#young justice the human trafficking show lol

[beifong-brainrot]

Rewatching young justice and remembering the big fat crush i had on Aqualad as a kid lol

[timelessphoenix]

With the second half of Young Justice Season 4 beginning this coming Thursday, I'm back on my YJ bullshit (though we all know I never left), and I'm in the middle of yet another rewatch.

The past couple times I've largely moved past Season 2 because the plot with The Reach and Evil Jaime makes me u p s e t, but I'd like to yet again bring up the incredible themes talked about even this early on in this series.

Consent (M'Gann and her abuse of her telepathy)

Trauma (S1 after Failsafe, ofc, and the death of Garfield's mom. Can also be seen in ep 1 when Nightwing tells Robin "don't die," and he's generally panicky about leading and putting his teammates in danger.)

Losing onesself (Red Arrow's/Will's whole arc about falling off the deep end. And his shift to family matters and n o t abandoning his daughter.)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING. (literally all of S2 and S3) No one talks about this enough??? It spans two seasons and no critics of the show give the plotline any credit.

Relationships (Connor and M'Gann, duh.)

Losing loved ones (this one doesn't manifest way too much until S3 but it's actively present when they talk about Jason, Ted Kord, and Tula. Oh, and Artemis lol.)

As an absolute side note, I've been keeping track of this bus of kids from S4 and I'm going insane, I can't believed they had that planned !!

Anyhoo, that's all for now. Currently watching 2x07? The episode Bart Allen is introduced.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Do you know of any fics wherein there's a courtroom scene in it? thank you very much.

Hey Lovely!

Ahhh, these are the ones that immediately come to mind.... I know I’ve missed some, so please add some if you have any, gang! <3 Please note, anything in the MFL section of this list was added because it showed up with keywords I searched for in the doc, and I don’t know if they all have court scenes, LOL. SORRY in advance if they don’t! <3

COURTROOM SCENES

The Trial of Sherlock Holmes by jenna221b (G, 3,015 w. across 3 works || TAB!lock, Metafic / TJLC, Victorian AU / 1895, Christmas, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Oscar Wilde) – Scripts based on speculation that Sherlock will be put on trial in The Abominable Bride to parallel the Oscar Wilde Trials of 1895.

five times sherlock holmes lied to john watson (and one time he finally told the truth) by miss_frankenstein (G, 5,948 w., 1 Ch. || TAB Compliant || Homophobia, Pining Sherlock, Oscar Wilde Trials, Happy Ending) – Set in "The Abominable Bride" universe, this piece adopts a familiar format to chronicle Sherlock's quiet suffering in the wake of the 1895 Oscar Wilde trials and the particular way they affect his relationship with (and feelings for) John.

The Thin Line by Odamaki (M, 10,809 w., 1 Ch. || Virgin Sherlock, Awkwardness, Confessions, First Times, Anal, Idiots in Love, Hand Jobs, Gentle Kissing) – John swallows. Keeps his eyes on Sherlock. Begs him not to ruin him.Sherlock leans forward over the witness box ever-so slightly, "I was distracted," he informs the court, "by my partner, John Watson.”

To Mend Icarus by AlessNox (T, 28,347 w., 14 Ch. || Post-TRF / Pre-S3 Divergence, BAMF John, Anger, Fighting, Sex, Bed Sharing, Stalking, Case Fic, John’s Past, Introspection, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Crime, Mythology, Darkness) – After a case lands John Watson in court, he tells Sherlock that he is leaving. Not understanding why, Sherlock decides that the only way to learn the truth is to investigate his flatmate, Dr. John Watson. Sherlock finds that coming back is not enough to fix all of the damage that he caused by leaving. A post Reichenbach, post reunion re-discovery fic.

Set in Stone by SilentAuror (E, 39,309 w., 1 Ch. || Romance, Wedding, Therapy, Fluff and Angst) – Sherlock and John are back from Ravine Valley and planning their wedding. However, as they move past the trial of the human traffickers, Sherlock can't help but wonder if he's imagining that John is becoming a little distant. Surely he isn't getting cold feet about the wedding... Part 2 of The Ravine Valley series

Sentenced by SarahKnight (T, 44,777 w., 30 Ch. || Dev. Rel., Alternate S4 Canon, Drama, Angst, Pining, Feelings are Hard) – Virtual series 4 opener. Sherlock's in prison being targeted by a murderer, John's married to a pregnant assassin and Moriarty's back.

MARKED FOR LATER

Do You Get the Gist of the Song Now? by Riffir (E, 3,642 w., 1 Ch. || Dom / Sub AU || Masturbation, Caning, Riding Crop, Mouth Soaping) – Inspired by the courtroom scene in Season 2 Episode 3 (as was obviously some of the dialogue that I blatantly ripped off), SubSherlock refuses to play nice in the courtroom and is sentenced to judicial caning. As well as John's censure later on.

It Yet Remains to See by 4getwhatisaid (T, 11,000 w., 4 Ch. || High School / Teenlock AU || Rape/Non-Con, Angst, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicidal Thoughts, Brief Mentions of Self-Starvation, Past Sexual Abuse, Caring John, Naked Cuddling, Happy Ending) – Teenage Sherlock and John deal with the aftermath of their encounter with Moriarty, but more troubles arise when Sherlock becomes involved in the villain's court case. Part 2 of the All We Need of Hell series

Dehumanise Me by deuxexmycroft (E, 26,898 w., 6 Ch. || Prison AU || Rape / Non-Con, Graphic Violence, Abuse, Dom/Sub Elements) – John is sent down for life after accidentally murdering someone, and gets snatched up to play prison wife for a strange man named Sherlock Holmes.

Orange is the new sexy by Sardonicpineapple (E, 42,217 w., 31 Ch. || Prison AU || Top John, Correctional Officer John, Prisoner Sherlock, Sub Sherlock, Dom John, Crying During Sex, Oral / Anal, Fingering, Age Gap, Power Play, Angst & Fluff, Power Dynamics) – 19 year old Sherlock Holmes is sentenced to 13 months in prison. Bullied, bored and lonely, Sherlock can’t believe his luck when a young, sexy, former soldier comes to work as a correctional officer.

Homo homini by Madoshi & Serinah (M, 43,826 w., 4 Ch. || Slavery AU || Domestic Violence Mentions, Depictions of Violeence, Psychological Trauma, Mentions of Torture and Brainwashing, Stockholm Syndrome, Enslavement, Interrogating Under Influence and With Prejudice) – In a world where people are divided into masters and slaves, Sherlock Holmes is sentenced to slavery. For life. He is then purchased for personal use by his best friend John Watson. Now, they have to live with it. And solve crimes. Including the one that landed Sherlock before the court of justice.

Do No Harm by Calais_Reno (T, 79,203 w., 16 Ch. || 1920′s AU || Murder Mystery, Flappers, Drugs, Developing Relationship, Period-Typical Homophobia, POV Sherlock, Trials, Prison) – In 1923, Dr John Watson is on trial for the murder of his lover, Mary Morstan, a writer of popular mysteries. If convicted, he will hang. Sherlock Holmes sets out to prove his innocence, but finds himself more and more infatuated with the handsome doctor, and deeper and deeper inside the bohemian world of London's painters, playwrights, and poets. Will he uncover the evidence needed to acquit him in time?

An Innocent Man by Fangs_Fawn (T, 183,970 w., 42 Ch. || S3 Fix It, PTSD, Angst, Mystery, Drama, Violence, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Redemption, Forgiveness, Prison, No Slash) – "And what about John Watson?" Sherlock had asked. He had expected a rather dull answer...after all, he had been away. He had not expected to hear that John had spent the past two years in prison.

All the Best and Brightest Creatures by wordstrings (E, 188,426 w., 33 Ch. || Case Fic, Action/Adventure, POV First Person, Alternate Canon, Romance, Hurt / Comfort, Love at First Sight, Asexuality, Kidnapping, Torture, Drug Use/Addiction) – Sherlock sent Jim Moriarty to prison for killing Carl Powers at age ten. This is the story of the consequences.

[forthemultiverse]

Could Halo Be A Mole?

Young Justice Season One has given me serious trust issues – and Season Two didn’t do anything to fix that: Kaldur, Jaime, Lex at the end of the season, etc, but anyway, I just don’t buy Terra as being this season’s big betrayal. The Judas Contract is so well known at this point that even if they didn’t show us, we would’ve all know she was with Slade. Dr Jace is a pretty good candidate for a later betrayal, but that wasn’t subtle either; the fact she was technically working with Bedlam at the start of the season, taking Halo's DNA, wanting to be with the kids so much, and the mentioning of her lost child.

I started to think about the Young Justice on Apokolips story in the comics, and, well Greta Hayes has a biggish role, yet in Earth-16, she's be shown as just a ghost. Obviously, the show isn’t comics accurate and they could completely leave this aspect of the story out, but that didn’t stop me from falling down a research rabbit hole, and now, I reckon Halo could potentially be the twist betrayal of the Season following a storyline that takes moments from Greta’s.

There were a few things that drew me to Halo when thinking about a mole,

S3E1 – she let the assassins in, she’s shocked and taken captive which implies it’s an accident, but the guy who actually killed them was a suicide killer. Bedlam used him then killed him and she could be in the same situation. The Wiki said she had a job and was just afraid of the guards, which is why she was hiding but I do not buy that. It looked like she was trying to steal something in that scene.

Her memory problems, why create a character with no memories and then have those memories mean literally nothing? I’m waiting for them all to come back and for there to be some big bombshell in them.

The New Genesis/Apokolips connection formed by making her part Motherbox

The comment Silas Stone made about how technology can be neither good nor bad, it’s the user that’s responsible (I’ll come back to this point).

The Scene in Triptych after Halo goes Dues Ex Machina white and gets Brion back off Shade, well, the way Forager says ‘Halo happened’ wasn’t happy, it sounded like he was concerned/scared, like there was a ‘…’ at the end of the sentence. Brion and Halo smiled at each other which caused Forager to smile too, but considering he’s the one from New Genesis, if he’s worried, I’m going to be a little worried too.

Conner literally says, ‘we can’t let a girl in with no memories, she might be brainwashed or soemthing and we don’t want another Red Arrow situation’

Finally, more of a random thought I had, The Judas Contract has; a Markovian Royal, a relationship, and betrayal, so, what if, instead of the royal betraying the person who’s romantically interested in them (Terra and Gar), it’s the royal that gets betrayed by his girlfriend (Brion and Halo). It fits well since Perdita/Gardita is there and there doesn’t seem to be a reason to break them up. After working out those things, I started to research things that could be similar between Greta/Secret and Halo – by the way, I’m gonna refer to her as Halo because…well her ‘human’ name changes.

Some Similarities: Can’t remember their lives before their superhero ones, rescued by then joined teams, have powers connected to life and death, and have been separated from their powers at the end of their stories before (or well, Halo’s become two beings, one human and one super)

Not relevant to the story but I thought it was a nice coincidence: Greta went by Suzie because when the YJ girls were talking about getting her a name, Cissie suggests using one of hers (Suzanne) and on Earth-16, she gets dubbed Violet by Brion and then takes Harper from Will Harper – they both get their names from their new friends.

Now, details from the YJ Darkseid comic story: The team ended up on Apokolips (due to some things to do with fighting on earth) and Tower of Babel had just happened which lead to mistrust in Tim, who was the leader at the time. 

While The Team is mentally tortured, Greta is taken to speak to Darkseid, who reveals her backstory and real name. He offers to be her mentor. The team escape with the help of an army of Lobo's, she doesn't tell them anything other than her real name.    

Later on, the team says no to rescuing her dad (he killed her brother so’s in jail) She does it anyway and goes into a fit of rage, vanishes to accept Darkseid's offer.

The team prepare to go against her as she starts absorbing life (I think that's what she does, I can't remember, she's doing something bad that I'm pretty sure is killing a lot of things) Tim talks her down and appeals to the good in her. She breaks down crying and fixes everything she did.

Darkseid punishes her by taking away all her powers and immortality, not realising that being normal is all Greta ever wanted to be.

Not sure where in the timeline this bit is: Greta's dad is possessed by her brother when she saves him, and he chucks them both into a fire, seemingly killing them both, and I think that's when Greta goes to Apokolips and the team are told to take her betrayal as a lesson by their mentor (Snapper Carr - the guys who’s at M’gann and Conners house all the time)

Season Three is about the Anti-Life Equation and Meta-Human Trafficking, so this type of betrayal storyline doesn’t have to happen, but like I said earlier, trust issues, so hear me out. I don’t think Halo is secretly evil or anything, but you have to consider the Motherbox of it all, because that is connected to the Anti-Life Equation, and being part Motherbox is going to have some kind of effect on Halo’s character arc/morals.

Things To Know About Motherboxes

New Genesis-based, and though the people who created them are known, their true nature and origin aren’t.

Provide user with unconditional love, to the point they self-destruct when the owner dies (NOT MAKING THIS BIT UP) and can only be made by beings of New Genesis and Apokolips

Who is the owner Halo’s Motherbox since she’s died multiple times and it’s not blown up. A few people have Motherboxes – like Orion (Darkseid’s son) who is the defender of New Genesis, and in the past, DS has switched his box to try and control him.

Coming back to that Silas comment, tech isn’t good or evil, it’s the user, well who is her user???

A Motherbox saved Darkseid after he was defeated by Doomsday

Get their powers from life-giving sources

Fatherboxes: Apokolips based, can bring people under Darkseid’s influence, get their power from the Anti-Life Equation

 So, Victor keeps going bad because of the Fatherbox, but the Motherbox makes him good? Surely that could be a two-way thing, and Motherboxes could go bad?

And here’s what I think could happen in Season Three B,

We’ve been shown Bart going through an enemy boom tube in the trailer, and considering Granny Goodness is a Darkseid Agent, we can predict that he ends up on Apokolips (I could go into detail about Bart’s fear of dying that caused him to retire for a bit in the comics but not relevant). If he, and the meta’s with him, need rescuing, Halo could end up on Apokolips too. While others are captured, she comes face to face with Darkseid, who gives her memories of her old life and offers her a place on his side. Whether she says yes or no doesn’t really matter, because she can now be crashing into an identity crisis or having to fight ‘Halo’/Motherbox for control of her body. Her Motherbox could also be corrupted by Darkseid during this conversation, something slipped on her arm, in a drink, just his mind entering the boxes.

Darkseid could be using her Motherbox to spy on the team without Halo even knowing, all Roy Season One, or she could just eventually give in and let the Motherbox take control of her. Once losing control she becomes a minion of Darkseid and the team now need to find a way to separate her.

(Angst on how people feel as not everyone realises she’s being controlled at first and just thinks he betrayed them)

To separate Halo from the Motherbox, it could go very Greta like, the team get a breakthrough with her and Darkseid punishes her by stripping the Motherbox side of her, leaving her normal. I’d kinda like that? Maybe? Because she’d get to be happy and live a normal life, she could still return to the Team eventually, using technology like Rockets (Yes I lowkey want Rocket to get to mentor someone just so she can be back in the story a little lol)

Another option is Dr Helga Jace. I already mentioned that she seemed shady, and she really does, she gets even shadier when you research her.

CW Black Lightning has her as a character: involved with illegal experiments, lost rights to see her child, made an anti-ageing serum for Tobias Whale (remember when I mentioned him in Halo research earlier?? – he’s with Intergang by the way, the people who had a Fatherbox in Season Two)

Prime Earth: she’s neither good or evil, appeared in Suicide Squad comics, the team that Halo joined.

New Earth: Royal Markovian Scientist, secretly a member of the Manhunter Cult, installed a psychic control on Metamorpho  before using him to attack the Outsiders, helped Halo get her memories back.

Now, that mention of psychic control made me think back to Halo in Prime Earth…she was being mind controlled by the Kobra Cult…huh. The reason she got free of the mind control was because a scientist double-crossed the Kobra Cult. HUH.

And Tobias Whale…a Black Lightning villain…who hired Syonide to kill Halo and her parents…

Pause to explain why this little bit is important, sorry for all the info dumping, Syonide isn’t some super prominent assassin in the DC Universe, but she killed Violet Harper, her parents, and she was sent to kill a Russian Scientist that Phantom Lady was protecting (I promise this could actually be relevant). Obviously, Dr Jace isn’t Russian, she’s Markovian, but considering that scientist doesn’t even have a name, I don’t think it’s that much of a problem if she took his place. Reason why this could actually be important, one it connects another scientist to Halo, but also, Phantom Lady was going to lose, Syonide had teamed up with Merlyn to kill this person, and WALLY WEST FLASH saved them.

So, I think Dr Jace is shady, research points that she probably is, but after she’s revealed to have still been dabbling in meta-human experiments, she could bargain with the Team. They need her as an insider to save Halo. She double-crossed the bad guys to get Halo back in control of herself (like the scientist who did it in the Kobra Cult story) and when Darkseid comes to get her, the Team, specifically Dick, Artemis, and Conner, are in charge of protecting her, they start to get a little overwhelmed and started talking about how much easier it used to be and how much they miss their old team, and boom, Wally has a lightning rod to come back from the speed force to help them. Happy Reunion and Halo’s no longer evil. Wooo. That last bit’s just a hope because I miss Wally, but I stand by Dr Jace being key to helping the team while still being morally grey. Plus, if she gets Halo back to normal pretty quickly, Halo could then be a spy for the team, a way to get one over on Darkseid.

Terra gets her Slade plot, but it could play out as an upward arc: she’s betraying them of her own choice and regrets it so bad once she gets to know everyone. She comes to their side, everyone thinks they’re in the clear because they’ve got the mole! Then Halo’s revealed to be with Darkseid. It would be such a good twist and the set-up is there.

Let me know what you think of this theory! (Doubt anyone’s actually gonna read it all but I had to get it all down lmao)

Anyway: Here’s my insanity board though I doubt it’s good enough quality to really be read

[bigskydreaming]

Young Justice Season Three spoilers

YJ Producers: We have a Muslim superhero this season, look how great she is and how progressive we are!

Actual YJ episodes: Okay so Muslim superhero might be a bit of a stretch since well, if you wanna get technical, she’s actually a sentient piece of alien technology whose soul went into the body of a dead Muslim girl when her original alien tech got smushed. But even though she continually insists that she is not Gabrielle Daou, the Muslim girl whose body this was originally, and that’s the entire reason she chose a new name for herself, she is a completely different person aka a non Muslim, not even human person - she still wears a hijab! Totally counts!

YJ Producers: We always wanted to portray LGBTQ+ superheroes, we’ve actually had one the whole time and you just didn’t know it because mean old Cartoon Network wouldn’t let us show it, now that we’re on our own we can and will be showing LGBTQ+ characters this season!

Actual YJ episodes thirteen episodes into the season: Error 404 Content Not Found

YJ Producers: We’re finally gonna include Cyborg! Victor Stone is in the house, we love and appreciate that character so much, we really wanted to wait until we could do his story justice!

Actual YJ episodes: So see, after getting gruesomely almost-deaded after a huge blowout fight in which we showed Vic has a lot of rage cuz Black Teenage Boys Are Just Like That, that was all aimed at his dad for not showing any interest in his life and for never showing his son he cared until now cuz Black Dads Are Just Like That, well okay, yeah that sucks, but what happened NEXT is really cool - so his dad saved his life, right? Even if it was by using alien tech that every single person he came in contact with kept telling him wasn’t like normal tech, it was sentient and thus yes COULD be bad, which was further demonstrated through the fact that said life-saving tech kept like...hijacking Vic’s own body and turning him into a rage-monster that we could totally show being a Stereotype of Black Teenage Boy Aggression as he remorselessly hunted a terrified Violet but it wasn’t his fault, he was totally powerless to control his own actions cuz of the Evil Alien Tech in his body and like wait, whats bad about that, I forget the question??? Oh right! But stop WORRYING, its all good, see, as long as he stayed around Violet and never went too far from her ever, the woman of color had magic rage-pacifying skills that existed solely to calm down the Stereotypical Angry Black Teen when he couldn’t control himself because Reasons. LOL WHY ARE YOU UPSET, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT, THIS IS A GOOD VICTOR STORY, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED???

YJ Producers: We love and value our characters of color and would never hurt them, we’ve actually taken steps to make sure of that!

Actual YJ Episodes: Violet and Vic are both practically unkillable, see? As proof, watch us violently murder Violet in every single episode in new and creatively gruesome ways, with bonus Vic near-death experiences that allow us to show him just utterly wrecked in ways we’ve never shown a single white character, even in this season when we’re all about showing off how much creative freedom we have now without CENSORSHIP! 

YJ Producers: This season is also going to focus on the stress and mental health issues that go along with life as a superhero, and who better to demonstrate this by suffering from superhero-related PTSD than Jefferson Pierce? The guy whose divorce already showed the stress and relationship issues that go along with life as a superhero (since all our white heroes in relationships are still going strong)!

Actual YJ Episodes: Oh, nothing say about this one huh, PUNK? That’s right, we actually did exactly what we said we’d do, see? Just look at how much time we spend talking about how traumatized Jefferson is and how miserable he is after killing a kid, and that’s nothing we’ve ever done (or would ever do - SHH THEY DONT NEED TO KNOW THAT) to a white hero! PLUS, like, he’s definitely getting better though, thanks to the support of the much younger character he’s surrounded by, instead of y’know, turning to his established friends and colleagues his own age for support! AND AND AND don’t forget about his growing relationship with the white doctor lady who is definitely NOT super creepy and NOT likely to betray him and break his heart and/or force him to make painful decisions when choosing between her and the kids he’s vowed to protect at some climactic point later in the season that all of that is super clearly not building towards!

YJ Producers: And don’t forget about Jaime Reyes and Virgil Hawkins and Mal Duncan and Raquel and Karen! They’re all still here too!

Actual YJ Episodes: We’ve definitely forgotten that Jaime Reyes and Virgil Hawkins and Mal Duncan and Raquel and Karen are all still here too.

YJ Producers: Major life events have happened to these heroes offscreen in the time we’ve been away from them, stuff that’s really shaped who they are and who they’ve become by now. All this stuff really matters, its how we’re different from other shows, we don’t pretend these characters stop existing the second they’re off your screens! Looks, Barbara Gordon is in a wheelchair! She’s Oracle now!

Actual YJ Episodes: Why would we bother to explain when or how this happened with even a single line of dialogue when The Killing Joke exists and is available on our streaming service? You sound dumb.

YJ Producers: Kaldur is our proof of how important our characters are to our over-all universe, look how far he’s come! He’s not Aqualad anymore, he’s AquaMAN, he’s one of the co-chairs of the Justice League, right up there with Wonder Woman who he definitely doesn’t need to turn to for approval or oversight of his actual decisions!

Actual YJ Episodes: We’re pretty sure we covered all this in the two minutes of screen time Kaldur’s had all season!

YJ Producers: Look, bottom line, this season, being away from Cartoon Network really allowed us to stretch our wings and flex creatively, we’re doing a lot of stuff with this story that just wouldn’t have been possible before, when we were on a network like CN and had overseers restricting our every move! This season gets a lot darker, a lot more mature, a lot more everything cuz freedom of speech baby! That’s what its all about!

Actual YJ Episodes: In support of our thesis, watch us up the graphically violent content of every single episode and kill lots of people instead of just cartoonishly knocking them out and carting them away to jail! That’s it, that’s everything we wanted to do that CN wouldn’t let us, that now we have total freedom to prove in a myriad of ways! What do you mean, what about *looks at smudged writing on hand* LGB - look we can’t be expected to read what that says when we have graphic violence to depict, fuck yeah!

YJ Producers: Besides, in happier news, its not all doom and gloom this season! Connor and M’Gann got engaged! Now that we’ve completely moved past all the stuff M’Gann did in S2 and don’t consider it worth mentioning, Superboy and Miss Martian are back together, and SB is totally gonna marry the woman who betrayed him in the one highly specific way that goes back to the very source of every trust issue he has and reason he has so many walls pushing people away!

Actual YJ Episodes: Yeah this is definitely happening. Suck my dick, Connor fans and fans who relate to and identify with SB and his story and think its maybe just not the healthiest to wave a wand and go “Happily ever after!” With, y’know, the guy whose greatest canon fear and paranoia is the sanctity of his mind being violated and being unable to trust that his own thoughts are really his and not just being spoon fed to him in a pod at Project Cadmus or by his telepathic girlfriend when she doesn’t like his opinion or his criticism of her actions and just doesn’t want to fight about it anymore. Look, she said she was sorry, get over it. What more do you want? For Connor to move on and have a healthy romantic relationship with someone who he doesn’t ever have to wonder if his trust in her and second chance is real and valid and not just her making him say and do what she wanted, like the way she definitely has before? For him and M’Gann to rebuild their trust over time, gradually, as friends, with the understanding they can be close again but romantic intimacy between them specifically probably isn’t in the best interests of the guy who will always have to wonder now if his thoughts are really his, no matter whether or not that’s true? Yeah, no, that sounds like a lot of work tbh, and really, we just like Miss Martian and Superboy together, they’re just cute, you know? Sides, we killed Wally and we don’t actually wanna talk about why Barbara’s paralyzed now and like, focus on her as a character, so what other longterm pairings do we really have? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE ARE ALL OUR OWN CHOICES AND IF WE WANT BETTER FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR CHARACTER DYNAMICS WE SHOULD MAKE BETTER CHOICES? UGH GET OFF MY BALLS, MAN.

YJ Producers: We’ve got Terra this season, and we’re doing some really cool, brand new things there.

Actual YJ Episodes: Slade’s Apprentice arc from Teen Titans the show and The Judas Contract in the comics, but really aren’t they the same thing? If you think about it, is it even possible to do that in a new way? Look, its not like we could do anything MORE original than that, like what, did you want us to have Tara genuinely be the good and loving sister she was when she reunited with her brother and expressed how traumatized she was by the things she did when she was supposedly being mind-controlled, actually invested in saving other trafficked meta-kids from being used and hurt the way she had been? Like, the way it seemed she was being written before we revealed it was a fake-out and she was actually working for Slade exactly like those other times we swore we were gonna be more original than that? Ugh why are you so unrealistic, dude, you have such weird expectations.

Me: Like dear YJ, you’ve still got me watching, because like a) I’m weak and I need this, b) nostalgia, c) Dick, Artemis, Connor, Jefferson and the chance of Jason and also Violet, Brion and Vic are all still enjoyable as characters even though your treatment of them and your narrative choices are all extremely suspect and also craptastic and also I really wanna punch you for a lot of this.

But goddamn, this was NOT your best work, and after years of waiting only to get this? Like.....so not crash, dudes. Not even a little bit.

[theroastedpoosqueery-blog]

On johann and tenma dynamic or something

((@jyuanka so yea i wanted to bounce back on what you were saying but its so long i figured i should make a new post lmao ))

There are so many interesting characters in monster (eva being maybe the first one), but the dynamic between tenma and johann is really whats does the deal for me. Their relationship is what builds the plot, like two poles of a battery that supports the entire story ! and they only met four times !! i love that its so unclear why both of them are so intent on having the other in their line of sight, like their obsession with each other is never really explained and we can only have so many speculations. Since its monster, it cant be something like ‘good tenma absolutely want to destroy johann for world peace”/ “evil johann absolutely want to destroy tenma because hes…evil”.

(you said  you wanted to yell about monster so uh im taking advantage of it lol)

For tenma, we first think that all of this it is to prove his innocence. But the narrative voice shows us several times that this is not the case (grimmer who tells him that he should not go so far just to get his name cleared -> close-up on tenma’s face that darkens and tenma who doesnt answer = tenma does not do that to prove his innocence, theres something else). And frankly who would go that far just for that? Tenma realizes very quickly that destroying johan is,,,more than complicated and that he could lost his life at any point. He could go to a remote part of another continent and rebuild a career as a doctor there, under a new identity, if he wanted to (maybe johann wouldnt let him, but the obsession johann has for tenma is something that the latter understood at the end so he wouldnt know that at the beginning of the series). Nor is it because he has a savior syndrome and he absolutely wants to protect people (orrr well a little lol), because tenma doesnt seem to be interested in politics or in social justice at the beginning of the series. What i mean is that, like everyone, he knows that the world is unfair and that folks are dying because of horrible situations and horrible people (idk like because of the mafia, because of capitalists, because of fascists, because of human trafficking, etc). Like, everyone knows that, and some of us react and actually do things like direct actions, lobbies, associations, politics, or even just talk about it. But Tenma really doesnt seem to be that moved or concerned, hes more the type to be like “whatever. Dont see ? hasnt happened”. Yet when he realizes that its johan who does these things, suddenly it becomes his personal business. Like people always say tenma is the “absolute good” and i really, really disagree.

He has spent his life obeying orders from despotic leaders without ever questioning himself once. He was going to marry a girl who told him that all lives are not equal, ffs! yea she says this when tenma began to think that maybe, maybe, theres something wrong with all this so this sentence shocked him. But you cant tell me that the highly horrible personality of eva is something he wasnt aware of before ! and he was alright with that, because then by marrying her he would secure a brilliant career. He saves a rich person instead of a poor turkish husband, and he have to see his crying widow who tries to punch him to realize that maybe what he did wasnt really okay. And he was past his thirties, so its not a question of “the poor baby didnt knew there was inequality in the world and what he was doing was not nice ! “. He knew, and he chose again and again, for most of his life, to please a corrupt man to promote his career and have a good and safe life. So for me tenma is so, so problematic ! Because Tenma is the sort of man who sees what is wrong, but who chooses not to do anything against it. isnt this kind of people the worst ?? and thats why i love him ! and thats why his radical evolution caused by johann (when he saves the boy, then when he chooses to kill him), is so intriguing.

So yea tenma dont want to destroy johann just so people will be safe or for world peace or wtv  BS -because he spent most of his life not caring about that, or caring but not to the point of getting personally involved. I think little johann is what triggers tenma to do something for the first time of his life. He goes from the guy who sees what is wrong but who doesnt feel like he can react so he just goes with the flow and become as horrible as everyone else, making him worse because he knows thats wrong -> to the guy who chooses, to the guy with an agency who decides to react. Little johan makes tenma becoming a person, its his trigger to personhood. And thats why, after his first encounter with johann, tenma become so different. Imo, the real monster is tenma in the beginning of the series - and johann makes him someone who uses his agency, he renders him human !

So 9 years later, when tenma finds out that the trigger of his humanity is actually the very negation of what is human, it goes ‘bam’ in his brain. We can understand why ! During this 9 years, he had the time to inhabit his new role of “a person with an agency” - he seems so calm, so confident and happy. Hes not the guy who knew that everything was wrong but just followed orders and closed his eyes anymore, he has a personhood and uses his newfound humanity to make the world a better place. He has a sense of purpose and realizes what it is that life is worth living (okay im projecting here lmao). Above all, he thinks that the choice he made (to become a person) is ultimately absolutely good. But then he meet johan for a second time, and actually realizes -wait, so me becoming a person can causes bad things ? was i wrong ? should i have stayed how i was before ?

And then we enter what is the core of Monster : we just follow someone who struggles to define what is being human. Before, like i said, tenma wasnt using his personhood. After johann triggers him to become a person, he basically lives a morally ideal life -save people, be a good person, no headaches of ‘what should i do’. The people who could have forced him to make actual difficult choices (his corrupt chief ) were conveniently dead. Then he met adult-johan, and bam ! so many contradictions. suddenly the answer is not that clear anymore. Then he realizes than with personhood comes the obligation to make dubious moral choices. Because for each choice we make, there are negatives consequences and positives ones, and we have to judge when the positives outcomes prevails on the negatives ones without ever being sure. And i think tenma chasing johan is him refusing this existing situation, is him trying to run away from the negatives consequences of becoming a person. Its him on a quest to know if getting access to personhood is absolutely good, a quest to know if his reason of living is legitimate. He cant think that there are not absolutely good choice, that sometimes the good choice can be to kill someone - or to save them, depending on the situation. There isnt absolute anymore : no real monsters, no real good person. We’re just human who struggles to do what we can. Once you have an agency, you have to take decisions. So for tenma, who basically have never taken decisions to construct himself as a person, his johann-hunting is basically that : hes chasing after his own definition of humanity. Whether he would have choose to kill johan or not, at the end, the manga completed the mission : theres no good choice, only choice you think are the best at one point. If he had chosen to kill johan, he would have chosen to kill someone ; if he had chosen to not kill him, he would have chosen to let someone else die. Whats better ? I am not sure. Personally, i think that if i could kill certain people i would do it, while knowing that this people are humans like me, just raised in different circumstances, because my ideas and my buddies’ lives are worth more than the life of the ones who threatens us : thats my answer of humanity. We alas dont get to see tenma’s answer… but anw. Thats my personal interpretation of what johann makes tenma do lol.

For Johann, the reason for his obsession with tenma is even less clear for me. Why johann wants tenma to understand him, to see him, so badly ? What makes tenma so special ? Johan seems to have a daddy complex, because tenma not the first middle-age man to have the dubious pleasure to be the object of johan desire to show “his” world to someone else. General wolf and schuwald both had to loose everything that was dear to them until they only have johann who then betray them deeply. But these two dont seem to catch the “scenery of the doomsday” so dear to johann ; and yet johann appears to be convinced that tenma can (and so that tenma is the one who should kill him). Why is that ? Why tenma is so different than wolfe and schuwald ?

I have numerous ideas but not one that convinced me too much. The first one would be how their first encounter resonates with them both and had the same effect of ‘triggering their humanity’. I already explained why i think johann is tenma’s personhood trigger. I also think tenma is johann’ trigger to humanity. Its kind of simple : tenma is the first one to show him that human could be good. Tenma saves him and risk his career without ulterior motives (or at least material motives, because like i said there were many philosophical and psychological stakes for tenma). For johann, who never knew that humans could be like that because his childhood environment was kind of,,not good, and who is still young enough to be impressionable, it could be enough to be interested in what tenma has to offer if he were to play with him. That plus the fact that he has deep parental issues and tenma is, like he said, a “second father” to him, so maybe he acts like a child would with his dad (in his twisted way), or rather with his god -tenma who creates him, tenma who destroys him. But i think its too emotional for johann.

Other idea : johann, being this prodigy, understand exactly what is tenma situation while saving him and his philosophical questions -lets keep in mind that tenma talks to johan often whil the boy is in a coma. He understands that tenma chooses ultimately *personhood* over everything that could make his life easy. And tenma’s answer is exactly the opposite of johann's way of seeing life, since johann chooses again and again to negate humanity. So he wants to destroy tenma’s philosophy, destroy tenma sense of what is being human : he creates the perfect life for tenma, wait for tenma to be really at ease with his situation, then slowly destroy everything until tenma would be forced to recognize the superiority of johann’ response. I really think johann is prepared to die just to win his mind game with tenma lmao, he’s that much of a sore loser.

Other theory, who dont necessarily conflicts with the others ones, its that johann didnt plan to make tenma this important in his life. He at first intended to do to tenma the same thing he had done to schuwald and wolfe, with maybe more sentiments knowing tenma was his second father and everything. But what changed his plan was tenma reactions. I dont think johann thought that tenma will go all lone ranger in the arizona forest to train to become a killer spy lmao, and when he saw that, he was like ‘oh funny’ (lets keep in mind that during the first half of the series, while he still thinks he was the one in the red rose mansion, johann is basically just playing a nihilistic game and dont put that much valor into anything). Maybe he became attached to him (whatever sort of attachment you headcanon), which was kind of a novelty to him since he didnt have any feelings toward anyone until then -his sister was himself and he was his sister, i dont think johann ever understand that nina was her own person until the end so feelings toward his sister doesnt count- and he was unsettled enough to want to keep tenma at hand. Like each time i see the schuwald arc im lmfao, when johan is all like little devilish smiles and sidelong glances each time he knows (how? no idea, he must have super powers at this point really) tenma is watching him like how much of an act it is ?? theres no reason for johann to do this ‘hihi cant catch me hellooo ;D ;D’ except being a drama queen. Which he is. so yea i cant help but wonder why he is acting this funny towards tenma lol

Or maybe johann never succeeded in negating his own humanity and ultimately couldnt bear to truly erase his own existence at the end, so he wanted someone to remember him to have a chance to live at least once -because johann understood that what makes us be is to make other people witness your existence. Tenma was the ideal candidate he stumbled upon -his sister being out of play since she was himself so not a true external witness and everyone else being too,, afraid of him or too under his charm to do anything.

AAAh so many ideas !! what is sure is that tenma is johann most important person and conversely. And since they met so infrequently the fandom has a highway to imagine other interactions. please people imagine other johan/tenma interactions. please im dying i dont understand these russian fics at all

So anyway sorry for this loooong ass post that nobody is going to read !! i just,,,,,,,,,,love monster,,,,,,,,,so much

[haunt-the-stars]

Most of the young justice tv show team is made up of characters who are or have been teen titans but you're not complaining about Dick, Roy, Gar, M'gann, Jaime, Cassie, Kon, Bart, or Karen.

this is true i’m talkin about starfire raven cyborg and beast boy, who i know is already in yj but i don’t like him that much either lol. i brought up starfire specifically bc the “meta-human trafficking” plot makes me think it will be about her. When i think teen titans i think of the old cartoon and what i like about yj is that its *not* a rehash of the tt cartoon. I’m just hoping it stays unique and fresh and keeps featuring the characters that were basically invented/reinvented for young justice specifically (Kaldur, M'gann, Artemis, Jaime kinda, etc.) or who don’t get featured in other movies and shows. But !!! I wanna stress that I trust Greg Weisman with my life and I have no doubts I’ll love yj3, as long as they don’t abandon the characters known and loved in this universe in order to heavily feature characters that already had a run that I personally didn’t enjoy and are now getting a live action run.

[canaryatlaw]

so I just watched a video that made me cry a lot so I’m feeling very emotional at the moment but it’s getting late so I should probably start writing this post. today was pretty good. I was a lazy ass again and didn’t get up for the actual church service and only went for my shift in the babies room, even when I knew I would regret it and I can sleep in literally any other day....my body likes sleep and it’s very hard to argue with. so I reset my alarm and came in for the babies room in the last service. it went pretty well, initially it was just two of us but about halfway through two younger girls came over and asked if they could help so I said sure so that was good. we only ended up with 5 babies, and the littlest one (8 months) ended up falling asleep pretty soon after arriving and remained asleep the rest of the time so that was good. everyone else was fairly well-behaved, we had one boy who was in and out of tears for a lot of it and we ended up texting his mom towards the end of the service because it was getting to the point where parents generally want us to notify them. I had on little girl for most of the time, her mom was kinda hesitant and was like “she may not stay the whole time, just text me if she’s crying too much” and she started like wailing in the beginning but fortunately I was able to get her to calm down fairly quickly and from then on she just clung to me the whole time lol until towards the end. so overall not bad. The CTA was being uncooperative on my way home but I managed, and met up with Jess to grab some food, we went to the vegetarian place and got our usuals, the waiter initially forgot the whipped cream when he brought my scone out so then he returned with the whipped cream like around the entire plate lol so that was amusing. After we finished we went back to my place and watched Venom, which OH BOY, that was something. I knew it was gonna be kind of crazy/bad from what I’ve heard from people, but this movie truly went above and beyond. we were honestly losing our shit laughing pretty much the entire time, it was a much more effective comedy than a drama despite desperately trying for the latter. I felt like it was basically like someone took that vine where it’s like “what do you want to eat?” and in a demon voice it’s like “the souls of the innocent” but the guy is like “a bagel” and the demon is like “noooo!” and he’s like “two bagels!” and just made that vine into an entire movie and fucking Venom’s like “you’re making us look bad!” like I felt like I was watching two people stuck in a horse costume with the person in the back getting mad at the person in the front, because it was really that ridiculous. so yeah, definitely good for a laugh at least. Once we finished the movie we ran to the grocery store around the corner (yes I live around the corner from the grocery store and I still get my groceries delivered because I’m a lazy ass) to obtain milk because that’s the only missing ingredient we had for our pancake plans. We had initially planned on making banana pancakes because I somehow ended with with a few bananas from my last grocery order that I needed to use and I don’t really like eating bananas plain. but then of course Brandon posted on his instagram story about making an apple pancake so of course we had to do that as well. Sometime around then I got a text from the guy from the other night basically being like “so I think I’m going to end up taking that job offer [that was an hour further north from where he was currently living] and if that’s a dealbreaker I totally understand” and I was like okay well this is clearly my way out but I’m not sure how to say it so I legit just let Jess type the message and then approved it before sending it. so that’s that basically, it was a lot less painful than I feared, so I am very happy about that. Got back from the store and started with the apple pancakes, it was actual an apple german oven pancake otherwise known as a dutch baby which I’ve made many times before so I kinda knew what I was doing there. It came out pretty good, so we moved onto the banana pancakes, which we were going for the whole gluten-free thing (because Brandon) with this recipe that’s supposed to make pancakes out of banana and eggs as the only ingredient, so we had to test this. The batter came together pretty easily, but cooking them turned out to be a bit of trial and error, first they were browning too quickly before they were strong enough to be flipped so the first few ended up a little burned and then I broke one or two trying to flip them before they burned, but in the end we ended up with some good ones. of course at this point we were full from apple pancake lol so we’re gonna save those for another time (probably tomorrow). The initial plan was to watch Infinity War this weekend but at this point we both really wanted to watch the three episodes of Young Justice season three that just dropped so we did that instead. Wow, lots of feelings there. I wasn't totally sure of what the whole conflict in the actual justice league was about, something about too many regulations put in by the UN? weird. and then there was the whole meta-human trafficking plot and I was definitely like oh this is definitely the prince who wasn’t going to become king being the bad guy but it ended up being his uncle so that was a good twist. but yeah, overall I liked them a lot and am looking forward to the rest of the season. once we finished that Jess headed home and I turned on the golden globes just because Andy Samberg was one of the hosts and he’s great, and I ended up tuning in just in time to see Darren Criss win a golden globe, which was great because I still love him from his Team Starkid days and felt very proud of him. the rest of the show was alright, I hadn’t seen most of the movies/tv shows nominated so I didn’t feel all that invested in the awards (I mean, I can’t really say this for sure because I didn’t really watch any of the other movies nominated, but Emily Blunt’s performance in Mary Poppins Returns was absolutely astounding and she definitely deserved a golden globe for it). After it ended I let the news play for a bit which was mostly just about how the Bears (Chicago football team) lost in like literally the last seconds of their playoff game, so many people were sad about that of course. After a while I just shut it off, and I was going to start getting ready for bed but then kitty plopped herself down in my lap and I was like welp I can’t leave now and that’s why the two posts of kitties I reblogged earlier were not tagged with “KITTY” because my hands were otherwise occupied petting my kitty, lol. But after a while she got up and I then started getting ready for bed and here we are. So yeah, pretty good day. Tomorrow I have to go to the allergist again for testing since they couldn’t do it last time because I had to be off two of my meds for a few days beforehand so it doesn’t interfere with the results. And yeah, I think that’s it for now. Goodnight my babes. Hope your Sunday was lovely as well.