#this is why i gatekeep ellie

[elleloquently]

i honestly don't even really like to talk about tlou2 but something that will absolutely baffle me until the end of time is how many people romanticize the farm sequence and view it as happy. every time someone says the game should've ended there or that ellie threw away her whole life and she could've been happy etc etc etc, it really makes me realize how many people do lack literacy and the ability to read between the lines. because how are you seeing the farm scenes and not realizing how devastating it is?? it feels so empty and lifeless.

yes ellie laughed and they listen to music and dance but those are such small snippets. anyone with severe ptsd / mental trauma can be okay for a moment. but ellie was quite literally killing herself on that farm and absolutely would've ended up dead by her own hand (which is not a crazy assumption to make it is quite literally context clues)

like she’s always been skinny and lean but she’s even more thin on the farm?? she literally says she doesn’t eat or sleep?? and the panic attacks that she has?

also when ellie says “i’m not like you dina” and dina instantly snaps back with “you think this is easy for me?” like no that’s not what is being insinuated at all, but the fact of the matter is that dina is still able to function and cope in healthy ways and ellie is not. and the fact that dina doesn’t understand that kinda kills me. also telling ellie to “prove it” when she tells dina that she loves her is so fucked considering everything.

she would’ve died! i will stand by this forever, ellie would not have lived much longer. (confirmed btw in directors commentary, ellie was severely suicidal at this point. so not sure how everyone views the farm as her happy point.)

i don’t think ellie had an obligation to suffer in silence for the sake of what dina wanted.

i don’t blame dina for leaving obviously, that was the best choice for her and i don’t blame ellie for going either!! i think their relationship is very doomed, it was quite literally built on years of miscommunication and it only continues as they’re together.

i don’t blame ellie for leaving the farm whatsoever, she did not “fumble dina,” she didn’t throw away her life, she was barely functioning in the first place. if the game ended with ellie on the farm and the last thing we saw of her was her trying to play house while knowing how much she was suffering, that would’ve been so damn depressing. her leaving may not be the “morally good” choice but it was necessary considering her own mental state.

i think it’s also so important to remember the way in which joel died. she’s not just grieving and dealing with survivors guilt, she’s also living with the brutality of what she experienced. watching the person she loved the most get brutally tortured/beaten to death while she was held down and begging for it to stop?? and you guys expect her to just move on and deal with it so she can keep living on this isolated farm and play happy family??

and it’s not like ellie was fine until tommy showed up. she was already on the edge. the evidence is in her behavior, her journal, the clues around her house (the whiskey glass at her bedside) and her literal mannerisms.

this is very messy and disorganized i just don’t understand how many people STILL oversimplify the farm stuff or act as though everything was happy and good. every time someone says that ellie owed it to dina to stay, i lose a year off of my life.

basically a ramble instead of a proper analysis/breakdown bc i’m trying to focus my energy elsewhere but hopefully it makes enough sense to be understood

[obsessedwithstarwars]

I love this 😂

“Do you remember when I sold my soul a few years back?”

The tapping at the keyboard did not still. “Yes of cour— Tim, you sold your soul?”

“Oh my god, you forgot.” He dramatically threw a hand against his chest, collapsing sideways out of the chair to land on the cave floor. “I’m wounded. In my cold, soulless heart, shot straight through it. You forgot I sold my soul. Dick, how could you?”

“It’s been a hectic few years-“

“It’s my soul Richard Greyson. Isn’t that important? I sold my soul to the Ghost King and now it’s apparently changed hands.”

“The Ghost King sold your already sold soul?!?”

Tim sat back up, using the BatDesk to pull himself to his feet. “Nah, apparently the og king got bested in combat and the new king now owns it. He sent me a letter. So we could meet. And potentially discuss me repossessing my soul. Anyway, are you free Thursday cause that’s when he’s picking me up and he said I could bring a friend. Cissie already said no, so you’re the next on my list.”

Dick had long since abandoned whatever report he’d been working on and was staring at Tim with what could only be described as ‘major concern.’ “Can we please backtrack to the fact you sold your soul to a Cthulhu-like entity?”

“No.”

…

Meme under the cut

[coldbronzemoon]

Danny Fenton, Totally Mortal Hero Consultant (DPxDC)

Snippet for an AU I'll probably never fully write where Danny takes a job as a consultant for the Justice League to help with ghost and demon bullshit. It's a pretty good cash flow to help him with college, after all, and very flexible hours.

He just claims all his knowledge comes from his parents. Unfortunately, the JL has caught word of the elusive yet active hero Phantom, and want Danny to help them meet and assess him. Whoops.

Over the phone, Tucker sighed. “Good Christ, Danny, why do you keep doing this?”

“I’m not doing anything,” Danny said immediately. He winced at the vague sound of screaming below. Demons sucked. “I didn’t know the JL thing was gonna have me finding Phantom. How would I? They were talking about tracking down powerful ghosts, I was assuming Ancients!”

Tucker sighed again, which was really quite unfair of him. “Mhm. Well, Fenton Catcher?”

“Probably not. They know me pretty well at this point, and unlike what Sam says I can be professional. I’d confuse them with the… uh…”

“Stoner shtick?”

There was more screaming happening, but judging from the pitch it was a demon screaming this time. Danny checked the situation. Yep, demon getting their ass kicked. He didn’t need to get involved with a blaster. Yet.

Instead, he scowled at his phone. “Stop calling it that.”

“You’re gonna tell me flanny Danny wasn’t a pitch-perfect stoner, huh? With the chill vibing and the dopey look?”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too, bud.” 

The sound of a clacking keyboard that had underlined their conversation stopped. “But seriously, Danny, what the hell are you gonna do with this?”

“Uh, lie, probably,” Danny said, because it was very likely.

“Alright, smartass, what are you going to do when that lie backfires on you like literally every other one does?”

“That’s when I start gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing, babe.”

He had a hard time hearing Tucker’s distant groan of “Why am I still your friend?” on account of the sudden explosion. Danny checked again. Hm. Demon dude had a nasty fire thing going on.

Danny switched on his Fenton water gun—holy water included!-- and shot the demon in the face. They let out a cracking hiss of rage, but dropped the fire spell thing. He waited for them to stop looking around wildly for the culprit for a moment. 

He went back to the call. “‘Cause you loooove me, Tuck. From the bottom of your twice-dead heart.”

“Unfortunately,” Tucker deadpanned.

Danny just cackled. It was lost amongst the sound of supernatural bullshit below.

“Anyway, I’m still figuring out my plan A, honestly. Might bring in gray-man?”

“Amorpho’s an asshole, though. He’ll ruin the whole thing by taking the opportunity to shift into a JL member for a bit.”

Hm. True.

“Yeah, but he’s the main guy I know with that power set.”

“Ask after Desiree?” He could hear the immediate distaste in Tucker’s voice. “Ugh, pretend I didn’t say that. That’s worse than Amorpho.”

“It’s awful,” Danny agreed easily. 

Desiree was actually pretty alright nowadays, mostly on account of Danny remembering the last couple minutes of Aladdin and wishing she could refuse wishes she didn’t want to grant. That had made her happy enough to stop actively picking fights. 

Unfortunately, spending the entirety of one’s afterlife twisting the wording of wishes to their worst form made it hard to stop being an asshole. Who knew! So getting Desiree to split him in two for like a week had a 50/50 chance of fucking up his work relationship with the literal league of superheroes irrevocably. And this was his main cash flow right now.

So, no Desiree, no siree.

“Come up with something better then, asshole.”

Danny hummed and, since the heroes below were focused on the demon, lifted up a little and did a thoughtful back flip. What to do, what to do…?

Oh!

“My cousin!” he exclaimed.

“What cous—? Oh, Ellie.”

“Yeah, Ellie, Tuck. Which other cousins do I have?”

Tucker scoffed. “You literally have that whole Nightingale thing going on through your dad?”

Danny couldn’t help the face he made. The remaining Nightingales were worse than his parents somehow. “The Nightingales don’t count.”

“You can’t just say they don’t count.”

“I can say that, actually, and I will. They’re, like, cousins through my great-great-great-grandpa anyway.”

“Isn’t there a fight going on over there? Should you be shooting someone?”

 “Yeah, probably.”

He peaked down through the window once more. The heroes must have gotten the first demon to leave while he was talking, because the horned demon fighting them now was a truly unfortunate shade of yellow-green instead of purple. Or maybe it had transformed for some reason? They had it about as in-hand as the other one, though, so Danny definitely didn’t need to go down there. He shot the maybe-new demon in the face real quick.

“Anyway, Ellie can totally help out, she’s been practicing with changing up her looks. She’s also more, uh, malleable than me, what with her situation and all. Looking fully like Phantom shouldn’t be hard.”

Tucker hummed. “She’d try to embarrass you though.”

“Yeah, that’s a problem.” Danny spun in place. “I could bribe her?”

“With what? Her life doesn’t involve needing much cash.”

“She doesn’t get out to the Zone very much. Not many of the inhabited places, anyway. I can promise her the weird apple things Dora’s been growing with Sam’s help, she loved those.”

“If you think that’ll work…” Tucker trailed off dubiously.

Danny laughed. “She’s annoying sometimes, but she’s not gonna fuck over my job if I ask her not to. I’ll just bribe her extra hard for resisting the temptation to mock me.”

“Fair enough.” The clacking of keys resumed. “I’ve really gotta pay attention now, someone’s trying to stop me from getting into this database. Someone half-decent, actually, did they upgrade? Hm. Make sure no one died, yeah?”

“They’re alive. Bye, Tuck,” Danny said, and ended the call.

He shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket and made his way down the stairs. The fight outside he had been stationed for was basically over—Captain Marvel and Green Lantern (Danny was pretty sure he had accidentally learned the dude’s actual name at some point, but hell if he could remember)—had pulled out the magic restraints one of the other consultants had handed out.

That had probably been Constantine. Ugh. Constantine. Dude could stand to lighten up a little; skulking and smoking all the time wasn’t the base state of someone enjoyable to be around. Then again, Danny knew he annoyed the shit out of some of the league with his own attitude, so he maybe shouldn’t talk. But at least he was annoying with a smile!

Case in point: Danny grinned at the heroes. “Got it handled?”

“Suppose so,” said the Green Lantern, “though a little more help would have been nice.”

Captain Marvel was too busy getting in a minor tussle with the demon to say anything either way.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m like, pretty mortal,” Danny said. “I’m not fucking with demons right where they can hit me. And I did shoot him!”

Green Lantern rolled his eyes, but admitted the point. Danny cheerfully flipped him off anyway.

“I’ll be heading out, then, the hellmouth this guy crawled out of is like three miles away.” Captain Marvel said, hauling the handcuffed demon over his shoulders like a very angry backpack.

“Oh, one more for the road!” 

Danny hit the demon with a final water gun shot. Hissing and scrunching their face like a cat, the demon tried to lunge at him. It wasn’t very successful. Weirdly non-verbal for a demon, who usually had to talk to make deals and steal mortal souls, but Danny wouldn’t judge. Might be a minor demon. A really basic imp? Who knew.

“Stop being a little bitch and you won’t get spray-bottled, asshole,” Danny chided.

With a loud laugh, Captain Marvel sped away.

[frayazicat]

what if Triplets Dan, Danny, and Ellie?

like, people like to make at least Dan and Danny twins, but why not all three?? i never see that happen.

here's what i'm thinking. Reveal Gone Good, but Danny now has to tell his parents about the OTHER TWO biggest secrets he's kept from them; Dan and Ellie. he's a little hesitant cause this is not Phantom Planet compliant so they don't know about Vlad.

Dan's still in his thermos timeout thinking about what he's done and Ellie is...somewhere.

so, he tells them about his clone and his future self. this includes what Vlad has done to him. does it include who did this? maybe, i don't know. dealer's choice. anyways, the Fenton parents want to meet their new kids.

Team Phantom gets in touch with Ellie to get to FentonWorks as soon as possible while Danny introduces them to Dan.

it..might not go as planned, might end up fine, that's also dealer's choice. but! in the end, they somehow redeem Dan. Ellie arrives and the duo are welcomed into the family!

but, there are two problems now.

1) how do they explain away their new children?

and 2) Dan is full ghost (and adult-sized, i'm not sure the parents are old enough for a kid his age) and Ellie is an unstable clone - both half Vlad, and really not wanting to be half Vlad.

their solution to the second problem? make new bodies for them! they made two fully stable Halfa clone bodies from Danny, had Ellie and Dan fuse their cores inside these clones near the end of making them, and waited for them to pop out of the tubes at the same age as Danny! this might take some help from Clockwork and Danny to pull off without more melting clones..

anyways! now, they have three Halfa children. all they have to do at this point is find a way to explain the sudden appearance of TWO MORE KIDS!

their solution for THAT problem? hack into the database and change the medical files so it showed that THREE kids were birthed instead of one; Danail Jack, Daniel Jackson, and Dannielle Jacklyn Fenton. Dan, Danny, and Ellie.

but the parents take it SO MUCH FURTHER. they bribe the local schools and hospitals, they make fake receipts of things bought for them and fake records of government child support, and they even photoshop younger versions of Ellie and Dan into the family photos to make it legit. heck, they might have even gone back in time via Clockwork to add the birth certificates! they're THAT committed!

so, we got a new family of six gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing their way into legitimacy.

"What do you mean we only had two kids this entire time? Look at these records! Look at how similar they are to their triplet brother! The evidence says otherwise!"

"Listen, if you just play along and say nothing contrary to anybody who asks, we'll stop ghost hunting or driving for one month every time you do so. Sound good? We'll even put in some money to sweeten the deal."

"If we never had these children before, then why do we have memories of Dan viciously beating up Danny and Ellie's bullies at school?"

that sort of thing.

they're COMMITTED. it's INSANE. the town is going CRAZY.

where did these kids come from?? did we seriously forget about two teen kids for sixteen years??

(things go off the rails when Sam and Tucker get in on the action.)

now, i'm putting this under DCxDP, cause of just ONE little detail. Ellie's obsession involves moving, right?

well, what if the Fenton family becomes a wandering family of crime-fighters/mad scientists with an interest in the occult?

what if they get on the JL's radar because of one too many supernatural cases being solved by the Fentons in the JL's local cities?

they're at Gotham? suddenly, it feels as if the air is lighter and that it's not as drenched in evil and insanity as before. what did they do? fought the curses in the local Lazurus Pit like someone wrestling a pig in their mudpen.

they're in Metropolis? Lex woke up one day to find his entire stash of Kryptonite was missing with no trace. what did they do? the triplets broke in after sensing the gems and ate them like candy, their natural ghostliness shorting out the security feed as they do so.

they're in D.C.? all of the ghost relics in the local museums have been stolen with only a note saying, "Sorry for the disturbance! These were too dangerous for the living, so we put them somewhere safe! Don't worry! :)" left behind. what did they do? they took them and chucked them into the ghost portal where some allies on that side put them in safe places.

and that's all i got.

TL,DR; Fenton family goes full mad scientist in order to welcome Dan and Ellie into the family before packing up and wandering the states, effectively gaining the JL's attention with their suspicious and crazy appearances.

(i hope i didn't accidentally steal this idea from another. if i did, i'm sorry. feel free to smack me or something if that's the case.)

[ohraicodoll]

i absolutely love the feral reader x joel fics

omg like yaaas give me a murdering queen

Thank you! I use to primarily write a lot of action and horror and stuff so it's fun getting to go back to that and write someone who doesn't get hung up on "being good" lol.Have this little snippet I had written!

Joel wasn’t waiting for her to come back.

No, he just happened to be doing a crossword puzzle near the entrance because Tommy was working nearby and the house was too quiet. No other reason. Not because this was the first patrol their little group was separated for and he was feeling anxious. Not because he knew she didn’t exactly get along with the others in Jackson, a little too feral for settlement life. Definitely not because he was worried since the person she’d been sent with was fuckin’ Grant of all people who couldn’t seem to keep his eyes in his fucking head.

He tapped the pencil against the paper, eyes scanning the gate and the patrolmen up top to see if they would give any signal of an approaching party. “Fancy seeing you here,” Ellie joked and hopped up on the crate beside him, legs dangling over the edge. Joel grunted and turned his eyes back down to the page, doing his best to appear busy. “They left pretty early so it shouldn’t be long now,” the teenager hummed, eyes following the same path his had done moments ago, “Like I get we’re supposed to integrate, but maybe you can pull some strings with Tommy so you and her only do patrols together.” “And why would I do that?” he muttered, staring at the black and white squares that didn’t have a single letter in them. Ellie raised a brow, “I’m sorry, did you want her to murder fuckin’ Grant?” “He can handle her,” Joel bit out though the words tasted like shit leaving his lips. The cocky asshole couldn’t handle her. Hell, he could barely handle her sometimes. The laugh that abruptly left her was enough to cause him to look up at her, “Okay, sure. Keep acting like you don’t care that you’re here and she’s out there with someone else.” He set the pencil down fully, hands going to his hips, and stared at the girl, “Ellie, do you have a point to make or are you just here to annoy my ass? I’m not worried about her and I’m not going to pull any strings. We gotta do our part here and all that shit.”

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah cause you happen to be casually doing a fuckin’ crossword of all things right where you can immediately see when a patrol comes back. Dude, you’re so obvious.” Ellie chuckled and jumped down to her feet off the crate, “Which is Seven Down, by the way.” He glared as she cackled and walked off, glancing down at the page once her head was turned. Fuck if she wasn’t right. 

Joel wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of being right though and snapped the pages shut right as the upper patrolmen signaled a party's arrival. No, he wasn’t worried at all as they went through the process of opening up the gate. It couldn’t only be the three of them. They did have to integrate even if it felt like being eaten alive by ants. It didn’t mean he had to like it though. Didn’t mean he liked her being away from him. Grant was the first through the opening and he struggled not to grind his teeth, keeping the anxiety down even as he took in the man’s black eye and split lip, the way he limped through. Fuck, had they been attacked? He knew he should have argued with Tommy- But then she walked through behind him, perfect and intact as if she had only been on a stroll. Still the same wild girl as always, eyes taking everything in. She dumped the large canvas bag with the gatekeepers to take inventory, going through the process even as Grant limped away into town without a glance back. Joel tried to get a good look at him, but the man keenly kept his eyes to the ground as he trudged past. “Hey,” she greeted, giving him a nod and not showing any surprise at seeing him waiting, “Run went smooth. Found a decent enough stash that had been skipped past a few times. Some of these people are shit searchers. Didn’t run into any infected.” Joel nodded, eyes following Grant again before turning to her with a raised brow, “Went smooth, huh?” Her eyes darkened and she scratched at her chin, giving him a glimpse of slightly bloody knuckles, “Yeah, smooth.” Well that explained why she didn’t have a hair out of place and Grant looked like he fell down six flights of stairs. He chuckled and shook his head, any anxiety left over finally leaving his body. Of course she could take care of herself. Throwing an arm around her shoulder, they both headed back to their house, “Atta girl. Ellie was worried you would murder him.” Joel wasn’t going to mention that he was worried about the opposite, as improbable as that was, lest he wanted to get his ass handed to him. “Nah, threatening castration seems to work just fine. Didn’t feel like getting rid of a body today.” Suffice to say, Tommy stuck her with Joel for all patrols going forward. He didn’t complain.

[pupstim]

For the first time during a ghost attack Danny felt quite relaxed. His secret had already came out, everyone knew he was Phantom, his parents had accepted him and most of his classmates now respected him.

So when Skulker launched his biweekly attempt at skinning the halfa, Danny didn’t hesitate to jump up, preparing to transform and leap into battle.

Before either could even get out some banter a voice interrupted them. “Wait, Danny! Do the thing!” Dash Baxter had leapt up in his seat practically bouncing with excitement. All of the students were quite used to the attacks and had simply moved so they were out of the danger zone.

Danny paused, sharing a look of confusion with Skulker. “The thing?”

“You know where you shout all Going Ghost! and then bschew your rings show up and vwoom you turn into a ghost.”

Danny stared for a long moment to the jock as several other students chimed in wanting to see Danny say his motto. He heaves a sigh, as the students all wait in anticipation.

“Fiiineee… Going Ghost..” Danny sighs again, his rings appearing in a flash of bright light as everyone cheered around him. Danny rolled his eyes at his eccentric classmates before launching himself into battle against Skulker.

Still it felt nice to not have to hide.

====

Dannymay Day 30: Post Reveal

Another short story! Wow this one on time. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the month haha and I’ve actually done every day of Dannymay more or less on time. I feel quite accomplished :)

This story was a real struggle haha, I kept wanting to write something with Danny and his parents, something light hearted and fun but idk post reveal just seems like I need to give it more words than just 250. I was also thinking of doing one with Ellie and showcasing how she and Danny gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss their way into everyone accepting that Ellie has always been there but then its revealed that she’s actually his clone but it was so convoluted I dropped it.

I’m quite happy with this even if it’s a bit more silly and doesn’t make as much sense as some of my other stories. I think that his classmates would endlessly pester Danny for his cool ghosty powers for quite a while.

About 221 words for this one so got a little bit close which is why I kept most descriptions short.

Thank you again to everyone who’s looked at my silly little creations. I know I don’t reply much but I am just nervous. I read each and every little comment and I’m giving all of you who accept it another gentle kiss on the forehead.

[blackbirdffxiv]

How do you feel about sharing NPC ships/azem names?

I am very much on the side of "no one owns a name/NPC" in this argument. I won't lie, people gatekeeping/"claiming" NPCs, Azem names, etc, is one reason why I keep a lot of my stuff about that to myself and close friends.

I've unfortunately not only experienced hostile behavior over shipping an NPC with Ellie that another person(s) was doing, but I've also seen it happen to my friends. It's just as stupid as claiming an aesthetic; no one owns an aesthetic, NPC, name for their azem, etc.

It is especially heinous how some folks can get over literal imaginary characters in a video game, and not going to lie...

I've noticed this behavior in very specific group of people interested in very particular aesthetics/vibes.... which is why I avoid them like the plague.

Anyways forgive my bout of negativity but the TLDR: do what you want, I really don't care, I'll just be over here playing imagination with my made-up characters and going "now kith" with my OCs and my friends' OCs.

[retrowave-racer]

Can we have some Earl facts by any chance? He's a really cool character and ivr love to see him more in the future!! <33

Some Earl facts supplemented with some character study sketches of the man himself! I’ve recently been trying to redesign him a little more to fit more accurately for his original time period. At least has he appeared then. Modern Early definitely still wears sweater vests.

As some of you may have seen in one of my illustrations back around June, he had a mentor that taught him magic. It was in fact this said mentor that essentially cursed Earl and his whole family. Because why? Because revenge that family wronged him. Somehow. I need to develop that. The twisted part about it all is he had Earl himself carry out the spell, which is why his fate is a bit different. Most of the family turned to stone. Of course his Valet Carter and twin siblings escaped, Carter only just barely. I always imagined it was Corey Alton Sr. and Gatekeeper that found Earl, and because Earl was found to have a natural magical talent was then trained by them alongside others with magical abilities.

Earl was arranged to be married not long before the curse happened. He and the girl he was to marry both sort of agreed they hated their situation but also decided they’d keep a front for their families. Earl knew his parents likely would never approve any other relationship he’d try to form on his own.

Earl post the curse was a lot more…timid and gentle and less moody than current Earl. He of course had his moments but they were far less common as he had to keep up an appearance for his family. Post curse he’s a lot more bitter and rude and standoffish. He doesn’t want people close.

It’s likely one of the reasons he’s as critical as he is post curse is because his parents belittled and criticised his every move. He was driven to be perfect and nothing less. And he’s basically becoming like them despite it all.

He does adore his siblings and as annoying as Ellie can be he’d tear down a forest for her. His brother Dubley wants to be just like Earl and mimics his mannerisms often, and often huffily scolds his twin sister.

All four of them, Earl, The Twins and Carter, are trapped at their current age. Everyone else is still trapped in stone. Not dead. Not exactly living a great life . Potentially conscious though….definitely trapped.

Earl still needs food and to sleep and drink but almost never feels satisfied. Probably another reason he’s so miserable. His siblings and Carter don’t seem to need anything and rarely complain of tiredness or hunger. Earl sometimes wonders if they are actually ghosts. But others can see and interact with them. So he doesn’t really know anymore.

The spirit of his beloved hound Henrietta still haunts him and she is one of the few things that brings him joy. He has found her stone statue in the grounds of the Towers though…

So there are so facts! I hope worth the wait. I never want to share too too much about these characters since I’d love to do more comics. But I have so many ocs that often becomes hard to do personal comics about each of them.

[steeb-stn]

Ellie being the gatekeeper for baby Miller though. Because Baby Miller is Jackson’s little darling, okay, seeing as their mama is one of the leaders of the town and their daddy is a pretty popular guy himself (what with his sharpshooting and construction skills). Everyone wants to hold the baby and touch their fat little cheeks and love on them.

But it’s Ellie who holds the baby in the dining hall so her parents can get a chance to eat. You may look at the baby, but don’t touch. No you can’t hold her, she’s tired. She doesn’t really like anyone besides me or Joel to hold her, sorry. Dina and Jesse can play with her, but only if they wash their hands TWICE first. No one else.

Ellie showing up at Tommy and Maria’s house to get her baby time, only to find a neighbor already there rocking the baby while Tommy’s showering or whatever. And she is so mad at Tommy because why would he let an OUTSIDER hold their baby! Tommy I thought we were on the same side!

[s-4pphics]

i don’t know why i wanna gatekeep click like CLICK ELLIE IS FOR MEEE y’all don’t understand her like i do..

GATEKEEP IS CRSZHSUWJWN

[heroes-fading]

Why do you call Joel a girlboss?

he gaslights (lies to ellie about raiders when that's objectively a very dumb thing to believe and acts like it's a very normal thing that definitely happened)

he gatekeeps (ellie's brain from the fireflies)

joel is a girlboss. sorry, i don't make the rules i just abide by them.

[barlowstreet]

Okay for real I'm not gatekeeping or anything, I'm just very obsessed with this and I know some things are different in the show and that's fine and this is really good, too, but you all.

You have to know about the way it goes in the game, because it's one of relatively few things that the show left out, and it's beautiful and I need to share.

In the game, Joel starts talking about Sarah between Jackson (the dam in the game but it doesn't matter) and the university. One of the conversations they have as they explore the university is about her.

Ellie: Have you ever been to one of these? Joel: What? A university? Ellie: Yeah. Joel: No, not as a student at least. Ellie: Why not? Joel: Uhh...I had Sarah when I was pretty young. Ellie: Oh...were you married? Joel: For a while. Ellie: What happened? Joel: Okay. Ellie: Too much? Joel: Too much.

They've talked! They've talked enough that they have phrases they can use when Joel's overwhelmed! Even before the winter stuff, he's starting to open up to her, because he decided that he wasn't leaving her! IT'S SO GOOD.

Also they do the cutest thing where Ellie goes, "Watch yourself," when he has to leave to do game mechanic stuff, and Joel goes, "You too." And that is super cute because earlier in the game Joel says it to her and you hear Tommy say that to Joel and I think it's one of those moments where Ellie is like picking up little phrases from Joel.

Joel chattering away about Sarah to Ellie because he can breathe for the first time in twenty fucking years get me a doctor

[germposting]

RE: TLOU discourse revival. 1) OH MOOD and 2) u forgot the TLOU 2 haters coming out of the woodwork to spam unhinged gif ridden rants all over again (I've blocked at least three who are posting at an hourly rate)

i mentioned that the tlou2 discourse around abby is going to be a doozy in the tags lol :p the hboverse stans are going to be soooo annoying about it once they reach that point. especially since hboverse is confirmed to be splitting tlou2 plot over a couple seasons, which means we’re gonna get more joel content aka kindling for the fire once he dies lmfao…. i stopped watching tlou hbo after the episode in jackson tho. when they copied the exact dialogue and blocking between ellie and joel during the confrontation in the game -> the show, i packed up. i was like “oh okay, so this is the exact same down to the movements? why am i watching this? i already saw this before ten years ago.” tbh i dont think the show handled the line between a new adaption and the old content all that well, bc they didnt add in any new variables to the mix so it felt like watching the same story with different actors too often. i wanted some better changes!! like the bill and frank episode and the henry and sam deep dive!! but everything felt the same, with the minor changes being ??? questionable as to what their purpose was. why make tess get beat up and defer to joel so much when in the game she was the one running things? why have that zombie kiss her? why have ellie kill riley? idk! i was just disappointed with the show and the new fans are really annoying lol not to be gatekeep-y but i really wish this hadnt hit mainstream audiences :/ atleast when it was just a popular game, the gamerboys were the only ones being annoying, and they were really easy to tune out! but now its like the gamerboys got turned up tenfold and theyre just repeating the same talking points that we’ve already been forced to listen to since 2013 yk? i dont care if you hate abby! i dont care that you think joel was right! i dont care if you think the WLF group were bad people but that somehow you still think ellie is a good person! stop yelling at me ive heard all of this before! they are talking about it as if these are new revelations theyre having, and i guess for them it is, but for us its like… okay go on youtube and find a video essay about tlou2 from 2020 and i promise you everything you think has already been said in that essay and it was worded better than your pov hot take tiktok is. lol.

[marvelousrants]

So a dc x dp prompt I've been thinking about for a bit.

Danny is a member of the JL and has been for a awhile now, Danny get's sick as one does and Dani or Ellie as some call her is like 'nah man don't worried I'll replace you for a bit no one will notice (note that I see Danny and Dani as closer in physical age and chaos twins) Danny semi delusional from his fever is like sure what can go wrong.

Dani then proceds to gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss her way through being pretending to be Phantom and putting on a cap to cover up her longer hair.

Random JL member: Why are you wearing a cap Phantom? Dani, knows her brother and is a master of sass like him: wouldn't you like to know weather boy?

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

sorry for the spam i just LOVED your gatekeeper jake meta!!

i do have a question as you seem like a pretty good source, if i were to read any of the comics which runs would you recommend?

Hello friend! No such thing as spam in Tumblr land. Like and reblog it all. Go nuts.

(Shameless plug: Check out my other meta that can be found in my intro)

It is true I have read all of moon knight comics. It is also true I have a serious memory problem.

BUT. General consensus, and I agree 100%, is that you need to read the Lemire x Smallwood run.

I'm going to be controversial. Start with Ellis (see long rant below to see why). 100% read Lemire. If you read nothing else, read Lemire. Then read Mackay.

I also recommend you pick up and read some of the original stuff, just to see where it all started. There's a lot of it. It suffers from old comic book syndrome, but some of it is really quite good and beautiful.

If you REALLY want to know more... Here's a Brief Timeline!

So the first Moon Knight was in Werewolf by Night, in which he was hired to hunt down Jack Russel.

They liked his character and design and he got his own comic!

This is the Moench run collection that spanned from the 70s through the 80s.

Then there was a long dry spell. LONG dry spell. He popped up now and then in the background and various other one shots.

But then Huston got his mits on him in 2006 with "The Bottom"

This is actually where I started because it is the more modern run.

However, this period is also very rough. He's called Schizophrenic, they use outdated terminology (Multiple Personality instead of DID). It highlights the crazy aspect and is very violent oriented.

But it's also a little fun and there are a lot of good classic moments found in these runs. You are also going to start finding some pretty amazing artwork in these runs (Deodato!)

The Huston and later Benson runs (The Bottom, Midnight Sun, God and Country, Death of Marc Spector, and Down South) are a good look at how messed up Marc lets himself get. Full of angst and him pushing people away. You don't see a lot of Steven and very little Jake in these. Marc is crawling through his mental health issues and you also get a look at his relationship with Marlene.

NEXT: 2009. The Hurwitz runs! (Shock and Awe, Killed Not Dead, and Shadowland.)

This run was actually pretty good. If memory serves me well (and it doesn't), I enjoyed the stories that were told here. You get a more messed up Marc, but Marc was TRYING. You see him struggle with his mental health and struggle to do good.

PLUS. Shock and Awe has THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ART. I loved the design of his suit and it showed peak Marc Spector fighting style of "I'm just going to throw my body at things until they don't get back up". You also get to see him interacting with other Marvel characters (Avengers, Captain America, Punisher, ect.). This is always interesting because they don't know what to do with him. You start to see the ableism set in and how much he's not just fighting himself but he's also fighting how others see him.

NEXT UP: 2011. Bendis. "The Heroic Age". This man nearly ended Moon Knight. It was bad. IT WAS SO BAD. No one talks about this run. It didn't happen. Skip it. Don't even pretend to buy it. If you want it, steal it. Get it from the library. Don't waste your money.

Bendis labled Moon Knight a Psychophrenic lunatic, sent him to L.A. to work on a 'team' then messed up his whole characterization and everything he stood for. It was bad.

NOTICE THE GAP HERE. NEXT RUN WASN'T UNTIL 2014!!!! That's how bad Bendis fucked up.

Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey took Moon Knight over in "From the Dead".

The story here is seriously lacking, but the art is amazing. This is ALSO where you are going to meet Mr. Knight for the first time and he is glorious.

Ellis is known in comic land for writing some of the darkest Punisher content that Marvel put out. He's known for blood and guts and violence. So… just keep that in mind.

But here we see someone that refuses to acknowledge who he is. There is no Steven Grant, no Jake Lockley, and he refuses Marc Spector. This is a man that had a serious mental break and is clawing up from the mudd and trying so hard to fix himself by not being himself. One might even say he's in a dissociative state this whole run.

Next we have "Dead Will Rise" by Brian Wood and Smallwood. It follows where Ellis left off and you start to get some of that Delicious Smallwood art. The story does pick up a bit here, but it's still very ambiguous and barely holds the Moon Knight title.

You see, Bendis really fucked up things and they didn't want him to be seen as "That crazy guy" anymore. So they play it safe and you get more of the original supernatural stuff that happened back in the day with Werewolf by night.

"In the Night" is next in this series by Cullen Bunn and Ron Ackins. Again, art is pretty good here and you start to get some of the old Marc Spector back in this. He crashes more vehicles and you see his reckless style start to creep back in. Story is still barely there, but it's descent. Again, we see Marc start to decline in mental health. He's alone, he's destructive, he's violent.

NEXT UP: 2016. ENTER LEMIRE. Bless this man.

Lemire saw the Smallwood art in "Dead will Rise". Smallwood loved working on Moon Knight.

But Smallwood is a busy man in the comic universe. Lemire knew Smallwood was going to struggle to keep up with the schedule. And Lemire had a hell of a story to tell.

THIS MAN. He broke his story up into three other parts and hired three other artists that had VERY unique and distinctive styles.

This let him break his story up so that you knew each part by the art!!

WTF. When the story was important and back on the main plot, Smallwood would come back in and tell it with his smooth and amazing art.

Then as the series progresses and gets more and more into it, you see all the art styles crash into the pages until he brings it back home in one final breath taking scene where Smallwood collects them again and sends them off.

Gonna fucking cry here. Gimme a minute.

So anyways: The Lemire run. (Lunatic, Reincarnations, Birth and Death.) Three volumes in which we see Marc Spector's mental break down, the fall out, and how he builds himself back up. We see his friends from the past, we see Steven and Jake find their place, and we see Marc start to accept that he is a broken man. It's a beautiful story. It's hard to follow sometimes and a little confusing at first, but once you get to the end it all makes sense and it's so beautiful. Lemire is what inspired the MCU show, in case you were unaware.

Ugh. Next. BEMIS. 2017. Fucking Bemis. "Legacy" (Crazy runs in the family and Phases) Bemis took what Lemire did and shit all over it. I swear this man did no research into the character. He just went, "Crazy huh? What if he's SUPER CRAZY AND EATS RABID DOLPHINS" (this happened. I'm not kidding). He tries to reboot Moon Knight. He fucking UGH. He tries to explain what caused his DID. He just… UGH. Antisemetic bullshit and he should have known better. UGH. Only good thing to come out of it is that you find out Marc and Marlene had a daughter and she's pretty badass.

Then in 2018 we got "Avengers Age of Khonshu" by Jason Aaron. This was a marvel tie in event. I have THOUGHTS about tie in events and none of them are good. Basically Khonshu tries to take over the world. He uses Marc. Now the Avengers think Moon Knight is a threat and needs to be watched in case his god tries to do anything again. Khonshu gets locked up in Asgard and Marc is now on his own.

Jason Aaron, much like Ellis, is also known for his incredibly dark and gritty comics. He also did Punisher Max and is a huge name in the comic world, but you have to have the stomach for him. I guarantee there will be vomit, spitting, and blood in everything he does. It's like a trademark.

This brings us to 2021" MACKAY! (Midnight Mission, Too Tough to Die, and Halfway to Sanity)

Mackay looks back at Lemire and goes, "Hey… what happened?" This man does the unthinkable. He doesn't reboot. He starts with the Mr. Knight that was given to us by Ellis and Wood, takes the story that Lemire gave us, and then acknowledges the bad in Bemis and Aaron.

HE TIES IT ALL TOGETHER. We see Marc that has started his heaing journey from Lemire but stumbled into his old bad habbits from Bemis. We see Marc trying to repair his reputation from Aaron and desperate to hate himself and forget himself.

We see him build back to his old habbits until Jake and Steven re-enter the picture and I couldn't be happier with how he does it.

He understands and runs with real DID awareness. He talks about Marc's PTSD. He lets the work as a system. He tells a story. He's bringing in Fucking Dracula. This man knows his memes.

The run is still going and I am excited to see what he does next. Can he just keep Moon Knight in his pocket for a while? I would love that. Just… Let him hold him a while longer.

.........TLDR: Depends on what you like. If you are new to comics and just want to get your food in the door, read Lemire then skip to Mackay.

If you like what you see and want to get more in depth. You want to know who Frenchie and Gena are (I love them so much) dip your toe into the early stuff with the OG Moench. If you want to see where Marc started to break down and a more modern Moon Knight came about, go to Huston and work your way through it. If you just want to see enough to get you to Mackay, start with Ellis.

[insomniamamma]

OW FUCK HOW DARE?????

hmmm. 💜 FMK with Ezra, Din and Frankie: This is gruesomely hard. These are my darlings and I'm gonna have to murder one of them. Fuck? Ezra. Hands down. I want this sketchy fella to rail me into next week. This may seem like an odd answer given my obsession with the man, but if we're being honest I would not be able to handle his lifestyle. I am entirely too soft for that universe.

Marry? Din Djarin. OK, granted the Star Wars 'verse is only marginally less dangerous than the Prospect one, but I've got a big, fiercely loyal, incredibly competent hunk in damn-near impenetrable armor to keep me safe? Yeah. There's no cruelty in Din. And he's good with children.

Kill? Sorry Frankie baby. You are big and strong and hot but you make some poor life choices.

✍🏼 Peeking into your masterlist, I see that you've written extensively for Ezra! Which fic of his is your favourite, and why?

Oooh this is tough. Ezra is the love of my life. The blorbo of all blorbos if you will. Writing him is my attempt at figuring him out. He is the character that made me crack and start writing fanfic for other's to see in the first place. He is the one I lost my mind over. Of my own fics I think Night of Hunters is probably my favorite. With Persistence being a close second. With Night of Hunters I think I really captured the sense of urgency and danger of the movie and also my Reader Character gets to absolutely apeshit on some people who sorely deserve it. Don't we all just want to go apeshit these days?

🏅 What do you think are Pedro's top three performances?

Joel Miller. Holy shit. It's hard to even pinpoint a single moment because this was such an incredible performance. Those last moments between him and Tess. The panic attacks. Pretty much all of Kin and then when he goes absolutely batshit crazy when David and his goons take Ellie. And the hospital scene. The way his eyes go scary and dead. Pedro really gave us everything with this one.

Ezra. Ezra walked so Joel Miller could run. Prospect is so fuckin good and I'm glad that more people are finding it because of TLOU. I actively reverse gatekeep this movie, as in watch Prospect so I can scream at you about it for an hour. This is the role that made me fall for him

Din Djarin. Specifically in "The Believer". The terror that just radiates off him, the discomfort, the panic. AND THE WAY HE MOVES HIS HEAD? He has been wearing the armor since he was a child, he is used to viewing the world through that narrow visor. So when he looks between Mayfeld and Hess he does it with his entire face instead of just his eyes. Fuck right off. His is in a much better show that anyone else.

Thank you for these wonderful questions, Cee! And congratulations again ❤️

Congratulations on your milestone, Cee!

For the reverse sleep over

💜 (even though I know it's gonna hurt) ✍🏼 🏅

You deserve all 3k and twice as many more ❤️

Hi J! Thank you so much for playing!

💜 I hope this hurts 😉 FMK with Ezra, Din and Frankie

✍🏼 Peeking into your masterlist, I see that you've written extensively for Ezra! Which fic of his is your favourite, and why?

🏅 What do you think are Pedro's top three performances?

P.S. Dropping your masterlist here for easy access!

Fuck Yeah 3k Reverse Sleepover