other mobster crime shows? Yes and no. No, in that it still has all the mobster show flavor and if it weren't in the Batman world, I'd maybe give it a pass, but because it is Batman and Gotham, then yes, there's enough interesting flavor here to keep me wanting to see what happens next.

If you're not aware, this series takes place soon after the events of Matt Reeves' The Batman (2022). Carmine Falcone is dead, Gotham is still recovering from the flood caused by The Riddler, though it seems the parts of Gotham mostly affected and still in disarray are the lower-income areas, and Batman is... probably napping? IDK, but it'll be interesting to see how Batman gets interwoven into this series or is generally not present.

Colin Farrell returns as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin... or as he's referenced in the series, Oz Cobb, and he's looking to make a name for himself.

Without getting into the details (as there are likely a million legit summary reviews of Episode 1 online now), Oz quickly sets things in motion that starts a series of dominoes falling that may or may not result in his downfall before he even begins his climb to the top of the crime world, and I guess this is where the show finds its intrigue. In my mind, it's very Breaking Bad in the sense that you keep watching just to see what happens next. Will our protagonist get caught and meet a horrible fate or will they actually get away with it and achieve their goals... and at what cost? And why am I rooting for the bad guy? But instead of just fumbling down into the depths of the crime world like Walter White, Oz wants this, he wants to be on top, but the question is, has he bitten off more than he can chew or will he finally take hold of the brass ring?

Ultimately, I think it's the Gotham world and characters that has me wanting to see more and to see how it all plays out. This is not to say that the performances aren't great or the characters aren't intriguing, and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone is definitely scary, even if she's not comically accurate as a some giant mountain of a woman, but again, part of this is knowing the characters from comics and other media depictions. I don't need the full Penguin backstory or to know all about the Falcones and Maronis, the comics and other media have done that setup already, but it does help with investment IMO.

Also, I love the grime of this Gotham and also how it's contrasted with the wealth and cleanliness of other parts of Gotham, especially outside of downtown. The creators understood the assignment for this show and it definitely plays a part when it comes to motivations. This Gotham isn't one note and I'm glad that it doesn't look like some clean set that takes you out of the world and reminds you that you're watching a TV show, like so many streaming shows and movies do nowadays. Yes, there's violence and language and Farrell, once again, disappears into the role of Penguin, but there's also some humor in this show. The humor fits and doesn't feel forced, but it also allows the audience to breathe for a moment and enjoy the experience.

So, I think if you're a Batman fan, you know these characters a little bit, and you want to go into a show that is likely to not have Batman or any other heroes, I say, jump in and enjoy. But if you're not as familiar or are a casual fan, and you're not really into crime/mobster shows, then this might not be for you.

Also, new canon (I think?) that The Penguin is a fan of Dolly Parton or at least has a mix CD of 'Go out there and get it' songs, is so fun. I still HC that Parton's "9 to 5" is a Duke Thomas song he plays every morning before getting ready for patrol, but having that little extra character note for The Penguin was a nice touch and gave a new character, Victor, a little more insight into his new boss.

[whywhywhymoney]

a pretty lengthy ask mostly about miss wayne cause i'm feeling chatty and brave, please take your time and no pressure to answer all of these!! 💜

• which continuity or more specifically, origin story do you prefer for helena wayne?

• i think it's kind of a shame that in the two origin stories i know for hel, selina dies. to be fair, i do understand that later on helena loses all of her loved ones including bruce, but i kinda would've loved to see earth 2 selina still be alive for longer.

• your thoughts on her relationship with karen starr? i love them SO MUCH, platonically and romantically both! i am absolutely rooting for them as a couple, but i also just love seeing them vibe and kick ass together like the dynamic duo they are!!

• what do you think about helena wayne being a lawyer in the golden age era? and do you think if she'd be a lawyer again or even have a dayjob at all in the current storyline? i would understand if she sticks to just being a vigilante, because in the former, helena would often have reservations about her dayjob and felt that she made more of a difference as huntress.

• i think it's really cool how helena has had a lot of mantles at different points, and she was awesome in all of them not to be biased or anything... robin, huntress, batman, batwoman, and famine. i like huntress as a primary identity for her, but it's really interesting and fun to see her in different roles.

• you had asked me about this in the past, but i still would love to hear your thoughts on this: how would you go about crafting a helena wayne and helena bertinelli crossover?

Oh wow, okay this is amazing first of all and second of all THANK YOU, like I don't consider myself an authority at all but I do just love this character sm 💖

Tbh I think the only origin I don't really like is the current 2022 one. It really feels like the writer didn't get that Helena's whole thing is that she DID get to enjoy a childhood free from angst and the way Selina talks to her totally doesn't gel with me. But I think I like the new52 origin a lot, not just because it was my introduction to her but also because it shows both of her parents being present. I know Selina was present in pre crisis but we never really got to see that due to.. death... which leads me to ->

Oh I totally agree. Like on one hand, it's very cool that the daughter of Batman actively chooses to honour both her parents with her mantle, but favouring Selina. It feels like something that wouldn't happen today. I say this all the time but it's true 😭. But, especially in new52, it feels really unnecessary for Selina to be the one that dies first when Helena loses everyone anyway. I don't think this is particularly sexist- maybe so in the 70s - but atp it feels like writers see this as an Uncle Ben moment for Helena. I guess 2022 Helena gets points for imagination for not doing that but I have issues with it lol.

THEY ARE THE ____ EVER. I'm not a huge shipper unless a dynamic really breaks my mind, but I'm a big big found family/friendship stan and I LOOOOVE these two and how their friendship literally transcends time and space. I think Worlds' Finest was really great for showing how close they are and how they balance each other out, especially how they both had moments where one was down and the other picks them up. Also a side note - I LOVE the small detail in Worlds' Finest for Helena and Karen, and when the comic switches to Batman and Superman, the apostrophe moves so it's World's Finest. Huntress and Power Girl, the Finest on MULTIPLE worlds, suck on that Bruce.

I also truly love Helena being a lawyer because it would have been so easy for that to just not be a thing. Instead we're told she graduated a year early in a difficult degree and is flying in her career by 25. I think how I would change it though is to have Helena work in a DA office rather than commercial law, and I think she totally would start feeling that disillusionment with law, especially when criminals get off or kids go down for minor crimes disproportionately. She would definitely go through a period of sticking with being the Huntress but then something would come up where after the direct action is taken, who was there to make sure justice was served? I think that would then motivate her to pivot to public interest law, which I think makes her feel like she's finally making a difference. I definitely have a rough outline for Helena being a lawyer in this day and age but ooh who knows when I'll write it properly.

Running outta space so to skip to the last qs (I might ramble on 😭) - how I would do this crossover is fairly inspired by new52 Helena and post crisis Bertinelli. She crosses over to this Earth when she's only 15, and as resourceful as her and Karen are, they're both still kids. I do think she avoids Gotham like the plague, and is actually unaware of Hel B (let's be a little realistic, most vigilantes don't get high profile, and I think Hel B prefers it that way). I'd say this is probably around the time that the Relentless arc is happening and the Birds of Prey are established by now. Oracle picks up some weird interference from Wayne Enterprises and gets Hel B to check it out. Meanwhile Hel W is inside stealing a shit ton of money thinking "damn this was kinda fun. I'm understanding mom on a deeper lev-" *glass shatters*. I think the funniest thing that could happen at this point is Hel B to ignore the outward similarities they have and focus on why tf this girl looks like Selina Kyle but with Bruce Wayne's eyes, and then when Hel W stands up to her full height something clicks for Hel B and she kinda goes tongue in cheek, "What are you, the secret lovechild of Batman and Catwoman?" And Hel W considers this for 2 seconds and thinks, what's the worst that could happen? And goes "Yeh". And they both just stare at each other for a while. Hel B is probably thinking, 'shit, first time I try to joke with a suspect and this is what I get? This is why I shoot first' and Hel W is probably thinking 'if I shoot her first and leave with no witnesses nobody will believe her'. Hel B notices her mannerisms and wtf. She's legit frowning just like Batman does. This is officially too weird for her and she's not abt to become part of some weird custody dispute so she nopes out of there and tells Oracle it was a domestic disturbance, which Babs also accepts easily bc like... yeah any of the batboys would probably break into WE if they felt like it. For the longest freaking time Hel B is convinced that Hel W is just an open secret every one knows about, meanwhile Hel W was seriously confused but grateful and begins to seek out Hel B for help during cases of her expertise (the mafia). She also takes the opportunity to mess with the rest of the batfam during her short stays in Gotham. I'm not sure how the rest of this would pan out but I'm so on board with Hel B randomly acknowledging Hel W and everyone's like wtf is she talking abt. Things that are so funny to me

[just-about-nothing]

it’s two am and i am not sleeping again. so. casting for birds of prey: comics version

oracle played by margo gignac. this was a mega difficult decision bc i wanted barbara to be played by someone who was an actual wheelchair user + someone who looks like she could scold batman into submission. gignac fits that best i can do. i also think she has great hacking hands. i read gignac was a black belt somewhere & i think that’s great for someone playing babs too

black canary played by lindsay watson. it’s wig time babey! i specifically wanted to pick a dark haired actress because, even though dinah’s dying her hair by the time bop rolls around, i don’t forget her roots (pun totally intended). i wanted to pick someone who looked like she could kick an army’s ass and then scoop up a child & call them sister. watson fits the bill nicely. i think she has a kind face and her interviews speak to so much determination and willpower, which is the energy i want brought to dinah.

huntress played by tea falco. she’s an italian actress from sicily (like helena! who was born in the us but raised in sicily) who just has this look to her i really love, especially for bop huntress. she seems fun and beautiful and like a good teacher. i don't have a lot to say here, really. i looked at her face and went yeah that's huntress

lady blackhawk played by america ferrera. i think about zinda having a beer while huntress & canary destroy the bar & zinda walks away w the info theyre looking for. big america ferrera vibes. also i love the idea of lady blackhawk being played by an actress named america. also zinda’s hot & america ferrera’s hot i have no other notes here.

lady shiva played by lucy liu. this is the inspiration for this post and also my personal sapphic fantasy ngl. (liu is beautiful of course and i have the fattest crush on shiva lol)

right. boy time!

nightwing played by paul eryk atlas. my understanding is that atlas is a romani british actor. he's primarily played romantic leads and def looks it. i like him for nightwing bc that's basically dick's role in bop. he serves to be barbara's on again off again bf. also atlas has long hair and i'm a long hair dick supremacist (now. wigs do exist but dude got LUUUSHHH hair). (runner up: jan cina, who's just a little too ectomorphic for nightwing for my tastes. sorry dude)

ted kord played by robert buckely. i got nothing to say. buckely has a nice smile and is otherwise a white dude w brown hair. which is also what ted is. so. between a kord played by buckely and oracle played by gignac, oracle remains the powerhouse. as it should be.

robin (tim drake) played by jay lycurgo. was titans supposed to be awful? yes. did i see lycurgo get cast and go DAMN THAT'S TIM. yes. he has that look in his face. that's all. also i saw him in the bastard child devil show on netflix and he gave off THEE BIGGEST tim drake energy there. i was very impressed. (runner up: david mazouz just for the lols).

batman played by robert pattinson. sue me i liked the batman 2022. no notes.

[mouseratz]

excuse me. time for a comic nerd post.

"do you think space ghost could work as an unironic superhero" anything is possible. I'd say dynamite's current attempt isn't looking fantastic from the previews/summaries, but I also would say superheroes, as a genre, have been known to do a lot more with a lot less than what this series has. "it's stupid" isn't enough of a roadblock to actually be a problem. the way I see it, the two major problems have very little to do with Coast to Coast & it's legacy (the biggest superheroes have been parodied successfully many, many times over and yet still managed to Do Both, so to speak- Lego Batman is beloved by fans and didn't keep The Batman 2022 from coming out, y'know, although our friend is far from Batman, superheroes as a genre have long had to exist alongside parody and done just fine is my point):

1. in an effort to escape coast to coast, I imagine all creatives will be tempted by the horrible spectre that infects all superhero stories at one time or another in a post-TDKR world: the need for gritty dark angsty troubled superheroes. this will not help anything, and will not appeal to many fans; it will off-put people coming from sgc2c AND fail to stand out from a sea of pre-existing angsty sci-fi superhero stories, but many will be convinced it's the only possible way for anyone to take the series remotely seriously.

2. space ghost, as a series, seems like it was pretty memorable to its original childhood audience. however, the reason parody has overshadowed it, is that the main character.....doesn't appear to have a lot of character to speak of. can you tell me a single character trait? he's just a guy in space doing 'good' things. ('good' in quotation marks, but that was just kind of par for the course for this era. they had heroes doing any damn thing.) the things, to me, that appear to be cherished is that distinctive 60s sci-fi flavor that permeated the world & villains, since I don't think plot seems to be discussed too widely.

....and y'know I do kind of get that. I really love 60s fantastic four & the 1966 batman show (although the latter already emerged with some purposeful comedic elements and stylization, itself referencing the Very Old Batman stories and becoming more popular than what came before).

my point being, space ghost himself from his core roots is kind of serving a nothingburger. this could be changed with someone with a very strong vision, but I imagine we won't get that. see point 1- we will be getting Generic Troubled Superhero Guy (In Space), which we already have a million of. that's why it's gonna suck. not bc it's not trying to be "funny" or it's impossible to coexist with parody versions, but because it's just another grab at nostalgia from the 60s era of superheroes that probably won't try to be any fun. are they gonna put the saucer crab in the Dynamite comic? that's the real question.

[bogwitchmediaconsumption]

hi ok been EVEN more months haha oopsies

ok i kinda didn't know what to put on this blog because i started getting way too obsessed with superheroes and stopped consuming as much dw(i still love it but like... superheroes are so COOL) so i thought that in order to keep this thing updated, i'd just expand my horizons by porting over my big media watch/read/play/listen list! this is gonna be a massive post of everything so far, and then new updates will be new pieces of media! everything listed in order(and some brief thoughts)

Batman: The Court of Owls - Snyder/Capullo (Great!) Batman: The Court of Owls Vol 2/The City of Owls - Snyder/Capullo (Alright...)

Batman: The Night of Owls - Snyder/Capullo (Meh, but I had incorrect expectations)

Inscryption(Fucking phenomenal, play this bizarre ass game)

Doctor Who Series 2(Very good!)

Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare, a reading (Loved this one)

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The Original Show (yeah this was a fixation for a while too)

Undertale (really good, but not as loved for me as others)

Julius Caesar, a reading - Shakespeare (Good one Billy)

Donmar Warehouse Production of Julius Caesar (go women go)

A Page of Madness - 1926 Movie (makes no sense but hell yeah)

Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages (God this game frustrated me so much)

As You Like It, a reading - Shakespeare (I think I remember which play this is)

Howl, and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg (Liked this one! Howl is the strongest by a lot though)

Lunch Poems - Frank O'Hara (Very cool!)

Rewatch of Over The Garden Wall (god this show is so fucking incredible)

Everything Everywhere All At Once - 2022 Movie (my movie of the year so far, it's beautiful)

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop - 2021 Movie (Cute! but it's not much more than that)

Cat Soup - 2003 Short Film (Awesome but also What the Fuck?)

Swamp Thing Vol. 1: The Root of All Evil - Millar/Hester/Morrison

Cat Soup Rewatch (Had to share with a friend)

Bee and Puppycat Season 1 (Adorable!! so lovely and cute)

Everything Everywhere All At Once Rewatch (had to get a friend to see it for the first time)

Bee and Puppycat Season 1 Rewatch (Ok don't judge me)

The Residents: Triple Trouble - 2022 Movie (idk how to start with this one)

Watchmen - Moore/Gibbons (got some nitpick gripes with the ending: but it's fucking brilliant)

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (Really good! Better ending than the show)

Leonor - 1975 Movie (nothing quite like a theatre yelling "jump off the bridge")

Smiling Friends Season 1 (I knew a lot of the jokes going it, but it's still gutbusting)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (get his ass Gawain, or get yours got, I guess)

Bless The Daughter Raised by A Voice in Her Head - Warsan Shire (a couple really standout poems in a mostly just ok volume. if this one comes across as harsh, i had to analyze this for 3+ weeks for class)

Adventure Time Season 1 (it's my roommate's favorite show, i'd never seen it)

Doctor Who: The Heralds of Destruction - Cornell/Jones (it's good, with material that does hold, but it's not any spectacular)

Batman & Robin - 1997 Movie (Awful, but also not that)

Super Mario Bros - 1993 Movie (This shit slaps, idc what anyone else says)

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Volumes 1-3 - Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (It's good on it's own, but it's especially interesting as an adaptation of the show)

JLA: Earth 2 - Morrison/Quitely (I really like it, but also wish it was longer)

Adventure Time Season 2(still cute!)

The Amazing Spider-Man: Edge of Spider-Verse - lotsa people (They're mostly fine Spider introductions with the man-spider guy one being notably bad and Peni's being notably good)

Adventure Time Season 3 (fun, I started getting really into the show at this point)

Adventure Time Season 4 (fun, still ramping on excitement)

Adventure Time Season 5 (good, but maybe my least favorite season. just a lot of sadder episodes in this one)

Fahrenheit 451 - 2018 Film (it sucks. also they should've been gay. but what do I know)

Ariel - Sylvia Plath (yeah ok cut out my heart why don't you)

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask - Akira Himekawa (very fun interpretation of the story! but i wish it was a bit longer)

Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons (I like this one more than ages, but not by much)

Scott Pilgrim Comic Reread, All 6 Volumes - Bryan Lee O'Malley (I still love it and find a LOAD in it, despite it's occasional drastically poor choice in language or implication

Le Mani Sulla Citta - 1963 Film (god i could watch italian guys argue all day) watched between Scott Pilgrim Volumes 1 and 2 but I wanted to keep it neat

Adventure Time Season 6(maybe my favorite season? either this one or season 7)

Dracula Ballet - Milwaukee Ballet Company (Good show! read the book first or it won't make a lick of sense)

Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow - Toranosuke Shimada (very very cool, super interesting almost a little martian chronicles esque)

Murder On The Orient Express - 2017 Film (very fun and interesting movie to watch: should be noted i've never read the book)

Adventure Time Season 7 (on rereading episode lists, this one is probably my easy favorite. so many good ones)

Pokemon Blue (i was trying to do a generationlocke, you see)

Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy - Ken Niimura (really really good, the art is especially great in this one)

Pokemon Crystal (see?)

Pokemon Emerald (SEE???)

Adventure Time Season 8 (Great, but the beginning of a slight downward trend in my enjoyment of the show. it becomes more plot focused than character focused here, and that did make it a bit less fun. still great though)

Loveless - Alice Oseman (I love a lot of her books, and I love this one too! but for some reason it just doesn't strike me as fully satisfying and i don't know why)

Pokemon Firered Omega (SEE???? also i wanted to add romhacks to make it harder)

Adventure Time Season 9 (some really good character moments, but it is even more plot focused here)

Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse - 2018 Film (holy fuck this movie is incredible, maybe just as loved as EEAAO?)

The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman (really good! art is great, and the metanarrative is super interesting)

Pokemon Blue (I died)

Time Guardian Volume 1 - Kishi/Ichinose (it's fun, but nothing really beyond that)

Pokemon Blue (guess who died again)

Adventure Time Season 10 (finally did it! the most plot focused of the last seasons, and thus it's maybe the least memorable to me. still really good though)

Spiderman: Across The Spider-Verse - 2023 Movie (it's great, but not quite as good as the first because it doesn't stand-alone. chock full of the best visuals, voicing, and story of the year though)

Pokemon Crystal (ok....)

Pokemon Emerald (uh huh......)

Ghost in the Shell - 1995 Film (Really weird and interesting and pretty! I liked it)

Knives Out - 2019 Film (it's very good, especially because of the family banter and performances. without it's cast it would probably not be so great. though the plotting does come together in the end for me)

The Spectacular Spider-Man Season 1 (oh my GOD this show is so good)

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (it's good, but I really love to see the detective/criminal battle of wits in mystery/detective movies and that's really not what this movie is)

Snow, Glass, Apples - Gaiman/Doran (interesting take of a fairy tale!)

Punisher 2099 #1 (it's ok)

Punisher 2099 #2 (it's also ok, neither here nor there)

Batman: Fear State - Tynion IV/Jimenez (I do like it, but i wish it placed more character moments front and center. it also tries to juggle SO many damn characters, and a lot of them just feel like cameos)

Shin Godzilla - 2016 Film (you can TELL that the evangelion team worked on this, it rocks. also the movie is very good)

A Field In England - 2013 Film (it's interesting, and weird, but maybe not anything special quality wise)

The Mexican Night - Lawrence Ferlinghetti (spongebob screaming meme I LOVE READING JOURNALS. I LOVE HEARING NOTHING BUT YOUR THOUGHTS AS YOU GO ABOUT YOUR DAY)

Vern, Custodian of the Universe - Tyrell Waiters (it's cool, and the visuals are great, but the plot is not especially good and it starts to lose what makes it interesting later on)

Barbie - 2023 Film (hilarious, incredible)

Beowulf Graphic Novel - Petrucha/Chamberlain (an interesting take on Beowulf, the art is great![no, i don't know how many times i'm gonna keep saying it either])

Bloom - Panetta/Ganucheau (it's cute and good, but it doesn't go into enough detail or character depth to stick with me)

Inferno - Hickman/Caselli (it's like. alright. it's mostly a political thriller, which is not what i was hoping for when i got it at the library. that's one thing, but i also don't think it's an especially good political thriller. I also don't think it knows where it's going really. i still don't know where it was going and i read the ending and everything.)

Pokemon Blue(it had to all come crashing down eventually, right?)

Cucumber Quest: The Doughnut Kingdom - Gigi D.G. (it's cute and charming! not a lot here beyond that)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - 1954 Movie (it's engaging and interesting, but i'm not sure what to think critically. good? bad? i kinda don't know. also it's disney in the 50's, there's some gratuitous racism)

Porco Rosso - 1992 Film (the whole "oooh fio likes porco" thing makes me a little uncomfy, but besides that the movie is BALLER. go porco go)

The Golem: How He Came Into The World - 1920 Film (it's interesting, but it's not as enjoyable as stuff like Caligari or Page of Madness)

Superman: For All Seasons - Loeb/Sale (oh my GOD this rocks. so good, so down to earth, so enjoyable. i love this)

All-Star Superman - Morrison/Quitely (I really like this a lot, but I do feel it kinda is off base with what's appealing about Superman to me. it takes Superman and really spins him as a mythical god level figure, to the point where Lois refuses to believe he's Clark and... what the story is is very good. but Superman being regular ol' Clark at the end of the day is what makes him so wonderful to me. This is absolutely a Superman that pretends to be Clark Kent. feel like that's a big distinction. lex's characterization is PHENOMENAL though, SO good.)

And now... my most recent watch............

yeah ok it's more superman

My Adventures with Superman Season 1 (it's phenomenal. like spectacular spider-man levels of good. The voicing, animation, designs, writing, it's ALL here. the overarching plot is also particularly capturing in this show, which sometimes fails to be the case for some superhero shows! i will say that i start to dislike SOME elements of the overarching plot introduced in Ep. 7 and beyond, but they don't diminish my love of this show very much at all. cannot WAIT for season 2 foaming at the mouth, chomping, zinging around my room etc)

alright! so that just took me like an hour and a half. but that kinda stuff is what i think i wanna do with this blog for now! so if that's your cup of tea keep hanging around! and if it's not... well there's always a chance i decide to change it again so idk your call.

[felicitykings]

my bestie @holly-mckenzie tagged me to post 8 shows to get to know me. 

tagging: @justabritishmusicallover , @gothamstreetcat, @brvceselina, @apple-grass-and-smiles, @sonyarebecchi, @kaz-breker, @jennortegas, @mike-el , @gaffney, and @charlieconwayy

(please note: this is in no particular order)

stranger things (2016-) - i’ve been obsessed with this show since the start really, there’s just something about it, particularly those first two seasons, that just keeps me coming back. there’s fun characters that i enjoy watching and it has an awesome soundtrack!

gotham (2014-2019) - truthfully this was the first piece of media that really connected me to batman and that world. i’d seen movies before but i never felt connected to the character. but something about watching this kid grow up and earn the cowl, especially with all the choices he made that eventually led to him becoming batman had me rooting for him. and honestly, every single cast member on this show is so perfectly cast - particularly RLT as oswald. they’re the gold standard for me now. and i loved how everything fit together in this retelling.

primeval (2007-2011) this show has always been that show that has felt like mine, you know? i have so many fond memories of watching this growing up and it has always stuck with me without it ever being repeated on tv or having a large fanbase that regularly makes content long after the show is over. no, the show has just always stayed with me all through its own merit of having lovable characters and a really great storyline that i will always be upset was never allowed to be completed.

dark (2017-2020) - admittedly, i was super late to this party having only watched it earlier this year but WOW what a show. i think i can honestly say that this may be the best written and conceived show of all time - certainly of the shows i’ve watched. i have literally no complaints about it. the fact that most, if not all, the story seems to have been planned from the beginning is obvious with the number of twists and turns and strong character development/story arcs and it just makes it all the better when you can rewatch and spot even more each time. this show is incredible! i really can’t say enough about it and if i keep going here, i’ll never stop.

stargirl (2020-2022) - stargirl my beloved you were taken from me far too soon. i’ll be honest and say that i wasn’t expecting to love this show as much as i do when i decided to give it a shot. but it was so utterly charming with truly likeable characters - whether they’re heroes or villains - that you can genuinely enjoy watching. and it has a strangely nostalgic feel/tone despite its modern day setting that just adds to its likeability. 

rtd era! whoniverse (2005-2011) - this is probably cheating but just including doctor who in general felt wrong when it is this era (main show and spinoffs) that i cherish the most and i couldn’t include one without the others. maybe its the nostalgia idk but this was when the series felt the most grounded to me and despite its issues i still adore it as an era of this show’s history. the shows worked great side by side, targeting different audiences, with characters that felt real. in the case of the main show, you really felt that the companions were real people, with real lives who were plucked out of them to go travel with the doctor and it really dealt with the consequences of that which has been seriously lacking in recent years. for torchwood, the characters were allowed to be messy, truly truly messy and just plain human. they made mistakes, there wasn’t always some magical fix for them, they were on earth with limited resources just doing the best they can and sometimes it might not be the ‘right way’ but they still try and it’s beautiful. for sja, they’re just kids but they’re still real kids and they were never treated as less than their adult counterparts, they were given room to grow but never in a way that seemed patronising. there’s a magic in this specific era that i will love my whole life.

roswell (1999-2002) - i’ve always adored the balance that this show managed to get between the typical early 00s teen drama side and the sci-fi/fantasty elements. while in a lot of teen sci-fi fantasy shows these days focus on that rather than character dynamics/growth, this one really excelled at giving each character a compelling arc throughout the show, while developing a strong individual dynamic between every possible pairing of its main cast which is amazing compared to some of its contemporaries where there’s always characters who never interact outside the group setting. as such, you really get to see why these characters are putting themselves on the line for each other time and time again. they’re really a family and it’s shown consistently through the show (rather than characters just saying it without any development or actions to back it up) and it’s incredibly endearing.

the originals (2013-2018) - what can i say? i love this disfunctional “frankenstein family”. the show has its ups and downs but they’re all a mess and i love them. how many times can a group of people stab each other in the back? plenty and i truly love every second of it. morally grey characters / villain protagonists and such an interesting concept because there are barely any “good” guys to root for, it’s just a case of season by season, and sometimes episode by episode, deciding which ones are right this time, if any of them are.

other faves include:

pennyworth

all creatures great and small (2020-)

1899

swamp thing

the tracy beaker franchise

waterloo road (2006-2015)

sense8

get even

on my block

nowhere boys

we are lady parts

wolfblood

one of us is lying

teen wolf (specifically s1-4)

[selkymaiden]

so sorry again for the double ask but i feel inclined to ask for my other wife, mina.

how would mina’s relationship with each of the 🧩❓s that exist be like? who do you think she’d get on with like a house on fire 😏

Don't ever be sorry!!! Tbh they're good exercises to really think about these little idiots. Naomi you really be hittin' the good good 👌👨‍🍳 *chef's kiss*

Alright but let me say this is very hard because 🧩❓ is so... Ofc very vastly intelligent and I am not. LMAO. So it's like the author (me) is creating a character (Mina) who is very smart, or brilliant in her own way so I have to do my best in not making her look bad. Like fuck. All because I'm committed to the bit. Aka romancing fucking uhhhh puzzle face.

Because I have actually thought about the different iterations of him!

But oh my god It's so hard with comic book characters though, since theirs so many different ones. And in no way am I a 🧩❓ expert flakjwer same with 🐧 so I'm always worried what if someone see's this and they're all 🤬 but then I tell myself I'm old and I simply should not care and do what I want. Because all the rest of the old people do 😂😂😂😂

I'll start with BTAS though, as always, since I grew up with it! Oh! And I will say each Mina in each universe is for that universe, or she'd be changed a little to fit that 'Earth' as DC likes to call it. But BTAS 🧩❓ is a lot more tame, at least I think he is, compared to some of the others out there. I mean did he try to murder his old boss? Yes. But his old boss did fire him and not give him credit for everything he created so... You know... And if I pull in some of the uhhh New Animated Series and comics that go with this version of him. I think it could work. There's actually a great piece in the comics where 🧩❓ he admits he has a problem and states he needs to go back to Arkham himself. Here is an audio someone made of it, the post also has a link to the comic if you wanna read it! But it's just the self awareness and you know stop setting deathtraps Mina is obv going to be all 👀😊 Like you did it, baby! You're breaking the cycle! Because she wants to root for him and care for him and be partners! I'm so sorry I will just also say she is so cheesy! She'd love to be partners or rivals with another detective- As much as she sees the good she's doing in finding you know a missing person or helping someone out with a cheating scandal (for money) she wants to be better than anyone else that might be doing the case. So she kind of sees her job as a game and would love to have someone else to play the game with, and that to her is 🧩❓

Okay, let me just get Batman: Zero Year or Capullo 🧩❓ out of the way. It would never work. LMAO. Not in probably a million years. I myself like this version of him! But what he did is the most whack-ass shit and Mina would NOT be okay with it like ever. If he ever got out of Arkham Asylum she'd probably narc on him point blank, like lock that MF back up. I don't know if you've read Zero Year (is it part of N52? I don't know the new stuff sorry flkajwer) but he basically turned all of Gotham into an entire fucking jungle, like he destroyed everything and fucking ruined millions of lives. All for what? For what? Because only the smart should survive and shit like that??? Now if they met before he did all that when he was just a 'consultant' or strategist at Wayne Enterprises, she'd probably bang him! But it would not be a relationship and after he does what he does she'd just be... Kill this mf even if he's sexy in some insane manner. She'd probably be an antagonist to him on this Earth.

Batman 2022 ehhhhhhhhhh Imma be real, I almost barely remember him when I watched that movie. It's like my brain blocked him cuz I thought he was... I don't know. It was too realistic and I see 🧩❓more camp. But Mina in that universe again would just be 'Let's swat this man.' She'd probably be the person on his forums just heckling him and when he tries to find her IP or ANYTHING on this user (her) he can't. So it pisses him off. Basically, it would not work because she does not care for incel men. That's probably what she'd see him as. Or those people that worship or are fascinated and collect serial killer items. The only saving grace is if he had, again, self-awareness of what he was doing or acting. Because Mina in that universe would understand to change things... A lot of people in power would need to be taken out. Whether by assassination or some other means like spilling the truth. But the way he goes about it, it's just not it for her. Again she'd probably be an antagonist to him actually in that Earth.

THIS IS SO LONG ALREADY I'M SO SORRY!

UMMMMMMM SPEED RUN OTHERS!?

Young Justice - I think it would work because he's so... That version of him is so soft and goofy! Mina would probably, not be okay, but would defiantly harp on him to change professions but she wouldn't impede in what he does. Even if it's bad. Like super bad where the young justice league has taken him in before. She'd be a bystander and just the one that says: "I told you so." She's waiting for him to learn his lesson cuz how he's written is much lighter and she'd be smitten by his gappy teeth and lisp.

OH and Gotham!🧩❓ That would be interesting bc she'd probably have to watch out since 🐧 literally killed one of Ed's girlfriends. But if birb is occupied with snake then... Maybe? Again she'd be like 'lol you gotta stop killing people dude uhhhh' and would more likely want to be a rival or just outsmart him than be romantic. At first. I'm sure she'd get a crush but how Ed has been written after (accidentally) killing his first GF he's uhhhh a lil unhinged. As that whole show is but lakfjwerkl

There's like telltale!🧩❓, unburied, and uhhh omg just a lot of others and I'll be honest in most of those Earths she'd be an antagonist. She's not GCPD or a cop, but she is someone who's defiantly done cases and probably found out they were victims of his death traps. And she's just like 'wtf no!' and not be okay with it. Even if she's a bit of a hypocrite and is okay with other... murders... (her friend Sophie turning people to stone lfkajwer) But there's a line!

I saved the best for last because I love Akrham! 🧩❓ I have the most ideas for them. Well, several. Like there's a good ending and a bad ending just like a game, cuz it's fun! I will just say bad ending is probably the most likely that would happen, but bad ending is just them killing each other. And in the most mundane way, or annoying way he'd see it as. Because it would not be some elaborate death trap or puzzle that does him in, or just something complex. She shoots him. They might even shoot each other. And bleed out next to each other, very possession 1981 is how I picture it. tw blood and gore if you click links alfkjwelrk (I'm sorry I'm unwell 😔) It would be in a cool setting though! Probably in one of his lairs, or he's constructing a new death trap for Batman or even Wonder City! But good ending is always him eventually becoming a Detective, like other versions of him, so in a way, he does become redeemable. I mean originally this version of him started off working at the GCPD and wanting to expose the corruption in Gotham, he just went about it all... Bad. LMAO. Also, I love how the progression through the games you see how he goes from clean-cut to just total ratification. When Mina begins talking to him she's only seen photos of him, so when he worked GCPD and when he's in his nice green suits! but when they do get to meet in person PHEW she takes one look at his pathetic, skin and bones, wet little dumbass and is just 'I need to care for him' but also be mad bc you know he's annoying AF.

[batmanlovesnirvana]

Chapter six | cold truth & cigarettes.

masterlist

universe : reeves, the batman 2022

pairing : battinson!bruce wayne x fem!OC

words : +3K

author's note : This chapter is personal and touches on some political themes. It was originally meant to be 10k words, but I decided to post the first half on its own since it feels really important. I hope you'll stick with it until the end and share your thoughts. We dive deeper into Maryam's past and her traumas, and I'd love to know if you enjoyed it! Feel free to reblog and comment—your feedback really motivates me to keep writing. English isn't my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes in advance xx

cw : Maryam having an emotional existential crisis (part 2), political themes, mention of wars, 18+, thriller, medical procedures, angst, mental health issues, depression, ptsd, noire, canon-typical violence, POV alternating, gritty, horror, illness, slow burn, action, fluff, mutual pining, forced proximity, crime families, crime, fighting ect… read at your own risk

SHE HAD SWORN she would stop smoking. Promised herself, really. 

But the urge was too familiar, too persistent and promises made in the quiet of her mind always crumbled in the noise of reality. With a sigh, Maryam fumbled through her pocket, feeling the familiar shape of the cigarette pack. She pulled one out, placing it between her teeth, cursing softly as her fingers scrambled to find a lighter in the depths of her bag. 

She remained rooted to the spot where the Bat—or was it the drifter?—had left her, the faint echo of his departure lingering in the cold air.

The flicker of the flame caught the cigarette, and she took a deep drag, feeling the burn in her chest.

A voice broke through the silence behind her. "Boyfriend?"

She turned slightly, hazel eyes landing on a homeless man curled up on a worn mat, his face barely visible beneath the grime of the streets.

Maryam exhaled slowly, the smoke unfurling from her lips before she coughed. "Uh—what? No," she muttered, pulling the cigarette away, trying to collect herself, to straighten her thoughts along with her posture.

The man chuckled then coughed, a low, gravelly sound. "My bad then."

She took another drag, staring at the ground, fixating on a piece of gum stuck to the pavement. "Why'd you think that?" she asked, trying to sound indifferent, crossing her arms as she tapped ash from the cigarette.

He clacked his yellowing teeth together, his grin crooked. "The way you looked at him, I guess."

Maryam huffed, smoke swirling around her. "Looked at him how?"

"Like he could save you," the man said, his voice softened by the cold night air.

Her jaw tightened, irritation flaring. "Yeah, well... I don't need saving."

"Sure, sure," he replied, pulling a threadbare blanket tighter around himself. "People like you... don't need nobody, huh?"

His words hit her like a cold slap, it lingered in the air, mingling with the smoke. 

Maryam's eyes drifted to him, and after a long minute, she noticed his clothes—old, worn, but unmistakable. 

Veteran. 

The sight made her stomach tighten.

She fucking hated US veterans. Hated everything they symbolized. 

When she was younger, she'd seen the videos—those staged reunions where soldiers came back, surprising their children with hugs and tears. It happened all the time at her school, too. Soldiers, returning from some war she couldn't even place, cheered like heroes. 

But what had they really come back from? Murdering Middle Eastern children? Destroying families? Cities? Entire Countries? They weren't heroes in her eyes—just puppets in some propaganda machine, painted with a patriotic brush.

"You're a soldier," she said absently, the words tasting bitter as she blew out another puff of smoke.

"Yes, miss" hesitant he added." Iraq." His voice was low, almost careful.

Her body went rigid. The cigarette wavered in her hand. "Oh." She looked anywhere but at him. 

Once again, silence enveloped the space, thick and unspoken, as she fought to suppress the anger tightening her chest. It was a silence as cold as ice, unforgiving as a winter wind, suffocating in its weight.

Every breath dragged, bitter with words she couldn’t say and memories that cut deep.

The silence pressed in, forcing her to face wounds still raw and the injustices clawing just beneath her skin.

"How lovely." she says sarcasticly-- scratch that harshly. 

His bloodshot eyes looked anywhere but her, as if he was ashamed. "You don't seem--"

Before he could say another word, her patience snapped. “My uncle was Iraqi,” she bit out, her eyes sharp enough to kill. “Mohamed Rajab,” she added, almost to herself, the name barely a whisper as her gaze drifted, leaving the words heavy in the air.

His name felt almost foreign, the syllables heavy on her tongue, a relic of a past she could barely grasp. It had been years since she last spoke it aloud, and now it emerged as if from the depths of a grave—another ghost haunting her sorrow and grief. Each utterance was like a whisper from a forgotten time, bringing with it a rush of memories tinged with both warmth and despair.

The man shifted slightly on his mat, but said nothing, just watching her through tired eyes.

Maryam's mind drifted back, further into memories she rarely allowed herself to visit.

Aunt Jamila's husband. 

He had been in Iraq when the invasion began, a last-minute decision to return and bury his mother, unaware that fate would trap him in a storm of chaos and war.

Caught in the storm of chaos and war, his gentle soul trapped beneath the weight of bombs that fell from skies blackened by imperial greed.

Her sweet uncle had died there, under the bombs of imperialism, crushed by the same hands that wrapped themselves around countries, tearing them apart for power, for oil, for nothing at all. His life extinguished in an instant, another casualty in a conflict that cared little for the human cost.

His memory felt so distant now, like an echo from another lifetime, fading with each passing day. She could barely picture his face anymore, but she could still recall the way he always carried Turkish candies in his pockets—those delightful little treats with a gooey liquid center that melted in your mouth. They were her favorites. He would pull them out with a smile, passing them to the neighborhood children with a wink, even when times were hard. He had owned a modest market, a small shop that was the heart of their community, and somehow, it was enough.

Life had felt rich and full.

But then, the invasion happened. When the first bombs fell, he had still been in Iraq, still burying his mother, caught in the chaos with no way out.

They had clung to hope, waiting for him to return, believing against all odds that somehow he would make it back to them. But hope dwindled with each passing day, and the stark reality settled in.

He never made it back.

—In fact, none of his family made it out. All decimated. Dust.

She vividly recalled the day they received the news. How Aunt Jamila had screamed, collapsing in the kitchen, her wails piercing the air like shards of glass, as if her very soul had been ripped from her body.

Aunt Meysa had rushed to comfort her, cradling the pregnant woman as best she could, while her own heart shattered in the chaos.

Uncle Fawzi stood frozen by the window, his expression blank, eyes gazing into a world that had suddenly lost all meaning. The silence in the room felt suffocating, heavy with despair.

She had felt so small, so powerless, standing in the doorway, a mere shadow watching her family break apart yet again under the weight of another curse, another war that had ensnared them as if they were trapped in a nightmare with no escape.

It shattered Aunt Jamila. Destroyed her in ways Maryam could never fully comprehend.

Just months away from welcoming her first child, her aunt had been filled with hope despite the growing unrest. But the news of Mohamed's death, along with the obliteration of his entire family, became an unbearable burden. Soon after, she lost the baby, her first and last child, snuffed out before it ever had a chance to take a breath, a ghost that would never exist.

Maryam remembered how Aunt Meysa had told her there wasn't even a body to bury—only fragments, pieces of him scattered beneath the rubble, indistinguishable from the wreckage of their lives. The bombing had torn through their home, their neighborhood, leaving behind only silence and ash, memories mingled with dust.

But the worst part wasn't just the loss; it was the haunting loneliness that followed, a void that swallowed everything whole. The suffocating silence pressed in from all sides. There was no one to talk to, no one who would listen or care. The world had already made up its mind. 

In the post-9/11 haze, everyone was too engrossed in their own lives, too willing to swallow whatever narratives their governments fed them—stories of freedom, democracy, and the relentless fight against the so-called "enemy of democracy."

To them, people like Mohamed or Fawzi weren't fathers or husbands; they were mere abstractions. They weren't human. They were branded as terrorists, Islamists, faceless bodies stripped of identity, marked for death by the sheer accident of their birthplace, by the faith they practiced, by the cultures they cherished and fought to preserve. 

Their stories were reduced to statistics in a news report, their lives devalued, dismissed as collateral damage in a war that felt more like a game of chess than a human tragedy. As if their existence was a mere footnote in a narrative that never considered them worthy of remembrance.

Just dirty little Arabs.

Muslim terrorists.

Violent by nature.

Enemies of the state.

Radical extremists.

Savages in a primitive land.

Maryam exhaled slowly, the smoke burning her throat as the weight of it all pressed down on her chest, threatening to suffocate her under the collective grief, the unshed tears, the rage against a world that refused to see them as anything but monsters.

At this point, it felt like everyone had become desensitized to the images—Middle Eastern children blown to bits, their small bodies crumpled in the debris, their faces smeared across the news like they were nothing more than statistics.

It was as if the world had decided that this was their fate.

As if suffering was something they were meant to endure, something woven into their existence, to be endured without question, without grief.

When she thought about her uncle— she thought about the stories her family never fully told, but hinted at in the silences around the dinner table, in the careful way they avoided certain topics. He had been proud once, she remembered that much. Proud of his land, his people.

Until the war came.

Until everything was shattered.

She glanced back at the homeless man, her thoughts spiraling in the quiet of the early morning. He had probably seen the same horrors, lived through the same lies, though from the other side of the world. 

Maybe, in some twisted way, they both knew what it was like to be used. To be broken. 

But the difference was, people like him got to come home.

She never really did. 

The image of her uncle, buried beneath the rubble, under a sky choked with smoke and the deafening roar of jets, felt far too vivid now. It wasn't just a memory—it was a living thing, clawing at her insides. This was the kind of war that had seeped into her bones, the kind that had stolen so much from her family. 

And for what? So they could craft stories of heroism, tales of sacrifice? So soldiers could return draped in glory while the dead lay nameless in the dust, forgotten?

She glanced toward the American flag fluttering above the bank entrance just down the street, its colors stark against the gray sky. 

It felt like a cruel joke. 

After everything, after fighting so hard to earn a place here, to get their nationalities, to be accepted—and yet here she was, haunted by wars and destruction she couldn't escape.

Her throat tightened, and she took a drag from her cigarette, letting the smoke fill her lungs. She forced herself not to flinch, not to let the bitterness bleed into her face. 

She couldn't afford to.

The man shifted on his mat, his earlier bravado gone. His eyes softened, narrowing as if he'd begun to understand something unspoken between them. "I see," he said quietly, the weight of his words pressing down on the silence between them.

There was something else now in his voice—recognition, maybe even guilt. "War's... hell for everyone, I guess."

Hell? She swallowed, her throat constricting against the rising tide of grief. Hell didn't even begin to describe it. 

War wasn't just hell. War was a thief. 

It stole everything that mattered—lives, homes, futures—and left behind nothing but wreckage.

Iraq hadn't felt like a war. 

Srebrenica hadn't felt like a war. 

It had felt like being trapped in a nightmare, watching everything you love get torn away while the world pretended to care. It wasn't just the soldiers, the so-called heroes, who suffered. It was the forgotten, the nameless, the ones like her. The ones whose stories would never make it home. 

The ghosts.

She couldn't reply right away. Her voice felt fragile, like it would shatter the moment she opened her mouth. Instead, she stared at the flag, its proud flutter a mockery of everything she had lost, everything the world didn't care to remember.

Finally, she muttered, her voice low and rough, "Yeah," flicking the ash from her cigarette to the ground. "Hell for everyone."

But even as she said it, she knew hell didn't cover it. Hell didn't tear you apart in the same way; it didn't erase you from the world, didn't let history move on while you were still standing there, bleeding from the inside like a wound that refused to heal.

An agony that seeped into your bones, a gnawing ache that twisted your insides and left you gasping for breath, like drowning in the memories of those lost, memories that clung to you like shadows, haunting every moment.

Maryam's gaze stayed locked on the crumbling asphalt beneath her sneakers. The cigarette burned slowly between her fingers, but she didn't feel the heat. She didn't want to look at him. Didn't want to see whatever expression he'd try to wear—whether it was pity, guilt, or some hollow understanding. 

None of it mattered.

Her thoughts drifted back to her uncle once again, the one no one spoke about anymore. 

Him and her parents. 

Her brother. 

Her extended family.

The ones her family treated like ghosts, too painful to mention.

As if grieving them was poison. 

His memory hung in the silence of family dinners, in the way they tiptoed around certain topics, like stepping on landmines. Her uncle Mohamed had been proud once. She could still see it, the way his eyes used to light up when he talked about his land, his people.

But the war had come, and with it, destruction. He had fought to hold onto something, anything, but in the end, everything was shattered.

She remembered the stories she overheard late at night, when her family thought her and her siblings were asleep. Stories about how they found him—or what was left of him and his family. 

The land he had bled for, loved so fiercely, had turned to ashes, just like him. 

They just didn't talk about the aftermath.

They didn't talk about the ones who didn't make it home—not really. Because once they were gone, they were gone. 

Erased.

But Maryam hadn't forgotten. Couldn't bury it. Not like they had.

She could still feel the weight of them—the stories that were never told, the grief no one could bear to speak of. The silence in the wake of everything they had lost. 

Her uncle's pride, his dreams, had been buried along with him, forgotten by a world that kept spinning as if none of it had ever mattered.

But she was still here. Still carrying that weight, those memories that wouldn't fade. The anger that wouldn't let her rest.

She took another drag, the smoke filling her lungs, thick and bitter. She exhaled slowly, watching it curl up into the air, dissipating like the lives of the ones lost to wars no one cared to remember. 

Finally, she glanced at him, her voice hollow. "You don't know the half of it."

He didn't respond right away. The silence between them stretched, thick and uncomfortable, like the weight of all the unspoken things that had nowhere to go. She didn't care. She certainly didn't need his words, didn't need his sympathy or whatever hollow platitude he might offer. 

There was nothing he could say that would fix it.

The doctor crushed the half-finished cigarette on a near bin, grinding it into metal of it with deliberate motion. Watching the embers fade, snuffed out like the lives lost to senseless wars.

It felt like a ritual—something small, something pointless—but it was the only control she had left.

He shifted beside her, the mat creaking beneath him as he adjusted his weight.

She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to meet his gaze, to acknowledge his presence. What could he possibly understand? He wasn't the one standing in the rubble, watching everything he knew burn to the ground. He wasn't the one left behind, forced to sift through the ashes of a shattered life, desperately searching for remnants of hope amidst the devastation.

No, he was the one who had taken part in it all—the one who had marched into the chaos, while she remained trapped in the wreckage, haunted by the ghosts of those she had lost.

"Look..." he began, his voice hesitant now, unsure. "I didn't mean to—"

"Save it," she cut him off, the sharpness of her voice slicing through the air like a blade. "I've heard it all before." She wrapped her arms around herself, more to keep the memories from spilling over than from the chill in the air.

His silence was answer enough. He wasn't going to push, and she was grateful for that—grateful for once that someone didn't try to offer solutions to a problem that couldn't be solved.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to steady herself. The air tasted like smoke and rain, thick with the scent of something burning far off in the distance.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt too close, too real—like the wars were still with her, clinging to her skin and sinking into her bones, refusing to let go.

"You must have seen a lot over there," Maryam said quietly after a while, the words barely more than a murmur, as if they weren't hers to ask. Each syllable hung in the air like a fragile promise, a flicker of connection in the suffocating silence that surrounded them. 

"More than I care to remember," he replied. His voice was rough, but there was something hollow behind it, as if he were speaking through a fog of memories he couldn't shake. "Lost a lot of good men. Did things... none of us should've had to do."

The confession hung heavy in the night air. Maryam's heart thudded painfully against her ribs, a flood of memories threatening to surface—the wars she fled, the ruins she walked through, the faces of people she once knew. 

"And what, you think that makes it better? That you regret it now?" she asked, her voice harsher than she intended, breaking the delicate thread of understanding that had started to form.

The man sighed, a long, weary sound. "No. Regret don't fix anything, miss. But it's all I got now."

Maryam crossed her arms tightly, as if holding herself together.

The old anger still simmered, but it was tangled now with something else—something more complex, more painful. She wanted to hate him, like she hated the others. But standing there, hearing the exhaustion in his voice, it felt... harder.

After a long pause, she looked up at him for the first time, really looked.

His eyes were tired, bloodshot, bottles of alcohol laced around him but there was no defiance in them, no pride. Just a man, worn down by too many battles—some fought overseas, some right here on these streets.

She took a step back, blinking against the burning sensation creeping behind her eyes. "Doesn't change anything," she whispered, but the words sounded hollow, even to her.

"No, it doesn't," he agreed, pulling his blanket tighter around himself, retreating into the comfort of its worn fabric.

Maryam stood there for a moment longer, feeling the weight of the conversation settle deep in her bones. She wasn't sure what she'd expected—a confrontation, maybe, something explosive. 

But all she felt was tired. 

Tired of the anger, tired of the guilt, tired of the endless cycle of pain.

Finally, she forced herself to speak, her voice low and rough. "War doesn't end when the fighting stops. It stays with you. It eats away at everything you are, everything you thought you knew. And no one... no one cares about what it does to the ones left behind."

Her words hung in the air, thick with the weight of all the unsaid things she couldn't bring herself to explain. She had learned long ago that some wounds never healed. Some scars were too deep.

The man beside her said nothing, and for once, it was the right response. There was nothing more to say.

Finally, she turned, her gaze fixed ahead, and without looking back, she whispered, almost to herself, "They're all gone. And so am I."

She swallowed hard, surprising herself as she asked softly, "What is your name?" Her hands found their way to the pockets of her trench coat, searching for warmth or some semblance of comfort.

"Bryan Geoffray Jr.," he replied, his voice hoarse yet steady.

She nodded, her mind racing as she fished out three crumpled dollars from her pocket, placing them in his cup. 

It wasn't much, but it was all she had on her, a small offering in the face of shared despair.

Tears bloomed in his already bloodshot eyes, and she quickly looked away, uncomfortable under the weight of his gratitude. He whispered a thank you, his voice thick with emotion. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what we did."

"Take care of yourself," she said quietly, flicking the ash from her cigarette to the ground. As she turned to leave, she tossed another coin into the small pot in front of him, a small token of connection before breaking away.

She walked away then, leaving the stranger, the cigarette smoke, and the weight of her past behind her. But as she disappeared into the night, the memories stayed. 

They always did.

"Same to you, miss," he called after her, his voice trailing off into the cold air.

previous chapter | next chapter

...

[ilikedyourablogithere]

My Dislyte Favorite 2022 Awards

I liked alot of stuff so this will be a while

Favorite Character Award: Falken

He looks like a batman villain/ kakashi/ Iori yagami and a Yugioh character mixed into one intimadating look guy but in actuality...he’s just a bit awkward and get misunderstood from time to time but he’s good people.

His story of having to rely on himself to support his family regardless of what was thrown at him is very admirable and you can’t help but want to root for him but then he meet Sander and finally made a friend and he learns to rely on others instead of doing everything himself and then wants to go out and do the same for others. And even though he has lost his friend it didn’t stop him from forging his own sense of justice and continues to move forward. He is a very interesting character to me and I look forward to whatever happens to him

Also he has laser beams, revenge energy stealing eye powers and he can turn into and summon a falcon! how cool is that

Best Boy Award: Lewis

I’ve always been a fan of boxer characters if a game has one I gotta use ‘em and Lewis is no exception. But what really hooked me on him is his wanting to do right by the people in his life. Even when his sister left to go the bad guys side he isn’t trying to drag her back by force or anything, he’s just being a big brother and showing her a good example (whether she’s paying attention is a whole different issue). He got good friends around him like Bardon, Tang Xuan and Li Ling as well as a pretty good mentor in Gaius looking out for him. All and all I think he’s doing just great

My favorite part was that little trivia about how he’s secretly trying to improve his penmanship. Just one of those tiny things that just make gravitate to certain characters.

Best Girl Award: Laura

She’s so dang nice and she just to help people. A bit basic? Not at all. It’s actually super hard to be nice. Like she first went to go be a doctor so she could help people but even after she became a surgeon when she got her superpowers she then went on to join the Esper Union. It’s like lady you’re a doctor you’re saving lives you’re doing good and Laura said “NO! I can be even more nice“ then goes on to save even more people

Like she just adopts a random kid she barely knows anything about. Like people don’t just do that. Being nice isn’t a basic thing at all. And all that nice and kindess she puts just gets to you and make you feel all warm inside and ... how can you not like her?

[NO BEST WAIFU OR HUSBANDO FOR 2022]

[NO BEST SHIP FOR 2022]

for whatever percent of y’all that were wondering about that. I dunno nothing really stuck. maybe next year

Best Anthro Award: Daylon

Should come as no surprise seeing how Sobek was one of my top picks from mythos that I wanted in the game and ever since he arrived I’ve been very satisfied

He’s actually a very chill guy. Nothing too grand or far out there. He’s just a guy, sure he may scare off someone from time to time with the whole crocodile “situation” but that’s not gonna stop him from living his life and helping out where he can as earnestly as he can

Best Monstergirl Award: Melanie

For as overused as the medusa, gorgon, snakes for hair gag is Melanie make it entertaining. Not a dull moment when it comes to her

Her complete unamusement of Fabrice (unless sleep depraved from binge reading shojo mangas) her not taking any nonsense from Leon, Ren Si or Biondina. Her big sister vibes with Li Guang and of course her goofy side she get to show off when she’s around her best friend Celine and she doesn’t have to be the responsible one for a bit.

She’s always just amusing where ever she shows up in the story (obviously someone’s favorite on the game’s team) and I look forward to more of her

Best Mythology Award: Egyptian

While all the character designs in the game are stellar  it’s the Egyptian mythos that stood out the most for me. Whenever a new one dropped they’re decked out in gold and jewelry. Not shy on giving furries some love. The colors from Kaylee being the color of the desert sand to Tiye the night sky. And of course the diversity of blackness. Can not stress enough how nice it is to not be this small corner of the fanbase that just gets brushed over and ignored all the time where we get like 3 and then a bunch of racially ambiguous ones who people will always fight you over because the idea of someone being black just have to be fought back against and it is nice to not have to do that for once...it is very nice

But ya I’ve been loving what I’ve been seeing and hope to love whatever comes next

Best Element Award: Inferno

I like ‘em hot and spicy and this element never disappoint. They can be Fighter Defender Controller Healer you give an inferno unit any role and you’ll never hear anyone thinking it is a bad idea. Flame on!

Best Boss Award: Fafnir

The icy lady is always a fun one to go up against. Whether I’m autoing her or playing the game myself I’m always on edge. All it takes is one move, one resist check and you can be collecting your relics with pride or have your team completely wipe out.

Not to mention her boss theme is a great one

Best Billboard Event Award: Bloody Hunt

Out of all the ones we had this is the one always feel relevant because so many things that were established start getting their pay off. Like various bounties bios and small one off topics that were casually brought up that you didn’t even give that much of a thought somehow end up being actual points of importance in the event. And most importantly of all...Bloody Hunt didn’t “end“ like nothing was really resolved and it feels like something that will come back to at some point in the story

Also dat trailer for it

oh so cool

Best Side Event Award: Origami Love

While I can’t say Ophelia is one of my top faves in the game she did bring along Esper Feud. And like no question my favorite side event

I had so much fun racking my brain figuring out how to beat challenges

Also the story was pretty enjoyable

Best Boss Theme Award: The Dark Star Lord

ho boy did they go that extra mile with this track. Even if you’re not good at this boss fight you still end up feeling good cause you get to here this great beat

and THEN the transition into another rendition of Enter Your Mind seriously how many versions did people submit of this one song ? not that I’M complain of course. My ears love it

Best DJ Contest Track Award : Refuge

Sorry wise there wasn’t much meat on that bone

But that song sure did make up for it. Had that on repeat nonstop for the longest

Best Character Theme Song Award: Reine des Roses

Like I love all the characters themes but I say Abigail’s edges out for that fun factor in it for me

Best Song Sung by the in game Characters: Soul Mate sung by Ahmed

Kinda the only one in this category for now but I still wanted to say it cause it IS a great song

ANYWAYS That’s that

Think I covered all my dislyte faves for 2022 and most certainly can’t wait for what dislyte does next

but for now

HAPPY NEW YEARS CHAMP

let’s make the best of it. stay safe out there

[crazyyfilmyfreak]

like always this is going to be Obviously a Spoiler Free Review of The Batman 2022 coz i don't want to spoil the movie for others but more than a Review this is about my feelings and how i felt after watching the film and it might be short or long af so if you want to skip this, then this is The perfect time to do it

First things first More over i can't believe that i really watched The Batman for Real like for Real ??? i was so excited for this film since years and now i finally watched it and i am about to talk about it here with y'all but i still cant beleive this i am in denial lol anyways Talking about the Film

This is the most Realistic Batman movie we are ever going to witness for a very long time and this is the most gayest live action Batman , Bruce Wayne character is so fucked flawed and he has gone mad shit crazy over in his head and he is not living in the real world , he is so very very very much disconnected to real world and we can underatand why he is behaving like that in the film but we can not relate to him , This version of Batman is very different from every other versions of batman we have seen so far and Matt Reeves is a Freaking Legend for designing him that way and i felt Robert Pattinson nailed the role and he was really cool af thru out the film in every damn scene .

Usually during my every film review its just me writing 3000 words long ass essay and screaming and begging y'all to watch movie i liked and enjoyed but this time i am not going to do that , The Batman ( 2022 ) is upto you , you can watch or you can skip it if you want bcoz this film is not for everyone

This Film feels like the most Non-Batman Movie that has been ever made coz of how different it is compared to remaining Batman Flicks but at the Same time this is also the most Batman Film of All Time if that makes any sense 👀 to y'all.

And Finally we got a director WHO FUCKING UNDERSTANDS BATMAN and knows what drives him and not only just that but he also respects the character and the original source and roots of the character and doesn't interfere much with it and this man got balls of steel or iron or even of fucking Vibranium coz of the he dealt with the movie and the way he designed the characters , set the tone and way he finished and made a very perfect Film at the end and having Said that The Batman movie has got many flaws here within itself but again it is perfect in its own way .

I am so very Happy for my guy Paul Dano 😭❤ Bcoz everyone who watched the movie are loving him and praising him so much and he deserves all that praise , love and admiration and he really killed it with his acting in the film i will not say this is his best performance coz i still think his performamce was so fucking magical and incredible and out of this world in There will be blood ( 2007 ) but i will Say his performance in The Batman is a very powerful performance , You can literally FEEL HIS PRESENCE IN EVERY FUCKING SECOND IN THE FILM to the point where it gets so freaking scary 😭 if you see the movie you will know what i mean , Riddler is C or D grade character in comics and i never really liked him and always felt like this is the time of character johhny sins would play in his porn parodies but Matt Reeves this genius mf picked a character like that and made him the whole ass villain in his very first Batman Instalment and casted Paul Dano in it and he nailed it

i am so proud of Robert Pattinson coz he is such a great actor and a Director's actor who gives what the director wants and respects the script and doesn't really mind even if other characters are written strongly than his character and doesn't mind even if those characters outshine him , he genuinely respects the craft and i love him very much for that , i used to hate him so fucking much when i saw him in those vampire films and i hated him so much back then that i wanted him to fail as an actor in hollywood coz of the how horrendous he acted in those films ( pls don't judge me it was long time and i was a small ass kid 😭 ) and now i love this weird lying piece of shit so fucking much and I'd take a bullet or two for him , i love him so much and i respect him and admire him a lot for his work , passion , dedication and the realistic charm that he brings in most of the characters he played after twilight and i am so very very very happy for him now he is a very big star now after The Batman and he has reached the big leagues in hollywood , i am so proud of him 😭💙

Zoë Kravitz really doesn't have a lot of screen time or impact in the film sadly :/ but i am not dissapointed coz i feel she's coming back again and this is not the last of her in the franchise , She did add lot of sexiness to the film with her character tho and Selina was really interesting sadly like i said before i felt i didn't get enough of her screen time 😭 and please don't attack me when i say this but i already love Jeffrey Wright's Jim gordan so much and i feel this is the best version of jim gordan we have ever got and if anything bad happens to him in the future films Matt reeves is going to have to deal with me, Andy Serkis also got less screen time but he was great with what he was given to play and broooooooo Colin Farrell is so damn hilarious as Oz 😭💀 I KNOW HE HAD SO MUCH FUN PLAYING THE CHARACTER and can't wait to see more of him in the future

My very only visible disappointment with the movie is the background score :/// , i am not saying it is bad but it could be more great imo

In Conclusion i just want to say The Batman is Great , please do watch it if you can in cinemas but don't expect what you usually expect from a batman flick , The Batman ( 2022 ) is different , Stylish and unique in its own way and this Mf Matt Reeves set a very painfully slow burning pace & tone to the film but if you are patient enough and can get thru it you might see his vision and enjoy the film so yeah The Batman is freaking great and cool , Do not miss it

having Said All of this Shit , This is just the fucking starters lmfaoo , we are yet to eat the Main course and Deserts ( i am talking about the The batman sequels duhhh) in the future and The Batman has set the perfect atmosphere for that , i could go on and on and on but that's it for now

[idrawgaystffs]

Alright cutting this off shorter

I posted 3,853 times in 2022

115 posts created (3%)

3,738 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@pizza-box-raccoon

@selfdestructivecat

@stillebesat

@tastic-in-its-finest

@whyamionlyabletouse32characters

(Hm! I’ll leave the tagging on, hope you don’t mind)

I tagged 3,852 of my posts in 2022

(Find the one post I didn’t tag if you have the time)

#reblog - 3,638 posts

#sanders sides - 900 posts

#hollow knight - 306 posts

#art - 286 posts

#animals - 270 posts

#video - 209 posts

#mairimashita! iruma kun - 192 posts

#comic - 190 posts

#cats - 178 posts

#caps - 169 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#never judge a ‘simple’ art style for being less ‘labor intensive’ or ‘skilled’ compared to something the ‘masters’ do. it’s so hard for me

(I stand by it! ^)

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Made something based on @ 5am-the-foxing-hour’s beach day tss incorrect quotes post that was too funny not to draw

Close ups under the cut!

See the full post

67 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

(Fun one this!)

#4

@ i-hate-liking-batman’s fic “I’ll take Care of Your Roots So Grow Tall, My Love” is just one of the best Love trio fics in my opinion, and it made me want to draw the fluffy little version of the guardian of cutthroat valley! Here it is, and I love it a lot :D!

75 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

(Still Check It Out!)

#3

A Calamity (Chalchiutlicue) from “No Evil”

[Reblogs Appreciated by the Artist!]

82 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

(Ah new interest how I love you)

#2

Sm dark sides :>

109 notes - Posted March 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Virgil and Remus fusion for fun

112 notes - Posted March 22, 2022

(Not a big fan of this one oh well)

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[avanderson94]

Spotlight: Paul Dano

This post was originally written for my college film studies class.

Paul Dano's acting style borders on method; he commits to his performances off and on screen, and nothing makes this more evident than how strongly he emotionally and physically embodies the roles he portrays. He is able to convey just as much with his eyes, expressions and movements as he is with the lines of dialogue that he speaks. Though his typically lanky build, soft voice, and perpetual babyface gives him the impression of a rather awkward and unassuming man, his chameleon-like ability to change not only his appearance but his entire body language helps him play against type and portray a variety of different characters, none of them less believable or natural than the rest.

Over his career, Dano has shown an amazing range in the types of characters plays. His breakthrough was the 2006 comedy-drama film Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris) as Dwayne Hoover, a moody teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can fulfill his goal of becoming a jet pilot. Even though he doesn't speak and remains stoic for most of the movie, you quickly understand and sympathize with his portrayal of a rebellious misfit with a dream.

Barely a year later, Dano appeared in the 2007 film There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) in which he plays opposite Daniel Day-Lewis as Eli Sunday, the megalomaniacal young preacher of a small town in early 1900s California. Eli is self-righteous, vindictive, and manipulative; he alternates between the facade of a humble man of God and stark raving lunacy with an undertone of sniveling petulance. He's an utterly contemptible character that you'll want to root against even if it means siding with equally contemptible people, and that ability to evoke such strong feelings towards his character perfectly exemplifies why his performance is so effective.

His character in 2011's For Ellen (dir. So Yong Kim) could not be more opposite that of Eli Sunday. In For Ellen, Dano is Joby Taylor, a troubled aspiring rock star in the middle of a difficult divorce who fights to be a part of his young daughter's life. Dano's performance as the flawed Joby is vulnerable, as we watch him evolve from a depressed, alcoholic failure to a multifaceted man who wants to put his mistakes behind him and show genuine love for the daughter whose life he was absent from for so long. Dano carries this weight through some of the most emotional and bittersweet scenes in recent memory.

Other roles that demonstrate his range include Denis Villeneuve's 2013 crime thriller Prisoners, in which he plays a handicapped and childlike young man accused of kidnapping two little girls who faces brutal revenge by one of their fathers; Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson in the 2014 musical biopic Love & Mercy (dir. Bill Pohlad); dark comedy-drama Swiss Army Man (2016, dir. Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) where he portrays a desperate and delusional castaway who befriends the flatulent corpse of Daniel Radcliffe; and the 2018 Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora (dir. Ben Stiller) which features Dano as real-life murderer David Sweat as he and fellow prisoner Richard Matt (Benicio del Toro) plot, manipulate, and dig their way towards short-lived freedom. His most recent and perhaps most mainstream role yet is The Riddler in Matt Reeves' 2022 film The Batman. Dano plays another different type of character here, this time as a masked serial killer who taunts the police and titular hero with puzzles à la the Zodiac Killer. Parts of this portrayal could be comparable to Eli Sunday, but here he is far more intimidating, conveying a chilling derangement with just his eyes as he watches his victims from behind his mask. He even gets to indulge in a little bit of over-the-top raving, not unlike the sermons delivered by the aforementioned Reverend Sunday.

Below, I wanted to share a scene of his portrayal of Eli Sunday in There Will Be Blood. In this scene, oil tycoon Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is manipulated into being baptized at Eli's church in exchange for a piece of land. Eli, who holds a grudge against Plainview after he snubs his request to bless the oil well, puts on the veneer of a zealous holy man but visibly delights in humiliating Plainview and forcing him to proclaim before the crowded church that he abandoned his young son after he was injured in an accident at the well.

[sinematically]

I watched The Batman (2022) dir. Matt Reeves and here’s almost-everything I want to say about it 🦇

Note: You can disagree with me. Neither of us are wrong or right about how we perceive this movie. The sentence structure will be atrocious, I’m a little sorry. It’s also a long post. Spoilers below

• The Batman (2022) is not like the Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012), but it shares a few similarities. To me, the similarity starts and ends with how rooted in reality the two films are & the journey of Batman. I think the Nolan Trilogy focused on Bruce Wayne’s journey, while The Batman focused on (as the name implies) Batman’s journey.

• the sound track, the cinematography, and the overall eerie, horror-esque vibe was.. captivating? It built a distinct atmosphere, a very intentional, intriguing one. I want to find the words that explain this, but I don’t know how, yet. I’ll get there.

You just KNOW my former professors who taught me Cinema Appreciation and Film Analysis are regretting going into the field of education and teaching after seeing me describe this movie is captivating… im sorry ms. aita <2

• Robert Pattinson was a wonderful Batman. I think as a young Bat, and I think I’ll make a post about this soon. I loved the way he plays Bruce, his somewhat detached sense of the world. It’s interesting how much of Batman’s fighting style is kinda brash, but he will avoid violence if he can.

I think Bruce learns over time, how important it is for him to be Bruce Wayne during the day, so the work he does as the Bat actually matters. And I think this story shows us how it happens. It’s not just the mayor talking to him, he see’s it first hand.

• Gotham City and the Bat. I’ve always felt like Gotham city is the biggest reason why Bruce can never stop being the Bat. It’s not just his obsession with justice, vengeance, or his family. Gotham has our emo-bat in a chokehold. I also love the way they show us the city through its people.

Bruce’s faith in the city, and his almost desperate need for it to be better, to be fixed, is the bane of his existence. It is why Bruce will also never be happy, I think, but this I’ll touch on that in my maybe-all-about-Bruce post.

• Maroni and Falcone, and the (wonderful) way they’re written. I think it’s important for Maroni to be taken down at the start of the Bat’s career. Like a little absolute-point in the Bat’s timeline. I like the way they kept him in the story without showing him? It was interesting story telling.

I also think Falcone has to take over when Maroni falls, and Bruce and Falcone need to have a heart to heart, for Bruce to fully transform into the Batman. I think it’s integral to his character but I think it’s also been influenced by my love for the Nolan trilogy (maybe a little by The Long Halloween)

• Selina Kyle a.k.a Catwoman. There is only one thing I didn’t like, and it was the “Falcone is my dad” bit, but I know it’s coming from the comics and just personal preference. Zoe Kravits is easily my favourite Catwoman so far.

I think Annika as a character served as a way for us to see Selina, in the Catwoman. She’s brilliant, she’s so full of love, fiercely loyal and cares so much and so deeply. It’s why Selina and Bruce will work, as a couple and a partnership, if they choose to be partners.

As a whole, he fighting style is also very cat. I love that she used her claws, and whenever she’s beat someone up, there are 2-claw or 3-claw scratches on their face. I think that’s how she fights, in my head? I loved that she acts like a SMOL, helpless baby and then boom-boom tries to kill her biological dad. Let’s GO baby.

I def want to see more of her. I love the way she was written. I know I have more to say. MAN.

• Bruce and Selina, doomed from the get-go but ah, so good. Both of them try so hard - more in the comics, but in this movie you can see how much effort a relationship between the two will take. If they were just Selina and Bruce, they’re perfect.

But for Selina to be “herself”, she needs to be Selina Kyle who is Catwoman. And I would go as far to argue that Bruce is the Batman first, and a Wayne second. Himself, or who he really is around Selina, aren’t always going to be enough for her? Sometimes I think Selina is in love with the Bat, and Batman in love with Selina. The Bat and the Cat were never meant to last. It sucks I love it.

• the Riddler. Well written. I loved the little fucked up dude. I kept waiting for an Edward Nygma thing so it’s E.Nygma, but a Nashton is fine I guess? I like the way he was written, gave me a lot of Incel Reddit boy vibes. I know that nothing in film is a coincidence, these moves aren’t unintentional, and I like it. It’s also made it scarier, in a way. I loved how absolutely fucking eerie this movie was. I have more thoughts about the Riddler, don’t know what they are yet.

• THE JOKER CAMEO AT THE END?! Brilliant. Best kept secret. Marvel wishes they could do this!! The Secret cameo blessed me. I love the way they did it, how this joker interacts with the Riddler, the laughing. It’s either one of two things to me, Batman beat him once, or Jokers just in jail cause he’s bored of being outside and fucking around. (I can’t decide what’s better)

• Thomas and Martha Wayne.. boy, they’re getting a deep dive in the Bruce Wayne post I think. I think there’s a lot to look into here, in like how kids look at their parents, a hero’s fall from grace, a son paying for his fathers sins. Also… I’m not a fan of the whole “Martha Arkham” thing cause where are the Kane’s?? but I don’t know if it’s comic accurate (I tend to forgive things from canon cause I assume there was a reason why, so… that)

…and I think that’s it for now. These are the first few thoughts in my mind. Oh and that Battinson walks so… 🧍‍♂️ like? And that Catwoman’s mask has baby kitten ears and it’s so fucking cute. Yeah, now I’m at the end.