#tldr give me more tom

[successionable]

as a tomgirl i've always been a fan of both tomshiv and tomgreg for different reasons but season 4 so far has personally reaffirmed that i pretty much only care for greg in relation to tom, whereas i love shiv as a whole, and the more tomshiv act like tomgreg the more partial i am to them ie basically i'm here for the tomgreg dynamic in whatever form it takes because tom is the central figure to me so his behaviour steers the ship but ultimately i would still prefer it in tomgreg form because tom and shiv deserve better but greg doesn't hope that helps

[atopvisenyashill]

patterns of abuse with jaehaerys

this post made me deeply depressed and i reread f&b which was my first mistake.

tldr i’m making the argument that jaehaerys definitely sexually abused saera and alysanne, and likely viserra and gael, and also i hate this man. if you disagree and want to say so *nicely* that’s cool but if you hardcore love jae and don’t want to hear criticism, maybe just scroll past bc i’m not nice to him at all (obviously, i’m accusing him of csa lol).

breaking this down by each woman, so there’s 6 sections: saera, viserra, daella, gael, alysanne, and alicent.

saera targaryen

If she were the king’s firstborn, or better still his only child, she would be well content. Instead she finds herself the ninthborn, with six living siblings who are older than her and even more adored. Aemon is to be king, Baelon most like will be his Hand, Alyssa may be all her mother is and more, Vaegon is more learned than she is, Maegelle is holier, and Daella…when does a day go by when Daella is not in need of comfort? And whilst she is being soothed, Saera is being ignored. Such a fierce little thing she is, they say, she has no need of comfort. They are wrong in that, I fear. All men need comfort.

that’s septon barth’s opinion on her and barth is always right. simply put, she’s a deeply neglected child who acts like a brat to get her parents attention because she’s learned the only way they’ll pay attention to her is if she’s causing a problem.

Before she was eleven, she was stealing wine and ale instead. By twelve, she was like as not to arrive drunk when summoned to the sept for prayer.

The king’s half-witted fool, Tom Turnip, was the victim of many of her japes, and her unwitting catspaw for others. Once, before a great feast where many lords and ladies were to be in attendance, she persuaded Tom that it would be much funnier if he performed naked. It was not well received.

stealing alcohol at 10 and being a committed alcoholic at 12 is not normal behavior. it is a sign of something deeply at wrong at home. also, the way she kind of, sexually humiliated tom, someone who is too “innocent” to even realize she’s sexually humiliating him…gives me the ick re: how she views sex.

Saera had learned the art of getting anything she wanted from her father: a kitten, a hound, a pony, a hawk, a horse (Jaehaerys did draw a firm line at the elephant). Queen Alysanne was far less gullible, however, and Septon Barth tells us that Saera’s sisters all misliked her to various degrees.

i don’t like this. nothing wrong with giving your child gifts (see ned going above and beyond to get arya not just instruction on how to fight but also a specific style that would gel with being smaller than your average opponent) but in conjunction with “jaehaerys ignores saera unless she’s pressing him for an expensive gift which he immediately gives her and alysanne doesn’t get why he caved so quickly” its an alarming dynamic.

also speaks to how isolated saera specifically was, that the only siblings that like her (aemon and baelon) are usually out and about, and there’s a clear wedge between saera and her sisters, even viserra.

The screams were coming from Tom Turnip, who was lurching helplessly in circles trying to escape from half a dozen naked whores, whilst the patrons of the house laughed uproariously and shouted on the harlots. Jonah Mooton, Red Roy Connington, and Stinger Beesbury were amongst those patrons, each one drunker than the last. They had thought it would be funny to see old Turnip do the deed, Red Roy admitted. Then Jonah Mooton laughed and said the jape had all been Saera’s notion, and what a funny girl she was.

again with sexually humiliating tom.

it continues with her friends. it’s not unusual for a 15 year old girl to want to fool around with other 15 year olds but alys and perri are all guilt ridden and upset and alys is with child. it reminds me a lot of cersei sexually abusing taena in affc. when she’s caught (now, mind you, she’s been marched in front of her parents sitting on the throne and not brought to them in their private rooms. she’s being treated right off the bat as if she’s guilty of a crime and not guilty of being a shitty teenager):

“She went from denial to dismissal to quibbling to contrition to accusation to justification to defiance in the space of an hour, with stops at giggling and weeping along the way,” Septon Barth would write. “She never did it, they were lying, it never happened, how could they believe that, it was just a game, it was just a jape, who said that, that was not how it happened, everyone likes kissing, she was sorry, Peri started it, it was such fun, no one was hurt, no one ever told her kissing was bad, Sweetberry had dared her, she was so ashamed, Baelon used to kiss Alyssa all the time, once she started she did not know how to stop, she was afraid of Stinger, the Mother Above had forgiven her, all the girls were doing it, the first time she was drunk, she had never wanted to, it was what men wanted, Maegelle said the gods forgave all sins, Jonah said he loved her, the gods had made her pretty, it was not her fault, she would be good from now on, it will be as if it never happened, she would marry Red Roy Connington, they had to forgive her, she would never kiss a man again or do any of those other things, it wasn’t her who was with child, she was their daughter, she was their little girl, she was a princess, if she were queen she would do as she liked, why wouldn’t they believe her, they never loved her, she hated them, they could whip her if they wanted but she would never be their slave. She took my breath away, this girl. There was never a mummer in all the land who gave such a performance, but by the end she was exhausted and afraid, and her mask slipped.”

What does Jaehaerys ask after all of this? “Have you given any of these boys your maidenhead?” Her response:

“True?” said Saera. It was in that moment, with that word, that the contempt came out. “No. I gave it to all three. They all think they were the first. Boys are such silly fools.”

Now mind you, Alyssa and Daella have both died of childbirth recently and her parents are mad she had sex as a 16 year old bordering on 17 year old, and not the fact that she like, at best peer pressured her besties into having sex and now one of them is pregnant. jaehaerys has only asked if she’s still a virgin.

“I will be married,” the princess said. “Why shouldn’t I be? You were married at my age. I shall be wedded and bedded, but to whom? Jonah and Roy both love me, I could take one of them, but they are both such boys. Stinger does not love me, but he makes me laugh and sometimes makes me scream. I could marry all three of them, why not? Why should I have just one husband? The Conqueror had two wives, and Maegor had six or eight.”

i keep trying not to give my opinion and just lay it all out but the thing is i’d just be reposting the whole scene because it’s just filled with so much weird sex stuff. if you don’t remember it, go reread it. it doesn’t feel (to me) like regular “george is bad at writing sex” vibes but “george is purposefully trying to skeeve you out” vibes but i am willing to admit i could be wrong and he really just doesn’t understand what he wrote.

anyways remember how i said saera acts out to get attention from her parents? all she’s done here is act out, her “crimes” are basically nonexistent; beyond how alys feels about being pregnant, saera consensually had sex with boys around her age who aren’t married, and then blithely compared herself to some asshole relatives. if your teenager idolizes dick cheney that’s probably worrying but not a crime! this is not how jae treats it however.

When the princess heard his words, she rushed toward him, crying, “Father, Father!” but Jaehaerys turned his back on her, and Gyles Morrigen caught her by the arm and wrenched her away. She would not go of her own accord, so the guards were forced to drag her from the hall, wailing and sobbing and calling for her father.

The king was angry and unyielding, for his shame was deeply felt, and he could not forget Saera’s taunting words about his uncle’s wives. “She is no longer my daughter,” he said more than once. Queen Alysanne could not find it in her heart to be so harsh, however. “

saera tries to escape.

This time the princess was not allowed to return to her own chambers. She was confined to a tower cell instead, with Jonquil Darke guarding her day and night, even in the privy.

Princess Saera watched from the window of her cell. Jonquil Darke, her gaoler, made certain that she did not turn away.

that’s as her dad is murdering stinger btw. is he a creepy 19 year old? yeah. but like, making your 15 year old watch you murder her 19 year old trust fund baby stoner boyfriend sure is something.

so then they sent her to the silent sisters where she’s beaten all the time and has to pray all the time and she runs away, becomes a sex worker and literally never looks back.

The truth did not come out until a year later, when the former princess was seen in a Lysene pleasure garden, still clad as a novice. Queen Alysanne wept to hear it. “They have made our daughter into a whore,” she said. “She always was,” the king replied.

“You need her as a Dornishman needs a pit viper,” Jaehaerys said. “I am sorry. King’s Landing has sufficient whores. I do not wish to hear her name again.”

but before we move on, let’s look at one more related ick, when saera’s sons show up to the great council:

From Essos came three rival competitors, grandsons of King Jaehaerys through his daughter Saera, each sired by a different father. One was said to be the very image of his grandsire in his youth.

after her drinking, acting out, and jaehaerys’ focus on calling her a whore, explicitly pointing out that one of her grandsons looks just like jae is a choice. i know they’re super inbred. it’s still uncomfortable in context.

viserra targaryen

alysanne makes no sense here but i’m just gonna quickly explain instead of lay it out or we will be here all day bc viserra’s engagement is completely nonsensical. theomore manderly is old, ugly, has a shitton of heirs, and viserra clearly doesn’t want to marry him. also if she wanted to be queen, why is she going after baelon, aemon is still alive. anyways jaehaerys is no help here, then she goes to baelon for help, but she’s also super drunk.

Frustrated, Viserra next turned to her brother Baelon in hopes of rescue, if court gossip can be believed. Slipping past his guards into his bedchamber one night, she disrobed and waited for him, making free with the prince’s wine whilst she lingered. When Prince Baelon finally appeared, he found her drunk and naked in his bed and sent her on her way. The princess was so unsteady that she required the help of two maids and a knight of the Kingsguard to get her safely back to her own apartments.

she gets drunk with some friends again, goes riding, breaks her neck. i wanted to point out this pattern of drinking and acting out at a young age. as well as this pattern of targaryen daughters who aren’t “meant” for a brother and are promised to men who are old and with heirs

daella targaryen

i wanted to add daella because her getting married at 15 makes as little sense as viserra, and her match to a old man with several heirs is equally nonsensical. but also this:

“I would never marry her,” the boy said, in front of half the court. “She can barely read. She should find some lord in need of stupid children, for that’s the only sort he will ever have of her.”

where did vaegon get that mouth.

Daella was not clever, even her septa had to admit. She learned to read after a fashion, but haltingly, and without full comprehension. She could not seem to commit even the simplest prayers to memory. She had a sweet voice, but was afraid to sing; she always got the words wrong. She loved flowers, but was frightened of gardens; a bee had almost stung her once.

Jaehaerys, even more than Alysanne, despaired of her. “She will not even speak to a boy. How is she to marry? We could entrust her to the Faith, but she does not know her prayers, and her septa says that she cries when asked to read aloud from The Seven-Pointed Star.”

The queen always rose to her defense. “Daella is sweet and kind and gentle. She has such a tender heart. Give me time, and I will find a lord to cherish her. Not every Targaryen needs to wield a sword and ride a dragon.”

so daella is 12 at this point.

Her sixteenth nameday was fast approaching, and with it her womanhood. Queen Alysanne was at her wit’s end, and the king had lost his patience. On the first day of the 80th year since Aegon’s Conquest, he told the queen he wanted Daella wed before the year’s end. “If she wants I can find a hundred men and line them up before her naked, and she can pick the one she likes,” he said. “I would sooner she wed a lord, but if she prefers a hedge knight or a merchant or Pate the Pig Boy, I am past the point of caring, so long as she picks someone.”

i just don’t like this. other “simple” targs are not required to marry, like vaella and aelora, two of daeron ii’s grandfaughters so i don’t get why daella is pressured into marrying before she’s even of age. at least jae 2 forced rhaella and aerys because of a prophecy? what is jae’s reasoning for so sexualizing his daughter?

gael targaryen

this one is definitely a reach but i’d like to point out that this is basically all we know about gael:

Princess Gael, a sweet, shy child of seven, became the queen’s constant shadow and support, even sharing her bed at night.

and our information on how she dies is so shady:

A sweet-natured girl, but frail and somewhat simpleminded, she remained with the queen long after her other children had grown and gone, but in 99 AC she vanished from court, and soon afterward it was announced that she had died of a summer fever. Only after both her parents were gone did the true tale come out. Seduced and abandoned by a traveling singer, the princess had given birth to a stillborn son, then, overwhelmed by grief, walked into the waters of Blackwater Bay and drowned.

how does gael get pregnant by a traveling singer when she never leaves her mother’s side? why doesn’t anyone in court know gael got pregnant and killed herself until after aly and jae both die and how was this even found out?

am i implying that jaehaerys sexually abused all four of his daughters? yes because he literally sexually abuses his own wife.

alysanne targaryen

“I am forty-two years old,” she told the king. “You must be content with the children I have given you. I am more suited to be a grandmother than a mother now, I fear.”

King Jaehaerys did not share her certainty. “Our mother, Queen Alyssa, was forty-six when she gave birth to Jocelyn,” he pointed out to Grand Maester Elysar. “The gods may not be done with us.” He was not wrong. The very next year, the Grand Maester informed Queen Alysanne that she was once more with child, to her surprise and dismay.

he uses the birth that killed their mother and that is condemned by rhaena and alysanne as reckless and cruel of rogar to force on her. that birth.

at this point as well, he had abused saera and daella, then they’re gone, then viserra starts drinking and dies, then jae marital rapes aly into having gael, giving him access to another young girl to abuse…i’m aware this is a very uncharitable reading of him but…

alicent hightower (and kind of alyssa targaryen)

Ser Otto’s precocious fifteen-year-old daughter, Alicent, became his constant companion, fetching His Grace his meals, reading to him, helping him to bathe and dress himself. The Old King sometimes mistook her for one of his daughters, calling her by their names; near the end, he grew certain she was his daughter Saera, returned to him from beyond the narrow sea.

saera is the one he fixated on yet again but notable that he’s fixated on his daughters as he dies and not his sons, despite jaehaerys turning to drink after aemon died bc he was so upset.

He announced his intention to wed Lady Alicent of House Hightower, the clever and lovely eighteen-year-old daughter of the King’s Hand, the girl who had read to King Jaehaerys as he lay dying.

The Hightowers of Oldtown were an ancient and noble family, of impeccable lineage; there could be no possible objection to the king’s choice of bride. Even so, there were those who murmured that the Hand had risen above himself, that he had brought his daughter to court with this in mind. A few even cast doubt on Lady Alicent’s virtue, suggesting she had welcomed King Viserys into her bed even before Queen Aemma’s death. (These calumnies were never proved, though Mushroom repeats them in his Testimony and goes so far as to claim that reading was not the only service Lady Alicent performed for the Old King in his bedchamber.)

i know it’s just mushroom being a perv but a rumor that 15 year old alicent “serviced” jaehaerys existing besides rumors that he mistook 15 year old alicent for the daughter he last saw when she was 17 - and viserra was 15, gael 19, and daella 15, all around alicent’s age and all died before age 20. all the targaryen girls that weren’t born “for” a brother exit the narrative after some sort of sexual abuse that centers around jae, as teenagers; daenerys was born for aemon, alyssa for baelon, and maegelle for vaegon before they both fucked off and maegelle was too pious (and too old). this idea of being “for” a brother leads directly to alyssa’s death before 30:

“You were made for battles, and I was made for this. Viserys and Daemon and Aegon, that’s three. As soon as I am well, let’s make another. I want to give you twenty sons. An army of your own!” It was not to be. Alyssa Targaryen had a warrior’s heart in a woman’s body, and her strength failed her. She never fully recovered from Aegon’s birth, and died within the year at only four-and-twenty.

and alysanne being “for” jaehaerys is how he excusing sexually abusing her into a risky pregnancy. essentially what i fear is that because saera, daella, viserra, and gael aren’t “for” someone, jaehaerys gets it into his mind that that are for him. even without him raping them tho, that subtext is there! he is entitled to saera’s virginity and calls her a whore multiple times, even decades after she’s left, and murders her boyfriend in front of her. he claims a weird sexual ownership over his neurodivergent daughter daella and his alcoholic, depressed daughter viserra, and we get zero information on gael’s pregnancy or his reaction to it. but jaehaerys deciding his daughters are “for” him certainly has a basis in canon just judging from the erratic and worrying behavior of his younger daughters.

jaehaerys is a creep and i hate him and i don’t know how much of this is on purpose (like, will aegon vi or dany find out jaehaerys was a shady pedo and it shatters their world? will dunk and egg find it out and it affects their plot somehow? did george just put it in there to make a comment on power and monarchy and misogyny, similar to aegon iv raping the bracken women? or is just there for window dressing creepiness, like “i will pepper in the fact that jaehaerys is sexually obsessed with his daughters” thing?) or if george just made jaehaerys sexually obsessed with his daughters on accident?

on the one hand, it seems out of character for george. he romanticizes drogo thru dany’s eyes but it’s clear he’s meant to be seen as a creep (dany talking about being pregnant followed by “she had just turned 14” is sickeningly jarring for a reason) and also, drogo dies bc of his own pride. sansa doesn’t like any of the old dudes touching her; she is at least marginally freaked out by her wedding night, the unkiss, and lf & dontos taking liberties with her, and rightly. the story that’s told about the mountain raping a girl and making the father pay him is meant to disgust us. the walk of shame is a harrowing chapter to read, because whatever cersei’s crimes, this sexual humiliation is not something she deserves. on and on. yes, we all hate the way arya is sexualized in the mercy chapter, but crucially, she’s not blithely and happily seducing these pervs, she’s going hard candy on their asses. is this just messy set up for something like that?? i think, given how little dany knows about her family’s crimes that somehow learning jae sexually abused (and maybe even impregnated) his own daughters after she herself experiences sexual abuse would be huge. the same goes for aegon vi learning that sexual abuse runs rampant in his family tree; would he empathize with saera hiding out in essos to escape the sexual abuse of her father, see some of elia and his own plight in her? in gael?

or did george really just. not realize how sexually obsessed jaehaerys was with his daughters?

idk how to end this. where’s the winds of winter george i need answers.

[isagrimorie]

People give Janeway guff about not giving Kazon replicators and transporters. Still, it's proven repeatedly that giving one Kazon faction an advantage over the other would be mixing it up in an internal war that would LITERALLY shift the balance of power.

Klingons at least know the technology they have engineers, even as it's becoming a dying breed over Warriors.

TLDR in Alliance Chakotay and Tuvok convinces Janeway that making an alliance with a Kazon faction is the way to go.

And so she does finally concede on this little experiment but with a lot of reservations going in: That once they leave the infighting will go on, and might actually have been worse.

Tuvok naively thinks it might help and bring about a Federation.

B'Elanna then pushes forward Harry's sarcastic comment about forming an alliance with Seska and then at the first sign of this, Chakotay balks.

And then Janeway says something that I feel is her guiding principle in dealing with hard decisions:

Janeway: "You can't have it both ways Commander. If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can't start complaining that you might get dirty."

Again, this is what I love about Janeway -- she gets flack for it but when Janeway makes a decision no one else wants to make it.

As I've mentioned in another post in tags: #right or wrong#i admire how janeway is always the one#who goes#the buck stops with me#she makes the hard choices on voyager#especially during debates#when the staff just goes around and around in circles#like in memorial where she starts just in the background#listening to the senior staff debate#from how janeway started in episode 2 of season 1#where she's presented with the horrific#sophie's choice of neelix dying because he has no lungs#and then subjecting another person to the same fate#to the (now boring debate about tuvix)#to this moment#to the moment on the memorial episode#she will take on that burden#and she will always stare at the hardest choice unflinchingly#because someone has to#as the 12th doctor once said#sometimes all your choices are bad ones#but you still have to choose#

In this episode, she allowed herself to be persuaded but she's not sold on it. But she's letting her crew run with it -- okay so we do this, but if we do this, we commit to it. And yet, at the first uncomfortable decisions... there's already balking. This was Janeway testing the waters if any other person on her senior staff could carry water about making the hard choices.

So far the ones who have stepped up were B'Elanna, Tom, and Neelix.

Anyway, I wish there was more fallout on the whole Kazon vs Trabe conflict because that was actually interesting.

But also Voyager had a Doctor Who problem -- if they meddle in the affairs of a spatial politik, they don't know the repercussions of their actions and just look at Living Witness and the reputation Voyager gained simply by doing a bit of a trade deal.

Voyager can help when they can, see: helping Brenari refugees escape the Devore. (Counterpoint).

But they can't and shouldn't really interfere with internal politics. They're not like DS9 where they can stay in one place and fix things permanently. They're just passing through.

This is also why I think she wasn't really considering Tuvok and Chakotay's thing during the Void episode where they raid another ship's resources. (Also, because after Ransom and Equinox, she knows what faltering in the Federation principles can do).

Crucially, she's also known both Chakotay and Tuvok enough that while she loves them -- Janeway knows neither men have the stomach for their proposals.

The Alliance episode was one example of that already.

Janeway, though, if she is pushed to make that commitment and there was absolutely NO way they can prevent raiding others-- Janeway would have committed to that action 110%. This is why I feel Janeway would actually come to a similar conclusion as Sisko in In the Pale Moonlight.

Especially, if she gets daily reports of Starfleet casualties. I have a feeling, there would be less kicking and screaming when Garak finally does his reveal.

Janeway has rules for a reason. She is fastidious about it. For a reason. Because once she commits to an action, it will take both hell and high water to take her off that course.

/edited

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

05/10/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Vico, Con, and Kristian at Basingstoke; Jes Tom; Madeleine Sami's Birthday; New Watch Parties; Fan Spotlight; MerMay; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika

== Rhys Darby ==

Rhys is on his way to Basingstoke for the con! Also, just recently announced, he'll be joining To_29_And_Beyond on June 7 and 8 in 29 Palms California! You can get tickets here: To29AndBeyond.com

Img Sources: Rhys Darby's Instagram / To_29_And_Beyond Instagram

== Taika Waititi ==

Taika in his cat era <3

Source: Rita Ora's Instagram

== Vico, Con, and Kristian ==

Basingstoke Comic Con is starting off strong! The first day we got to see lots of sightings of Vico, Con, and Kristian from their panels! Rhys is joining tomorrow!

Source: Vico Ortiz' Instagram Stories

== Madeleine Sami ==

Happy Birthday to our wonderful Archie! Hopefully she didn't have to crawl out of snake for this one! Getting some chill time with her Double Parked co-star: Antonia Prebble!

Source: Antonia Prebble's Instagram

= Jes Tom =

Jes Tom was out performing at Netflix Is A Joke Fest!

== Watch Party Reminders ==

Palm Royale WP May 16 via @LCWebsXOXO with the lovely @ dominicburgess approx. 4pm EDT/9pm BST/1pm PST! Available on Apple TV.

Wrecked S3 WP May 13-May 17 - 3:30pm PT / 6:30pm ET / 11:30pm BST! If you need access feel free to dm me here at @gentlebeardsbarngrill or @aspirantabby42 on twitter.

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

Tonight, @melvisik's Cast Card's from the last two days were Jenna Carley (aka Eugenia "who I hear had a child with Sebastian...") and Mawie D Lewis, aka one of the Piano Workers that helped make Stede's Fuckery complete!

== OFMD Colouring Pages ==

Our darling crewmate @patchworkpiratebear has more colouring pages for us! 31 days of pages! Wow!

Source: PatchworkPirateBear's Tumblr

== Mer May ==

The daily prompts from @saveofmdcrewmates have been:

Day 9: "Revenge" Day 10 is "Where's the fucking loot?!"

= Snejpowa =

@snejpowa Has really be hitting it hard this May! Check out these gorgeous colors for the last couple days of prompts!

@snejpowa's Tumblr

== Blueberreads ==

More MerMay prompts from our dear friend @blueberreads! I love all the detail in the Revenge pics!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by blueberreads (@blueberreads_)

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A post shared by blueberreads (@blueberreads_)

Source: @blueberreads Instagram

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! Happy Friday! I hope you've started your weekend off having fun and are getting some rest!

It seems like spirits are up today! I don't know if it's just from the polite menacing yesterday, or all the excitement and sightings with the convention happening-- but I'm really loving seeing people in good spirits. I know we've all had a bit of a rough time of it lately, and we deserve to enjoy life a bit for a change!

This life has so many wonders to offer-- if you happen to be in Europe, the Northern Lights are going on right now and all the pictures everyone has shared have been absolutely stunning. I've never gotten to see them in person before-- but the photos are radiant, I can't imagine what it'd be like IRL-- please if you haven't seen them and they're still around tomorrow go out and take a peek!

Something else I've noticed the last couple days crew, is a lot of you are feeling more comfortable talking about your insecurities and fears with each other. This is really wonderful, because so many people are coming out and are trying to support one another in them-- and that's what crew is all about. Seeing people build their confidence bit by bit with every interaction, it makes me feel so incredibly fuzzy inside. Every day you continue to grow into these wonderful little remarkable beings, and getting to see that blossoming in you all over the past few months has been a serious privilege. You aren't your insecurities lovelies, and while those feelings are absolutely valid, I hope you can get to a point (if you aren't already there) where you can hold them in your heart, feel them, give them love, and let them go so they too can heal the parts of you that caused them in the first place.

We're all on your side crew, I hope you know that. You are an etherial soul in a delightfully beautiful little shell, remember to love yourself too so you can keep blooming into that exceptional gleam of wonder that you are. Happy Weekend Crew, I hope your next few days are filled with good times and laughter <3

Art by @thelatestkate

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight's theme is Gifs I don't think I've seen before!

Gifs Courtesy of @ fandomsmeantheworldtome and @ neverswungonswingingstars!

[stgroversfire]

one of my biggest pet peeves that i think is really common is just absolutely shitting on household name bands. like ones that have ascended beyond popular to literally no one hasnt heard of them. whose music is maybe seen as boring for how much we have to hear it.

case in point:

the first song i ever actually felt an emotional connection to was it's time by imagine dragons. i was 12ish and i made a drawing for art class based on it that also happens to be the first piece of art i was ever truly proud of and made me want to create more.

night visions (deluxe) was so important to me at that time, i laughed and cried and sang and danced to that album, and the night visions tour was the first real concert i ever went to! i still remember that concert, i remember my mom and sister dragging me out during the encore because they wanted to get ahead of traffic, and i was crying happy tears singing along to nothing left to say/rocks as it played muffled through the concrete walls.

i couldn't tell you exactly what else i was listening to at that point other than what itunes called "alternative," but then smoke and mirrors came out and it was such a new sound that i had never experienced before and i think thats when i really became ravenous for more music. i went to that tour as well and it was incredible.

and then i started listening to stuff my friends showed me, because now i actually cared, and i got on fallout boy and p!atd and most importantly twenty one pilots.

i listened to my dad's favorite bands from the 70s/80s, namely supertramp and boston. i got into trap and dubstep. i listened when my brother played hip hop in the car and got hooked on mac miller, and then when i found out what hip hop was like in the 70s and the whole culture that developed around it, i truly fell in love with hip hop. i mean that shit got me through my worst days of high school.

and honestly once i got to college i was just listening to anything; grunge, traditional heavy metal, thrash metal, indie pop, folk, blues, jazz (i took a jazz class for an elective, and that shit is fascinating), j-rock, chiptunes, lofi, city pop, eurobeat, punk pop and easycore (thank you alex), breakcore-

okay, i sound like a bragging asshole now, but you get my point. i would not have found any of this if i hadn't heard it's time by imagine dragons, and every time i say ID means a lot to me, i get absolutely shit on. i actually was introduced to rush when ID did a cover of tom sawyer at a concert, and my friend's reaction was "wow that must have sounded like dogshit, they're so bad!" a reddit thread was giving me shit for having ID on my top 10 most listened, ignoring all the stuff i know they had never heard of.

which. alright, to be fair, it is a bit funny and i don't mind getting some flak for it. its the internet, its all in good fun. but the most random obscure shit like will connolly's caterpillars of the commonwealth or phemiec's songs from the dustbowl being on my spotify is owed to ID, put some respect on their name- they were able to reach so many people with their music, and that's something to be celebrated.

uhh tldr: all music is valuable because all music is helping someone get through this shit world, and it can be a gateway to music they don't know that they don't know.

uh and if you actually got this far rec me ur favorite band

[lilbeanz]

Hello! Not an ask, just wanted to say I adore your content; you're so skilled. I came across your art first, and the drama of even the smallest panel; I'd been eyeing JoDT & sequels for awhile because it was a WIP, but I caved and binged bks1-4 in about three days. I reread the "Eat your heart out Pureblood society" scene at least once a day, thank you for that, superb execution. I also really liked, in the first book, the interactions between Malfoy & Harry, and the very gradual "well, he's our friend now." The development of their friendship has done a great job of re-defining the characters and their relationships. The series feels like its own thing, and the fact that Ginny never even had the diary in book 2 only cemented that. I've really appreciated the deviation from Draco-the-tortured-hero/Draco-making-amends (which I also love to read). Horrors of the Heir was a great twist and really put the whole series in another tier, tbh. CoS was like, my least favorite of the series as a kid (alongside GoF, which has grown on me as I read fanfic) and your version of bk 2 easily established the micro-obsession of your series for me. Also, Crabbe & Goyle?? "They're actually really good friends"?? "Just to see if we feel anything"?? Adorable. Obsessed.

tldr; Your rewrite of the series is incredibly unique, and I admire how you've really taken the series and made it something completely fun and new and modern 💜💜💜

Looking forward to the rest. Thank you for sharing!

AaaAaaAaaHhhHhhHh?!??!?!

This is such a lovely comment, I can't even -- I -- I'm --

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying the series so far! It really has been such a challenging, fun project!

I adored writing the "Eat Your Heart Out" scene. People tend to forget that Draco Malfoy is canonically *very* dramatic when he wants to be. Yes, he can be sulky and scheming, but he also shouts taunts across the courtyard, and puts on scenes to make older students laugh at Harry’s expense, even going so far as to dress up as a Dementor to make his "rival" lose in Quidditch.

The Horror of the Heir was such an experience for me as the author, because CoS is my favourite book from the series (weird, ik) and looking back, I sort of realise I could’ve squeezed in so much more. But last May, 45k was a HUGE amount of words for me! And now I'm churning out 100k like nobody's business 💀

✨️Growth✨️

And speaking of growth, the reason I had Draco take Tom Riddle’s diary was purely because of growth. It would've taken him far longer to change as a person if he hadn't taken Ginny's place. A pivotal character development moment, as he reflects on his upbringing etc...

Crabbe and Goyle generally get overlooked in the fandom, and it really bugs me. Vince dies canonically, yes, but I absolutely love it when fic writers incorporate Greg as an actual character in post-war fics, and acknowledge that Vince was Draco’s friend.

It's always Blaise, Pansy, and Theo because they're intelligent and societies definition of "attractive." I mean, each to their own of course, but I could write an entire essay on the injustice I feel for Crabbe and Goyle!

And then, of course, the development of Draco’s relationship with the Golden Trio, specifically Harry. Just -- Ugh-- these silly kids make me so unhinged!😂

It wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows to begin with. Of course it wouldn't. It's a rocky start, with bumps along the way (and more big bumps to come), but I really do love the way I have progressed their relationship, and I'm not even gonna be humble about it! I really do love my own fic!!!

All this to say, thank you so much!!! I realise fix-its are a very popular type of fic to write, but I really do try to keep it as fresh and unique as possible, so the fact that I really am able to give my readers an experience means the world to me💖

[solsays]

here we go again. serious post time. This one is about a very serious topic, and could be very sensitive for some people (cw: manipulation, domestic abuse). if you aren’t aware, this is about Shelby (and Wilbur, which is mainly who this post is about, but reminder that THIS IS NOT HIS STORY. TOSS HIM ASIDE. LIFT SHUBBLE UP.). There is a TLDR at the bottom, as well as a comment regarding my fics.

Shelby (Shubble) recently spoke about an ex boyfriend who abused her. People were guessing it was Wilbur, but she couldn’t say the name due to legal things, but today the scumbag posted a response.He tweeted an “apology”, that spoiler alert, was not an apology. Here is his sorry excuse of a reply if you’d like to read for yourself:

There are some things I’d like to point out here. First of all, he made this about himself. It’s not a damn apology, it’s a lousy attempt at avoiding taking responsibility. Second, he refers to the abuse as an “allegation.” It is not.

He locked her in his filthy ant-infested house. He refused to give her house keys even when he made her clean up after him and pay for the materials. He went two months without unpromptedly complementing her. He bit her so hard that it bruised and she would scream out their safe word. At the safe word he would sometimes bite harder, or grind his teeth against her skin. He joked that she looked like she was abused.

By the way, human bites are more dangerous than an animal bite. They’re incredibly dangerous due to the amount of bacteria in our mouths and can easily kill someone. Oh and also? That reply has an 85% match with AI generated content on TurnItIn, a website used for college papers.

Here are some responses to his “apology” from other CCs, as well as Shelby’s response:

You hear Shubble. They don’t accept it, meaning neither will we. 

As far as other response go especially Freddie and Billzo’s are incredibly concerning. Do not, I repeat, do not pressure Tommy in particular to respond as quickly. He was one of the closest people to Wilbur. He was very young when they became friends, and Wilbur clearly has a history manipulating teenagers. They went through a friend’s death together. Maybe he did have a soft spot for Tommy, or maybe Tom received the worst treatment of any of his friends. 

Phil is currently out of the country and off of Twitter, so he might take a bit to reply as well as the fact he may only now be realizing that he was close friends with an abuser. If he supports Wilbur, we drop him too.

Wilbur does not deserve support. He is a terrible person. He manipulates people for his own benefit, “abuses those he loves”. If you’re abusing someone? You do not love them.

I have dealt with plenty of people like him, and it is so easy to miss the signs. Especially if they’re good at what they do. They gaslight, they lie, and they trick you. Do not assume that anybody knew about his abuse just because they were friends with him. 

Go support Shelby. Encourage her. Follow her and watch her videos. She’s so incredibly sweet and funny, and they’re a joy to watch. Shelby is asexual and uses she/they pronouns.

There is no excuse for supporting him. I have followed Wilbur since late 2020. I was there for the first Lovejoy EP. I was there for YLYL. I have merch from Lovejoy. He has been a huge comfort to me through some of the hardest times of my life. When this came out, I have blocked both Lovejoy and Wilbur on Spotify. I have taken down every piece of merch or posters I own. Don’t support him, period.

He did not care about her. He is a terrible fucking person, and deserves to be deplatformed entirely.

As far as my fics go, I will be (once again) removing his character entirely from any story I have. It may take a while as I’m incredibly busy at the moment, but I will be doing it as quickly as possible.

One final reminder: This is about Shubble. This is NOT about Wilbur. Let Shubble take her time to process this. Support them every step of the way. She is a wonderful person and deserves the world, and the best thing we can do is focus on them and their strength through all of this. They don’t want to be known for this. Let’s get him gone and focus on lifting her up <3

TLDR: Wilbur basically admitted to abusing Shelby in an incredibly self-centered and manipulative excuse of an “apology”. Do not support him, go support Shubble.

[loveoaths]

it fucking kills me that i have seen NO ONE talking about the reaction jess jordan, kendall roy’s assistant, has. because it is jess, and rava and sophie roy, who have the reactions that twitter and reddit and all the succession lovers are looking for in shiv, for some goddamn reason. it’s jess who not so subtly pleads with greg to delay calling the election, who is blown off dismissively and ignorantly by greg who cannot understand or even SEE how strong of a panic reaction she is havjng. to him, and every other roy and tom and everyone else at their level, this is just another crazy day with literally zero consequences. a fascist dictator president will literally not change the quality of their lives as rich white people. but it will change jess’ life, as a biracial woman. it will change rava and sophie roy’s lives, in spite of kendall’s money and protection. and the show purposefully cuts off their reactions — jess blinking fast and breathing hard and about to have a panic attack meltdown in the hallway, rava and sophie scared in the back of an SUV — because the show isn’t about them. the show is about the roys, who do not care about the consequences of their actions, partially because they never have to SEE the consequences of their actions. greg does not see jess freaking out; even when she is clearly panicked in front of her he cannot see her pain and if he could, he wouldn’t care. it’s only when he turns his back on her that she starts to break down, which is a great if painful blocking choice. not only is it realistic — she can’t lose face in her workplace, she can’t react negatively when she works for the guy who owns the Devil Right Wing Fascist TV Network, and she most certainly can’t react any way people don’t like because she is one of the few, if not the only, black women in the building and working for the roys. while greg sighs and laughs about this day being crazy, she is having a meltdown as she fears what this election result means to her. if rava, a wealthy woman of color with a powerful ex husband, is scared, how much more scared is jess? is everyone else under jess?

but the show cuts off her reaction and takes us back to shiv because this show is from the roy’s pov, and this episode is largely from shiv’s pov. shiv “cares about democracy” and the country to an extent, because democracy only effects her to an extent. she knows on paper this election is bad news. she also knows it’s not going to change her life directly because she’s rich. like her brothers, who do not care at all who is President, who only care about which candidate will give them what they want, shiv is more upset because this election means she isn’t getting what she wants. she’s going to lose her power in the potential matsson deal. because that is how the roys chose who would be president: they chose the candidate they could buy and who could sell them control over their interests for the lowest number, and meincken outbid jimenez by a landslide. tldr the reaction people are looking for in shiv and in the roys were there, but in jess and rava. and even rava and jess aren’t progressives, aren’t “feminist icons”, they’re also complicit and victimized all at once, like shiv is, but with far less say and power. it’s almost like… the show about face eating leopards… is making a point that if you get in a cage with a hungry leopard, at some point you will run out of steaks to throw at it and it, too, will eat your face off. huh.

[hall0wedwyrm]

Basically, TLDR i saw a fake screenshot on TikTok showing Amy in the Knuckles series and it got me thinking about how she... doesn't quite fit in the movieverse yet...

So here is my long rant about why it would be bad for her to join in Movie 3 and she should be saved for a future installment.

to preface: I DO NOT HATE AMY OR HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST HER. I think shes wonderful and shes literally a main character so shes very important obviously.

First, the elephant in the room. Shadow the Hedgehog. One of, if not THE most, complex character in the Sonic franchise, let alone in the main expanded cast. Having to introduce, and illude to, aspects of Shadow’s backstory (his relationship with Maria and Gerald, The ARK, how he was made, and the fallout) and his future (returning with amnesia in his next appearance, potentially introducing the Black Arms and some of the Heroes and Shad05 story beats that are important who he becomes) in about an hour and a half to 2 hours. I just don’t see how it would be a good idea to introduce a core member of Sonic’s friends into the movie series when she could be introduced later so that Shadow has more of a time to shine, and Amy can too later on.

Historically, Amy’s talk to Shadow to remind him of his promise to Maria has been filled in by another character when the plot called for it. In Sonic X, during its own adaptation of SA2, Chris spoke to Shadow to try and help him remember his real purpose and talk sense into him. While it didn't exactly work out, it shows that this role could be interchangable in SEGA’s eyes. I propose a similar story, using Tom’s niece Jojo. Being a character who is around Maria’s age and doesn’t have a complete character behind her as of now, this could be a more meaningful way for Shadow to realise his purpose and remember his promise. Hearing the words from someone who is like Maria (a young girl who cares about Earth) would be more impactful to him. I can see any human character taking up this role though, but Jojo would be the best candidate, due to her simiarities to Maria.

However, while not introducing another new character could be good for not overcrowding the movie with new arcs and introductions involving them, I could see this working for one character; Rouge the Bat. She was introduced along with Shadow in SA2, which is immediately a good sign, as their plots intertwine with each other. They both work with Eggman, until they turn the focus on saving the world. Rouge is one of Shadow’s closest companions going forward, and has her own arc too. She is the one who frees Shadow in Heroes, and rekindles their friendship there.

Rouge also could connect back to the previous movie. Being a jewel thief at heart, she goes after the Master Emerald, but in Movieverse its destroyed and the Chaos Emeralds are retrieved from it. She is established as being the Rival to Knuckles, and this could help him fill a new purpose on Earth (cos lets be honest… he didn’t really do that in his show-) of becoming a protector of the Chaos Emeralds instead or something. The main part of SA2 is about the Chaos Emeralds so this makes sense. Refinding the Emeralds or going to the right spot to use them and such but thats besides the point.

Another huge loss of introducing Amy in Sonic 3 is missing out on how she was introduced in the franchise. In Sonic CD, she was introduced along side another key character in the franchise; Metal Sonic. She saw a blue hero coming to help her, believing it to be Sonic, but turned out to be Metal instead. Having Amy navigate the trio around and give them the lore would make a lot of sense, given the way that others were introduced in the second installment.

Its also appropriate for this introduction too, since Metal Sonic is the perfect equal to Sonic, compared to Shadow's unintentional equal. After Eggman's failure of using Shadow, creating Metal is the next best thing. Whatever the story is with Metal, whether its faithful to Sonic CD or is twisted to fit the Movieverse story.

Now... I think introducing Amy could also mess up a lot of aspects of what the movieverse has set up for the stories of the characters. I 100% know that they will try and pull off a romance for Sonic and Amy, since its one of her main character arcs and for the longest time and its kind of (??) the main romance of the franchise. BUT according to the Sonic Dream Team character profiles, and the ending of Frontiers, she's drifted away from that interest in him... so to go back to that would be a really weird choice. I know its a different universe, but if SEGA is trying to steer away from that, then why would they go back on it?

PLUS I think it would be a huge detriment to both of their characters. Movie Sonic is much different to the Sonic's of the past, as he has all of the charms of Modern Sonic (his quick wit and charming personality) but hes younger and less experienced and jumps head first without thinking because he doesn't know what to actually do. He was thrown into the role of the hero in the first movie because the place he grew up was being threatened and he refused to run away. Amy being introduced as solely 'the love interest' also does a disservice to her character. She's strong willed, and unafraid to stand up to Eggman and any other wrong doer. She's also rather hot headed but still kind and cares for those who matter. (this is also part of a larger discussion i wrote about how in canon Sonic and Amy wouldn't work out because they want different things and are very different people but thats for a different day and/or if anyone is interested). Sonic immediately switching to a head-over-heels guy would be a complete ruin of his character built up, while also immediately destroying Amy's.

Another problem is that there isn't a focus on romance of any kind in the story so far, and introducing it could mess up what they have going. The Movie's are clearly about familial love and growing up and filling the boots of a hero. It is not a story of romance in any way. The first movie was friendship, the second was about family bonds and making new friends, and the third is most likely about trust or learning to trust again (Shadow has to trust Sonic to save the world). It'll also be a huge moment for Sonic's character; Meeting someone who is not just against him and Knuckles and Tails, but against the world itself, someone who is so hellbent on revenge for the one he lost, and how hes going to over come that WHILE meeting his new love interest... is a huuuuge task to pull off and the two stories don't really mix imo. Plus even in SA2 the extent of the romance is just 'Amy mistaking Shadow for Sonic and then she thinks its awkward and gets embarrassed and thats how they meet for the first time'.

So yeah this could be done much better if it's something thats going to happen, and it would be better left for a 4th or separate installment. Having a mini romance arc along with the Metal Sonic stuff works better because the introduction of a potential romance was worked more into Sonic CD than anything.

Im still gonna be pissed off if they do a romance, because Sonic the Hedgehog has never been about romance... but its also a multimillion kids film franchise and its bound to happen, especially when its the main male and main female character. Just know i won't enjoy it lol.

IF they do Amy... I want tarot cards AND the Piko Piko Hammer and if you take either of them away i will be causing problems (on purpose). If you give her the original outfit +11 points and if you make up an outfit whatever as long as it works and its cute (I'm partial to Dungarees myself).

anyway yeah id like to see other opinions on this... maybe some other ways it could work out? or how else she could be introduced? or maybe even of she could be in Sonic 3 but idk what they would do for her to make her not get sidelined or overtake the plot...?

[creetchure]

Please tell me about your ideas for the fallout for like everyone post gotham war (if not everyone than just Jason is fine too, i am very curious about your ideas for an arc for him)

hi hello!!! my thoughts are more directed to jason because he's the one who went through the brunt of things, BUT i have thoughts on all of them. i also have sort of separate thoughts because of the detective comics anouncement, but they contain spoilers for the future issues of detective comics, so if you don't want that, i'm putting it under read more after this.

also typing this and realizing it's REALLY long, so i'm gonna put a tldr at the end of each character LMAO

first off, dick is never forgiving bruce for this. we know exactly how protective of his siblings he is -- he killed joker for implying having killed tim -- and i can't see him letting this slide, no matter how much bruce pleads the "it wasn't me i was being influenced by the personality i created as a backup". Of course, because they're bruceanddick and they're always in a cycle of coming back to each other, eventually, little by little, dick is going to start working with him again, but i don't think this is something he'll ever *forgive*. or forget for that matter. so to me, this should spark an arc of nightwing becoming more separate from batman than he's been in years.

TL;DR: Dick isn't forgiving bruce for this, but will eventually work with him again

second off. there are a lot of things i would like to see for jason, some more likely than others. ill start by what i *know* won't happen, but would be best for his character imo.

Jason is a character we've seen move forward and backwards so many times, mostly because he sells well, and so the writers keep him stuck in this red hood limbo of eing a loner and making friends, and hating bruce and forgiving him, and it's been the same arc since his resurection, and i'm tired. which is why i think what'd be best for him is an Oracle arc, for lack of a better term.

Jason will never leave Gotham for an extended period of time. it's home to him as much as it is to Bruce. he might go away for a bit (id like to see him in Blud but ill get into that later), but he'll always come back. he also will never give up trying to protect Gotham and the people in it, because he never has. But he can't be a vigilante in the same way anymore, functionally, what Bruce has done to him is profoundly disabling in day to day life, let alone doing things that are made to trigger the panic response.

I don't think that should stop him. Personally, my vision for it is to put him at the head of a spy network, to render Batman obsolete and stop major crime before it even happens (potentially also feeding batman fake info to make him look bad), but like. you could do other things. it's just the idea that i'm going with.

But I do think that unlike Dick, jason is going to forgive bruce for this (against his better sense or wishes. he does understand how fucked this is) because he understands altered states of mind (NOT talking about the pit. talking about good old fashioned brain fuckery). but it's also going to cause a rift in their relationship that i don't see them bridging anytime soon, and Jason *will* be extremely uncomfortable for a long time.

Thats only if they don't walk back the panic thing, though, which i firmly believe they will. a Red Hood solo has been in the works for ages, and is supposed to come p soon, and i doubt they'd start it off with Jason unable to *be* Red Hood. They might not fully fix it, but they'll make it much more manageable.

overall, i'd like to see Jason in Bludhaven after this for a bit. I kind of just want a focus on him and Dick for a while, though I dread what Tom Taylor might write of the two of them. I'd also like a mantle change, but that's just me dreaming.

TL;DR: if it was up to me, Jason would have an Oracle arc and be the head of a spy network. it's not, and all I can hope for is Jason moving to Bludhaven and detaching himself from Bruce for a while

third off, tim. I don't have many thoughts about him, if I'm honest, mostly because he's one of the least directly affected by Bruce's actions, imo. i'm also less of a fan of his character, making it harder for me to see all the implications that this arc will have on him. I do firmly believe that he'll stick to his siblings rather than Bruce, because he does know how to look at reality and call out Bruce's bullshit.

TL;DR: i don't know/don't care enough about Tim to have that many thoughts. he'll pick his siblings side.

fourth! Cass! She isn't really present in the event much (doesn't sell as well i assume) but this is important to me so. To me, this causes damage to her and Bruce's relationship as well, that he'll have to work to fix. She is loyal to the Bat and what the symbol represents before she is loyal to the man wearing the suit, and I think that to her, this is betrayal of the ideals Batman stands for. bruce isn't a hero in this arc, and he's not a symbol of hope like the bat stands for. What I would like for Cass is for her to keep going on the missions, keep doing good, but doing so independantly from Batman. She stops answering to him entirely up until she feels he has made amends and has worked himself back to the standard he used to be. I want her to stay in Gotham, and keep protecting it the way the Bat should, even from the bat himself.

TL;DR: cass should stay in Gotham and be batman and not return Bruce's calls.

Damian is the one i'm not exactly sure i know where the writers are leading, but i can still speculate and tell you what *id* do.

we know that him and bruce are still going to be friendly and on the same side by the end of this from Batman and Robin #1. we also know Damian in that issue is kind of distant, doesn't really stick around Bruce much. Williamson's damian always reads sort of. depressed. so idk how much of that is in reaction to Gotham war or just from the way Williamson characterizes him, but there's that.

Imo, Damian will forgive bruce, but is also internalizing a lot of the bad shit that happen in Gotham war. Bruce leaving him needs to be something that stays, because he's 14 and his dad is his hero and he left him behind *anyway* and that's bound to fuck you up.

So I think Damian is staying in Gotham, and he's staying with Bruce, but he's also going to be dealing with the aftermath of that for a while, potentially up to a boiling point, which i'd really like to see. Also i'd like to see this compound with the fact that Talia left him with his father, and how that computes together in his head etc etc.

TL;DR: Damian will stick by Bruce for better or for worse, and might have a shit time mentally dealing with the aftermath of this.

I don't have many thoughts on steph, babs, or selina, since 1) i don't know selina and babs well enough to speak on their character, and 2) steph hasn't been there much, and i don't have a Vision for her like i do for Cass.

okay. those are my thoughts. Now for those on the tec announcement

right so. forget literally all i've said about bruce, because he's going to die.

I'm not pulling this out of thin air, in issue 1080 of detective comics, it's said that Bruce is killed by the orghams, leading to the entirety of gotham city forgetting him. Now, I have no idea how this is getting implemented, so I can't say much about how the members of the Batfamily will react. But I can say that this is, in fact, the natural progression for bruce's character.

in the past year or so, both Zdarski and Ram V have been talking about how Bruce is getting too old, and putting more tangible, permanent consequences on what he does (losing a hand, zur, etc).

On top of that, he has been made to make amends with Dick, Tim, and Jason over the course of that same year (nightwing 100, cheer, failsafe arc, etc)

To me, this arc is the culmination of months of foreshadowing.

Though i'll admit, i thought they were going to just retire bruce for a little while, not fucking *kill him*. it won't last for more than a few years, he sells too well, but i genuinely thought this would be like a knightfall situation.

when it comes to the question of who gets to be batman (i swear, last paragraph and i'm done), i think that gotham war also serves to tell us that *no one* will be. I don't see Dick picking it up in those conditions, Jason won't either, Tim is scared of becoming batman, and Damian might but they won't really let him. ofc they won't let Cass take up the mantle either.

Woo. hope you're happy with this and tihs wasn't more than you bargained for. i'm a bit insane about this.

[antebellumite]

(since i sense you may be having an atticus finch moment rn) is go set a watchman "canon" to you? i always liked tkam but i never read gsaw (even though someone gave it to me when it came out) because i got a weird feeling about the circumstances of it being published among other things. never talked to anybody about it so figured i'd ask a certified tkam enjoyer

i am having Such an atticus finch moment that i have three fics in the works for him

ohhh boy so hear me out.

warning: i'm rereading tkam as we speak and its been a while since ive read gsaw

in my own personal head-interpretation of to kill a mockingbird, in which the irl reality of its publication is disregarded, gsaw is canon in the sense that it's the alternate universe of to kill a mockingbird, with the point of divergence being the tom robinson trial.

tom robinson is found guilty: atticus experiences Character Growth and becomes and remains the folk hero Defender of Rights and dilf we know today

tom robinson is not found guilty [or at least, not found guilty via the defense atticus uses in gsaw]: atticus basically remains on the natural course he was in the beginning of tkam to bigotry and Racism TM

tldr: gsaw, on its own, is not a good book, and nor is it fully canon, but it does serve as great contextualization to the person that atticus is in tkam and who atticus could have been.

at the beginning of the book and throughout the trial, atticus finch is clearly a very White Moderate in our Modern Terms, in the sense that he might disapprove of the racism exhibited by the citizens of maycomb, but he also is more than content to not do anything about it. his worldview is essentially: "man it sure sucks that my neighbors are prejudiced and more than willing to sentence an innocent man to death, and but i guess i'll tolerate it and spend time around them because they're good people at heart [to other white people]." you know how one of the most memorable lessons atticus teaches to scout is to have empathy for others? my argument is that atticus's practicing of that is what makes him to give too much leeway to the bigoted members of the community around him.

we see this with ike finch, maycomb's "sole surviving confederate veteran" and stonewall jackson fetishist. he makes his appearance early on in the book, prior to the robinson case even being introduced. according to scout, he comes by at least once a year to "rehash the war" with atticus. while i can assume this means that ike is representing the confederacy and atticus the union in this conversation, considering that in the immediate paragraph after, atticus states "this time we aren't fighting the yankees, we're fighting our friends. but remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home." it implies that in this american civil war replay, either both of them are identifying with the confederacy, or ike is and atticus is more than okay to go along with it. and in addition, atticus's apparent determination to remain on good terms with the people of maycomb no matter how bitter it got adds questions to just what he would have considered bitter enough for the people of maycomb to no longer remain his friends. if the mob at the scene at the jailhouse actually managed to lynch tom robinson, which they were probably going to do, until scout saved the day, would that have been "bitter enough" for atticus to reconsider being friends with murderers?

actually the fact that he adds in 'and this is still our home' makes me think he was planning to leave maycomb entirely if that scenerio actually happened but i digress

and then you get to ms. dubose, who serves as another aspect to how atticus views the racism of his town. when ms. dubose dies, he calls her the most bravest person he'd ever known, for having the courage to die clean of her morphine addiction, and also a "great lady". which, i understand, in part, is because she Just Died and he's talking to Jem and Scout who are children, but the way that atticus talks about it makes you feel as though he's implying that her courage serves as either recompense or excuse for a. the racism and b. the whole thing where she essentially verbally harassed jem and scout whenever they came by for the horrid sin of walking where she could see them.

of course there's also maycomb trial in general. atticus obviously knows that he cant win-- the famous 'just because you're licked doesn't mean you can give up' quote-- because he understands the prejudice of the town. but i believe that behind the quote, atticus still had faith in the judicial process, just not in the people who were in charge of it in maycomb. its part of the reason for his appeal-- to get robinson to a higher court where the people there could be more open-minded.

so in essence, atticus at the turning point of his story [ the trial ], is someone who's

1. overly lenient and sympathetic view of his maycomb neighbors allows him to excuse much of the harmful rhetoric and actions they perpetrate

2. considers racism to be, while Bad, a certain type of bad that is ultimately forgivable/excusable. i think there's also evidence in tkam that he basically also thinks the same thing for other forms of bigotry but i'm not going to look for them.

3. has trust in the judicial system

so from there, we have the tom robinson trial.

i like to think that what acting as tom robinson's defense attorney did for atticus was that it forced him to actually reckon with the racism of maycomb as directed towards an actual human being rather than a Nebulous Construct. when tom robinson got declared guilty despite being innocent, it showed him the actual harmful effects of what the people of maycomb believed, on an actual human being, who was subsequently presumably murdered via 17 gunshot wounds. it showed the failures of a system that allowed for tom robinson to be murdered and sentenced for a crime he didn't commit in the first place.

in gsaw, without tom robinson being convicted, i don't think that lesson would have hit so hard. to gsaw!atticus, robinson being declared not guilty is proof that the racism of maycomb is ultimately Not That Harmful, proof that the system ultimately Works As It Should, and it allows him to sink deeper into interactions with more extreme racist individuals, and eventually become the verison of atticus we see in gsaw.

in addition, gsaw!atticus's defense for tom robinson that gets him acquitted is that the robinson's presumed rape of mayella was consensual, whereas tkam!atticus reveals that the rape didn't happen between robinson and mayella in the first place (although, you know.) which implies a contrast between gsaw!atticus and tkam!atticus where tkam!atticus was focused on exonerating robinson's public image in order to then acquit robinson, but gsaw!atticus was focused on acquitting robinson head on, even if it meant attacking mayella instead.

what this would mean is that gsaw!atticus might not even have had all that much of an interaction with tom robinson, and therefore wasn't able to do that whole tkam-trademark Understanding and Seeing Him As A Person, thereby Removing his past Blinders to Injustice TM TM TM.

and this leads to the changes in atticus from tkam and gsaw. they're still the same person, but with a different turning point.

[quackle]

What’s your opinion of Disventure Camp All Star as for now?

overall opinion right now is... hm... all i can say for now is "eh." let's discuss under the cut. (sorry for the rambles, per usual + sorry if things are rushed because i am At Work Bored Out Of My Mind)

ok. so.

is all stars my fav so far? well... no. don't get me wrong, there's some things i enjoy. it's still disventure camp and there are still some hilarious moments that i enjoy. the show has sooo much heart! and it's a product of hard work, which shows through things like certain elimination ceremonies (i'm thinking lake, tess, and ashley here), dialogue (fiore is always funny + tom's dumb one-liners with aiden staring into the camera makes me giggle every time), and voice acting (dcas voice actors i'll always love yall).

i've grown to love characters like tess, ally, gabby, and grett more this season too!! like i smile when i see them personally. i like their writing directions for the most part!

but there are other things in this show that i don't vibe with. yul is a whole topic of his own (tldr i do notttt like any single thing about yul's character / how he treats grett / how he's written in general at all, im sorry). some of these remaining characters are giving little to NOTHINGGGGG (let's all stare extra hard at aiden here! and idk maybe blink in alec, ally, and riya's direction for quick seconds). and the whole tomjake thing is not for me, which sucks considering it takes up a decent portion of a lot of eps. (then again idgaf about this ship and never have + i detest romantic complications due to lack of communication in almost every single media there is, so take this one with a grain of salt)

i think a mutual of mine on twitter said it best. something like, "with an all stars season, it's extra important to either highlight characters that might not have gotten much attention previously, or showcase a new side to these characters that intrigues the audience. they're all stars! prove it!" and while some have proven that imo, others never really get the opportunity.

so yeah. so far everything is a mixed bag for me, which is why i deem this season as "eh" so far.

but that being said. the show isn't over yet!! so i can't give a full opinion in good faith. when the whole season completes, i think i'll have a more cohesive opinion. so im sorry if this was all over the place anon </3

[heavensbeehall]

Can I rant about this article for an hour? TLDR, they want Tom Glynn-Carney, who is currently playing King Aegon II on House of the Dragon to play young Haymitch calling it "too perfect."

In fact, I have seen interviewers ask Glynn-Carney about this directly which is insane to me that more than one person thought this.

First of all, Glynn-Carney (though a great actor, and is giving a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of Aegon who is fairly flat in the book) is currently 29 years old. He'll be in his 30s when this films. Objectively he is too old to play a teeanged Haymitch in a movie that won't come out for several more years.

We are looking for someone who is around 16-18 now, I would say. Who will be early 20s during filming. (Rachel Zegler is 23 now, for example but the movie was filmed two years ago.)

Secondly, he doesn't look much like Woody Harrelson to me, and he especially doesn't look like Haymitch as described in the books.

Why are people pushing this? I don't get it.

If we have to cast a House of the Dragon actor Harry Collett is right there. He's got a long face like Harrelson, but also has dark hair which is important to me personally. (Although wouldn't it be CRAZY if we actually cast someone indigenous?!?)

[revscarecrow]

(I'm sorry this got so long. you don't have to post it if you don't want to) late to the party but I did want to say that while I don't know what the perfect answer is, I also don't like it when trans kids are written off as being dumb (or kids in general). Even at a pretty young age its not impossible to understand complex ideas, even if you can't explain them in the most clear way. As early as 5 my mom noticed I would talk about my gender in certain ways, saying I'd wish i was a boy and other things along those lines. For a while she chalked it up to me possibly being a tom-boy but after I started to transition it really clicked with her that I knew I was trans from a really young age. I'm not sure she would have gotten me onto HRT if she knew I was trans sooner, but I feel like if we were more open to trans healthcare for kids we can at least get that conversation started sooner, yknow? Sure at certain ages kids can't understand EVERYTHING but that's why we teach kids things. As a trans kid it kind of felt like I had to find all of the information myself which kind of sucked. Not all the information i was able to find was good information. Around that time non-binary was a known thing but not as wide spread and accepted as it is now, so the idea of sitting outside of certain molds was super new for trans and non-trans people alike. So a lot of the information being spread even within trans circles was a bit weird. Like,the idea of a masc person not wanting top surgery or being fine not binding was seen as a bad thing at the time and it would confuse trans and cis people. It made trying to figure out if i'm trans or not hard because on one side i knew for a fact i wanted to be masc presenting, and on the other hand a large portion of internet randos are saying that some of the ways I felt made me "not trans enough". As a young teen I knew what gender was, what gender dysphoria was, and it would have been great for someone that knew MORE than I did to explain the right information to me. I wasn't dumb, I just didn't know better. And I think the same can be said for a lot of trans kids and parents of trans kids that want to learn more about hormones, and being trans in general. Withholding that information from parents and kids did do harm and still does harm. I do understand the worry with regret. Hormones do in fact have some life changing effects. But at the same time I feel like we can do a LOT better in terms of giving trans kids resources. I don't know enough to know if changing the age when hormones can start is a good or bad idea, but treating kids as kids that are able living people helps a lot. At the very least kids deserve to be informed. Something kid-me WOULD have loved a lot was getting to sit with a doctor that knew a lot about being trans and have them offer me things I could do even before hormones. Play around with pronouns, names, think about how I want to express myself, maybe doctors would have known about non-binary genders at the time too, i'm not sure. And maybe they could have information I could sit and think about, like giving me sheets about the good and bad changes of HRT, and even how to deal with transphobia and gender dysphoria while those problems exist. but yeah- i know this isn't strictly related to hormones but this is my two cents. the TLDR is that trans kids aren't quite as ignorant about gender as people think they are, its just hard to put those feelings into direct words sometimes. If a 13 year old can learn multiple subjects a day at school, teaching them about gender expression and medical options for gender dysphoria isn't that hard.

Posting because it's good info and an important perspective.

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

As someone who has no concept of GFL could you share with us a few characters you like and what they're about?

TLDR: Female Androids with varying personalities.

=====

In a VERY VERY brief nutshell:

The story is essentially a massive hodgepodge of Metal Gear Solid, Tom Clancy, and Ghost in the Shell. T-Dolls are androids created specifically for warfare and resemble female humans, and have their own personalities.

Despite that, they are highly efficient killing machines, since at the heart of it they are still created for only war.

In-game there is an unholy amount of characters but I will give you a spoiler free rundown on three of my absolute favorite T-Dolls: (These are examples since I love pretty much everyone included in the blog)

M4A1 is the squad leader of the Anti-Rain Team (AR Team). She is prone to self-doubt/blame due to her special nature, but wants to protect her friends at any cost.

AN-94 is a member of Task Force DEFY, being aloof and seemingly cold, and has unflinching loyalty towards AK-12 who she believes to be her successor.

AK-15 is a member of Task Force DEFY, remaining stoic but her wrath makes her terrifying to fight against when it does show, being the strongest T-Doll of the Neo-Soviet Union.

=====

A good reason why I simp for them comes from their dialogue whenever they speak to you (The Commander) as they're very charming, insightful, or just really funny.

Whatever I post will usually come from the more lighthearted stories coming from the game such as the holiday events or non-canon.

Because the actual canon uh...

HEY LOOK AT THIS FUNNY FANART I FOUND:

Essentially the main characters of the game are the AR Team and Task Force Defy. There are of course many MANY others but these are the ones I can write for because i have their personalities locked down the most.

And since the characters can switch from slice of life mode to combat, they are really fun and dynamic to write for.

One ask I can go from them experiencing what a date is for the first time to reacting to the human they care about the most getting injured.

T-Dolls fascinate me as a writer and a lover of scifi.

...Of course it helps that their designs are VERY attractive but thats a given, since this anime.

But I hope that answers your question somewhat on Girls Frontline and why I love it and the characters!

[gible2k]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CUTOUTS BY THE SMILE (ramble incoming):

just fucking incredible. after my first listen I can definitively say Bodies Laughing is one of the best The Smile songs, maybe even one of the best songs I've heard. it's just a gorgeous song, tha acoustic guitar just has something about it that gets me, it somehow sounds raw and real, yet has that echoing "wall of sound" aspect that i love about The Smile. hearing the chord change at the "but everybody's laughing" part for the first time hit me like a fucking truck it's so good.

rn another one of my favourites has to be Colours Fly, it's so groovy, and personally i love odd time signatures in music, it just adds a special feel I can't quite describe? it just makes the 1 of the beat really punchy and powerful to me??? the sort of arabic, indian classical sound (?) in the riff is SO GOOD. I really haven't heard much like it. also all the speaking in the background give it an even more off, almost eery feel, (also thoms little HEY! 2 minutes in makes me laugh when i hear it its great) this song just feels off in a good way, almost giving a similar impression to Climbing Up The Walls. I'm itching to see this song live specifically it's really special.

EYES AND MOUTH. the contrast of the really tinny, high guitar riff underpinned by some really beautiful, full, jazzy piano chords is just incredible. and thoms vocals are absolutely KILLER in this track, they just sound so packed with emotion that it's physically spilling out of him into the track, fucking mesmerising. his voice crack at around 2mins 30 just HITS ME IN MY SOUL. this track is getting looped to high hell, absolutely gorgeous.

another track that really spoke to me is Tiptoe, that beginning, dissonant soft piano is something special. again I really love the use of speaking in the background of some of these tracks, to me it makes it feels more raw, and in the moment? on my first listen the orchestra kicking in GOT ME. it really would feel right at home on A Moon Shaped Pool, those strings are so intensely beautiful that I cried my first listen. thoms vocals on this track again are superb, they're so soft in a way that feels like a lullaby to me. i haven't checked out the lyrics for any of these tracks, but from what I hear the line "all of you appeasers and enablers" has stuck in my head since I heard the track. honestly wish this was longer i could listen to those strings all day.

though I wont go into detail about the other tracks, this whole album is packed with quality. ironic is this albums title bc it's probably their best album so far and doesnt feel like the offcuts of Wall Of Eyes in the slightest. this might be another Kid A Amnesiac situation where one could become discredited bc its seen as just a "b-side comp", which I hope doesn't happen. this album is just incredible, rlly blew me out of the water, bc imo the singles released b4 the album were some of the weaker tracks, (apart from Bodies Laughing) (not saying any of these tracks are bad btw they're all fantastic). rlly this is some of the most quality ive ever seen in an album but i expect nothing less from Thom, Jonny and Tom. this is a rlly special record, though I will always hold Wall Of Eyes as my favourite of The Smile, that album is really my baby.

tldr: CUTOUTS WAS AN ABSOLUTE W, WERE RLLY WINNING WITH TWO FANTASTIC ALBUMS THIS YEAR CANT WAIT TO HAVE THIS LOOPED FOREVEEERRRRR