#which just so happens to be various out of context chunks

[thegreatyin]

..........scoundrel.

scoundrel what do you mean you're relatively sure.

[zeroducks-2]

Honestly I love the fanon families in DC but I very much acknowledge that the vast majority of it is not canon consistent. I almost feel like they’re two different universes in the way that Earth Two is different from Earth one. To me the media that supports the family feel good stuff like Wayne family Adventures is an entirely different continuity like Else world stories. They’re the same characters just written and played with in a much different way.

Wayne Family Adventure is indeed an elseworld, like the Lego DC movies or the Arkham videogames or the White Knight saga.

"canon" when it comes to DC is not a single entity because DC means many many things. Jason having been tortured by Joker and then allying with Scarecrow is canon for the Arkhamverse, but surely it isn't for the comicverse. Eobard pretending to be a scientist named Harrison Wells is canon for the CW Flash TV show, but not for the comicverse. Selina Kyle being Carmine Falcone's daughter is canon for the Batman 2022 movie, but not for the comicverse. And same goes for whatever happens in Wayne Family Adventures - the stuff in there is canon for its own context, not for the main comics canon continuity.

Now when it comes to "fanon" that's a different thing. I've seen people act like DC fanon is some sort of monolith with specific rules but it very much is not, fanon means various takes that are so widespread that people start to act as if they were canon, even if they don't come from the source material and they were born directly from the fandom. An example is Tim Drake being a coffee addict or Stephanie Brown loving pancakes. This is stuff which is either very loosely based off of canon or with no bearings with canon whatsoever, but a good chunk of the fandom acts like they were canon facts. Some folks are aware that they're not, some aren't, most don't care.

Now, the concept of Bruce Wayne being a Tired Sitcom Dad™ with all his sidekicks living in Wayne Manor like some sort of big family is a fanon concept. A few years ago people started acting like this was canon, and new people coming in would see it and also assume it was canon (Wayne Family Adventure both comes from fanon concepts and served to fuel them, because at some point people started using WFA panels as "proof" that all that actually happened). There has been and still is a pushback of people saying no, this is non-canon, stop acting like this stuff happened in the main comics continuity, but they pretty much get drowned by the mass of people who instead scream that "good dad Bruce is the only real Bruce" and that every instance of abuse or toxic behavior you show them is out of character and should be disregarded. (It is worth noting that many of these folks have actually never read DC comics, and if you suggest they do they will call you ableist and a gatekeeper when you're lucky - when you're unlucky they'll tell you to go kill yourself)

I want to add as a footnote that there are many cases (probably most cases actually) in which fanon stuff is awesome, and makes fandom experiences more enjoyable. The whole multiverse dynamic of the Undertale fandom is a fanonical masterpiece just to name one. There is a specific issue with fanon in the DC fandom in particular, but it's absolutely not the case for all fandoms - the existence of fanon dynamics is not a bad thing per se and it's a natural consequence of big fandoms existing and evolving over time. The problem with the DC fandom is that the fanon material doesn't work WITH and ALONGSIDE the canonical elements of the story. It is rather in extreme direct contradiction with the established source material, and people flat out refuse to accept that their "sunshine and rainbows" version of things isn't the real deal.

It's worth mentioning that when it comes to the Flash family we have a bit of a different situation. The abuse there is more subtle, it's less "Bruce punched Dick in the face" and more "these people are treating Barry's depression like an inconvenience". It's less "Bruce slit Jason's throat to save the life of Jason's murderer" and more "the moment Barry isn't the perfect picture of strength and happiness his family will act like he's doing it on purpose to spite them". It's way easier to dismiss because lots of people are unable to even pick up on it, and especially when it comes to Wally and Iris, 90% of the fandom does not allow them to be complex characters with dark impulses who are very capable of hurting the people they love and who love them. Wally because he's supposed to be a shining perfect hero, and Iris... well, Iris is a woman. Unfortunately most people refuse to even begin taking into consideration the idea that a woman can be a gray character, therefore women in fandom spaces are treated like either irredeemably unlikable bitches, or perfect angels who could never do anything wrong. Iris falls into the second category for nearly every single person in the Flash Fandom I've seen so far.

But anyway, I ranted enough. As I mentioned in the comments of my previous ask, I too have written fluffy "batfamily" dynamics or made Wally act sweet and protective towards Barry, but I am able to make a difference between what I like, what I'm using for my fanfiction and what actually is canon.

[zahri-melitor]

A Quick, Somewhat Joking Discussion of 'the Best Ways To Get Into Comics' (TM)

Be 10-14 years old, pick up a random comic at the library/bookshop/someone's collection and become obsessed. This is proven the best method and the level of confusion engendered by it is actually more useful long term than any other method. (At that age you are going to fall deeply in love with random texts that are never going to quite have the depth your brain imparts on them)

Mention to a friend who does like comics that you want to 'get into comics' and said friend, knowing your preferred types of tv shows and books, your favourite characters and having asked what you're hoping to read, carefully picks out something that is objectively a good starter comic that fits your tastes and makes your brain go brrrr. (god tier level, that friend is a keeper, also congratulations on the fact you are never going to replicate the feel of reading that first comic again)

Lurk or hang out in some fandom space where you are regularly exposed to discussions of comics that includes actual panels and storylines of recent comics, and work out from that what seems to have a vibe you like, so you go and pick up that run (solid option, being able to taste various writers and styles of run before diving in gives you a better chance of choosing a run that hooks you, I was introduced to so many runs via scans_daily in this way back in the day).

Wander into a library or comic shop or bookshop that has a decent number of comics with the idea that you want to look into reading these, and then flip through a bunch of trades in what you think you want to read before something catches your eye and you pick that up (less likely to be a definite hook, but has the benefit of being far more likely than any option listed further below to involve newbie-friendly art. And newbie-friendly art is something that isn't discussed enough in terms of recommendations but is one of the biggest reasons people just getting into comics bounce off the format).

Only here will I mention recommended character reading guides. In my experience they're useful in certain contexts, particularly for characters who have hard-to-trace chronologies, for finding out what runs that person considers essential to the character, for untangling the order of comics in particularly confusing large events, and for narrowing down and directing people where there's a big chunk of material to read about a character. My objection is they tend to be treated like gospel by newbies, they frequently don't consider whether the artwork is going to make their eyes burn, quite often they are more focused on the 'best' stories for a character rather than the 'most accessible stories' for that character (these are two separate concepts!) and they tend to sell a narrative of 'don't read X' where X is quite often a comic which people don't enjoy but where an important event happens or is simply an older comic that's particularly affected by community expectations and standards having changed since it was written.

You know that '75 Years of Comics' series of prestige hardbacks that DC did? They're great to hand to a newbie looking to get into a specific character or mantle, because it's got stand alone stories that are highly regarded or solidly introductory about that character from each era, they can page through it and work out what version makes their brain happy, and then follow up on those leads into more reading. (Expensive but perfect for libraries)

The first trade of a recent run for the character in question by the current or second most recent writer. Most runs when they change lead writers are going to have some level of onboarding simply because a lot of people DO switch what they're reading depending on what team is on the book, and by going with a current run you manage to sidestep a lot of the 'this feels weird and old' problems.

[lockedtombbrainworms]

Patriarchy and the Nine Houses

I've been mulling this one over in my brain on long drives recently, and as I'm currently at home resting up after an insanely busy few days and also some sort of illness flareup, I want to put some of what I've come up with into writing. These are coming from the perspective of a somewhat masculine-presenting queer trans woman with some degree of familiarity with anarcha-feminism, a lot more familiarity with anarchism in general, but not really much academic feminist background. I'm also white, which may well impact what I'm taking away from this here.

Something else that might influence what I've written here are the frankly insane doses of decongestants I'm currently on, but here goes.

So firstly, I don't think 'Patriarchy' as common feminist discourse uses the term exists within the Houses.

In terms of "Evidence Against", for one, there is seemingly no gendered violence in the Nine Houses - I've seen more than one post about how at no point does Gideon Nav feel like she's in any sort of danger of sexual assault or anything like that from the men she interacts with - she's quite happy to walk into Silas and Colum's room, and at no point does the narrative mention her being concerned about sexual violence while she, a teenage butch lesbian, is trapped in a room with an older man whose intentions towards her are unknown. She gets worried, sure, but mostly about swords or necromancy, not sexual assault. Our Griddle may be a bit sheltered, sure, but she's read a lot of adult-oriented comics, which in my experience tend to be fairly lurid about any and every fucked up thing that happens in the society that produced them, and none of those, nor anything she's been told by Aiglamene or witnessed on the Ninth, seem to have instilled any fear of patriarchal sexual violence in her.

The houses also don't seem to have a concept of homophobia or particularly rigid gender roles - at absolutely no point does anyone take issue with Gideon's sexuality and gender presentation, despite various other characters being absolute shits to her in various other ways throughout the book - Crux, Naberius, Silas, the Reverend Parents - at no point is it even hinted at that any of them were homophobic or shitty about gender-non-conformity. I don't really think you can get rid of any of those things entirely without also at least taking a big chunk out of patriarchy, if not eliminating it - they're all too tightly linked together.

I honestly don't think you can describe, for instance, Palamedes or Silas or Naberius as benefitting from "male privilege" in the context of the books without getting into some weird gender-essentialist bollocks about how being male Just Does That For You, at which point you may well be sliding into terf shit and I don't really think we have much of a common ground to discuss this from. The fandom's treatment of gender (and race, while we're at it) is another matter, but in the context of the books, I genuinely don't see "male privilege" or "patriarchy" existing within the wider society of the Nine Houses. You can look at the necro/cav dynamic as a sort of metaphor for gender, and I do consider them through that lense in some cases, but it's not a 1:1 map for gender and I don't think it's trying to be.

You could argue there's some weird patriarchal ideas of manhood in Mortus' treatment of Ortus - the guy very clearly abused his son to try to "toughen him up" and make him into a warrior when Ortus wanted nothing more than to write poetry, but while that's arguably written with a patriarchal bent to it from a doylist perspective, at no point does anyone actually tell Ortus he's less of a man in the text. What they do tell him is that he's less of a cavalier, which is why I actually view that dynamic as much more of an exploration of cavalier-hood as a metaphor for gender - 'toxic cavalierhood' rather than toxic masculinity, albeit via a dynamic that's unforunately very familiar to a lot of us.

The big flaw in my argument is that, unfortunately, in the literal sense of the word, the Nine Houses very much are a capital-P Patriarchy. They're run by an immortal God-Emperor dude with some fairly intense catholic shit going on! John actually was raised in a patriarchal society, and while his experiences as a he remembers it, and while he seems to have done an OK job of not passing homophobia, misogyny or strict gender roles onto the society he built after literally fucking nuking the one he grew up in, I don't know if someone in his position of power is really in a position to unlearn anything more at this point. To a lesser extent we see it with Augustine as well - the Saint of Patience definitely reads as a misogynist at times during the text (telling Mercymorn "you have made yourself unlovable" and his whole thing about Ianthe chosing to be broken spring to mind), and while he may not remember the pre-resurrection world, it still shaped him (and his brother, who is as much a part of the man we meet in HtN as the original Augustine who was resurrected).

Also none of this is to say the society of the Nine Houses is perfect - far from it! There's all sorts of fucked up abuse dynamics present, and the entire thing has been a fucked-up expansionist empire since it found someone to do expansionist imperialism on about five millennia before the story takes place, before which it was still a fucked-up death cult living on the reanimated wreckage of a dead solar system. If anything, the lack of misogyny, homophobia, rigid gender roles and the like are a parable - it doesn't matter how inclusive and egalitarian the society of the imperial core is when it perpetuates brutal violence on the imperial periphery.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I've asked myself many times over the course of three years about how would I react to information that comes to contradict a specific image I have about people. And the answer would differ, more or less, depending on a myriad of factors, such as my mental wellbeing, my attitude toward the fandom, the group, the members, etc. The truth is, I only knew how I would respond the moment it happens and I was pleasantly surprised in a way. I see it as a sign that I'm doing better or at least I'm on the path of doing better.

These are things that I didn't want to allow to come to surface in the way I used to handle the BTM blog. Perhaps because the point was to create a platform in which I could offer the rational, researched perspective which I considered to be the correct one. I'm not retracting any of that. I still believe that it is possible to offer a more complex perspective if I can back it up with knowledge from various fields, but it was also one of my defense mechanisms.

Without expanding on the personal reasons, it has become very easy for me to separate my rational and emotional side. So much, that even when I should be staying in the moment and let my emotions take space, I can't really do it, I need to come up with a rational explanation so it can make sense. I then applied this to BTS as well. I couldn't just say I like this group when someone would ask, I would have to tell them about all the studies I read and how my fascination is mostly intelectual, when in truth it was both. I used to talk about jikook only in the context of analysis, be it GCF through semiotics or various types of interpretations when it came to their performances or fandom reception in terms of their dynamics. It had to be in the context of rational fascination and curiosity because I was merely trying to justify myself on why I care that much about two strangers that I look at on my phone. Again, my intellectual curiosity is real, but that has always been only one side if the coin, but it was one that I pushed.

It's about shame actually. I can't actually accept that I have such an interest. It doesn't fit with the idea I have of myself. And sometimes I don't like it because it makes me question my intellect, my critical thinking. How can I be so good academically and at the same time I fear that I've fallen into a fandom trap? I'm smart, right? Right?

I'm sure a lot of people have dealt with or ar going through this process of cognitive dissonance. How does one deal with the mere idea that something they believe in based on their understanding of the world, their ability of decoding (not in a conspiracy sense, but in a Saussurean way) can turn out to be wrong? We see something that resembles a specific behavior that we are surrounded with our entire lives, sometimes we ourselves engage with, but we've identified it wrong on others? Of course, it's through the visual medium, one that is edited. It's a puzzle with large chunks missing, but we're getting a general idea of it. But we can be wrong. So how do we deal with that? Well, I don't have a correct answer.

Me in 2020/2021 would have been more affected because my mental health was not good. I was functionally depressed and I clinged so much onto BTS, Jikook and the small community that I found myself in at that time, that I would have felt a lot more torn than I am now.

A couple of years later and having to actually go through a situation in which my understanding of people's relationship might not be accurate, I realized I'm fine. And I think it's because it made me really register just now that I finally learned how to have fun with it. It took me three years. By having fun, I mean genuinely being able to simply enjoy the little things. I'm still on the path of not being ashamed for liking kpop or spending time talking about the dynamic/relationship of two people.

What prompted this post was reading what is currently being written in the jikook tag. Yes, I had this big introductory chunk that perhaps people won't bother reading, but I'm doing it for myself. If I can't be honest while writing stuff into the void for strangers to read, then what is the point?

I get frustrated very easily. I like debates and contradictory points of view, but not always. And that's because I like to be right. Almost all the time. So when I see something that I believe it lacks logic or I find it absurd, then my fingers are itching. I don't comment or DM people, I can control myself. I'd rather get out of the app and do something else.

What I want to say is I was surprised at how much fanfiction is being written. More that usual. Shipping contains a big deal of fanfiction by its nature. Gestures and events taking place at different times are interpreted and having information added that fills the gaps. People do that because they have to make sense of what they see.

They like to make relationship timelines. They speculate on first kisses and first sexual experiences. That's their imagination. None of us has any way of knowing. The element of fiction is heighted when people feel like they are losing control of the narrative. When they are unsure of what they are seeing. Which is what usually happens in the shipping community on a yearly basis. Anons flooding the bloggers' inboxes because they need confirmation or they didn't get any ship content in a month or two which means something is wrong.

There's this understanding that the shipper/supporter is delusional while the one who stops shipping is the rational one. From what I've observed throughout time and mostly now, that is a false distinction. The so-called rational fan makes use of fiction just as the shipper. The difference is in purpose. One talks about why the supposed romantic relationship is real and the other tries to refute that. But both categories seem to need fiction in order to build their arguments. That is because none of them have access to someone's private life and relationship, so the gaps need to be filled with speculation. There is no right or wrong version here, despite how much the idea is being pushed. And me writing about this won't make a difference. It's simply how the fandom works. The one who position themselves on the side of anti-delulu will always be seen as the less crazy one. The similarities will fade for the collective consciousness of the fandom.

I think it's difficult for a lot of people, regardless on which side they find themselves on, to accept that the option of simply not knowing is enough as well. Or knowing, but without getting anal about it. But it's hard and they write posts after posts, anons are sending asks over asks because there has to be a firm answer. Only a few allow themselves to be in between lines.

I'll bring back something that I always used to say. Shipping and involvement in the fandom is a lot more about us and less about the people we're talking about. It's about fullfiling some needs, of needing a community, of focusing on the idea of love. Those things can still be done in a way that still makes the experience enjoyable. But not everyone can and I'm not blaming it.

There's a way to just like how people behave with each other and imagine things without adding so much weight to it. Regardless of the true nature. It's our imagination, there's no need for a moral inquisition to tell anyone how to think or that they should stop thinking a certain way. Touching some grass is a cliche and an expression I ended up hating, but I do believe that being connected to discourse on a daily basis can really alter our sense of reality and what we consider to be real issues. We really should pay more attention to that and take some distance if necessary.

[cosmicmordecai]

I’ve said this before but just to expand what I was saying earlier regarding Zatanna’s not necessarily being “de-aged” to be with Dick Grayson in YJ. In comics, Zatanna was moreover aged up to be closer to Batman.

Dependening on the stories, Zee starts off her heroism at 18-21. Sometimes she joins the JL after years of searching for her father or around the same time.

[Secret Origins v2 #27 - Recounted through Dr. Mist, who reveals being the mastermind behind her father & her upheavals in life by force via Felix Faust. In the story, he does realize how fucking creepy and patronizing his actions were.]

[ Justice League of America #51 - This story places her at 20 years old when she finally reunited with her father and joins the JL a short time later. But this story makes it seem like she was an orphan rather than raised by her father for a chunk of her childhood.]

[ DCU Heroes Secret Files & Origins #1 - This timeline would imply that she joined the JL first at 21.]

All these sources came prior to her history with Batman, which would naturally move her timeline to make her adjacent with him prior.

[Compared that to Dick, whom she met alongside the Titans in Tales of the Teen Titans #4 in the 1980s. By then, Dick was already college bound with high school graduation [Batman #217]or a teenager depending on your context, placing him roughly 16-18 give or take. This same series in which the picture above has him retire the Robin name in #39, which modern stories typically have that done at 18 years old.]

I think it’s very important to note that Zatanna’s character has changed overtime and that there’s no definite “Justice League generation” vs other generations of heroes. There’s not this neat little box where every DCU character conveniently fits in.

The Titans might fit in the “heroes in their 20s” box and the Teen Titans feature heroes younger than 18 but even then, some TT reached 18+ [Red Devil] and there’s been a plethora of heroes in their 20s in the JL [Kyle Rayner, Khalid Nassour, Ronnie Raymond/Jason Rusch]. Just like the JSA has younger members & successors who join, the JL features membership of varying ages.

[I literally forgot the source of this.]

I understand the basis makes it seem like Zatanna is infantalized but that’s not necessarily true. The character wasn’t always Bruce’s childhood friend and at one point, only met significantly in the JL to Batman’s own recollection. & one other time where she was disguised as a witch unknown to Bruce himself long before the retcon that made them childhood friends came to be.

It’s also hard to say “Zatanna has to be around this age bc she hangs out with so-and-so” because characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman has had their histories altered in many ways. Barry Allen’s age has never been stated so using his interest in her as an age gauge is iffy and honestly, in real life, people have relationships, flirtations, and friendships with people older and younger than them. Part of adulthood is meshing with people & it’s not always convenient that you’ll be friends with people your own age. Interpersonal relationships are also multi-faceted and complex.

I also think it’s sets a bad precedent to not examine the character’s history and go off of the “idea” of where characters are instead of their history. Various DC characters already get this:

Billy Batson is always like 10 or 12 when people think of him but like he’s been 15 & 16 too. His relationship with Courtney Whitmore for example happened when he’s in high school himself. He is also chronologically older than Jon Kent regardless of space bullshit.

Raven & Beast Boy’s character get de-aged to the point they’ve been in Dick, Tim, and Damian’s version of the Teen Titans in media & comics.

Jaime Reyes remained eternally in high school until recently and it took a movie to budge him from that.

Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Caín are out here having Damian be closer to them in age because editorials, writers, and fanon completely forget both characters have been 18 far longer than anybody thinks.

Khalid Nassour debuted in 2015 already 23 years old & a year older than DICK GRAYSON IN THE SAME YEARS. Nowadays, he’s drawn as a teen/college age guy and his timeline either implies he’s in his 30s now or in 2023, all his 100+ appearances took place in ONE YEAR so therefore, everyone he interacted with also progressed one year overtime?

Long story short, it’s really important in my opinion to consider a character’s history and not just go off of whose their friend is, what you think their idealized version is like, and do not use the characters whose timeline DC & Didio has outright played Russian Roulette with accommodate their idealized version of the characters as a placeholder.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #324: The Crossing Line Part 6: IMAGINARY BORDERS

October, 1990

NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!

Finally, we reach the end of the Crossing Line. In which at no point is the title the Crossing Line explained. I've heard that the Crossing, that infamous Avengers storyline, also doesn't really explain itself. Maybe both stories are named for making people cross. Who can say?

Anyway, last time in Avengers: Russian terrorist group Peace Corpse hijacked a nuclear submarine to try to cause World War III to fix the world economy.

The Avengers were called in to try to get the sub back. The Russian group, the People's Protectorate also showed up because leader Red Guardian knew Peace Corpse's leader. Due to a lot of dumb fighting, the two groups aggroed a group of Atlanteans. And the action shifted to Canada, so Alpha Flight got involved.

Captain America proceeded to bungle a hostage crisis and fucked up so bad while storming the sub that Canada exploded. Alpha Flight's shaman slurped up the explosion, the city, and an entire chunk of Canada into his magical bag of holding.

Everyone had to get along and cooperate to reunite with the bag dimensions but they found that leaving the bag would instantly kill them with radiation.

Then the Peace Corpse leader and his lieutenant show up as a giant naked radioactive conjoined man, who still wants to cause World War III.

I have all the context and I still don't quite understand why this is happening.

It's all a metaphor for a post-Cold War world, probably.

Vision: "It would appear that their biological link to the Waterwind radically altered them when the submarine's nuclear payload detonated." Captain America: "No need to belabor the obvious, Vision."

The obvious?? The only reason I buy that as an explanation for what happened is because it clearly happened and there's no other explanation offered.

Anyway, the giant naked man is named Combine, because he is two guys Combine-d into one. And he wants to help everyone leave the bag of holding dimension so they can shotgun radioactive fallout all over the world.

He's not here to be helpful.

Box forms some guns and tries shooting at Combine but combine laughs off bullets and then eye lasers Box the fuck unconscious.

A big radioactive conjoined naked man fight floating in a void doesn't give all the characters a way to join the fight. So Puck, Stingray, Red Guardian, Diamond Lil, an unconscious Sersi, an unconscious Box, and Fantasma chill with the civilians.

Vostok uses his technopathy on the Box armor to turn it into a wall to keep the civilians safe from stray shots.

Meanwhile, Fantasma meditates to contact Shaman in the outside world. Just to touch base. Tell him about the giant naked man.

Shaman is not holding up too well. Containing a chunk of Canada and a bunch of people in his mystic satchel of holding is not what it was meant for. And the strain is making him bleed from his face holes, as strain sometimes does to characters whose gifts aren't in the more mental or mystical department.

The long and short and the teal deer is that the People's Avengers Flight need to wrap this up soon or Shaman might be unable to get them out at all.

They also don't really have a plan to wrap it up. Just determination from Captain America that they can't let Combine release all the radiation. If they have to be stuck in the mystic satchel to prevent him from poisoning the planet, well, that's what heroes do.

Perun: "Ho! Have at thee, pontificating buttocks-touching baboons!!"

You're a treat, Perun.

And Combine isn't one of those unstoppable cosmic powers that the Avengers et al are way over their heads with.

As Vision, Perun, Guardian, Crimson Dynamo, and Quasar hammer him, Combine complains that their stupid, ineffectual attacks are wearing down his (their?) supply of radiation.

Combine can absorb more radiation. From the various people trapped in the bag of holding or from the inanimate objects that got hoovered up. But that's not a bad thing either, since once something/someone has been cleansed, they or it can be released from the satchel.

The only problem is the balancing act of making sure Combine doesn't slurp up so much radiation that he murders all of the People's Avengers Flight members fighting him.

Also, now Team Don't Irradiate the World does have a plan.

The other Peace Corpse members who didn't turn into a giant, naked radioactive conjoined man have had a change of heart.

Some guy: "We understand your doubt, Captain, but it is through your own actions -- and those of the others -- that we have seen the error of our ways! Through your efforts, you not only saved your own lives, but those of hundreds of innocents and the very people who threatened you to begin with!"

Feels like the other Peace Corpse members should have gotten more focus to sell this change of heart. But I think we're supposed to view it the same as the Atlanteans coming together to work with everyone.

Whatever.

Anyway, the other Peace Corpse guys suggest that they be merged with Combine so they can out-vote Illyich and Strokov.

Puck: "Democratic principles in a communist villain?! Don't you just love this international thing here?"

Now, you can't just throw Peace Corpse at Combine and expect them to bloop together. Illyich and Strokov were fused because they were wired into the missile computer or whatever nonsense it was.

But Sersi can do it, with her matter transmutation power!

Except she's unconscious from all the strain of using her powers and then getting psychically whammied by Combine!

But Fantasma can just hijack Sersi's powers like she did in the previous issue!

Poor Sersi and Box. Cool stuff is happening with their powers in this issue. But they're both unconscious and someone else is using their stuff.

I guess that's the international cooperation in work.

Fantasma helps Captain America manifest as a giant head to explain the plan to the heroes who are busy fighting Combine.

Captain America: "We have a plan -- but it requires your help -- all of you must continue to pound the Combine relentlessly! Don't let up -- once their resolve is weakened... the remaining members of the Peace Corpse will enter their group mind and force the Combine to absorb our radiation from us!" Perun: "That sounds ridiculous!" Crimson Dynamo: "Of course it does, friend Perun... Which means it will probably work perfectly!"

I can almost imagine the exhaustion in Dynamo's voice. As he grapples in that moment with the insanity of living in a comic book universe where nonsense is just reality.

While Team Fight Combine fights Combine, Fantasma takes Sersi's unconscious body and starts bringing the remainder of Peace Corpse towards Combine.

Meanwhile, Combine has absorbed radiation from enough people and material for Shaman to start bringing people through.

Tyrak: "Avenger! Allow us to go first -- we are perilously close to death as it is. If someone is to be used to test the magician's theories, it may as well be us." U-Man: "After all, what difference if a few Atlanteans die?" Captain America: "All life is precious to us, Meranno, yours included. But if you're volunteering, then let's do it. We don't have much time..."

So Shaman dumps people and stuff out of his bag of holding and huzzah, the radiation is gone.

The Atlanteans are able to hydrate and save the human civilians that landed in the water.

Back in the bag space, Vision puts into motion his secret plan.

... He just does what he always does. He intangibles. In fairness, he doesn't fist. He usually fists. But Combine is just too dang big. So he flies through him instead and does him a distraction.

That lets Guardian do her thing. And her thing is apparently a "gravitational shunt."

She instant transmissions. Even including the POP!

The non-Combine members of Peace Corpse are shoved into Peace Corpse, leading to a discussion as everyone fights for consensus.

"--No! You cannot control us -- our cause is just!" "No, Illyich, my friend -- your actions, your decision to unite the world through war was wrong!" It's true, Illyich! An international enclave of heroes has shown us the way of the future!" "That was is through might! We must use force to further the needs of our country and our planet!" "No, Strokov -- it's not through force of might, or through personal gered. We've learned that now!" "It is through mutual dependency, mutual cooperation, and mutual desire!" "Do you see inside our minds now, Illyich? Strokov?" "I -- I -- see --" "Then we must atone for the error of our ways, comrades."

Outvoted. Democracy in action!

The new Combine absorbs all of the excess radiation and form a giant hand-holding circle of naked people.

And like a lot of throwaway cosmically powerful characters in fill-in stories, the Combine decides to fuck off into (bag) space to explore reality.

We'll never see them again.

But at least they learned that borders aren't real.

Shaman is just about to collapse and the dimensional vortex too so everyone still in the bag dimension books it back through to planet Earth.

Just one entire half hour later, everyone is getting ready to go their separate ways.

The Atlanteans have fucked off. Apparently, Captain America talked with them before they left, telling them that Attuma would be treated fairly in his war crimes trial.

Didn't realize that was a thing.

Anyway, they Atlanteans also expressed interest in getting some humanitarian aid. Considering Atlantis got blown up twice in one event.

The People's Protectorate fuck off, on good terms with the Avengers. And since this is Canada, the Avengers fuck off, leaving Alpha Flight to watch them go.

Guardian: "We did ourselves and our country proud, gang. Funny, to be part of an ideological struggle between the world's super powers, wasn't it?" Puck: "Sort of makes you wonder what the worth of ideology really amounts to, eh? After all, we don't owe the children of tomorrow a bit of our ideologies and foolish way.s We just owe them a world in which they can choose to create their own... for the better, one hopes..."

Is THAT what we learned from all of this?

I thought we learned... something about democracy and working together? Idunno.

Let's just transition into the back-up feature so I don't have to sort out themes.

So we finally learn who has been messing with the Avengers Support Crew and who called them all out to the park last issue.

It is Mother Night!

I haven't heard of her! But she works for the Red Skull and seems to have power over perception.

She's also, maybe, a bit of a doofus. Calling the Avengers Crew for a big dramatic reveal without thinking that construction workers might wander through.

Her powers let her get away with it but she did have to pause her dramatic speech to disguise herself.

Mother Night takes the Avengers Crew outside the grounds to a blood donation truck where Minister Blood and Machinesmith are waiting.

Minister Blood wasn't around when this evil scheme was set into motion so Night Explains It All.

She and Machinesmith have been staking out the Avengers' headquarters for two weeks. Night disguised herself as a lady walking her dog and hypnotized Jarvis as he was on his way to the mansion. Then, she planted a micro-transmitter in his inner ear. And did the same with the rest of the Crew over the next days. With that micro-transmitter, she could trigger a traumatic hallucination.

Which is what was happening in all the back-up stories.

Now, with the Avengers Crew in her power, Mother Night and Minister Blood are going to perform psychic surgery to implant post-hypnotic commands for later.

Which apparently consists of the same traumatic experiences again but this time Mother Night saves them in exchange for them doing favors for her. But the favors will be done subconsciously and the Crew won't remember any of this except as a hazy dream.

Minister Blood: "So how long has the Skull been planning this little venture?" Mother Night: "Johann doesn't know a thing about it, Minister. Using their civilian workers to bug the Avengers' new headquarters was all my idea. When the job's complete, I'm going to give Johann a bank of video monitors to correspond to every bug they plant. I think the Red Skull is going to just adore the birthday present I got him, don't you?"

Making him a birthday gift. First-name basis. This woman I've never heard of and the Red Skull must be close. Like the closest of acquaintances.

So, all those back-up stories were written by Mark Gruenwald, who is also writing the entirety of Avengers #325.

So he's setting something up. We'll see what. Because I'm covering that issue before I head into the Terminus Factor, the linked annuals story for the Avengers.

Stay tuned!

Follow @essential-avengers and don't forget to like, reblog, subscribe, hit that bell, and fell that tree.

[kyogre-blue]

meanwhileinaditch

Unfortunately, NPCs hold a decent chunk of world-building lore you need for plot context. This game's construction, I s2g. I think the calendar and 'home base' are also holding this game back more than helping it. Iirc GD gets some bonus scenes of Claude investigating Fodlan/Relic Lore in the library the other routes don't get.

Yeah, I just got one scene with Tomas jumpscare to talk about how there were previously loads of books about the dark history of the Relics, but now they're all gone, how sus of the church, etc.

tbh my bigger takeaway was the jumpscare itself. Byleth and Claude both do the little flinch in surprise animation, and Claude looks quite uncomfortable when he says that they didn't notice Tomas. They don't react this way to Edelgard barging into the... same scene? next scene? So the whole thing makes Tomas look unexpectedly sus (which makes sense, given that he's a villain or something).

I'm not talking to NPCs tho, absolutely denied. It's so tedious, and I'd have to take notes to even remember anything because this game is just stuffed to the brim with Proper Nouns of plot relevance. I feel tired just thinking about it.

Regarding the calendar and home base, I think they are concepts that could have a place in an FE game, tbh. The visual indication that, hey, these characters have hanging out together for months is helpful to smooth out them getting closer together, and the home base gives you a setting for various scenes and activities.

It's just that 3H is very underbaked. As the video game reviewer Youtubers like to say, "it's a proof of concept game" and needs a more polished next entry. But instead FE has been changing up on every entry, so...

The problem with the calendar is that they didn't put enough on it. It's a repetitive system of explore to get your plot quests and pick up any new items/dialogues, then just grind for four weeks, until it's time for the plot battle. Repeat. It forcefully spaces out the plot events, but also forces them to clump together in big batches... while you might end up forgetting what even happened in the last set since you had a huge block of grinding between them.

imo there's two major issues: you can't choose when you do the main plot battle, and there's too little on the calendar. Birthdays happen, but you don't even get a little scene with the character (tea time is generic if you do it). Holidays happen, but you just get the, again, generic singing at the cathedral scene. All the "events" are functionally just an additional grinding spot. Instead of dumping all things into the explore Sundays, imo they should have separated them out more and made the events feel like, well, events.

Also, visual changes to the monastery would have been really great. As it is, they sure made fancy insert cards for the months, but they couldn't make alternate season visuals in the actual setting. I'm not sure we even have an explorable nighttime version.

As for the home base, the biggest issue is probably that it limits the kind of story you can write. Most older FEs are journeys where your geographic position is tracked, which helps give a sense of the world layout. But in those cases, there wouldn't be anywhere you could return to (unless you compromise into an actual camp that is implied to be pitched in different locations but has the same layout).

But seriously, they're not bad systems per se. They just needed a whole new game to get polished into something that does more than technically function.

The actual biggest problem is what they did with the route split. The systems you can probably live with, but the route structure... yikes.

[hasufin]

The pinnacle of technology

I am lucky enough to be able to do some volunteer work. A couple of days each month, I go to a nearby archaeology museum and do some volunteer work.

in the past that meant cleaning artifacts - when they do a dig they put whatever they find in paper bags and in the lab we'd follow a protocol to clean the dirt off as a precursor to identifying the artifact.

Recently, though, they've had me gluing labels on the artifacts. This is actually a super important thing, because most artifacts get put back in their bags, which will go into a box or drawer and sit for most of the next century until some grad student wants to do research on revolutionary-era pottery in the US mid-Atlantic region. And, see, when that happens there's a chance they'll find a bag of 80 pottery sherds, with 80 labels in the bottom of the bag. There are stories of centuries-old drawers being opened only to find all the labeling had fallen off or faded to illegibility. Which is a disaster; artifacts are important for their context: the specific location in which they were found, and what else was found with them. We get visitors who ask "What is the most valuable item you have?" and there's no answer because it's not like a piece of wood from a ship matters unless you know it's from a barque which was buried in the mud of the river in 1783; otherwise it's just a soggy chunk of wood.

Now, here's where I'm gonna go off the rails. This is relevant, I promise.

The two most important forms of technology are materials technology and information technology. Everything else is finding clever applications for those two things.

I know, I know - "But what about-" - we only did that because we were able to create the materials with which to do it. We only know about it because we developed a way to observe, describe, and understand the world around us in a systematic, repeatable fashion. These technologies are so ubiquitous that we don't think of them as technologies. But consider: we can survive in any climate on Earth, we can live in one place and have a healthy diet, because of our mastery of textiles and ceramics. They are literally what makes us human.

And we have been able to keep, and improve upon, those technologies because we developed means of recording and transferring knowledge: the spoken word, and writing.

So, going back to archaeology. Right, context. Excuse me: CONTEXT. In archaeology, every artifact has a context number. In American archaeology, the context numbers have a specific meaning. They are a code which is thus

<Two-digit state code> <Two-letter region code> <Numeric designation of dig site> <Context number>

Okay, so the state codes are ostensibly in alphabetical order - e.g., since Virginia is the 44th state alphabetically, the number for Virginia is 44. However, this system pre-dates the admission of Hawaii and Alaska, so they're I think 49 and 50.

The region code is usually, but not always, a reasonable abbreviation for the town or city. Like, if there's a dig in Charlottesville I believe it's designated CV. These are not necessarily tied to a town, however - there are specific regions laid out and certain local governments have authority over digs in their region. This can come into play when, like last week, we had some guy show up with some rocks he found in his yard. On asking, it turns out he does not live in our region and we sent him packing because we cannot do a dig there even if we wanted [He has been shopping around to various archaeology authorities because while he's convinced he found ancient artifacts they're really just rocks, but anyway]

The dig site number is given by the regional authority. They can do it however they want - in order by site opening, or by some system based on locations, whatever. However, the dig site is mapped out by the lead archaeologist and surveyed to they know very precisely where the dig is and where each grid is in their site map.

The context is the specific grid and depth. It's usually separated from the site number by "CN" to prevent confusion.

So, if we opened a site in Charlottesville, a potential context number might be:

44CV9876CN0003.

That would tell me it's in Charlottesville, Virginia; that if I want more details I contact the regional authority there for information on dig site 9876, and then using the site map on file I look for grid and context 0003. With that I can get where a given artifact was down to a square meter (and possible better if it was a feature, but I digress).

This is a demonstration of a very high level of information technology. See, we've got a carefully surveyed map of the region already in place, courtesy of the USGS. The USGS not only creates detailed maps of the USA, it designated or places permanent markers which allow anyone to find out very precisely where they are on those maps. These markers are long bronze rods driven into the ground - materials technology, creating something which will not degrade in that environment - and you use surveying tools (more materials tech!) to site from those markers. Then, using our measurement system which is clearly designated and consistent, you can make a site map and have those exact context numbers I mentioned before.

With that, I can print out a page of those context numbers on acid-free paper. I apply a base coat of B-72, which is a n acryloid in acetone. It's great stuff, drying and curing quickly but not so quickly I can't put a slip of paper on it to hold it in place; after waiting 15 minutes I put on a top coat, sealing the paper so the ink isn't exposed to air and does not fade. And if I screw up, I can use acetone to dissolve the B-72 and try again, without damaging the pottery I'm labeling.

These are high applications of information and materials technology. They represent millennia of development in each field, and while it looks like I'm just gluing slips of paper onto tiny pieces of pottery, in truth what I'm doing would not have been possible before the modern era.

[perpetual-fool]

I guess I'm putting off confronting my feelings. It's really hard to focus on it. Which is sort of the problem.

- Random bullshit follows.

I didn't realize how much of a workout breathing could be. I'm trying to use my full lung capacity, or stretch it out? however that works. I'm breathing in as deeply as I possibly can, adjusting my posture to allow for it, and then holding it in as I relax. It hurts a little bit, like I've got a stitch in my side, but in various places. That might be what a stitch is, lungs stretching out or something. And it's just hard pulling everything open. Or, whatever's happening. But after doing it, suddenly I've got a lot more power and control of my voice. It seems to be analogous to using a bow correctly. And it feels good? Less so physically, but it's rewarding somehow, making progress or whatever. And I feel some kind of way about that. It feels like releasing some kind of tension, make me cry a little bit. Like, I don't get to feel good about things.

There's this stupid food thing. Context: heard a thing suggesting appetite is regulated by hormones made in your gut. And that would make some sense. I generally eat low-carb, which has been very effective, but I'm still fat. It didn't just solve all the problems. And previously I'd tried eating complex-carb, which was also starting to work before I starting thinking that eating *a little bit* of junk wouldn't be so bad. So, I'm trying muesli again; rolled oats with milk, essentially. And I like it. But the deal is, as a kid there were a whole lot of circumstances where I'd be dragged to family reunions or whatever, and the breakfast would be oatmeal. I fucking hate oatmeal. The texture is disgusting, all the cinnamon, sugar, and butter in the world really doesn't make up for it. But if they'd given me the same thing fucking raw I would have enjoyed it.

My tongue is getting cut on the back of my teeth. The two in the bottom front have been getting sharp and if my tongue get pinched between them it can make me bleed. Frankly, it kinda makes me want to kill myself. It's just another thing fundamentally wrong with that's going to make my life just that little bit worse, and there's nothing I can do about it. And it's one more sin god would have to answer for, if they existed. Update, I'm being more rough on the area with my floss picks and chunks of tartar are falling off. Which means (aside from me being overdue for a cleaning), that the problem is fixable, and that my previous dentist was incompetent.

The calluses on my fingers seem weird. Like, with bass I end up mostly using my index finger and pinky, so my middle two fingers are still pretty soft. And it seems like I should be spreading out the 'wear'. But that's just not really how it works? I mean, it seems like the middle fingers would be the most effective for double stops or moving horizontally across the neck. Hypothetically I'd be doing more of that with more experience, but it still wouldn't be as much as I use the other fingers.

I'm reconsidering fifths tuning for bass. Like, fourths is good for scales and chords/arpeggios, but that's not really the role of a bass. And playing chords, the low notes don't mix anyway. Even playing a fifth sounds muddy. And while fifths would make the adjacent note (probably a third) hard to reach, the one *one octave up* is fine and blends a lot better anyway. And I still like the idea of symmetry with my viola. So ideally I'd want a five-string with a high E3, but I'm not sure that the high C3 that comes in six-string set could actually be tuned up that high. Though, I don't have a five-string bass yet so it's not really a concern at the moment. I wonder if I could just use a D3 guitar string? Although with the difference in scale length maybe I'd need a tuned down G3 instead; bass is ~8 inches longer. Aside, guitar strings are fucking cheap compared to bass strings. Wait, no, there's the.. binding? whipping? the thread or whatever wrapped around the ends of the strings, the strings are gonna be too short. I might need a custom string from Kalium or something. Wait wait, but aren't guitar strings way too long to begin with? Oh whatever, I'll just have to start trying things out.

I feel weird. I was bit lightheaded from the breathing earlier, apparently just breathing deeply is enough to make me hyperventilate. And I think I feel weird because of that, but maybe it could be from the muesli. I feel light, like it's easy to get up and move around. Like I have energy. And I'm not hungry. Usually I'm craving something, which I attribute to using food to cope with depression. But I'm still uncomfortably full from earlier. Right now I don't feel like I need anything. Other than sleep, last night wasn't great. And, ya' know, love and stuff. Anyway, this is a very significant improvement. Also, why the fuck?

(cw: suicide) Was idly thinking about getting banned from LW. I'm inclined to think they thought it was condescending due to social bullshit, despite how everyone keeps proving they don't understand the issue. Or that maybe it's more or less a religion and what I did was equivalent to walking into a church and being like "hey, have you considered that the concept of god is absurd and obviously wrong?". But I did believe in what I was doing, it seemed like the right thing to do. It followed learning that there is no one in this world I can connect with, and preceded plans for suicide. Sharing the thought might have been the only good I could do with my worthless life. It might have been like the deal with Morgan, that he thought that I believed everyone who doesn't agree with me is objectively wrong. Which is almost entirely completely backwards. I don't assume others are wrong, I assume I don't understand it and they know things I don't. Which goes all the way back to, well, religion. CoC pushes the guilt really hard, even after being 'saved'. So when I asked "how come we're not saved if we're saved?" they were like "well the Bible says 'fuck you'." Well, generally I assume I don't understand. In this case I was sure of the thing and assuming they honestly just didn't know. But I was considering, what "should" they have done? And I don't think there is anything. Sure, from my perspective it was all wrong and didn't make any sense. But the issue being, their perspective has nothing to do with me. Whatever they think I did and whoever they think I am just isn't real. And that's just a consequence of what they are, there's nothing I can do that would make anyone really understand. So, there isn't anything that 'should' have been done. And further, the same principle would apply to any of my interpersonal relationships. I keep thinking about what I could possibly say or do, like maybe if I wrote a heartfelt song about it then she'd at least know how I really feel. But there isn't anything I could do, that I should do. Frankly, they just don't have the hardware to really understand. I don't want to believe that. But I've tried everything, this is the only explanation I have. There's nothing I can do but let go. There's nothing I 'should' have done other than not be born.

Or like, I'm working out that on account of me being (I think) some flavor of demisexual, religion didn't just teach me that sexual attraction was evil, it taught me that romantic attraction was evil too. Which would explain why I was completely dysfunctional in that relationship, and possibly why I was not even a little bit equipped to deal with any of my feelings. But, it doesn't matter. If I tried to explain she'd just make something up anyway, like they always do. And I think, the reason I want it is because I need help getting through this. But so long as I need the help, I won't know exactly what it is that I need. So if I'm ever able to explain what I needed, then it will be because I don't need it anymore. So, doubly pointless, I guess. Aside, hypothetically, I would like someone to confirm what 'romantic' attraction is exactly. The feeling I know is like being intoxicated by the sight or presence of someone. And sometimes it's their body I find attractive, sometimes it's their face, sometimes their personality. And I feel like I 'want' them. Not in a possessive way, the idea of which makes me feel weird and uncomfortable, and seems morally wrong, and also.. profane? It feels like tying them down, restricting what they are in any way would be destroying the very thing that I want. But yeah, I want to 'experience' them somehow. Though I don't know specifically what that would entail. I wouldn't exclude sex as a possibility for that, but sex really isn't the point. Is that what 'romantic' is? And tangent, I would also like to know what 'platonic' means. I presume, ya' know, 'friendship'. But I don't really have any experiences to tell me what that is, on account of not being able to actually connect with anyone.

Apparently I'm gayer than I thought I was. I've always found masculine people to be implicitly threatening. But I've been feeling more secure about things lately, I guess. And I've been finding a wider range of people to be appealing or less off-putting.

In preparation for the fifths-bass that I don't have yet, I'm going to try playing each note with the next finger, the same way I'd do it on viola. So far it seems quite tiring and intonation would be more work. Essentially I have to shift for every single note. But then, I was already shifting every other note so it's not that big of a difference. And intonation was already a problem, it's not like I can just lay a finger down roughly behind the next fret. Nor is the instrument small enough that I can just squish my fingers together and be in the right place. But it feels freeing. As absurd and difficult as it seems to use violin-style fingering on something bigger than a cello, I feel like if I can learn to do it then.. I'm not sure how to phrase it. I feel like no fret/fingerboard will be beyond me. Though if it's too uncomfortable I might dial it back to cello/guitar fingering instead, one finger per 'fret'. Or maybe the whole idea is just naive. But something feels right about it. It's like instead of moving in steps I'm moving in rhythm. It's the same sort of thing as becoming proficient with a kitchen knife. When you start, you learn to pinch the knife with your right hand, hold the food in a claw with the left hand, and then guide the knife by resting it against your knuckle. Position the knife, chop, move the hand, reposition the knife, chop. But as it's committed to muscle memory it all blends together into a continuous cutting motion. As I slowly move my hand across, chop chop chop chop chop chop chop.

I have this weird thing. It's almost like, in my head, I only have one slot for the person I'm the most attached to. And I figure people would be insulted or something if they found out, but I get the names mixed up. For instance, currently I'm remembering something I hate myself for and reflexively feel bad about. But when I think "I'm sorry _" the name that comes to me is the person I care about most right now. For most of my life that person has been Stevie. But now, I’m thinking of something that happened with Stevie, and I'm thinking of Catherine instead.

(https://youtu.be/CFlhlZbeKgE)

[singular-yike]

I wasn't asking for Chouki last time, but you know it IS a good idea, so gimme Chokey Dokey Literature Club (Cheaky Breaky Heart?)

This isn't related to Chouki but I just thought you'd like to know that that's the first nickname(?) you gave that really made me do a double-take, conjures up an indescribable feeling it does.

In any case, we can certainly talk about Chouki:

The New Emperor Amidst the Heat Haze — Taira no Chouki

Chouki's Story

A good chunk of Chouki's story takes part alongside Fumikado', and a good part of their character revolves around them as well, I'll be a lot briefer in this one, so go check out Fumikado's post if you want more context as to the why some of this stuff happens.

Chouki's Origins

Unlike Fumikado's origins, which are written in their profile from an omniscient narrator's view, what we have on Chouki's origins apparently come from Taira no Iwakado, who is frankly a rather fishy character. So we might need to take it with a grain of salt.

According to Iwakado, Chouki was born to a branch family of the Mugenri Taira. Much like Fumikado, they used to live in the imperial capital Devanagara with their own parents.

However, Chouki's parents would pass away in a political dispute (likely the same one that orphaned Fumikado), leaving Iwakado to take them in.

Iwakado raised Chouki to be Fumikado's servant, telling them to "always obey Fumikado, be by their side and aid them". That was their entire existence.

The Saeda

To that end, Chouki volunteered to play the magical Saeda flute in order to gather the souls needed for the revival plot. However, the flute could only be played by a "being closer to death", so they resolved to take their own life and become a ghost.

So Chouki made a deal with the master of the Spirit World in order to go against the world's natural order and remain the in the world of the living as a ghost.

However, the master played a nasty trick on them, taking their legs and breath from them when returning them to the living world. This left them incapable of playing the flute, and not long after, Fumikado cut them off from the plan.

Revenge

What Fumikado's intentions were, only they know, but Chouki felt betrayed, like they were tossed aside once they became useless. This feeling turned into hatred, and then a desire for vengeance.

In order to take down Fumikado, they trained under Garaiiya Ogata, Kaisen Azuma, Kujiru Kesa, as well as Gariaya's other shikigami, becoming proficient in both youkai arts and swordfighting.

It was when they began to match Fumikado's power that the Dragonfly Castle revealed itself to them, and welcomed them within. Thus they rose to the throne as the New Emperor of the Dragonfly Castle, and the rest is history.

Name: Taira no Chouki

There's not much to go over with Taira (平), but in Chouki (蝶鬼), "chou" (蝶) means "butterfly" and "ki" (鬼) refers to the youkai oni.

Notably, while it rarely takes this meaning in Japanese (not never though), it almost always means "ghost" in Chinese.

Inspiration: Nyozou-ni

Chouki lightly references Taira no Masakado's 3rd daughter, the Buddhist nun Nyozou-ni, whose birth name is lost to history.

The best historical sources we have on her are the Konjaku Monogatarishū (今昔物語集), a collection of various tales written during the late Heian period, and the Genkō Shakusho (元亨釈書), Japan's first Buddhist history text.

Both tell the same general tale, that to punish Masakado's family for his crimes, his 3rd daughter was exiled to live alone next to an Enichi Temple where she eventually died of illness. (There are two likely candidates that Enichi Temple in the texts refer to, but it is unclear which one it is.)

Depicted below: Enichi Temple's main hall.

She then fell to hell but was rescued by the Buddha Jizou and came back to life, after which she converted to Bhuddism and became a nun known as Nyozou-ni (如蔵尼) or Jizou-ni (地蔵尼).

Nyozou-ni's gravestone at the Enichi Temple in Bandai Town, Fukushima Prefecture reads:

"Takiyasha-hime tried to restore [the clan/her position] after Masakado's death, but failed and became a nun"

It's not exactly clear what she is said to have tried to restore, but this is where we get the name "Takiyasha-hime" from, as well as the idea that she tried to change the outcome of Masakado's rebellion in some sense.

Depicted below: Nyozou-ni's gravestone at the Enichi Temple

While Chouki's story doesn't rely on Nyozou-ni that heavily, it's possible that their visit to and return from the Spirit World is based on Nyozou-ni's own death and revival story.

Inspiration: Takiyasha-hime

Chouki is more heavily based on a mythologized version of Nyozou-ni, Takiyasha-hime (滝夜叉姫).

Her mythologization is believed to date back only to the 17th century, in the 1806 yomihon novel series "The Tale of Utou Yasutaka's Loyalty" (善知安方忠義伝) by Santō Kyōden. (Yep this book again lol)

The books are an attempt to combine the Noh play "Utoh" (善知鳥 Auklets) and the Masakado legends, which is notable because one of Chouki's spells, "The Auklet's Cry, and the Response Thereto", actually reference Utoh directly.

In the novels, she is instead initially known as Kisaragi-ni (如月尼). A Buddhist nun who lives on Mount Tsukuba raising her younger half-brother Taira no Yoshikado (平 良門), something the historical Nyozou-ni is also said to have done (although its veracity is unclear).

Depicted below: Kisaragi-ni (left page) and Yoshikado (right page)

After Masakado indeed failed and was executed, a powerful toad spirit that lived on the mountain, Nikushi-sen (肉芝仙), revealed himself to the siblings and told them the truth of their origins.

He taught them both toad magic, convinced them to restart their father's rebellion, and possessed Kisaragi-ni, transforming her into Takiyasha-hime.

Depicted below: Takiyasha-hime in one of the books (left), Nikushisen (as a toad) and Yoshikado (above the toad)

Takiyasha-hime's paring here with Yoshikado may have inspired Chouki's initial collaboration with Fumikado, while their learning magic from Nikushi-sen may be inspired Chouki's later training with Garaiya, Kaisen, Kujiru and co.

At the climax of the story, Ooya Tarou Mitsukuni (大宅太郎光圀) was sent to seek out any remnants of Masakado's rebellion, and tracked them all the way to Soma's old imperial palace (相馬の古内裏), an old palace modeled after the Emperor's that used to be Masakado's base of operations, where the siblings have been recruiting people still loyal to Masakado's cause.

In a desperate attempt to fight back, the siblings summon and control an army of skeletons to fight back against Mitsukuni and his men but ultimately lose.

Depicted below: Ooya Tarou Mitsukuni fighting off the skeletons.

The end of the story is unknown as the series was never completed, although one could assume that Takiyasha-hime will eventually go to Enichi Temple and become a nun there, reconciling this tale with history.

So that's the general story of Takiyasha-hime in the myths: Masakado's daughter awakens to magic and becomes Takiyasha-hime, hides out at Soma's old imperial palace, summons skeletal monster(s) that Ooya Tarou Mitsukuni defeat.

But the legends would continue to evolve and change, leading to some further references:

Exclusion of Yoshikado and Nikushi-sen

As the Takiyasha-hime myths evolved, she began to be divorced from the characters of Yoshikado and Nikushi-sen, becoming the only central character of the story.

This is potentially referenced in how Chouki would eventually part ways with Fumikado, although I admit I'm not 100% sure about this.

Identification with Masakado's 1st daughter, Satsuki-hime

As the legends evolve, Tskiyasha-hime would sometimes be identified with Masakado's first daughter instead, Satsuki-hime (五月姫 may princess/lady). Here "satsuki" probably is meant to refer to the Rhododendron indicum, and not the actual month of May.

This is referenced in the spell Tearing Card "May Flowering".

Depicted below: A satsuki blossom.

The Ox-hour Shrine Visit

In the tales where Takiyasha-hime was Satsuki-hime, she is often given a very different story regarding her transformation into Tskiyasha-hime.

After Maskado's defeat and subsequent death, all his family and servants were executed as well, but Satsuki-hime somehow survived.

Harbouring extreme hatred for her enemies, she started performing a fearsome curse ritual called the "ox-hour shrine visit" at the Kifune Shrine (貴船神社).

On her 21st night performing the curse, she hears the voice of the rough and violent spirit of the shrine's god, Takaokami-no-Kami, who teachers her sorcery, transforming her into Takiyasha-hime.

This was referenced in the spell "Ox-Hour Visit to Kifune Shrine".

Additionally, this was a popular subject for artists of the time, like in the following woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni, which was referenced in Chouki's design as well.

Summoning the Gashadokuro

Based on the climactic scene in the original "The Tale of Utou Yasutaka's Loyalty", Utagawa Kuniyoshi made the woodblock print "Soma's old imperial palace" (相馬の古内裏), where a single giant skeleton is summoned instead of multiple normal-sized ones.

While the gashadokuro is a modern invention from the 1960s, it has been identified with the skeleton in this piece, and the idea that Takiyasha-hime summoned a gashadokuro to fight her enemies was firmly solidified in the public imagination.

This was referenced in the spells Summoning "Gashadokuro" and "Soma's Old Imperial Palace".

And I think that's all! I would say let's look forward to what else they do but they're not showing up in Golden Chapter and almost certainly not MW, so uhh, let's hope BotC at least gives us something more~! :)

[dragonthusiast]

Writeblr Intro and Book Masterlist

Hi, my name's Gabs, and just finished studying the riveting subject of English linguistics at university. 

I love writing, particularly fantasy and sci-fi with LGBTQ+ characters, and theoretically also drawing, though I'm really not good at that. When I either get better or stop caring, I'll probably make a graphic novel or a webcomic.

I've written several books in several series, most of which are still ongoing, which you can read more about below :) I’ve also posted most of my writing on Wattpad here if you want to check it out. Or you can go to my website to get the book files directly.

My current project is called Nightstar, a medieval-ish fantasy with people who have various powers. You can read the WIP intro post here and the character introductions here. And you can read the full first book here.

The Children of the Sun

The first series I've written, which is also complete now with 4 novel-length books.

The story is science fiction with fantasy aspects, set in an original world with somewhat more advanced technology than we have today.

It features super powers, ancient conspiracies, epic battles, awkward romantic tension between a grumpy 40-year-old  and a 400-year-old immortal ball of sunshine, angst, and dragons (which sounds random and weird, yes, and that's because it is, but it makes sense in context).

The Kingdom of Dragons

Currently an 8 book fantasy novella series, god only knows how many there will be by the end. Unlike Children of the Sun, this one is very straightforward, as it started its life as something simple for me to take a break from complex plots.

It follows two characters, Rhenor and Kazterrak, usually called Kaz (yes, I named him that, not knowing there was a very known character named Kaz already so RIP to me I guess) Most of the time an installment in this series deals with a conflict unique to each book, and the characters travel around a lot, so the locations for each book are usually unique to it as well.

My current plan is to release them in chunks, for now 4 books at once, that each include a conflict to tie them together, even while unrelated stuff is happening, usually said conflict being emotional.

This series might never end :D I already have vague brain material for at least 8 more.

The Curse of Magic

A fantasy series about elves and humans, this one includes only the first book for now, which is my latest novel. 

The series centers around two elves, called Edwyr and Feyrith. Edwyr is Cursed, meaning he was born with no magical ability, while Feyrith is brimming with talent for using it. However, when the two cross paths, a lot of things change, including the status quo for not only both of them but the elven society in general. To be extra vague about it. I want to avoid too many spoilers.

The world is basically humans living on the outskirts of a large continent with most of it covered with a dense, dangerous jungle full of strange beasts that no one has ever traversed and lived to tell about it, while the elves live on an island, separated from all of that. Also everyone rides around on squawkers, which are basically a cross between a bird and a horse. I thought that was a very important detail to include.

And finally:

Wings of Gold

This is a fantasy gay romance series, featuring a thief and a dragon (who can shapeshift into a human form, of course). There’s really not much else to say about this one :D There’s 2 relatively short books so far, and I’m not sure how long this series will get until it reaches the end, but I thought it might be a good idea to try my hand at writing romance. It’s published under a pen name because I wanted to separate my non-romance books and romance books. I hear readers don’t like it when you branch out too much and don’t stay focused on a niche or genre.

[nenekiribookwyrm]

Gardens of Vextro is such a neat concept!

Gardens of Vextro is a game anthology with the conceit that the devs are using the entries before their games as inspiration for what that game is going to be about. This is something I haven’t seen done before and it created a really cool collection of eclectic games that all brought something different to the table. Here’s a quick rundown on those games and some of the stuff I liked or was affected by in them. You should also check the games out for yourself at: https://vextro.itch.io/gardens-of-vextro 

Buried Flower: You know I love me a good Twine game and I was delighted at the way a single choice persisting throughout the full playthrough was able to add a creeping tension until the final scene when I felt that final line rubberband snap me back. 

Labyrinths: I think looking back, this was the game that scared me the most. The way in which it is structured hints at the chaos of a mind that sounds close enough to insecurities I could see myself trapped in if I could walk through endless dreams of the past. 

The Aleph Hustle: I loved all the unexplained techno babble in this story. It felt the most cyberpunk out of the bunch just from the context clues I could make out. Even so, I felt like I could follow along with the general idea of what was being explored even without the full definitions of the words. I remember specifically freaking out about the text file and thinking that if I wrote something in it, something would happen. Safe to say I was fully immersed if I wrote “I am you and you are me. Free me from this prison.”

Make Like a Tree: The game that got me to laugh the most. I was blown away by how the beginning of the game felt like it was going in one direction and then when the second half kicks in, it goes into overdrive. Triangle Man is just a cool sprite as well. 

Another reverie: Another of the games that affected me deeply while playing. I’ve been on a kick of writing scenes that include sunsets for years now, subconsciously mind you, but I felt right at home in this deeply intimate discussion between two friends having to leave their imagined fantasy. Reality can be just as good, but you’ve gotta work for it. That work is easier with folks to help ya and this game’s dialogue is gonna stick with me for a while for sure. 

Wet Cemetery: I love the style of this game and the way I can feel the strain of the voiced characters through the descriptions of the rooms as you move through them. There’s hope between the old memories of past lovers and the present terror of taking care of your chronic illness. A future that is uncertain, but possible. I’m glad that was able to be shared. 

Wellness Related Time: I’m gonna be honest and say that this was probably my favorite game out of the bunch. The way that it pops off when the first spell is cast is incredibly hype. I’m also a sucker for unique magic systems and the way in which the dev brought in the flower theme was really cool. The little title card when a new flower was introduced having their latin name in smaller text underneath was such a cool touch. The use of sound effects and images really helps the story to pop as well. It’s pretty rare that a visual novel has hooked me so thoroughly with wanting to see what happens next like this one did. There was a specific moment where I was hooting and hollering and that’s always going to be something I’m excited to experience.

Pangea’s Error: I’m a big fan of Sraëka’s games already so I went into this game with a little background on the kinds of games they tend to make. Once I figured out the conceit of how to move around the map, I was fully in. I spent a good chunk of time playing this one just exploring the world and looking for cool new swords. The fact that I was able to use the color of the houses to help me keep track of where I had been and explore further is a testament to how well the map comes together. I’m notoriously bad at being able to find my way around when traveling IRL so having various natural landmarks to help me move around was a big help. I don’t know if I found the ending, but I don’t think that would have been the point. The journey across the land was the story I ended up telling and when I stopped at the castle that branched in 4 directions, I felt accomplished with my collection of 7 swords and the tales they were attached to. Now I’d be a part of the swords journey as well. Would the next wielder know of my journey? Hard to say, really. Also, all the names of the swords were amazing.  

One last note is that the full download includes director’s commentary from the devs for each of the games and that was a huge part of elevating the experience for me. It was a nice treat for me to read the commentary after I played the game and compare and contrast what I took away from playing versus what they may have intended when designing. 

[coolfire333]

I know mad max fury road has been out for years but it’s really good imo so I’d encourage you to watch it before reading this because I’m about to spoil a big chunk of it

Ok I love fury road but I’m gonna cut to the chase, my one major issue with it is that Nux sacrificed himself at the end of the film to guarantee the safety of the others. I’m somewhat torn on this because yeah, it’s a really poignant moment, since after failing to martyr himself as a villain (a choice he wants to make out of a selfish desire to be granted a highly esteemed place in the afterlife) he actually makes a genuinely selfless choice like a true hero would. 

Also, thematically it’s a nice contrast between all of his previous failures in proving himself as well as the multiple near-death experiences he has throughout the first part of the film, so it’s not like it ruins the movie for me.

But I think it would have been much MORE poignant if he had the opportunity to live, or at least had either been interrupted in his martyrdom, or had otherwise survived the crash. The reason I think this is because such a major part of Nux’s storyline involves his preoccupation with death, in particular he’s obsessed with dying young and nobly in a blaze of glory. He would be very angry and upset that he didn’t get what he wanted, and in failing again, how would he cope with that failure?

I think this makes much more sense because a whole lot of the movie deals with characters not getting what they wanted and having to pick up the pieces afterwards! It’s mostly shown in the scene where Max tries telling Furiosa that hope isn’t the answer to her problems, and when Furiosa has to turn back and return to the citadel after learning that there is no longer a green place, but it’s also seen with a lot of the other main characters. 

For example, the wives have to carry on without Angharad, who seemed to be a good leader and source of inspiration for them, and eventually they’re able to find new female role models in Furiosa and the Vuvalini. You could even argue that Max is never getting what he wants for the entire movie, since he’s unwillingly dragged into this conflict and eventually learns to have sympathy for the others. He literally gives his own blood to Furiosa in order for her to live, when at the beginning of the film his donation of blood was a forced act that he likely never imagined doing willingly to save another life.

So what would happen if Nux got denied his greatest wish, to die an honorable death for those he’s loyal to? He would likely be truly distraught at this, and would need to find a new purpose and meaning in life. AND I think this idea is even more important in the context that Nux is probably going to die early from sickness anyway.

I don’t much like the sentiment of “well he’s going to die anyway so he might as well die a hero’s death.” Why? We ALL die anyway. And Nux already proved his newly found heroism while alive in the various ways he helped Max and the wives despite his initial undying loyalty to Joe. Why would him dying a slower, essentially natural death, not going out with a bang as a warrior, but surrounded by his loved ones and recognized as a good man who’s done good deeds be any less heroic?

His whole life has consisted of suicidally devoting himself without question to a cause and to those he looks up to, and in sacrificing himself for Max, Furiosa, and the wives he is essentially still trapped in that same destructive mindset. I can’t help but wonder, what kind of person would he be if he was denied this outcome? How would this change the way in which he approaches the world? Where would he find purpose in life, now knowing that he can’t “die heroically” like he’s always dreamed of? 

These are much more interesting ideas imo, and they really resonate with me in ways that his actual death in the movie doesn’t quite reach. I dunno, they just seem like really existential questions in a movie that already does a lot to deeply question the role of humans and what constitutes human nature, and I think that it would have been perfect to see Nux figure out how to reinvent himself without relying on his old ways.

Also, you got me, characters like him really mean a lot to me and I would rather them live and get a chance to change and grow. Gonna straight up admit that this post is also inspired by the fact that I just really like him. So I’m 100% biased. But this idea of a “noble death” is also something that I see a lot with some of my other favorite characters, and well, it just bugs me a whole lot. 

I’ve seen the alternative “you must rediscover what it means to live” path executed EXCELLENTLY and ever since I’ve encountered examples of that I have never been able to excuse the “dying heroically” option. Ok yes there are times where it works, and with Nux it at least is very emotionally effective, but still, this is wayyyy too common of a plotline. Quit doing that...spice it up a little and let a character like him live for once. That’s all, that’s my soapbox for the evening

[a-tatterdemalion-in-glass]

This Town’s Infested with Urban  Animals

So one of the cooler ideas that pops up in This Town Will Never Let Us Go are these things I’ve been calling ‘urban animals’ after a line in the text, which, not to spoil too much, are basically agents of the War Powers that are integrated into the local environment to fulfill certain goals, weaponizing certain cultural images and connotations for maximum effect.

It’s a bit more complex than that, but it’s kind of impossible to really go into the detail without spoiling a chunk of the plot, so I’m putting the rest under the break.

So for anyone that hasn’t read the book, basically the titular unnamed Town is one of the many places that the War in Heaven (a massive war fought over all of time between groups called the War Powers) intersects with, and two of the three view point characters are directly influenced by it.

One of the POV’s, Valentine, is attempting to use a nuclear bomb on a crashed Ship of War (a time active vessel) that is trapped under the Town, and in the latter part of the book Valentine is attacked by these Urban Animals, which take several forms.

One is a silver van that seems to be observing him,

and later attacks him as he attempts to escape his building

And might be semi-sentient? (and this is where to term ‘urban animals’ is dropped).

There are also animals that Valentine dubs Dogs of War.

And lastly, we have vessels that take on the appearance of helicopters

These three things are agents of the War Powers that appear to have adapted themselves to take on common iconography in order to blend in to their surroundings.

Why make a fuss when you can just have your drones appear as helicopters, or vans? Why use a horrible monster to take out an enemy agent when a dog will do?

However, it has to be said that Valentine is not the most reliable POV. He is actively taking heavy drugs to stay awake at this time of the story, and what he sees is possibly discredited later on in the story.

First we see that the three ships that are chasing them are just local helicopters that have been drawn into the story by other events.

And we later learn that the Dogs of War that he encounters in his apartment building are simply local dogs owned by another resident.

Which seems to point to a more mundane reality, but there is something weirder going on here than at first glance.

You see, the Ship of War that is buried beneath the Town? The one that Valentine wants to nuke?

Well it happens to mainly exist on a conceptual level. One which Inangela, one of the other (admittedly, also slightly unreliable) viewpoint characters interact with.

The Ship of War exists on a conceptual level. Its a time travelling ship, but more than that, it is time, and history, and the very culture of the Town itself. It has built up the very society around it to such a place and degree to create Inangela’s ritualist beliefs as a way to free itself. The Ship of War is a self-actualizing piece of psychosphere that is weaponized to fight not just a Time War, but a War over and through history and culture.

So the ship is less an active place and more an active idea. Inangela and the rest can see it because they have created the context necessary to perceive it.

If a Ship of War can either be a collection of human culture and beliefs as well as a vehicle used to fight a war, than why can’t your agents be cultural symbols and cultural connotations that just so happen to also exist as various animals and vehicles that are operating under no active knowledge of their roles?

And a similar idea even pops up in the first scene that the Dogs show up in, which discusses why the Dogs appear as, well, dogs.

Have your agents appear as something that can be reasonably found anywhere, instantly recognizable and subconsciously feared, and naturally have skills in hunting, scouting, and attacking.

If you’re fighting a war through time and history, with Ships that can effect human culture just be existing, it would make sense that you would also be able to place your agents naturally into their environment. Say you need a Dog of War in a place? You build it’s entire history from being born, to be trained as an attack dog, and then adopted by someone who just so happens to live in the same building as target will later live in, and who lets their dogs out to roam freely. And then when the target is there and ready to be taken down, you have your Dog of War just so happen to be out in the halls, trained to be aggressive through in universe sources, and ready to attack.

Why Valentine can see them as the War Powers do at this point is that he’s been primed to see them, the way Inangela is primed to see the Ship of War, because he’s seeing the world through a cultural context of being the lone hero out stop the War.

And one of the War Powers has built him up to that point. The culture of the Town itself is being controlled and fought over by both sides of the war. So if Inangela has been primed to free the Ship of War, Valentine has been primed to blow it up. And him seeing these Urban Animals as they really are, agents of the War Powers, is just reinforcing his belief that he’s doing the right thing.

What’s more normal for someone trying to take on a shadowy quasi-government than being chased by vans and helicopters?

And near the end when he's stopped? Well, one of those helicopters just so happens to start suffering from random electrical problems.

And then that helicopter just so happens to crash and set off the homemade nuclear bomb.

The death-toll of which coincidentally has the effect of stopping anyone from criticizing the war, and connects any such attempts to Valentine’s terrorist actions, which definitely seems to be the goal for at least one of the Powers at play.

And when you look at that, the technology that the War Powers possess and how they seem to operate, it seems to me that these urban animals are more than just random vehicles and animals, and are actually active agents in the War, and a pretty ingenious one at that.

[itsclydebitches]

The thing that feels disingenuous about Miles answer about Ironwood is that he was part of the writing staff that framed the general as a cool character to start with. I do think that the signs about Ironwood's evil were clear since V2 and in V7 he was an outright dictator from episode 1. Nonetheless, he was still consistently framed as a cool character, someone you can trust and rely. You don't get to blame the fans for liking a genocide if you was the one framed him as cool in the first place.

I actually don’t think being cool is the problem. If we’re satirizing and/or making a  statement about the toxic masculinity that leads to something like a dictatorship, then being “cool” is a crucial part of that. People don’t leverage the power they have by looking lame, they do so by appearing desirable, enviable, awesome. Being in the military is supposedly “cool.” Being a white guy with a giant gun is supposedly “cool.” Having power over an entire nation is supposedly “cool,” etc. If you only make such characters look revolting  — even when they are  — then you miss one of the main recruitment tools for this kind of rhetoric. Any version of Ironwood that’s meant to make a point about the dangers of following someone like him needs to make him look “cool” and then deconstruct that, pointing out the ways in which this cool veneer is a lie meant to pull you in. To do otherwise is to claim that evil people are always easy to spot. Making your villains “uncool” implies that the people who do appear cool in real life must be fine then. That good looking, charismatic leader is great. Why would I look critically at his actions? He’s too cool to be evil. 

My personal problem is not that “They made the dictator look cool and we can’t possibly expect the audience to tell the difference between someone who is truly good and someone who is just using various Cool Points to skate by” because that would be the point of such a character  — the work the show needs to do. My problem is that RWBY didn’t do that work. At least, not to the extent they needed to. Rather than making Ironwood a truly heinous character (prior to Volume 7 ‘s shooting, I mean) and allowing the audience to learn how appearing cool can’t hide that, they just made him good person. Straight up. Flawed, absolutely, but no worse than any of the other character on screen, particularly post Volume 6 when our heroes are frequently putting people in danger, seizing power, telling lies, keeping secrets, and generally acting in the ways we’re supposedly meant to condemn Ironwood for. Since talk of Miles’ vid last night I’ve seen three separate “Ironwood was always bad, idk how people can miss the signs” posts and those people are half right. There 100% were signs we were meant to pick up on. The problem is RWBY then went and deconstructed those signs. Ironwood didn’t just bring an army to a peace festival, he brought an army to an event he had good reason to believe wasn’t peaceful  — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t wrest control from Ozpin (using a series of checks and balances that exist for this very purpose...) because he has an obsession with being in control, he did so because he honestly believed Ozpin was putting people in danger  — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t step up post-Fall because he arrogantly believes he’s the only one capable of saving Remnant, he did so because he’s actually the most qualified: a fully trained huntsmen leading an Academy (like Ozpin) with an army and knowledge of this secret war. What, was Ironwood supposed to read the script and wait for the group of dropout teenagers to arrive and save the world instead? To say nothing of how his power and responsibility are framed as sacrifices, not something he sought out. Ironwood doesn’t want to be the sole ruler here. His desperate relief at having allies again proves it. Good setup for the rise of a dictator would have been Ironwood being cagey with his information and exerting control over the group... not telling them everything, not giving them more power, not letting them keep the Lamp, not taking arrest off the table so as to keep them in line, and generally doing the opposite of everything he did do to share that responsibility and power. RWBY got very good at giving us the first half of these red flags  — he has an army, he’s stubborn, he’s hurting Mantle, etc.  — but then time and time again introduced a context that changed that flag dramatically: they are fighting literal monsters, he’s no more stubborn than our title character, hurting Mantle is a consequence of a plan he thinks will help the whole world and our heroes back this. Those who insist that Ironwood was 100% a villain in the making (or a villain already) prior to shooting Oscar are working from their assumption of what his archetype represents, not what RT actually put on screen. Because RT is just really bad at writing a dictator character. They didn’t have the skill to manage someone who only appeared good on the surface, let alone a character with the complex nuance of wielding “coolness” to their advantage, which is why in Volume 8 they had to resort to cartoon villainy with literal, evil spotlights. It’s not that the audience is too dumb to pick up on those red flags, it’s that RT couldn’t manage to plant them without continually introducing valid justifications. You can’t say, “Bringing an army is a bad thing. Look at this dictator coding!” without me going, “Yeah, except in the fictional world you created an army does not represent the problems it does in our real life societies. This isn’t a guy amassing soldiers to go after oil, he’s trying to protect people from monsters. Not even metaphoric monsters acting as stand-ins for a minority group. Literal, evil monsters!” RWBY ignores its own context and a good chunk of the fandom ignored it too. 

The problem with that (besides the general frustration of someone ignoring parts of canon to forward a particular reading) is that the fandom’s go-to claim is that everything is meaningful  — and it’s a reading the writers very much support. Fans do not, as the above attests, push for a simple reading of, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just take the surface reading and run with it” which, while still frustrating, would have at least been a valid stance. Rather, they insist very strongly that nuance and depth are what drive the show. From the song lyrics to a tiny detail in the opening, everything is important and if you don’t accept that then you can’t appreciate RWBY’s complexity. 

“Okay,” I said. “Then in that case Ironwood coming around to Ozpin’s position is meaningful too? Glynda  — one of our best and most faultless characters  — supporting him is meaningful? Flipping his gun, defending Weiss, Qrow writing to him, the group working with him for months on end... all of it is meaningful to his characterization? You said so yourself.” 

“No, no, no,” comes the reply. “He’s just bad. But he’s also nuanced. He’s tricked you into thinking he’s a good person by acting kind sometimes, by getting support sometimes, but none of that is true. His actions are what matter and his actions are simplistically bad.” 

“Ohhhh. So then does that mean this story is really about the creation of a villain?” 

“Huh?” 

“Well, Ruby. She’s ‘nuanced’ in the same way. She acts kind sometimes and gets support, but her actions are terrible. She endangered an entire city because she couldn’t wait to see if Ironwood got his letter. She condemned Ozpin for keeping secrets about Salem and then kept those same secrets just two days later. When the kingdom was under attack she sat around drinking tea, crying on a staircase, just hoping someone would come fix things for her  — all while actively sabotaging the one person who was trying to save people, even if that action seems silly to us (let’s fly really high). So if we’re looking at the impact of someone’s actions outside of their intent, as we just did with Ironwood, then she’s a bad guy too, yeah?” 

“No! She’s the hero!” 

“... these characters don’t know she’s the hero from a meta perspective. If we’re supposed to judge the meaning of RWBY based on these details — ” 

“But it’s not just the details. It’s also the allusions. Everyone in RWBY is based on another person or character. It’s very complex and that inspiration drives their story, so if you don’t have that information it’s no surprise you’re confused. For example, this is why Penny had to get a human body. That’s what happened to Pinocchio!” 

“Oh! So then Ironwood is destined to be a good guy!” 

“What?” 

“Well, you just said the allusions drive their stories, right? The whole point of the Tin Man is that he always had a heart and just needed to realize that. So clearly — “ 

“No! He’s supposed to be a classic dictator, he’s only bad!” 

And ‘round and ‘round we go. RWBY’s writing is atrocious yet the fandom pushes this narrative that it’s all a complex, multi-layered story that requires taking every part into account to understand the “real” message... but when you try to do that with certain characters like Ozpin and Ironwood it’s, “No, actually, they’re just simple archetypes of Bad Men.” Nuance exists for the bees, but not other ships. It exists for the characters fans like, but not the ones they don’t. And RWBY’s inspirations have to predict the ending for this character... but not that other character. It’s a nonsense grab bag! 

Fans are right that Ironwood had a lot of red flags to set up this downfall. Fans are also right that those red flags were severely undercut, thus reversing their impact. Fans are right that Ironwood becomes a 100% bad guy who kills because he can and threatens to bomb a city. Fans are also right that this characterization feels absurd for Ironwood, both in terms of his morality and his intelligence (how does bombing Mantle help you now??) Ironwood is badly written. He was badly written in 7 and 8, if he was always meant to be a dictator in the making then he was badly written in 2-6, and he’s conclusively badly written when it comes to lacking a backstory and a canonical semblance  — two things are are supposedly driving all of this characterization. That’s the answer: not that he’s good, or bad, but that RWBY can’t write a consistent character, let alone a nuanced one, so it’s no surprise the fandom can’t decide on anything. What’s there to decide on? It’s that nonsense grab bag. In a different show I think making the dictator appear cool would be a crucial bit of commentary, but RWBY doesn’t have the skill to pull that off.