#this is probably me reflecting

[gnomewithalaptop]

Y'know, it's so funny to me when people make out like Tim Drake would keep files on how to take down his friends when Tim has explicitly said he disagrees with Batman on this:

[Young Justice (1998) #36]

Like, yes, during his Red Robin tenure he does make a Hit List full of contingency plans for known heroes. But if you go and read that, you'll notice that, while the Justice League and Damian may be on there, Tim's own friends are decidedly absent:

[Red Robin (2009) #14]

In fact, a lot of these heroes are people that have either (a) attacked Tim specifically, (b) have a track record that includes turning evil/getting mind controlled, or (c) are on the JLA (meaning Batman probably already had those files compiled and Tim just stole them).

So yeah: Tim's not down with contingency-planning for his friends. You know which one of the YJ crew DID agree with Batman though? My favorite blorbina Anita Fite, aka Empress:

[Young Justice (1998) #36]

But yeah, this contrast is honestly fascinating to me. Because while both Anita and Tim have been shown to be incredibly loyal individuals, this exchange really highlights the fact that, between the two of them, Anita is far more likely to engage in this kind of pragmatism when she thinks it's necessary to get the job done

The whole Our Worlds at War arc actually does a really good job of illustrating how both of them react to betrayal from within. It's not just the Batman Files conflict either -- I'm thinking specifically about the hallucination-based torture Granny Goodness put them through, which showed them their worst fears. Most of the team ended up having to watch their loved ones die, but what's super interesting to me is that we really only see Anita and Tim hallucinate that their loved ones blame them for their deaths:

[Young Justice (1998) #37]

Like. It's not the same as a teammate turning evil at all. But it does give us a good idea of how they'd both react when faced with a friend or teammate doing harmful things, albeit on a smaller scale. Because where Tim kind of just accepts Superboy yelling at him and moves straight into bargaining for Kon's life, Anita actually flips the script, gets angry, and defends herself against her father:

[Young Justice (1998) #37]

(she actually gets so righteously pissed off that she manages to break out of the VR simulation Granny Goodness had her trapped in, but that's another point)

But yeah, it's super interesting, because by this point, both Anita and Tim have been set up to be very similar characters. They both can be a little bit obsessive, they both have some issues with boundaries and stalking (Tim with Nightwing and Batman, Anita with Cissie), and of the team, they're both portrayed as the "normal" members (Anita does technically have mind control powers but she barely ever uses them, and in a fight, she's basically just a very good, human-level fighter)

But at the end of the day, though Batman forces Robin to put on a cool front of objectivity, Tim (at least in his pre-grief-spiral era) ultimately wants to see the best in his team. When the people he cares about screw up, he wants to give them second chances. And when that trust gets broken, his first instinct is to try to use diplomacy, or, failing that, simply remove himself from the situation (as we see at the end of the Our Worlds at War arc when he quits the team)

Anita, on the other hand, while still incredibly loyal, does not hand out that loyalty unconditionally. We see this when she tries to keep her identity secret from the YJ squad, we see it when she gets pissed in Granny Goodness's hallucination when her father blames her for her mother's death, and we see it when she later blames Secret for her perceived role in Anita's father's death

Anita also happens to sit right smack dab in the middle of the YJ morality scale; while she's generally pretty chill and willing to abide by typical superhero codes of ethics (unlike Slobo and Secret), she's also been shown to bend those rules when she believes it's necessary (as seen here when she tortures and threatens to kill a man for trying to hurt Cissie). Ultimately, what this means is, between Tim and Anita, it's honestly Anita who'd probably be the most willing to put her personal qualms aside, buckle down, and go against her loved ones if it was the only reasonable option

Anyway. This is a really long-winded way of saying I think Gun Batman's biggest nemesis should be Empress

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

He was just being a silly little guy!

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[doctorsiren]

“Sometimes when magicians vanish, they leave something behind…That’s how Trucy became Trucy Wright…my daughter. To be honest, I was pretty lost those first few days. Thinking back on it, it was a pretty dark time in my life. But Trucy…happy, smiling Trucy…she was my light.”

[corrodedparadox]

I’ve had a few people ask but as long as my art isn’t tagged with OC or some sort of Sona tag I’m totally ok with you tagging it as kin/therian/ect

[one-blaze-of--glory]

the struggle when you want to go "finally! a story that focuses on friendship over romance!" but then you start shipping them. I'm sorry aro nation (I'm aro) i do like the idea of stories focused on friendship but sometimes the chemistry is just stronger than intended

[nguyenfinity]

Here with an issue to shake you down to your very bones is Eden!!!

Frameless below the cut!

[the loudest screaming you've ever heard in your goddamn life]

[communistkenobi]

I have to shed cool guy posting brain. whenever my beautiful Mutuals post about youtube drama between guys who review bidets or write cutthroat kitchen rpf I think the world is so beautiful and full of wonder. But I’m too shy to talk about what I’ve been doing (reading mission impossible fanfiction)

[murderedbyhomework]

So i found an extremely interesting commment on bilibili from someone who had bought and read the entire og lhl script and also watched the show

translation: ask the director, so much fluff got deleted…. the script was filled with so much ship content, better than a lot of danmei novels i’ve read. In the later periods it was a solid reciprocal relationship, xiaobao was so top energy, and xiaohua really liked to sajiao (playing cute). When xh when to explain to xb that he didn’t kill his dad his first sentence was “i’m sorry i betrayed your trust, i was wrong okay?”. when xb went to save xh from the palace, xh was tortured for information and xiaobao helped him dress his wounds, and also broke the hand of the man who hurt him. xb felt so bad for him he started crying and xh started to sajiao “i’m very glad that you came to save me, but look (waves handcuffs), i had it under control” xiaobao also asked “how are you” xiaohua replied that shan gudao went to the palace to find the mother bug and xiaobao replied “i was asking how your wounds were”…… also when xiaobao broke out of the trap improving his original swordplay his opponent wasn’t qi mushan but li xiangyi….lastly when xiaobao gave xiaohua his qi xiaohua’s internal monologue was “the world only wants the all knowing, all capable, godlike li xiangyi, but at least someone still insists on treating me like the normal person li lianhua, that is enough” it’s all gone i’m so mad

[popcornoncemore]

One of the things I just adore about the fannon portrayal of Jehan Prouvaire is how most people depict him as effeminate or nonbinary, somewhat introverted, shy, and disinclined to aggression, but they do so with nuance.

Jehan isn't shown to be defenseless or weak-willed, he fights for what he believes in and generally doesn't fall into that delicate twink stereotype. So often, I find the characters I relate to most cannot be shown as both the queer, eccentric, and introverted type as well as the assertive and strong character. Jehan stands out, however.

[chekovs-merkin]

okay, having watched the thing, I don’t think it actually “canonises” Spirk, not any more than any other time they held hands or any of the big scenes from the movies. in fact, I think this is rather more a passion-project/“elevated” fanwork from Shatner, Rod Rodenberry, and the Nimoy estate, than actual canon. That, and all my reservations about the whole cgi/deepfake “de-aging” aside,

I really like this thing, in all it’s cringey, kinda bad, earnest glory.

This felt like the “real” Kirk, a kind of hero that just doesn’t have the space to be (re)created in our present collective consciousness, who likes walking among nature and smelling pretty flowers and watching the sunset with his soulmate (platonic or romantic or both or whatever). It’s a little bit misguided, a little bit controversial, but it has heart, which I feel is also how Kirk has always been able to reflect Shatner at his best. I also like the ambiguity of how exactly it was that they were reunited. That’s best left to interpretation I think.

And I guess I’m glad that there’s a version of them that were together at the end and is a little closer to the mainstream than my favourite fics on ao3.

[mamawasatesttube]

maybe its just my pedantic streak rearing its head again but really, truly. can i be honest? i dont get why people call yj/core four codependent. thats not what that word means. tim and cassie having a Bad Time with grief does not mean their relationships with kon and bart were unhealthy. grief is a whole other beast here. like do you guys know what the word "codependency" means because im getting the feeling that thats a no

[kilgarraghforever]

I am genuinely really enjoying seeing people who have clearly never read the Odyssey before reacting to EPIC's Ithaca saga. I haven't listened to EPIC myself (yet) but people keep saying stuff like "Odyseeus built their palace around an olive tree he carved into his and Penelope's marriage bed that's so symbolic" and "He really just murdered all the suitors wouldn't that piss off their parents?" Which are observations and questions that the Odyssey makes incredibly blatantly clear as to the symbolism or the answer because it's a really old poem and subtlety wasn't really Homer's strong suit.

There's something really endearing about seeing people interact with the Odyssey through the same way the Ancient Greeks did - a bard singing the story of Odyseus' nostos.

(I gather the details have changed a little, but that's what happens with oral storytelling, and that's how the Odyssey got created in the first place)

Also as congratulations have my favourite ancient depiction of Odysseus surfing with two amphemorae having stolen Poseidon's trident, being sped along by Boreas, stark naked except for a cloak he's holding onto.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

anyway to end the series on ganondorf tp's writing, my take (which isn't canon but arguable as a valid "death of the author" read imo) is that he is at his most iredeemable AND that's because he has zero things left to lose and no community left and his goal doesn't even make sense anymore he is parasitic and a ghost and pathologically obsessed by his own godlike legitimacy because that is the only thing he still has and it has prolonged his life in a horrible diminished state in a nightmare dimension so SURELY it must mean something right right RIGHT

[puppppppppy]

learning abt friendship decay and "not reaching out to your friends for months at a time unprompted is not neurotypical behaviour" has me feeling a certain way

[kings-favorite-courtjester]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNK!!! My sarcasm king, my cinnamon roll, my space Gordon Ramsey 💛💛💛 he deserves the world ( and beyond) so everyone wish him the best birthday ever! ✨✨🎂

[front-facing-pokemon]