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beanghostprincess · 4 months

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We make a lot of fun of Buggy but, honestly, I would be fucking angry at the world all the time too. Imagine growing up as your best friend's shadow, always being seen as the weak and the clown because of course, Shanks is the legacy. He's the strongest. He's the one to wear the straw hat. And you accept that and give up on your dream for him. To follow him because at least that way you'll be able to achieve your dreams, even if you can't call it yours, but his. You give up on your dream and decide to go for an easier path instead, maps and treasure and money and everything a pirate ought to be, but he fucking ruins it. And it's not even his fault, but he's the one to make it happen. Nobody takes you seriously because saying "He made me eat a devil fruit and lost my map" doesn't sound as awful as "He made me lose my independence as a pirate and only way to follow a path of my own and now the sea I love so much hates my guts". And then your father captain dies in front of your god-damned eyes, leaving the youngest generation to continue his legacy. You think "Oh, well, at least Shanks is here. He'll keep the memory of our captain alive", but he hesitates. He shakes under the thought of the future. Falters for a moment. Somebody you —everyone— considers stronger, rougher, smarter and way better as a legacy than you, doubts himself. After so many years of you trusting him despite everything else. After so many years of everyone else trusting him, leaving you behind. So of course it fucking hurts and of course Buggy is rightfully mad. And of course he refuses to go with somebody that doesn't take this as seriously as him. Somebody that made the sea hate him and also hesitates after so many people trusted him doesn't deserve Buggy's love respect. And so Buggy goes away. And now nobody takes him seriously when talking about his past because he has become the clown everyone thought he was. They don't understand how somebody like him shared a room with somebody like Shanks. They don't understand how somebody like him was raised by the king of the pirates himself. But what they'll never know is that Shanks was the one who hesitated. And they'll never know Buggy was the one leaving his dream behind.

So I think Buggy is rightfully angry at everything and everyone and especially Shanks, even if he hasn't actually done anything. Buggy's anger and resentment is one of the things I'll always defend.

#he's my fav clown i luv him #:(( i am very sad #i am also a shanks defender to death but this isn't about him #one piece #buggy the clown #red haired shanks #shuggy #< target audience #but also bc it's implied and pretty obvious #these two make me sick istg

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kedreeva · 4 months

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Lost count of how many times I've been told that peafowl don't eat/don't like fish. oh yeah? Tell that to the all-out warfare that breaks out when I bring home feeder fish.

I asked the guy at Petsmart today to grab the biggest fish in the feeder tank, since I saw some real chonkers in there somehow. I wasn't sure the peafowl would go for it, they usually get small ones, but I figured what the hell. I'll get a few, see how it goes. How it went was the fish were too big to be snatched and eaten in one motion, so there was screaming and running away with their prizes and fish being stolen from one beak by another and straight up warfare among babies who have no manners being defended by their moms who have no shame. Aris, who initially turned her nose up at fish, stealing them from her own children as well as from her wife, who was trying to call the babies over to get the fish she found for them, because Aris wanted them so badly, herself.

I can freely admit that it took a couple of tries to get them to try it out, and I had to use the darker grey/black normal "fish colored" fish to start with, and the barn pen birds still aren't sure about it, but it ALWAYS takes a time or two of offering a treat before the peafowl will try something new, and there's always some birds that don't like certain foods. But they are criminally social birds, they are puffin-level social birds, if one bird tries a treat and approves of it, the rest will start agreeing it's a Good Food even if they previously refused to eat it or touch it at all. If the first bird to the treat starts shaking their head and acting like it's bad, they'll all start doing that, usually without even trying it themselves, even if it's something they previously liked. So the trick is just repeatedly offering it until someone goes oh wait, this is delicious, and going from there.

#peafowl #my pets #aris #arcana #I wish I had video of Indie trying to catch the fish midair in the bowl #he was SO BAD AT IT #but I WAS very proud of stan #who is blind in one eye and barely stable on his feet #for defending his fish that I tossed to him #and actually managing to eat it #animal death for ts

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just-null-cult · 7 months

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are you oka- oh.

#kamo noritoshi #noritoshi kamo #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #yandere kamo noritoshi #yandere noritoshi kamo #yandere jujutsu kaisen #NO CAUSE HE WOULD COVER HIS MASSIVE DEATH GLARE IF HE KNEW YOU WOULD DEFEND THE OTHER PERSON #THEN YOUR ASS LOOKS AWAY AND BRO IS SHOOTING DAGGERS DUDE #i really like kamo #hes so babygirl #kamo has the hugest bitch face. i know it. i know he gives it out when the situation is fucking brutal.#its like the death glare someone else's momma gave you as a kid when you were bad #like bro #🧎‍♂️ damn im sorry #but in my mind he'd cover his face so you wouldnt be exposed to the death glare #smth smth only wanting you to see his perfect good boy self he crafted specifically for you smth smth #hed rather die than see you defend someone whos not him bc he doesnt want to compete for your attention. he feels it should belong to him #but it only makes the contrast of the peek that he gives others that much hotter. i mean scary #also tell me how you peeped the color change god please #i was so cool for that #the pink one.. your pov. hes double face palming.... at smth someone said/did. oh no!!#but for others its red. death glare. hes gonna make them regret upsetting him so much around you #to the point where he had to take his attention away from you for a second. not only that but your attention away from him too #wow kamo ur so. hot #stan kamo fr bro 🤟

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bulbabutt · 11 months

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ok i wanna talk about tmnt 2007 and the way i think this is the best version of a leo and raph conflict, and also leo as a character

for context i've been talking about tmnt things kinda chronologically, so i'm gonna mention an unconditional understanding in 03 i bring that up in a previous post about that show and the family dynamics in it here if u want context for what i mean

i think this movie can really be appreciated for the place it has between adaptations, and the way character-wise everyone is more or less the same as they've always been but with a more interpersonal relationship as the focus. the main villain of this movie doesn't really matter, the conflict, the fights, that's not where the strength is (although, it is reflected in the conflict and ill get into that)

so tmnt 07 is one movie that kind of combines the 90s movies, 03, and mirage all in one place, and tonally is is similar to the show that will come after it, 12. if the 90s movies give us conflict between leo and raph, and 03 gives us the unconditional understanding between the two, 07 takes these two aspects and creates a story out of it. (debate in your own mind if this movie is a literal sequel to the 90s ones or not, its not that important)

the set up of this movie is we are in a post killing the shredder world. leo has been told by splinter to go get training elsewhere, there isn't much context for what happened to cause this, but i would bet its a similar cause to 03, where he had ptsd and lashed out at his father to which splinter sends him to his grandfather to get better advice than he thinks he can give him. the difference here is there is no grandfather hes sent to, he's sent on a journey of self discovery around the world to learn about it and himself.

the thing about leo as a character, and this goes for all leos, he's has a very black and white way of thinking. leo thinks he's been sent away because he's failing his family, that he's not a good enough leader. so he stays away for longer because he doesn't feel good enough. he finds a place where he can help and he does that. leo always needs a bad guy to fight, or else he's fighting his own demons. so he stays there for a long time. finding a place he can help quietly, never letting anyone see him, and becoming a legend to the locals because no one knows what's really going down.

april manages to track him down and tell him about whats going on with his brothers, how they're holding up without him and without being a team, and i think thats a good reminder for him that they miss him. he doesn't tell april but he finds a way home only after hearing about this. when he arrives and speaks to splinter, he says "i was so caught up in my own world i forgot about everyone else, i'm sorry i failed" he still doesn't feel like he's done anything of worth.

i'm gonna jump in here and say, you know how we all love rise raph? cuz hes the big brother and some traits that come from that are like being overprotective and taking on everyone else's problems and trying to handle emotions alone? well that's a trait thats usually leo's. but the difference with leo is sometimes that concept doesn't make you as likeable. sometimes it means you come off like a nagging mother hen who thinks they know best but in an arrogant way. sometimes it makes you mirror being a parent when no one asked you to be. leo's less of a passionate character than raph, hes more analytical and full of himself. he takes splinters lessons more seriously, and hes always trying to do whats best for everyone so they don't have to worry. this is something evident with 03 and 12, but its so specifically noticeable here because these traits make up the main conflict. i just want to bring that up so we start seeing leo as no different than some of our other favourite iterations.

splinter responds to his apology by saying "you owe me no apology, but perhaps you should talk to raphael, your absence has been particularly difficult for him, though he'll never admit it" but when leo greets him raph is brushing him off.

on raph's end, this is him being angry that leo left, and angry that hes back and everyone wants to pretend that he wasn't gone at all. as if the time he was gone didn't happen. hes lashing out because he too cant handle talking about these emotions. and hes lashing out by becoming a vigilante in his own right.

i see a lot of people misunderstand what raph is doing here, that "this is what the turtles always do" or "this is the same as what leo was doing how could he be mad" when that is not true. that's what casey does. its true that both leo and raph have been fighting bad guys on their own (as a way of dealing with their issues) but raphael has made himself a costume to disguise himself which means hes prepared to be seen. hes riding a motorcycle around, which is loud. this isn't stealthy, this is aggressive. his vigilante name is in the news. the turtles are ninjas, they silently help where they can and fade into the night and, very specifically, they work as a team. these turtles live in a dangerous world, what if something happened to him while no one else was around? they would never know because he never told anyone.

so raph is lashing out, and leo doesn't have a good way of dealing with it. he tries to slide back into being leader, doing what splinter says but he forgets how his brothers are, and with raph egging them on they get into fights they shouldn't. which leo specifically gets in trouble for, as the oldest brother, and as their leader. leo tries to be this better leader hes supposed to have learned to be, but it doesn't work and raph ends up back out there in his vigilante get up. leo tracks down said vigilante, and in his peak "leo knows best" moment, lectures him, not knowing its his brother. there's a scuffle, and the mask comes off. let me point out that casey knew this vigilante was raph but his own brother didn't, because leo has been gone that long.

so lets get into what this fight is really about. on the surface, its "wow you've been going out at night alone putting yourself in dangerous situations with no backup" and "so what you're just mad that i can do it without you" which leo would be right about. and this is the analytical leo, he really thinks that's all that's going on here. what hes missing is that raphael has missed him as a brother, and hes hurt that leonardo left and just came back no big deal. that he wants everything to be normal. raphael is always a character with big emotions and the only outlet he knows to express them is violence.

leo, who as we've established, went away to learn to be better for his family is angry that raph doesn't see that. he's mad raph doesn't appreciate the effort he went to, and he thinks he's just angry because he's not in charge. each brother sees the other as being arrogant.

this leads them to the big fight. no one can disagree that this is the best part of the movie (seriously watch the movie for this scene if you haven't seen it before) , but the real best part of it is that raphael wins. raph proves hes just as capable of a fighter as his brother, if not more-so. he uses those sais as they're supposed to be used, catching leo's swords and in a fit of rage he fucking breaks them, leaving leo defenceless and completely vulnerable to attack. you'd think he'd be smug that leo lost but he pauses, going through a lot of emotions in a moment, questioning what he's doing, why hes doing it. and leo finally looks his brother in the eye and sees raph going through something he didn't before, realizing raph hasn't been angry that he's back, but that he's angry that he ever left. they don't have a conversation, because raph cant handle all these emotions and he runs away, crying as he does. leo just watches him, taking it all in and realizing the error of his ways.

hearing leo scream turns raph around, but he's too late to help him, and this is where raph regrets his own actions because right then, leo is also proven right in his argument. because he gets kidnapped. if leo hadn't chased raph down, there is a very good chance that would have been raph being kidnapped. with no backup, with no one knowing what happened to him. that's why its important that the turtles are a team.

raph goes home full of guilt, and there's a good moment of showing how he cannot open up emotionally here, because he grunts, punches the wall, knocks over some weights and forces splinter to ask him what happened, because that's how raphael is. he laments to his father that he finally understands why leo is the better son, proving that to raph none of this was about their team, but about their family. conflating the two ideas in his head. splinter gives him a talk that mirrors what he said to leo when he returned earlier in the movie, encouraging him that he is a good son and brother. this shows that these brothers have very similar insecurities about their value to their family.

the rest of the movie plays out as you expect, they go save leo, they stop the bad guy, they reconcile and behave as the team they're supposed to be. but i just want to point out that the villains plot is mirrored in leo and raph's conflict. the 'villain' here is a brother who has been cursed to be immortal without his own siblings. for 3000 years he lived to regret his actions and decided to undo his curse, but he used the cursed stone versions of his siblings to do so. no communication, just thinking he knew better (which maybe he did) and lying about it. that caused them to lie to him right back, and try to overthrow him and destroy the world. this is just one family whose inner turmoil could have destroyed the world. you might say, oh that's not a very interesting turtles villain, but its not supposed to be. its not the focus.

this movie is all about the complicated relationship between a family, and i see so many people talk about it by trying to ask who's right and who's wrong. that's not how it works. life is more complicated than that, people are more complicated than that. its boring to look at this movie and just say "leo is wrong and raph is right" because that's not even how the characters see it. this movie is about leo and raph being mirrors of each other in their arrogance, in their insecurities, and in their stubborn pig-headed refusal to let the other know how they feel. splinter says as much at the start of the movie. this whole movie shows that without each other, they need to be fighting something so they don't get swept up by their own emotions, which they are both bad at processing. they are SUCH brothers. they are so similar emotionally, yet they have such a hard time understanding each other.

personally 07 leo is my favourite leo for his complexity, his flaws his strength, his growth. its sad we never got those sequel movies to get into the other brothers heads as much as we got into leo and raphs heads.

also nolan north and james arnold taylor gave the best vocal performances in this movie and they deserve all the credit for it.

#tmnt #tmnt 2007 #tmnt 07 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #07 leo #i will defend 07 leo to death does no one understand his autistic swag like i do #all leos are like this he just got to shine cuz the movie was ABOUT his and raphs issues #this has been in the drafts for a while and in the mind a LOT longer than that #sorry its long idek if thats all i have to say about him but CLEARLY its long enough #thoughts

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ghostingcrows · 1 year

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I used to talk about this a lot but

IDW Prowl is probably one of the most complex characters in the comics and I absolutely hate it when hes reduced down to “the asshole character”

Cause like

Yeah sure hes got a bit of a stick up his ass

But I feel like people just end there analysis of him there

Has he committed a lot of war crimes and done unethical stuff

Yes

But so has literally EVERYONE else in this universe

Starscream is literally the pinnacle of war crimes

The comics make a point calling out even Optimus for his questionable actions and orders during the war with the Dinobots saying he makes them do the dirty work for him

Megatron literally commits genocide and yet his story ends with an alternate version of him going free and exploring the universe with the LL

The literal war lord was treated better and is looked upon more positively than Prowl and I think it just came down to how fucked Prowl got by the writers

Because while Megatrons redemption was all in your face and you got a shit ton of flashbacks that try to justify the eventual atrocities he would commit you don’t get that with Prowl

Even when Prowl is absolutely in the right you constantly have it disregarded by characters making jokes about him overreacting (being mad OP is sending the space tyrant away with free reign of his own ship isn’t overreacting btw-) and as such you start to think of him as a genuinely irrational character when hes not

Prowl is bad at keeping the relationships he forms yes

But he is not always at fault for that

While his relationship with CD ended poorly Chromedome is also shown to be kinda of a dick sometimes and commits his fair share of fucked up things such as when he literally ATTACKS PROWL AND FORCES HIS WAY INTO HIS MIND TO PROTECT HIMSELF FROM THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS ACTIONS WHEN PROWL THREATENS TO TELL REWIND ABOUT THE SHITTY STUFF HE DID IN HIS PAST

This leads to Prowls inevitable snowball out of control when this attack leads to an opening for Bombshell (I think its been a while since I read the comics) to use his tech to mind control him forcing him into combining with the contructicons

Something we learn is an immensely intimate thing with their minds being kinda melded

This was something Prowl did not want

And when all was said and done and he was calmed down he still had to live with that gesalt he was forced into with them following him around like fanboys

Nobody ever even really stopped to check in on him

And as such he understandable went a little bit insane

He had just faced an immensely traumatic invasion of his body and mind and on top of stress form feeling like everything was out of his control and like he couldn’t stop the bad things from happening alongside bitter emotions being brought back up with a return visit to Earth and reunion with spike AND the fact that he feels like Optimus doesn’t trust him and like hes just letting Starscream do whatever he want (something that understandably freaks him out seeing as how he spent 4 million years fighting Starscream) he just kinda snaps

He trys to destroy the space bridge so that no one else can leave or get through and so he can regain some semblance of control

Is it wrong

Yes

But he was not in a good state of mind and no one was helping him at all

And immediately following his arrest afterward Prowl is confronted by OP who is supposed to be his friend and when Prowl doesn’t say the right things to him to placate him Optimus’ response is to punch him out a window and beat the shit out of him

And not being given any room to breath this is immediately follow up my him getting kidnapped by Tarantulas who is very obviously an impactful and negative part of his past

Prowl just has bad event, one after the other, happen to him over and over again and not only does no one check up on him afterwards to see if hes okay but everyone actively makes fun of him for being understandable unstable

Prowl is a fucking tragedy and not many people seem to be able to see beyond what characters in the comics think of him

#IDW #Prowl #IDW prowl #Asher writing entire essays about the complex nature of a character most people hate-#I will defend IDW Prowl to my death #and I know a lot of people like to point fingers at him for war crimes and questionable actions #but like again almost everyone in IDW has commited a few war crimes #and he was literally the second in command of the entire army #of course he would have had to take on the brunt of the shitty questionable orders #I also think its weird that so many characters point out hes always the one ordering the shitty stuff but never wants to get his hands dirty #but then OP does the same thing and literally ONLY the dinobots point it out #optimus prime #megatron #lost light #taurantulas #starscream

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veryintricaterituals · 7 months

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This blog is about to become an Edward Teach apology blog. This is your warning and you've been warned. I am about to partake in justifying, condoning, defending, excusing and rationalizing in ways you've never even imagined before. He's going to kill people, act deranged and commit atrocities and I'm just going to sit in my living room like:

#you dont understand hes heartbroken #he deserves a little murder #its literally going to be me and stede against the world #he deserves to be a little unhinged and i will defend him with my life #and i wont take any criticism #i am but a humble stede!coded ed! girl #and i am going to be insufferable #you've been warned #ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 #blackbeard #blackbonnet #edward teach #ed teach #our flag means death

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lierenprotectionsquad · 7 months

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“We want more morally grey female characters” motherfucker you couldn’t even handle Teresa

#m!Teresa betrayed everyone she loves and resigned herself to a life of loneliness for a chance to save everyone including one of her friends #b!Teresa made Thomas feel sad so the people who literally indoctrinated her into their beliefs since she was five wouldn’t kill him #excuse her for for being a product of her environment 🙄#teresa agnes #the maze runner #the scorch trials #the death cure #the kill order #the fever code #tmr teresa #teresa tmr #tmr #maze runner #shut up sparky #TERESA DEFENDER UNTIL I DIE

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rookflower · 3 months

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i know I made a similar post about nightheart a couple months ago so ignore me but I woke up with with this thought- can you imagine HOW much the wider fandom would despise crowfeather if he was a woman and leafpool/nightcloud/etc were guys

#suddenly the way he treats breezepelt is actually an issue- unforgivably so- and nightcloud should have full custody #suddenly him not helping leafpool after the reveal makes him a cruel selfish bitch rather than 'sensibly defending himself'#suddenly his depression after feathertail's death is annoying love drama whining rather than 'tragic'#and etc #I'm aware he's not tumblrs favouritest boy but I think opinions of him lean positive or neutral elsewhere still

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heretherebedork · 1 month

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This entire scene is agony because half of it is about the truth (Do Han being gay) and half of it is a lie (Do Han 'tricking' A Jeong into marrying him) and the rest is about Ji Han's own pain that he's never faced or expressed because his coping skills suck.

Ji Han knows Do Han is gay now but he still doesn't know that A Jeong knows he's gay and so he's taking out this anger on Do Han about A Jeong's love not knowing it's entirely fake and that's the hardest part about this fight scene because the fight isn't about what it's about, it's about something that isn't actually happening but appears to be happening.

See, the problem with this fight and the framing of it is that Ji Han is mostly angry because he thinks Do Han is lying to A Jeong who loves him. That's why he's so pissed and why Do Han can be framed as the villain in this moment.

Because this is about Ji Han and A Jeong.

But the truth is that Do Han isn't doing any of the things Ji Han accuses him of in most of the argument besides being the closet which isn't what Ji Han is truly angry about to an extent.

I deeply appreciate that Do Han got to punch first despite his own guilt and issues because this man has spent most of his life hiding himself even from the brother he loves and now, the first time anyone in his life finds out he's gay, he gets called the Worst Person Imaginable. Sigh.

Do Han was also young when their mother died so I'm not sure what he was going to tell Ji Han about where he was living or where Ji Han was living. I don't think Do Han had any control over that.

I admit, I bet he ran to New York without telling anyone. I accept that. Do Han is absolutely a coward when it comes to telling people things he expects to be judged for and so he does tend to just... not tell them. We've seen that a lot in the show. Do Han's fear of what other people will think is real.

And this where the knowledge of the viewer informs us of how wrong Ji Han is in his assumptions but also allows it to make sense that Ji Han would think the worst of that and the worst of everything in this moment.

But, honestly, a lot of this is Ji Han putting his own trauma out in the air. He's got so many issues and he's never faced a single one and Do Han's own secrets have left this space between them that Ji Han tried to fill with pushing him to gain power and trying to find reason to involve Do Han more because he never knew why Do Han was distant... and now that he knows he's gonna go ahead and assume the worst because that's all he's got.

Poor Do Han lived in a minefield that Ji Han will never understand and will never try to understand because Do Han's minefield is something so specific and so painful and he had to leave behind so, so much. And he didn't choose that, unlike Ji Han choosing to go for the power and the family connections.

(Also, I need a scene at some point where Do Han tells Ji Han their mother's death isn't his fault just because I don't think Do Han ever believed it was his fault.)

And this is where the whole thing comes back to Ji Han's love for A Jeong and the fact that the viewer knows that A Jeong knows but Ji Han doesn't and that he won't because A Jeong isn't going to out Do Han and neither is Ji Han and so this misunderstanding is going to continue and get worse when Ji Han and A Jeong's romance becomes more public and Do Han is forced to face the press, his own fears and their actual romance and the fact that he does love them both.

Honestly, Ji Han, you fell in love with A Jeong before you knew any of this so maybe take a look in the mirror.

Oh the heartbreak and the fear and the pain and the way Do Han only knows part of the truth as well and this is just gonna hurt. How does he handle this? How does anyone? And then the fall out of everything, the fact that Ji Han and A Jeong are starting a romance while he's still supposed to be marrying her and if he doesn't marry her will end with another woman his grandfather chooses and forced to either lie or out himself?

All the anxiety he had finally escaped in his contract with A Jeong has come back with a vengeance.

Bonus gif: Do Han's collapse broke my heart.

#wedding impossible #kdrama #korean drama #in defense of Do Han #Do Han defense squad #i adore him and i will defend him to death

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topnotchquark · 7 days

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I've had something a bit tender in my heart since I read that Jenson Button's dad used to come to every race of his and his sudden passing away in 2014 is what ultimately triggered Jenson to leave F1. He said he couldn't muster the same joy or hunger for racing after that and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

#life is so often shaped and moulded by grief and they don't tell you that #death is a transformational force #jenson said that he got his world title and achieved what he needed to do #i remember he was talking about how his dad was always in his corner and defended him when he was a child in karting #I think he was speaking to either nico or daniel #also Jenson did dedicate a lap to Sic after his death at the race in India in 2012 #anyway Jenson I will always keep you in my heart #jenson button #f1 #formula 1

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poisonousquinzel · 9 months

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thinking about just how likely it is that Batman was the only person Harley told about having suicidal thoughts whilst in Arkham in Detective Comics #831

"I was seriously considering hanging sheets from the light in my cell and doing the maximum checkout when I heard this voice..."

Detective Comics #831

and how he knew when she strapped that bomb to herself in Batman (2016) #100 that he had to go after her because she was going let herself die in an attempt to end Joker's rampage for good but that she refused to physically do it because he didn't want to her Kill him and he told her that so she's found a middle ground

"We don't need to end it this way. He needs to be locked back up."

that she'd rather die than keep living with his presence in the world haunting her, haunting Them.

That if he did choose Joker, she wasn't going to disarm the bomb herself.

"Honey. You're talking to the wrong girl if you think he's not dangerous locked up in Arkham. It's like I said. That's not good enough for me. Not anymore."

the way he yells for her as she leaves.

"You're only going to get to one of us in time, Bats. Who's it going to be?"

"Harley!"

the way the two men stare at each other in the way they have so many times before, in those moments when Joker stayed or prioritized their fight over her. the way he knew Joker loved the thrill of it all and thought it was funny, thought there was No way Batman would leave him and that this game had to end as according to the rules. And that Batman would do so, he would follow the rules and save him. The way he immediately assumed Batman would choose him, choose his life and choose to stay and disarm the bomb.

And how Batman didn't do that. How Batman walked away from him, leaving him to die or escape or whatever, because He was choosing Harley and her safety and prioritizing her life over him.

The way he stared him in the eyes before choosing the woman Joker had always left to die over him. The way that it was always Him, it was never a question if he would choose Batman over her, but when faced with that type of scenario, Joker is the one that gets left behind to die.

The way she literally woke up in the hospital instead of them having a scene just outside after he removed it. because she didn't intend to live in one of the two options. the way the bomb probably did go off to some capacity because you don't just end up in the hospital knocked out for a week.

Him saying that he's glad she's okay, after everything they've been through, this war and Everything else. and the way he didn't brush off her concern

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Are you?"

"I had to bury my father again today. I did it with my family."

i just, i can't,,,,, i cant

#have i told yall how much i love batquinn because i really fuckin do #they make me miserable and emotional in all the best ways #we deserve more well written content with them FUCK #and like she COULD have killed that fuckin man when she shot in through the eye but she didn't because she knows how he feels about Murder #even tho j*ker had exposed his identity and was about to horrifically disfigure him in such a similar way to how he permanently changed her #and led her to believe he was going to do AGAIN #during the rebirth death in the family arc when she thought he was going to carve off her face #like she had such a solid reason to just kill him and she could have defended it to batman but she still didn't break that rule #that she knew meant so much to him because shes trying and she doesn't want to ruin the budding trust they've got #and just #i cant #i cannot do it y'all #AND SHE KNOWS HE'S BRUCE AND SHE DIDN'T MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT BECAUSE IT WASN'T SOMETHING BATMAN WANTED EXPOSED #BUT SHE KNEW SHE KNOWS #she heard J*ker say it right before she shot him #and like that just also something she knows he didn't want her or anyone (let alone fucking j*ker) knowing so her aiming for a non deathblo #just #tw abuse mention #tw clown boy #tw blood #tw suicide mention #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #batman #bruce wayne #dc comics #batquinn #♧ comic thoughts ♧#♢ meta & analysis ♢

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lakesbian · 10 months

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alec's specific brand of trauma is Really Something because it's like. having a father who only interacted with him to scare the piss out of him for any perceived slight and/or with the explicit intent of psychologically breaking him: pretty bad. being groomed into hypersexuality & child prostituted: also pretty bad for his mental wellbeing. but being forced to torture and/or murder people, being coerced into a state where he's capable of unflinchingly raping people before he's thirteen--being groomed into becoming his father--is like. a Very Specific Level Of Issue. systematic stripping of not only physical and sexual autonomy but ethical autonomy, being turned into nothing but an extension of the violence enacted by the person he hates most. full ownership over his body and mind.

like, when you're 12 and shooting someone because daddy said if you don't he's going to shoot you, you do the action first, you alter your mind to be Okay With It afterwards--because if you're not okay with it you're going to break--and then there's nothing of you left because it's all been taken away or changed so you could survive. just sort of utter nothing-matters nihilism by age 13 because he wasn't allowed to have anything for himself, not even the most basic moral compass, not even the ability to walk away and tell anyone about what happened to him without being seen as rotten himself, an abuser first and a victim second. no one will ever talk about what happened to alec without the caveat of "but." the caveat of "he was just a kid, but he still..." he doesn't get to show himself to anyone without the awareness that he's going to be seen as some form of fundamentally bad just by virtue of being a vasil, of having done the things that vasils do.

literally no wonder one of the only times he's ever even remotely visibly upset by something is when taylor--literally one of the only people he has in life, part of the closest thing he has to a family--insinuates he might want to turn out like his father, when the most core aspect of his trauma is not what was done to him but what he was turned into. if there's one thing that can upset him, it's the idea that he's still seen as that 13yo kid who was more of heartbreaker's weapon than he was a person, or that he's seen as wanting to be that way. he spends the first 13 years of his life having any attempt at establishing any form of his own identity razed down before it can even begin--as of story start, he's had all of 2 1/2 years to become his own person, because everything before that belonged solely to his father. so he is sort of ridiculously well-adjusted given the circumstances. but awful by any other metric--and there's the caveat, of course, the But, because the ability to make decisions that don't result in people saying But was very intentionally taken from him.

and when he does finally find something (someone) to care about, when he reclaims the ability to have his own strong emotions and desires and moral compass, he cares about it so much he dies for it. he's been waiting his entire life to have something he's allowed to care about and when he finally gets it, when he finally has that autonomy, he chooses to do the most unselfish possible thing with it. it's a single moment of refutation against everything he was molded to be--everything he still doesn't know how not to be, sometimes--where he realizes that, fuck it, he just wants to do something good for what he cares about. wants it more than he wants anything else on the planet, more than a million dollars or any amount of fame. he's finally in control of his body and his mind and his feelings, after 13 years of being a marionette and 2 years of slowly learning how to cut off the strings, and he decides that what he wants, now that what he wants actually matters, is to give all of himself to doing something good because he cares. in the end, he finally got to define himself by what he wanted to be instead of what he was made to be, and what he wanted to be was a good friend.

it's a good character arc okay. i like it.

#parahumans #alec essays #alec vasil #i'm the world's no 1 alec vasil fan <- self-own #give him a nice cold soda pleas.e he deserves it #scarf don't look #worm spoilers #under my breath. would be nice if wildbow didnt fuck up brians character arc so i could enter a fugue state summarizing it too #anyway yeah i dont think ive actually made a post Specifically about why the alec death is excellent 4 his arc. this is my thesis defending #the alec death

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