#this is somewhat on purpose

[vodka-and-ocs]

WAIT ALSO the chosen one ......

the hero and her eternal enemy

(the chosen one + the monster)

[mumblesplash]

i know it’s like years old at this point but i love that one collab mumbo and grian did with tommyinnit bc it’s like the single most concentrated example i’ve seen of mumbo’s Chaos Nullification Powers

you get to see a bit of it on hermitcraft, mostly via his interactions with grian, but until seeing that collab it didn’t really hit me just how completely mumbo can no-sell other people’s attempts to control a situation. tommyinnit is possibly the single shoutiest, most chaotic minecraft youtuber out there, and in most videos i’ve seen he pretty much overwhelms everyone else and sets the tone for interactions because of this. but mumbo just. doesn’t let him. no matter how much tommy escalates in intensity, mumbo reacts with *exactly* the same energy he always does. grian largely comes across in the whole video as annoyed and reluctant to engage with the whole thing, but mumbo’s not even affected. he just rolls with anything he finds funny and basically ignores anything he disapproves of, only seeming more and more unflappable the harder anyone tries to get a rise out of him.

AND imo, this is the key to my favorite interpretation of him as a character

see, when the people around him are being more reasonable/calm, i think mumbo often comes across as anxious and a bit easily overwhelmed. the thing is, his nervous wet cat vibes do not scale. he has one setting. his responses to the last life ‘ah-ha!’ jokes and to hermitcraft 8 starting to crumble to pieces under a falling moon are almost identical.

mumbo jumbo is inexorably and eternally Just Some Guy, but that gets stranger and stranger the weirder his surroundings become. the giggly incredulousness that makes him an easy target for goofy puns looks Very different when it’s also his reaction to the impending end of the world.

[silverwhittlingknife]

So you're a go to source for all things Dick&Tim bros and you tend to write primarily from Dick's POV. So, odd question, but if you were to summarize their relationship from his POV in FIVE panels which panels would you pick? Keeping in mind that one specific aspect of their relationship that you love needs to be clearly represented by each panel (loyalty, trust etc). I hope this is a fun challenge and not an annoying question so if you don't want to answer that's cool! Have a wonderful day!

No more talk. The same thoughts run through two minds... (SotB 29) / You're my equal. My closest ally. (RR 1) / I can't stop thinking how much I rely on him. (GoG 3)

25 Feelings Dick Has About Tim

This was such a kind ask & a cool challenge which I totally failed; here are TWENTY-five panels of Dick's POV on Tim sdfdsfds Look, I got carried away! Marcia and Cindy! The boys!!

OKAY SO BEFORE I GET TO THE PANELS A FEW NOTES:

WARNING THAT THERE ARE SOME NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN HERE because I love conflict but but but you gotta remember those are not the final word!! They are complicated people and sometimes they get mad at each other BUT ultimately their relationship is so hugely important in both their lives & they love each other and rely on each other so much -!!! <3

Also I have CONCLUDING THOUGHTS at the end about what Dick's POV leaves out (mostly: a lot of Dick defending & protecting & supporting Tim, which Dick does instinctively but isn't very self-aware about most of the time)

I have loosely organized my list into 5^5 format (5 categories with 5 examples each!), so if you want to skip to a relevant one, here are the categories!!

Below the cut:

I hate him and find him infuriating (#1-5)

On second thought, he's endearing & fun (#6-10)

Grief is complicated & he's all tangled up in mine (#11-15)

I love him & think highly of him (#16-20)

I rely on him & though it's hard for me, I trust him (#21-25)

I hate him and find him infuriating (#1 - 5)

1) He thinks he’s so smart and can psychoanalyze me and Bruce, but he doesn’t know me at all, he should get lost (New Titans 61)

2) He thinks he’s so smart and can psychoanalyze Bruce but he doesn’t know Bruce at all, he should get lost (Gotham Knights 26)

3) He is so nosy about stuff that is MY business (Robin 0)

4) He sounds like an insincere suck-up half the time... but okay, fine, if you push him he's got a sense of humor about it (New Titans 65)

5) I'm sure he's a better vigilante than me. It's my fault for being a failure, but I resent him anyway. (Nightwing 9 - Dick's having a nightmare)

On second thought, he's kinda endearing (#6-10)

6) He worries too much and gets anxious so easily, but it makes him fun to tease (Robin 67)

7) I'm not that competitive - okay, so maybe I'm a little competitive, I gotta make sure he doesn't get a swelled head (Prodigal)

8) I'm supposed to be his favorite! It is not cool for him to be fanboying over my not-girlfriend's not-boyfriend!! (Birds of Prey 19)

9) We have fun together. I can kick back and relax when it's just the two of us. Plus I get to boss him around a bit. (Prodigal)

10) He’s always trying to reassure me, and I guess it's a little comforting, but also he doesn’t really get it. Or me. He makes excuses that he shouldn't, because he doesn't understand that I suck. (Nightwing 64)

Grief is complicated and he's all tangled up in mine (#11 - 15)

11) He reminds me of everything I try not to think about. Sometimes the memories are so strong it hurts to look at him. (Batman 441)

12) WHY IS HE BEING IMPOSSIBLE ALL OF A SUDDEN??? THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING (Nightwing 139)

13) We're the same. He says all the things I don't let myself think about. It's like arguing with myself. (Nightwing 139)

14) He thinks he gets to tell me what to do but he doesn’t, fuck him (Battle for the Cowl)

15) Life sucks, so what. I sucked it up so he should too (RR 1)

I love him and think highly of him (#16 - 20)

16) He’s the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have.  If someone hurts him I will hurt them harder. (Nightwing 6)

17) I can't handle the idea of losing him. (Nightwing 97)

17) He’s so good and I’m not. I'm afraid I’m bad for him. (Nightwing 110)

18) He’s better than me, and it’s kind of a relief because I know no matter what he’ll be okay. (Gates of Gotham 3)

19) In my head he’s the responsible one.  (Gotham Knights 10)

I rely on him, and though it's hard for me, I trust him (#20-25)

20) I know I have to trust him but I'm afraid he'll make the wrong choices and get hurt (Nightwing 139)

21) I'm sure I know what he should do because I see myself in him - not that I can take my own advice, but he should (Blackest Night 3)

22) I trust him.  When I’m losing my grip on things, he pulls me back. (Gotham Knights 10)

23) I want him to trust me (Red Robin 12)

24) He can tell when I'm lying. Sometimes he sees my weaknesses better than I wish he did. (Detective Comics 874)

25) He’s always there when I need him. (Teen Titans / Outsiders Secret Files)

Final rambling thoughts:

TIM: Uhh, okay, so I'm just skimming this list - do you really trust me? you're not just saying that? - but anyway, I'm confused because you left some stuff out? Like some stuff that's kinda important? DICK: No? I think I got everything? TIM (starts counting on his fingers): The time I was having a bad day but then I called you. The time I got captured by Two-Face but then you saved me. The time I fell off a train but then you saved me. The time I fell off a building but then you saved me. The time I fell off a different building - DICK: I feel like you're trying to make some kind of point but I'm not sure what it could be.

SO THE THING IS, I put 25 panels in here and not a single one has Dick catching Tim when he’s falling!!! But I think that's a central motif of their relationship from Tim’s POV, not Dick’s. I love Dick, but in some ways I think he is spectacularly un-self-aware.

And I think he especially has a lot of blind spots about Tim. He kinda intermittently gets that Tim admires him, and he enjoys it in a playful I-get-to-boss-you-around way. But Dick tends to consistently underestimate all of his own good qualities & skills, and he meets Tim at a point in his life when he's especially down on himself & his abilities. And so he's unable to see his own influence on Tim, & therefore unable to fully understand a lot of Tim's priorities and loyalties and motivations, because you can't actually understand Tim without understanding Dick's impact on him. There's a fascinating moment in Bruce Wayne: Murderer when Dick's completely blindsided & upset to discover that Tim doesn't entirely trust Bruce, even though this has been a definitive fact of Tim's whole thing ever since he showed up with his Batman needs Robin theory, and Barbara has to actively remind Dick of the obvious-to-everyone-except-Dick fact that a lot of Tim's loyalty is to Dick, and Tim loves Bruce but feels free to be more wary of him. (And to give Bruce credit: this is not something he ever begrudges.) But anyway Babs points this out, and Dick manages to sorta process it for about five seconds, but he cannot actually accept it into his worldview so instead he discards it at the speed of light and goes off and has an argument with Tim instead sdfsfdsf

All of Dick's virtues - Dick's kindness at the circus and Dick's determination to fight through grief and Dick's rigid sense of morals and Dick's vigilante skills and every time Dick has ever backed Tim up or listened to him or protected him or saved him from something or just been casually kind to a stranger in Tim's presence etc etc etc - all these things loom really large in Tim's mental story of Who Dick Is, and What Dick And Tim's Relationship Is. Tim meets Dick before he meets Bruce, trusts Dick more than Bruce, aspires to be Robin instead of Batman. And so in Tim's default version of the story, Dick is the super-special and admirable hero and Tim is... nobody in particular, a tagalong outsider who's barely managing to be a hero, not part of Dick and Bruce's family and not part of their story, who, if he's VERY LUCKY and tries REALLY HARD, might be able to fight his way to proving himself and offering something to Dick that Dick will value, if Dick doesn't get fed up with him first.

But that's not Dick's version of the story!!!

Dick's version of the story is almost the exact opposite, a story where Dick's an outcast failure black sheep who's screwing up everything he tries, and meanwhile Tim is The Sudden New Perfect Robin Who's Better Than Me And Probably Bruce Loves Him More And Probably They Gossip About What A Loser I Am, mixed with a complicated edge of Tim Thinks He's So Smart But He Doesn't Know Me/Us At All. Dick gets much more attached to Tim over time, and Tim gets unnervingly better at the know-it-all psychoanalysis so then Dick gets to have complicated feelings about him being right instead of just annoyance at him for being wrong, plus Dick's relationship with Bruce improves a lot, so Tim stops feeling so threatening. But Dick never fundamentally changes his basic theory of their relationship in which Tim is highly impressive and capable, and Dick is not so much.

And so asking Dick about Tim is kinda like if you asked George Bailey to tell you about Harry Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life; like, you'll be there for five hours while he tells you how great Harry is, and how accomplished Harry is, and how he doesn't really get how or why Harry does the things he does, and maybe George does feel a little resentful or jealous sometimes, but that pales in comparison to all his admiration and trust for Harry who he loves so much, who's better than him in so many ways, and he's not gonna openly gripe but secretly he can't help but feel sometimes like he's such a failure in comparison to Harry, a perfect person who emerged fully formed from Zeus's head with all the virtues and also all the accomplishments, etc. etc. etc. --

-- and he will not actually remember the part where he changed and saved Harry's whole entire life unless you literally send him to an alternate timeline in order to force him to remember it. <3

[eyes-of-nine]

early hualian dynamic my beloved(there's so much wrong with both of them but it's too early to get into it)

[rystiel]

au where 17 year old stan, just a week or so before the science fair incident, gets sent to 2012. he wakes up with no idea where (or when) he is, and ford starts asking him questions to figure out exactly when he’s from. stan assumes he’s checking for some kind of brain damage when this random guy (to him, ford hasn’t explained anything yet) starts asking about what day and year it is for him, and the science fair topic comes up. stan assumes maybe this guy is a judge, since he knows about the fair, and starts bragging about his genius brother and how he’s gonna blow his socks off with his motion-whatchamacallit. ford sits there almost in disbelief because he’d been so convinced that stan was bitter leading up to the incident, but here he was bragging to him about ford with no idea that he is ford

[oobbbear]

Ohoh I forgot about this, it’s a small story that went no where but still a concept I love, this fits into the category of sun moon inspired but went too far now it’s just its own thing now

Basically there’s this thing called a “hanging tree” it’s a monster living in the forest who eats unfortunate travelers, the eaten souls were then trapped forever hanging on the tree as these little ghost things. The ghost are sent out to gather food for the tree whenever it is hungry or else their souls will be crashed.

There were these two little kids who got eaten now they’re ghosts, they were sent out one time to lure in travelers for the tree to eat and they found this nice witch lady who was willing to help them defeat the tree

(The little kids are siblings I’m weak for big brother sun okay)

And it kinda just end here, maybe I’ll do something with this later I like the witch design a lot a lot

[koerinz]

“Her green eyes pierced through him like a bullet…. No, she can’t be here--” Chapter 1 ; Penitence : Hidden Hands by @north-noire

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

fine. you can have pearleo as your domestic fluff and gempearl as your toxic yuri. just this one time

[wisteriasymphony]

YAAAAAYYYY!!!!! drinking buddies!!!!!!!!!!! (doodles under the cut)

[arrangedaccident]

i’ve seen some ppl saying that ricky and lindy being an analogue to the doctor and ruby is foreshadowing (and it still might be!) but more importantly i think that their extended scenes together are there to reflect back reactionary conservatives desire for what doctor who as a show should be. a white man doctor that’s oddly apolitical but smarter than everyone else and a ditzy white woman companion who instantly falls in love with him running around and saving themselves only. which are just villains

[sesamenom]

Reverse Gondolin Tyelpe!

outfit inspired by this post by @thelien-art

[coquelicoq]

i can't stress enough that outside of this one moment in rogue protocol when murderbot wants to kill a human for betraying its sort-of clients but settles for the next best thing of menacingly hovering a drone in her face for 26 seconds while she's frozen in place by her armor, for the rest of the first four books mb is really only using drones for security purposes and doesn't have the time or inclination to be performing close-range facial analysis:

in ASR it doesn't seem to be all that familiar with drones outside of maybe using them to set a perimeter. it exhibits several other uses of drones as events escalate, but they're all related to protecting itself and its humans and getting intel on EvilSurvey. at no point does it mention watching a human with a drone; it's all "using drones to draw fire" this and "sending drones flying off in the wrong direction as a diversion tactic" that. et cetera.

it has no access to drones whatsoever in AC from what i can tell.

in RP it uses Ship's drones to record conversations between wilken and gerth, but it's not a participant in those conversations and it doesn't even watch them in real time. it also forgoes getting a good look at their weapons via drone because it thinks they would notice. later it takes control of a station drone to watch (from afar) their first meeting with don abene & co., but miki notices the drone and almost catches mb because of it, which freaks it out. then it hacks the combatbots' drones, but other than the aforementioned 26-second intimidation of wilken, it's too busy doing actual security work to use them to look at people.

in ES it accesses drones many times, including to observe its humans, but it only seems to actually control a drone to look at something one time, and only in order to zoom in on a suit logo. so at no point could it conceivably be directing a drone to get up in somebody's face, since it's just piggybacking on drones as they go about their normal business.

it does use cameras to watch people in the first four books, but in a much less obvious way: either it's using fixed cameras that are built into habitats/hoppers/whatever, or it's accessing mobile cameras (suit cams, station drones) but not controlling where those cameras go or what they're pointing at.

it's interesting, because while drones can be startling or intrusive, on the flip side, cameras that don't move don't draw attention to themselves and thus may make it easier to forget you're being watched (plus you have no way of knowing if that particular camera is being monitored at that moment or if it's just recording for later analysis). so in a way, having a drone in your face actively signals to you that mb is paying attention to you. it's making mb's gaze visible in a way it might not otherwise be. this changes the dynamic from "passive surveillance for datamining and threat assessment purposes" to "person actively choosing to pay attention to you in real time". one of these is covert and the other isn't; one of these holds the possibility of interaction and exchange and the other doesn't. maybe it puts a drone in your face to show you it cares.

[kittykatninja321]

I know it was completely on accident but the way most of Jason’s “volatility” in his original Robin run was centered around cases involving sexual assault/exploitation does not leave the mind. And then you think oh you sure did spend a large swath of your childhood extremely vulnerable with no proper adult supervision didn’t you. Robin Jason was exhibiting behavior that would make a school counselor pull him to the side and go “hey if there’s anything you wanna talk about please feel free to stop by my office” like…

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[buwheal]

alright gang what we thinkin Ive been doing this without a reference this entire damn time and its KILLING my consistency.... sigh... me when i have to follow the properties of a character to draw them correctly.... (bwomp)... /j

is he fucked up enough

[little-laurance]

Laurance is an unreasonably powerful Shadow Knight. Gene says so himself, claiming he would kill Laurance but he is so powerful it would be a shame to waste that potential. Additionally, it seems the only reason Laurance is the one in charge of the Nether Rebellion is because he bested Zenix in a fight. Which is Absurd because not only has Zenix been a shadow knight MUCH longer than Laurance (all the years prior + 15 year gap), he's been a shadow knight for a larger portion of his life (implied to have been transformed as a child), AND Zenix has absorbed Several other shadow knights to increase his power, AND Laurance, once again, hasn't even completed his full transformation!!!