#whotookcheesuschrist

[mirrorfalls]

So, what's your two cents on ol' Gotham Central: Soft Targets as a Joker story?

Granted that it's been - Jesus, a decade if not more? - since I actually read the thing, but it might be the only Joker story with Greg Rucka's byline that I really like! I could be mean and assume Brubaker wrote all the Joker bits-

-or that Michael Lark's art is what's really carrying the thing (I've read that he deliberately went back to Conrad Veidt as a study, in which case he gets Professionalism points through the roof), but at the end of the day, it clicks along at a pace that assures you this was a Joker story everyone wanted to work on, not something editorial made them.

And even after all these years, there's a very hypnotic kind of novelty to a Joker story told from the little-man's POV - something that strips away all the romance and grandeur of A Batman Story (even at his grittiest) and just leans all-in on the folks who're actually getting hurt and can't do much of anything about it. The way even the most seasoned cops react to him, bitter-verging-on-bored resignation somehow coexisting with a streak of "every Joker rampage feels like your first" horror, is maybe the ideal of what I want his reputation to be like - outside the mask-and-cape crowd, and maybe inside it, too.

(Could the nuts-and-bolts have gone more creative than shoot-shoot-shoot-BOMB? Yeah. But for this story's specific post-9/11, post-Beltway atmosphere, I'm hard-pressed to say I'd have it any other way.)

[epicantlers]

I mean sure, extremely wholesome reasoning aside, that is also just some really impressive digital archaeology, that post is practically archaic

Do you ever get lost in there?

How damn deep in my blog are you to like a post where I used hashtags GENUINELY?????

hackr

(actually I have a habit of actually browsing the blog of various folks I follow old-school style, on occasion. It's a nice way of catching up to people. No point relying on a dashboard only on a site that for all intents and purposes STILL IS a blog site)

[about-faces]

Finally finished Mob Psycho 100 after years of gentle insistence from @whotookcheesuschrist, and holy crap, that was the most relevant piece of media for me as a Harvey Dent fan since Ewing’s Immortal Hulk. Too hot for thoughts but I feel like I could write an entire essay comparing MP100, IM, and Harvey (especially A Tale of Three Halves) which would be so in-depth and exhaustive that it could appeal to upwards of five people. Maybe six!

[captainbaddecisions]

Talked about our own respective dialects with Hef, and it got me thinking: what are Brazil's dialects like? Do they belong to larger areas or are there places where there's like a new one for every mile?

OH well, so the thing about Brazil is... it’s a real big country, so of course there’s different accents and regional lexicon but the vast majority of Brazil speaks portuguese that was enforced by our colonizers since the 18th century (Look up a dude called Marquês de Pombal if you’re curious, he was a nobleman who was in charge of making Brazil a more “”””civilized”””” area. Fun.) So we speak mostly the same language-

We do have dialects but they are usually very specific to some marginalized groups or ethnicites. One example is ‘Pajubá’, a dialect that is popular among trans women in the North and Northeast areas of Brazil, which mixes portuguese, several indigenous languages and African languages to form it’s own thing. Some people in frontier areas close to Paraguay and Uruguay also have some mixture of portuguese and spanish but it’s not so far removed from the main language. 

What we do have are plenty of languages from indigenous groups which are completely removed from portuguese and therefore are not dialects. There are two main linguistic branches among native Brazilian languages with many ramifications! 

Also, fun fact: We recieved a LOT of european immigrants in the late 19th/early 20th century and that has kept some old dialects alive here that have died in their source country! One example is Pomeranian which is a German dialect that is basically extinct in Germany but which is preserved in a city in Southern Brazil called Pomerode. Second fun fact: the japanese spoken by older generations in Brazil is very different from the colloquial language in Japan today.

Brazil is p cool. (Also big thanks to my wife who knows a lot about languages and helped me write this stuff-)

[lauralot89]

Also diaper cafés are a thing apparently

I’d google it but I know it wouldn’t lead anywhere good

[dat-soldier]

I'm going frickin crazy, dude, that cat video where it jumps and then that kick-ass meme song goes on in the background I want to know it's name but I can't just google BANANANANAAAAAn and expect an answer so please if you know could you tell me what it's called thanks anyways also what did clowns ever do to you why are they FOOOD

If we’re talking about this post, the song is Robot Rock by Daft Punk.

Also nobody in Dolmistaska eats clown on the regular, just the unhinged and desperate. They’re officially protected fauna in US-occupied Canada.

[kuueater]

Fuck, man, I'm losing my shit dude, I wanna find the actual song used in the Matrix video of yours (CUM ba-na-na-na-naaaan), but I can't find the nammmmme could you pleaaaaaase supply me with your knowledge dear Kuu Mister Kuu Sir Master Kuu before I go KuuKuu thnks xoxo kisskiss hnuuuuAAAA

[lordjazor]

If I met you in real life I would involuntarily creep the fuck out of you because I have no idea what body language means

Ohhhhh rest assured, you’d have a hard time creeping me out intentionally or otherwise.

[mirrorfalls]

@whotookcheesuschrist

[jillcipher]

I was tagged by @whotookcheesuschrist, so time to do tag game stuff!

Three ships: Sora x Riku, Toko x Komaru, Raditz x Me.

Last song: Soda Pop - Kai Takahashi. Last song I actively searched for was Year Zero by Ghost because somehow I got into them

Last movie: not finished, but Re Animator. Super fun and also my fancast for Jonathan Crane. Before that uhhhh I think the Shrek musical

Currently reading: I’m trying to read Redwall but man I get distracted so easily. Going through the Conquest of Bread also.

Currently watching: Glitter Force! I wish all of Precure was on Netflix but meh, I’ll find em.

Currently consuming: just had some chicken tenders and sweet tea, so that was nice.

Currently craving: something fluffy and light, but sweet. Or $20 million.

I’ll tag: @nerdstreak @thewriterofawesomeness idk whoever else

[mirrorfalls]

May have asked you this before, but is your ideal version of the Joker sane, but cruel? Or to put emphasis on it, cruel, but most importantly, sane?

Ah, I’ve been chewing over this for awhile...

Some time back - can’t remember when, can’t remember where - I saw someone write that “(in)sane” has zero significance outside of legal spheres. You’re “insane” if a judge signs a piece of paper saying so; nothing more. That’s probably a gross oversimplification, but I do believe real-life mental health professionals avoid the word whenever possible.

That’s sort of the principle I work from when looking at the Joker’s mind; he’s certainly capable of leading an ordinary, non-homicidal life maybe moreso than most of us here on Tumblr but for whatever reason doesn’t. Off the top of my head, I’d say the ideal Joker does what he does 60% out of legitimately uncontrollable impulses, 40% because he consciously finds it fun.

All that said, I’m of the opinion that fandom-at-large would hate the Joker a lot less if so many writers didn’t portray him as so smug all the time. That’s what separates him from a low-rent sadist like, say, Zsasz or Black Mask - to him, cruelty is an art, not just a coke and fries slurped down behind the stairwell. And the mark of a good artist is that they’re never satisfied. My ideal Joker spends a lot of his spare time frowning over whether it would’ve been funnier if he’d shot Gordon over Barbara, or if he should’ve gone with Jokerburgers instead of Joker-Fish after all, or...

[captainbaddecisions]

Smappys smurfsday

S.....................sMURFSDAY-

[mirrorfalls]

@whotookcheesuschrist​

[lauralot89]

You asked what Yakuza is and the best analogy I’ve ever heard of it comes from Girlfriend reviews: It’s like “trying to watch a Martin Scorsese-movie that keeps getting paused for an episode of The Simpsons.”

Also prime slashfic material.

And source of visual discomfort.

[jillcipher]

Describe yourself using 10 pics that I have that @nerdstreak tagged me in

I guess I’ll tag @mirrorfalls and @whotookcheesuschrist but don’t feel obligated to do it tbh

[mirrorfalls]

As a fellow fan of The Batman television series, what do you think should be the fighting styles of Batman villains in general, comics and otherwise?

Okay, since One Piece was the first capital-A Action Series that I really got into, as fighting styles go I’ll always favor memorable gimmicks over realistic form or whatever. And as a general matter of course, the Bat-Villains I Personally Care About and the ones who are canonically trained martial artists sit in two circles about six feet apart; The Batman and its Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting world was fun as its own thing, but it’s not really something I want to see in canon.

All that said, here’s my take on what all the ones I Personally Care About would be like:

Joker: Highest pain threshold, and most likely to resort to teeth in a close-up fight (even if he doesn’t have to). Mediocre shot. If he can help it, never walks into a fight without being gimmicked from the soles of his shoes to the tips of his hair.

(One new(ish) gimmick I’d thought up for him, back in Undergrad when I was in the throes of my first Sherlock Holmes phase, was to have him smoke a pipe that doubled as as miniature chemical plant. The smoke in itself would be harmless, but if blown onto other chemicals he kept in his pockets or lapel-flower or whatever, it could become poison or acid as the plot demanded.)

Penguin: I’d probably keep in at least some of that Eye of the Tiger stuff "The Killing Peck” retconned into his backstory, though I don’t think he should be able to outfight Bruce even on a really shitty day for the latter. To compensate, I’d put him as the best shot short of Deadshot, which may have something to do with Advanced Nanocircuitry(tm) he may or may not have in his monocle.

Two-Face: Best physical stats of all the “normal” (Gotham-native) rogues, but a relatively poor shot because he’s only got one healthy eye. Even so, he goes with guns 99% of the time (I’m actually partial to Doug Moench’s pre-Crisis take with the double-barrled sawn-off). I can take or leave that month of training he got from Bruce during One Year Later.

Riddler: Exactly as strong as he needs to be to break Luthor’s kneecaps with a wrench, and no more. Decent shot, thanks in part to his carny days - and I’m not especially opposed to the idea that his cane is a fancy rifle first and foremost.

Scarecrow: I’m of two minds here sorry Harv. Character-wise I’d like him to be a brainiac who never has to personally dirty his hands - never has to put on a costume, perhaps - to give the heroes a runaround, but at the same time I really wanted to see him in Batman: Ninja, whipping around chainsickles like nobody’s business. Let’s say he’s, uh, slightly more dangerous than Riddler in an unarmed fight.

Ivy: Making her any kind of melee expert would, I suppose, leave Harley redundant. But I still think Ivy should be allowed to carry stories by herself, so... I’m thinking something along the lines of aikido, primarily defensive (she has all her plant and chemical gimmicks for the offensive), but quite lethal if you get on her bad side.

Freeze: With his gear, the most terrifying juggernaut in Gotham this side of Superman going rogue again. Without, about as much trouble as the Ventriloquist (even if it’s the dead of winter). Though I do have a soft spot for that scene from Chuck Dixon’s Predator crossover, where he dodges their thermal-scan by not having any body-heat.

Croc: I’m probably not the first or tenth or fiftieth person who likes him as an evil pro-wrestler, but why mess with perfection?