#this isn't really positive or negative it just is

[pluckyredhead]

Do you have any thoughts on Batman having “agents” (sometimes subtle, sometimes not) on various teams? This comes purely from my notion of Cassandra Cain being the straight man in a Justice League International book

To be honest, I have a kneejerk negative reaction to it, because it feels like there are two immediate potential pitfalls:

The agent character is written as just an extension of Bruce, without their own personality and ethical framework. Like, you used Cass as an example, and she's arguably the closest in alignment with Bruce's mission and goals, but she's still her own person and, when written well, is not going to blindly obey him or make only the exact same decisions he would. Someone like Jason or Steph? Forget about it.

The book becomes all about Bruce when he's not even on the team. I could see this happening whether the agent character is doing everything he says, or pushing back aggressively. Bruce is in enough books, I don't need him worming his way into any more.

I wracked my brain to think of positive examples and funnily enough, the two examples I came up with were times that the character in question isn't working with Bruce/using Bruce's methods, but it is believed that they are:

The Young Justice arc right after everyone finds out that Bruce has contingency plans against the Justice League, when the kids want to know if Tim has contingency plans against them (he doesn't). Bruce doesn't even show up, because it's not actually about him - it's about Tim's relationship with his team and whether or not they can trust him when he hasn't even told them his secret identity after literal years. It's GREAT.

The Outsiders 2003 bit where Roy confesses that he's been getting intel on all their missions from Batman, and Dick throws a huge tantrum because he and Bruce aren't really getting along and he doesn't appreciate essentially being tricked into working for Bruce. Eventually he calms down and goes to the Batcave and is like "Hey sorry I freaked out about you working with Arsenal" and Bruce is like "...I'm not working with Arsenal" and Dick calls Roy who is meeting with Batman on a roof and is like "Um...what are you doing right now?" and Roy's like "Talking to Batman" and Dick's like "NO YOU'RE NOT" and it turns out the person Roy thought was Batman this whole time is Slade in disguise. Which is especially funny because the man has a beard. Like, has Roy spent so long looking at Ollie's goatee that he doesn't process facial hair anymore? Anyway then Slade kicks Roy's ass and scampers off into the night, but that story also isn't about Bruce. It's a little bit about Dick and Roy's relationship, but it's mostly about Slade beating Roy up while telling him "I wanted to take you for a test drive to see how you handle on the open road" (I SHIT YOU NOT HE SAYS THIS IN THE COMIC) and then cutting his shirt open with a sword (Roy also did not notice that Beard Batman HAS A SWORD) and ogling his bare chest and bullet scars. It's literature.

Ahem. I've gotten a little bit away from my point here, but basically...there's no need to make a Bat be Bruce's agent on a team when they can just...be on a team as themselves. They do it all the time. Cass is on Birds of Prey right now and she's an absolute delight.

[abbacchiosbelt]

y'all i feel it i'm going to have another dissociate from real life and write like insane for 3 months

[wonder-worker]

Wild how we know that Elizabeth Woodville was officially appointed to royal councils in her own right during her husband’s reign and fortified the Tower of London in preparation of a siege while 8-months pregnant and had forces gathering at Westminster “in the queen’s name” in 1483 – only for NONE of these things to be even included, let alone explored, in the vast majority of scholarship and historical novels involving her.

[mewos-laptop]

Actually no my plurality doesn't distress me at all, and I will never stop joking abt it bc this fucking disorder is OBJECTIVELY fucking hilarious to us /pos

Oh no ! I can't deal with This Thing, I need THREE FICTIONAL MOTHERFUCKERS AND A GOD IN MY BRAIN TO DEAL WITH IT FOR ME ??????? 🤨🤨

[dazais-guardian-angel]

kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....

[unproduciblesmackdown]

revisited some parts of deh i hadn't in a while via obc boots, mostly kicked off by audio of an aus tour show, & it's like now hang on lol reevaluating the whole of heidi's material / that arc like i have been too generous what in the....kind of worked backwards from good for you b/c for that song i've Been like sympathetic re: alana & jared's sections while like Shrug at heidi like i'm on evan's side there really. but the whole thing is like, sympathy for heidi's feelings aside, i'm on evan's side b/c like yeah heidi has feelings & insecurities too but it's not the same peer to peer like fellow unpopular couple of students as parent to child & i'm looking at it all like The Whole Thread is heidi's insecurities as A Mother & the demand is on evan all the time to not just Not cause her insecurity but also assuage ones that have nothing to do with him, e.g. what's he supposed to say about digs at his dad's wife

& like really going over that First Scene i.e. opening scene post evan's soliloquy i.e. anybody have a map it's like. sure only increasingly like Oh Boy when evan not being able to order pizza despite the online option is met with the "you Need to be able to order dinner for yourself" ft. that he should be "too old for this" (disability....grow up) (not a direct quote but rather yknow the "you're a senior in high school, evan" intro) & nothing about like, support or alternatives, certainly nothing about it being Okay that he couldn't. just that he Has to do this thing this way (why. or else what.) & also just the simple fact that evan has been honest about "something wrong with him" / something he did that he figures she wouldn't like & gotten this wholly negative response about that just being Unacceptable to hear, regardless of the "positive" pivot like you can do it re: school, just must not be Trying enough, just must be evan's own attitude or something else about him, the letters had better help....& all this revisiting inspired by beau woodbridge evan's delivery after heidi says the line about Her Not Wanting To Hear (framed about Her Feelings if evan were to Tell her about this) about evan having no friends, & like the delivery of "neither do i??" like a sort of nonplussed indignation that is a kind of "how do you think *i* feel about it??" like no yeah what about evan's feelings about him dealing with his problems here, the one not having dinner, not having friends, not Not having anxiety, etc. like obviously heidi like every person ever has feelings & problems too but it's that the parent's problems are supposed to be Made Up For by the child somehow, while evan's problems are framed as Being A Problem for his mom, how she feels about Knowing about it, try harder please okay evan....but cue, yknow, how she resents evan feeling any responsibility for Her Problems in gfy yknow not insofar as she's been embarrassed to tell him like "yeah money is a problem" when it's been about pushing him to get scholarships but rather when the murphys know (maybe just via evan implying they're Not Rich to zoe after zoe is like ah, to be poor....) that heidi will need Financial Support for college for evan & then heidi like i'm not That poor & to take money would be wrong (always the reminder heidi does not know everything re: evan & connor isn't true either)

which, that last part of her dinner at the murphys pre gfy was really this time hitting like ://// whew okay. all of it always grating lmao but like, "i don't want evan to get the idea etc" like ma'am he's sitting right here? he's seventeen? can't just Declare the ideas evan will or won't absorb even though like yeah also clearly it's about her pride as A Good Mom being wounded & just putting it on evan by expressing it that way like no i have to be A Good Mom via my example, is why i must decline....& like i'm sure it can all be softened depending on how heidi is played but still like, this is about her Full Story / Material, & just what is written lol like even if she was more [pensive emoji single tear] in delivery or something, vs watching the obc like full anger & contempt by this point & i'm like yeah this Shouldn't be familiar if the excuse of like "well heidi is messing up in this Special Occasion, an outlier" really went that far. or was actually out of line w/how she acts other times. or how this all resolves. but heidi storming out While lashing out at evan / blaming him like my god lmfaooo & like. speaking of "do you think the murphy parents did read between the lines & think evan & connor are secret gay high school lovers" like gee evan having no problem moving in to the murphy household, keeping secrets from his mom like his ostensible epic friendship w/connor, not talking aobut her or really trying on his own to involve her, being fairly alarmed when Surprise Dinner With Your Mom, heidi acting like That??? like "do you think the murphy parents read between the lines to think evan is abused by his parent" i mean like lol lmfaooo on both points like heternormativity? the normativity of abuse & parents Owning their child as well? in the murphy household? but you know. of course no deh is not supposed to be about that but i'm like, uh oh, whole time i was like "well my own perspective based on what i learned from personal experience & then learned About such experiences isn't that relevant at least to heidi b/c it's supposed to be that she's Not Like That at the end of the day" but i'm like is it in effect though lol, is it really that different In Essence if not also like "yep the way heidi acts is just directly familiar sometimes. maybe often. or always" difference in degree like. plus just that how often is whatever particular lens/perspective like Useless to apply

anyway & that fight in the leadup to gfy is wild & just like further illuminating re: how the whole time, from the first scene, it's like okay to heidi what's most important in her motivations is Her Insecurity about how anything about evan supposedly reflects on her being a mom, like. again that heidi has no idea everything about evan & connor isn't true & she's just going sicko mode at evan b/c the murphys Aren't His Family, yknow, She is, & that entitlement that's supposed to come with it, evan can't have these other adults acting Parently towards him re: money & housing & dinners & feeling fond of him or anything, all circumventing her status as His Mother....the whole "sorry i can't give you more than that, shit" "well it's not my fault other people can" like yeah sorry about your feelings heidi, yeah it's not "nice" of evan to say that but i'm not like yes evan must never even think things that aren't nice(tm) much less say them, that again like even if we sympathize w/heidi there b/c obviously yeah she'd be hurt & feel insecure. even if we suppose that was mean of evan. i'm like well yeah he's right. just setting aside the apparent universal desire for a life as closely approximating the brady bunch as possible, it's like hey yeah look evan's been getting dinners this way, re: him not ordering a pizza at the start of a show. turning out to be less important like "well at least you've been eating, good" than evan not doing so through the Proper efforts to Become Normal(tm) & of course that like. coming from another mom staying home making him food is unacceptable b/c she imagines this is supplanting her / making her the Bad Mom vs this Good Mom & then taking it out on evan to make her feel Good Enough(tm) like truly just the usual fallback refrain of "ohh sorry i'm not perfect / have feelings / have problems" which is true for everyone ever but yknow evan is the one having to Defend his feelings & problems & imperfections against the fallout of "failing" to be "responsible" for mitigating or fulfilling heidi's & she's the one who can break out "i'm your mother" whereas evan's less overtly declared "i'm your son" about her potentially failing Him is what gets met with more contempt & "ohh sorry i'm not perfect & have feelings & problems" & her starting off Good For You. great

& like the way All That illustrates, like the way evan getting dinner now through a different now available avenue is, to heidi, more about her own feelings than about [evan gets dinner now], like just that expanded to how it's not Okay that evan's problems seem to be getting better / he's getting more support / he's doing better or anything as soon as heidi becomes insecure about her not having the role she wants in it. the entire thread about her being bothered about evan not telling her things, lying about things, hiding things, like yeah evident that she Is worried about him but same as she's evidently worried about him in the first scene, when, again, we Did see him share something honestly with her & she was like "UGH evan jeez i Hate that you told me this" & then her input is to tell him to Get Good, yknow, must be his own failures, get on that. gosh why would he keep anything from her. & then yknow we have that line later on, evan like you don't know me & heidi like "i thought i did" (contempt again) & like the main issue of this not being like "oh no if i Don't know him or about his problems then i'm not supporting him like i thought i was / he's not getting the support Overall i thought he was" but rather like i can't believe evan is doing this to me / her insecurities & evan's "responsibility" for them, again, rather than yknow. evan's wellbeing regardless of her personal feelings? & we're ready for resolution after heidi inadvertently reads his diary to realize he was that sad & it's like. even if he wasn't That Sad like none of that response was okay. at any point lol like it's still the issue of her dynamic with him where evan is In Charge Of how heidi feels & that obviously she can act on this in the ways she can & what can evan do about anything but avoid her / not share things / idk indeed move in with this other family lol, sorry about the pretenses (also obviously like. murphy parents not doing that much better. certainly larry like, are you kidding? never changes his mind that all connor's problems were connor's fault & Failings & now his reaction to it is about facing any insecurity & Rejecting It as no i'm always right & just have to hold out forever. vs that zoe is also bearing the brunt of being Trapped In The Family(tm) but cynthia dares to be like "no, i feel like i failed my dead son" & "no, i don't feel someone 'has to be the bad guy' who tramples boundaries")

like speaking of boundaries. ppl having always pointed out "uh oh, heidi's not good with those" or the point like "in gfy heidi's also mad about the rejection by her ex-husband & just putting that over her fight w/evan" like not beating the [parent making their child the one in charge of them & their feelings & actions] allegations.......

& you know, the resolution like "ohh you were sadder than i knew" like okay Now that matters instead of heidi Just being insecure that he wasn't sharing this with her already, thus the important part being how that makes her feel like a bad mom vs like, how evan is actually doing & her actual role in this beyond what makes her feel best, personally? or that like oh i'm Not going to not be here, physically, in this house....like okay. but what about the actual dynamic you have while around him & you will always be around him, b/c like, has that changed from the start. how is heidi going to offer support re: evan Feeling Like This that's different from "you Need to order pizza and Need to get your cast signed, Just Do It" or that b/c she doesn't want to hear otherwise like well then of course evan won't tell her, or maybe a therapist if that's not confidential, or other people if it'll get back to his mom, or the internet if that'll get back to his mom which i guess it will. is evan gonna be not in charge of her feelings anymore. i'm just like yeah evan find yourself in college sure get outta there idk if you're even rude along the way. & obv shoot larry into the sun

[yuseirra]

The final volume would have some extra pages, wouldn't it?

What I would want it to include would be them having Aqua reincarnated and watching Ruby on stage as a little boy, with his loving family, maybe with his mother in that life. He never got to live for himself;; He needs to have one for himself because what is this?;; It's as if it's better if he didn't get reincarnated, his life was used as support for others.

It'd also be a nice..addition since he was older than sarina in his first life, the same age in the second, and now he'll be a lot younger in his third. In all three lives, he'll get to cheer for Ruby but this time he'll be able to without any type of worry.

If they're not going to bring him back they should at least do this for the sake of his soul and, for the readers who really cared for him. Plus it'd make Ruby really happy because she wouldn't really care what Aqua looks like or what he is as long as it's him. I see them being each other's favorite idols(oshis)in a sense. Wish Aqua had more development with Kana personally because that's who he's liked but since the focus should be on Ruby(her internal turmoils or development, her mentality is NOT illustrated in depth. It feels so hollow) if the extra pages were to be like this, it'd make a better resolution.(I hate it here though because I just don't see why Aqua had to die!; It doesn't contribute to the story in a positive way and I see the story being miles better with him being alive!! This is just cruel!)

Ai and Hikaru are my favs but unless they draw them as deities of the entertainment industry...I rather they don't touch them. But I'd like a page or two of Ai but in that case; I feel they must show what she feels about this whole situation and they wouldn't BE able to do that at all. Her boyfriend and son like that? And I don't think she'll quite enjoy how her daughter's become so much either because, Ai had a desire to expose her truths. Ruby was already quite doing that as her personality was different from hers, but I see what's become of her being a defense mechanism or recoil. "Lying" on stage was Ai's thing, never Ruby's up till the last chapter. It's so different from how Aqua phrased her as as he was very hopeful about his sister, saying she's different from him or his dad. What Hikaru said to Aqua turned out to be all true!!!;

They can't write out her reaction towards all that in such little space. They had 50 pages in the last ep and it was so hollow and explained so little. They weren't able to bring out the depths of a character's mind with 50, so they will not be able to do it within a shorter amount of page space. Which is heartbreaking because they were so good with it. They were good with expressing Ai's!

So realistically, I wish for what I've written above. I can't even wish for my favs to appear because I can't trust the writing haha;; and; Aqua really...they can't do this to Aqua after having used him as a protagonist. They should at least do this for him and the fans.

[arttsuka]

how are you?

Honestly I've been better. Thanks for asking!

[spacedustmantis]

there's so much to unpack from this stream

[raiiny-bay]

oc deep dive questionnaire - dhes edition

tagged by @sikoi (ty you for the tag!! <3)

-what common/uncommon fear do they have? tbh, there's not much that scares Dhes. when he was younger, he feared rejection, but that fear has lessened significantly as he's gotten older & become more comfortable with himself

-do they have any pet peeves? he's pretty particular about housekeeping, so his biggest pet peeves tend to be related to that. but he especially hates when Kelly leaves his shoes lying around instead of putting them away (bc Dhes *always* trips over them lol)

-what are 3 items you can find in their bedroom? CDs (lots of CDs), a tamagotchi (he brings it to work. it never stays alive long), & notes that he & Kel wrote back & forth to each other during class throughout their teen years

-what do they notice first in a person? whether or not they look directly at him/look him in the eyes

-on a scale of 1-10, how high is their pain tolerance? probably 8 or 9

-do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure? fight - Dhestyn's a fighter through & through

-do they come from a big family/are they a family person? his family is pretty average, size-wise. his family dynamic is very eccentric, so whether or not he's a "family person" is kind of a complicated answer. he's not particularly close with anyone in his immediate family, but he does talk to them & visit them often

-what animal represents them best? a dog - generally, he's very friendly & loyal, but in the right circumstances, he does tend to bite

-what is a smell that they dislike? burning meat

-have they broken any bones? if so, how? several, mostly his fingers & wrists though. he's broken them in skateboarding accidents, during fights with other kids when he was in middle/high school, & by simply making poor decisions due to his reckless nature :-)

-how would a stranger likely describe them? i actually kind of explained this on his character page, but to sum it up people tend to see Dhes as either very charming or very unsavory

-are they a night owl or a morning bird? both! Dhes has a horrific sleep schedule. he'll regularly stay up until 1-2am & he wakes up at 5 o'clock every morning. though if he had to choose one, he prefers mornings

-what is a flavor they hate and a flavor they love? he really likes cinnamon. he's not a big fan of seafood.

-do they have any hobbies? yes! skateboarding, hacky sack, making playlists & listening to music, working out (weights/jogging), fashion (read: "fashion"), & ruining his hair, to name a few.

-boom, surprise birthday party! how do they react to surprises? Dhestyn always appreciates a nice surprise

-do they like to wear jewelry? if so, what is their favorite piece? yes, the man loves to accessorize. his favorite piece of "jewelry" is actually a necklace Kel gave to him when they were fifteen - it's a simple black cord with one of Kel's old guitar picks on it.

-do they have neat or messy handwriting? somewhere in the middle - it's legible, at least.

-what are two emotions they feel the most? love & anger

-do they have a favorite fabric? not particularly, no

-what kind of accent do they have? standard PNW accent when speaking English, though occasionally he'll have hints of a more Mexican-American accent, which he picked up from his mom's side of the family

tagging: @mobwhim, @lynzishell, @vicciouxs, @teddybearsims, & @salemssimblr (feel free to ignore ofc!)

[vimbry]

kinda wild how people could be using common internet abbreviations, slang, and stuff to express what is essentially the same concept, but are interpreting them in slightly different ways. I mean, that is generally how language works, but it's still fascinating to think about.

[fragmentedblade]

I called it, Ruan Mei is deranged and shady as hell

[butwhatifidothis]

Do you think it'd be in character for Claude to fake an alliance with Edgey in GW Pt 2 so that he could undermine her while seeking an alliance with the Kingdom behind her back? I mean, that way, he could ask Rhea directly about what Edgey told him instead of blindly believing her.

It would be more in character, but not as much as it looks at first.

Because yes, Claude is very familiar with not exactly telling the truth, and he is also familiar with working around people who inherently distrust him. And something somewhat like this kinda happens in 3H, with Erwin - Claude has Nader create a distraction for the army to pass through Gloucester territory to Myrddin so that Erwin's forces don't intercept them (he does this in all the routes in fact, save for of course CF). So it's not like he isn't capable of some form of trickery, even when it comes to people he considers allies.

What becomes an issue though is that those sort of trickery means are mostly used for last-resort, fairly specific situations - Plan A wasn't to make Erwin think his lands are being attacked, it was the only option Claude had available due to the very landscape of Leicester necessitating going through Gloucester territory, and due to Erwin's stubbornness about aligning with the Empire (whether or not those reasons were self-serving or for self-preservation). Again, with Myrddin we see that he's willing to openly help the Kingdom/Church, despite the act of doing so breaking any neutrality the Alliance could have held onto. Communication with Erwin had already failed (due to, again, his stubbornness to align with the Empire), but Claude also explicitly says that he doesn't want to engage in actual combat with House Gloucester, so lies were the only way to go forward.

With the Empire, however, there was never any worry about engaging in combat with them - they invaded his lands, and he fought back. If Edelgard had started with negotiations with Claude first, that'd be one thing - if there was an attempt at an assurance for peace from Edelgard's end to start everything off, it'd make the idea of him joining her to betray her later have some ground to stand on logically. But with him doing absolutely nothing to provoke her she attacks his lands, which has two reasons for her doing so in specifically Claude's mind: taking Garreg Mach to use as a base, and getting rid of the Alliance and Kingdom at the same time.

To the first reason: while Garreg Mach is a good base, it's arguable that having to defeat the Alliance on top of fighting the Kingdom for it makes taking the base moot to begin with. Even for the symbolic nature of it, since Rhea has already been booted out at this point. The trouble would be more than its worth, essentially. And the second reason is... fairly obvious as to why that isn't gonna work out lmao.

Then there's also also the fact that Claude was handling the Empire pretty damn well - he is a young leader and is tricksty in his antics which means skepticism from his more experienced peers, the Alliance is known for its weaker military strength, and he had to deal with Shahid looming over his head, yet Claude still manages to hold off the Empire pretty effectively. So with Edelgard invading Claude's lands off rip and his shown proficiency at fighting back against her without much non-Alliance help, there's no benefit to siding with her, even falsely - none that would outweigh the benefits of siding with a party that has given him no misgivings, in any case. She's not a force that is too big to take on from the outside and so needs to be taken out from the inside, so going through the effort of getting inside is meaningless.

So, would falsely siding with Edelgard while secretly siding with the Kingdom be more in character? It certainly can be, if one plays the cards right. But given how Claude's handling of the Empire and Edelgard's actions against the Alliance are written, it'd be far more in character for him to just side with the Kingdom outright at that point

[babacontainsmultitudes]

[just venting a bit into the void you understand you understand 😌] Lately I've been feeling very caught between "I have a lot of thoughts on Sparrow and Normal and all that with the ending and teen talk and feel like I need to get them out and voice them for my own piece of mind and resolution" and "I am lacking the strength and energy to actually sit down and write it all out and kind of really just want to fully move on to other things (AUs, fics, anything else)" but my brain can't seem to commit to either and that's quite frustrating cause it's just left me very restless. *Sigh*. Idk! Just needed to complain about that a bit ig, it's silly but this is what has been ailing me as of late.

[yappacadaver]

bioware could come out and say like. we've completely removed classes backgrounds and dialogue choices, and there would be tumblr posters dickriding wildly 2 minutes after the tweet dropped telling anyone who's disappointed that they're just exhausted with all the negativity and how dare anyone post a negative opinion and shouldn't we all just wait to play the game in perfect rapt silence

[dani-the-goblin]

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