#ats meta

[thepunkmuppet]

so I’m on season 1 in my angel rewatch, and I can absolutely believe angel descending into madness in the birthdayverse and it is breaking my heart.

you forget sometimes amidst the plots of the episodes, but internally he took doyle’s death HARD, and he felt responsible for it. but cordelia got the visions, and the important thing is that he has cordelia and wesley to ground him and keep him sane and give him a purpose.

so imagine a universe where there is no cordelia in his life. he leaves buffy, he’s distraught, and then he meets doyle. and they’re actually really similar! two lonely pathetic post-breakup irish part-demons who seek redemption. they fall in love over the few months they have together, they kiss, and doyle dies. and angel is completely alone with literally the weight of the world on his shoulders, or behind his eyes in this case. the visions and the grief and the loneliness and all his other angst and pain pile up until he’s nothing but a shivering wreck.

sure wesley and gunn are giving him a home and doing the dirty work for him, but in this universe they don’t have a connection - how can you have a relationship, a friendship, with a husk of a person?

point is I think angel’s grief over doyle is written really well, and imagining what he would have gone through in that universe where they were canonically in love and he had to deal with mind-melting visions AND cordelia wasn’t there to support him makes me want to cry

#this is as much a cangel post as it is a doyle x angel post btw #because yeah maybe he missed out on falling in love with doyle but god she made his life so much better :’) #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #ats #cangel #doyle x angel #angel x doyle #btvs meta #ats meta #buffyverse #buffyverse meta #btvs angel #cordelia chase #allan francis doyle #ats doyle

[captain-peroxid3]

when wesley wyndam pryce becomes the caricature of masculinity that he was failing to perform by being traumatised and irreversibly changed by horrific events when wesley dies the character he so desperately wanted to be with no one trusting him, dying alone, empty and numb but hey he wears leather now isnt that cool?? isnt he such a man??? hey guys whats the pryce of masculinity (laugh track)

#i love you wesley #my autistic boyfriend #wesley wyndam pryce #ats #ats meta #btvs #btvs meta

[moistvonlipwig]

Cordelia's Black-And-White Thinking

A post by @kyliafanfiction got me thinking about this but I didn't want to derail her Xandelia post since these thoughts are purely Cordelia-related.

I think Cordelia is actually a very black-and-white thinker but a lot of people don't conceptualize her that way because fandom tends to equate 'black-and-white thinking' with 'thinking killing is always wrong'. I've talked before about how Cordelia is an extremely pragmatic person in a lot of ways who is very much willing to kill humans and to support Angel in killing humans, even in AtS S3 when certain fans claim she's too 'soft' and 'nice' (*eyeroll*). So some people may interpret that as her being a less black-and-white thinker than, say, Buffy, who has an ironclad rule about killing humans being always wrong.

However, I think that's a misunderstanding of what it means to be a black-and-white thinker. Black-and-white thinking is not about not being willing to compromise on general, widely-held principles; it is about not being willing to compromise on your own principles, and often extends to judging harshly those who betray those principles. By these standards, yes, Buffy is a black-and-white thinker, but so is Cordelia; it's just that 'don't kill humans' is not one of Cordelia's core principles. Her core principles, instead, are that Lying Is Bad and, consequently, Betrayal Is Bad.

Cordelia has always held that the truth is better than a lie even if the lie would be nicer. In Buffy, this tends to manifest as her being brutally honest to the point of tactlessness and sometimes outright cruelty (as she would say, "tact is just not saying true stuff"). In Angel, she grows out of some of her crueler instincts but retains the role as truth-teller of the group who says what the others don't want to hear and, importantly to this discussion, clashes with her friends when they choose a nice lie over the harsh truth. In S3, while she shrugs off the possibility of Angel killing Holtz with the equivalent of "whatevs, kill him, I hate that guy," Cordelia objects quite strongly to Angel's plan to lie to Connor about going to see Holtz. She ends up being right, largely because Connor is also a black-and-white thinker who is also triggered by lying, but no one ever said black-and-white thinking was mutually exclusive with being correct. And in early S4, even without her memories, amnesiac Cordelia would rather hang out with Connor who admitted that he tried to murder her than with the Fang Gang and their wacky dishonest hijinks.

Cordelia also reacts very negatively to betrayal, more so than other characters do. She doesn't forgive Xander for cheating on her until he buys her the prom dress she coveted, while Oz forgives Willow and even starts dating her again. She doesn't forgive Angel for firing the team and his various other S2 sins until he buys her clothes to make up for the ones he gave away, while Wesley and Gunn forgive him much more easily. She doesn't forgive Harmony for trying to kill her, while Wesley happily hires her in S5 and Angel preemptively forgives Harmony's final betrayal in "Not Fade Away". Her feelings on Wesley in late S3 are a little unclear (my kingdom for a scene between them during this time period!) but she does make it clear that she is at least uninterested in his feelings while Angel still needs her help, while Gunn and Fred are more open to the idea of reaching out to him. She doesn't forgive Wolfram & Hart for any of the things they've done to her and her friends and finds the Fang Gang's decision to join them baffling, while the Fang Gang, minus her influence, were willing to give them a chance.

In fact there is only one person who Cordelia never seems to judge for their betrayal of her and/or her friends and that's Connor. He is the only person that she never speaks negatively of after a betrayal. After he tries to kill her, after he tosses Angel in the ocean, after witnessing all of his actions in S4 including the murder of the virgin girl in "Inside Out", she still wants to see him in "You're Welcome" and appears to hold no grudge against him. In fact, in yet another moment that demonstrates her black-and-white view of honesty, she reacts quite harshly to the news of what Angel did to Connor with the mind-wipe, even though Connor himself comes to see it as a kindness. Why does Connor get her endless forgiveness? Well, because he's her son. Or surrogate son. However you want to put it. She loves him like a mother and plays a motherly role in his life. She may not necessarily have thought of herself as his mother in S3, but that's what she was. And even the most black-and-white thinkers can learn to see in shades of gray for their children.

#cordelia chase #angel the series #ats #ats meta #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #having late night cordelia thoughts as always... #the high heels of the messiah #well love is love and not fade away #you can't be saved at all #it's what you do afterwards that counts

[faraige]

One of the main reasons why I'll never really respect ATS is because of the absolutely lazy Deus Ex Machina that is The Powers That Be. They said "we're not gonna make the effort of thinking about explanations for stuff. We'll just say The Powers That Be did it because they wanted to and call it a day" with their full chests.

I could have excused it with Doyle's visions. It would have been more interesting if he had gotten them some other way, bonus points if the reason could have made him bond with Angel, like a curse or some inheritance from his demon father. But instead they just laid the groundwork to do the bare minimum when it was convenient.

I'm sorry, but if you don't respect yourself even a little as a show, I'm not gonna respect you.

#I don't wanna tag this properly because I fear this could be considered hate and I don't wanna do that for the people who enjoy the show #fandom tags are for fun #but also I am an archivist at heart and I'm not capable of not tagging stuff #as a compromise I'll also tag it as anti ok? #anti ats #ats #angel the series #just to be clear I don't hate the show #I just don't respect it #and I fully support you enjoying it #the powers that be #ats meta #shut up faraige

[twelverriver]

some thoughts on the scene where lilah dresses up as fred with wesley: like. lilah is so prideful her first appearance is her in super fancy clothes and dark red lipstick and sipping a glass of wine in a dark super secret club and it's a fight club for men and that's truly the best description of her character u know?? like she's the only woman we know at wolfram & hart and she's the only woman in a leadership position and she fights tooth & nail for everything and she's soo classy and so sassy and iconic and she basically has no flaws (apart from the whole being a lawyer for an evil law firm thing) but then she falls for this fucking pathetic man and she's doing that and literally losing her dignity and her pride which usually seemed like the most important to her and he's like oh come on don't embarrass yourself or don't be ridiculous or something and it's like. SO cutting!!!!! it's the worst thing he could've said because she's offering up the little of her heart that has survived through everything and he's rejecting her now while all she wanted to do is to be more like the girl he actually wants. like obviously she also kind of gets off on the whole thing g bc she's evil and they're all messed up but the fact that she dresses up as fred bc she really does love him and he doesn't even have her as her first choice is soo hurtful!!!!

it's truly desperate and that's something that lilah just never is??

#ats meta #lilah morgan #ats #jana.txt #i love her SO much #i rambled in audelia's dms recently and i also had to post it #bc im so insane about lilah and peoppe need to know

[someonefantastic]

you know what really gets me? that Cordelia Chase chose to die alone. like she could’ve chosen to fade away surrounded by her friends or in Angel’s arms or told them to go to the hospital so they could be with her comatose form when she passed but instead she let her friends leave and waited until Angel had turned around and that’s when she died. I mean, here is this girl who the first bit of real substance we got from her was her confessing that “it’s awful to feel that alone” and presumably has dealt with loneliness her entire life and we watched her for roughly eight seasons across two shows struggle with this idea of finding her people and not being alone anymore and at the end of it all she chose to be physically by herself when she passed. and idk, I think there’s something to this idea that she got to make the choice, that she actually did have people who loved her and cared for her and genuinely listened to her and made her feel not alone and because of that, when faced with her last few minutes on earth, she chose to not have them be there, chose to almost protect them in a way from seeing her as she died. it really speaks to her growth, not just relationship wise but as a person because she had every right to be selfish for her last day on earth but instead she chose to spend her day helping her friends and then chose to die without any of them around her

#and in a sense she didn’t truly die alone #not physically at least #cordelia chase #ats #angel the series #meta #ats meta #youre welcome #am i okay? #hard to say but no #skipps speaks

[chasingfictions]

ALSO the way 4x02 is actually so close to breaking open the mold on ats' madonna-whore complex to build something new. angel waxing poetic about how cordy is home now and it's actually easier knowing she's up in the heavens being all pure and doing good and like yeah that makes sense with his whole fucking deal. but then we transition to cordy and she's like no get me out of here!! i dont want to be a symbol i want to be a person!!!! but then the narrative does bring her back, then she's this evil possessed pregnant debauched and debauching seductress who is literally a vessel for a god who commands a terrifying beast and wants to subjugate the earth :))) and when cordy is done doing that she just goes right back to being Elsewhere -- in a coma, and then a sort of spirit-projected being for a literal single day before she finally dies. the narrative had all of the pieces to deconstruct the shitty fucking paradigm they codified when darla died and instead they made it so much worse . this fucking show!!!!! angel said hehe what if she was the beatrice to my dante :))) and then i bonk him on the head with heavy hardback copy of the divine comedy until he shuts up :)))

#ats rewatch #ats meta #anti angel

[gh-0-stcup]

A really good meta about fixing how Angel/Cordelia was written.

#for those like me who are into the concept of angel x cordy but not the execution #this is only in regards to season 3 - nothing that came after is discussed #because it was written before s4 aired #ats #ats meta #what ever happened to this person btw? #did they just stop fandom activities or ?

[genericaces]

here is actually my most important contribution to an alternate s5

#no thoughts or meta on how it would affect their character arcs i just think it would be fun #angel the series #ats #spangel #spike #angel #art

[jojo-schmo]

I wish I could tell the original artist that this drawing permanently changed the entire direction of my life in 2009. I want to shake their hand, look them in the eye, and admit I would not be who I am today if this drawing didn’t exist.

EDIT: Original artist is @ivynajspyder !!!!

#‘but jojo’ you ask. ‘that seems a little ridiculous’ #‘don’t you think that’s a little much?’ #no. NO. IT IS THE TRUTH. #little baby middle schooler jojo had just gotten squeak squad. the first kirby game she ever owned. #and she loved it even tho there’s a lot she didn’t understand #like who dedede was supposed to be or why copy abilities existed #I asked for the game because my roommate at swim camp had it and she told me the plot of the game when I looked over her shoulder to watch #(the plot she told me was completely made up btw she said kirby had to save the dimension from dark overlord and did not mention the squeak #and said stuff about meta knight being a bad guy idk I realize now she was just weaving a tale of her own haha) #SO I WAS NOT AWARE OF THE LORE. I had only played the one game and it’s the one people don’t like the plot of #but meta knight completely intrigued me #what was this blue sword wielding little kirby dude doing here?? #so I’d replay his boss fight over and over again just to get that glimpse at his face #and I’d sit and wonder what it all meant. who was this mysterious swordsman?? #and the boss fight was hard!!! it cost me to beat it at the time but I’d still do it to see his face #AND THEN AFTER LIKE A YEAR OF THIS it occurred to me that there was a kirby wiki online #so I found all the pictures of his face and my little fangirl-raised-by-deviantart mind ATE THIS UP. #and then I look up that one fateful google search……… the one that changed me #meta. #knight. #maskless. #and this drawing was towards the top of the results #I went feral about a fandom related topic for the very very first time #I lost my MIND. HOW can a character be so cute AND COOL??! I was a changed child. #I consumed the hoshi no kaabii anime like it was the only piece of media on earth #I drew comics about him. I made my first kirby oc ever to go on a grand adventure on him. #I filled my notebooks with kirby art to the point my mom was like ‘jossie. you REALLY need to branch out. these are just orbs.’ #and now I am the kirby artist I am today. so yes. YES. this drawing did change my life. #thanks for reading. and thanks to the original artist. I tried to find them to link but nothing. so if you know pls tell me #THE END!!! and remember! your art makes a difference in people’s lives even if they don’t say it to your face!!!!

[thepunkmuppet]

just thinking about how if angel was as popular as buffy, or if it was made now, the mlm ships would be BOOMING. SO fucking popular. especially wesgunn, wesangel and angel/lindsey

like wesley and gunn oh my godddd coworkers to friends to lovers to enemies?!? love triangle where they’re both in love with a woman but actually in love with each other?!!? stereotypical british white man x stereotypical american black man and also booksmart-but-an-idiot x never-went-to-school-but-the-most-competent-in-the-group and also polar opposites who never in a million years would have thought they would even know each other?!?!?! THEY ARE EVERYTHING YOU GUYS ARE SLEEPING ON THEM SO HARD

AND angel and lindsey FUCKING HELL enemies to lovers (that are still enemies), homoerotic violence and weird touching in every interaction, lindsey essentially deflecting by developing feelings for who he sees as the evil female version of angel??? lindsey having a twisted one-sided obsession that could have started his redemption but instead ends up destroying him?!? his last words are “angel kills me”?!!?! PLEASE THEY ARE SO GAY

also also wesley and angel!!!!!!! developing respect. nuisance to coworkers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends again. everyone thinks theyre gay and oh wait they actually are!!

point is I need more fics of these guys because GOD they are perfect ships with so much canon content and potential for fan content and I love them very dearly

#angel the series #ats #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #buffyverse #btvs meta #ats meta #btvs angel #wesley wyndam pryce #charles gunn #wesgunn #fredwesgunn #wesangel #lindsey x angel #lindsey mcdonald

[moistvonlipwig]

On Kyrumption

(Written for C/A Week Day 7: Free Choice.)

One of the most controversial elements of the Angel/Cordelia relationship in Angel is the concept of “kyrumption,” a Pylean word used by both Fred and Lorne to describe Angel and Cordelia’s relationship. A lot of people who don’t find their romance convincing dislike the term and even some people who do like the relationship don’t care for it. From my perspective, fandom’s dislike of kyrumption seems to spring from a fundamental misunderstanding of the word. A lot of people seem to think kyrumption describes a kind of prescribed soulmate bond and that, therefore, Angel S3 is trying to argue that Angel and Cordelia are destined to be together romantically. As a lifelong hater of the idea of soulmates, this strikes me as a misreading of the text.

We are told about kyrumption exactly twice over the course of Angel S3, first by Fred in “Offspring” and then by Lorne in “Waiting in the Wings”. Notably, both characters are merely offering their own opinion on Angel and Cordelia’s relationship. They are using the term descriptively, not prescriptively.

This is what Fred has to say about it:

It’s when two great heroes meet on the field of battle and recognize their mutual fate. ... When I see you and Cordelia sparring, kyrumption always comes to mind. ... She’s such a hero, with the visions and the courage. It's only natural that you and she would be drawn to one another. ... You’re being chivalrous. Because you’re a hero, just like her. You’ve got kyrumption!

And this is what Lorne says:

When two great heroes come together... Can’t fight kyrumption, cinnamon buns. It’s fate. It’s the stars.

Finally, for some additional context, let’s look at how Lorne describes Pylea, the world where this term originates, in “Belonging”:

A world of only good and evil, black and white, no gray. No music, no art, just champions roaming the countryside, fighting for justice. ... You got a problem, solve it with a sword. No one ever admits to having actual feelings and emotions, let alone talks about them.

So now let’s synthesize this information. Kyrumption is a word originating in a world that does not value emotions or art, only heroic battles against evil, and it refers to the event of two great heroes meeting/coming together on the battlefield and “recognizing their mutual fate.” That last part is the most ambiguous part of the definition, but I think it’s fairly clear that this word is not referring to some epic destined romantic love but rather to a mutual fate in the battle against evil. After all, that’s the only thing the people of Pylea really care about. What does it mean, then, for two heroes to “recognize their mutual fate” in a battle against evil? I would argue that it refers to two heroes realizing they have the same core mission in the battle against evil and joining forces to undertake that mission.

Now as for why Fred and Lorne bring this up in conversations about Angel and Cordelia’s potential romance if it’s not really about romance, I think the answer to that is simple: it’s the closest thing Pylea has to romance (or probably any kind of love, really). Two warriors binding themselves to a common cause on the battlefield, thus intertwining their fates in the name of the mission, is the Pylean equivalent of a love story. For Fred, who has been trapped in Pylea for five years, and Lorne, who grew up there, kyrumption is probably one of their go-to references when they see love blossoming among two of their warrior friends. And it is important that both of them are warriors. Note that Fred says she thinks of kyrumption specifically when she sees Angel and Cordelia sparring, and that her attempts to convince Angel of his kyrumption with Cordelia refer more to their shared status as champions of good than to anything else.

Indeed, the way the Angel/Cordelia story ultimately plays out would seem to refute the interpretation that they were destined to be together or that the PTB had any hand in their romance. The mission conflicts with and eventually wins out over their feelings for each other -- Cordelia chooses to become a higher being so she can help more people rather than meet up with Angel at Point Dume, and later sacrifices herself to put him back on track. Still, as warriors with a shared purpose, they do have a mutual fate -- Cordelia as the higher power who grants Angel the earth-bound champion the vision he needs to throw a wrench in Wolfram & Hart’s plans. They don’t end up in a relationship together, and yet they end up working together even after Cordelia’s death. That, to me, is what kyrumption is all about. Or as Angel and Cordelia put it:

ANGEL: Maybe people like us just don’t get to...have that. CORDELIA: Angel. There are no people like us.

#and that's why i've had cangel brainrot for the last 10 years! #cangelappreciationweek2022 #cangel #angel the series #ats #cordelia chase #angel #well love is love and not fade away #i kind of want to slay the dragon #the high heels of the messiah #you call that leather interior #ats meta

[justrustandstardust]

#yes this is a lolita quote dont come for me #nabokov ATE with this okay #my jjk thoughts #jjk #jjk meta #satosugu #satosugu angst #stsg #geto suguru #gojo satoru #geto x gojo #geto #gojo #stsg angst #satosugu meta #satosugu analysis #jujutsu kaisen #gojo angst #gojo analysis #gojo and geto #satoru x suguru #sugusato #stsg brainrot #satosugu brainrot #jjk suguru #jjk satosugu #jjk satoru #goge #gego

[umbrellacam]

Reading A Lonely Place of Dying is so interesting in so many ways, but the question I'm still rotating in my mind is about Dick, and specifically why he ends up smiling and soft-advocating for Tim to be Bruce's Robin, after he had his morality crisis over young heroes with Jason's death.

So when he finds out about Jason's death, Dick feels guilty over giving Jason his Robin costume and not being there when he died:

New Teen Titans #55

To the extent that, later in the same issue, he unilaterally fires 15-year-old Danny Chase from the Titans, over Donna and Kory's objections, citing what happened to Jason. He even expresses doubt over his own young age when he became Robin, wondering whether that was a mistake:

New Teen Titans #55

However, when Dick visits Bruce in Gotham to both express his condolences over Jason's death and also confront him over not telling Dick about it, he explicitly rejects Bruce's implication of blame:

New Teen Titans #55

And later, when the Gargoyle is mentally torturing him over his past failures to the Titans, to Bruce, and Jason, Dick breaks through his self-blame issues and firmly asserts that there was nothing he could have done to prevent Jason's death.

Secret Origins (Vol. 2) #3

But understanding his lack of blame logically isn't the same as being totally past it, as it's part of Dick's larger cycle of guilt, as he acknowledges to his therapist:

The New Titans #57

So how does Dick get from here, still wrestling with guilt and feeling ambivalent about the idea of young heroes as a whole, to the end of A Lonely Place of Dying, where he smiles and basically urges Bruce to give Tim a chance to become Robin?

Like, yes, Dick then spends the entirety of Batman: Year Three worried about Bruce's tenuous mental state after Jason's death, reaching out to him in the midst of Batman's reckless, violent spiral, trying to both express care and to call his mentor and hero back to his foundations of crime-fighting through careful detective work, not through brutality - and getting rejected by Bruce over and over. Even while being proud of Dick's methods and the hero he's grown into, Bruce just can't seem to pull himself out of his own morass of self-destruction. Dick eventually has to leave him to it, though he clearly hasn't stopped worrying about Bruce by the start of ALPoD.

Yes, Tim impresses Dick multiple times over the course of ALPoD. First at the circus with his reflexes and his quick thinking (apparently almost as much as he irritates and baffles Dick with his stubborn evasiveness and pushy presumption, lol this total gremlin). Then at Wayne Manor when Tim goes through his deduction of Batman's and Robin's identities, although this one is more an implication through Dick's decision to show Tim the Cave immediately afterward, and Alfred's words to Tim.

Batman #441

And yet Alfred's sentiment here is immediately contradicted when Tim insistently pushes the Robin costume at Dick, and Dick gets pissed off, saying that, "When Jason died, he took Robin with him. And no matter how much anybody may want it - you can't bring back the dead."

The New Titans #61

How does Dick go from this to accepting Tim as the new potential Robin all of two issues later!! This boy's emotions are so mixed up, lol.

I feel like while Dick is clearly angered by Tim's presumptions, kind of baffled and creeped-out by the sort of parasocial fixation Tim has on both Bruce/Batman and Dick/Robin, below the surface he's also genuinely absorbing Tim's driving love and care for them both. Like, he's way too ticked off to show it or even think of it consciously at the moment - and it's hard to process!! despite that day at Haly's Circus tying them together a decade ago, this kid is a rando, it's out of nowhere, it's wild to be confronted with!! - but on some level he has to be touched by Tim's care and passion for their legacy. He wouldn't make his heel-turn later and smile at Tim so approvingly otherwise.

Like, Dick wants Bruce to have a partner that cares for him that much, that forces him to care for himself in a way that he clearly hasn't been since Jason's death. And Dick is both afraid and aware that he can't fill that role anymore - that he can try to stand beside Batman as Nightwing and support him that way, but he can't stand behind Bruce in his protective shadow again, can't cramp himself back into Robin.

So even as Dick is making line-faces at this bizarre kid pushing himself at them, talking about Jason and Dick and Bruce and what Batman needs like he knows better than Dick, UGH… Dick is also considering… is maybe moved a bit by that star-bright conviction and overflowing love in the face of all the doubts that seem to plague both Bruce and Dick lately… is maybe hoping, seeing a possible light in the dark. Not on a conscious level, perhaps, but it's maybe churning below the surface with everything else Dick is thinking about.

Anyway, Dick still tracks Batman down and tries being a supportive partner as Nightwing, even going "I'm here. Always," when Batman finally brings himself to admit that he needs help. Only to IMMEDIATELY run face-first into Bruce's control issues and post-Jason-disregarding-orders trauma - "You're not with the Titans now. If you want to be with me, you follow my orders. Now do as I say." (The New Titans #61) Oof, instant I'm-NIGHTWING-not-ROBIN friction, but Dick swallows it for now.

Then Two-Face blows up a building on top of both of them, and Tim (and Alfred!) have to rescue them both. By the time that they've been dug out, Alfred and Dick are both praising Tim's potential to a very baffled and alarmed, verging on angry, Batman lol. Dick and Alfred then grin at each other while young Tim struggles against his intimidation and argues the tremendously (and understandably!) reluctant Batman to a standstill.

Batman #442

As they drive away afterward (Bruce, Dick and Tim in the Batmobile to track down Two-Face - using the tracker Tim planted on him, good job Timmy!! - and Alfred toward home in a separate car), we get the following thought-bubbles:

Bruce: Even if he's right, I don't want another partner. Dick: Bruce, for once, think with your heart, not with cold logic. Tim: He doesn't want me, but he hasn't said no. So just do your best… Alfred: …One way or another, the rest will take care of itself.

Batman #442

"Think with your heart, not with cold logic" - so does Dick's line here mean that this is what he himself is doing at this point? Setting aside his logic, his fears and reservations about young heroes, about Jason's death, about putting another young boy in the Robin costume - because Tim joining them, maybe becoming Bruce's new partner, feels right? Because everything that Tim has shown of himself so far means the kid deserves a chance, at least? Because Bruce's caution after Jason's death would mean that he'll make sure to 'do it right this time'? Because Tim's passion and conviction could be what Batman needs, and - maybe as much if not more than that - could be something that deserves to be nurtured into something great, despite Dick's own (and Bruce's) fears?

Because Dick has to be wrestling with and at least quelling (if not fully letting go of) his fears about the risks to young heroes in these issues, it doesn't make sense for him to be okay with Tim as Robin otherwise. And it can't all be about what use Tim could be to Bruce - the leash he could put on Batman's out of control behavior. That's far too selfish and manipulative as a sole motive for Dick Grayson; especially after Jason, he wouldn't encourage a kid to jump into the meat-grinder of vigilantism solely to save Bruce or preserve the legacy of Batman & Robin.

I feel like Dick has to also be seeing something in Tim here, his potential, his determination, the good that he can and wants desperately to do, that Dick has to respect, has to think deserves a shot. When Alfred goes, "The boy should be a politician!" and Dick replies, "He'd do more good with Bruce," (Batman #442; panels above), it does feel like he's thinking of the difference Tim himself could make in the world. Dick has to be remembering why he himself could not be put off from the vigilante life when he was even younger than Tim, why Jason also went out there and did his best every night. To help people, in a way that mattered.

Anyway, Tim also puts in a good showing when they confront Two-Face, despite giving Bruce a near heart-attack over this strange unfamiliar boy wearing his son's uniform when Tim briefly appears to have been crushed - only for him to have saved himself and warned Batman and Nightwing of danger through his quick thinking.

Afterward, Alfred and Dick both advocate for Tim, so Dick is clearly pulling for Tim to be given a chance. Dick's smile here, my heart.

Batman #442

I still wish they'd been a little more explicit with the turn of Dick's mindset here, but at the same time I guess it's pretty effective as show-not-tell!

All in all, I feel like ALPoD was very effective storytelling, well done Marv, hugely enjoyable read, and I can't wait to read more.

#I had to reconstruct this entire post from scratch after Tumblr ate the whole fucking thing GRAHHHH 👿👿👿 #Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #Bruce Wayne #Alfred Pennyworth #Dick and Tim #Bruce and Dick #Bruce and Tim #Dick and Jason #Bruce and Jason #Dick Grayson meta #Tim Drake meta #this wasn't really supposed to be meta so much as me trying to think through Dick's emotional through-line but eh! #those are the tags I have lol #dcu #DC Comics panels #Cam reads comics #Batman #Batman and Robin #Nightwing #A Lonely Place of Dying #Cam posts #Cam writes

[chasingfictions]

even in this episode which i genuinely like ats cant help but input its fundamental misogyny .. making gunn tell fred 'i dont know what kind of alien female thing this is' when she's having a genuine breakdown about the mental load she's taken on and it's SO . and like, i think that's actually interesting given that this episode is from one of the few ats writers who imo writes content that not only isnt actively misogynist but also is like, generous and encompassing of women characters' arcs . and so it has this double edged blade of like, expressing both a real understanding of the fact that fred is experiencing a very gendered angst right now but ALSO is expressing the genuine worldview of ats which is that women's inner subjectivities are alien and distinct from men's ....

also like, it feels like a clumsy handling of gunn too. like he lives in a society it's not unbelievable that he would offhandedly say something like that, i just know that if this exchange happened on btvs it would be a whole thing like , gunn saying that would be a Whole Thing and their arc would grow from this point . like, on btvs when riley says shit about women not being able to take care of or protect themselves, it's a Presence In The Narrative, it's a part of his character arc, and it creates tension . and btvs doesnt always do well with that, like by no means are its gender politics always that self aware lmao, which is a whole other post . but misogyny on ats isnt really allowed to have an impact on the narrative . it's just a Part of It , like a piece of the set dressing . skljfdkldsf this fucking show

#ats rewatch #ats meta

[kald-dal-art]

Titus was not the victor. But would you mind drawing him?

As someone who consider herself one of the biggest D6 stan in the fandom of course I don't mind drawing the only named character from the District (in the original trilogy)

Feel like Titus is such an interesting character that Katniss mentions off handily. It shows how brutal the games can get that one of it's players will resort to something so taboo to survive. And how that amounted to nothing because the Capitol still killed him for it. Kind of shows just surviving isn't enough, you also have to be entertaining and palatable. Really hammering in that it's reality TV, not just a death match.

With the context of TBOSAS it makes sense why they weren't rooting for him. It hit too close to home. Instead of being the reflection of the "worst" from the District, he became a reflection of the worst from the Capitol. Which explains why they would never accept him as Victor.

Sidenote, I think it's interesting how it's also meta in the way Capitol "propaganda" gets to the reader. So many fanworks I have seen with him in it just takes it at face value that he must have been a crazy monster, instead of a starving kid stuck in an arena with no food seeing how he ended up being killed by an avalanche. It's interesting in my opinion.

Have more thoughts but I'll spare those for my fic so yeah so if you are reading that...there's something to look forwards to or maybe not it's rather bleak

#blood #tw blood #the hunger games #thg #thg fanart #district 6 #titus #titus thg #eva answers stuff #fan art #clip studio paint #artists on tumblr #also had a phase earlier this year reading up stories with people being forced to resort to eating dead people to survive #like the flight 571 story and the donner party #i think his situation was more like those instead of someone who just ate human just because he felt like it like certain serial killers #digital art #this became way more meta than fan art #but don't get a lot of chances to share my opinions on stuff and analysis stuff so here you go