#also gonna ramble for a sec | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

smile-files · 2 years

Text

teardrop for the win!

of course i have a bias for teardrop, but for several reasons i believe that they really are one of the best object show characters of all time - teardrop by definition changes the game while also changing as a person.

for one thing, if given a list of all of teardrop's areas of expertise, one would assume that she was a guaranteed winner - she is incredibly intelligent and cunning, knows how to author, draw, and code, can easily operate regular tools as well as firearms, can walk up walls, is quick on her feet with good balance, has an amazing throwing arm, can work under pressure, can shoot lasers out of her finger, and is astoundingly ambitious and laser-focused on winning. if ignoring the social aspect of challenges, teardrop would've easily won every season they participated in - which is all of them.

however, one can't ignore the social aspect of challenge-based shows like bfdi - and, whether they're in her control or not, that's where most of her shortcomings lie. the fact that teardrop doesn't speak affects how a lot of their fellow contestants treat them, often causing them to take advantage of teardrop in challenges or otherwise harass them. for that reason alone it can be incredibly difficult for teardrop to make friends, in teams or alliances, as most other contestants refuse to see her as anything but "the quiet one" (even well-meaning contestants refer to her with similarly reductive epithets).

aside from this, teardrop frequently has had little to no regard for the wellbeing of others, perfectly willing to hurt them if they bother her or if their pain gives her the upper hand. most of the time this has been in response to how others treat them, in that nobody cared about their feelings, so they weren't going to care about anyone else's; similarly, teardrop's ambition might've stemmed from a notion that since nobody cared what they wanted, they were going to take what they wanted. even so, teardrop's hostility has often affected people who have done nothing specific to hurt her, such as gelatin, leafy, or flower - out of an unadultarated drive for victory for all three cases, but for the last case also out of impulse. teardrop is notably very impulsive, frequently jumping into actions or decisions without considering all of the options or really thinking about how they might affect those around her. it's clear that teardrop has been here to win, not to make friends - or at least that's what she thought at first.

this initial picture of teardrop provides a fascinating dichotomy between her immense technical skills and meager social skills - both of which being essential to really succeeding in a competition (aside from helping in the team/alliance setting, social skills are important in making the viewer want you to stick around). and, sadly, because so few really accepted them as a person, nevermind a fellow contestant, teardrop's opportunities to utilize her skills and really help her team had been few and far between, meaning that for a significant portion of the series teardrop had been left to languish and be eliminated for no good reason.

i can't say that teardrop didn't get along with anyone before bfb's split; not everyone was actively hostile towards her, for one thing, and a select few were actually reasonably nice to her and actively engaged her in and out of challenges - like leafy, bubble, and especially needle. unfortunately, though, it's hard to find a needle in a haystack (pun intended)...

at the start of bfb, most people were treating teardrop like they always had - why, the first episode is titled "getting teardrop to talk", as even newbies were keen on harassing them about their lack of speech. right from the beginning of that season it was cemented in our minds that people still saw teardrop as a "silent type" with whom understanding is impossible. it was their trying to force teardrop to speak. it was their ignoring teardrop's nonverbal cues. everything seemed the same as always...

but if the first episode's title being named after her tells us anything, it's that bfb was the beginning of teardrop's ascension. into a winner.

before the split, teardrop did what they could to help their team, as they normally would; it was after the split, though, which marked their prime opportunity not only to make friends but also shine as a teammate.

her new team consisted of balloony, bubble, gelatin, leafy, lollipop, ruby, and herself - two people who were already nice to her, three who had never harassed her, and one with whom she was acquainted but who hadn't accepted her yet. i believe this group of people presented teardrop with the ultimate opportunity to not only succeed in the competition, but also grow as a person and get better at making friends.

throughout this new era teardrop got to help immensely in nearly every challenge while simultaneously having fun - they seemed to be a lot more comfortable with this team than with prior ones.

most importantly, she came face-to-face with how her actions affect others. a continuous victim of teardrop's impulsive violence was gelatin; this reasonably made him upset and uncomfortable. however, instead of fearing teardrop and treating them like a monster, he openly told them how he was feeling - actually treating them like a person with feelings themselves. and so teardrop could actually take a step back and think about how she made him feel, and then apologize the best way she could - she might not've been able to say she was sorry, but with her party for gelatin she definitely showed it. and gelatin recognized that.

(my favorite image ever ^)

and so the rest of the contestants began to recognize teardrop as well... there was a subsequent ripple effect from gelatin's open discomfort to teardrop's apology to him to a friendship with him to a friendship with lollipop, which in itself resulted in a willingness to risk their immunity for the sake of their friendship and alliance... which is completely unprecedented! teardrop is so driven to win that her willingness to potentially lose is shocking.

before this, teardrop only ever fought for herself; after all, there was really nobody else for her to fight for. teardrop had had amicable acquaintances, but they didn't really have friends who actually got on their level and put the effort into understanding them. and no, gelatin and lollipop hadn't always been that understanding, but via gelatin's kindness the two of them could now see teardrop in a new light - she wasn't mysterious and scary, but rather just fiercely determined... and misunderstood. they could now see that not only was teardrop a worthy competitor, but a worthy alliance member as well - all because gelatin extended that olive branch.

the newbie alliance, which teardrop was now welcomed into, flourished; the three began to understand each other like siblings; even if they weren't always successful in challenges, they cheered each other on through every loss, every elimination, not even letting a spot in the final divide them. teardrop came in third while gelatin was allowed to advance, but she wasn't angry at him - she was upset with the circumstance, of course, but was also able to move on quickly due to how proud she was of him.

and in the finale, the three worked together beautifully in the group's pursuit of four... and to gelatin and lollipop, their best friends, their siblings, teardrop was no longer "the quiet one". teardrop was the smart one. the perceptive one. the determined one. the one who can inexplicably walk up walls. gelatin and lollipop saw in teardrop what most people refused to, and so teardrop realized that not everyone will refuse to see the good in them. by the end of bfb, teardrop's strengths - all of those incredible technical skills mentioned before - are truly realized, now that they have the strength of their loved ones supporting them. bfb might've been the happy ending for gelatin and flower, but it was also teardrop's beginning.

teardrop abruptly left the scene of bfb for what we now know to be tpot - and her level of confidence is skyrocketing! they're incredibly bold now in a way that they never could've been before - as, even though they're away from their friends, teardrop still has their strength from afar. teardrop still is that ambitious little droplet we know and love; she never stopped aiming for the top, even after being eliminated in bfb. teardrop stuck around until the end, but once things settled down for everyone else, things just picked up once again for them.

it's notable that after a season of finally being able to thrive in a team/alliance setting, teardrop should now be competing on her own; i think this is incredibly interesting, as now she relies entirely on her raw power and talent. after all, not only does teardrop not have teammates to cooperate with, but they also lack the luxury of the chance to be saved from elimination by the viewers - as their team's loss is an automatic elimination for them. we can see that teardrop is struggling on her own, but at the same time her gun-slinging swagger is making her out as a worthy opponent to her fellow competitors. i wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line multiple teams want to alliance with them, as to harness this dark horse's power...

in addition, teardrop has really made a name for herself in the eyes of both the viewers and the other characters by joining tpot... the focus was put on them with their disappearance at the end of bfb; then that suspense culminated in their arriving at the setting of tpot; then two made an exception to let them join; then they were put on a solo team bearing their own name; then they somehow pulled through despite being solo. back in bfdi's days teardrop was easy to miss due to her early elimination and lack of screentime - but now the screen is hers. tpot doesn't stand for 'the power of two', no, but rather 'the power of teardrop'... because they're owning it.

teardrop really is coming into her own now, which is so amazing - with every step she comes closer to being the ultimate challenge, and i believe she has it in her to go far in tpot, even if she's at a major disadvantage. but then, teardrop has always been fighting the odds; they're a breakthrough character and a real paragon for the strength of communication, understanding, and friendship, all of which being central themes of bfdi as a whole.

teardrop is a guaranteed winner. i know she's going to do well and have a blast while doing it - and all the power to her! teardrop's already winning and nothing can stop her. come get your crown, teedster...

it's waiting just for you.

#melonposting #long post #bfdi #bfdi teardrop #bfb #bfb teardrop #bfb td #tpot #the power of two #tpot teardrop #tpot td #kin #not me rambling about why i'm the best object show character ever... haha...#i'm right though #also i have a newfound respect for gelatin #he's a real sweetheart and such a good sport. like that is my brother and i love him so much oh my god #bfb newbie alliance #gonna reread my newbie alliance fanfictions in a sec cuz man this is bringing back memories #newbie alliance my beloved <3 we won bfb in my heart <33 #to all my fellow teardrop enjoyers: let's gooooooooo #i felt so powerful when td joined tpot. like i got an adrenaline rush #i'm back baby! i'm back!!!!#now all i need is for jnj to make a teardrop plushie and i'll be set for life #cuz darn i'm really winning at object shows. i'm really winning #lol i am having so much fun. td for the win. amen #gun tw #tw gun

202 notes · View notes

oraclebabsday · 4 months

Note

um hello!! im very new to comics, but of the characters I’ve seen so far, I really like Barbara and I was just wondering if you had any comic recommendations on where to start..? its very confusing trying to get into it all, but I’d like to be able to hold a conversation about someone I find interesting with my boyfriend so I can hear him info dump on me more cus he’s deep into dc so :)

Hi!!! That is so sweet omg 😭 Welcome to the weird wonderful world of comics!!! and also i’m so sorry for what I’m abt to throw at you lmao

Since you’ve sent this ask into an Oracle-centric blog, I’m gonna keep this rec list Oracle!Babs-centric (& also encourage my fellow mods to add on if they also have some recs!) I actually don’t have a whole lot of recs for Batgirl!Babs anyways, but I’ll be tagging my gen dc blog at the end in case you’d like to talk abt those or any other characters!

Also before I get Into the recs, I wanna give you some words of encouragement: there’s no right or wrong way to read! You’re also likely gonna have some well a lot of confusion at the beginning, esp bc there will be Events™️ that have ramifications™️ and you’re not always given full context of what’s come before or what’s happening concurrently with what you’re reading. I’ve been doing this for awhile and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that the more that you read & explore, the more fun you’ll have & the more things will usually start to make sense! But it’s all gotta start somewhere first! :D and you’ve def chosen a great character to be your launching point!

Im gonna be hopping around a bit in my recs here but I’ll try to keep it mostly in chronological order. That said, first up:

Suicide Squad (1987) - she appeared semi-regularly starting in #23! This was also her debut as Oracle! I really enjoyed the overall run & would normally highly recommend it, but also want to warn that it’s a pretty heavy read in terms of content itself (canon-typical violence ofc esp for a SuiSq comic, discussions of suicide ideation, period typical stereotyping/‘subversion’ of said stereotypes, but that’s a deeper discussion for a different blog) For that reason, I don’t necessarily recommend it for a first-time reader, esp if you’re wanting to solely focus on Babs. Team books usually aren’t super great when you’re reading for an individual character, in my experience, esp in a case like this where the character isn’t always necessarily part of the team or appears sporadically enough to disrupt the flow of following a storyline.

Birds of Prey (1999) - This team book breaks that prev rule tho, bc Babs is the leader & is in Damn near every issue of this run 😂 There’s several smaller team-ups before the main ‘99 run (BoP:Manhunt, BoP:Wolves, etc), which are also good as a prelude before the main run itself. This will be the longest thing that will give you a LOT to parse through & ymmv with a lot of it. (Dixon & Simone are the most prominent writers for it & without getting Into It they each have their Issues™️ & Crimes™️) It also crosses over with a few events/references others. Imo it’s a good window into what comics are like overall, esp when you get into a longer run with multiple writers at the helm. But it has an added bonus of keeping a pretty small cast at its forefront (for about half the run, it’s solely Babs n Dinah!) It also has a follow-up run in 2010 which is broken up by-

Oracle: The Cure - (technically a 3-issue mini-series but!!!) this one’s a culmination of Oracle & Calculator’s (it’s not rivalry? That can’t be the right word… Uhhh, nemesis-sitch?) from BoP & leads right into bringing Babs back to Gotham in Steph’s Batgirl run as well as the next BoP run I mentioned just a sec ago. It’s what I like to call connective (t)issues lol. Ymmv I think depending on if you’ve read BoP ‘99/TT ‘03 beforehand, but I hadn’t read a lot of TT before reading it at the time, and I enjoyed it a lot!

A couple individual issues I wanna suggest:

Batman Chronicles #5 - Oracle: Year One!!!!! Cannot rec this one enough!!! In lieu of reading Killing Joke (which really only serves Bruce, Joker, Jim Gordon’s characters) read this!!! LICHERALLY her origin in coming into her own as Oracle!!! This one is THE place to start, actually, before you read anything start here 😂

Batman: Gotham Knights #6 - okay, this one is admittedly a self-indulgent rec. Without spoiling the plot, it’s CLASSIC soap-opera level shit. The TENSION at play & the layers of Bruce & Babs dynamic, the messiness of the batfam!!! 👌 *chefs kiss* GK as a run in general too was a LOT of fun for me & Babs is a pretty prominent player in much of it, but this issue rlly takes the cake for me ngl

And to tie it all together for an extra couple of Important Event recs that you’ll run into esp if you pick up BoP first:

Batman: No Man’s Land - okay, this event was a Behemoth. It’s a LOT to read, but it is REALLY good imo as a launching point for where Bat-comics were at the start of the millennium. Babs takes the narrative role SO many times throughout & she rlly comes into her own by becoming a linchpin for the info system she builds for the batfam. Again, I don’t wanna discourage you when I say it’s a Long read, bc it’s well worth it imo, but also 100% okay to skip when you’re just starting out! It’s a big time sink!

Batman: Officer Down - okay put away the meme forJUST A SEC, our old friend Jim Gordon’s been shot & it’s up to Batma- oh wait bruce sulks by Jim’s bedside while Babs rallies the troops and GETS SHIT DONE to find who shot her dad? INTERESTING 🧐 In all seriousness tho, & compared to NML, this is a much easier bite-sized event that can give you a taste of what Event/crossoverComics™️ are generally like 👍

Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive - okay so, take that same energy of the batfam having to Put In The Work to help Bruce out & flip it around bc now Bruce is the Main Suspect. The drama, the Intrigue™️. Pretty much everyone in the fam gets a moment to shine & this is def peak of how Babs fits into the fam during this era. This one runs a bit on the longer side & babs is again, more of a support role here, but god damn I loved it a lot!

I feel like I’m obligated to at least Mention Batman: War Games, mostly to note that it finally shakes the foundation of Oracle being the batfam’s main support (her CLOCKTOWER gets nerfed in this event 😭) If you read all of BoP and skip over this event & then are confused abt why Babs is suddenly being ejected from Gotham, just remember that her clocktower gets blown up, Steph dies, Bruce n Babs have a falling out & that’s basically why Babs starts flying around the country & settles in Metropolis for a bit instead of going back to Gotham. I reread this event at least once a year bc it gave me brainworms, I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone bc no one understands her (War Games) like i do 💕 Godspeed if you decide to read it o7

Other recs/mentions:

Batgirl (2000) - okay if you end up reading NML, you’ll be introduced to Cass in it, & this run picks up with her. Babs is in it a LOT at the beginning as supporting cast to Cass (up to War Games ofc, but I won’t say much more abt that lol) I’m ngl, when I was trying to get more into comics, this run was what HOOKED me

Batgirl (2009) - so in a similar vein, Babs also features as a support for Steph too in her batgirl run. It’s… different from Cass’ run, but I also rlly love this one too. And also am forever bitter that the Batgirls run didn’t realize their potential BUT WE’RE NOT GETTING INTO THAT HERE.

Gonna mention Batman: Gotham Knights one more time bc again, while Babs isn’t a main focus, I think it’s rlly good at tying the batfam together during that era & giving a reader glimpses into other characters/dynamics. I think I got more out of it after I had read a few other runs from this time period (namely Robin, Azrael & some prominent stuff with Huntress), but can also see it as a potential launching point for new readers too 👍 if you wanna get more into the batfam/Batman but are intimidated by the Big Runs, this can potentially be a good bridge!

Gonna rapid fire mention that Babs as Oracle has a lot of appearances in Robin (93), Nightwing (96), JLA (96), Azrael (95) and obvsly Batman/Detective Comics from the 90s into 00s. I’ve read a few of these runs, and ymmv depending on how attached you may get to certain characters. But that’s what comics is all about! Getting attached and exploring other characters n teams n stuff!

A Gen note that I wanna end on: I wasn’t exaggerating when I said earlier abt how the more you read the more you’ll have fun. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve read something from a 90s/00s comic & was essentially jumpscared by a sudden Oracle cameo that I wasn’t expecting! She pops up in so many things throughout the universe at the time!!! She was THE info broker for all the supers!!! It makes me so insane that DC threw that all away to magi-cure her and demote her back to batgirl when she had grown so much 😭

anyways I hope you have fun!!! And again if you’re ever looking for other recs my more Gen dc blog is @dyketectivecomics! If my fellow mods or anyone else have some recs to add or to dispute haha, I’ll be tagging this so others can see/rb/reply to add their recs too 👍

Okay! \o/ that’s all I got for now! Happy reading anon!!!!

#barbara gordon #oracle #oracle day #birds of prey #reading rec #~randy #added a cut bc length 👍 and to add a warning that this isn’t just a list #I wanted to include some commentary bc having a reading list is good sometimes #but also having a Guide™️ is what I’m ultimately aiming for when I’m curating my lists now in 2024 #esp bc I’m gonna be revamping the duke list soon but THATS a convo for the duke blog 😂#okay enough tag rambles. I hope this helps anon! sorry it took a Hot Sec!#you sent this right as the holidays were swinging at me full force 😭

13 notes · View notes