#vigilantism and murder is such an interesting concept

[brucewaynehater101]

Batman's whole no killing rule kind of reminds me of the hippocratic oath and doing no harm (kind of). In essence, Batman is trying to ensure that people who commit crime are brought to justice while being allowed the opportunity to change their ways to live a crime free life.

As a base ideology, Batman's agenda is solid. In practice? No.

In a place like Gotham (corruption is normalized and an unspoken tradition, rogues are slaughtering people at least once a month, the wealth disparity is large, etc.), crime free existence is a pipe dream. Even Batman is breaking the law through his actions of policing. Continually, reformation within the US justice system is difficult as is. I can't even imagine the horrors, mistreatment, and prejudice convicted folk experience in Gotham. The idea that criminals will be safe enough in prison to reform, or that they will even reach prison, is inane.

There's a reason they call Arkham's gate a revolving door.

For most criminals, murder should not be utilized. Crimes should be analyzed on intent and risk analysis. Is this person likely to commit the crime again? Did they have a good reason for the crime? Would they serve their agreed upon time or bribe/escape before then?

Any need-based crime, such as stealing food, should be met with social support for the individual. Is it not coercion if your choices are between dying or stealing?

Any individual who has high risk of repeating the crime, is a huge danger to others (like harming or killing dozens of people), will not stay in confinement with the current system, and did not have a good reason for their crime should be put down in Gotham. If you can not stop them outside of death, then let vigilantes kill them.

On the other hand, the issue with vigilante murderers is a lack of oversight. You don't know who's behind the mask, and you can not stop them. I would rather trust them than the US government, though. The US has historically proven to be untrustworthy, especially in reference to charging, sentencing, and execution.

[yanderes-galore]

IDK if this really makes sense for the character but I had a thought. What about Stain from MHA as a platonic yandere with a Darling who he wants to train to be his successor/help kill heroes with him? Since the series is so big on successor stuff, I thought it would be interesting to see xD He just spares Darling's life and sort of adopts them(Darling is an adult btw). Darling isn't so wild about this but also they don't want to die, so?? I guess this could be a one-shot but if you prefer to do a concept/summary that's ok too!

The idea seems very interesting but I'll probably stick with a concept just to make sure I get my thoughts down and have to focus a bit less on plot ^^; But in the future I could do a follow up short for this!

Yandere! Platonic! Stain with Successor! Darling

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Threats, Violence, Blood, Murder, Stalking, Brainwashing/Implied mind break, Overprotective/Possessive behavior, Dark themes, Delusional behavior, Forced companionship.

The idea of Stain/Chizome taking in a successor is an odd concept that doesn't seem like it would be a thought in his mind.

However... I feel like it's possible.

I especially like the idea if his obsession is a lesser known vigilante who genuinely likes to help people and has conviction.

You don't want fame or money, you just want to help people.

Essentially, if you appeal to Stain's beliefs, he'd consider deeming his obsession worthy.

Stain's one of the more intimidating yanderes, both aura and Quirk-wise.

So him sparing you is a surprise to you.

Granted, he's spared others he deems are worthy before.

But you're different... as he finds you worthy enough to spread his message.

I imagine he'd think this if he observed you enough to see you had similar ideals.

Even something as simple as acknowledging modern heroes as corrupt could set Stain's sights on you.

You have potential and he wants to sharpen it.

Your first proper meeting could be brutal if you think about it.

Perhaps you have a friend who's a hero that Stain doesn't see as pure, just to make things dark.

His intention is to kill your friend, but notices you.

Stain probably will kill your "false hero" friend, but finds your attitude and drive intriguing.

He doesn't feel bad about killing your friend, paralyzing you both with his Quirk before casting his judgment on them.

Yet his eyes lock on you when he sees you.

That passion in your eyes... you feel similar to him, don't you?

You may hate being compared to him, but don't you hate it when heroes are corrupt?

You may not believe it, yet your friend didn't have the best intentions as a "hero".

Stain intimidates you in your first encounter.

Your first encounter starts as a battle and ends with you covered in blood.

You're staring at the corpse of your friend, terrified as Stain stares you down.

However, instead of killing you, he offers you an alternative...

You become his successor.

Like you said in the request, you don't want to die.

So you take the offer and allow Stain to guide you through his beliefs.

That's a way I feel you two could meet that follows how the request is asked.

You start only going along with it because you're terrified.

But over time I can see Stain brainwashing his new successor into believing him.

Think about it...

Stain convinces you that your friend really was corrupt.

He tells you he doesn't like pointless bloodshed, that the only ones who deserve to die are the ones against his creed.

So... obviously your friend was corrupt, right?

Stain shows his successor the corruption of the world, feeding you new beliefs since you're so scared of him.

He does wish you'd stop being so scared, though... not like he's going to hurt you.

I can see his obsession being very hesitant at first.

You hate the idea of murder, Stain finds this purity of yours... oblivious.

That's okay, he'll fix things as your mentor.

Stain would tell you all about a target he's been keeping an eye on.

He'll manipulate you, telling you all the terrible things they've supposedly done.

They're corrupt... just like your friend... a stain on this world.

Stain would mess with his successor's beliefs and mind to mold them into who he wants.

Sooner or later you'll see you're just cleaning up scum.

Despite the brutal lifestyle Stain thrusts upon you, he cares about you.

It's really weird to say that... considering Stain is usually cruel and merciless as the Hero Killer.

Yet he does have respect for fellow vigilantes, he's even attached to his successor.

Granted... the way he obtained you was brutal... but he'd do just about anything to keep you in his care.

Spilling blood for you becomes the norm since he's so fixated on keeping you safe.

You seem to be the only thing he cares about other than his creed.

Your new job naturally comes with enemies and no one gets near you without Stain nearby.

Hero, villain, doesn't matter to him.

Nothing touches his successor.

When he cuts someone down, he immediately checks on you.

Perhaps he even pulls you into a possessive yet oddly protective embrace.

He teaches you an "Us vs Them" mentality.

You shouldn't rely on anyone else, you can't.

It's just you and him cleaning up a corrupt society.

You'd probably go through a mental mind break under him as he forces you into a role against your will.

You're scared to speak against him, especially when he manages to convince you to kill your fair share of "heroes".

However, at some point you'll accept the role Stain gave you.

You have no other choice... yet he's also brought up some valid points.

He's right... The world is corrupt.

Stain makes it seem like you both are the only ones who can correct it.

You start to believe him... it scares you at first but you feel what he says is true.

Repeating the beliefs he's indoctrinated you with in your head makes things easier.

It makes it easier to ignore the fact you're taking lives...

It's easier to think of it as just culling impurities.

Stain praises you every time.

You do well, the blood on your clothes a reminder of your work.

After your encounter with Stain, you never came out the same.

He took you under his wing and taught you everything you need to know.

While you know this feels wrong... it also feels right...

There's no turning back now, you should finish the job as your mentor says... all to make the world a better place... it's just you and him against the world, right?

[thecruellestmonth]

Does the mass-murdering criminal Jason "Red Hood" Todd canonically support the death penalty?

No, I can't find evidence that Red Hood supports the death penalty.

There is a difference between murder (illegal) and state-sanctioned killing (legal). Red Hood commits unlawful homicide. The death penalty is lawful homicide. Jason is a murderer. The death penalty is not legally considered murder. Commissioner Jim Gordon is a decorated military veteran, not a murderer.

Committing violence ≠ wanting the government to have the right to commit that violence. Batman and his allies brutalize criminals; they don't necessarily support the state brutalizing criminals. Red Hood kills some criminals; Red Hood doesn't necessarily support the state killing criminals. Catwoman doesn't necessarily support the state committing burglary. Et cetera.

The death penalty is administered by the criminal legal system. Jason does not like the criminal legal system (see some of his run-ins with the police). He grew up as an impoverished child who didn't believe in the system, he was raised by Batman to believe that vigilantes can make a difference that the system can't, and he became an adult criminal who still doesn't believe in the system. He's not interested in using the criminal legal system. He isn't interested in giving more powers and privileges to an abusive system that has wronged him and the people he cares about.

When Jason started up his villain business, the death penalty was legal in Gotham City. (See Detective Comics #644, The Joker: Devil's Advocate, Batgirl 2000 #19, Punchline #1.) The death penalty was also in place during his Robin run. Jason didn't argue in favor of the state having the right to kill prisoners, and the death penalty never addressed his complaints about the status quo.

Jason has rescued people from wrongful* imprisonment and the death penalty. Again, based on his own firsthand experiences, he has many reasons to believe that the system is broken. *Some of us would argue that locking any people in prisons tends to be wrongful and inhumane by default, but we could choose to accept and critique the standard premises of crime fiction as entertainment without endorsing it as moral instruction.

Jason Todd is a criminal: a mass murderer, a terrorist, a villain. He does evil. He doesn't represent or support the legal system. He probably has the least political capital out of all the Batfamily-associated characters. He doesn't promote the death penalty. He commits murder—illegally, as a criminal, state-unapproved.

Some recent comics related to the topic:

Gotham Nights (2020) #11 "One Minute After Midnight", written by Marc Guggenheim

Red Hood and Nightwing team up to investigate the case of a man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to be executed. Both of them disapprove of how the broken criminal legal system botched this case.

Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8 (2023), written by Matthew Rosenberg

"You familiar with Hannah Arendt's concept of Schreibtischtäter? Desk murderers? It's people who use the state to kill for them, so they don't have to get their hands dirty."

[dangermousie]

2023 End of Year Post - kdrama edition

Yes, we have a some of December left, and I want to check out Death's Game but whatever. I got time for this now and not sure if I will have later so here goes.

This is only going to cover kdramas that aired in 2023; if I watched it but it was made in a different year, it’s not on the list. This was an excellent kdrama year, the likes of which we hadn't had in a long time.

DRAMAS WATCHED

In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality so pls don't come for me, fans of some popular dramas that are on my nope list. Also, I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list.

33. The Escape of the Seven - this is so aggressively stupid and mean that it feels like the makers are playing a practical joke seeing how much their audience will take. This has a season 2 coming, so the answer is a lot.

32. Behind Your Touch - the FL gets superpowers by touching people's and animals' butts. Yes, you read this right. Do I really need to add anything?

31. King the Land - yes, it was a hit. Yes, it stars popular actors. I HATED IT LIKE IT TOUCHED MY BUTT TO GET SUPERPOWERS!!! Plastic people in paint by the numbers story, with about as much genuineness or retability as a barbie aisle in walmart. I never expect much from Yoona so whatever, but to have LJH go from The Red Sleeve to this boggles the mind.

30. Mrs Durian - this is so dumb that I think I lost a few IQ points watching this, but its insanity becomes entertaining - I mean what kdrama can you name where a daughter in law declares her love and lust for her mother in law at a family dinner?

29. The Matchmakers - there is nothing offensive about this drama at all. But there is nothing in the least interesting either. If elevator music took drama shape, it would be this show.

28. Destined with You - sorry, Rowoon, I am still fond of you, but you are two for two in drama duds department this year. This is a drama where I loved ep 1, liked ep 2, was indifferent to 3 and...you get the point. Each ep was worse than the one before, and I bailed before I was dragged into a cosmic singularity.

27. Oasis - great first two episodes. Unfortunately it was not a two ep show. The performances are solid but the story is just not there - the effect is like a fancy chef making an amazing sauce to put on pig slop.

26. Boyhood - it's not you, it's me in action. I can see why people would like it but a 34-year old playing a high schooler in a Weak Hero Class 1 Slapstick Edition is no go for me.

25. Castaway Diva - it's so precious and kooky in the most annoying ways, with the most well-adjusted abused castaway in history. I like magic realism when done by Jorge Amado, but this ain't Amado.

24. Island - it had a good concept, good cast and fun visuals but the execution deserved one of ML's swords through the neck.

23. The Worst of Evil - if I wanted an American show, I'd watch one. Very solid performances though.

22. Song of the Bandits - period edition of what I said about The Worst of Evil.

21. Welcome to Samdalri - and goodbye to any hope of emotional involvement.

20. Joseon Attorney - I have yet to like a single sageuk centered around a profession and this was not an exception. I guess it could be worse but it also could have been so much better.

19. Twinkling Watermelon - everyone loved this drama. Everyone except for me. It's the kind of precious that sets my teeth on edge and I couldn't stand half the main characters we were supposed to root for. I guess I like my fruits to shine steadily.

18. Our Blooming Youth - probably the biggest disappointment on this list. This is not a bad drama by any means, but with that cast and that story (I loved the novel), I was hoping for a memorable sageuk not merely all right.

17. Vigilante - it has the emotional complexity and nuance of a punch to the throat but it gives us quasi-gay openly-murderous dudes going after psychos and Yoo Ji Tae holding feral Nam Joo Hyuk by his hoodie at his feet.

16. The Forbidden Marriage - expected nothing but it was a surprisingly enjoyable trifle of a costume drama that was also quite pretty.

15. Arthdal Chronicles: Sword of Aramun - a hot mess but such an entertaining epic one. And it gave us TWO Lee Jun Kis in period gear and who am I to cavil at the bounty of God?

14. The Story of Park's Marriage - it's a trifle, a souffle, so light it might blow away, but it keeps my attention and is so fun and sweet.

13. My Lovely Liar - a huge surprise, that manages to mix a murder mystery and a romcom, and shocked me by showing Hwang Minhyun can act.

12. Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 - the original ToNT was my fave drama of its year and I did not think it needed a sequel. But this is not a sequel but more of a side-quel and is such a total delight with brotherly love, adventures, romance and hijinks. It's a joy.

11. Perfect Marriage Revenge - it's actually very hard to do a soap right but this slim 12 ep drama managed. So fun, so crazy, such a good ship!

10. My Lovely Boxer - not really about sports, but about two broken people finding salvation because of and in each other. Also, if you like age gap romances, this is delicious. Sort of loses steam by the end but c’est la vie.

9. The Secret Romantic Guesthouse - this was a sageuk that was not on my radar with a bunch of actors I was not familiar with but it took my heart away. A good plot that was perfectly paced, characters and ships I adored, a logical ending. This is one of the biggest positive surprises of the year for me.

8. Tell Me That You Love Me - a slice of life remake (sort of, it's more "inspired by") of my favorite jdrama of all time. It's not as good as the jdrama because nothing could be, but it's an aching lovely story with some incredible performances.

7. See You In My 19th Life - funny and romantic and haunting and hopeful and odd. This was one of my favorites of the year.

6. Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow - it's rare for me to like a (1) sequel (2) with FL actress change (3) that is a Hong Sisters drama. But this was such a gorgeous, surprisingly achy story of love and loss and love regained with some cool monster fighting in the middle. Between the two seasons, this is the first Hong Sisters' drama I enjoyed from beginning to end in well over a decade.

5. My Demon - so tropey (chaebols, supernaturals) but it proves that these tropes are popular for a reason. The chemistry is fire, the story is unpredictable and the whole thing is an addictive delight. A rare drama where I like each new ep more than the last one.

4. Goryeo Khitan War - an old school sageuk in every meaning of the term (no romance, no eye candy, lots of bearded men, battles and politics), this feels like watching an epic movie more than a drama. The vast cast all earns their place and the performances (mainly from character actors given a chance to shine) are incredible.

3. Call It Love - two very very damaged people finding love and healing with each other. This is a narrative very hard to do to my satisfaction but when it's done well, as here, there are few things that can hold a candle to it.

2. My Dearest - a masterpiece of cinematography, narrative, performances. This is an old-school epic romance in the best sense of the term. If it doesn't make you swoon or break your heart, there is something wrong with you. A story of two untraditional, strong-willed, flawed people who fall in love in the middle of the horrifying Qing invasion of Korea and have to deal with all that the world throws at them, this is a bona fide masterpiece.

1 - Moon in the Day - who knew my favorite kdrama of the year will star a store brand Domyoji from Extraordinary You and an actress I was never familiar with. But this part period/part modern fantasy tale of doomed cursed lovers is everything I knew I wanted and everything I didn't know I wanted but did. Two lovers where their love did not save them and in modern day it might not again, has got me obsessed the way I haven't been in years.

FAVORITE DRAMA

Moon in the Day - if there is such a thing as a drama made perfectly for me, this gorgeous, emotionally haunting, utterly romantic, twisty tale is it.

WORST DRAMA

The Escape of the Seven. This drama is proof that demons exist and not sexy ones like Song Kang but horrible nasty ones who delight in the torment this hot mess inflicted on its viewers.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Do Ha, Moon in the Day - a Silla general and a consummate killer who committed atrocities on the orders of his monster father and yearned to die for them, who found the meaning in life in loving his enemy but it did not make him better, a man so obsessed he literally was around for 1500 years of horrifying ghostly existence and still went "worth it" for a woman who killed him as long as he knew she loved him while she did it. He's intense and competent and beyond fucked up and has never had a normal day and I love him so so so very much from a safe distance.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Gil Chae, My Dearest - she starts out as vain and spoiled but the horrors that break so many others bring out all her fierce survivor potential and she becomes such a force of nature - capable of incredible love but also sacrifice and strength and compassion.

Runner Up: Shin Hye Sun's reincarnator in See You In My 19th Life - quirky, damaged, strong, so odd and so vulnerable at once.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

There are a lot of characters who fit that category (King Injo in My Dearest? My God) but the crown belongs to So Ri Bu from Moon in the Day. You think you've seen abusive parents but until you've seen a man abuse his son his whole life and then continue for 1500 years after his death, you ain't seen nothing!

FAVORITE SHIP

The doomed by the narrative OTP of Moon in The Day. Only thing that's better than enemies to lovers is enemies while lovers and their impossible relationship where her killing him is a supreme act of love and his refusing to let go is so strong that he stays around for 1500 years watching her, helpless as she dies over and over again, is everything you ever want.

Runner up: Jang Hyun/Gil Chae, My Dearest. They are so strong and so damaged and it takes them so long to figure out what they feel and what the other person feels but their love and sacrifice and complexities are perfect.

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Kim Shi Yeol/Hong Joo, The Secret Romantic Guesthouse - an assassin bodyguard pretending to be a carefree scholar and a widow of the man he killed to protect his king (and whose life was destroyed as a result.) I enjoyed the main OTP of this drama but I was utterly and completely unhinged for the secondary couple.

I'd have probably picked Rang and his mermaid from TotNT 1938 even over them, but they really were the main OTP of that drama.

NOTP

King the Land couple seems like an easy target but honestly, they are both so terribly bland and antiseptic and marketing by committee, they kinda deserve each other. So I am gonna go with Destined with You, one half of which thinks supernaturally roofying someone into loving them is cute and the other half thinks dating one woman while wooing another is totally a-ok. Ugh.

FAVORITE SCENE

There is no competition for the scene in the slave market in My Dearest, where Jang Hyun finds Gil Chae - the way he screams and tries to clutch the hem of her skirt will live in my head forever.

And the scene where he 'wins' that horrifying bet, or the scene where she finds him in a pile of bodies - they are as good also. Or when he fights off a squad to protect her even though he's sick. That whole drama is perfect.

Runner up: the scene of Do Ha executing Ri Ta's family, covered in blood, as she looks at him from the crowd in Moon in the Day.

Or the scene where he talks about how he cannot live as a person but at least maybe she will kill him and he will die as one. Or when her confession in the past intercuts with his walking in the present, or when he comes home in his bloodied armor and she finds he has a fever and it's the first tender touch he's probably ever known. Her murdering So Ri Bu saying she knows she's going against filial piety in loving her parents' murderer, the way they hug, both bloody, as he says "let's live." The way she says she can't go on as she's hit rock bottom and he replies she cannot quit because she must accompany him to his rock bottom now. Honestly, the drama is a font of amazingness.

Also, the opening scene of Goryeo Khitan War or the scene of Yang Gyu ordering to shoot the captives and having to do so himself.

The OTP meeting again at the intersection at the end of ep 1 of Tell Me That You Love Me. SHS comforting ABH as he's having a traumatic breakdown in 19th Life. The love-making scene in Call It Love. There were a lot of great scenes this year.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Lee Jang Hyun, My Dearest - is that even a competition? He's flawed - vain, often emotionally closed off, not great at processing emotions, lashing out when hurt. He is also incredibly heroic in a real, knows the cost but bears it, kind of way. Whatever he does, he commits utterly but it's never without understanding the cost. He felt both larger than life and utterly real. He went through hell and maintained his soul and the way he loved Gil Chae was breath-taking to behold.

Runner Up: Yang Gyu, Goryeo Khitan War - an experienced military commander who wins an impossible victory even as it ravages his soul. Competence is sexy as fuck.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Rang, Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 - 1938 really was Rang's chance to shine and he took it. For a character I started out disliking in the original, he really stole my entire heart in this drama. I am so glad he got his happy ending with his brother and his girl.

Runner Up: Crown Prince, My Dearest. He started out as a sheltered, spoiled aristocrat, convinced the world owed him for existing. He grew up slowly and painfully into an amazing man. And then was murdered for it and I cried.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

Arthdal - it leaves the story at a good stopping point but it's very much a "world in flux, adventures and conflicts continue" ending and I would love to see more of these characters. I know we won't but it would have been nice.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Behind Your Touch - should have been snipped at birth.

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Vigilante - I don't mean it had scissors taken to it because it's not cdrama and there is no NRTA, but this drama would have benefitted from being longer. I mean, I love fights and gay polycules as much as the next tumblr person but a bit more character development would not have come amiss. (ahaha - I said come. Leave me alone.)

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

I don't care about cops/doctors/trash collectors/whoever - workplace drama centering on their "cases" needs to die. I hate procedurals from any country and Korea is no exception.

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Supernatural critter devoted to their OTP with all the power of their long life.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Our Blooming Youth - it was far from terrible but it was a giant meh. I was so excited to see Park Hyung Sik in a sageuk (that wasn't the hot mess that was Hwarang) and I adored the source novel. It actually started well and then...it's like Revenge of the Beige!

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

I want to say Moon in the Day but to be honest, I was excited by posters and trailers so it wasn't wholly a surprise despite not having much of an opinion on the actors before I saw them. So I am going to say My Demon. I was bored by the trailers, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Kim Yoo Jung drama and before this year I would have said Song Kang was an incredibly limited actor in everything I've seen him in and not appealing to me at all. And here I am rabidly rabiding for this drama!

If I am not limiting myself to dramas but can use this for actors - Hwang Minhyun in My Lovely Liar. I genuinely did not think the man could act and then he gave such a pitch-perfect, nuanced performance out of nowhere!

2023 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

I have actually watched all the kdramas that aired this year that I wanted to check out except for Evilive. I am saving this for when I have time.

BEST NON-2023 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2023

I don't know if I'd say it's the best but Say You Love Me (2004) with Kim Rae Won as a quasi monk seduced away from his true love by an evil older woman was a hell of a ride.

MOST ANTICIPATED

Love Song for Illusion (Lady assassin falls for her royal target who has two personalities), Captivating the King (lady spy falls for her royal target who is tormented) - notice a theme? Also Flower that Blooms at Night because Honey Lee in a sageuk, The Life of Mrs Ock (Lim Ji Yeon in a sageuk), The Love Story of Chun Hwa (an "erotic" sageuk, hmmmm, what?!), Hong Rang (Lee Jae Wook in a super angst sageuk), Queen Woo (that cast and set in Goguryeo!), Wong Kyung (about Lee Bang Won's wife and I love the cast.) Basically, if it's period, I am there with bells on.

[sorrinslays]

Belobog Roleswap AU

So this is a small thingamaching I've been thinking about sometimes. Truthfully, I just saw some versions of the same concept and while they were certainly interesting, they weren't really my style. So, I decided to try and make my own version.

To start off, I wanna say that I gave myself a few 'rules' to keep it consistent and whatnot. Specifically, I want it to be a true roleswap, so that means no true personality changes, at least not when it's unnecessary. The roleswap should make sense, like it should be able to happen realistically. Nobody expect the people of Belobog are roleswaped.

So I'll start by who we meet first and work my way down until we get all the characters.

We meet Gepard first. He is a petty thief/vigilante that fights fragmentum in his free time, mostly because nobody is willing to offer him a job. At some point, his parents were arrested for really huge crimes (up to interpretation). Due both Gepard and Serval being over the age of eighteen, they are in legal care of Lynx.

They have trouble finding a job due to their reputation and moved to the Underworld because the rent is cheaper. Soon they are forced to steal to get by. When the Underworld was sealed off, Gepard was in the Overworld, pickpocketing, separating him from his sisters. So, for ten years, he was forced to do petty crime to survive, abandoning his "dream" of becoming a Silvermane Guard.

All that changes when the Astral Express comes to Jarillo VI. After the Supreme Guardian "becomes suspicious" of the trailblazers, Sampo comes to Gepard, offering to show him one of the secret pathways to the Underworld. In exchange Gepard has to be the guide for the Express. (Sampard/Gepo fans rejoice, a canon interaction!)

Of course Gepard accepts. So when Seele is chasing after the trailblazers, Sampo sends a few smoke bombs and, with Gepard's help, gets them to the Underworld, reuniting the Landau siblings.

Next, we see Sampo and Luka. Sampo is the Captain of the Silvermane Guards. He's still a Masked Fool but after coming to Jarilo VI and seeing that the role of the Captain is basically empty (the old one is on his last breath) he decides to take up the role.

The first impression we have of him is that he is one lazy Captain. Always slacking off and "going with the flow". He doesn't do his paperwork or listen to anyone all that much. He kinda does his own thing and bothers everyone.

He's still the only one who can travel between the Overworld and the Underworld freely, but he does so in secret, behind the Supreme Guardian's back. He is still helping the leader of Wildfire and he's still the one to plan everything behind the scenes.

We learn that he's the one who got us to the Underworld through Gepard when Seele almost kills him.

When we get back to the Overworld, he greets us and we have to hold Seele from trying to murder him. He doesn't outright reveal anything but he does tell us that more soldiers have been dying under Natasha's rule because of her orders and he's been trying everything to find a way to prevent more soldiers from losing their lives.

He helps us sneak past the Guards, lying smoothly when something happens. Soon, they reach Natasha for the Boss Fight.

Luka is the Intelligence Officer. He used to be in the frontlines but he lost his arm in a very big fight and was "demoted" to a desk job. He hates it and oftentimes does Sampo's neglected paperwork so that the Captain owes him and takes Luka to the frontlines with him as "payback", which is why we see him when we first arrive.

When the crew is back from their adventure in the Underworld and he sees Sampo helping them, he questions the Captain. Soon enough, he joins the crew in fighting the fragmentum.

Followed by those three, we meet Natasha. As an orphan, she was picked to be the Supreme Guardian instead of Cocolia, so she never got the chance to live the life she could've actually enjoyed. When we meet her, she has a faint smile on her face, her voice are gentle and her words kind. Yet, something is eerily off about her, it's just very hard to put a finger on it.

Unlike the lies the Stellaron fed Cocolia of the world dying and everyone getting to live somewhere else, in "the new world", they tell Natasha that by killing everyone, they are gonna resurrect everyone and change their biology to be able to withstand the Eternal Freeze. The cold never bothering them ever again. They say that the moment all of Belobog dies, the life of the fragmentum would be transferred to the people, so they will never again be in danger of either the monsters or the cold.

Her story ends just like Cocolia's in the original timeline, losing her life to the Stellaron and the Astral Express.

Next in line, we have Seele. We meet her during the same scene as Natasha. She doesn't really question Natasha, at least not as much as OG Bronya. Not because she's stupid, no, but because she trusts Natasha whole-heartly. She just follows orders. It doesn't help that Natasha is hiding all the orders that are made specifically to kill as many soldiers as possible.

So, later on, when she finds out that Sampo, a somewhat of a father figure to her, went against Natasha and even kidnapped Seele herself with some "criminals"? She almost mauls Gepard, the "messenger", on the spot.

Of course, she gets her reality check when she sees how bad the situation in the Underworld really is. She sees Gepard in tears after finally reuniting with his sisters after 10 years, she sees kids who never ever went to school, she sees the lack of medical supplies, she sees how dirty everything is and she sees how the fragmentum has been affecting them too.

Just like canon, her romance with Bronya still happens and soon they are back in the Overworld. After a brief conversation with Sampo, she heads off to confront Natasha, and the rest follows canon.

Following Seele, we meet Oleg. He works at the Neverwinter workshop, the adoptive father of Luka. He used to be a Captain but after openly questioning Natasha's rule, he loses his job, leaving him to tinker at the workshop.

He's somewhat aware of what Sampo is doing, which is why he humours him and follows his orders of assisting the Astral Express. He isn't present during the Boss Fight, keeping the fragmentum at bay with Luka's help, he's devastated to learn about Natasha's death though.

Up next, we have Cocolia. She's a very smiley and kind doctor that greets us when we wake up from Sampo's smoke bombs. She is, gasp, in a happy relationship with Serval.

Competent is her middle name, and she mostly follows canon. Instead of Natasha, that doctor couple adopted Cocolia, which is why she becomes the Underworld's main doctor.

Not much to say about her, so let's move on to Bronya. She stops a fight from escalating when Seele causes a scene. While she still is very kindhearted, the Underworld has roughened her edges a bit.

We get bonding scenes between her and Seele and everything pretty much follows canon expect dialogue changes. I don't have much to say about her to be honest.

Pela! She works in the fight club, not because she wants to, but because she fell into debt due to trying to get her hands on the Tales of the Winterlands. Not much about her, sadly, Hoyo wasn't too keen on given her and Luka much screen time, I fear.

She helps us deal with the mine situation that happened in canon.

Now, we get to see Serval. She has an emotional reunion with Gepard and we learn that she is a member of Wildfire. Unfortunately aside from that nothing changes canon (blame the lack of Oleg in the story not me).

Now, we meet Lynx, who has befriended Svarog, the robot acting as her father figure. While Serval isn't a fan of Svarog, she doesn't discourage her little sister from befriending him.

Since day one, she is trying to get Svarog to agree to let people pass through the Furnace Core, she yearns for the outside and tries to find and all possible ways to change Svarog's calculations.

Of course it doesn't work until we, the variable, come to the Underworld.

Lastly, we meet Hook and Clara. Both are orphans adopted by Fersman, whose a Lieutenant under Sampo's command, send by the Captain. "The Moles", we learn, is a specific group of kids that wish to join the Silvermane Guards and, Sampo, to not break their hearts, made them honorary members.

Basically, he tells them sometimes to look out for any suspicious people, maybe follow one (if the job is not at all threatening), or the super duper important mission of getting lunch for him and the other soldiers. In this instance, he used them to lead the gang to Oleg and then to Sampo himself.

And that's it! Let me know your thoughts! If you have any questions about the AU, want a more in-depth explanation or wish to see scenes written about some of the things that happened feel free to ask!

[androxys]

I Read Absolute Power: Origins #1 and I Have Thoughts

(AKA, a comparison of Amanda Waller's portrayal in AP:O #1 and her 1987 origin in Secret Origins #14, with a smattering of other Suicide Squad 1987 panels)

Tumblr compressed a lot of these panels, but just click on the images to re-expand.

TL;DR: Amanda Waller, you've sure come a long way in 40 years. I'm a bit critical of some changes, but ultimately hope DC can still pull it off.

Okay, to start off, I really like John Ridley. I was interested to see how he was going to update Amanda Waller's origin story to be more in line with both a world 40 years after her debut and the more ruthless, calculating character DC has made her out to be. He definitely succeeded, but I'm still not convinced Amanda is in a better position for it.

So it's obvious that Ridley read Secret Origins #14, because the opening sequence directly follows Waller's previous origin. Her daughter Damita is attacked and killed by a drug dealer and predator known as Candyman, Waller's husband kills Candyman in revenge, but he sustains a mortal injury himself and also dies.

A new thread happening here is that the death of Damita and Joe Waller happen at the same time as Batman bringing in Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents. While the police are with Waller after her husband's death, Jim Gordon is giving a press conference.

I like this as a depiction of the way (white) justice systems systemically fail Black citizens, and I think this is a thread that Ridley weaves well. It's not fair that Batman, as a vigilante, can get his justice on the murderer who changed his life while Joe Waller is labeled a felon and his widow and children are denied life insurance.

What I don't think is that this logically sets up what will happen next with Waller's character. Because the Candyman wore a mask while killing Damita, the police can't decisively blame him and acquit Joe. (The police also refuse to do the work to prove it was Candyman, because again, systemic racism) Amanda then makes up her mind that she will not live in a world where vigilantes can hide behind masks and escape the law, and she starts to get into politics.

Originally, Waller does this by getting in on the campaign for Marvin Collins, a local councilman in her community. Waller originally supported Collins because of his progressive policies and lack of "political machine" backing. I read this as Waller having faith in the system of government, seeing that it fails people, and wanting to apply herself within it to make a positive change.

This starts to bring us to the Suicide Squad. Originally, Amanda Waller found government files on the original Suicide Squad, a task force that operated during WWII. She found these files while already in Washington, and used them as a jumping off point to develop her own idea: a clandestine and deniable strike team that uses supercriminals as agents of the government.

Now, I won't deny that the character of Amanda Waller has to have some sort of inherent ruthlessness to even think up this idea. I will always be defending the opinion that she is an endlessly complicated woman who is at times hypocritical, but I think she ultimately sees herself serving a greater system. The discussion around the Squad at this point is what they can do for the country. She's pitching this to the President as a way to advance national interests.

I feel like this country-first concept is in pretty direct contrast with her current characterization, which is more focused on how her experiences have shaped her to want to control the forces that directly affected her life.

She backs Collins now because his anti-vigilante stance mirrors her own, and she sees him as her way to begin collecting political power. Helping her community seems secondary to her own interests. She's already got a dream for Task Force X, she just needs to get to a place where she can make it happen.

She also is just... more ruthless in this depiction? She was depicted as working tirelessly for the campaign even as others gave up and stopped contributing. Was this because she believed in the politician's view of making things better? Sure, maybe, but it was also so she could alter Collins' campaign finance records. Now she can manipulate him into doing what she wants, again, to further her own political power.

One of the running threads of the original Suicide Squad run was Waller's consistent grappling with the moral and ethical decisions required to run that sort of team. It's easy to say that it's ethical to the president when it's largely still an abstract. But over the course of the comic, Waller becomes more and more disillusioned that what she's doing is actually effective, given the cost.

The current construction of present-day Amanda Waller as a "comic book big bad" means that the heroes are likely going to band together, get their powers that she took away back, and stop her. The outside force will likely assert its sense of justice on her, rather than Amanda herself coming to terms with the cost of what she does and deciding it's not worth it. There is a difference there! I think it's more powerful for a character to have a realization on their own about the corrupting nature of power, rather than having to be taught or overthrown.

I, of course, don't know any this for certain. Absolute Power isn't over yet. But it was a multi-year journey for 1987 Waller to reflect on her character and choices, and that was before DC had doubled down on making her a Justice League level villain. In her current origin, she's already comfortable with a level of manipulation that took her years of development to get to, and which was specifically not the peak of her 1987 character. And we know that years later in-universe, she hasn't become less comfortable with ends-justify-the-means type thinking.

Her current origins may parallel one another, but I think they're ultimately producing two very different characters, because the foundational motivations come from different places. Ridley is a fantastic writer, and he has done a great job updating Waller's origin to be in line with our contemporary political sensibilities (read: general disenchantment) and DC's vision of who Waller should be in the past to produce the Waller of the present. I'm not sure this Waller is the best iteration of her character, though. I'm going to keep an eye on Amanda and continue to hope for the best.

[navree]

I'm constantly baffled how many writers seem to overlook and mischaracterize Jason when he has arguably the most potential of all the Batkids, or at least the Robins! Like, so much can be built upon wrt his life as an impoverished youth and how that informs his perception of vigilantism, law enforcement, drug abuse, etc. Hell, his resurrection itself is something he had over the rest of the Batfamily for the longest time, before everyone else got a take a turn and it became so overused that Jason's own trauma became a footnote. Alas, most people at DC just treat him as the "Angsty Bad Boy™️" who doesn't play nice with the other kids. He's so wasted, Jason Todd deserves better.

I've always felt that if you're going to try and write a finite narrative out of Jason's story (as opposed to comics) then at some point he should quit vigilantism. His entire adult life has been solely about that and, as someone who for a long time was most famous for dying, he should get the opportunity to live, especially for himself. BUT, so long as he remains a vigilante, he offers a really interesting perspective on vigilantism that you don't really see anywhere else.

Jason, like some of the people I feel have the most reason to be in this life in Batman media (such as Bruce and Dick), has experience being a victim of criminal behavior, yes, but he also has the experience of being on the other side of the window. He knows the criminal element intimately, and from a young age. His father was a low-level criminal, it got him sent to jail and eventually murdered while in jail; Jason grew up in a low-income neighborhood that has been by and large overlooked by Gotham and that allows criminal behavior to breed there to the point where the name Crime Alley no longer refers to a singular event (the murders of the Waynes) but all the other issues there; Jason himself has committed criminal acts when weighing the option between obeying the law and ensuring his own survival. He has a different perspective on criminality and law enforcement and outside enforcement of legal codes than anyone in his life, because he's lived on both sides of the lines and they've both had profound effects on him and should shape how he views the world differently than other people he knows.

Jason's vigilantism, and honestly even how he deals with stuff during his crime lord era, should be motivated by at once knowing that issues don't pop up out of nowhere and that even criminals have interiority, but also a deeper understanding than most as to how the actions of criminals affects not just innocent bystanders but innocents in their own lives. It's a unique perspective that not only enriches Jason as a character but can also provide some pretty thought-provoking conversation about vigilantism and Batman's role in the world and even the concept of extra-legal justice we find in most superhero comics in general that DC could honestly use.

Like yeah, ok, I did find Stephen's monologue about his role as a doctor being that of a healer at the end of the General Strange arc in this year's Doctor Strange hokey, but the way a superhero's personal life informs their actions as a hero is an interesting concept that only gets shallow explorations most of the time, and Batman media could really use it in more depth given how shallow people's understanding of Batman is (Batman's a capitalist Batman's a fascist Batman beats up the mentally ill Batman victimizes the poor, dear God shut up).

And when it comes to Jason's death, it is pretty obvious that, when it comes to the Batfam, DC is trying to recapture that feeling that came with A Death in the Family every time they kill a character off, to try and tap into what made Jason's death such a big thing. But the problem is that they fundamentally do not understand why Jason's death was so big.

For one, and the most shallow reason for it, Jason's death wasn't just death. At the tail end of a series of difficult issues for him, like finding out his dad was murdered in prison and Bruce lied about it, to the debacle with Felipe Garzonas, to Bruce benching him as Robin (which, given that Dick being benched ended with him no longer being Robin and leaving Wayne Manor, it's reasonable to infer that a formerly homeless kid who experienced a significant amount of trauma due to that homelessness would start to worry that no Robin=no longer being able to live with Bruce and having to live on the streets again), Jason ends up trying to find his mother. And when he finds her, this adult woman, who he should be able to trust, if only because she's a grown woman and he's fifteen, deliberately leads him into a trap with someone he is deeply aware is dangerous, points a gun at his head, and tells him that what's about to happen is his fault while he tries and fails to fight his way out of what he knows is going to be a really bad set of minutes. Honestly, more people need to read ADitF, because the sequence of events is a lot more horrifying than pop culture remembers it. Jason is already beaten into the ground by Joker's henchmen before the Joker gets started on him (while Sheila stands back and watches, God) and by the time it's done, half of Joker's suit is colored red instead of purple to represent blood and everyone in that warehouse thinks that Jason is already dead. And then he gets blown up. Jason's death resonated so much not just because of the fact that it happened, and that Bruce felt upset about it, but also because what happened to him was horrifyingly brutal and to date remains one of the truly most sadistic things the Joker has ever done.

For two, Jason's death had an impact because it was meant to stick. Unlike Bruce getting lost in time or Damian getting stabbed, where it was pretty clear that the characters were not going to stay dead, and then by the time you get to Dick and whoever else has died recently, where the audience (and the characters) have no reason to believe that this will be permanent, Jason's death was meant to be the end of the story. Due to Starlin's hatred of Jason as a character (which is weird) and DC in general wanting to move away from kid sidekicks at the time, Jason was supposed to die and then stay dead forever; there's a reason why the saying was "nobody stays dead in comics except for Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, and Uncle Ben", because he was meant to, you know, stay dead. It hits because the audience itself, along with Bruce and Dick and Alfred and Barbara and everyone else in Jason and Robin's life, thought that this was the last we would see of Jason Todd alive and that he would never come back ever again. It's also why his resurrection packs so much more of a punch than anyone else's either, both in universe and out of universe.

For three, Jason's death was greatly helped by the meta-narrative in a way that nobody else's has been. Because, the eighties was a period of a lot of change for DC, and especially for Batman due to the popularity of The Killing Joke (which wasn't even supposed to be canon, yet by the time Jason died Barbara was already confirmed in canon to be paralyzed and therefore have the events of that book take place) and especially The Dark Knight Returns. Which means that the eighties was when people started writing darker Batman stories, and they kept going from there, and the characterization got darker along with it (seriously, read something from the early eighties and then something from, like, the 2010s, the difference is insane) as Batman slowly just because a darker and more sullen character. And because that change coincided with Jason dying, and there was an initial attempt to push a sort of "Jason's murder is turning Bruce into a crazy person" message to really show audiences how badly Bruce was dealing with the situation, it creates this sort of in-universe progression where Jason's murder fundamentally altered Bruce in a way that has, so far, proven utterly irreversible.

It's not just that Bruce's son was murdered and that he's had to deal with the grief and trauma of that loss, it's that the grief and trauma of that lost basically completely shattered Bruce and he is never going to be able to put himself back together again. He is never going to return to who he was before Jason died even though the initial hurt has literally been reversed because Jason was resurrected and subsequently re-entered his life. Jason's death was so calamitous, so monumentally awful, that it changed who Bruce was as a person in a way that can never be undone or reversed, and most of the people in his life these days don't even know what Bruce was like before, while the people who do know just have to live with the fact that Bruce as he was then is as dead as Jason was (this fic by @damianbugs really gets to the unique tragedy of the whole thing so go read that). None of the other Batfam deaths have that, not even Stephanie's, which was also meant to be permanent before it got retconned, and so they don't hit as hard because they not only don't have much impact on the audience, they don't even have much impact on Bruce as a character, certainly not anywhere near that Jason's did in both intensity and longlasting effect.

The problem is that DC didn't really didn't expect Under the Red Hood to be as popular as it was, so they kept Jason around without really knowing what to do with him or having any plan for him, which is a choice we're still feeling the consequences of today in that they both still don't really know what to do with him and really resent him for it, along with his longterm popularity in all of his iterations. And fandom itself likes to just hew to tropes with no basis in canon whatsoever based on the shallowest understanding of all characters, including Jason, so that's not even helping matters much, and why I stick to my own bubble.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I think a lot about Chiyoh’s arc, and how it aligns with the broader topics season 3 is touching on wrt justice, prisons, and moral responsibility.

Because what’s so striking to me is how unapologetically ruthless she is in her handling of the prisoner, in a way that even Will calls her on:

Chiyoh: He wants you to look at him, speak to him. But you’re not going to. Will: You’ve cast aside the social graces normally afforded to human beings. Chiyoh: He’s cast them aside. All he’s allowed is the sound of water. It’s what the unborn hear. It’s their last memory of peace. Will: You’re keeping him like an animal. Chiyoh: I wouldn’t do this to an animal.

The kind of solitary confinement she subjects him to is, effectively, torture. And yet she feels so strongly about murder! Her self-defense murder of the prisoner and its immediate aftermath marks the only time when she’s truly emotionally rattled, and everything about the situation suggests that not killing is a very stringent moral standard she’s held herself to. And no matter how wearying the prolonged imprisonment is to her, it’s not one that she has a moral objection to - she believes it’s justified by the severity of the prisoner’s crimes. (It’s questionable whether she considers her treatment of the prisoner to be violence, but if she did, she’d certainly term it “necessary violence”.)

(There is something similar to consider about the random mooks she shoots to ensure Hannibal and Will’s escape in Digestivo - is this “necessary” violence to her? Apparently, but if so, she considers protecting the man she considers to be family something for which it is worth taking lives. And the fact that those murders are far-off sniper shots suggests that perhaps she is averse to violence when it’s up-close, personal, and bloody, but is still willing to enact it when she can distance herself somewhat from its effects.)

All of that is to say - I am convinced that Chiyoh’s insistence that she only commits violence when it’s necessary, and her repeated disavowal that she is anything like Will, despite having actively undertaken vigilante justice, is pretty hypocritical on her part! I don’t say that to demonize her - the jumble of contradictory ethical principles is one of the aspects of her that I find fascinating to crack open despite her limited screen time, and Will himself by season 3 (and almost certainly post-canon) is also pretty capable of hypocrisy. And of course she’s not entirely like Will. She doesn’t seem to take much righteous satisfaction or sadistic pleasure in her handling of the prisoner - her line that “we have been each others’ prisoner” suggests that the situation wears on her just as much as him. But it is pretty clear to me that there are truths about herself, and her capacity for violence, that she is pointedly refusing to acknowledge, and that she’s clinging to some pretty narrowly defined moral principles so as to preserve her self-concept.

And I think the question that that arc involving Chiyoh invites us to ask - whether the bare life conditions she subjected her prisoner to really were all that morally superior to murder - constitutes one potential thread between 3A and 3B. Because what it brings to mind for me is Hannibal’s line to Alana in WOTL: “Any rational society would either kill me, or give me my books.”

And like many of Hannibal’s statements… it makes a twisted kind of sense.

To be clear, I absolutely do not think NBC Hannibal is trying to articulate a thematic statement against carceral justice - it’s too apolitical a show to bear that kind of weight. (And it’s certainly not interested in rehabilitation, either). But it is a show that is very interested in how our moral beliefs as well as our darker urges and fascinations define our selfhood, and the kind of moral doublethink we all engage in. And that kind of thematic backdrop does appropriately pair with the show’s general slant towards murder as not even necessarily more ethical than imprisonment, but more honest. As something that constitutes truly owning our moral judgments, feeling for ourselves the full weight and impact of delivering them.

Alana being the recipient of that line from Hannibal - and her overall role as his jailor - also has a certain kind of irony, given that she herself has to learn this lesson in 3A. She and Margot, as per their dialogue in Dolce, intend to have Mason arrested. But when that plan goes awry and they can’t rely on FBI intervention, Alana ends up having to pay the price of getting involved with Mason by getting her hands dirty. Notably, in the cases of both Alana and Chiyoh, Will has a hand in pushing them both towards murder (and in the case of Alana, Hannibal also plays a role in that - an interesting example of the aligned-but-divergent ways Will and Hannibal might exert influence on others post-canon). The situations are somewhat different in that Chiyoh has shouldered more personal responsibility in taking on the role as jailor, rather than ceding that authority to institutional higher powers. But her situation does still overlap significantly with Alana helping Margot murder Mason, in that the result Will engineers from her feels geared to force her to face what she’s taken on, to get up close and personal and really see.

(And of course, both murders bring some sort of freedom or moral catharsis, along with an intense self-recognition that can’t be found through the complacency of more socially acceptable forms of justice.)

Furthermore, in 3B, Will himself is engaged in a similar kind of thought process. In his conversation with Walter, he’s pretty firm on not killing Dolarhyde, and sending him to a mental hospital instead. And given Will’s arc at this point in the show, it’s pretty intuitive that this intention is a product of Will not wanting to be the kind of person who kills - an intention that is arguably also present for both Alana and Chiyoh. All three do have genuine ethical objections to murder as well, of course - I can pretty easily formulate all of them feeling that fewer people dying is an optimal outcome. But their personal conceptions of themselves are certainly also a factor in their disavowal of murder.

But the culmination of the Red Dragon arc, in which Will and Hannibal jointly kill Dolarhyde, is clearly much more preferable end for Dolarhyde. The way it’s cinematically rendered, with the blood fanning out in the shape of wings, suggests that murder constituted his ultimate transformation, in which his true sense of himself was fully realized. Although defeated, undergoing change to fuel our main characters’ radiance is a much more poetically resonant and satisfying ending, and it’s hard to imagine any other way he’d rather lose. Aesthetics > ethics.

Of course, in real life, I don’t believe that killing people - even genuinely bad people who’ve caused serious harm - is a remotely acceptable ethical solution. But within the world of Hannibal, a world in which the killers conceive of themselves in terms of artistic vision, for whom psychiatric language and its corrective purpose is nowhere near sufficient - by the internal moral logic of that universe, murder is often more merciful, and displays much more genuine understanding and empathy.

All of this is to say, I think Chiyoh’s arc can be figured within these broader themes in season 3. And the lesson she learned from Hannibal - and by extension, Will - from her intervention with justice is much the same as the lesson that Bedelia learned from Hannibal: that observing and participating are the same. Taking on the responsibility of enacting justice, in the world of Hannibal, requires becoming the executioner.

[lazlolullaby]

late hatching, a Batman Beyond and Batfam concept

I think i made myself clear as mud in my last post that the Batfam as it stands now in the comics does not mesh with the DCAU timeline.

but that doesn't mean the batfam can't come to Terry.

Special thanks to this fic (slice of life where Bruce is younger, has the fam but can't go vigilante anymore so they hire Terry to babysit) https://archiveofourown.org/works/44548396/chapters/112054687

and this series. (Balances dark and light very well, even if the Batfam grow and protect Gotham, Terry still gets the cowl) https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710604

So. Here's Cake #3!!! Ya'll enjoy and if you make something i'd be happy to see it!

TL;DR: Cassandra steals a delayed Damian from the League of Assassins, reunites him with his elderly genetic donor, and decides to stick around. Dick decides that he should probably keep a closer eye on the manor. More people come out if the dark streets of Gotham, ready to fight to keep it safe.

Batman II gains Pranking Auntie Black Bat, Worried Uncles Grayson and Drake, Mob Parents Jason and Roy, the gossipy PIs Signal and Spoiler, and Murder Child Robin. Terry gets an existential crisis, Matt gets a some emotional and physical wounds, and Mary gets some inheritance money.

AKA: Beyond limited capes AU.

From the top, chronologically:

Cassandra lost her chance to train with Batman. He refused, after the Incident with Tim Drake and the Joker. Even though she was a trained fighter, he can't risk it. He can't risk anyone. He points her in the right direction for help and keeps tabs like he does.

Cassandra is adopted by Nightwing and becomes the Batgirl of Bludhaven, eventually Black Bat on her own, focusing on saving other children forced into a life of cloak and dagger.

(Jason Todd was never written into the DCAU shows. He and Tim Drake were condensed for reasons. But let's presume he was there the whole time. They were friends on the streets. He was late trying to help Tim find out what was in the locker. He remembers Robin later trying to help him before suddenly leaving. Overlooked by Batman, thus overlooked by the Joker, the League of Assassins, and heroics in general. But he survived. Saw all of the pain and anger and just decided to run his little piece of Gotham how he likes it. No starving kids. No heroes or villains. Absolutely no Jokerz. Roy Harper comes to break it up but then goes: hey I'm sorry but the Drug Lord just got me clean off drugs so I'm gonna marry him.) They are older gay mob grandpas with their daughter Lian.

Since the Joker is dead, Duke's parents are not affected by the Venom. He still has an interest in vigilantes. He was able to track what happened to Robin. Batman scares him off, but he's still determined to help. So like comics canon, Bruce points him to learning opportunities. He ends up becoming a Private Investigator, of Signal and Spoiler fame.

Batman saves Stephanie Brown from her shot at the cape. They also work closely with Barbara Gordon. Stephanie is also an investigative journalist and busts open several mob and villain rings with the help of Duke, Jason, and silent help from Batman.

Cadmus sees all of these new Robins keep getting denied left and right. Concerned that Batman was needed, they go ahead with Project Batman Beyond.

Bruce discovers this. He creates a false paper trail. A company was illegally creating clones/children of the rich for blood transfusions and organ transplants. And the occasional "long lost heir" con. It was easy enough to add Terry and Matt to the list before exposing them.

Bruce went over to the Mcginnis household with a lawyer and an NDA. Terry and Matt don't have a legal right to the Family Fortune, but they do have a small trust fund to be given when they're 18. (small is relative when you're rich.)

Terry grows up. He gets the job at Wayne Manor. (With Mary's blessing, of course.)

Terry tracks down Dick Grayson and they have a agreement about weekly emails. He never comes to Gotham. (Batman II, fighting Nightwing: PER MY LAST EMAIL-) Dick doesn't show up at the Manor at all. Not until Terry sees him scrubbing the Joker Graffiti off of the Batcave walls.

Now everything after this is post-ROTJ movie.

And then. Damian. The League of assassins has been trying to recreate Batman as well. But all of the clones consistently die around their 8th birthday. So the project was delayed by decades. They accepted a work around with the splicing tech. Damian wasn't originally related to Bruce and Talia. But they overwrote his DNA to truly make him the Heir. They were training him to take over the Batman mantle - he wasn't ready to do it yet, but then Terry as Batman II pops up. Damian is angry. Cassandra is able to sneak in and use that to smuggle him out to Gotham.

so now the Manor starts filling up with Dick, Cass, Damian, and occasionally Tim and Terry gets moved to a less hectic shift. He's bounced off of solo vigilante status and now has to contend with Cassandra and Damian following him around.

The official story is that the Cloning and corporate espionage happened and now Dick Grayson came back to Gotham to help his elderly father raise his clone and handle his affairs. He brought his security detail, Cassandra. Also they get Titus the emotional support dog for Damian.

Mary Mcginnis calls Bruce and renegotiates the terms of the NDA, since the cat's out of the bag. She sits Terry and Matt down and tells them that they're not genetically related to Warren. Terry. Does not take it well. Matt is confused and sad.

Damian hears about this and tries to kill Matt both as a "thing the League trained him to do" and "he's like me why does he get to be happy?" anger and jealousy over his life.

Batman II is seen wrangling a brightly colored child and demanding that he not stab his brother. Matt recognizes the wrangling and figures out who's under the cowl.

There are now officially two Robins. Pray you get the one without a sword.

(that's it it's just Terry adjusting from being a Single Child of Batman to being a Middle Child of the Batfam)

[reveseke]

Spontaneous crossover / au time with Spiderverse and Criminal minds about Spiderverse! Reader within Criminal minds ( feat a arcade themed stim board bc i wanted to make one <- TW bright colors & lights + flickering { Glowcore popping balloons } )

(( CW Sooo ~ Rather dark themes, mentions of being a lab rat, kidnapping, possible paranoia at some point even | mention of Jumping spiders ( due to the powers ) | You have been warned, approach at your own risk :3 ( probably didn't get all of it down these were the ones I thought off, if you find more please lemme know! )

Au/tropes — Crossover of Spiderverse × Criminal minds | Sci-fi | scientific super powers | found family (mention/hinted) | Angst(hinted)

Random – concept headcanons | Arcade theme in play

About reader — Masc! Aligned; trans, nonbinary & masc ambiguous friendly ! | He him pronouns used | R instead of y/n or m/n used | teen! reader around sixteen fifteen y.o ? | Hinted to have small amounts of background & a dog! | Tech savvy reader !!

Disclaimer – English is my second language and I'm Dyslexic, grammatical errors are more than going to happen. this is barely proof-read completely, it's just breezed through that's it lol.

DNI — Fudanashis/Fujodashis, fem-aligned, basic DNI criteria(ableists, racists, sexists etc), Maps(+other related terms), Pedophiles, transmeds, TERFS ( + other related terms ), antisemetics, proship/profic, kink/nude/18+ blogs, sh/pro-ana/Ed blogs, blank blogs

Gif ID. Three gifs in upper row; a gif showcasing the 90s arcade mat designs with varying colors and shapes, second gif of a bundle of cables with small flashing RGB lights in between the cables, third gif of cyan and magenta glitters being stirred.

three more gifts row down; a gif of glow in the dark stars if varying colors being thrown down, a gif of two balloons filled with green and orange glowing liquid Uber a black light being driven over by a car popping them, third gif of three arcade machines against a wall flashing lights and active. Gif ID end

Credits — 👑|👑|👑 — 👑|👑|👑

What if spiderman! Au, masc!reader being something similiar to Spider-Man, a teenager and gets to work for the government when he's caught. Of course suffering through the court etc -> as in assault charges that can be linked to him even if it was against bad guys. Y'know lol .

Also bad guys just being criminals most of the time. And actually being normal people. Ofc there can be an alternative of serums etc etc.

If they were serumed up then there would be more chaos tbh.

But I'm still thinking wether or not it be the known sci-fi type with differences to the actual Spider-Man powers. Also bc i personally love jumping spiders, i think the powers will circle them specifically. ( So the suit design descriped wouldn't be the one Spider-Man actually wears bc originality if i ever continue on this concept lol )

R just swinging around and avoiding cops and agents as he starts to realise he's being chased / targeted.

His powers are seen as something pricy and unique, one could say people may be interested in seeing him fighting in a rink.

I think he would be a lab rat if caught by anybody who has the proper or improper equipment and skill(s) to be used.

I think the first time he'd use his powers would be after being attacked or scared and having the fight or flight response activated.

Most likely panicked and absolutely bat shit scared.

At some point may have had something to do with a murder or being an accessory in it. Koff Koff. Or maybe just do something with a murder of somebody in general bc of not knowing how much power he actually has.

:0 Vigilante good guy misinterpreted to be a bad guy bc his powers went haywire.

Oh yeah heh mentioned jumping spiders above, think about ultraviolet vision as something R would be able to access.

Also bc of 15-16 y.o R he would be in highschool during these times. ( Think about it being the present)

Getting a dog for his own protection, company and to combat the possible paranoia the shit underneath may have caused and is spoke of.

Yes I'm kinda just portraying this origin of Reader to be close to the original spider-man origin. Thinking of ways he could get his powers; i don't like the origin how that ended, bc angst i need angst and the Reader being a full lab rat by being kidnapped for tests with other people. Either they survived it or died during the testing. ( I think he could have been a bit younger when this happened. )

Also kinda wanna include Survivalist intuition(link) to the mix in a way, not only for thee possible danger intuition that will be part of the myriad of things the testing may have given him.

Having a friend group that somewhat knows what's up with the reader and tries to help him as much as they can. Which includes possible not talking to the cops or FBI if being questioned at one point bc the fbi found possible lead to the reader after seeing him appearing around newspapers and the streets of Virginia mainly.

If the reader does have parents they are spoken with aswell, if he does not then he's basically taken in as the shared child of the BAU team in time lmao .

If he does not have parents as in they aren't really there in his life that much.

Finding out he's a student, a minor in general surprises them a little, especially after connecting dots and finding out what may or may not have happened to him when he was younger.

After being caught he's held accountable for the crimes he's committed. And doesn't exactly deny them either. But he's also offered a possible job bc they could actually use someone like him in the forces due to his powers.

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait what if more sci-fi type of shit is going on and the technology is a little more advanced from the 2000- 2018 (i think?) Technology evolution. And the reader was tech savvy and build his own equipment and instead of actual webs or chemically composed webs it's just wires?? Like grappling hooks but small and study as fuck ¿¿ Lmao

So like in a way he's not smart in chemistry way, but in technology & physics way if you will lol ??

And if the reader liked a more colorful arcade-ish designs ?? :0

The fanfiction would be a crossover obviously, but idk if there would a specific world to be put in. Bc spider verse! Reader sounds really cool. Especially arcade-aesthetic style/ tech savvy(kinda like Peni from Spiderverse, but not completely y'know?) version would be really cool.

AAAAAAAAAAA— just thinking about a case where spiderverse! Reader is already part of BAU and is sent to go undercover in a school campus bc there's a killer and nobody knows anything and he's the only one that could easily without raising any suspicious'

Also how he's secretive about being hurt and sucking it up to bandages himself home bc that's basically what he's been doing. The amount of scars and wounds he has and how's he not dead yet ?? The teams shook lol .

Oh also JJ's basic maternal instinct; he's basically if put to work with the BAU department under Hotch as a trainee also under her, Emily and Penny's gaze. Also Hotch and Derek lol imo would look after the reader a little if they're assigned with him.

Also Derek will absolutely if the Reader is energetic and speaks alot pretend to be annoyed before actually being annoyed bc he can't catch a break off of you ( in this situation he'd voice it out politely. Instead of ignoring R completely lol ) . Also teasing how much of a motor mouth R can be.

With Reid he can absolutely talk about the most random things that come to mind and if he doesn't know what R's on about R can actually educate him on it !

Also i actually think especially if the Reader is neurodivergent Reid would absolutely be the best person to talk about hyperfixations and specials interests. In other seriousness you could pour your interests and likes to him and you'd get a good conversation out of it :³ .

Also mama hen Rossi content. You cannot convince me this man does not hen over the team in general. I have seen too many headcanons and hints off of this, + the show let's it up as well in some episodes and I am headcanoning it myself lmao. He's really caring tbh.

Can you already tell I'm hip deep in found family trope content with the old BAU team lol ?

Absolutely think once Penny gets a sniff at something R's interested in she's going to get him something related to that to keep his mind off of the dark things the job forces him into. She's absolutely the one you could just pour out and she's ready to help, care and possible be doting ;; .

Also just randomly thinking about those roof-top chase scenes where reader would be the dominant one bc he could catch up faster with the target especially if it's jumping roof top to roof top. Bc naturally much stronger and longer leaps than a human can do and more stamina. ( Bc of having a jumping spider specific powers )

[hoochieblues]

for the wip ask meme, please can i have as much as you feel comfortable sharing about 'funk hole' (an inherently funny combo of words, onomatopoetically speaking) or failing that the nanananana HANNIBAL (im assuming hummed to the batman theme tune)!

Thank you! You can have both! :D (oprahwinfreybees.gif )

Ngl, Funk Hole's title choice is like 50% 'oh this would be an attention grabber heh heh' but the phrase was also WW2-era slang, capitalising on the anger/fear that people were using country hotels or resort towns to hide out away from the bombardment and fighting ('funk hole' having originally been military slang for a dugout). The press really went after certain areas for this, including Torquay, where I lived for... like six months at one point, and distracted myself by reading a lot of local history. (side note: the majority of my family's from Kent/London, and when you listen to people's memories, or just look a map of V2 bomb sites, you can extra see why the idea that wealthier folks were just paying to avoid the reality of war generated so much rage.)

So, it's a queer romantic drama set in 1940s south Devon, in a (mostly) fictional quaint little country hotel run by an eccentric old lady, with help from her quiet, bookish nephew, a socialist conscientious objector saddled with the first name Raleigh. Poor bastard. Cue the cast of weirdoes living in the hotel - a mix of neurotic oddballs, well-heeled assholes, self-styled bohemians and Artsy(tm) types - until a new guest arrives: a recently disabled ex-pilot recovering from his injuries, his stay paid for by a wealthy relative.

You know where this is going. But I promise it's going to be an interesting or at least enjoyable journey. Probably. idk, this one's still largely notes on a proverbial napkin, but it's got all that good potential: the dissolving myth of 'England' in the post-Edwardian mess of the early-mid 20th century; the rapidly changing roles and boundaries of class, gender, and identity; hurt/comfort with graphic skin graft recovery (I read multiple books about Harold Gillies and now everyone else must suffer); characters forced to come to terms with lives and worlds irreparably changed by things beyond their control... and so forth. With luck, I might actually get to writing up the first draft later this year.

Aaaand then there's the Batman Hannibal AU, a concept which is largely @emungere's fault and that is the story I'm sticking to. It is entirely skates dangerously close to crackfic and is not to be taken at all seriously.

More beneath the cut if you dare.

Essentially, Hannibal is Alfred. Mischa is Batman, Chiyoh is Robin (kinda), and Commissioner Crawford has a perpetual headache. And Will Graham is... Dog...Man...?

The Lecter siblings coped with the death of their parents in different ways. Hannibal largely withdrew from society while Mischa secretly became The Bat, a vigilante who fights crime but does not kill, despite the fact that assholes are constantly breaking into Lecter Manor to rob/murder the city's wealthiest siblings. Fortunately, Hannibal's there to keep things neat and tidy... and cater spectacular menus for his beloved little sister's charity galas.

Things get complicated when Chiyoh lays a little too much smackdown on one of The Bat's enemies, and they bring him back to the estate to recover. This one's still in super early stages, but I cannot resist sharing the visual that would never ever leave my head. I'm sorry. Not very sorry, though.

________________________________

Shreds of moonlight glanced off the brickwork and made ghosts of the gasoline rainbows in the puddles underfoot. The alarm still blared in the distance, shrill and ignored. Wherever the figure had gone, they were trapped in the alleys now. No way out. Mischa stole forward, boots silent on the greasy asphalt.

Chiyoh sniffed. “Smells like wet dog.”

Mischa shot her a frown. Rain beaded the tight slick of Chiyoh's hair, as dark and smooth as her high-necked black suit. Behind the mask, her gaze stayed firm. Mischa felt her lips twitch.

“What d’you expect?” she murmured. “It’s rough out there.”

Chiyoh sighed and looked away. Movement deeper in the alley drew their attention, and they crept forward. Mischa drew breath to call out to the thief, but something shifted in the dark.

A dog ran out of the shadows, a scruffy white-and-brown little thing, barking and showing his teeth. He stopped a few feet from them, stubby legs planted determinedly square, and let out the squeaky small dog version of a baying howl, back end quivering with over-excitement.

“Buster!” A voice called from the depths of the alley. “Leave!”

The sound of scrabbling paws and footsteps filled up the dark, and a dog pack of varying shapes and sizes burst from the alley. If Mischa hadn’t known better, she’d have said the scruffy little dog looked almost smug. Beside her, Chiyoh reached for a blade, but her hand stopped at her utility belt as three of the larger dogs pushed forward, growling.

“I wouldn’t do that. They’re… protective.”

A figure all in black—black jeans, black sweater, black hat pulled low over unruly dark curls—melted from the shadows behind the dogs. A small blue backpack dangled from his fingers. The kind people who hiked a lot zipped their pets into so that Fido could carry his own snacks and water bottle. Each of the dogs had one, but something trailed from the unzipped backpack in the man’s hand. Even in the dim light of the alley, the strings of diamonds glittered.

“You’re kidding, right?” Chiyoh said, her tone flat. “The Westerley robbery. And you… put….”

She let out a long, weary breath. Mischa lifted her chin. The subway vent behind her hissed. Steam rose, turning white against the cold. It snaked around her ankles, climbing the sleek black of her cape. If he knew who she was, he didn’t seem to care, and that irked her. All of Gotham knew The Bat.

“Who the hell are you, anyway?” She glanced at the pack surrounding him, each with their own little harness stuffed with ill-gotten gains. Seven sets of jaws panted, each furnished with awfully white teeth. “Dog… Man…?”

He stepped forward and clipped the backpack onto Buster, who lifted each paw obediently in turn, never looking away from Mischa. When the guy straightened up, he didn’t meet her eyes, but he wore a hard, crumpled kind of smile.

“Funny. No. You can call me The Packmaster.”

“I don’t think so,” Chiyoh said.

Her hand moved in a blur. The blade flew, silver against the dark. Mischa caught her breath, and it was easy to fall into the rhythm of their training, to read Chiyoh’s body language as easily as her own heartbeat, and to know she was just as readily understood.

Together, no one would stand against them.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S1E6: Calderone’s Return pt.2

Bahamanian and blessed by the directorial talent of one Paul Michael “Starsky” Glaser:

Bias alert: I adore the episodes of Vice directed by Starsky and/or Hutch. No one knows what makes a good, emotionally gutting, homoerotic buddy show like they do. NO ONE.

This stark, stark episode opening in the all white interrogation room is brutal. Vice is more than a little too forgiving on the concept of roughing up suspects early on (and then again in S3,) but this sequence is unsettling enough that I think we’re not supposed to condone how they’re treating the suspect.

A beautifully shot boating sequence follows, implying that Sonny and Rico go straight to the Bahamas in an open-air speedboat. Philip Michael Thomas frankly looks a little carsick (more than seasick, truly) as Don Johnson absolutely cranks it over the waves. Russ Ballard’s Voices plays over an exceptionally well-done series of clips from the prior episode and the pilot, both filling in any viewer who was just tuning in without any awkward exposition, while also being subtle and poignant enough that it wouldn’t feel repetitive to someone who did. ("Don't look back, look straight ahead / Don't look back, yesterday's gone" is a hell of a thing to play over Rico going to confront the man who killed his brother and started the whole show!)

While PMG is a stellar director, Joel Surnow wrote this one, and frankly? The writing’s not that great. It’s seriously elevated by artistic choices, but the plot definitely just kind of meanders around until shooting occurs.

The continued S1 implication that Tubbs is the high-strung one and Sonny is the cool, grounded one makes me feel like I’m eating tacks.

GOOD LORD. Sonny tells Tubbs to “give up his vigilante impulses,” and then in the next breath tells him to “give up his badge and get him on his own” if he needs to. Sonny. Sonny that is not giving up vigilante impulses. That’s directly encouraging Rico to do murder.

Thank you, Starsky, for the incredibly mitzvah of that fucking camera angle during the pushup scene. And then thank you once again for the needless shirtless discussion of Hemmingway, and the beautiful look these two idiots give each other.

 Sonny wears my very favorite Vice Hawaiian shirt in this episode; after this, it is worn exclusively by Zito. I realize this is purely a behind the scenes wardrobe choice, but I like to believe maybe in-universe something salacious happened instead.

Tubbs is a big time creep talking to Angelina, and she seems initially kind of skeeved out by him. Also the fact that he implies he’s interested in being the third member of the date she’s going on is hilarious both because he later tries to get Sonny to go on a three person date with him, and because Angelina is clearly going “EWWW THAT’S MY DAD YOU CREEP”

Sonny has some extremely mixed feelings about Tubbs going to see Angelina

Also maybe Angelina is as naive as a babe in arms but like. Tubbs. Tubbs it is 1984 and you are a fucking undercover operative. Surely you understand the concept of safe sex. Why would you not insist on using a condom. (And we know! We know you didn’t! Because next time we see Angelina she’s got a little you in tow!)

The final shootout/death scene has absolute abysmal foley (in contrast to the very well done final shootout in the previous episode) and it really dampens the impact.

Okay. Okay. During the denouement, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” plays. In time with this starting, Angelina says “something brought you to this island other than your job--” that something has always been Rafael, and now, because of what happened in the last episode, it’s also Sonny. What love has to do with all of this-- this whole episode-- is the love of his brother and of his partner that propels Tubbs to confront Calderone. Sonny clasps Rico around the shoulders as he walks away-- Sonny, who almost never initiates physical contact with Rico-- and tells him it’s time for the two of them to go home. No amount of cutting to clips of Angelina, who Tubbs knew for approximately seven minutes, will cover up the fact that if we’re asking about the impact of love, we’re not asking about her.

Also. Just. Yup. Thank you, Paul Michael Glaser.

[yanderes-galore]

Heya! Could you write a yandere concept for Diluc from genshin impact? Please and thank you! <3

I'm surprised he or Kaeya wasn't requested earlier, here you go :) I do hope I got the gist of his persona right.... I feel bad because I ran out of steam half way through.

Yandere! Diluc Ragnvindr Concept

Pairing: Platonic -> Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective behavior, Violence, Possessive behavior, Jealousy, Denial, Controlling behavior, Manipulation, Fear of loss, Kidnapping, Stalking, Blood, Mentions of possible murder, Toxic relationship, Forced relationship.

Diluc is the owner of Dawn Winery and works at the Angel's Share Tavern in Mondstadt.

However, at night and away from everyone else, he is a vigilante who aims to take down the Abyss Order and Fatui.

He is truly a defender of Mondstadt, often busy trying to defend the city when the Knights of Favonius can't.

Diluc would probably be protective, controlling, possessive towards his darling.

Especially if Kaeya is involved....

Diluc seems like he'd meet you at either the tavern or winery at first.

Maybe Kaeya is showing you around Mondstadt, as much as his brother irks him... Diluc will admit you're interesting.

Diluc seems like he'd (ironically) be cold or distant with you at first.

He's a yandere who's in a bit of denial when they begin to show attachment.

He's been through a lot and isn't sure if he can let someone be so close to him.

He's always busy... although his day is immediately better when seeing you.

If you're at the tavern, he offers you food and drink while asking you about your day.

He may be in denial about his affections... but he does seem to have an interest in what you do.

For the most part, before he gets too involved, he's protective and vaguely interested.

He's trying to just be an acquaintance, someone to talk to while he serves you drinks at the bar.

Diluc's obsession would grow out of sight.

When he goes out to protect Mondstadt at night, he checks by your home to make sure nothing's wrong.

He doesn't want to consider following you around or knowing where you live stalking... but that's what it is.

You have no clue how obsessive he gets when you visit the tavern.

He likes to watch you as he works, it makes dealing with alcohol more bearable.

Diluc would definitely be rivals with Kaeya.

Kaeya is such a flirt and it irks Diluc's nerves.

To think his brother can just take you from him....

He gets so irritated when jealous.

It gets to the point when he's jealous of you in the tavern, he nearly breaks the glasses he's cleaning.

Which leads to Diluc needing to do something about this issue.

Diluc seems like he'd be manipulative towards you.

In a way he has the mindset of "It's for your own good".

Yet at the same time he's trying to restrain his more jealous thoughts and understand why he's so attached.

I imagine there's times he's possessive, it's usually with more romantic intentions... but he could also just be an obsessive companion/friend towards you.

Diluc hates the idea of getting too close with you since he's lost people close to him.

As much as he likes Jean, he feels the Knights of Favonius can't protect you like he can.

They can't care for you like he can, either.

Diluc is definitely a yandere that starts subtle.

You can't tell there's something wrong, he just seems worried and concerned for you at times.

He's... just someone you like to talk to.

But behind the scenes, as you sleep, he's making sure you're well cared for.

He'd get himself bloody if it meant you'd be his, he'd scorch any foe he has to.

He could either slowly build a connection with you to lure you into the winery and keep you there.

Or he could abduct you in the middle of the night once he snaps.

Diluc wants to keep you somewhere he'll always have an eye on you.

You're always watched, even when he takes you to the tavern you're never allowed to leave the counter.

If anyone flirts with you or takes your attention off Diluc, his eye twitches and he deals with the issue.

Diluc would probably kill, but it's always when no one's looking.

Plus they'll never find the body when it comes to him... no need to worry about it... they just left Mondstadt.

When Diluc's obsession stops being ignored and makes itself known, he really does act as some sort of twisted guardian for you.

He keeps you locked away, perhaps as a spouse.

He admits since he saw you he's wanted to court you.

Diluc would be the type of yandere to put you on his lap when he works.

He likes the control it gives him, allowing him access to your neck to make you squirm as he works.

He may not seem like it... but in private, Diluc can be affectionate.

He'll kiss you anywhere, sometimes soft... sometimes rough.

He hates others around you, often trying to rush people away from you so you don't speak for too long.

He has an issue where his protective and possessive behavior mixes.

He tries to excuse his possessive behavior as protective...

However, you can tell the difference the moment someone like Kaeya enters the winery.

The two nearly fight on the spot.

Diluc would love to spoil you if you're his.

He buys you gifts and tries his best to smother you in affection.

After all... if he gives you all his love, you'll never look at another.

Overall, Diluc is a yandere that wants to provide and care for his darling.

He'll give you whatever you want... he'll protect you... he'll love you...

Just listen to him... stay where he wants you to... and don't look at any other.

"Need a drink? I'd love another chat, dear."

[kharmii]

Here me out, -I spent a bunch of time thinking about this at work- but I think that Julius Novachrono gave Captain Yami a nudge to recruit Zora Ideale to the Black Bulls. He didn't come right out and order him to, but this is how it went down.

-So in an act of savage evil, a member of the Purple Orcas murders Zara Ideale because he's a commoner not knowing or caring that he's a single dad with a son who is now an orphan. Julius knows about Zora and even says, "Is that...?" when the child runs by him while he's visiting Zara's grave.

Despite knowing about the existence of Zara's son, Zora slips through the cracks and has a tough childhood. Revenge fantasies are constantly cycling in his thoughts throughout the years, and he is clever like his dad focusing on traps that use others' power against them while honing his magical technique. When he's in his late teens, he seeks revenge on the people who killed his father. While he successfully injures them, there's blow back that severely injures his face. It's unclear the details, (because I haven't fleshed it out in my mind) but it could be that his Uno Reverse Card spell got messed up causing some of the attack against him to get through that burned his lower face and neck. It could be a spell went wrong forcing him to draw runes on his own body spur-of-the-moment which caused him to injure himself. IE: His ash nature almost made himself ash.

Either way, he ended up injured on the point of death, and only an accidental tapping into forbidden magic saved his life but left him disfigured and forced to wrap part of his face, neck and chest to hide it. Years go by, and he gets better at exacting his revenge without any pain coming back on him. He is really, really careful and will only attack when he's 100% sure of success. He's very grounded in reality and has a good concept of his own mortality after that traumatic incident where he almost died.

Fast forward to Zora's early twenties when he has violently put a lot of corrupt magic knights in their place. Since anyone has since failed to apprehend Zora, complaints about a vigilante eventually get to Marx and through him, the Wizard King. The corrupt magic knights don't want to admit they were targeted for being dirty, so they frame it like they were approached by a male prostitute in a slutty little crop top who offered to turn tricks for cash. When they refused -they are pure magic knights who would never give into such temptation- Zora in a rage beat them up and ripped them off. "You'll know him when you see him", they claimed.

Julius, through a spirit of adventure, looks into it personally. At first, he believes the lies he was told, mainly that Zora does look like a typical street worker who's a perfect ten from the neck down but sort of a butterface. He eventually works out who Zora is and the motivation behind his actions. He feels sorry for him and doesn't want to punish him for doing them a useful service, albeit something illegal. The corrupt among them have it coming and should be kept on their toes.

One day when Yami is in the area, Julius tells him about Zora -his circumstances behind why he does what he does- and asks him to deal with him how he sees fit. He doesn't come out and ask Yami to recruit Zora, but he hopes that he will at least talk sense into him, even if he's not interested in letting him join. Yami finds Zora hard at work beating the crap out of some magic knights he believes deserve a comeuppance, and in a rage, Zora attacks him thinking he's part of their group.

Zora finds himself outclassed by Yami. He thinks....well, it was good while it lasted...... He believed death was imminent only to be taken by surprise when Yami throws him a Black Bulls cape with the 'take it or leave it' attitude.

Zora stews on this for weeks-months-years, like he wants to be a magic knight like his dad, but it would be awkward as frick to just show up at the Black Bulls base and confront a room full of strangers who might be evil people who'd chew him up and spit him out. They'd probably expect him to ditch his super awesome look modeled after the doll his dad gave him and make him dress up all classy and sheeit.. It didn't quite click that maybe the Black Bulls wouldn't care so much about appearances when their captain is a crusty chain-smoking guy in a wife-beater. He angsts over the expectation they'd look down on him for not being nobility, and they might not respect his abilities or take him seriously. Finally, he decides it's best to confront them on neutral ground to feel them out, but where to do it?

His chance comes when he finds out Xerx Lugner is invited to the Royal Knights Selection Exam. Since nobody knows who that even is, the usually level-headed careful Zora goes on a suicide mission to impersonate Xerx under the threat of capital punishment. Fuck it, his life is in shambles at this point with the fact he was given the opportunity to be a magic knight but is too messed up emotionally to take Yami up on it. It's better to go out with a bang while putting a bunch of them in their place right in the Wizard King's face.

Lucky for him, the Wizard King is a fun-loving guy who appreciates a good prank. He knows who Zora is but doesn't let on. Still, he was startled by Zora rocking up out of nowhere impersonating a magic knight whose whereabouts are unknown. When Zora puts an arm around him, he was repulsed by his injuries, his look that doesn't appear fully human, and the pungent nose-hair burning stench emanating off him because a stink bug went off in his pocket. Still, since they are vying for selection to fight a powerful unknown enemy, Julius thinks it would be good for the others to be exposed to an enigmatic person like Zora who might teach them out-of-the-box thinking.

Everyone else wonders why 'Xerx' calls himself the "Saint of Pure Ice" but they quickly come to the conclusion it's because he's a stone-cold douche. Even though Julius likes a good prank, he has regrets because he's more of the light-hearted prankster with a child-like spirit, whereas Zora is bitter and mean-spirited roasting the others in a way that cuts to their souls.

They also wonder why he has his tiddies out and wears low riding pants that shows most of his happy trail. After all, the doll his dad gave him (that he shows everybody like a weirdo) is fully clothed. "Because I have to draw runes on my own body sometimes," Zora eventually reveals, "It's easier to draw runes on my own body when there is a lot of exposed skin!"

[missjinglecoco]

So, I did wanna kind of get into Gabriel’s backstory since I put a little thought into it so, I do hope that people like it! So, Gabriel wasn’t born with his powers — if a previous ask didn’t make it clear — but they happened because of a field trip gone wrong.

Gabriel used to go to a school for kids that were pretty good at specific things ( ex: Gabriel was really good at writing and even spelling bees so, one of his old teachers nudged the concept to his parents ) and their school - alongside five other schools - were sent to a specific science lab that the more science branded kids were expected to do. And it was for students that wanted to try out other things and to gain their interests - Gabriel was one of those people.

One of the items that students could look out ended up going havoc, and exploded while the students were still in the building, causing the facility to break apart because of it’s impact.

There was a total of fifteen casualties from fire and debris. Four survivors; Gabriel being one of the four. Because of the explosion, Gabriel’s right hearing was gone and from his injuries, the chemicals were mixed into his system as a process.

His powers came to a start after a defibrillator was used in order to bring him to life — as I’ll be honest, the chemical that basically gave him his powers nearly killed him as he was so young and unexperienced in being able to contain it. His powers had even caused a temporary power outage in the hospital.

It did leave his parents and two sisters startled, and Gabriel was never the same because of it. But he tried not to let the accident ruin his life, even if the lingering trauma still clings to him.

Everything looked fine.

Until his childhood friend was murdered due to their neighborhood’s gang activity went too far, and she was caught in the crossfire…something that didn’t do well with Gabriel.

This gang — known as the Spade Kings — were always frequent in their troubling behavior. They intimidated. Stole, beat and did whatever they liked; especially when the police in their neighborhood were no good.

And a grieving 14 year old with superpowers isn’t a good mix. It makes you want to take matters into your own hands.

Soon, Gabriel began working as the disguised vigilante known as Zip Flash, dealing with the Spade Kings from time to time, bank robberies and even the occasional run of the mill villain that caught his eye.

During the time of his story, his family knows of his powers - but everyone except his older sister don’t know that he works as Zip Flash. And he’d like to keep it that way until he can figure out a way to tell them.

Honestly, Gabriel was inspired by Spider-Man and even Static Shock on being a teenaged superhero, as well as being the hero for the “little people” like Spiderman is usually depicted to be!

[calciumcryptid]

DC OC | Yun-Seo Yukimura

Yun-Seo Yukimura, better known as Black Ice, is the leader of the illegal racing scene and owner of many notorious underground circuits.

Yun-Seo Yukimura is a former member of the Yukimura Clan, a house associated with the Yakuza known for its cryogenic bloodline. She was left out of the family business due to being an illegitimate child. She is the elder half-sister of Yūto and his siblings, a fact that angers the heir.

HISTORY

Yun-Seo Yukimura was conceived during her fathers bachelor lifestyle. The Yukimura Clan murdered her mother and brought her into the family due to her connection to the family's cryogenic blood. Unable to kill her, her father did his best to raise her before he married another woman and left her alone in favor of his legitimate children.

When Yun-Seo turned fifteen, she was sent to study abroad and decided to stay in the United States after her schooling was over. She went to a technical college to learn about auto-mechanics, and worked as a mechanic while she built up a name in the illegal racing circuit. She is now the leader of the circuit, and the owner and host of several locations.

She keeps her surname as she knows her existence is a point of shame for her family and she wants to keep the pain alive for as long as possible.

PERSONALITY

Yun-Seo is a boisterous women, always with a smile on her face or letting out a laugh. Though she has a mean competitive streak that comes from being a businesswoman and former racer. She is quite compassionate and charitable, looking out for the outcasts that wander into her tracks and sponsoring them in their pursuits with her black card.

Yun-Seo keeps up with the hero scene, to see which vigilante she might want to offer financial aid too. She is quite a fan of the Watchers (@insomniac-jay) even before she learned her familial connection to one as she believes in the work they do.

ROMANCE

Yun-Seo can see romance in her future, but does not have a romantic interest at this time; however, she is the ex-girlfriend of Veronica Sinclair (Roulette).

TRIVIA

Nomeclature: Her given name Yun-Seo means allow sequence, and her surname Yukimura means snow village.

Yun-Seo is South Korean/Japanese.

Yun-Seo is transgender (a reference to her original concept being male) and identifies as genderqueer, so she is loose with her gender expression.

Yun-Seo Yukimura is the eldest Yukimura cousin, as she is in her early thirties.

Yun-Seo was sent away before Yalwa and Yuu were born, and took care of Yuzuru and Yutaka in their toddler years.