#this is mostly a rant tbh

[gorey-dolls]

While everyone is focusing on natlan and the racism it shows, for very rightful reasons at that, let's also address the recent story continuance in honkai star rail.

This update brought forth new characters, hoolay and the borisins. Borisins and hoolay are racist towards turkics, because of the fact that they are ALL villains and carry Turkish/turkic names and titles.

Grey wolves are associated with Turkic countries, along with the color turquoise. Grey wolves are a symbol of freedom and battle in Turkic mythology, and in the mythology of creation in Turkic countries, a female wolf named Asena gave birth to Turks. To make characters based off of an already discriminated against group of countries be SLAVE OWNERS is down right deplorable.

Sure, there is a history of slavery within the history of Turks, but when you have characters based off of Japanese people, who have done WAY WORSE things to Chinese people, read into unit 731 with your own discretion because the shit is down right disgusting, you cannot hide behind that. This is a move mare against us, Turkic people, to discriminate against us.

And this isn't even to mention penacony, which despite being based around times where black people were very prominent in the entertainment industry, from jazz music to references towards Michael Jackson and boothill, who is based off of cowboys that have a very deep history with POC, hoyoverse doesn't give a shit about us.

Boycott these games as much as you can, because this is deplorable behavior.

[pinkcheesecake7]

I can’t take criticism on Mel seriously because most of it is done by jayviks who say she’s pretty and call it a day then act like they love her😭. Like sorry, I’m not taking you seriously when your account is filled with only jayvik and you only talk about Mel to objectify her and seem like you don’t hate “the female character that gets in the way” that’s simply not enough. A lot of these hardcore “Mel is a manipulator” people are very obviously biased lmfao. “Jayce dumped her” except that never happened? They talked and then he left and fucking died lol, one important thing to remember is that these are CHARACTERS and there is writing behind them. What I’m saying is that they were handled poorly by the writers and they never actually “broke up” or should I say he never “dumped her🤓” they just.. had a thoughtful conversation and it was never brought up again. I feel like yall only say he “dumped her” so it fits the shitty narrative that Jayce dumped Mel for Viktor which is NOT true and literally never will be. You guys literally call her an “independent black woman who doesn’t need a man” except in different wording to make her seem unlovable. Yes, she doesn’t need a man but she WANTS a man. Stop acting like you actually want her to be independent, you just want to get her out of the way but also still seem like you’re an “”ally””.

[seineko]

lan wangji and lan sizhui's relationship isn't discussed enough!

a-yuan was the reason lan wangji lived and i will stand by it as long as i have to.

i'm not talking about living in a physical sense. he would've done so being the light bearer he is, but the peerless hanguang-jun lost his light the second he knew wei wuxian breathed his last.

hanguang-jun was just that, a light bearer, not the source of it. he was the moon that depended on the sun to provide it to the people, but he already lost his sun.

he probably would've gotten sucked into the black hole that was left behind after his star died that he did not realize there was another sun right beside it until he heard the faint cries of a child.

a-yuan. (he was the sun that the last of qishan wen couldn't even hope to be.)

it's the ways in which lan wangji and sizhui's interactions are so subtly domestic that melts my heart completely.

the relationship they share that of a guardian-ward, of a father-son.

the way sizhui (along with jingyi and a few other lan juniors) scream 'hanguang-jun!' and are able to smile while being held hostage really says a lot about both the trust they have in him and how safe they feel around him.

sizhui saying that feels as if he has nothing to fear or worry about, so long as lan wangji or wei wuxian were around. the bone deep trust that he has that he will be safe if he's around either of them even if he was in the middle of a literal death trap had me pause for a few seconds to let myself bawl out.

it's in the way sizhui so willingly and so enthusiastically interacts with lan wangji while everyone around him (except a few of the lan juniors) are scared witless to even breathe the same air as him. even the lan juniors don't seem to have the ease that sizhui has. (okay, this may probably be me over reading into it, but i really did feel that way while reading.)

and, my favorite interaction, sizhui encountering that lan wangji buried a-yuan in a pile of rabbits will never ever make me stop smiling like an idiot.

they have one of the healthiest parent-child relationship i've seen and i so, so long for it.

it's as surprising as it is devastating how less they're talked about. a crime really.

[anghraine]

I'm trying to redirect my political thoughts from my fandom escape blog again, but I found something interesting enough that I thought I'd talk a little about it.

Occasionally I choose suffering (looking at the more granular 2024 exit poll breakdowns rather than the summaries that I mostly don't trust much at this point). Anyway, I did find something intriguing, if not particularly surprising, in the CNN exit polls, which were done in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin with a sample size of 22,914 voters.

(I mention the specific states forming the sample because this pretty notably excludes any blue states while including some reliably Republican ones.)

Anyway, most exit polls including CNN's let respondents identify their place on the US political spectrum: conservative, moderate, or liberal (reminder that "liberal" in US usage can be a pejorative for "less leftist than me" but also a shorthand for "radical leftist" but also for "anyone who doesn't seek a cishet white Christian ethnostate", but also can be a more neutral synonym for progressives and/or leftists and is often used that way, as here). So you can look at the election results for each of these ideological factions and what share of the overall sample size they represent.

The interesting thing: this "liberal" category accounted for very similar proportions to 2020 of the overall vote in the sample (24% in 2020, 23% in 2024—a difference well within the margin of error of exit polling). There is no need to explain liberals/leftists staying home in 2024: at least in terms of proportions of the overall electorate, they didn't. Just under 1/4 of voters in 2024 were liberals or leftists, just as in 2020.

Okay, if the most leftwards faction of the US political spectrum actually formed a similar proportion of the electorate, then who did they vote for?

Harris. In CNN's own exit polls from 2020, 89% of this faction voted for Biden, and (surprisingly!) a full 10% voted for Trump. God knows what motivated that 10% Trump share after four years of his hellscape of an administration at the height of COVID, but in any case, that support cratered in 2024. 91% of this group voted for Harris and only 4% for Trump. It's an estimate, but it looks like these very peculiar Trump voters had enough of him in 2024 and around half either voted third party this time or for Harris.

So which faction is Trump's victory coming from? Further consolidation of the far right?

In part, yes! 90% of conservatives voted for Trump in 2024, vs 85% in 2020—likely, some conservatives who voted third party or even for Biden in 2020 came "home" this year. However, conservative turnout was actually a little down in 2024, proportionally speaking: conservatives dropped from 38% of the sample in 2020 to 34% in 2024.

But there's one more major faction in all this: "moderates" or centrists. To be clear, we're talking about the US version of centrism, given that this is a US organization polling US voters about US politicians, not "Bernie would be center-right in Denmark" or whatever. This moderate faction jumped from 38% of the overall sample in 2020 to 42% in 2024, and they swung hard towards Trump, though Harris still won a plurality of them. In 2020, 64% of moderates voted for Biden vs 34% for Trump. In 2024, 57% of them voted for Harris vs 40% for Trump—that is, the Democratic lead among centrists dropped precipitously from +30 to +17.

Tl;dr—ideologically speaking, this data suggests that Trump owes his victory to gains among both right-wing and centrist voters rather than some faction of would-be leftists or progressives apathetically staying home or voting third-party or otherwise deserting Democrats (because they're insufficiently radical or for any other reason).

Oh, and if you're curious as to how this compares to CNN's 2016 exit polls, I also checked those! Harris's 84-point lead among the most leftwards faction is a significant improvement from HRC's 74-point lead in 2016. Trump also got 10% of that group in 2016, as in 2020, so it's this campaign—not Hillary's or Biden's—that managed to eat into whatever the hell is going on with that group.

Harris's +17 with moderates is actually a slight improvement on Hillary's +12 in 2016. Biden's jump to a +30 lead among centrists in 2020 represented either a backlash against Trump from centrists, or Biden's own rapport with that group, or some mysterious issue some of those voters had with both HRC and Harris (I wonder what it could be!!), or some combination thereof. Regardless, there are a lot of actual ideologically centrist voters in the USA and not just would-be leftists who haven't heard the good news of Marx yet. And Trump has an iron grip on the right wing at this point: he beat Hillary with conservatives by +65 in 2016, then beat Biden with an even larger margin of +71, then leapt to a 81-point lead over Harris with right-wing voters this year.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

"Murder is Werewolves" - Batman

I don't got the SPOONS to do this thought train justice, I have seriously been trying to write this thing for MONTHS so just, idk, have this half baked skeletal outline of the essay I guess:

I don't believe that Batman's no-kill rule is primarily about rehabilitation or second chances.

His refusal to believe that Cassandra could have killed someone when she was eight years old because "how could a killer understand my commitment not to kill" is absolute fucking MOON LOGIC from a rehabilitationist standpoint. No jury on the planet would think for even a second that she could reasonably be held accountable for her actions in that situation! Her past cannot condemn her to being incapable of valuing human life under a rehabilitation centering framework. However, Batman's reasoning makes perfect sense if he believes that killing is a spiritually/morally corrupting act which permanently and fundamentally changes a person, and that corruption can never be fully undone.

Dick Grayson killing the Joker is treated both narratively and by Batman as an unequivocally WIN for the Joker. The Joker won by turning Nightwing into a killer. Note that this is during a comic in which the Joker transforming people was a major theme! Batman didn't revive the Joker because the Joker deserved to live; he revived the Joker to lift the burden on Dick.

His appeal to Stephanie when she tried to kill her dad is that she shouldn't ruin her own life. He gives no defense of Cluemaster's actual life. Granted this is a rhetorical strategy moment and should be taken with a generous pinch of salt, but it fits in the pattern.

When Jason becomes a willful killer, he essentially disowns him, never treats him with full trust ever again, and... Well, we can stop here for Bruce's sake. Bottom line is that his actions towards Jason do not lead me to believe that he thinks Jason can become a better person without having his autonomy taken from him, either partially or fully.

The Joker is, for better or worse, the ultimate symbol and vessel of pure, irredeemable evil in DC comics now. He hasn't been just another crook in a long time. He will never get better, he will only get worse. If you take it to be true that the Joker will not or can not rehabilitate, then there's no rehabilitationist argument against killing him.

Batman does not seem to consider it a possibly that he'll rehabilitate. Batman at several points seems to think that the Joker dying in a manner no one could have prevented would be good. Yet Batman fully believes that if he killed the Joker, he himself would become irredeemable.

Batman's own form of justice (putting people into the hospital and then prison) is fucking brutal and clearly not rehabilitative. He disrespects the most basic human rights of all criminals on a regular basis. It is genuinely really, really weird from a rehabilitationist standpoint that his only uncrossable line is killing... But it makes perfect sense if he cares more about not corrupting himself with the act of killing than the actual ethical results of any individual decision to kill or not kill.

In the real world cops are all bastards because they are too violent to criminals, even when that violence doesn't lead to death. Prison is a wildly evil thing to do to another human being, and you don't use it to steal away massive portions of a person's life if your goal is to rehabilitate them. In the comic world, Batman is said to be necessary because the corrupt cops are too nice to criminals and keep letting them out of jail. I don't know how to write a connector sentence there so like I hope you can see why this bothers me so damn much! That's just not forgiveness vibes there Batman!!

I want to make special note here of the transformative aspect. You don't simply commit a single act when you kill, no, you become a killer, like you might become a werewolf.

The narrative supports this a lot!

Why did Supes go evil during Injustice? He killed the Joker. Why did Bruce become the Batman Who Laughs? Bruce killed the Joker. Why was Jason Todd close to becoming a new Joker during Three Jokers? Because he killed people, to include the Joker.

Even if these notions of redemption being impossible aren't the whole of his reasoning (people never have only one reason for doing what they do) it is a distinct through-line pattern in his actions and reasoning, and it is directly at odds with notions of rehabilitation, redemption, and second chances.

So why does he give so many killers second chances?

Firstly because this doesn't apply to all versions of Batman. Some writers explicitly incorporate rehabilitation and forgiveness into his actions. You will be able to provide me with examples of this other through-line pattern if you go looking for them. The nature of comics is to be inconsistent.

Secondly the existence of that other pattern does not negate the existence of this one. People and characters are complex, and perfectly capable of holding two patterns of belief within themselves, even when they conflict to this degree. You can absolutely synthesize these two ideas into a single messy Batman philosophical vibescape.

Finally and most importantly to this essay: he has mercy on killers the same way that werewolf hunters sometimes have mercy on someone who is clearly struggling against their monsterous nature, especially if they were turned in exceptional circumstances or against their will. They understand that they are sick, damned beasts, cursed to always be fighting against themselves and the evil they harbor within. It is vitally kind to help them fight themselves by curtailing their autonomy in helpful ways and providing them with chances to do some good to make up for their eternal moral deficiency.

I think in many comics Batman views killers as lost souls. Battered and tormented monsters who must be pitied and given mercy wherever possible. (The connections to mental health, addiction, and rampant, horrifying ableism towards people struggling with both is unavoidable, but addressing it is sadly outside of the scope of this essay.)

Above all, the greatest care possible must be taken to never, ever let yourself become one of them, because once you have transformed the beast will forever be within you growing stronger.

To Batman, it is the most noble burden, the highest mercy, the most important commandment: Thou shalt suffer the monsters to live.

[yeetushaitus]

MORE ace attorney sketches oooo beware of spoilers ooooo

i might like her a little bit

i came up with like 90% of these while i was half asleep so theyre not very funny but whatever

anwyas calisto yew brainrot!! tbh i like her more when shes yew like idk... as shih-na shes kinda boring ngl and shes not NEARLY as funny in the present even when she does reveal that theyre the same person

the stupid sunglasses gag with lang is hilarious though like what are those 💀

no but actually shes hysterical and her laughter is infectious she literally never fails to make me laugh with her

also i love that it seems to be genuine?? like its not the typical "mwhahahahaha im evil" or "hehehe im planning something devious" like shes actually laughing at edgeworth whatever she finds funny because she genuinely thinks its absurd or hilarious or whatever and i LOVE that as a character quirk

i havent gone back to aai1 let alone i-4 in SO LONGG tbh might get the collection to play aai again(or maybe not.... idk if i can get through i-3 without throwing myself out of a window)

in conclusion bring her back capcom you cowards /j

[moryyteks]

yeah i really dont know

[frenchfriedgiraffe]

would have liked to see more of the consequences of dirks time at blackwing pls :((

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

meaningless rant ahead!

so since i’m airing out my frustrations with other media nowadays, i want to talk about coraline.

i like coraline. i love stop-motion, i love horror, and coraline is the perfect mix of both. i love how unsettling it is and the animation is just chef’s kiss.

the only teeny tiny problem i have with it is that.. i do not like coraline the character. especially after reading the book, i dislike movie coraline even more. idk why they made movie coraline so bratty when she was so nice in the books.

and like, whatever. she’s a kid, kids are bratty sometimes. i don’t expect her to be perfect. but what irritates me is the way she treats wybie. her hostility towards him at first is understandable, since she thought he was stalking her. but later, after this was proven to be a misunderstanding, coraline is still so unnecessarily mean to wybie. the “why were you born” joke especially was so uncalled for. like there’s a difference between finding someone annoying and literally bullying them.

and she never apologizes to him, they just.. kinda become friends in the end? idk why the writers thought this was a “funny” joke to add in? especially since wybie is heavily neurodivergent-coded and even if he wasn’t, it’s still a really mean thing to say to someone. (btw wybie doesn’t exist in the books, he was created for the purpose of the movie.)

and with all of this, it’s really hard for me to watch coraline. the rest of the movie is so good, but how do you enjoy a movie when you hate the main character? i really want to rewatch it but i can’t sit through coraline’s annoying ass for the entirety of the movie.

[ganondoodle]

I was at first in love with totk, and I still think mechanical wise, its quite impressive

And when I collected all the tears and saw the "story" I genuinely got upset in a good way (at first), because man! Did they really got the balls to go that far? Is there nothing I can do for her? Now I MUST do all the temples, see how it plays out and --oh, I've got this cutscene already. Why are all the people so dumb about Zelda, I KNOW where she is, Link say something-- Link??

After finishing all the temples and almost falling asleep, I stopped playing the game, looked up the last boss and remaining cutscenes and went "Thats it?"

Watching other people (including you) being critically about so many things, both character and mechanical wise, I've almost startled myself with a realization what the gnawing feeling I constantly had, actually was.

Totk feels like a fanfic.

And don't get me wrong, I love fanfiction, I think its great and important, I adore fanfic writers, I love finding gems, I love reading self indulgent stories, see new spins and interpretation of characters. I love the casual, the passion, the creativity!

But totk gives me the same feeling everytime I am reminded that Fifty Shades is a Twillight fanfic.

The world is there. The faces I know and grew to love are there. But everything is ever so slightly different, uncannily so. Just how some characters talk, how they act, how they were placed in the story. The Zonai appearing out of nowhere, but no, they always had been there you see, they were these super magical advanced people but they all died, the king is so tragic. And you see, the king is super cool and powerful and-- oh I dont get to interact with him outside of the tutorial. Did they try to do another King Rhoam-- but wait, that only worked because we didn't knew he was a ghost-- totk wait stop why do you take him out of the story, why couldn't he be a companion, he IS ABLE TO TALK THROUGH THE ARM LET THE OLD GOAT COMMENT ON STUFF?? If you bring up all this ancient stuff and you still got a ghost lingering, let him talk?? (I never ended up getting Mineru but I smell wasted potential as well)

Im not even mad, I am disappointed. It feels like the devs saw what all the lore hunters got attached to and talked about and then just... took the "cool". All the Zonai stuff could've easily been Sheikah tech, but got just reskinned to look more exciting instead of being its own thing.

Like... at this point I prefer what fans are doing over what Totk gave us. The characterization of Rauru (and everything Zonai), projects like you do of what totk couldve been, the little nuggets of actual highlights and details of love fans find in the game. I found much more enjoyment in these concepts than I got from a 70bucks game. And thats depressing.

I love fanfiction. I dont love it when my corporate 70 dollar, six year development, console exclusive game feels like a story that passionate fan couldve written miles better in a week (and I've already seen much cooler and interesting rewrites and ideas).

Zelda has been a huge part of my childhood and its depressing seeing it treated like that. It always was about the story, the epic, its The Legend of Zelda for crying out loud. To be courageous to enter a dungeon, to be wise and solve all the riddles. To become powerful over the journey you embarked on. Zelda to me is the campfire story you tell to others and go into the woods or the beach and imagine what monsters you would slay. Zelda is not the sandcastle you build in the sandbox and then add dinosaurs and star wars ships because you didn't had any other toys, and just stumble into and over some story to entertain yourself until lunch is ready.

I'd have an oracle of seasons over another totk any day at this point. They should've just make the mechanics of totk its own thing, but I guess they were scared it wouldn't sell if it doesn't have a Mario or Zelda skin straped over it.

Anyways, sorry for the mini rant - love your art, love your thoughts and insights, and I am looking forward to see more of it - Zelda related or not (your original characters look amazing, I adore your style sm)

Hope you have a great rest of the day!

*nods along through this entire rant*

idk how many of my rants you have read but yeah ... yeah ... and the further you think about it the further it all falls apart, the wasted potential of it all and the goddamn audacity of them to do those interviews in which they make it EVEN WORSE is just

i know the expectation for a direct sequel to botw was huge and understandbly so but i really REALLY think it would not have been that hard to make it a good follow up even taking into account that totk was originally a DLC, pretty much all of botws aspects could have been developed further, i dont know what could have happened to make totk have turned out like this .. literally it feels like something had to have gone wrong, its like someone who doesnt know zelda nor botw at all was given a few prompts and then just made some generic fantasy story while the rest worked on ultrahand for 5 years

the technical impressive things ARE technical impressive, but i dont think it was necessary nor served the game well in any way (and i LOVE building games- however totk is neither a building game nor a story game nor a zelda game nor an exploration game nor a sequel imo) but zelda, this zelda, is not made for that and i cant help but think it was mainly to encourage people to make some ridiculous mechs so it can go viral on tiktok (not trying to discredit them, it IS cool what they are doing but i .... have my doubts if zelda is the right place for that)

ill stop there bc i have ranted so much about everything i dont wanna repeat it here again; it just doesnt feel like a real game (derogatory), it feels extra bad bc i was not really into zelda when botw came out and while i did get it as soon as i could (months after release since i just started a minijob and didnt have the money) i only over time grew to love zelda this much again, devouring any theories and anything about it bc i loved it so much- i was never into it like this when a new title was announced and dont own any special editions so i bought the totk collectors bc i was just so damn excited for it after the 2019 trailer dropped (god i want that time back ... it looked so much more like it was going to be an actual sequel) even if i was already worried it wouldnt be good at that point given how much i started to sense stuff i dont like about the newer trailers

i recently sold it at our local gameshop bc it was like a thorn in my side given how expensive it was and how dissapointed i was in the game, i genuinely think that, technical impressiveness aside, totk is the onyl zelda i truly cannot stand (for alot of reasons) and im genuinely worried for the future of the franchise

i bought an Oki (Okami) figurine for what i got back and i feel much happier with that :3

(also on a note, i did finish the game two weeks after release but stopped playing it right then and hadnt touched it since, i also streamed all of what i played and its still up if you want to see my slow descend into madness fjkdhkdhjk though its been a long while since then and i by far did not talk about everything back then, just what my most immediate frustrations were while still playing)

(also the gameplay isnt as good as people make it out to be, so much is so frustrating and punishing to use i am kinda baffled it got through like that and most people call that its best aspect ..... though i guess if the rest is so much worse even mid gameplay can seem good ooooooooh how dare i)

also thank you for liking what i do!!! <3 it means alot to know it is appreciated by someone :D

[4n4g1rl13]

i had a bad binge today. anyone have any good fanfic recs?? i need some triggering content rn lmao

[j0jorocity]

I NEED more sonic moots u guys don’t get it… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HMU IF YOU LIKE METAL SONIC, METAMY, KNUXOUGE, AND SONADOW….. please I beg sonic fandom accept me… bonus points if you like the APH ancients 🥺

[darklight-owl]

Sometimes when I talk about a thing I'm mentally ill about irl I forget that not everyone has read the source material, spinoffs and remakes, seen the stageplay recordings and movies, analyzed every single aspect of the soundtrack, or dissected the characters by painstakingly combing every scene they're in.

[scribbleshrimp]

Man I got to know how the story ends, it’s so personal to me I was in love with a guy who not only reminds me of Neil personality wise but even appearance wise. Do you have anything more written for it? All your platforms seem to be defunct and it makes me really sad

The original ending of the story is that they all died tragically young in painful ways because at at point in my life I could have never imagined a happy ending for me or the characters.

But now I have a pretty different ending which I consider 'canon'.

Mallory stops the morgue business and get's into art restoration instead, better use of her skills. Her insides are held together by resin and silicone and a bunch of other funky things that make her smell like oil paint but they are happy, even has a few friends (in person!!! wow!!!) , and reconnected with her father. Also Mallory no longer goes by Mallory! Cut out the 'Mal' part and just goes by Lorey now. Still has extreme CPTSD and is very awkward around people but...she is doing better. Lorey has been experimenting with weird hair styles lately, but always seems to come back to green after awhile. She has also been getting into mushroom foraging, 90% sure she ate a deadly lookalike at some point but she was....fine? Fun implications on what that means for her future. Either way she loves restoring art, and making art herself. She speaks to the paintings, and only misses talking to dead people a littleeee bit.

Efron took all his control issues and projected it onto having an absurd amount of pets. He can micro-manage a dozen terrariums as much as he likes and really enjoys the fact they are dependent on him. He also grew his hair out and ditched the pearls and sweater, any reminders of his mother is something he learned not to cling on to. Also got someee professional help for his identity issues? He realized that he is not in fact the next coming of christ, nor is he a gross reflection of his mother. Still has a massive eating disorder but all the animals are well fed to an absurd degree (lots of fresh/raw food which costs a lot but it's fine because Efron has a decent job now.) Efron is overall doing okay. Will probably never date anyone ever again, or even have close platonic bonds. Which is a bit sad but he is fine with it, he does not trust himself not to be manipulative for their own good. Maybe some more therapy would help him but he is the type to look down on most of the advice he is given, and he is content with his current lifestyle. Who says that he has to be normative to be fufilled?

Neil is... well he is dead. In the original escam at least he is. But now when I imagine him he is very very alive. Ironically he is a fucking school counselor now. He helps kids with planning their futures or hears out their petty drama and attempts to help sort it out. He also sometimes talks to kids who self harm, or are clearly seeking attention from.... less than ideal spaces. Sometimes it's like talking to a mirror of his younger self and that really freaks him out. He wishes he could shake these kids around and tell them that they should not be wasting their youth enabling predators or bonding with kids as equally messed up as they are over who can hurt themselves more. He is afraid he is not doing nearly enough to help them. But overall he is thriving in life. He has a boyfriend who treats him well, and that's pretty cool. He also has a full beard which is no longer patchy, and that's even cooler. He still feels depressed most days and is prone to mood swings but he is way more stable than he ever was in escam. The only part of himself he ever kills is the part that made him feel worthless.

[gay-baby-brig]

Still inordinatly salty about that time I said I was so proud of Izzy’s character development and a thousand people jumped on to say "uuuuh cute that you just now noticed how funny and kind he is but there was no character development, he was always like that. Real Izzy fans know."

Sweetheart, babydoll, cute pie, sunchild, I am BEGGING you to understand that character development does not just mean a character who hated pudding in season one changed their mind and learned to love pudding in season two.

Character development also means a character loved pudding in season one and wasn't brave or comfortable enough to show how much they loved it until season two. That is the development of the character.

[liedownquisition]

One thing that frustrates me sometimes is that the premise of the original RHATO team joining up together would not... take a lot to be made into something actually decent. Respect for the characters, really. Keep Kori's amnesia, keep Roy's isolation, but nudge the script a little:

Jason is vaguely familiar to Kori, because canonically they DID meet at least once when he was Robin (ignoring n52's everything tbh, the continuity still confuses me sometimes esp when some writers couldnt decide whether ot not 52 was a reboot or if they were going to keep referencing prior shit), but she doesn't remember, just has vague vibes and maybe he can help her with that if they knew each other? And Jason could try to help with what he can but he barely knew her, really. He's agonized bcs the only person he knows who might maybe help is Dick and he's Very Deliberately Estranged from the Bats.

Enter a tip from Talia. Maybe Jason reached out asking about the Titans, maybe she knows where he is and came to the conclusion that interacting with non-Bat heroes that he had a decently positive relationship before his death would be beneficial to him.

Roy's been off-grid since some time after Lian's death, pushing away everyone and deliberately running headfirst into things that could kill him. They're planning to televise his execution, but don't want to risk him getting rescued before that, but they can't hide from her spies. It solves a lot of problems then, doesn't it? Jason and Kori rescue him and he can help her with her memories and/or get her back in touch with the rest of their old team to help and Jason doesn't have to deal with any Bats himself.

But then they don't leave.

Kori's pretty content as she is, with people who know and have been helping her. Her memory loss isn't exactly life-threatening or anything and she's not in any hurry. Roy took one look at the two of them and came to the conclusion that he could help here, help both of them, and they won't judge him for what he's done or try to force him to reconnect with anyone before he was ready to face them/reality (if ever).

And Jason? Jason's a wounded animal snapping at anyone and anything that tries to come too close and covering up his own issues by fucking with shitty ppl & ruining their day. It's a bit of a challenge to make him chill out, but neither of the other two are afraid of that and he's already done all this to help them so why not return the favor?

Jason's the "leader", not because he's more qualified to lead a team but because he needs the feeling of being in control. There's only three of them and there's enough power & experience between them to compensate if anything goes off the rails & Roy's fluent enough in Bat from all his history with Dick to nudge Jason a little to the left if he has to. It's halfway between babysitting and a vacation.

(Amusingly this gave me the mental image of Roy & Kori in beach gear slurping colorful mocktails and Jason running around on an adult-sized child leash.)

You could even keep Roy/Kori, build it up slightly more, ect., ect. Just make it an actual relationship & not turning Kori into a sex doll lmao. I mean they were friends! Even without Dick they were friends with Each Other! & sometimes friendships can get sexual or turn into relationships!

None of this fixes like the racism & such in a bunch of the plot but that's a speech for whole different post I think, and I'm honestly not sure if I've got the chops to redesign all that. At the very least, it would be too big of a distraction from everything else I'm already easily distracted from working on lmao.