#genuinely fucking era defining

[on-this-day-mcr]

On this day, September 12

In 2006: My Chemical Romance released the single "Welcome to the Black Parade", the first single from their third studio album, "The Black Parade". (🖤)

Stream "Welcome to the Black Parade" here!

#genuinely fucking era defining #what a song #single release #2006 #black parade era #september 12

[aenramsden]

The following is not my idea; it was the original brainchild of a friend of mine named Omicron, with help from various others including EarthScorpion, TenfoldShields, @havocfett and ShintheNinja:

So, you know what I want to do one day? Run (or play in) a D&D campaign in which the Big Bad Super Dragon that is fuckoff ancient and unfathomably powerful and whose actions have shaped history and bent the course of nations and had repercussions on the whole culture and society in the region where it's set; the Bonus Special Boss for some endgame optional quest after you defeat the direct BBEG and win the campaign...

... is a white dragon.

To explain this for people not deep into 5e monster lore; D&D dragons are sapient beings, and known for their instincts and tendencies, and whenever you meet an big evil dragon that's really old it's usually this ancient creature of terrible intellect Smaug-ing it up all over the place.

Except white dragons are fucking stupid. Like, they're still capable of speech and thought! They're just… feral, hungry morons. And you almost never see them portrayed as ancient wyrms for that reason; they lack majesty. Critical Role did it, yes, but even then, Vorugal is explicitly the most bestial member of the Chroma Conclave, and the others are the more intelligent planners and long-term threats. An ancient white as a nation-defining endboss, though; not a thug for a smarter master but as the strongest and biggest threat around is just not the sort of thing you tend to see.

Adventurers: "Oh wise Therunax the Munificent, gold dragon of Law and Good, what can you tell us adventurers of the evil dragons which rule this land?" Therunax the Munificent, 500-year old Gold Dragon: "Good adventurers, know this: this land is torn apart by the evil of Tiamat's spawn. The eastern marches are the dwelling of Furinar the Plague-Bringer, black dragoness whose hoard is a thousand sicknesses contained in the body of her tributes. The southern volcanic mountains are the roosting of Angrar the Wrathful, the fiery red dragon, who brings magmatic fury on all who do not worship him. And the northern peaks are home to Face-Biter Mike, the oldest and most powerful of all, of whom I dread to speak." Adventurers: "F-Face-Biter Mike???" Therunax: "Oh yes, verily indeed; two thousand years has Mike lived, and his eyes have seen the rise and fall of five empires, and a hundred and score champions have sought to slay him; and each and every one he bit their fucking face off."

Like... I want to see a campaign where Face-Biter Mike is genuinely the most powerful dragon in the region, if not the entire world. Where sometimes he descends on a city to grab himself some meatsicles and causes a localised ice age by the beat of his vast wings and the frigid wastes of his mighty breath and by the chill his mere presence brings to everything for miles around him, and everyone just has to deal with that for the next decade. An entire era of civilization comes to an end, an empire falls, tens of thousands starve in the winter, all because Mike wanted a snack. Where his hoard is an unfathomably vast mass of jewels and artefacts and precious stones frozen in an unmelting glacier, except he is a nouveau riche idiot with fuckall appraising skill, so half of his hoard is coloured glass or worthless knicknacks, and he doesn't give a shit.

"Your Draconic Majesty, this crown is… It's pyrite." "Yeah, well, it's brighter than this dusty old thing made out of real gold, it's my new best treasure. Throw the other one away." "…throw the Burnished Tiara of Bahamut, forged in the First Age of Man, your majesty???" "See? I can't even remember its fucking name." "But my lord-" "DO YOU WANT TO BE A MEATSICLE" "…I will fetch a trash bag, your majesty."

But at the same time, he's not stupid, he's just simple, and in some ways that makes him more dangerous than the usual kinds of scheming Big Bad you see in these things, while simultaneously justifying why Orcus remains on his throne (because he's lazy). Face-Biter Mike doesn't make convoluted plans or run labyrinthine schemes; he just has a talent for violence and a pragmatic, straightforward approach to turning any kind of problem he struggles with into a problem that can be resolved with violence. Face-Biter Mike has one talent and it's horrifying physical power, so his approach to any complicated problem is "how do I turn this into a situation where I can fly down and bite this dude's face off?" with absolutely no regard for the collateral damage or consequences of doing so, because those are also things he can turn into face-bitable problems.

"My lord, the dread necromancer Nikodemion is using his undead dragons to attempt a conquest of the eastern kingdom; his agents are everywhere, his plans are centuries in the making, what can we do against such a mastermind?" "I'm gonna fly over the capital and eat the eastern king." "M-my lord???" "The kingdom will collapse without leadership, Nikodemion will win his war, he'll take the capital and crown himself king." "And that helps us… how?" "Once he does I'll fly over to the capital and eat him." "…" "This is why you advisors all suck. You're all about convoluted plans when the only thing I need to win is know where my enemy is so I can fly down there and eat him. Stop overthinking things."

And, like, yeah, it's a simplistic plan, but when you're several hundred tons of nigh invincible magical death, you don't need brilliant strategy; the smartest way to win a war is, in this case, the simplest. He's not even all that clever at figuring out the consequences of face-biting, he's just memorised the common consequences of doing so.

(If you want to go all in on Mike being the major mover and shaker in the region; Nikodemion only even has a pet zombie dragon because Mike killed the last dragon to show up and contest his turf but wasn't going to eat a whole dragon by himself. Nikodemion got to stick around and amass that much power because Mike ate the Hero of the Realm while he was adventuring because he figured the Hero would come and try to slay him at some point. Nikodemion got started because Mike ate half the leadership of the Academy of High Magic who typically keep evil wizards and necromancers in check. And then eventually this product of Mike's casual, careless actions becomes a big enough problem to bother Mike personally, at which point Mike eats him too.)

He doesn't even really fail upwards, either! He is regularly reduced to nothing but the glacier he stores his hoard in, but he's Face-Biter Mike so nobody wants to commit to actually ending him forever lest they get their faces bitten the fuck off. And his hoard's in a huge-ass magical glacier so nobody can get to it without running into the Invading Russia problem; it's hard to wage war when everything is frozen over and you're both starving and freezing to death. Once he's been beaten back to his central lair and has lost all his holdings… I mean, he's still a problem, but he's a far away problem. So he loses his assets and spends a decade in a cave brooding it up while no one dares risk trying to actually kill him, and then a generation or two later he flies down to a kobold colony and gets himself some minions, or a dragon-worshipping mage comes to offer his service against a pittance from his hoard, or a particularly stupid cult starts thinking they can get in good with him and leech off his power, and then he's (hah) snowballing again.

He's also got a very… well, the kind of weird Charisma that Grineer bosses do. Like Sargas Ruk, who's a malformed idiot, but oddly charismatic. As he's a dragon, that makes him a natural sorcerer and thus Charisma is all he needs. He's pretty relaxed when he isn't in a face-biting mood, and he's kind of infectiously optimistic, because his life has taught him that he will succeed as long as he perseveres. So he just believes it.

And sometimes that's really refreshing to work for, as an evil minion of darkness! It's like, you're coming to your Evil Dragon Lord with terrible news; you've worked for evil overlords before, you know how it goes. You fall to your knees weeping and tell him that you've failed to seize the incredibly powerful magical artifact, you think your life is forfeit. And he's just like "Eh, it's okay, these things are all over the place. Better luck next time. You remember the guy who took it, right?" and you go "Y-yes, oh great lord!" and he's like "Sweet tell me his name later and I'll grab it" and then eats a frozen adventurer he kept around as a snack.

His followers tend to quickly realise that if they fail him, bringing some temple's silver or a sack of brightly coloured beads or a couple of dead cows means he's super forgiving because at least he's got something out of the day. "Oh boy, cows? It's been forever since I had those, ever since the Orc Steppe Nomads took over it's all about goats and onions. Today is a good day." He's a master of delegation by dragon standards, in that he just tells you "Just go get it done, I don't care how" rather than micromanaging you and constantly appearing as an image in smoke or taking over your campfire.

The key part of Face-Biter Mike as a threat to players (because he exists in the context of a D&D campaign) works well in that you can rely on several known quantities:

He will not pull sneaky shit that you don't see coming

He will not make convoluted plans that you must work to unravel

He will consistently attempt to come down and wreck you personally if he finds the opportunity and you are a threat to him

You cannot fight him head-on (at least not until the last leg of the campaign, and ideally as an optional boss rather than mandatory)

So as long as you are good at staying under the radar, thwarting his minions (whom he gives broad orders to with almost zero oversight) and not putting yourself in face-biting range, you can deal with him. If you succeed, it won't be the first time Mike has lost his assets and had to go brood in his glacier for a decade or two before rebuilding. It happens; he can deal with it. And that's a win for you within the context of a single campaign, so take the win.

And if you're not going to use him as an enemy, he works pretty well as a quest-giver, too! The costs for failure are obvious and straightforward, and "do whatever, just get me mine" means that players have a lot of freedom in accomplishing their goals. As far as evil overlords go he is actually one of the least dangerous to work for; his pride is relatively subdued by draconic standards, his goals are simple and typically achievable, and he is easily pleased.

(There's also a good chance he is the forefather of any draconic sorcerer in your party, because Face Biter Mike is a deadbeat dad.)

#d&d #face-biter mike #I want this #writing #gaming #advice #funny #criticism #fandom

[simplydnp]

be honest with me. what are the chances of a hard launch in june

anon this question goes back years. and the thing is. we have been right once before.

you ask me this this time last year? fuck no. i might even quip that dapg would come back before dnp would hard launch. well. look at us now.

and even then, you look back on the content they started with in the revival--it honestly kind of felt exactly like where we left off, only a lot more explicitly queer (we stan). and then... trying to see without my glasses 2. and bang, spooky week happened. and that shifted the balance. we suddenly got slo-mo replays of handholds. day, after day, after day, finishing with the absolute masterpiece of halloween baking cinnamon rolls. in all honesty it was so much more than i'd've ever expected from them. truly another post-baking universe.

and it never really slowed down. suddenly we had cat prom photos, catboy butlers, catboy dan w/ phil photography credit, theyre 'wrestling' --running us full throttle into gamingmas, the first since 2017. and every day we had a new thing to freak out over: standing close. golf jokes. and then... pinof reacts. i don't know what compelled them to do it but i do have speculations. genuinely, i think they wanted to defang a lot of their history. we treated pinof 1, especially, with this... reverance. and it wasn't talked about too publicly--and dnp didnt do it either. so if they really wanted to move on, to bring down the walls, open the floodgates, define this new era: they had to throw the first stone. and they did. quite heartily too. suddenly this almost taboo part of their history--almost too intimate to be perceived--was on the table. and we were talking about it. joking about it. giving clear signals of 'we see it, it's okay.' and suddenly we existed in a post-pinof reacts world. of anything, i would've never predicted they would've done that. absolutely wild. follow that with it takes two being so chill and fond. incohearant being so blatant and heartfelt. trombone champ being unhinged and chaotic. the genuine and sweet complimenting of each other in the red carpet video. devan wedding... happilyphoreverafter... we crashed forward in time. never knowing what would be next. where is the line? how far will they go.

they teased us with japhan honeymoon and we knew 2024 would be wild. but we didn't know how much. from wdapteo 2023, to specific reminiscing about japan w/ devan, WAD happening, and phil playing a huge role in it all--from the orange carpet hosting, to 'ive been in *sex noises* with phil from the start!', to 'remote crisis manager phil lester', to dan saying he can stay during the thank you.

one of the biggest videos so far this year was the tiktok likes one. i will be forever haunted by the dog eating cheeseburger and willy wonka tiktoks--theres some things i was never meant to know. and yet. they tell us. explicitly.

every single video on amazingphil since the return of dapg has mentioned or featured dan. there's been a palpable shift in the way they interact. have you seen the way phil has been glowing in videos lately? this guy is on cloud nine all the time. it's really not hard to see why.

the energy of keep or yeet w/ dan... the absolute Lack of pretense of it all. phan twitter... watch your step baby girl...

dan and phil fucking crafts. talk about an unexpected return. legacy defining, one might even say. we're still in this tailspin of what everything means and they drop this insanely iconic video on us. from the storytelling to the production to the aesthetic--and its all capped off by explicit handholding. yes, it was part of the sacrifice. but hand in hand, the heart dan ripped from phils chest in one, and the knife that did it in the other... oh boy. we're really in it now. and then they put it on fucking merch. genius. truly no one does it like them.

and the foot has been on the accelerator since. dan and phil connections, shuffleboard & mocktails, getting deep slumber party, acknowledgement & approval of fics (yes previously given but never like this)--hell, even the sims today was wild for 'is their love language horrible banter 👀'.

you didn't ask for an essay but i gave you one. all of this to say, they've been moving the line. quite intentionally so. they intentionally revived their joint branding. they are 'dan and phil' again, and seem happier than ever about it, and i think that means something. they're saying things they never would have before--out of the closet or not.

as for june... 5 years since coming out is a big deal. so is this year being 15 years of dnp. hell, so is this year for being the first out pride month where they're explicitly a duo and regularly making content together. they're sentimental, there will be something.

my craziest idea is reacting to their coming out videos ✌️😔 --but i don't think it'll actually happen. as for more realistic, i could see pride merch. and however that goes will be significant, in my opinion. i'm excited and curious.

i don't know if they'll hard launch. it's hard to put all of the implications, complications, and speculations back into the box once it's opened. dan's talked about it before--wanting to be able to fuck up and not be publically executed, instead, being able to learn and grow and work it out. i think that's a very understandable stance to have. very grounded. we'd have to ask him if tour/dapg has changed that now. i do think he's had some sort of life epiphany--whether it's about that specifically, only he can say. but i think it's there.

even if i portray a lot of level-headedness, i wear my clown nose with pride. sometimes the only option is to go with whatever is funniest at the time. they're both jokesters, so they could commit to a bit like that. but it's also like, it can be too serious for them to want to joke about. i don't know. i think we're in this almost beautiful state right now--the we know you know of it all. there's no expectations, no demands to be met, no obligations of types of content. they're happy. we're happy. it depends on if they feel ready. if they want to. we'll be here, always.

#that is to say. marraige hill is starting to get crowded boys. so if you could. do something about that. thatd be great #im sure there's things ive missed but basically it comes down to this: realistically? maybe. & thats a lot fucking closer than its ever been #theyre having fun. and that means im having fun #dnp #c.text #dan and phil #phan #<- for the fandometrics #answered

[star-girl69]

“FUCK THE OTHER KIDS I ONLY CARE ABOUT OURS”

Danny better be included in that context. I want to see the two interact with one another. I feel like they would get along and just be little Clarisse’s around camp terrorizing everyone. And Clarisse is standing in the side being a proud mama 😂😊

WE’RE SO BACK

danny and ivy are about the same age in my little version of a canon universe so they would call themselves twins. i never really defined either of the features i don’t think but for me personally i think of ivy as this feisty little blonde with a fuckass bob she pulls off SO well, constantly wearing pink and flowers just to turn around and destroy someone

and then danny i imagine him to be like a young josh hutcherson (bridge to terabithia era, maybe a bit younger) except w more prominent freckles and a bit darker hair

so anyways.

they don’t look alike at all so that’s what is so fucking hilarious about it but they’re like “we’re twins!!! best friends!!! brother and sister!!!”

that’s genuinely how they introduce themselves to everyone and then everyone is like???

also percy is so fucking terrified good god hes losing his shit THERES THREE OF THEM NOW????? he’s like “we need to BAN clarisse and y/n from adopting more children”

(as if clarisse would listen to percy 🙄🙄🙄)

so basically danny and ivy would be attached at the hip. like they have twin telepathy fr and ut pisses everyone off

when they’re separated (god forbid you’re split up onto different teams) (they’re not afraid to kick and scream and cry) (chiron would PERSONALLY make sure they are not split up again bc genuinely just no one wants to deal w them SCREECHING)

ivy is a daddy’s girl (aka clarisse)

danny is a mama’s boy (aka y/n)

danny and ivy are kinda like the polar opposites of each other i mean don’t get me wrong is danny absolutely lethal with a weapon? yes obviously and he tries so hard to be like his half-siblings and love battle and war and all that stuff but he just doesn’t get the same joy out of it

clarisse doesn’t really care, she comforts danny as best as she can and tells him he doesn’t have to love it as long as he can protect himself so she has some piece of mind, she’s kinda confused as to why danny’s is technically ares’ kid but also like that’s her kid…. so she really don’t care

besides clarisse has someone else to impass all her wisdom onto

the hurricane that is ivy.

she definitely wasn’t born with that natural effortlessness that danny and clarisse have, but she works 10x as hard and absolutely loves the feeling of a sword in her hand she has the PASSION and that is much more important than natural ability tbh

anyways. every once in a while y’all will have sleepovers and you barely fit it’s hilarious… pretending that camp counselors once again have a room at the back with a slightly bigger bed

clarisse is in the middle, you’re on one side, danny on the other, and ivy is fully spread out sideways on top of y’all

ivy and danny are just walking around camp like they own it bc they do, clarisse is scary and will get them whatever they want bc the twins will flash puppy eyes at you who will then flash puppy eyes at clarisse and then she’s helpless 🤷‍♀️

anyways. that’s all i got for now love y’all love this little family 😘🫶

#addie answers stuff!!! #clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse and ivy and y/n: the perfect family #and danny!!!

[partycatty]

johnny cage > character development

reader dating johnny as he trains at wu shi academy and visits outworld

notes: i was inspired by that one fanart of johnny cage inspired by myspace era tom hardy

masterlist <3

•johnny cage sending you stupid fuckboy selfies while he's away at the wu shi academy training to be a champion (he hasn't been thru his character arc yet, he's still johnny "can't cut back" cage)

•he'd pull up his undershirt with his teeth and expose his midsection, looking into the camera with that trademark grin and wink combo that sends his fans to the moon

•sends u update pics on his build, sure, he was built before but his muscles came in even more defined with the excessive training the monks put him through

•would send you every. fucking. photo and video this man takes. ipad baby could not put that damn thing away in chapter 3 good LORD.

•"babe look" and it's a man you've never seen harnessing the power of lightning. what.

•whispered phone sex since he's in a shared room

•send you texts like "missin u like crazy rn" and "cravin that sweet ass rbn"

•of course you roll your eyes at your boyfriend's ridiculousness but you also hope he goes through a genuine development in his life. god knows he needs it.

•and when he finally returns, there's a new spark in his eye. a new, mature sparkle. he tells you about liu kang, outworld, the hourglass, kenshi, kung lao, raiden, the tarkatans, and the lin kuei. he sounds happier. he sounds inspired. and before long, he's running out of the room to make frantic phone calls about a new franchise pitch: mortal kombat.

#quick silly blurb since this man's arc isn't talked about enough #johnny cage x reader #johnny cage #mortal kombat #mortal kombat x reader

[kazumist]

EPISODE 9 ♡ ENJOY THE DATE, FUCKERS!

HOW YOU GET THE GIRL — A SCARAMOUCHE SMAU

masterlist / prev ep / next ep

it wasn’t hard for kunikuzushi to spot you. after all, his attention automatically focuses on you no matter where he is.

“hey,” he nonchalantly said as he approached you.

“where’s kazuha?” you asked him.

“he said he forgot that he had an important errand to run, so he ended up passing for today.”

“what about the others?”

“not sure; ask them," he replies.

awkward silence.

“uhm. thanks for the mcdonald’s last night," you quietly said. if kunikuzushi had focused his attention on something else (which technically never happens when he’s with you, no matter how much he denies it), he probably would’ve missed it.

“did you eat the mcflurry yet? if not, then i might ask for a bit," he chuckles.

“well…” you trailed off.

“did you eat everything already?” he asked, surprised.

“i was upset, okay!” you said out of defense.

after a bit more small talk, you suddenly feel your phone vibrate right after your notification sound rings. it was a message to your group chat sent by yanfei and the others. what was the message you may ask? 

sorry, (name) :’) we all decided to head to kazuha’s place instead. along with an attached group picture of the four of them.

it was also followed by an enjoy the date, fuckers! message sent by lyney.

a sigh escapes your lips as you put down your phone. no wonder they were taking so long to arrive.

“well, it seems like the others ditched us. where do we go now?” you asked.

“hmm, we can just stay here if you’d like.”

-

okay, well, maybe hanging out with your ex again isn’t as bad as others would make it seem.

because in truth, things are going very well for both you and kunikuzushi so far! you two talked about random things while sitting on a random park bench, laughed when a kid got hurt in the small playground era (you didn’t want to laugh, but kuni snickered first), and it was as if things didn’t change.

“you had something to do with the others not being here, right?” you accused him all of the sudden. “huh? no, i didn’t.” he raises his hands up as he defends himself.

“oh, really now? how about we ask them?" just as you were about to whip your phone out, he stopped you. “wait, fuck. okay, yeah, i did have something to do with it.” kunikuzushi looked down as he admitted it. deciding to tease him, you replied, “what was that? i couldn’t hear you.”

he groans at your actions. “i said yeah, i had something to do with it. i was worried last night, and that’s why i’m making it up to you now.”

“why didn’t you just tell me yourself?” you asked.

“i thought you wouldn’t go if i did so.”

“hey! i’m not that mean.”

“are you sure about tha—ow!”

if others were to judge the two of you right now, they would think that you two are here at the park together as a couple with the amount of subtle touches, genuine smiles, and heartfelt laughter from the both of you.

then again, if you think about it, nothing really changed between the two of you. everything is still the same, and everything is almost just like it was before, except for the label that would define all of the lingering feelings you and kunikuzushi have left for one another.

taglist (open): @yinyinggie @blue-b3rries @ryuryuryuyurboat @your-local-reblogging-kazoo @lilikags @haliyamori @diorlumx @mamafly @zuunotsane @iloveosamuu @featuredtofu @kana-de @xiaoderrrr @f1orent1ne @alhaitie @yelleloww @brain-r0tt @jamieexistss @danfelions @e0nssadrift @lovemari @kunikissr @chluuvr @lazy-sanns @lxkeeeee @swivy123 @sketcheeee @quacking-simp @tiredslepz @vxcmx @kichiy0shi @yingofthemoon @feiherp @sicut-sol @mayuumine @xiaosoneandonly @xtobefreex @bananasquash @im-the-ruler-here @hiraethhv @yumiaur @oughhhhmamamia @beriiov

#( smau — how you get the girl ! ) #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin imagines #scaramouche x reader #scaramouche smau #kunikuzushi x reader #kunikuzushi #x reader

[roseworth]

Any thoughts on Bart and Rose?

MANY

they make me so goddamn emotional. first of all bart being genuinely interested in being friends with her in a period of her life where she felt like no one really wanted her around.. like the titans kinda had to look after her and the older titans saw her as an unstable child that had to be taken care of (which is correct. but she didnt like that). but BART just looked at her and thought she was cool and wanted to hang out with her <3

and him saying "its not like that" is sooo sweet bc he really just wanted to be friends with her 😭 ge*ff made their relationship sorta romantic but its so sweet that he saw her and said "idk how i feel about her but i just know i want to hang out with her <3"

also my fav thing ever is that he sees her screaming at donna and crying and goes "this is the perfect time to make my move 😎" its so fucking funny because then the NEXT time he sees her he does the exact same thing. she watched her foster parents get murdered in front of her and bart goes "hey rose! its me your friend!" ily bart. but he just keeps running into her at the absolute lowest points in her life and trying to be friends. like baby shes about to kill herself this is not the time to hang out...

and then. GOD. HELLO. tt03 #12 makes me lose my fucking mind btw

sobbing because hes the ONLY PERSON that ever reached out to her during this era. hes the only person that recognized there was something wrong and tried to help her. he knew her!!! he thought she was lying to slade because he couldnt believe she would do that. GOD.

it drives me insane that so many people who shouldve done something to help her just. didnt. but i understand that sometimes the story has to happen and they couldnt do it. thats FINE its FINE

ooouuuuggaaagahguhhohuguhhoyhuguhhughggaghahhguhhuogouhghhggagghhguhuahgguhhohooouuauauhghggaagahhuhguhooouguhaggahghgh. im fine.

"rose was there. trying not to be like her dad. trying to be something else." ACK. OUCH. ok im fine.

then. titans of tomorrow 🤮

scraps of what could've been....... i assume geoff had an arc in mind where the titans take rose back (they were at least kinda hinting at it in some of the stories) and i so badly want to know what would've happened. i like the renegade arc but i wish we got a story with the titans taking her back :((( i dont trust jeff geohns with anything but... in my imagination it would've been a great story with bart coming to get her and convincing her to leave her dad

and im still refusing to acknowledge the rest of the titans of tomorrow arc because that story is so goddamn stupid and boring. but theyre married or something in it idk

BUT. BUT BUT BUT. heres where i get insane

because ouuughhhh they could be besties but they just. keep missing each other. right person wrong time but platonically because oughhhh they first met when rose's life was just completely destroyed. then they meet again when rose's life was destroyed AGAIN. then!!!!!!!! when rose meets the team its right after bart leaves and later dies

throwing up and crying bc after rose dies we get so much of rose's favorite trauma response of suppressing it and pretending she doesnt care then trying to fuck someone

someone that she considered a friend but hadnt been able to talk to in years dies and she says "LOL that funeral is so boring! haha bart meant nothing to me. im fine. stop talking about feelings and lets skinny dip right now. bart who" go off queen <3 she does not want to let herself feel any emotion so she represses it as hard as she can forever

(btw. i have complicated feelings about this bc as much as its in character for her to repress all her feelings with sexualizing herself,,,, ew. idk if this is johns or mckeever but its one of their faults and i know it because despite defining all the important aspects of her character theyre both so gross about her sometimes. men 👎 but thats a completely different rant)

ARRHCHHGGHFAHN.... THEN. titans of tomorrow (🤮) again

bart spent this entire story saying she was awful and trying to murder her (they divorced i guess. stupid ass storyline i dont care) shes still sad to lose him again. this is literally the only time she lets herself mourn him and its right after hes been trying to kill her. there is so much wrong with her <3 <3 <3

also as i was looking for that panel i saw this one and i think its so silly:

thats my girl!!! take no responsibility for anything ever and always find someone else to blame for your actions 💞 and bonus points for hating men !

anyways. then later the krul run happens and theyre both vaguely out of character but they FINALLY get to be friends again!!!!!! theyre buddies!!!!!!!!!!!! theyre hanging out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

besties bullying a 12 year old together <3

also one of my favs because i know its supposed to be "haha barts being creepy to her XD isnt that so funny" but inside my head this moment is just bart getting so excited about being on a team with rose again that he refuses to let her miss any of the action. he grabs her hand and gets her into her costume and doesnt think anything of it because hes just so happy that he gets to hang out with his buddy <3 that wasnt the writers intention. but it is to me

if youre willing to exaggerate. they r so besties here. they are taking every opportunity to hang out because they finally get to be buddies :') we still get to see bart just genuinely liking her and once again he just thinks shes cool and wants to hang out with her <3333 theyre so much fun

and i cant keep looking for screenshots because reading the end of this book bums me out since the new52 happened and they couldnt finish any of the arcs they had planned. lili worth i miss you every day

anyways yeah to answer your question. i love bart & rose 👍 the way hes one of the only people that just. likes her. hes the first person (ish) that reaches out to her after her mom died when she was at a very low point in her life and he continues to just enjoy her company and like her as a person which doesnt happen a lot <///3 there are so few people that like her and want to spend time with her and just genuinely think shes a good person but bart always does!!!!! barring t*tans *f t*morrow bart always likes her and always thinks highly of her when no ones else does 💞💞💞 theyre so sweet and i want them to interact again

#theres a secret au in my head where bart roy and kory made a 'save rose and kill slade' task force while she was being drugged #they would not let that shit stand #rose wilson #bart allen #long post #dc #im so sorry this is basically just a tour through every interaction they've ever had. but i just love their scraps of friendship

[cyber-corp]

By the time I'm posting this, it will be January 26th, commonly known as Australia Day where I'm from. A country known for its sweeping plains, unique fauna and the PM fucking off during a nationwide crisis.

I think, despite all Australia's long-standing issues, there are some things about it worth celebrating the culture. Specifically, the music!

Here are some of (what I think) to be some of the most quintessential Australian albums to listen to:

Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust (1987): Quite possibly the most Aussie album from quite possibly the most Aussie band. The biggest song off of this album, Beds are Burning, is about Aboriginal Australians being forcibly removed from their land, and the lead singer Peter Garrett is really outspoken about justice towards Australia's native peoples, even being in Parliament at one point. Listen if you want to hear what Rage Against the Machine would be like if they were a new wave band and regularly consumed Oak chocolate milk.

INXS - Kick (1987): If the UK had new wave, Australia had pub rock. Artists defined by their songs being so infectious you can remember while you're smashed on seven bottles of Tooheys Extra Dry (kidding. it's called pub rock because that's where they'd play their sets. in pubs). INXS is quite possibly the pub rock band, the genuine article, and this album is a nice gateway into their music; Punchy, upbeat, and memorable riffs for days. (Songs like Need You Tonight and New Sensation for a good idea). Listen if you like Duran Duran or The Cars.

Kylie Minogue - Fever (2001): GOD, how do I introduce Kylie. This country's shining grace. The superstar in our backyard. Our very own Princess of Pop. This album just extrudes that gleam and optimism that'd you find in a lot of Y2K dance-pop music, and I absolutely love it. Listen if you like Discovery-era Daft Punk or Grace Jones.

The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000): My personal favourite off this list. It might not be the most "Aussie", but I think it makes up for it in its ethereal tone and sampling techniques. One song might just be made up of just one sample, while another might be made up of 50, (Frontier Psychiatrist was originally made up of 28 samples), but it's all tied together by this collective lofi sound. Listen if you like DJ Shadow, Portishead, or The Chemical Brothers.

Regurgitator - Unit (1997): There was this period in the 90's where Australian alt-rock went fucking berzerk, and Regurgitator was one of those bands. Everyday Formula opens with "Everyday I shit into the sea" and ! (Song Formerly Known As) is about not going out to parties and staying at home. Listen if you'd like Gary Numan mixed with the subject matter of early Weezer.

Spiderbait - Grand Slam (1999): Spiderbait was another one of the alt-rock outlets that got really popular despite being really vocal about the hypocrisy of the industry at large. This album contains a wide variety of influences, like 60's bubblegum on Glockenpop (song about the needless commodification of music. their most popular song and highest-earning single of that year. lol), pop punk on Dinner Time and hard rock on Shazam! A pretty good all-rounder made brilliant by vocalist Kram. Listen if you like Green Day or No Doubt.

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream (2008): I put this one on because the cover is really funny, but then I listened to the album and I got a sense of bittersweet nostalgia listening to it. A mix of disco, dance-rock and funk (We Are The People is a good example) make for something that made me wish I was 7 again. Listen if you like Prince or Let's Dance-era Bowie.

TISM - Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995): TISM (short for This Is Serious Mum) are a fucking disgrace to this country. They are such a bunch of yobbo cunts that I can't believe they managed to get anywhere past 90 on the charts. Wankers like them deserve to be dragged out on stage and beat to a pulp viciously, to the ravenous delight of the crowd. Don't listen to this album and don't listen to Greg! The Stop Sign!! Listen if you're a masochist, maybe.

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock (1977): Ah yes, good ol Acca. The ultimate dad band. You could put any of their albums on this list because they all sound the exact same, but I put this one on because I prefer Bon Scott's vocals. The title track feels like it goes forever, but in a way where you wish it didn't end. Some nice fashioned high voltage rock'n'roll. Listen if you like Black Sabbath.

There are way more that I could have put on here (Gurrumul, Frenzal Rhomb, Powderfinger, Silverchair, The Presets, The Chats, Men At Work, Tame Impala etc.) but I think you could probably discover them in your own time. In the meantime, here is the very culmination of Australian music. Nearly 50 years has led up to this being made.

Fuckin skitz cunt.

#australia #australian music #midnight oil #inxs #kylie minogue #the avalanches #regurgitator #tism #ac/dc #the best piece of australian art is democracy manifest #just so u know #music #gecko boy #SoundCloud

[lemonandpie]

Brudick for the ask meme!

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did:

Probably since forever? I shipped Batman and Robin before I even knew there were multiple Robins

my thoughts:

I've been binging Wormsin's fic the past couple days, which means I'm in a darker place when it comes to Brudick. (Also I've been craving some erotic thriller recently and that should just be Brudick: the genre. Can you imagine Bruce and Dick doing the piano scene in Stoker? Amazing).

Right now, I'm lamenting how rarely we see Bruce and Dick together anymore. They are the relationship that defines the Batverse, but almost three decades of Robin being treated like a bad word in DC cinema, I am missing Dick being Bruce's foil. His mirror. The one who took Batman's ideals and became something Batman himself could never be. But more than that, I'm just missing them right now.

What makes me happy about them:

I love mess :D

fr though I just have a thing for super messy father and son-esque mentor relationships where they're perfect together except one is definitely going to kill the other someday. They have a blowup and I wiggle my toes, but I think their sweetness gets me the most. I'm not big on the current era of comics, but I do love Bruce acknowledging Dick's worth and strength and I think Bruce needs to it more often

What makes me sad about them:

Their relationship is so heartbreakingly toxic sometimes, and not even in the fun way. Slade can almost kill Dick and it's hot, but if Dick was my friend and Bruce treated him that way (either as a partner or a parent or even just as a boss), I'd be begging him to leave. There's a real bitter undercurrent of Bruce being expected to do no wrong but also be dark and broody and grim that leans on Dick to always forgive, always come back, no matter what Bruce does to him. I think that just makes me sad about Bruce in general-- I am gagging for character development and DC steadfast refuses to give it to me.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

I think a lot of fic makes Bruce either too good or too awful, until it's either boring or ooc. I just can't with a Bruce who is just the worst, or at least so deeply profoundly mediocre that he may as well be the worst. But also sunshine and rainbows seems too happy for them. It's a hard balance for the source materials, let alone the fic. And I include myself in this! I think Brudick is a genuinely difficult ship to write, because their dynamic is just difficult to nail down in general. Honestly I struggle to write them because of it, myself

things I look for in fanfic:

Passion. They may be the old married couple of the DCU, but Brudick are sexy. Any fic where they're a couple has to include the fact that they're an extremely taboo relationship but they're just so into each other it doesn't matter. Sizzling chemistry. Raw desire. The kind of mental anguish to keep Catholicism alive til the next millenia.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Realistically, I think Bruce is going to end up with no one, but I'm down for some BatCat. Dick I ship with almost everyone

My happily ever after for them:

Dick being in a fucking live action film again

The DC world is so incredibly unpredictable that I think any ending I can imagine now would be completely incongruous to what would make sense five or ten years down the line. And honestly it's hard to imagine an ending for them. Right now, I would just like a run where Dick and Bruce have to lose their current status quo and have to genuinely understand and accept everything they are to each other. Yeah yeah, they hugged recently, but god I want them both to be stripped down to their darkest secrets and bared to each other; where Bruce can't make empty platitudes and Dick can't just forgive everything. Something where they get the choice to walk away and instead hold each other twice as hard. And then I want the hug

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Bruce is the big spoon. Dick is the loose limbed jellyfish who can't stay still for five minutes and prefers to be face buried in Bruce's chest anyway

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Fighting Swinging through the city, grappling hooks not necessarily required.

#brudick #this post is just a mess of feels

[zahri-melitor]

Okay, as I finish the era-defining runs on Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey and Batgirl that 2009 closed out, I had a solid think about who I really enjoyed writing these, because that’s like over 580 issues of material, annuals, minis and one shots included.

Reflections on best writers for runs of Tim’s Robin series:

Look we have to acknowledge Chuck Dixon. Nobody was doing it (writing 2/3 of the entire Bat office material simultaneously) like Dixon, for almost a decade. To ignore the impact of Dixon on Tim and Tim’s comics is to miss the foundation almost everything else is built upon. Love him or hate him, he’s all about the supporting casts and environments. Special shout outs to Robin I, Robin III, Robin #33, Robin #34, Robin #49-52 (look it contains Shiva), Brotherhood of the Fist, and Robin #67, among many others.

Adam Beechen. Gonna call it. This was a solid entertaining run. It also contains Bruce parenting Tim, which you know what? We all needed this. We DESERVED this. (Unfortunately the run is marred by Evil!Cass but there isn’t a single perfect run anywhere in Tim’s books). It has Robin #156. It has Robin #163.

Bill Willingham, #132-141. Yes, I am very specifically restricting this to a small chunk of Willingham, but this bit was genuinely interestingly written and contains the best material for Tim in Bludhaven.

I cannot be normal about Robin #183, thanks Fabian Nicieza. It’s just. Beautiful. Read Robin I, Robin #50-52, and Robin #183 back to back to back. I have, and clearly so did FabNic as he wrote it. This is what long form storytelling and callbacks are about. This is how you tie off a series after 18 years of material.

Reflections on best writers for runs of Birds of Prey:

Gail Simone. GAIL SIMONE. Queen. She turned the perfect pair (Babs and Dinah) into a trio (Babs, Dinah and Helena) and she gave the Barbara & Helena relationship the desperately needed work it deserved to progress it from a tangled bilateral deep dislike to allies to best friends. (I also loved them despising each other. Because the reasons on both sides were so meaty. But the progression of moving past that was equally good).

Chuck Dixon. Do you need inadvertently very queer stories about 007!Dinah and her handler, Barbara? Do you need Dick/Babs in your life? Do you want the queerest art anyone has ever drawn for Babs, probably drawn specifically as a fuck you to Chuck Dixon (Birds of Prey #21 my beloved)? You want Chuck Dixon.

They let some other people write this for fills but we all know it wasn’t the same.

Reflections on best writers for runs of Nightwing:

Peter Tomasi. There’s absolutely no question. The run respects Dick as the adult hero with connections across the community. It gives a Dick who has grown up enough to not just instinctively push assistance from Bruce away. It’s full of continuity nods. (I have to SCREAM about Dick catching the falling baby at the end of Freefall. Tomasi taking the falling/missed catches imagery and transforming it by: giving Dick the hobby of skydiving; AND letting Dick make the catch that haunts his nightmares? It’s a beautiful reframe)

Hello again, Chuck. Frequently heavy handed, repetitive in how much Dick wants his independence, but also full of Babs/Dick, teamwork, Dick & Tim moments, a properly rounded out supporting cast, and the origin of Dick’s escrima sticks. He wouldn’t be the same hero today without his now iconic weapons.

If I were going to nominate a third, I GUESS I’d pick out a few parts of Devin Grayson’s run, actually, and I give you #75-#83ish, #100, and #107-111. #75-#83 gives you the most interesting part of the Chief Redhorn downfall story and Blockbuster trying to take Dick’s life apart before everyone starts dying (and contains stand out issues #76 – Amy Rohrbach’s house being blown up – and #81 – Dick in hospital, Cass taking on Slade), #100 just does a lot of interesting retrospective work with Dick (even as it cements in Grayson’s Romani canon, and whether or not that’s good in your opinion is up to you), and I actually quite enjoyed the mob arc of #107-111? It’s silly, but also it’s not the worst way Dick’s ever punished himself.

Reflections on best writers for runs of Batgirl:

Kelley Puckett. Next question?

Oh you want me to elaborate? Puckett created our girl who can take on anyone and win. He made her vulnerable. He gave her her aesthetic. He developed her complex relationship with both David Cain and with Shiva. He gave her speech and friends and the vulnerability to desperately want to protect people and learn. Cass isn’t Cass without Puckett’s work.

Probably Dylan Horrocks? Horrocks is very good with emotional moments for Cass. He wrote the ‘loyalty to the Bat’ scene and ‘Soul’ and also the argument with Babs over reading, which I’m sorry, is still one of those moments in Batgirl that takes my breath away because it’s so in character for both Babs and Cass, even as it hurts.

#dc #z canon read throughs #tim drake #barbara gordon #dick grayson #dinah lance #cassandra cain

[watchingyoufromthestars]

Okay, time for my mixed feelings on Scam Likely and how nobody can escape the repetitive cycle of being an imperfect father. I’ll try to be objective as I break down the scene in Goofs Realm, but I’m in my Scam hater era.

THIS IS LONG, SORRYYYYYY

No father will be perfect in fiction or reality, and it’s a running theme of the show. The mistakes of your past define the present and the families have been constantly doomed to repeat them, but in new, fresh, fucked up ways. There are varying levels of mistakes all of them have made in the story, especially compared to Willy, but he’s his own special case.

Scam’s sin is ignorance. To the world around him and individuals’ feelings. Consistently he is shown to not realize outside of his Goofs that they can heavily affect other people in ways they do not like. That actions have consequences. His entire relationship with Jodie was a joke to him, while Jodie was left without his romantic partner a second time and was scammed out of a son (and in more ways than one since Hermie was spawned as a teenager instead of a baby). It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and now that someone is his son and he’s dead.

“He tries to hide the fact that he is actually emotionally affect by this, but he only got a 6, so you can see that he is genuinely upset.”

In his own way, Hermie does matter to him. I think Scam is a very hard being to compare to the rest of the cast because of his Goofs realm nature. He has an entirely different set of morals and ground rules of existence. For christ sake you die forever into nothingness in Goofs Realm if you stop being funny. But now Scam is confronted with a harsh truth and he can’t deny an emotional mode outside of Silly and Laughter.

“I didn’t even think of him as something that could die. He was just a goof. Goofs never die. It’s like- all jokes are always funny forever.”

We truly see Scam’s mindset here. Be it as a Goofs native or just who he is individually, he only thinks of The Big Joke of it all. Hermie was not an individual with feelings to be loved and raised (not that he even raised him at all), Hermie was just a joke to him. And it wasn’t even in any personal way. Everything is a joke to him.

“Where is he? Is he in Hell? Is he in Heaven?”

“I don’t know! He doesn’t have a soul! He’s not like you or me. Well, not like you.

And here it’s cemented in just how irregular Hermie is. Neither him nor Scam have a soul. As much as we’ve visited dead characters on this podcast, there’s nowhere that Hermie can be reached. This incarnation of him is gone forever.

“Do you forgive me for whatever is about to happen? I’m truly going to try.”

Try as he might to make things right — in his own insane way of ‘farting and it’ll be so funny that he’ll come back’ — that’s not something that’s been allowed lately on this show. And what could he even do to make things right anyways? There’s no joke to be made when someone has passed, and no joke can bring them back.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think it would happen like this. I didn’t think he would actually develop a personality; he was just supposed to be a Goof machine. Nobody was supposed to be sad if something happened to him.”

Again, Hermie’s existence was just a part of one big goof and scam for him. Meta and Story, Hermie is and was a joke. He was just supposed to be this silly little guy, but then as time marched on he developed into something of a person. Something a lot of us got attached to and something Normal held onto dearly. “Nobody was supposed to be sad if something happened to him”, but he became too much of a Person for that to stay true.

“I could make you another one.”

And then there’s this line. It kills me in a very specific way. Scam is just so disconnected from human nature that he doesn’t know fully realize the value an individual life holds. Yes, he could just make another Hermie, but that’s not the Hermie. To use the first metaphor that comes to mind, it’s like making a mastercopy. In a previous painting class, we studied a singular painting for one project and recreated it to the best of our abilities. As skilled as one can be in painting, you cannot truly recreate the original. There’s history imbued in the original, and it’s lived a lifetime before your own version was created. Even if you create a version indistinguishable from the original, it is still not the same.

All of this is to say that I cannot truly judge Scam, at least from a certain standpoint. I have very mixed feelings about him, but he’s a unique case of a character that’s very different than judging one of the human dads. Am I rambling here? Am I spouting nonsense? I don’t know, I’m still in distress over crying multiple times from this episode. I’m not proof reading this lol

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #dndads spoilers #scam likely #the only one from today’s episode I’ll tag with character because this is a longer post

[tobytost]

In the grand expanse of the cosmos, where stars flicker with ancient wisdom and galaxies pulse with the heartbeat of creation, there exists a realm where imagination reigns supreme. Within this boundless expanse, there emerged a craftsman named Dave Filoni, a bard whose tales once resonated with the harmonious chords of the Force. In the beginning, his hands sculpted worlds, his words breathed life into characters, and his vision illuminated the darkest corners of a galaxy far, far away.

Oh, how we marveled at his ingenuity! The Clone Wars, his magnum opus, unfolded like an epic poem, each episode a verse in a cosmic ballad. Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, and the clones—they danced through his narrative with grace, their stories etched into the very stars. It was Filoni’s storytelling that rekindled the spirit of Star Wars, bringing forth a resurgence of hope among the faithful.

But as the wheel of time turned, a shadow crept over Filoni’s creations. The nefarious specter of greed began to weave its tendrils around the heart of his storytelling. The allure of profit beckoned, whispering promises of wealth and power. And thus, the purity of Filoni’s artistry began to wane, eclipsed by the insatiable hunger of corporate coffers.

We, the ardent admirers of Filoni’s craft, find ourselves in a state of profound lamentation. Where once there was depth, there now lies a barren landscape of shallow plots and hollow characters. The live-action series under Filoni’s stewardship, once hailed as the heralds of a new era, now stand as monuments to avarice. These productions, bereft of the soul that defined his animated triumphs, reek of profit-driven decisions. Substance has been forsaken for spectacle, and intricate storytelling sacrificed upon the altar of easy fan service.

Yet, in the depths of our sorrow, we extend a hesitant hand towards Filoni, seeking to understand the nature of his fall from grace. Is he a captive bard, his creativity held hostage against his will? We theorize, not out of malice, but out of a desperate desire to preserve the belief in his intrinsic brilliance. Could it be that his hands are tied, his creativity stifled under breakneck deadlines and profit-hungry overlords? The very thought chills the heart, for it suggests that the shackles of capitalism have ensnared even the most luminous minds.

And so, until the truth unveils itself, we stand resolute in our condemnation of the avaricious grip of the Disney corporation. The gloved hands of a mouse have become instruments of oppression, throttling the imagination and desecrating the sacred lore we hold dear. The weight of this corporate yoke stifles not only Filoni’s genius but also the collective dreams of fans worldwide.

In the echoes of our discontent, there lingers a glimmer of hope—a hope that one day, Filoni will break free from these chains, that he will once again wield his storytelling prowess with unbridled passion and unwavering dedication. Until then, we raise our voices in defiance, calling for the restoration of creativity, integrity, and the boundless spirit of storytelling that the Star Wars universe deserves.

manifesto anon you genuinely brought my mood up, it's been such a crazy fucking day, sorry I've been delaying answering this but it's always so funny to read your little manifestos they make me giggle

#also again you're right as always #sorry i cant write a cool ass answer like you do #manifesto anon #asks #star wars meta

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Monsters of Rock 1998 Hair Metal / Hard Rock / Arena Rock /Heavy Metal / Pop-Metal

Good lord, this had to have been one of the most heavily advertised albums of all time, man. I don't know how much ad money the Razor & Tie label shelled out for all of their 'As Seen on TV' comps back in the day, but the commercials for Monsters of Rock and Monster Ballads were fucking inescapable throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, especially. Like, you'd be watching something on cable, and the commercial for this album would come on, so then you'd change the channel, and the same commercial would be playing on there too! And then you'd just force yourself to sit through it, and eventually, through repetition, the entire sequence of little song snippets that gets played throughout the ad would become a permanently etched medley inside of your goddamn mind, destined to haunt your soul for the rest of eternity:

🎶Cum on feel the noize, girls rock ya boys…my, my, my, I'm once bitten, twice shy, babe…poison!…*synths from Europe's "The Final Countdown"*…round and round, what comes around goes around, I'll tell you why…she's my cherry pie, cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise…we're not gonna take it, no! we ain't gonna take it…she's only seventeen, seventeen…here I go again on my own…I'm no fool, nobody's fool, nobody's fool…so hold on loosely…🎶

Now, the hair metal era may have been the dumbest and most ridiculous period of mainstream rock that we've ever borne witness to—and it's very difficult for me to think of another commercially successful subgenre in which rank stupidity has been such an inherently defining trait—but thanks to a combination of my own nostalgia for these damn Razor & Tie ads and my sometimes weird and ironic affinity for bad shit, after listening to this album, there is really nothing more that I want to do than hitch a ride back to 1990 so I can live out a super corny fantasy as a badass suburban high school senior who cruises through town in a boxy, red sedan with the windows down as these silly songs blare out of my speakers 😎.

But like I said, I am also under no illusion here; I'm fully cognizant of just how patently absurd so much of this music was. And when it comes to the pinnacle of pure trash, I really don't think anything ever quite managed to top Warrant's signature 1990 anthem, "Cherry Pie," which is obviously on this album. Like, have you heard or thought about this tune recently? It really might be the single-dumbest song that's ever been recorded in human history. And as the single-dumbest song that's ever been recorded in human history, it has thankfully and, I guess quite fittingly, been memorialized in some way, since…*checks notes*…you can currently go see the pizza box that its lyrics were originally transcribed on at the Hard Rock Cafe in Destin, Florida… 😭.

🎶I scream, you scream, we all scream for her Don't even try, 'cuz you can't ignore her!🎶

Also, Winger's "Seventeen." Yikes; you can probably guess what that one's about! Talk about songs that haven't aged well at all 😩:

🎶She's only seventeen (seventeen) Daddy says she's too young, but she's old enough for me🎶

Yeah… This one's catchy and all, but, um…no. 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎 Really glad we've finally realized as a society that, at the very least, fully-grown adults singing lustily about minors is a very unacceptable thing to do. I mean, it took way too long for us to get here, but at least we've finally made it to this point, right? And I think "Cherry Pie" is probably about a minor too, by the way, but that's also up for debate 😑.

To be clear, though, not every song on this album is embarrassingly dumb and/or skeevy hair metal. I happen to think Living Colour's alt metal classic, "Cult of Personality," is a genuinely great banger. And I also dig the southern rock smoothness of a song like .38 Special's "Hold On Loosely" too; but most of the rest of these are just pure dunderheaded hair metal classics, and a key, overarching feature of this stuff was just how fucking maximally mindless it all was. It's hard to put a finger on what exactly allowed this madness to spread so widely and flourish for nearly a whole-ass decade in the first place, but thank goodness grunge came along when it did and dethroned this stuff from its perch as rock music's top subgenre in the early 90s, because, seriously, this shit was so excessive and outrageous.

All that being said though, and as good and necessary as grunge was back then, I can't help but imagine what a kick-ass time it would probably be to have almost any one of these Monsters of Rock songs come on at the bar while you and everyone else around you are in a highly intoxicated stupor; like, "Black Hole Sun," "Man in the Box," "Interstate Love Song," "Even Flow," etc., might be total jams in and of themselves, but songs like those are probably not gonna do the same trick as something like Alice Cooper's "Poison" can in that type of situation. I mean, when you're fully committed to annihilating some brain cells, it's good to have music that's way ahead of you in order to accompany your experience, right? 😅

Highlights:

Quiet Riot - "Cum On Feel the Noize" Great White - "Once Bitten Twice Shy" Alice Cooper - "Poison" Europe - "The Final Countdown" Ratt - "Round and Round" Warrant - "Cherry Pie" Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again" Winger - "Seventeen" Living Colour - "Cult of Personality" Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take It" Judas Priest - "You've Got Another Thing Coming" Cinderella - "Nobody's Fool" .38 Special - "Hold On Loosely" Autograph - "Turn Up the Radio"

#hair metal #glam metal #heavy metal #metal #rock #hard rock #arena rock #pop metal #classic rock #music #70s #70s music #70's #70's music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #Youtube

[true-blue-sonic]

Tell me about Silver’s humility

From what I can tell, humility is defined as "being humble" where humble is defined as being not proud, haughty, arrogant, full of yourself, or seeing yourself as someone important. It can also mean that you are meek, or submissive to others/low in a hierarchy, it seems.

Based on those definitions, I would argue Silver hardly, if ever, shows humility. In '06, he spends multiple in-game voice lines hyping up his powers and himself as a solution for troubles he comes across, for example: thus, he has a strong confidence in himself and his powers (where especially the latter is not misplaced). I can also recall him calling enemies "trash" and stating that he'll take them all out and such, which is also not very humble of him. Most notably, he makes zero attempts to apologise to Sonic for the dual attempts on his life or the fact Silver's interventions directly led to Elise getting kidnapped again both times. Sonic clearly doesn't mind, but I am not sure to what extend we can argue Silver feels bad about it or is angry at himself for what happened. I don't get the feeling it knocked his self-perception down a few pegs? Overall, "extremely confident in himself, his abilities, and capabilities to save the world" alongside a generally assertive nature (as his moments of dependency on Blaze are very short-lasting and apparently only present in the English script, or so I heard; he also generally seems to be the one making the decisions that Blaze follows) seem to fit Silver best in '06. The only moment wherein I can think of him being more meek is when Amy snatches him off the streets to help her look for Sonic and after his fallout with her, and that does not translate 1-on-1 to humility, I would argue.

The Rivals games up Silver's temper a notch, and he's noticeably ruder and snappier to others. However, I find it interesting that this temper comes accompanied by Silver also trying to "play mediator". In the very first cutscene of his story in Rivals 1 he is trying to talk to "Eggman" as opposed to fighting him immediately, for example. And there is more instances wherein he is not the one explicitly instigating a fight, or where he is trying to talk to other characters (such as explaining to Shadow that "Eggman" might not be who he is). Most importantly, he concludes his story by stating the past will be safe as long as Sonic and Shadow are around, and he notably describes them as brave (Knuckles however can apparently go fuck himself lol). I doubt that that is a clear indication that Silver is humble, but he can show appreciation for what others do for him and he can see others' talents and good traits. And in Rivals 2, he is genuinely grateful for Espio's help, thanking him multiple times in the games for what he is doing. Also here he is far from humble and Espio doesn't boss him around at all, but we can see that Silver is not so full of himself it makes him unable to accept anyone's help.

Also in other games, even those wherein he is calmer, I would not describe Silver as notably humble. In Colours DS he is disappointed by the lack of a fight Orbot and Cubot can deliver after expressing eagerness to see what "robots from this era" can do, and in Generations he says his rematch with Sonic will be fun: he clearly is confident enough to enjoy fighting, and even seems to look forward to it. I doubt someone who is not sure of himself and his capabilities would be so enthusiastic, if that makes sense. Though, I do have to think about a Sonic Channel story now, wherein Silver is quite clear he's not trying to be a hero but just wants to help out and stop calamity from happening. Perhaps that can be seen as humility? In this story he's generally quite a bit calmer and a bit more apologetic than in the games themselves, I feel like. Plus, he shows unwavering faith in Sonic as well, and he might be downplaying his heroics somewhat at the end? So maybe! Those are traits I would describe as humble, but it might also be Silver just not caring about what other people think about him so much.

Overall, the best conclusion I can give is that Silver holds an appreciation for his friends and values them and their abilities, but he also has an unwavering faith in his own, and for good reason. Not exactly the trademarks of a humble person, but I think he is able to like... not be overtly haughty and arrogant and in that way incapable of changing his opinion or cooperating, so to say. And the Sonic Channel story has him display a more humble demeanour with a focus on him not being a hero, but just a helpful person. So when it comes to Silver being humble, I think that is the best place to look!

#silver the hedgehog #sorry if this makes no sense the whole concepts of 'humility' and 'being humble' are difficult for me to put into a definition #it's something where I know what it *is* and what it looks like but like *finding* it in Silver was kind of hard for me #so I hope this all checks out!

[lakesbian]

the problem with the term girlboss/the girlboss poll is the etymology is like this

Phase 1: used solely in an unironically twee pink cutesy liberal "wooo girl power!" way that uplifts/praises shitty things powerful women do without question just bc they're women while simultaneously demeaning women by explicitly framing "boss/successful person" as a male role by default and "girl bosses/successful women" as an exception to the rule (+ also marks those perceived exceptions as hyperfeminine and aesthetically unserious instead of neutral/unmarked like successful men are)

Phase 2: the "do you think Margaret Thatcher had girl power?" era, people using the phrase ironically while criticizing women who Really Suck and were praised for their success in a male-dominated field of atrocities w/o consideration of whether or not succeeding in that field was ethical, people using the phase ironically in reference to female characters who fit the description of "girl for whom being a stereotypically attractive feminine powerful girl is a main point of her characterization, and whom Genuinely fucking sucks." did glory girl have girl power when she committed police brutality?

Phase 3: people hopping onto the trend of using it to refer to characters, using it too broadly, and wrapping back around into the milquetoast misogyny of using it to refer to any female character they find cool while still talking about male characters as if they're whole entire people not defined solely by their gender

which is to say i think people should be banned from calling women girlbosses unless they write two paragraphs explaining why they feel it's a sufficiently ironic commentary on her to receive a permission slip

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Curious - what do you think about Darkling's will to save Grisha? What part of him do you think is "good" despite him being a vicious villain? Or is he completely self serving in your eyes?

Hmm I think he started out genuinely meaning well but past a certain point it took a back seat to his personal ambitions. By canon era he seems more preoccupied with *being the person to fix things* rather than them simply being fixed, if that makes sense? Like his ego and need for unilateral control clearly come first.

There’s definitely a lot of murkiness in the series where it’s hard to separate in-universe characterization from author shortcomings sometimes, but I think it’s pretty telling that his contribution to making things safer for Grisha results in the Little Palace and essentially a personal army answering to him alone. And he seems to be content with that until a sun summoner shows up and allows him to try to enact world domination via Shadow Fold. I feel like if his real primary goal is meant to be any sort of large scale liberation we would simply see more of it as something he’s pursuing?

Anyway I think “good” is hard to define. I wouldn’t say he’s one note evil? But he’s certainly incredibly ruthless and vindictive. We see him personally hurt other Grisha the most tbh? And frequently disproportionately and to his own detriment. A scenario where he wins everything seems so easy and attainable if he was just a little less cruel and a little more patient.

I think the thing mostly tripping him up is just immortality tbh. He’s so old that individual people and lives don’t have much meaning to him anymore, he’s playing a numbers game instead. And it’s become more about winning than any particular ideology or value. I think a good example of that is him working with Fjerda circa S&S to sack Os Alta, which seems like a pretty stunning abandonment of his supposed values. Or how his plan seems to have been “kill pretty much everyone” sgdhdg like the Darkling Did Nothing Wrong side of the fandom bring up him not killing the kids in the orphanage a lot as a defense, but he did very much kill basically all the Grisha left in the Little Palace. The only survivors were the ones that escaped. He didn’t actually spare anyone!

I think RoW, for all its contradictions and awkward relationship with the original trilogy, does showcase circumstances where he isn’t the absolute worst (lol) pretty well. He isn’t redeemed, because he isn’t sorry for a single thing he did! But he is also happy to be the person to go to tree hell to save the day, because who *else* could possibly do that, except for him, the main character of the universe? Like, frankly, I think the tree hell stuff is fucking stupid, but it is a deft way to show how his ego and values are intrinsically tied, and how under specific circumstances he is willing to sacrifice very, very much, despite being an otherwise fairly selfish character.

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #the grisha trilogy #rule of wolves #aleksander morozova #the darkling #i ramble sometimes #all the bendy punctuations #a mysterious stranger has appeared #*writer’s cap*