#I'm sorry I hate it when people miss the entire plot of a show

[alice1505]

I made the mistake of rewatching Sherlock because I never did finish it back in the day (I was -clenches fist- seething over the queerbaiting and rage quit after not fully watching episode 1 of s4) and I'm here to make my side hyperfixation (what year is this??? Who am I???) Tumblr's problem. The more I sit with s4, the less I like it 😂 There were pieces and elements I liked, but overall, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Forgive me if any or all if these points have been talked to death, I missed all the discourse and I'm hella late, but I need to flail and send my thoughts into the void because what even WAS that season? I can't believe I avoided it for years, got drawn in by a couple of tiktoks making fun (affectionately) of superwholock Era and That Scene about the fucking phone charger port, binged all of it, only to be left with..... that. Not nearly as disappointing or rage inducing as spn's ending but by God, did it leave a hole in me. So please ignore my rambling thoughts as I slap them down here for my own sanity.

• First and foremost, what - and I can't stress this enough - the fuck was UP with the assassination of John's entire character???? What was that??? Why????

• Related to that point - I can appreciate the angst point and potential it provides, as I'm reading many, many fics, but AYO WHY didn't anyone rip John an entire new one for that beat down he did on Sherlock????? Hello???? 911?????

• Tell me why everything felt so stilted and borderline icy. Like I get the high emotions and shit, but after a certain point... 😭 was there a falling out between Benedict and Martin that I'm not aware of? Did they just try to ungay everything so hard and were so pissed at the audience picking up everything THAT THEY PUT???? into this show and their interactions that they just hit the brakes hard enough to make everything feel weird???

• A lot of it felt weird. Off kilter a little. Forced in some places, toned down in others (and toned down where it shouldn't have been), a nod to ships but weirdly/hatefully??? Idk if that makes sense. Like the whole Sherlock and Molly phone call (I do not mean any hate to this ship, I really hope it doesn't come off this way. Not my cup of tea but you are valid). Why was Molly so upset BEFORE the call? Did I miss something? Also I don't personally think or feel she'd still have those feelings for him??? I??? I am bamboozled.

• to that whole point, Eurus was.... Hmm. Mmmm. She was. Something. (Confused derogatory)

• I like Mary as a character. I also hated her. (Definitely biased by my shipper trash ass self for johnlock, I'm sorry). Wtf were those messages, please. Edit: AND ANOTHER THING. John's reaction to Sherlock's death - awful, gut wrenching, beautiful, my heart breaks with and for him, utterly devasting. John's reaction to Mary's death - had me sitting there like🧍‍♀️(it was weird. so weird. awkward. w h y. (we know why, but also the acting choices were Something TM, in both cases! for different reasons!) i'm sorry i just can't get past my anger and put off-ness with mary, fun as she could be)

• why did mycroft and John switch roles 😭 pls. The last episode was just. So Much. The lackluster responses from John, to John, to Sherlock, between them, like.... hello???? Who are these people?? Help me. Moriarty saved me for a brief shining moment tho, God bless.

There's more I could spew, but that's what's sitting right at the top of my head. I guess all this just to say, if a show runner/writer really just fucking hates the audience they got (instead of the one they wanted), they probably shouldn't have fucking become a show runner/writer in the first place. Either hand it to someone who can actually handle it and listens, or fuck off. I will never understand when shows and plots and characters gets kamikaze'd because of a show runner being pissy and egotistical. Like ????? Grow up. Learn from Bryan Fuller and Hannibal or something.

Sorry for all the rambling, bless anyone who reads this and makes sense of it 😂

#sherlock #bbc sherlock #sherlock holmes #john watson #johnlock #season 4 #s4 #steven moffat #mark gatiss #yo wtf #rambling thoughts #ranting #rip me

[ultimatefartwizard]

EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND SUBTEXT THATS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

It's been a while since I have posted as I've been busy with finals, but I saw a post that absolutely made me spur a headache with just how utterly fatuous of a take I saw on Transformers Earthspark and the messages it sends.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THIS POST TO ATTACK OR HARASS ANYONE, THIS IS ONLINE DISCUSSION OF A WORK OF MEDIA.

THIS ALSO COVERS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF EARTHSPARK, IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SUCH A TOPIC PLEASE REDIRECT YOURSELF.

@monocle-teacup Won't repost your post as the way tumblr reposts works would have everything funnel onto your account, but I'll be pinging you and I did screenshot your post for viewer's context:

I have ALOT to talk about here, while also being completely in shock and disbelief how you end up BELEIVING THE SIDE THAT IS A GENOCIDAL LUNATIC WHO SEES THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN AND A DISEASE ON THE EARTH??? AND IS WILLING TO FULL ASS MURDER AND MUTILATE PEOPLE? From here any * you may see is likely a footnote mark to check details I put at the end for clarity. If I miss something, let me know and I will clarify.

Before I get into the meat of dissecting your clearly ill-informed and definitely not thoroughly thought out post, I need to get something out of the way because I believe you'll use this as a means of shielding yourself from incoming critique: It's okay to like and enjoy characters who are clearly bad people. There is a CLEAR difference between enjoying a fictional character and agreeing with whatever they might do or say. I enjoy many bad and morally reprehensible characters, including Mandroid/Doctor Meridian, but that doesn't mean I agree with them or don't find their actions and ideas deplorable. If you find yourself agreeing with someone who sees another group of people* as being subhuman or a danger to society you need to reconsider your ideologies and thought processes. Like ASAP.

Okay onto the actual deconstruction of your statements, why they are blatantly lacking a thorough reading of the messages in Earthspark, or even lead into uncomfortably ignorant territories both with Transformers and very real-life, human related things.

As a first point, you state that you hope this show re-examines the fact that hatred towards another group of people (even if they are fictional) automatically makes them a terrible person, and bring up the statement that the show makes GHOST's detainment of transformers look "cartoonishly evil" but does absolutely nothing to address Dr.Meridian's statements of transformers being dangerous.

Yes. Yes it ABSOLUTELY DOES address that throughout the entire show. In fact, the whole season is literally about deconstructing the notion that BOTH Dr.Meridian's and GHOST's ideals and methods are harmful if not downright discriminatory towards transformers as a whole.

GHOST's method of control is a guise under the US government by detaining any transformer they deem as "a threat", this can even mean autobots or non-aligned transformers who don't want to join their organization or are just doing their own thing. They will willingly classify them all as "Decepticons" to justify their inhumane treatment of them. This is paralleling how humans will stereotype and conflate other groups of people, as being all associated with one singular event or organization of people that is seen as bad or a danger to society* and use that stereotyped ideal to weaponize it against them and justify harming them in multiple ways; which is what Dr.Meridian ALSO DOES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW. Dr.Meridian is a scientist that literally works with and is a huge provider of technology to GHOST, he literally works with them and experiments on the detained transformers. You can't say "oh GHOST bad Dr.Mer not so bad" when he's LITERALLY PART OF GHOST AND YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THEM. HE IS EXTREME AND OUTSPOKEN ABOUT HIS HATRED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND ACTIVELY IS SHOWN TO BE ENTIRLEY IN THE WRONG BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND ACTION WISE. You clearly have not watched with a critical eye if you think they never address his points or somehow he is right about something. He never is and it shows just how harmful his mentality is. You don't even need words spoken out loud to know he's ALREADY HEINOUSLY WRONG AND BIGOTED.

Why should the show, one that shows transformers having to battle against racist and xenophobic hatred towards them from humans, re-examine that relationship? People are being discriminatory to people they don't like, and to them it doesn't matter if they are decepticon or not; they're all the same and dangerous in their eyes. Yes, there was a war brought onto earth's soil from pure happenstance of where the Ark and members of the two named groups had landed, and yes it was bloody and many lives were lost like any war is. Should the war, as well as atrocious acts of violence by a few and the circumstance that which the birth and type of being transformers are deem all transformers as dangerous? OBVIOUSLY FUCKING NOT. That's literally stereotyping. That's what Dr.Meridian is doing. He's literally grouped them all into one conglomerate in his head and sees them all as pests to be exterminated.

The transformers are both immigrants and refugees of war that had lasted thousands of millions of years and a desperate attempt to find any source of energon because they would STARVE TO DEATH IF THEY DIDN'T AND RESOURCES WERE DANGEROUSLY SCARCE ON CYBERTRON. They are thousands of lightyears away from home in a place that doesn't have the cultures they are familiar with and structures built for them which accommodates their needs. And to add onto it, most were never originally outfitted with guns and shit. They had to ARM THEMSELVES TO PROTECT AGAINST ATTACKS. JUST BECAUSE YOU SEE A GUN POP OUT OF THEIR BODY DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE BUILT LIKE THAT NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ALL DANGEROUS. The only ones who are theoretically "built for war/violence" are war-frames like seekers, but they didn't even CHOOSE THAT LIFE OR WANT IT! THEY ARE COLD CONSTRUCTED* AND LITERALLY ENSLAVED INTO BEING CANON FODDER FOR WHATEVER SKERMISH THEY ARE DEEMED NEEDED FOR. Starscream wasn't even a warrior before this, he was just some nerd ass scientist. Cold constructed bots and War-frames are already deemed subhuman by other transformers. The entire war that you see is a continual millions of years struggle which the origins are in a fight against their own horrible systematic oppressions to try and bring freedom and put an end to the horrible reign back on Cybertron. How does them being robot organisms displaced by ongoing war, a continual brutal and bloody struggle for freedom back at home, and dangerous resource scarcity make them any more dangerous than your average person? And the "they are robots/walking death machines" argument doesn't count because you're only seeing them from a nonhuman lense in that case. Take off those nuts and bolts covered glasses and think of how this would be if they were all humans instead. The visuals of only seeing them for their robotics are blocking your ability to view this group as simply a mirroring of humans in nonhuman bodies. Humans are just as dangerous and ostracizing as them. Literally humans slaughter other humans frequently; bring upon hatred and obscene actions onto one another with or without robotic attachments and aid of machines. Just because the transformers are robotic extraterrestrials who are "different biologically/mechanically" makes it no different from the dehumanization and other forms of racism and xenophobia. Transformers are literally just... humans in a robot shell. You can't argue against this at all because most if not all have human forms, ALL of them have human minds, and just happen to come from a planet they need to be insanely large sized on, as well as already pre-armed due to conflict that they have escaped from.

The whole story of Earthspark is LITERALLY about the experiences of the Terrans; first generation descendants of immigrant refugees navigating the struggles that come with being just that. They make whole episodes surrounding their feelings of alienation and their struggle to have a place in the world, their culture and history and who they are. They want to feel they belong and feel they have a place in this world and be seen just as human and belonging as their human family. Their government and the world around them alienates them and treats them sub-humanly despite them being just as human, flaws and all, as us. Since I'm praddling on about this topic, did you even ABSORB ANY OF THE EPISODES HOME PART 1 AND 2???? IT'S ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND TEACHES HOW THIS MENTALITY OF TREATING THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN ALIENS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY OR NEED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS DANGEROUS/A INVASIVE "SPECIES" THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED IS BAD. IT SHOWS THE RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA THAT ESPECIALLY COMES WITH BEING CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE ISOLATION THEY FACE.

Please, I heavily implore you to go back and watch them. You somehow miss the entire point of the show and ESPECIALLY this episode. Many episodes cover different points of their existence as first gen children and the reality that the transformers have to face in general while being refugees on a planet with others being hostile and degrading to them but this particular episode is the one that tackles the points I make in this post the most. It may not go super deep into it due to forced time constraints and other executive nonsense that makes it harder to go into more detail but it still covers the topic very well.

Humans getting nipped at the heels for being bigoted towards transformers isn't some "ouugh you can't think the decepticons did bad things" type of nonsense and I absolutely hate the "oh because you can't be bigoted towards a group of people it means you suddenly can't criticize the actions of someone who happens to be someone of that group" mentality you seem to be concocting out of thin air. It's them associating the entire race of transformers as all bad, unbelonging or worthy of being seen as dangerous and to be wary around them or like they need to not be on earth and "go back where they came from". You go between "decepticons" and "transformers" interchangeably and seem to do exactly as the show heeds against heavily; conglomerating the actions of a FEW to encompass the overall worthiness of a WHOLE POPULATION OF PEOPLE.

Doctor Meridian is wrong and genuinely evil and disturbing with how he treats them and him seeing them as dangerous and a pest needing to be eradicated nor should any of his views be agreed upon, no matter how much you may try to defend him. There's more I could add but for simplicity's sake but that's what I mainly will state. The rest of clarity can be discussed in the comments.

I'm not sure whether your lack of understanding of the show and its messaging you are discussing or your love for one of the major villains is clouding your judgement, but please read EVERYTHING here to its fullest extent. Nothing here is intended as an attack on your character (if you're somehow seeing it that way) but as a heavy critique of your views on this show and how you are analyzing things. I might sound like I'm yapping to yap or "it's not that deep", but it literally is. The show and it's writing make it a big point and I will refuse to accept any iteration of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill" type statements. If you have any questions or comments you're free to bring them up.

-With confusion and annoyance, Wizard.

-Footnotes- *By group of people, I refer to sapient (human minded) beings who are grouped by either race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. By this classification, Transformers are considered a group of people; even if they are "nonhuman" *If you are somehow seriously confused or appalled by me pointing out real world racism and xenophobia as parallels to what is being done by GHOST, Dr. Meridian, and your average run of the mill civilian, you need to reread absolutely everything. Racism and xenophobia are a huge talking point in the show and I refuse to retract this statement. *Cold Constructed means the transformer was made in a factory, more often than not to be a worker slave for whoever is demanding they be produced. Two characters off the top of my head who are cold constructed is Starscream and Megatron.

#transformers #transformers earthspark #ultimatefartwizard #maccadams #tf earthspark #discussion #terrans #transformers hashtag #transformers twitch #transformers nightshade #transformers thrash #transformers jawbreaker #transformers starscream #transformers megatron #genuinely how the hell did you end up at the conclusion you did #I had to discuss this the second I saw your post while scrolling #wizardyaps #ignore the tags #i will defend these robot aliens with my whole soul #I'm sorry I hate it when people miss the entire plot of a show #wizardrants #tired of the lack of critical thinking #transformers GHOST #dr meridian #mandroid #tf GHOST #Why are you defending a man's ideals that end up with him almost wiping out the population of transformers in like an evil genocide ray? #if they were human you'd definitely not be saying this.... I hope? Like I really hope you don't think this about irl people

[celaenaeiln]

C: Hi there! Even if I've been reading dick Grayson(and in turn batfamily) fics for a few weeks now, I've never actually watched/read DC stuff because even if I liked superheroes, I'm not invested enough to read the actual comics. The most I watched was the Teen Titans 2003 cartoon(which I love). I was brought into interest cause I was brought in through crossovers of other fandoms (which may be hated by some/many😅)

To give myself context, I tried to read around for Robin, and imagine my surprise there's more than one? Which, okay mantle thing I guess. But in the end, Dick Grayson caught my attention(not rlly for his looks and design, but more of his heroism and entire personality and affect in the DC world). Which leads to looking at other tumblrs and I love reading yours and when you answer the asks cause it's so much easier for me to understand the kind of person Dick is and how he interacts with the world.

Sorry for this long context, but I just want maybe your opinion, what if your opinion in the combination of how Dick Grayson should be written for him to Thrive

- Should he stay in Gotham, being in with the batfamily more? Soloing in Bludhaven? Staying with the titans? Or others?

- what about his romantic relationships? Who should be is one true one(based on canon gfs), or maybe stay single? (Just gonna be biased, but I've only knew about dickbabs and dickkory (but I heard he has other girlfriends and I've remember reading he was almost married...a few times??) but dickkory had always been for me)

- What about mentally wise? (Of course, I do think Dick needs a long vacation because of all the trauma that he has to go through), but even if I like the idea of Dick being admired for his looks because he deserves it, but I do rmbr posts that he is uncomfy with this(sexualisation, Def only staying true to the person he loves (then there's the whole...Tarantula and more thing)

Tbf, I do think is a little bit of all is what makes Dick, Dick. Haha

Sorry for the long ask, feel free to not answer because i just needed to get this out😅. I know it's actually bad I'm reading fics without canon knowledge for personality, but your posts makes me understand him more that I understand what's real and what's fanon in fics (that makes me..ugh.. but I read anyway for plot cause i don't know better)

But thank you anyway for reading this and I love your content!

(last one for this ask I swear: I've been seeing stuff where Robin name is actually Dick's mom calling Dick that. Then it's passed down as a mantle starting from Jason without Dick consenting. I tried to read at wiki, maybe I missed out but I can't find anything. Is it true? Does the other bats (except Bruce and Alfred?) know the actual meaning? Because as much as I love Dami, the whole bloodson, birthright to take the mantle of Robin beside Batman give me ugh feelings if it's true) :C

First of all, thank you so much!! I'm so happy to hear you like my stuff <333!!

I think it's fine that you started in the fandom since I sort of started out that way too lol. I had only watched Teen Titans Animated show and Young Justice before I got into fanfics and my first comic I ever read was actually Teen Titans (2011) which was Tim's run. It's been a journey.

Dick's personality was also what captivated me so here I am!

"Should he stay in Gotham, being in with the batfamily more? Soloing in Bludhaven? Staying with the titans? Or others?"

That's a really good question and a complex one. Ironically, for being such a people person, Dick seems to be doing best when he's by himself. When he's soloing, he has a sense of freedom and independence that he's been craving for a long time. The whole reason he left Bruce was because he felt like Bruce was suddenly treating him like a kid, like someone to look after, when he had been treating Dick like a partner the whole time. When Dick feels like his independence is being stepped on, it unsettles him. This is another reason why the Tom Taylor run and Dick's relationship pisses me off but that's for another time. As much as he likes Gotham, he loves Bludhaven. He thinks it's a dirty, crime-filled city, sure, but he loves it there.

He's a little crazy like that.

He doesn't have the same attachment to Gotham that Bruce does. Instead he feels that for Bludhaven.

The only reason I'm saying Dick is better off staying alone than with the Titans is because of his leadership mentality. There's a comic that I forgot the name of but Dick teams up with members of the Justice League and they trapeze through a jungle under the orders of this corrupt military general. He teams up with Arthur and automatically starts commanding people to which Aquaman tells him off, saying this isn't the Titans. Dick is genuinely sorry and backs off. For a minute. But immediately goes right back into command mode but Arthur lets it go, realizing that Dick's not conscious of it and that his behaviour is automatic. "Too many leaders" he calls the situation in his head. For Dick, the Titans have become a responsibility now. He loves them like crazy but they look up at him automatically for directions and order and he's gotten so used to leading them that it's his go to mode.

He just likes doing stuff without someone hovering over his shoulder or having to take care of others.

"what about his romantic relationships? Who should be is one true one(based on canon gfs), or maybe stay single? (Just gonna be biased, but I've only knew about dickbabs and dickkory (but I heard he has other girlfriends and I've remember reading he was almost married…a few times??) but dickkory had always been for me)"

Yeah, I've actually loved almost all of his romantic relationships. I hate Dickbabs but every other one has been fantastic. Kori was great for him.

Action Comics (1938) Issue #618

Dick says it again here. He used to envy Roy's freedom. He's also said in another comic that he fell in love with Kori for her freedom.

Secret Origins (1986) Issue #13

You're right, he has gotten almost married a few times

The first time was with Kori

The New Titans (1988) Issue #100

But then

The New Titans (1988) Issue #100

their pastor gets vaporised and body-controlled Raven feeds the soul of one of Trigon's children into Kori and she goes crazy but she recovers but it's a whole ordeal. In the end they don't get a chance to complete their marriage. They were spectacular together though. The only reason their wedding didn't go through is because the Batfam writers wanted Dick back so they took him from the Titans' writers and they needed a big dramatic scene to cut him off from the Titans. Another reason why Barbara was deaged and created as a love interest- to gatekeep him in the family.

He's also gotten married to Barbara before the retcon though.

Batman Family Issue #11

But here they were forced to by Maze and they went along with it and tricked him. At the end though, they just grab a bite to eat.

Ngl I actually would've supported this marriage. I really love this Barbara. Yes the age difference is a bit much but whatever, I still like them.

Dick and Barbara have gotten married in an alternate timeline.

Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle Issue #2

yeah, definitely didn't like this one.

Dick's also gotten fake married to a woman because Batman and Dick thought she was killing her husbands after marrying them so Dick married her to see if it was true.

Nightwing (1996) Annual #1

I liked her. She wasn't the killer and Dick did a fantastic job raising her son but even though she loved him, he didn't love her and they divorced amicably. I wish I could see more of her and her son though.

To be completely honest, my favorites for Dick are Kori and Bea.

Bea was a fantastic partner. She was understanding, loving, caring, and responsible. She was there when he was Ric Grayson and just loved him for who he was.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #53

If Kori's truly out of the picture, then Dick really should've settled down with her.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #57

She and Kori, they don't tell Dick what to do or who to be. They let him be free which is why I loved them an extraordinary amount. I'm a sucker for soft moments and Bea and Dick are couple goals.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #62

They give him the freedom he craves.

"What about mentally wise? (Of course, I do think Dick needs a long vacation because of all the trauma that he has to go through), but even if I like the idea of Dick being admired for his looks because he deserves it, but I do rmbr posts that he is uncomfy with this(sexualisation, Def only staying true to the person he loves (then there's the whole...Tarantula and more thing)"

I think Dick does need a break. His life has been a series of unfortunate events but despite all that, I think he loves it that way. Dick loves the thrill of adventure. It's the heart of who he is and why he became robin. The excitement he gets when fighting or doing crazy stunts - he loves all of it and that is his coping mechanism. I guess in order for him to thrive, Bruce needs to stop dumping all his trauma and stop expecting him to be there for him at all times of the day. Dick keeps getting dragged back to Gotham to take care of Bruce and his problems and he would go in a heartbeat but he's much happier wacking his own goons in Bludhaven. But since Bruce is so codependent on Dick, this pattern's not gonna stop anytime soon.

Truth be told I also like Dick being admired for his looks. I don't like him being called out by it though. First of all why would you comment "hot booty" to someone? It's degrading and humiliating even if you think it's a compliment. Some things are better left untold. But regardless of what people think, Dick will always be pretty and everyone in the DC universe knows this. Heroes, civilians, villains - they're all attracted to him on some level because he's so beautiful. And honestly? I'm all for it! Because that boy is the prettiest human in existence and he deserves that recognition. Just not vocally or physically.

The best thing is that Dick's beauty has no bearing on his mentality toward people. This man will choose one person and stick with them forever. He values intimacy and trust and love in his relationships which is why he's so attached to each one. This plays a massive role in his relationship with Kori. He would never cheat. Actually in all the future comics, after his spouse passes away or leaves, he never remarries. The only one exception was Batman Beyond (2016). The only one and he remarries Barbara after his wife passes away. Aside from that he remains a single parent. That's how dedicated he is.

"I've been seeing stuff where Robin name is actually Dick's mom calling Dick that. Then it's passed down as a mantle starting from Jason without Dick consenting. I tried to read at wiki, maybe I missed out but I can't find anything. Is it true? Does the other bats (except Bruce and Alfred?) know the actual meaning? Because as much as I love Dami, the whole bloodson, birthright to take the mantle of Robin beside Batman give me ugh feelings if it's true)"

Yup Dick's mother called Dick Robin.

Nightwing (2011) Issue #0

Robin (1993) Annual #4

Here's a couple but there are more instances of his mom calling him Robin.

Dick had no idea Bruce passed on the Robin costume. He finds out through the newspaper because Bruce is pissed at Dick. Like he's so mad that when he told Dick to leave, Dick actually left.

You know how there's a saying about not being able to take back words of anger? Bruce is feeling that heavily. He already had suspicions that Dick wanted to leave but before Dick could tell him, he fired him so he wouldn't have to hear those words. But Bruce is super mad that Dick left anyway. So what does he do? He makes the first boy he sees Robin.

And Jason finds out Dick was Robin when he confronts Bruce why Nightwing knows Bruce's identity. And that gets Bruce more mad because he's now feeling guilty which is when Dick comes to confront Bruce.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

But instead of meeting anger for anger, Dick expresses his hurt. About how they were partners and then talks about his life after leaving Bruce.

And Bruce loves Dick. His best friend, son, brother, and partner for nearly 11 years. They raised each other and despite his anger, he smiles in pride and love.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

Look at his smile!! He's so proud of his son.

And that's when Dick stops pulling his punches.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

Bruce looks so wrecked. The guilt and sorrow is tantamount to his pain.

Then Dick asks Bruce why he choose someone new.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

So Bruce tells him. But Dick and Bruce's relationship go way deeper than just friends or family. They know each other. They revolve around each other so Dick calls him out.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

And out comes the truth

Batman (1940) Issue #416

But Dick has always been the bigger man and instead of letting Jason become some sort of spite move, he turns Robin into a legacy.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

He passes it down like it was meant to be passed down. Because let's be honest here. The Robin name and costume is Dick's. If he wanted to, he could've taken it back, Bruce be damned. And that was one of Jason's fears.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

But despite Bruce's words to Jason

Batman (1940) Issue #416

He's not sure himself.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

But it's only with Dick's approval that he becomes Robin which is what Bruce is thanking at the end.

Batman (1940) Issue #416

And this has been a sort of tradition.

Dick approved of Jason being Robin, he endorsed Tim, and he made Damian Robin. The only exception being Stephanie. This is why Dick feels a heavy sense of responsibility over the robin predicament. He created the tradition. He approved, supported, and mentored every robin that walked in his colors and name. That's why he feels the burden of it.

I don't think any of the other robins know the meaning behind the name. Maybe they do. But ironically, the one who wasn't robin is the one who knows the meaning of it.

Duke.

#dick grayson #nightwing #bruce wayne #batman #koriand'r #barbara gordon #bea bennett #dickkory #beadick #jason todd #robin jason todd #cl anon asks #thanks for the ask! #I'm always happy to receive asks or comments so don't feel worried about sending me more! I loved reading this <33! #cl asks

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! Sorry if this is a stupid question but I was wondering about representing disabilities/things in general that you don't have.

I always see people say that they want characters to be represented properly, and to show their disabilities and lives in an accurate way, but I also see people talk about how you shouldn't write about the struggles a POC/minority/person with a disability/etc. faces because you don't experience that and you're speaking over them or only using their story for "trauma porn" or whatever.

Maybe it's just because I'm autistic but I'm really not understanding how those two things coexist. How do I show how someone lives, especially with a disability that might be painful, without writing about the things they face?

Obviously it would be super weird if the character's entire personality was just "My life is awful because I'm so different, I can't do the things everyone else can, my life sucks."

But what about normal things that they struggle with? Like "Yeah I only have one arm, it's a pain in the ass to do dishes but it's not the end of the world." or "I have albinism so my depth perception is shit but whatever" or "It's fucking annoying when people stare at/judge me because I look different, but if they don't like it that's their problem, not mine lol."

Is the problem whether or not a characters ENTIRE story revolves around their disability? Using my own as an example:

A story, specifically, about how Funky Bungus, as an autistic person, lives in the world and what struggles he has due to his disability, VS a story where Funky Bungus is trying to stop two kingdoms from going to war and there's a short scene where he feels bad about not being able to make eye contract with people, before going back to the Kingdom War Drama.

I just want to use my stories as a way to educate people about disabilities and make people go "Hey, that character is like me!" or to make people think about their actions, like having a character complain about people staring at their scar/missing arm/etc. so maybe people will read it and go "Wow, I guess it IS rude when I don't mind my own business, from now on I won't stare at people."

Sorry if this got long and incomprehensible 😬

I guess the question is "How do I write about the struggles someone with a disability faces without coming across like I'm writing trauma porn or speaking over people" but I just have the Overexplain Everything So I'm Not Misunderstood Disorder™ lmao

I believe you have it right; the problem with many stories about disabilities written by non disabled authors often lies in when the story relies entirely on the disability.

It’s absolutely fine to write about the struggles a character faces — for an example with one of my disabilities, say a non-disabled author wrote about how a character kinda hates their chronic pain and wishes they didn’t have it. But otherwise there’s other stuff going on in the character’s life, like friends and family and hobbies, not just self-pity, and there’s other things going on in the plot, like maybe a mystery to solve or an Item to find or an adventure to go on or something.

That would be perfectly fine, and I’d love to read it actually, and really writing is kind of a balance of using what we know already and mixing it with things we haven’t experienced but have researched and/or thought about.

That’s how you show an authentic character with disabilities — they have struggles, things they can’t do or can’t do as well as others, but that’s not all there is to them. There’s things they enjoy doing, things they’re good at, people they spend time with and things they do.

Good intentions combined with research and knowledge (and good plots!) will make for good stories that feel authentic.

Hope this helps!

Mod Sparrow

Hi!

I think that there can be good stories that have disability/ableism as its primary focus, but they should be #OwnVoices (as in, made by people who experience said thing). That's largely because it often gets very specific and thus easy to misrepresent even if you have good intentions. Sometimes it can end up like "being disabled is so sad and everything is inaccessible, how tragic!" and end up pitying the character - rather than actually sympathizing with them - just because that nuance is missing. To use the same example as you did, "character complains about people staring at their scar sometimes" would be a completely normal way to include ableism as a part of life that does happen, while "character gets bullied for 300 pages for having a facial difference" would be in the torture porn category (when written by someone who doesn't have that experience).

I think that what Sparrow described is the best if you're not describing your own experiences. Including ableism as a thing that happens from time to time or as a tertiary focus is totally fine. That's how it is in real life - sometimes things do suck, but there's still a whole lot of other things that we do.

I think your desire to educate people is admirable and it should be very much doable with the solutions you presented! Good luck writing!

mod Sasza

#mod sparrow #anonymous #ableism #mod sasza

[hypocriticaltypwriter]

People Are Strange (ROTTMNT VAMPIRE AU)

OMG, IM GONNA THROW UP SO MICH INFO ON YOU GUYS IM SO SORRY BUT VAMPIRES ARE ON THE BRAIN AND THEY MAKE ME DO THINGS

A TAD bit inspired off of Lost Boys, so it's got that 80s cliche/grunge to it - also @m0nster-fluffer TOTALLY didn't encourage or inspire me to finally write all this stuff out... Totally not 👀

This is inspired by a Roleplay idea I came up with... But was never able to act out so I'm glad I was able to write some if the stuff down!

BASICALLY... It's just like the brothers and MAYBE April (but I think she'll just be a normal human they let tag along, and maybe she does some of their... Hunting for them) are vampires, usually come out late at parties or do their own thing, riding around on motorcycles, being nuisance to many, and threats to others.

I feel if it were a scenario, it'd probably go one (or your whole group, depends on if you want your character to already know the guys or not) of the Roleplayers moves into this small secluded town where all this happens, and somehow gets wrapped up in meeting the four weirdos + April, and then starts discovering the creepy and spooky blah blah ect.

The Hamato Brothers are something no one wants to be around with, cause eventually, you go missing. You get lost. Never to be found, it's kind of difficult when their very... Persuasive.

Basic twist/plot for this whole thing: Everyone in this town but you know the guys are vampires. You and your family have no clue until you find out why the people of this town don't want you to leave, try to keep you trapped in this so called, happy, campy, little peace of heaven off somewhere deep in the woods. You're new meat- new faces. New prey.

The guys had started getting more relentless and more brash toward the townsfolk until you showed up... They can't just give you up that easy.

(And my rant about what I think the guys would be like HEE)

Raphael Raph is one of the more docile of his brothers, he isn't as peer pressuring or over energetic as his other three, usually he's like that big brother 'come on, leave em alone' energy if he can see someone getting stressed over his brothers trying to get them to jump like- twenty feet from the beach pillars. But, as much as he seems like a chill dude, his vampirism is... Different. When he's mad, he isn't afraid to let you know. He can get aggressive and almost animalistic, a LOT of 'accidents' involving people can be from Raphs... Temper-tantrums.

Any vampire powers? Yes! The guy is a total brute, and it's not just for show. He could lift two trucks with both hands with absolute ease if he wanted to.

Leonardo Oh yikes, one of the brothers that a LOT of people tend to be persuaded by. Leo has the tendency to make some of the riskier decisions and ideas of the group, just to see how freaked out they can get new comers, what makes em run away screaming. It makes it more enjoyable for him. He loves- and I mean LOVES a chase once in a while, even if it spreads out into an entire week, he doesn't stop, as long as your in his town, his territory, you can't escape him or his brothers.

Leo's vampirism is one of the MANY faults and reasons the brothers have almost been caught. The guy pushes and tests limits like the little ass he is and waits to see what happens. Raphs killed people, sure, but Leo's killed people, critters, and he tends to leave them on people's doorsteps just to freak them out- especially if they've pissed him off. Or he's... Taken a liking to you.

His actions have gotten him locked up in the Church by the people a few times. And even though he continues to do it, he HATES getting chained up cause he's stuck their for a damn week, and all his brothers do is ridicule, taunt, or scold him. Any vampire powers? Yes! Leo's got some kind of... Trance inducing powers - it isn't like it is in shows or movies. It's a lot more... Subtle than that. It's he can make his point or voice sound more alluding, more conniving, and it almost feels like you can't refuse the guy.

Donatello. The lesser known of the vampire brothers, Donnie is extremely quiet and keeps to himself. And not in a shy way, this guy's seemingly resting bitch-face/death glare looks like he's looking directly through you and into your deepest darkest fears. He probably is.

But once you get to know him - as rare as it is unless he decides you're worth his time, he's still pretty blunt and cold, and he's almost cruel in some way. You can see some dark joy behind his eyes watching you get scared or squirm under his cold arm over your shoulder.

He doesn't seem like it, but he's got that persuasion and slight bloodlust that his twin Leo has. He just more collected about it. He tends to be the one who doesn't cause much of the missing accidents, (he's much more intelligent to clean and hide a crime scene, please, the man isn't a reckless idiot like his brothers.) But the one or two he's done are because someone pissed him off. The someone is his twin. Those two get in nasty- and I don't put it lightly when I say NASTY fights. Ranging from verbal to physical, it's rare that they actually get along so much so that they barely even talk to each other cause it ends in yelling or biting and scratching.

Any vampire powers? Yes! Same as his twin, maybe he dpes it more with that smolder or look he has rather than his voice, but it still gets the job done.

Michelangelo

And finally, the youngest of the Hamatos, Mikey. Of course, don't let that fool you. This vampire tends to be the most welcoming of newcomers out if all his brothers, while he's eerily sweet and calm, it does the trick to put people's minds at ease and get them to join their little rag-tag group.

He's usually the one you'd go to if you feel on edge about everything, him and Raph being more docile to newcomers before they decide to pounce.

While he gives on the laid-back persona... Don't get him mad or threaten his brothers. It'd like a whole new creature from the deepest darkest part of your soul is unleashed if you get on this vampires nerves.

And he's fast. They all are. Don't get me wrong, but the stealth this guy has sneaking and sprinting through woods. You're not gonna escape.

Any vampire powers? Yes! Super speed and levitation! The levitation is usually on his part - meaning he's the one floating around a few feet of ground and picking things up of the floor a few feet away from him. But he can pick people up if he decides he's too tired or annoyed to chase.

#rottmnt #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt rp #roleplay #rp #rise of the tmnt #vampire au #vampire rp #vampire roleplay #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt raph

[queenofmistresses]

I may or may not have giggled when you got excited about the emoji 🙈

BUT I LOVED THE BEN AND DEVI ONE

also maybe a ben x f!reader that the reader is a nerd for everything and when she starts to talk about a show she starts rambling and she just says was I rambling and he just responds with mhm and she loves when he listening to her so she just kisses him and maybe they start making out

yes it's me I'm that rambling person as you can see by my request 🤗

-anon 💌

(it feels like I'm signing off as A in pretty little liars)

A/N okay we’re officially friends now, once you’ve giggled at something I’ve said we’re friends, that’s the rules I’m afraid. I got excited because I don’t have any regular anons anymore! I miss it! I’m so glad you liked it!!! Ahhh!! Don’t worry I’m ben in this situation, I love listening to people ramble about their interests. And I love this idea!! It’s quite short sorry!!

He hasn’t watched the show. How did I not know this?? Before I know it I’m telling him the entire plot, every minute detail and the plot twists. Comparing it to the accuracy of the book (as always, very different) and how I like it anyway.

Next thing I know I’m glancing at his watch and it’s been 15 minutes. Oops. I hate it when I do that, people always tell me to shut up before I get far.

Except, he hasn’t. He’s staring at me and smiling at me. Like he enjoys listening to me. God I love this man.

“Was I rambling?” I ask, and he nods and hums in response. Looking at me with so much love it makes me feel weak.

I can’t help but grin as I lean in and press my lips against his. He responds immediately, kissing back with equal passion. I bring my hand up and press it against his chest, he slowly lies down as I climb on top of him.

I sink my hands into his hair and kiss him harder. I feel his hands gently hold onto my hips. I completely let myself go and sink into him. Just letting myself enjoy the moment and ignore the world around us.

I love this

#ben x reader #ben gross x y/n #ben gross x reader #ben gross #never have i ever

[booksandpaperss]

kind of obsessed with the fact you've slowly gotten more blatant with heartstopper hate lmfao😭 it's like. fine to me it's cute but NOTHING SERIOUS IS EVER GOING ON so I gotta be in a really specific mood for it I still haven't watched s2. definitely couldn't be a fixation. and everyone fucking loves it it's the best thing since sliced bread and I'm like. why tho. and then any critique of it is sorta dumbed down to "oh you just don't like how sweet it is but teenagers deserve sweet romance" like ok but why's it gotta be boring though. and too healthy like beyond normal levels of healthy. like this is missing even the usual human levels of miscommunication. and it gets resolved too easy. sorry this was supposed to cut off 4 sentences ago I'm realizing now in your inbox that I apparently have beef with heartstopper

LKSSJJSJS LISTEN listen. I don’t even hate it. truly. I even genuinely enjoyed myself during the nick and Charlie parts bc that’s the part that thought is actually put into. I just hate how much everyone loves it so blindly

honestly my biggest beef with it is that it’s marketed and treated as the most genuine and diverse groundbreaking queer storyline there is when that’s literally so far from true and it really really shows ppls true colors when they think this bc the sapphics and POC are literal props it’s actually absurd for a show that’s supposed to be a safe space for queer ppl

and god do I hate that part of the reason it’s so popular is bc it portrays these queer teenagers as never having a single, physical thought in their entire life. there was this whole plot centered around one single hickey that Charlie had??? and something abt the physical attraction portion of it all, which they did try to show btw, felt disingenuous to me. and I know that’s why it’s so palatable to a mainstream audience and it pisses me off and again it just doesn’t feel genuine. which is ironically one of the main arguments against heartstopper criticism: “it’s not cringe it’s just earnest” when yeah maybe it’s Trying to be earnest but when u look at it from more than a surface level lens it’s not rlly succeeding

and I know the aroace storyline in season 2 with Isaac resonated with a lot of people and I think that’s wonderful, and I actually do think that was something that was done well, but how can you have a storyline around asexuality when you don’t show the contrast in how it is being an allosexual queer person. there was a whole lot of romantic attraction going on but even more tip toeing around the sexual attraction aspect. and I don’t expect it to be like sex education for example in terms of the focus on sex obv , but the lack of acknowledgment of that aspect of the queer experience paired with how much the uwu wholesomeness of it all is played up rlly rubs me the wrong way. once again: it feels dishonest

I was actually talking about this with one of my mutuals the other day and they pointed out that it is very plain that alice olseman did not consult a single queer man in the writers room. and if someone can prove this wrong be my guest but I rlly don’t think the whole physical attraction component would have been done so badly had an actual queer man been on the team. feels kind of like back in summer 2022 when byler shippers would literally shun and harass anyone who even implied that Will’s feelings for Mike probably included physical attraction meanwhile Noah Schnapp himself was making jokes about it bc he’s an actual gay teenager.

not gonna even get into right now how Tara and darcy felt even more like props this season than in the last one and I didn’t even like watching their scenes bc the writing itself felt performative. that’s a whole other post.

and man, wouldn’t it have been so nice if there had actually been people of color in that writers room. On a purely surface level heartstopper has a very diverse cast but once again, peel away even one layer and you realize it’s a bunch of tokenism, which brings me full circle back to my original point: you can’t say it’s peak representation and diversity when it’s whitewashed as hell and doesn’t gaf abt sapphics despite literally being written by one. guess she chose her whiteness over her queerness even when writing a queer story which wowwww sooooo original.

okayyyy anyways did NOT mean to write a whole essay but u discovering ur own beef reminded me of mine lmaooo

all of this was to say that basically I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t enjoy myself during parts of the show, and I don’t wanna shame ppl for liking it that is not at all what I’m trying to do here, it has its own place in queer media and if a show like this came out in like 2010 it would be groundbreaking despite its issues (but again it’s literally 2023 do fucking better) , but I take issue with people treating it like something it’s not and with the amount of love it gets I feel like I have to be really loud about my criticism of it, especially bc usually the criticism of the show that gets any attention isn’t even slandering it for the right reasons and like. if ur gonna hate on something queer and popular do it right

oh and heartstopper writers? maybe try speaking with an actual teenager once in your life before writing their dialogue they do not fucking communicate that well

okay I’m done now finally 🫡

#sorry rori I don’t know what came over me #booksandpaperss asks #should I make myself a rant tag #elli rants

[femininemenon]

from a never seen poor things anon, what do you hate about poor things? (ive heard its ableist...)

ok so before i get into anything, i would like to state that it was made by cis men (directed by a greek cis man, written by a scottish and an australian cis man). if it was done by cis women, i would still side eye it though. also, emma stone was a producer, so technically she had a say in just how much she showed of herself (the practicality of it you can argue but that would make this like an entire essay long).

what i can say, without spoilers, is that the movie reads like the study of "liberation" in the white feminist sense through white men's lense. if that's your thing (or choice feminism) then maybe you can put through yourself this. the writing is very much tony mcnamara (from "the great"; i knew it was him before i even looked at the credits) so if you miss his style of dialogue, then you will definitely enjoy at least that. the aesthetic is nice and you can tell that it took a lot of hard work, but also you have to tolerate a fisheye lense shot like every five minutes.

if you don't mind spoilers, then you can click "read more" - although i don't think i'm saying anything that hasn't been said before

i have to put out another disclaimer: i don't think you should only depict topics in a "HEY THIS IS A BAD THING!" manner or that you can only portray morally correct things, so i don't think this movie would have irritated me so much IF we had movies that dealt with similar topics in a more honest, more radical view (but like who am i kidding it's hollywood) or if people didn't hail this as barbie for ao3 like ???????????????? i mean i guess you lot are right about the white feminism…

the story begins with a pregnant woman killing herself (victoria, also played by emma stone) because she simply cannot tolerate the fetus/the idea of being a mother. the movie also implies that she was impregnated against her will by her husband. then doctor godwin baxter (willem dafoe) uses her for his "experiment" and he says, out of mercy, doesn't revive her but instead puts the baby's brain into the pregnant woman's and so bella baxter is born. this read as punishment for wanting to end a pregnancy (even though i'm sure it wasn't meant to) and that is just a really triggering to me. when bella learns of this later, it doesn't exactly have much of an effect on her though so all is jolly! not a single thing to ponder over! not the fact that her mom didn't want her and she killed herself, noooope. has no effect on her whatsoever!

so the premise of the entire thing is that we watch this baby grow in a grown woman's body. the movie is in b&w for a while because babies don't see color (about 4 months but we are never given a scale of her age) but her sexualization begins here already: one of whom she is betrothed to (so she never leaves the mansion) is max mccandles (ramy youssef) who also calls her the R slur (00:07:29,792 --> 00:07:31,625 "What a very pretty [R-slur]") and then duncan wedderburn (mark ruffalo). i'm not sure why that slur is resurfacing online and offline but i find it very disturbing, no matter what excuse people try to use. use any other word, literally. there is the question of adults who (if i'm not using correct terms, feel free to tell me) are cognitively challenged. is this meant to say something about them? does the movie not even want to entertain that people like bella in this stage exist and live their lives?

i feel like i've only yapped about the plot SORRY. the rest of the story is bella learning more about the world, mostly through sex save for one philosophical stage on a boat (where we meet the one man who does not sexualize her! hurray! harry astley, played by jerrod carmichael). i don't think the sex scenes were like too explicit (i'm sure hbo had done way worse back in its day…) as people say they are. do i think it was necessary for the story? not really. yes, sometimes children are aware of sexual things but they should be educated (to prevent predators) and not engaged in such acitvities. as she was not educated, predators crawl over her like duncan. but it doesn't read like that, not to me. i think they tried to portray her as a willing participant and for you not to even question whether she wants it or not, and rather as "female empowerment" like okay…

and then comes the paris part (sex work/prostitution) which can be read in many ways. bella learns more through sex paid for by strange men, duncan slutshames her and she leaves duncan, decides to be a doctor. a lot of progress is made in this part and there are some good lines but one line just… meh (01:43:23,292 --> 01:43:25,583 We are our own means of production.) so that's something to keep in mind.

anyway, shenanigans ensue, she ends up back where victoria escaped from and the husband wants to also keep her in the house and impregnate her. maybe something about how you cannot escape the system meant to encage you? no idea. in the end, she doesn't kill the man but rather replaces his brain with a dog's. is this meant to read as revenge? against the husband or against the doctor? who knows. the doctor dies but at that point i was just sooo over it. in the end, bella takes over her first prison, the mansion, as she is now its mistress, but what does that say exactly? the system is good as is, any change will just land us in worse places and we just have to make our space in it?

#ask #anonymous #poor things spoilers #anti poor things

[jjsanguine]

BL/QL Ask game: The Ugly, the Bad and the Worst

From @clara-maybe-ontheroad

I feel like starting a random tag ask game for all the terrible shit us QL-lovers put up with, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes for pain, sometimes for both! The list of questions ended up being very long so no one has to do them all, just the ones you want, but I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with :)

The categories are:

Worst soundtrack / weirdest song choice in a BL

I listen to basically anything so I've yet to really be weirded out. I have kpop, world music, afropop, Afrobeats, gospel, country, drill, R&B, praise and worship (?) and others I don't know the genre names for jumbled together in the same playlist lmao.

Most cringe-inducing line (cute)

"Let's kiss the dog together" in Lovely Writer. I don't like dogs so this made me crease even more. Kissing animals is gross I'm sorry.

Most cringe-inducing line (actually bad)

Any line I truly disliked is blissfully gone from my memory.

Most stupid decision made by a character

Any of Phupha's decisions in The Promise (2023), but chiefly the decision to disappear from 10 years. I know it was the driving force in the show but it was still a fucking terrible decision.

Worst plot line

Gram x Eugene in Not Me. Literally huh ??? I choose to ignore it.

The most problematic show you've watched

Probably Tharntype. I do not care what happened in Lhong's life man. Why are you muddying a cartoon villain with a sob story.

A show people love but you find bad

I never finished Love In The Air or Gap the Series. I didn't find them bad really, I just got missed an episode and then never caught up.

A show people find bad but you will defend

I don't know if people dislike the while show but secret crush on you episode 1 makes you want to peel off your skin and wring the ick out of your bones. But after you've taken a month or so to recover from that, it's a masterpiece.

A show that is just objectively bad but you enjoyed it

Probably Tharntype, purely based on me watching it several times but also wanting to throw my phone for like 80% of the runtime. It's like when I eat food and go "I'm not sure how I feel about this" the entire time, but have to conclude logically that I liked it somewhat since I finished it all of my own volition.

A bad show that you kept watching because you were intrigued/fascinated

A lot a lot of them. I am easily pleased.

A bad show that you kept watching because you were horny

There's no level of horniness that will make me stick with a show that I'm losing interest in. Why would I bother with something that has a plot in that case lmao.

A bad show that you kept watching because of that one character

I've never done this with a QL because I could just watch a fancam, but I am going to keep watching Outer banks even though season 3 was character assassination because Pope is my baby.

A bad show that you would still recommend

Why would I recommend a show I think is bad??

The character that ruined a show the most

He didn't ruin the show but Not's off screen redemption arc in Be My Favourite soured the ending a tiny bit for me. Not everyone has to win y'know?

Most awful character that you hated /Most awful character that you loved / A character that wasn't awful but that you just don't like

If I dislike a fictional character I usually just forget about them.

A hero that should have been a villain

Joke in Hidden agenda. He was a troubled guy but they could have gone full on toxic with it.

A morally bad character you're into

Kinn. Well, most characters in Kinnporsche. If they were real I'd want a few dozen degrees of separation between me and anyone with such casual disregard for human life.

A morally bad character you're not into and you wish people would stop being into

I don't really keep track of who others are into.

The show that disappointed you the most

Step by step. You don't even need to change the plot, just the pacing.

The Worst Show of Them All Because of Your Own Reasons

I 100% purged my memory of it, whatever this show was.

#ask game

[oretsev]

hi helloo, i'd just written a novel in ur askbox about s&b and then tumblr crashed and it was all lost :') maybe for the better because it was a total mess of thoughts lmao so let me try to summarise my feelings a bit (im sorry this turned out REALLY long)

i HATE that they speedran s&s and r&r in the most bullshit way possible. the entire amplifier hunt was basically removed, at least journey-wise - they just. find the sea whip in that one cave and then they go to morozova's workshop and thats it?? wheres the shu han quest. where the fuck is the ACTUAL spinning wheel. and why is alina not hounding everyone to find the firebird??? she's supposed to be obsessively seeking it now, why does she barely seem to care? also where's the actual ending to siege and storm. WHERE is my darkling & alina fight. wheres her being saved by mal... where's her white hair !!!! idk that scene was my favourite and once i knew we were getting a tv show i really wanted to see this on screen :((

all the characters and relationships they cut... harshaw, misha, ONCAT, tamar&nadia (because lbr they basically weren't there), honestly i even missed sergei and stigg (who i'd barely even remembered before), nadia and adrik as siblings even. they just cut all these people and their journeys with alina for what, a fetch quest for a magic sword?

also, where's the apparat and the soldat sol? we hear people call alina 'sankta', sure, but the entire religious part of ruin and rising is just. completely sidelined. which is really weird because it's so important!! tolya and tamar's faith is basically nonexistent and i don't like it at all

the whole firebird reveal was soooo boring. like i'm sorry but that scene in the book? absolutely perfect. but in the show... it's just a story! baghra just tells mal and thats it! honestly this entire season was so much telling and not showing too, soooo much exposition and it just really didnt work

now then. ive put this off long enough but. the fucking ending. dude... i don't even know where to begin. how do you fuck up the rewrite of your book so badly that the entire moral of your book is just. completely lost?? literally the entire trilogy is built on the "what is infinite? the universe and the greed of men" quote. you CANNOT disregard that in this way. the point of the entire story is that alina's greed is punished! she loses her powers and she loses mal (sort of). the fold is destroyed by her power but not by her, because she never should have had that much power! now... she loses nothing. she has her power, she has three amplifiers, she brought mal back with merzost (which is still. insane to me like i legit laughed out loud when that happened) and now she's general of the second army and also soon probably queen of ravka??? she doesnt lose ANYTHING to her greed.

and with the ending too... where the hell are they going to take this next? because theyre sure as hell not following the kos duology storyline, what with alina now being nikolai's general instead of zoya (which im also. really pissed off about because zoya's story is SO important and theyve just. shoved her to the side)

i also have some thoughts about the crows and how theyve been handled of course i just don't feel as passionately about them (also because they shouldnt have been in this show in the first place but thats just my opinion <3) but i do wonder how theyre gonna start the soc spinoff when theyve basically done so much of the crooked kingdom plot already? and inej is literally already sailing and finding slavers like... i have no idea how theyre going to dothis spinoff and make everyone happy

very small last points but im so mad that they did the "an ordinary life full of ordinary things" line and then decided to. include nikolai? what the actual fuck? and then they didnt even GIVE malina their ordinary life... sorry im so so angry about this ending

i'm sure ive got more to say but this is already wayy too long and i don't wanna bother u anymore but ive just been mad for 3 days straight and really needed to get this off my chest <3 im really disappointed that theyve managed to screw up my favourite book series of all time so i'm just going to reread r&r and forget this season exists :D hope u have a nice day and thank u for reading this dump slfksdj

RIP but ty for venting!!! i totally get everything you’re saying. all of this comes down to the writers smashing basically all of the books into one season for NO reason. all of the things that make the trilogy & duology interesting & compelling & complex are gone bc there’s no time to show them. it’s constantly going GO GO GO with the plot, & for what?? nothing got added to these characters this season, i didn’t feel any impact during any of the big reveals, i didn’t get any emotional payoff from these characters’ journeys.

& why change the ending the way they do? eric’s already said that a season 3 would go back & touch on s&s things they didn’t address. so this ending is meant to draw out alina & mal’s stories, but why do it this way? why backtrack like that? you could certainly draw out the trilogy without speed-running the original ending like this, but that doesn’t fit whatever weird narrative he has for the crows ig.

#i’m tired!!!! let these characters breathe!! #he’s so determined to just tell his silly crows story that he flattened literally every character including them #answers #shadow and bone #genjasafin

[separatist-apologist]

I always want to hear your unsolicited hater thoughts thought 👀🤡

Okay so here are my hater thoughts on King of Wrath. Please just scroll along if you liked this book, I am only speaking for myself.

First of all, when I bought this book, I knew better because I did not like the Twisted series by Ana Huang. I read three of them and quit 3/4ths of the way through with the book with the red head when [spoiler alert] the shitty romantic lead sexually assaulted the FMC for thin plot reasons I no longer care to remember.

But I am SUCH a sucker for an arranged marriage (as we all know), and I was in Kansas City in this three story Barnes and Noble and riding that Taylor Swift high that I let it cloud my better judgement.

My issues:

Dante is literally just two popular tropes in a trench coat. Dark haired and rich are his entirely personality. If you want to be charitable, you could tack on implausibly, compulsively violent. I'm sorry, but Dante is a BILLIONAIRE who was BORN into his wealth (strike one, but I'll let it go for the purposes of romance), in what world is he ACTUALLY killing people?? Be SO serious. This author wanted to give him an air of danger- baby just tell us what he pays his lowest skilled worker! You want me to believe this man is killing his enemies? LMAO I laughed out loud several times when Dante was making his threats.

Vivian is also personality-less. Oh, sure, she WANTS to have a personality but Huang absolutely REFUSES to do any showing. It's all telling. So I'm told Vivian is this badass working girl (not-like-other-girls because unlike all those OTHER heiresses, she WORKS god shut the fuck up- she spent 100k very casually in the course of a day, so like....which is it baby?) making her own way but then Dante shows up acting like the worlds biggest piece of shit and she's like, okay I guess I'll move in with you.

And I know someone is going to come in and say it was the cultural pressure that dragged her into this and I really wanted more of that. It gets touched on but like, so carefully like Huang was too afraid to really commit to her plot. Vivian is Asian-American, and we really dance around what that meant to her. There is a moment right at the end where her mother is discussing why their wealth will NEVER be enough for some people and I was like, oh finally here we go- but the mom is like, you know why. And Vivian is like, yeah, I know why. And that's the end of that! And of course, Dante is never asked to respect any of the cultural differences present, nor does he (threatening to take her dad down AGAIN was just like...oh so you learned NOTHING okay cool).

I think asking readers to believe a modern day arranged marriage was always going to be a tough sell and I wish Huang had really committed to it. She really doesn't, though- Dante is an asshole right up until the very end and one of the things I hate about Huangs MMC's is that they NEVER truly atone for their bad behavior. One of her MMC's stalks the love interest until she breaks down and then Dante is just like, "I miss you" "But I'm still threatening your dad" and Vivian folds like cardboard and ultimately, Dante got everything he wanted and only ever had to treat her well just long enough to get her down the aisle.

The closest this book every came to being self aware is when Vivian is like, we're bad for each other YEAH I AGREE. Like no chemistry AT ALL, the author really relies on Dante being hot (which we're told no less than 8 times a chapter) to do her heavy lifting. The smut is just mid, in my opinion- its not the worst thing, not the best thing, it just is.

Ultimately, Vivian and Dante have no personalities that we aren't told about, even if they directly contradict what we do see. This feels like a book written specifically to market the tropes/whats popular on booktok and so of course it's not good. It's got a few good lines I'll bet she used to market it, but everything in between reads like a first draft.

Would I recommend this? No. If you want to read it, should you? Sure. It's not going to harm you, I think you'll be like me and close it like, "well. thats done". Counts toward my reading goal.

#haters book reviews #mb hate reads #one day ill publish my own book and someone will give me the haters book review treatment #and ill deserve it lol

[scintillyyy]

i read td:r #4, so here's my spoilery thoughts under the cut

i'm still overall liking the emphasis on sherlock holmes and tim as a detective.

some slight improvements with the addition of steph and cass considering one of my big complaints previously was the relative isolation of tim from his friends and family, though i continue to...not really appreciate dc's inability to separate the two of them. cass deserves better imo, i feel like she could have shown up alone and we could have had special tim + cass moments like old times :(

i feel like it's super obvious that bernard knows. the relationship continues to be completely non-offensive and i don't hate it, but i am still having a hard time personally investing in it because it's just...there. it's the driving through a corn field of a relationship, really. (and i don't hate driving through corn fields, personally, they're just kind of dull and...there. i can very happily zone out and enjoy the ride well enough). there's always like two cute panels for people to squeal over and then just a bunch of tim telling me how great bernard is for him and how much he loves him and how he never wants to lose him it just feels like too much happened offscreen to get us to this point in the relationship that i just have not been made aware of. i'm still wondering why. just why. i need to see why. it continues to be very tell, don't show, imo.

that being said!! i can see from someone else's perspective why they might like this relationship and why they find it meaningful and i think that's great!! it's just not really working for me from a narrative perspective. meghan is not convincing me of this love story, sorry :(

which brings us to the kidnapping plot, which i knew was coming, but i'll be honest...i don't think it's going to help these issues i'm having. obviously she's putting it in because it's a trope she loves, but since she hasn't been able to invest me in the relationship i really don't care that bernard got kidnapped? and it'll just lead to more tell, don't show, so....eh. not sure it's going to work for me. will i even notice he's gone? i'm sure tim will find him, they'll kiss, bernard will probably tell tim he knows he's robin and they'll fade back into just an ordinary relationship where bernard is just endlessly understanding and blithely supportive of everything tim does. when will he get a personality? am i missing something here?

anyways, it's not that i hate ordinary relationships! i am married! i'm in an ordinary relationship that i adore with every fiber of my being. i love seeing characters in these types of relationships where they just have this comfort with each other and just exist together. i could, in fact, read an entire issue of lois and clark doing a super boring activity like paint a room and talk the whole time. the thing is to me, they've earned that. they've had years and years of conflict and narrative build-up to it. just going straight to "we're so in love and have no problems" is very eh to me from a story perspective. like happy for tim, but...

also tim's new disco villain with the floor length hair and bellbottoms looks kind of dumb. i am also not invested in this dude as a villain yet. my vote would have been to bring back the general (who is very strategic as far as fighting tim) and his adorable siblings who hate him to help out tim (since new continuity means they can be alive again, right?)

overall, this comic continues to be a solid "okay" imo. not the worst thing i've ever read, but enjoyable enough despite my critiques.

#sometimes i do read (current) comics

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Potential hot takes incoming:

Ok but remember when people got overly dramatically mad about the V twist in dmc 5... like capcom didn't fucking make it but fucking obvious in like literally ALL of the trailers he was in??? They showed the SUMMONED CANES IN THE FUCKING TRAILER. It was just as secretive as Nero being Vergil's son with that obvious evidence being earliest shown in dmc 4. Like guys come on, capcom wasn't trying to hide shit 🧍🏻‍♂️

Then there's the "V should have been his own character 🤬" crowd overly upset at Vergil for a "dumb plot twist" missing the entire point of dmc 5 being a wrap up for a story arc spanning over 4 games (not counting 2 bc Vergil wasn't mentioned at all in 2) Like I'm sorry if that makes one less fictional guy in your head for you to simp over - no kidding when the leaks happened and the plot twist revealed no kidding I saw more than five blogs say they given up the series completely over it and say they fucking hated the franchise forever because of it all because they felt their simping character had been completely taken away(?) or some shit it was fucking ridiculous 😭 - but both he's the whole fucking reason why Vergil's a redeemed character now: he's Vergil's humanity personified realizing all the fucked up shit he's done, acknowledging his own weaknesses, and taking accountability for it by going to the person he's had the most animosity with in the past who knows can fix all of his shit he caused: Dante. And I can write a whole god dammed essay about his interactions and relationship with Nero and how I'm 100% sure V thought Nero was Dante's son the entire game up to the point where it fucking dongs on Vergil's like:

"He's my son?"

*cuts to Nero bitch slapping Dante*

"Okay he's my son."

And I mean you can still see V as his own character in a way, I'm not saying you shouldn't (and I know of course there's the civil part of the crowd too but this is more about the hostile part) but it's important to acknowledge that he's also the bridge for Vergil's development we see at the end of 5 and as a lot of panels from the visions of V manga show us he still had quite the bit of Vergil's attributes more than people give him credit for.

Wow three years ago pre dmc 5 launch was fucking wild 🧍🏻‍♂️anyway, I love V and Urizen's story and how they both built on to Vergil's already complex character and made it possible to put a chapter end to the sons of Sparda storyline :) I just hope if in dmc 6 if we get a new male character the fandom can thirst after we don't get toxic ass fans (bc especially in this fandom that's the last thing we need more of) like early pre launch dmc 5 ones did with V that don't go overly rabbid if he so happens to tie back to the Spardas in a similar way V did where they call the whole franchise dumb because it doesn't meet their standards because they own care about that one character they have the hots for and literally nothing else and harass anyone who calls them out (good dmc twitter memories 🥲)

(Also remember all the so it is written memes? Good times 😭)

#devil may cry #moosh gives his dumb opinions #dmc v #vergil sparda #non request related

[willowbyte]

ah shit, here we go again

making aus that cater to me specifically is my Passion

i am, once again, apologizing for my amateur writing

Capbot

Sensei is a computer scientist tasked with making a robot for the military to guard society, he was eager to create his own AI until he found out he had to replicate the personality of a well known videogame character. He didn't liked the idea but hey, at least he was given the chance to create one of the very first conscious robots.

Cloud is a robotics prodigy, she was paired with Sensei to complete the Capbot project. Her curiosity and gut trust has always led her to great results and when constructing the body of Captain this was no exception. She admires Sensei a lot even if sometimes he can look annoyed at her mere presence.

Captain originates from a videogame beloved by many, The Tankmen. While it was intended for him to be a war machine, Sensei was not given this information and created an AI who's main purpose was to look after people, as a result he came out... rather clumsy, but very protective over the assigned person.

His relationship with Cloud is almost sibling-like, with her enthusiastically showing him all the stuff of the real world and him just having fun and following along. Sensei has tried to convince himself to Not Like Him but his joyful attitude and personality were just too charming to not get attached, then he remembers how Captain loves to tease him and Sensei goes back into hating him (affectionately).

Meanwhile in the other lab, scientists Pico and Keith were tasked with making a bot of the second main character, and unlike Sensei and Cloud, they went straight to the point.

(LOLL SORRY FOR USING KEITH AS BF'S NAME I'M NOT CREATIVE ENOUGH TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER NAME. also that second main character is Steve)

Shimepai

(idk why i wrote this different than the rest, but it sounds like an advertisement so i like it lol)

(Heavily inspired by @/s0dap0pzxx's Senpai Shimeji, love the little guy)

This living malware disguised as a Shimeji and a Desktop Assistant first appeared out of nowhere in fan forums of Hating Simulator.

At first glance he seems to act like your regular shimeji, except he cannot duplicate. He walks, crawls and dances around your screen offering you tips and sometimes saying cute little messages! when right clicking he can also work as a Direct Access for different applications or folders of your choice. However soon you might notice some of your documents might have changed places, don't worry! That's just lil Shimepai getting to know your computer! Sometimes you'll see files with different names that you originally remembered, that's part of the process too.

When he starts getting more comfortable you'll see him modifying some settings, chatting with your friends and even delete some of your apps and files to save you some space! He can sometimes pull tiny pranks. Just be sure to not make him angry if you don't want your computer to be factory reset.

Over all, Shimepai is just trying to adapt and feel cozy in his new home, maybe at the cost of your entire device and personal data but can you blame him? you gave him access to this amazing paradise!

Private Sen

This newest member of the army is an unexpected ray of positivity in the battlefield. While most people find him annoying at first, some will get used to his sweet presence, he can also be really sassy at times.

Him and Steve get along rather well, having kind of a friendly rivalry. Private tries his best to impress Captain but this can sometimes end in him fucking up the base, or accidentally shooting his rifle to someone's leg

Captain just finds him funny.

Idk where else i can put this but this guy has plot armor, like no matter how many times a tankmen enemy is shooting him from behind the tankmen always misses and Private is oblivious to the entire fucking situation.

Hellpai

(this idea came out from these icons in an Expurgation cover. i just. wanted to share the info.)

(so i guess they count as a minus design? i dunno lol)

(excuse the name lmao but i couln't think of anything. also i would like to clarify that Hellpai is not spirit)

After wandering far, far away from his military base, Captain gets cursed and his soul gets chained to a long forgotten spirit.

While Captain, Steve and this creature that looks like came out from the gates of hell figure out how to break the curse for everyone involved, they have to get used to their new companion, and honestly? it wasn't as bad as they would have expected.

This nameless spirit acted aggressively at first encounter, mostly for self defense. He didn't had the liberty to talk, he could grumble and maybe say a word (cough cough this would occur later on) but he could never make full sentences, like he was not allowed to do so.

Everything before he met Captain was a blur, he didn't remember much. Maybe he once had a peaceful life? A life full of commodities on a civilisation lost in time, where he could just stretch his arm and anything he needed fell directly to his hand. What kind of person was he? A bad person? Was that the reason why he was like this? All those questions whose answers felt he was supposed to know, and yet he couldn't think of anything beyond those decades of claustrophobic solitude. Whatever had happened, he was comforted that, at least, he was no longer in that prison

and to be fair, he enjoyed being with these silly 'tankmen'

quite a lot

Deltarune AU / Angel Holiday

(can you tell i made this au when my deltarune fixation clashed with my fnf one)

Angel Holiday was adopted by the Holiday family, being the middle child between her younger sister Noelle and her older sister Dess, he is also the second only human in the surface.

Angel tries to make himself look assertive and confident, however he always makes sure to please other monsters and do as they say, after all, he just wants to be just like them

Ever since they were kids, Angel and Kris were looked down because they were humans, this made them become closer to each other. As they both grew up, comparisons grew stronger, adults always saying 'why couldn't Kris be well behaved like Angel' and other complaints of that type, this made Kris somewhat resentful of Angel. Slowly, the friendship they built in their childhood faded, becoming only classmates that rarely talked only because of Noelle.

-

After school, Angel realized Noelle forgot her notebook, he knew she was going to the library with Berdly to continue their project, so he went there to return it to her. Last thing Angel was expecting was a black void in the computer lab that would throw him and the rest of his classmates into an adventure that felt like a fever dream, and maybe treat some unhealed wounds in the process

Extra stuff:

The flowers in his face slowly fall the more true he is to himself (the more he lies, the more they grow)

Angel's soul color is cyan (i still feel indecisive about this one)

#friday night funkin #senpai fnf #fnf senpai #fnf au #willow's art station #ehehe um lol hiiiiii #i can't be bothered to tag every single au so if i ever draw something of these aus it'll be under the fnf-au tag

[shesawriter39049]

|Breakdown’s & Bugatti’s| M|

PAIRING: Namjoon x Reader (Ft a hint of Tae & Jin)

About- Namjoon just does what he has to do to keep you ....calm while at a charity gala!  

OR:

CHAPTER 1 : MEET THE KIMS OF NEW YORK 

**WARNINGS: **Semi public sex, Fingering (F receiving), Minimal prep, Light dirty talk, Light spit play, Choking, Spanking, Gags (Makeshift), Non protective sex (Creampie), light overstimulation

WC: 7K (This is a sneak peak so it’s 1.2k)

NON SEXUAL WARNINGS: (Fictional political background)  Hints at recreational drug use (Molly) Brief mentions of death, father issues, and panic attacks/anxiety (All of these topics are super minor but again, out of respect I’m mentioning them) 

The remaining “characters” will be introduced at a later date

This chapter hints at various future plots 

This is almost 2 years old, I reworked it recently 

If you’ve been following me for a while this is the original draft for “Club First Royale” 

FINAL NOTE: I haven’t been active in damn hear a year ( 8 months) So I am posting sneak peeks intentionally! No, not to torture you guys lol but to get my blog flowing again because I’m sure people aren’t really checking in anymore

OT7 ALTERNATING STORYLINES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FINALLY, fuck 36737 years later you spot your Kim!

Standing there in all his glory, in a Valentino slim fit navy blue suit, the jacket appearing to have some sort of paisley print, opting against a tie. Leaving his crisp white dress shirt slightly unbuttoned, teasing at his broad carnalized chest as he makes his way from the bar. Heading over to the table, which has an empty seat waiting right beside him with your name written all over it...literally!

Purposely dodging the old lady to your left in a coat that would have PETA ready to throw hands! Gaudy diamonds, terrible Botox, and smelled as if she showered in an entire bottle Chanel No. 5! 

Yeah, no, sorry, not in the mood for another meet and greet right now!

“Joonie” Squeals from your lips once you’re in close enough proximity, his dark piercing eyes cut over to meet yours. A playful smirk tugging on those sinfully thick lips of his, accompanied by those disrespectful ass dimples!

“There she is!” Eyes dripping with warmth, as he ushered you in with open arms ,and in these types of situations, Namjoon felt like home, he was your safe space. “You look fuckin good” The words hushed into your hair in a tenor meant for your ears and your ears only! A hint of something a little more than just friendly playing on his tongue. 

A small little “Thank you” leaves your lips, and if I didn't know any better I’d think the compliment made you a little flustered.

Namjoon was the definition of Ocean arm’s and goddamn if you didn't just love how big this man was! It literally felt like he was hiding you from the entire universe when he has you nuzzled into his frame! The whole interaction couldn't have lasted longer than 20 seconds in all actuality but god you needed it! 

Face flush to his chest, wrapping your arms firm around his waist, letting your eyes flutter shut briefly, a deep slow exhale flooded through your body. Inhaling the musky yet sweet scent of his cologne mixed with his natural aroma, which has grown to become a calming mechanism over the years. 

“You had me worried for a minute…” Placing a quick kiss in your hair, that you would have missed if you blinked but again, your in public soo...

Palms soothing up and down your back gently, as he breathed into your hair , pulling back a little so there was some form of personal space between the two of you.  

“Your late, even for you princess...I know you started early, I got your live(Instagram) notification, so what happened?” Head clocked to the side as he appraises you and fuck, the bass in his voice still has you all types of fucked up! Glancing over your shoulder briefly before leaning up to place a kiss on the hinge of his jaw, that tittered the line of passing as an “innocent” greeting. 

“I’m fine Jonnie it’s nothing, we just got held up in glam.., Ariel was flying in from Miami...we got a late start” Gaze intentionally diverted as you welcomed yourself to his glass of Scotch instead. Damn near inhaling the entire drink as we speak and you hated dark liquor so that alone let him know something was up!  

Merely resisting the urge to smooth out the crease he felt forming between his brows, a dry snort left his lips, rolling his eyes in response to your blatant stubbornness. Nevertheless, always the gentleman, reaching down to pull out your chair so you could take a seat next to him. Mirroring your actions just moments prior, quickly scoping out his surroundings before he brought those plush pillows he calls lips a centimeter away from your ear.

Fuck. 

  “Right, so I'm just going to assume you don’t wanna talk about it right now! Or wait I’m sorry, have you just upgraded to insulting my intelligence straight to my damn face?” 

Brow quirked inquisitively, and you could literally feel every word, tone taking on a hint of seriousness the more he talked. Namjoon licked his lips and the tip skimmed the edge of your ear and I - . 

“For one you smell like an entire bottle of Heidsieck, I can almost taste the nicotine on your tongue and you've been crying I know you. ”  

Pulling back just enough to glare down at you above the brim of his glasses, which he always wore low along his bridge. Eyes daring you to look him in the face a lie again, teasing his fingers through his chocolate locks. Styled in the perfect semi grown out undercut, the top a little on the long side, while the sides tapered into a crisp fade. Sideburns outlining that extremely understated jawline of his! Though you had to admit the yellow gold diamonds dawning his ears were kinda stealing the show right now! 

“So again, do you just not wanna talk about it right now? Or have you forgotten that I have an IQ of 137, and can smell bullshit from here all the way to Gangnam!?” 

You're having very vivid day daydreams of your hand wrapped around this man's windpipe and for once it’s not even remotely sexual! 

Blatantly ignoring the strong twitch within Namjoon’s jaw and simply saying “I’m here, aren’t I!?” Face stoic, tone flat as all hell, in case it wasn’t clear that this conversation was more than over, you opted to eye his bourbon glazed salmon until he got the hint.

 “Oh, for fucks sake! ” Hissed from his lips without a lick of heat behind them, because as quiet as it’s kept ,your lowkey Joon’s baby, which is why he cares to begin with! Picking up a piece on his fork before essentially shoving it into your hand ”Your lucky I can’t have your ass getting sick on me tonight, we still have like, 3 hours left of this bullshit.”

More like he just can’t tell you no, but hey, whatever helps him sleep at night! Sliding his plate in your direction, completely giving up on eating at this point, he knew you needed it more anyway! Finally, starting to feel your mix of poisons hit your system so you knew you needed  to even it out with a little substance. I mean yeah, you could have just ordered your own plate but meh, this was easier! 

Namjoon started busying himself on his phone while you ate, scrolling through a couple contacts until he landed on a contact labeled under “Kookie”.

“Even though you were only late because “Your glam team ran late” There were air bunnies involved, and again you just really wanna choke his ass!  “What are you thinking tonight? He’s actually on his way here right now, but he already has a couple options on him...” 

The question was vague and for damn good reason...considering…

However you knew exactly what he was referring too.., and thank god!

Speaking over a mouth full of salmon, sounding utterly exasperated!  “Honestly, any fucking thing at this point…” 

Namjoon hums thoughtfully, sucking on a Bourbon soaked Ice cube “He’ll be here in 20, I just went with Smartees…always a safe bet...” 

Smartees, candy, Vitamin -E, Molly... Estcasy...it’s all one and the same, just depends on who you ask!

He leans back in, apparently keen on whispering tonight. “Maybe, if your a good girl and eat enough we can split one before we leave...chill you out a little bit. '' Voice thick and heady, lips curling into a grin with a hint of something wicked playing on the ends, as his fingers idly ghost over your forearm. Giving it a light squeeze and regardless of how innocent the skin-ship may seem to the naked eye, you’re well aware of all the underlying innuendos behind it! 

You make a noise of agreement, trying your damnedest to ignore the slight chill coursing up your spine at the pet name. Though before you could even dwell, Namjoon was sliding back in with another update, this one however wasn't as...arousing…to say the least!

“Fox 2’s been waiting for you to get here by the way...since the event was put together by council and all. They've been wanting to talk to us together about the fundraiser, just the same shit as last year.” 

Waving his hand dismissively idly twirling the various pieces of Bvlgari around his fingers, seemingly un-phased while you on the other hand...release the most exasperated huff! Reclining against your seat, eyes rolling to the back of your head in 30 different directions! Yeah, It comes with the territory, you know this, hints Namjoons reaction, or lack thereof!  But fuck you just really weren’t in the mood to do press tonight, It’s literally physically exhausting to pretend that you weren’t just PISSED! 

“Of -fuckin- course they do!” Stabbing your mashed potatoes in a way that's... somewhat concerning… 

“Baby.” It was a warning, though his voice sat barley above a whisper, his tone was crystal! Eyes cutting in your direction briefly before dropping back down to his phone….

You didn't have it in you to argue, there’s no way around this anyway, fuck it!  “What -the-fuck-ever!” Sliding the half empty plate aside “Well, you wanna just get it out of the way now? Because I’m really not in the mood for-”

“Y/n..oh my god! Hi, honey how are you!? You look beautiful as always…” Suddenly there was a human, a human wearing the wrong shade of foundation kissing your cheek. A human by the name of Caroline, one of the local news anchors...clearly her damn ears were ringing.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi guys, that’s all she wrote, well kinda, actually she finished it like 16 months ago lol but that’s all she wrote for now I guess....

**_

_****Love you...see ya soon!!**

***SIDE NOTE, MY FRIEND MADE THE TWITTER EDIT SO DON’T ASK LOL IDK ****

UPDATE: HEADCANONS FOR THE KIM BOYS/OC

  HEADCANONS

#Namjoon #namjoon smut #namjoon x reader #namjoon x you #namjoon au #kim namjoon #kim namjoon smut #kim namjoon x reader #bts #bts smut #bts au #bts x reader #kim namjoon x you #kpop #kpop smut #kpop au

[bookwyrminspiration]

is it still council-hating hours? even if not, this is something that's been bothering me for....so long. and i am going to explode if i don't say it right now. (In fact i actually have a doc titled "council incompetence rant" that is. getting a little long.)

One of the things that annoys me the most in Keeper is how utterly incompetent the Council is. They are shit at their jobs! They don't make sense! And that would be fine if that was something that was explored and talked about in the story, but it's not?

Like, sure, it's brushed on a little, but Keeper never goes in-depth in order to explain just how flawed and corrupt the system is! We have no idea how far the rot goes because we haven't been given a chance to see how far it goes, and despite the earlier books being really great setup for all kinds of plots and discussions surrounding the Council, it feels like Messenger is completely dropping that in favor of..."Neverseen Bad, Council + Black Swan Good". Which I call fucking bullshit on, by the way, because this series has gone to pretty decent lengths before to show that it's not the case! So WHY are we getting to that now?

Well, I think all of this is the symptom of a bigger problem.

Note: I don't want to be mean, and please tell me if I'm being too critical here, but this series has some serious problems actually delivering on what it's saying.

Like, it's trying to tell us that Sophie shouldn't be doing all this because she's a kid, but then it treats her very own existence as a project as background information when that should absolutely be at the forefront (like it was in earlier books)!

It's trying to tell us that discrimination against the Talentless is bad, but then every single member of it's cast has an ability, has a strong ability, and regularly uses their ability! Even Dex, who could have easily been talentless and good with tech, gets to be a Super Good Gadget Person thanks to his ability as opposed to his own creativity and ingenuity.

It's trying to tell us that maybe banishing children is bad, but also tells us that Exillium is now """fixed""" because Oralie gave them...better tents? Food? And never touches on the fact that children are still. getting. banished. It doesn't explore Tam's anger in detail, Linh is only there to be the token asian girl, it does nothing to fully dispel any thought of the Council being alright.

And it's trying to tell us that the Council fucks up, it's showing us that Councillors have no problem being incredibly selfish and violent and so many other terrible things, but that never changes. Nothing in Keeper is changing. It is only maintaining the status quo!

I'm confused as to what Messenger is trying to tell her readers! Are the Council good or bad? Is working with the Council good or bad? Are the Black Swan and Neverseen actually morally grey? Should I be angry at what's happening in these books? Am I meant to look at all the rot and shrug because "that's just how it is"?

And like...I wouldn't be mad if Keeper was just...bad! I mean, I would, but I wouldn't be as distraught! What really grinds my gears is that Keeper has the chance to be good. It has the chance to do great things - and at times it absolutely does! - but it keeps reinforcing belief in a deeply flawed and broken system that is regularly hurting people. And those examples were just off the top of my head!

And again, if this was explored within the series, that would be amazing, but the problem is that it's...not. And that's just...a real fuckin' shame, honestly.

- pyro

(sorry if this was like...too angry? i started and then kinda just...couldn't stop. i should probably get a hobby that's not tearing a middle grade series apart. oops.)

it may have been over a week since you sent this (thank you for being patient with me!!), but fuck yes it is still council hating hours. it is always council hating hours in this household that is not actually a house. (also that incompetence rant sounds intriguing)

yes! you are right! they are so bad at what they're supposed to be doing it's like they're just figures for people to look to and say "yea they'll take care of it" to keep everyone else from acting out! but it's really interesting to see a government so awful and incompetent be such an integral and influential part of the story...without acknowledging that they're actually really bad? I know in Unlocked there's a line where Shannon says something like "Sophie had to figure out who the bad guys were: the black swan? the council? someone else entirely?" but then it's never touched on again that I can remember. Thinking through the series, I honestly can't think of a situation that the council, of their own volition, saw was an issue and corrected in a way that was beneficial to those who needed it. Like yea, Oralie gave money to Exillium, but that was after Sophie chewed her out about it. I think i've said it before but in case not: it feels like they've taken the "for the good of the many over the good of the few" ideology too far in a society that doesn't work for. If someone threatens the majority (and often that's just in appearance only) they get rid of them to preserve the image of the rest. It doesn't care about their people, it cares about the majority of people feeling undisturbed.

considering Sophie is part of a huge organization created literally because their society, led by that system, isn't working for a lot of people, they (the Black Swan) sure do go along with the council a whole lot. I think one of the linked posts in one of my masterposts is specifically about how making the Black Swan work so closely with the council screwed them over and completely undermined everything they were working towards. I'm going to make a very vague comparison here, but the Black Swan feel like "we need to fix the system" while the Neverseen are "the system is broken lets start over" (except the Neverseen added a lot more violence into the mix). It's absolutely infuriating to have them working side by side: one, because the Black Swan aren't accomplishing any of their goals and should cut their losses and go back to being mysterious underground groups with more freedom to move (in my opinion), but two, because it makes the council seem like it's trying to fix things when really it feels like a publicity thing to make the public think they're addressing the rebel issue while they're really just showing up in places and causing problems. And!! that's another thing! it feels like their collaboration with the Black Swan is to address the problem of having rebels, not the problems these rebels have identified and are trying to fix. Unfortunately, it seems the council is getting their way more than the Black Swan, getting them to act more legally and work closer with less room for working outside the system. if that makes sense.

considering it's literally stated in unlocked that there is no "good" and "bad," there does seem to be a lot of focus on associating the Black Swan with being Right, and the Neverseen with being Wrong. I can hope that it's the outward reactions to the Black Swan realizing they've done some fucked up stuff (Sophie) and are now overcompensating and trying to make sure their every move is the correct one. But I do think it will be interesting to see if Sophie makes the connection in canon (as she's already started to) that there isn't always a right option, there's just the best you can do with a situation and the Black Swan's insistence that she was "in the wrong" (a summary) helps her realize her own values and think through their decisions with her own perspective instead of just trusting them

response to your note: you're fine! you bring up a good point that this book sounds like it wanted to be a unique perspective (by having the "good guys" also be questionable and give the "bad guys" reasonable motives) but the execution misses the mark for a lot of us. so you're qualms and observations are entirely valid and I don't think you're being mean at all! I think you're expressing a frustration you have with something, which I support and encourage.

at times it feels like Shannon bit off more than she could chew in terms of all the complicated things she could get into when it comes to this series. not saying she's doing a bad job or a horrible author or anything, just that there are some things she introduced that kind of get left behind or unexplored because there's so much else going on. I think we can see that in the whole being experiment part of Sophie life. we saw sophie was uncomfortable with it in the first few books and would sometimes bring it up, but I personally would've been more satisfied if she'd either taken the time to process it (opposed to her think about that later strategy) or come to the realization that no, she isn't okay with it and she deserves to have her thoughts on the matter heard. she was literally created to serve someone elses purpose, and brought into the fight too early at that. and yet it's treated like an "oopsie, guess we just gotta go with it" thing, like this minor part of her story when I bet her thinking about it for more than a minute at a time would absolutely wreck her. but I'm getting caught up in this, so moving on!

I think we can see it in the talentless too, as it's treated like a "that doesn't affect me" thing for Sophie. because she doesn't have any friends that are talentless right now--the closest she's got is Marella, who I think is still legally considered talentless with her pyrokinesis. it's been acknowledged that she doesn't think the way talentless are treated is right, but it doesn't impact her right now so she's not really doing anything about it. maybe if this was brought back later with someone like Jensi, then that would be a satisfying conclusion to this issue (not a conclusion, but it wouldn't be left hanging, if that makes sense). And I can understand the benefit of leaving things open to go back and explore later from a writers perspective, but at a certain point it becomes more of a hindrance to the story than anything else.

and exillium! I have so many thoughts on Exillium that I actually started talking about it earlier in this post. They're not doing anything unless prompted and what they do is the bare minimum. With the tents and the food, they aren't fixing Exillium, they're making it into what it should've been at the very least were they going to actually go down that route. So I can't praise them for it when it's just basic decency to provide literal children with food and shelter when you force them to be somewhere they don't want to. But all this doesn't fix Exillium, because the problem is that it exists in the first place. The problem is that the council saw children who were struggling, and decided the best thing to do with them was to just get them out of the way for everyone else. Three coaches total for leadership? yeah, there's no way that place was ever supposed to be "alternate learning" or however Oralie phrased it, that was just so you could say you hadn't completely abandoned them in the middle of nowhere.

you're so right about the council fucks up bit--I think the most obvious example of this is with Sophie's ability restrictor. Yea, she's not wearing it anymore, but that's not because the council changed their minds. It's because she broke the law and the didn't punish her for it. this is a great example of how things keep trying to move forward, but the council isn't doing anything to stay up with it. "they are selfish and violent[...] but that never changes." yes!! this!! you put it so well! the council is still the same old council that we saw in book one, concerned with their own interests and their own views, just trying to mitigate the damage Sophie and her friends are capable of doing to their system. Note: the fact that a handful of teenagers who haven't even graduated can do this much damage might be telling of the structural integrity of their system. Bronte and Terik did a little flip, and Alina replaced the Now Crispy Kenric, but aside from that nothing has changed.

I will say, I personally don't want it to be clear who the good guys and bad guys are. (not saying that's what you're asking for! just piggybacking off your comment on the confusion). I'm glad that the characters make me think and I'm grateful there isn't just the "we're good and they're bad" element you see in other stories. not that that's bad, i just think realistically they'd be more complex and their simplicity grows repetitive after a while. But like I said, at times it feels like there's too much going on for there to be a clear message, which in and of itself could be the message. i could be seeing something where there's nothing, though. I think part of it might be Shannon trying to take on all these complex narratives and perspectives with a limited perspective (as in she only has Sophie to tell the story through), while also needing to make it enjoyable and palletable to a young audience.

and I agree with you! I think it's a lot of the potential we see not being used that makes us so infuriated (or me at least). Because there are some stories yo uread where you're like "ah. it's just one of those stories. cool." and you move past it. Because you know it's going to have a set perspective and you know it's going to accomplish what it wants, but Keeper seems to have so many possibilities and Shannon's getting stuck in this rut of good and bad after so long. maybe we'll get out of it in the next book with sophie thinking the Black Swan was in the wrong, but I also wouldn't be surprised if that Didn't Happen.

it's just like what i was saying about Ro! There's all these opportunities for these characters and this world to be really explored and fleshed out and complex, but we've gotten stuck in this romance drama and loosing fights again and again with little progress. All their actions are undoing the Neverseen's actions and counting it a victory because no one is dead. I just think there could be so much more that we're not getting because the story tried to go too broad when it wasn't ready for it.

this response got very long but in essence: I agree with your assessment of the story. is frustrating to see so many of the details and paths we'd like to see explored that often aren't in fiction just pass us by.

there is a special place for keeper in my heart and I will always appreciate it for that, but I also mourn what it could've been.

(also: you are not too angry! you have genuine thoughts about this series and they deserve to be heard! we are allowed to have complaints, even about the things we like. we don't have to appreciate every single aspect and we're allowed to be mad at the things we don't like.)

#we are a week into october and I have several asks from september still #how many can i answer in one day is the question #but back to what you were saying pyro #I don't want to just completely rewrite the entire series myself #but I do think there are things that could've been approached better and the council is one of them #If the Black Swan and Sophie both acknowledge their faults #i don't fully understand why they work so closely together #but that's a whole other thing so I should probably stop #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc character analysis #kotlc council #the black swan #quil's queries #pyrokinetic-loser #long post