#the meta will never stop

[outpastthemoat]

one of my personal favorite dichotomies in atla is how iroh, once the top strategist and highest-ranking general of the fire nation, now directs all his energy and considerable tactical experience towards attempting to keep his teenage nephew from throwing himself into life-threatening situations AND IROH REGULARLY FAILS TO PREVENT HIM FROM DOING SO.

he lead a six-hundred day siege and now iroh can't keep up with a sixteen-year-old armed with two swords and a passionate deathwish. zuko's motto is "act first, think never" and he's running rings around his uncle. it's like!!! who's gonna come out on top, iroh's west point education vs. zuko's deep and abiding commitment to always choosing the stupidest possible course of action, and zuko manages to win every single time

#iroh #zuko #atla #it will NEVER stop being hilarious to me #my meta

[19burstraat]

hmmm I know we can surmise that kaz & jordie were the iphigenia of the series, in that, whether it's fair or not, they had to be sacrificed for the benefit of everyone else. jordie had to die and kaz had to suffer it and live with it, because if kaz had lain down and died on the barge, it would have had a crazy knock-on effect. inej likely would never have escaped the menagerie, or matthias from hellgate, jesper would probably have fallen foul of debtors or gangs some way or another (he gets at least one beating from enforcers), nina would have been caught up w the dime lions trying to get matthias out of hellgate, and there's even some more tangential ones, like kuwei probably dying at the ice court and marya being stuck at saint hilde.... but I wonder what would have happened to wylan.

kaz had him under dregs protection, so he never suffered the way he did ("kaz is your luck, merchling."); no beatings, etc. without that... well, it's tempting to think that wylan would have just been killed some way or another. and yeah, maybe, but miggson and prior couldn't get him, could they? wylan has that scary glimmer of the biting-animal, kaz-style survivalist in him, and he had a goal; amass enough money to get the hell out of ketterdam and start anew. but how far would wylan have gone to get that money? van eck's letters pushed him into the arms of dregs munitions building. without the perpetual intervention of kaz-- protection, constant jobs even when there were better people for it, good pay-- how quickly would wylan have turned into someone more like kaz? he has a core of decency, but he gets the privilege of keeping that, because kaz helps him to. alone, would he have surrendered it, or been forced to surrender it, just for a chance to survive? I don't think he would have ever willingly given up. it's not an accident that kaz and wylan's first days in ketterdam are so closely paralleled, or that they have a set of similar skills/traits; it's explicitly said that wylan would also be able to count cards and control decks like kaz can, if he wanted to. and after he finds out about his mother, wylan's comforted by the idea of retribution for van eck, that kaz could destroy his father's life. they're a little bit too similar. but kaz is there to take the moral fall, for the most part; all wylan has to do is help him. but without kaz... well. that's another story, isn't it?

#an AU where nina and wylan both end up in the dime lions is mad. Nina And Wylan's Adventures In Fucking Pekka Right Up #maybe rollins is always fated to fall. may death never stop kaz brekker... #six of crows #wylan van eck #kaz brekker #soc meta #my post #crooked kingdom #long post

[actual-changeling]

sooo uh let's say nebulas and stars were literally forming right in front of you. let there be light and all.

theoretically, asking for a friend, what would you be looking at: the creation of the universe or your crush colleague?

i mean sure, hey, you just met them so a nice hello is- hey aziraphale, what's with the glowing?

sure, you just arrived, maybe that's just left-over celestial travel glow.

we got something important to do so let's focus on the universe - or, of course, crowley's face.

alright, still looking at crowley, aaaand he's glowing again. wonder what that's about.

definitely most important to watch him move his hands while creating stars, 100% the right choice in this moment. maybe now the stars deserve some attention, too, right?

crowley's smile, of course, shines even brighter, and aziraphale is still looking to absolutely no ones surprise at this point. but surely once the fireworks go off you will- ah.

yeah, alright.

better enjoy it while it lasts, i suppose.

aziraphale loves crowley's happiness just as much as crowley loves his stars, and if you think about it, that makes it even more painful that in the end it's him who makes crowley hide his eyes and smile and walk away.

#alex talks good omens #good omens #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #aziracrow #crowley x aziraphale #good omens season 2 #go2 #good omens meta #somewhat meta i suppose idk i just rewatched this scene and realized aziraphale pretty much never stops looking at crowley

[post-it-notes7]

it's that time again

#meta knight #galacta knight #sir dragato #sir falspar #sir nonsurat #sir arthur #kirby #post's art gallery #third annual pin7 halloween drawing(s) I simply cannot be stopped from putting them in silly outfits #kirby right back at ya #galaxy soldier army #may have gone a liiiittle overboard #ah who am I kidding the orb insanity never ends #happy halloween folks!

[anistarrose]

the thing I keep coming back to about TAZ Balance, I think, is that there's heroes — lots of them, even — but there's not really a hero, not a singular one. when our characters try to save the world all on their own, and oh, do they try, their arcs — while eventually culminating in happy endings, for the most part — are, at the time, cast as tragedies. lone heroes, in TAZ Balance, are invariably tragic heroes.

Lucretia can't gather all the Grand Relics and defeat the Hunger on her own. Barry can't find Lup, much less sway Lucretia from her plan, on his own. Lup, crushed by guilt, sets off to neutralize her greatest mistake without even facing her family as she leaves, and that decision sets the story into motion in the first place. their intent to spare their family, to shoulder the burden alone so no one else will have to, fixes little and leaves them isolated. lonely. trapped.

even Magnus, rustic Folk Hero of Raven's Roost, fails to avenge the community that took him in. he sets off on a solitary mission to do so, never opening up about his pain to even his closest friends, but he never sees Kalen again. yet, maybe not too late, he learns, or rather, remembers — the strength to protect and avenge others comes from the strength to ask for help. the last thing helping anyone is trying to do this alone.

Lucretia assembles the Bureau, and as soon as she sees a way, brings Tres Horny Boys back under her wing. Barry, the very same day that Lucretia recruits them, sees the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet surface, and realizes it's time to put his trust in his family again — he shows himself to them soon after, and even with him putting up a facade, that's progress. and Lup, with endless time to reflect, is possibly the first of all of them to see where she went wrong. she won't be making that mistake again.

there's not a singular hero of the story, because taking on the burden of saving everyone is no task meant for one person. there's "our heroes," Tres Horny Boys, and there's the secondary, "secret," but no less important heroes who complete the ranks of the IPRE, but none can defeat the Hunger — nor reunite their family, nor vanquish an old foe — without leaning on each other, and on the new bonds they forged on this cycle. leaning on Johann, Kravitz, Team Sweet Flips, and the whole ensemble; every single connection that convinced them not to flee but to fight.

accepting that none of them can, that none of them should, be the hero alone — that's what averts the tragic end. the Hunger, terrible as it is, is wholly united, sharing and amplifying each other's despair. the only way to victory is to rely on each other, to care for each other, to learn how to be cared for, and to let your loved ones grant you hope.

#taz #taz balance #taz balance spoilers #taz meta #lucretia taz #barry bluejeans #lup taaco #magnus burnsides #i just typed this in a haze but like. give me an hour and a powerpoint and i could keep going with this! #like don't even get me started on how lucretia and barry and lup responding to guilt in deeply similar ways #that were well-intentioned but counterproductive at best and self destructive at worst #limiting their interaction with their family let alone with the world #“i would feel guilty living in a world that i poisoned” etc etc #but those bonds with both their family and the people upon the world proved critical to stopping the hunger! #like it just Gets to me. i will never stop thinking about it

[veinsfullofstars]

"Still trying to intimidate me? Cute."

(ID: Kirby series fanart of Meta Knight and Galacta Knight based off of a couple dynamics template by @/ReddsMess on Twitter. Original template and source below the cut, as well as a HAL language variant. Top-left panel - high-angle shot of MK lit from above, standing firm and glaring up through his mask, his wings curled out and breaching the panel in places, subtitled "Well well..." Top-right panel - low-angle shot of GK lit from below, looming in the air and leering down through his mask, his wings curled out and his hands spread wide in challenge, both of which breach the panel in places, subtitled "Look who came to see me..." Bottom panel - MK & GK stand next to each other, the latter leaning towards the former and gently caressing the side of his mask with the back of one hand, grinning smugly and wrapping a wing around the knight, subtitled "My Knightmare." MK stands stiffly with his fists clenched at his sides, blushing vividly and glaring away from the warrior. A little flurry of white hearts emanate from GK, while one small one hovers above MK. END ID.)

Started 03/30/24, finished 04/02/24.

---

HAL language variant:

Original by ReddsMess (template link) NOTE: The artist has marked 16-18+ in their bio, so browse at your own risk!

#veins art #veins ships #veins fanart #fanart #kirby series #kirby #meta knight #galacta knight #galacta knight x meta knight #metagala #couple dynamics #couples meme #meme redraw #pose redraw #template redraw #toxic couple or idiots in love? you decide #I'm a sucker for bespoke pet names apparently #real-bat-wings MK my beloved <3 #veins “keeps drawing feathered wings despite how much they hate doing so” fullofstars #also I saw @post-it-notes7's mirror!GK design and now I will never not draw GK in heels #swallow tailed galacta knight #<- (inspired by @starflungwaddledee of course) #*gasp* no sparkles?? #the sacrifices we make for a t m o s p h e r e #hmm I wonder if this is where the Childhood Friends AU would go if MK and DDD never got back together... #(but I get ahead of myself - that's a story for another time) #(me: *slaps self on wrist" veins no! bad goblin! no more AUs! especially not AUs of AUs! stop it!) #veinsfullofstars

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Me, to my new date: doctor who thinks it's a sci-fi story because the Doctor thinks it's a sci-fi story and because the companions think it's a sci-fi story, but it's really just a story about ghosts. a story about an ancient creature carrying the ghosts of everyone they have ever loved, meeting new people, and seeing them only as future ghosts. they are haunted by the future and the past and the present because they are the only constant in a world constantly in flux, and they are running as fast as they can to things before they burn and fade to dust but everything will always end, you understand, because this is the only thing the Doctor understands and yet they keep going. they love too much to stop. doctor who is not science-fiction, it's horror and optimism and spiritual more than anything else, it's religious unto itself, the TARDIS is a haunted house and a church and a graveyard and a hospital and the Doctor is the most haunted being in the universe but more than anything, this is a love story, because how can you love something without being haunted by it- hey, what are you doing?

My date, shoving breadsticks in their purse: I have to go-

#more unhinged doctor who meta #doctor who #meta #*into a bullhorn* IT'S A GHOST STORY #ninth doctor #tenth doctor #eleventh doctor #doctor who meta #twelfth doctor #thirteenth doctor #it's abt the time war & dalek & the parting of the ways & doomsday & the last of the time lords & journey's end & angels take manhattan #it's about hell bent and death in heaven and the doctor falls and it takes you away and the woman who fell to earth #it's about the montage of all of the people the doctor has let down #it's about astrid peth and amy pond and rory williams and rose tyler and bill potts and clara oswald and grace o'brien #it's about gaps in memory and memories that live too long to ever heal #the doctor is a haunted house #it's a show about cycles by its very structure #the moment that regeneration became a mechanic for the writers to use and companions began to move out the doctor was DOOMED #but what makes them fascinating is that they see themselves as doomed and blessed at the same time #because they will never ever stop running #clara oswald #amy pond #rose tyler #bill potts #the ghosts are INEVITABLE

[jilyandbambi]

we talk a lot about Shauna being ruthless and violent and resentful, and not to say she isn't those things but also--

Shauna, who risks burning alive to save Van.

Shauna, who pauses to comfort the reunited Tai & Van after the latter is found safe

Shauna, who consoles and looks after Javi all through season 1 while his older brother is busy being misogynistic and getting fucked

Shauna, who takes on the job of butcher despite not necessarily wanting or enjoying it and never complains or slacks off even when the task becomes traumatizing

Shauna, who tries to get Jackie to eat, to keep going, when everyone else has given up on her by that point.

Shauna, who has to be goaded, essentially given permission before she becomes violent

Shauna, who loved her baby in spite of the stress her pregnancy added to an already precarious situation, who spoke to him and cradled him and futily tried to keep him alive, who buried him away from the others to keep him safe in death

Shauna, who kept her daughter's favorite childhood toy in her car long after she'd outgrown it, to always keep a piece of her close by

Shauna, who sees Tai struggling and invites her to stay over, so that Tai won't be afraid to sleep

Shauna, who goes along with Jeff's boring, milqtoast furniture salesman fantasies because while she doesn't love him the way she did Jackie, she does care about him and wants to make him happy

Shauna, who was the only one of the group to show up to Misty's how to get away with murder seminar and thank Misty for going to the trouble

Shauna, who is soft-spoken where Jackie is loud, conciliatory where Jackie is pushy, helpful where Jackie is lackadaisical, proactive where Jackie sulks.

Shauna, who's not a perfect friend or mother or wife but who's still quietly one of the nicest, most empathetic of the Yellowjackets and yet because she got drafted into being the group's butcher, wrote bitchy journal entries, and did one fucked up thing behind her best friend's back (which she immediately regretted and agonized over) gets rebranded by fandom as caustic, overly-snarky and quick tempered when it takes her 10 episodes to get pissed off enough to raise her voice

#shauna shipman #yellowjackets #the comparison to jackie is about how they interact with the group #i love Jackie dont get me wrong #she's a sweet person but after the plane goes down she's only concerned with being that person for Shauna #Jackie is concerned with being a good friend to Shauna #Shauna is concerned with being a good friend to EVERYONE #shauna has to bring that side of Jackie out of her #this is a cinnamon roll x cinnamon roll pairing #but Jackie is the kind of cinnamon roll that has to be baked at the right temp in the right pan #yellowjackets meta #it's just interesting to me that the character who stopped caring is considered the nice one #and the character who cared the most and never stopped is the bitch

[fuchsiamae]

here's an angle I've never seen anyone use:

glados isn't her name.

it's not a name at all. it's a model. like a car, or an appliance -- a subaru outback, a nintendo switch, an aperture glados. she's a Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. it's WHAT she is, and when she's the only one, that works to designate her, but you wouldn't say your car is named "outback." if you're not the type to name your car, then it just doesn't have a name.

we use it like a name, but in canon no one does. it only appears in the first game's slideshow:

and at the base of her chassis:

no one calls her glados. no one calls her anything. chell's name is never spoken either, but it at least appears in Lab Rat. she's a GLaDOS, but she's never named at all.

except by the oracle turret:

her name is caroline.

not "was." present tense. her name is caroline.

#headcanon #back on my caroline/glados meta #as if i ever stopped #not looking for a fight so keep your headcanon if you disagree #but oh i'm insane over this #and I've never really seen anyone talk about it

[heretherebedork]

Cheum gets painted a hero and a sunshine for trying to manipulate her friends into coming back together when she didn't even go looking for Boston to apologize to him when she found out that her brother lied about.

Mew asks if he's an asshole for not forgiving Boston and Top just gives him a big speech about how it's totally his choice who he keeps in his life because, obviously, Mew is making the right choice.

No one ever apologizes to Boston unprompted except Nick and, in fact, almost no one ever apologizes to him at all.

Because he isn't monogamous, because he's honest, because he's an asshole just like all of them, but he owns that part of himself different than they do and so they must reject him and leave him alone in the end.

Was Boston as ass at points? Yes. But so was literally everyone else.

But only Boston has to pay the price because Boston isn't monogamous and so he doesn't deserve the same happy ending everyone else gets. Because if you're not made for monogamy then you don't get to be happy. You get left alone by everyone, all your friends and all your lovers, no matter how honest and how much you try and what you say.

The crime of being non monogamous earns you no forgiveness and leave you alone.

Ugh.

#only friends the series #poor boston #ofts boston #ofts meta #thai bl #thai series #bl series #thai drama #thaibl #asianlgbtqdramas #bl drama #thai bl series #asian lgbtq dramas #thai bl drama #gmmtv bl #gmmtv series #the slutshaming started and never stopped #boo

[kedreeva]

I can't live like this, I made a post about how much the group still needs Eddie and @joseph-quinns made a stunning gifset of it which planted my ass FIRMLY back into seething rage territory over the damn flashlight. So hear me out okay, hear me out

That scene? Where he wraps up the flashlight? That's not just a flashlight and that's not just a one-off. Yes, Eddie protected a beacon of guiding light to send with Steve into the dark, but that's not random. That's a purposeful narrative act!!

In 4.05, at 38 minutes in, the party almost in full enters the darkened Creel house, the den of the beast. Lucas tries to turn on the light, and it fails. Dustin pulls out a flashlight and clicks it on- and here's the parallel. Steve asks him where everyone got them, and Dustin (Dustin, who point-blank told Steve "you die, I die" last season, Dustin who is closest to Steve next to Robin, Dustin who is closest to Eddie, the bridge between the two) gives him a reproachful look and asks him if he needs to be told everything, reminds him that he is not a child, and... tells him where to find a flashlight. Doesn't give him the light, doesn't turn it on. Expects Steve to be taking care of himself.

Which is fine, it's fine, he's a kid, a teenage boy. This isn't to speak on Dustin's character.

But it is to draw the parallel line right up alongside Eddie, who (in 4.06 on the lake) doesn't wait for Steve to ask. He doesn't ask if it's needed. He pulls out a plastic bag from within his clothing, dumps his own belongings on the floor, and uses the bag to wrap up the flashlight, to prepare a beacon for Steve. Eddie solemnly hands it to Steve, something I'm not sure it would have even occurred to him to ask for (they are all so used to the darkness by now). The light is already on, shining bright, when Eddie passes it off with the soft, mundane protection of a good luck.

THIS is what they need. In every war, there are medics. There are healers. There are the helpers, the support. There are those who are the home to come back to, the reasons worth fighting. The ones waiting with clean water and a hot meal and a soft blanket. Even in the midst of the worst days of his entire life, Eddie looks at the warriors around him and says "I can give them light, I can give them a home, I can give them protection."

He can wrap up a flashlight, he can steal a vehicle that is most like a home, he can build shields. He can buy them time.

And perhaps most importantly? Dustin, early on, didn't hand Steve the light. But... by the end, he is building a shield alongside of Eddie, learning how to protect others.

And that's why the flashlight is important.

#eddie munson #stranger things #steve harrington #dustin henderson #stranger things meta #I'm not sorry I hope you all suffer this knowledge with me #because I have been living with this for weeks #his message should never have been that he has to stop running and be a hero #his message should have been you don't have to be a hero #to have worth #to help #to be the turning point in the tide of war #ENJOY YOUR FEELS

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been thinking today about off ramps in long running stories, especially book series.

By that I mean like, places where a person could stop reading and have a satisfying ending even if they’re not yet at the actual ending. (Someone tell me if there’s an established Tvtropes name for this I’m missing.)

Now, a lot of book series will have an off ramp at the end of book 1, because many first books are written without promise of a sequel. Like sure, there might be a sequel hook, but the actual second book is still up to publisher whims in most cases. So you can read All Systems Red or The Thief or A Madness of Angels and have a perfectly satisfying ambiguous-end sci-fi story or middle grade fantasy romp or inverted murder mystery revenge quest without ever picking up book 2. This is definitely an off ramp but it’s not necessarily the interesting or revealing kind because again. Whims of the publisher.

There’s also stories that have an off ramp after every installment. Leverage is famous for this—they had a philosophy of having every season be a satisfying ending, which says a lot both about the writers and about the story they were trying to tell.

But I think the most interesting ramps are the ones where by design or by circumstance, there’s a single off-ramp somewhere in the middle. One spot where unless someone tells you there’s more, you’d never be unsatisfied with leaving halfway through.

Sometimes these will be signaled in some way, where there’s a big timeskip after the off-ramp, or the series changes names or has a spin-off, or the POV changes, or after book 3 the author publishes a short story collection before hopping back in to novels, or the series suddenly jumps from being only novellas to a chunky 120k novel. (The Raksura books, Percy Jackson/HoE, Matthew Swift/Magicals Anonymous, and Murderbot all do one or more of these)

But sometimes off ramps aren’t visible in series order or marketing. Sometimes they’re organic to where a story happens to leave off at the end of an installment.

The queen’s thief has one of these after King Of Attolia. I know this was a satisfying ending because for seven years I thought it was the end. My local library didn’t have A Conspiracy of Kings, so I thought it was a trilogy. And you really can leave it there! KoA ends with Gen back in his element and recognized as king, the main internal threat to Irene neutralized, and peace on the peninsula. The Mede aren’t yet the immediate threat they are in the back half of the series, since up through KoA they’re mainly represented by the magus’s vague warnings and Nahuseresh, whom Irene thinks circles around. There’s no real reason to assume the Mede are a threat within the scope of the series. Now I absolutely prefer getting the whole story, but KoA is a damn solid off-ramp for anyone who feels like exiting there.

And that’s one kind of off ramp where the end you get is pretty similar in tone (mostly happy) to the one you get if you go on to the rest of the series. I’ve also read books where you can off ramp successfully right at the lowest point in the series and get a tragedy out of a series that ultimately ends happy, or leave at a high point and get a happier end than the main one, or exit at an ambiguous point and continue on with ambiguity. The Giver sequels make it pretty clear what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of the book. but you don’t have to read them or have that question answered if you want to.

I don’t have a really solid conclusion to draw here except that I think the positioning of off ramps says a lot about authors and stories, and choosing whether or not to take an off ramp says a lot about readers.

#I know multiple people who refuse to recognize the giver sequels #which has always been odd to me because I quite liked them and never thought Jonas died in the first place #meta #the queen’s thief #tqt #Murderbot #the kitten rambles #murderbot’s off ramp is after exit strategy if that wasn’t clear #Raksura’s is after siren depths #this post partially brought to you by #the realization that one can stop reading Temeraire at the end of book four #and get a tragedy where the horrors of empire cannot be stopped #and will crush anyone trying to change things

[sapphorror]

Zim, Dib, Gaz, and Tak are actually all horribly vindictive spiteful people to more or less equal degrees, but the interesting thing is that Zim and Gaz both exact vengeance in very specific, premeditated ways, which are often wildly out of proportion but once they feel like they've evened the score they will pretty much immediately forget about whatever pissed them off in the first place—whereas Dib and Tak are both ostensibly above being ruled by petty grudges, but very obviously boiling over with a constant resentment that sends them pouncing like rabid dogs at even the slightest opportunity or excuse to make the object of their ire suffer (and if they're both working towards their own self-serving end game that just HAPPENS to involve every terrible thing imaginable befalling their enemies, well... that'll just be a happy by-product of their personal success).

I don't I have any point to make here, I just like it when these freaks are all an overwhelming danger to society (and each other)

#invader zim #zim #dib #gaz #tak #meta #my meta #natterings #iz posting #the universe was never supposed to accommodate this many lunatics gathering in one place #let alone coming into direct conflict with each other #anyway i think tak is probably the scariest of the four not just due to her competence #but because she shares dibs deeply insidious insatiable anger AND whatever irken brainworm it is that makes zim so creatively awful #also i made this joke on twitter once already but dib must be so desensitized to the OTT retribution at this point #got it from gaz his whole life and then when zim showed up it NEVER occurs to him #that if he maybe stopped throwing things at zim for no reason then zim might stop wildly overreacting #its just a given to him that sometimes your life gets ruined over stupid bullshit #you cant let that hold you back

[mzminola]

Bruce sets up an elaborate mindfuck for Tim's birthday in an attempt to make Tim less trusting of even allies, giving him a mental breakdown. Bruce claims this will make Tim a better vigilante.

Tim, upon figuring it out, throws his Robin uniform literally in Bruce's face, cussing him out (like, actually censored swears, which Tim usually doesn't use), and quits. He talks with Steph about how messed up it was, and she empathizes out of her own messed up experiences with Bruce.

An unclear but short time later, probably a few days, Tim un-quits and states to Bruce that he doesn't expect an apology (not because it's unnecessary, but because he knows Bruce).

~

Stephanie returns from presumed death, finds Bruce, and accepts his orders to not reveal herself to everyone else & to take extreme actions to, once again in Bruce's estimate, make Tim a better vigilante.

This includes running around town in her original costume so Tim thinks his dead friend has a copycat, hiring people to attack him, working with a bomber, and even after knocking all that off, not sharing pertinent information about it with Tim, resulting in Tim being caught in an explosion.

Tim yells at Stephanie and says "Don't let me catch you wearing [the Spoiler] costume ever again." When she tracks him down a little later, he refuses to speak with her.

An unclear amount of time later, probably a few months, Tim is willing to work with Stephanie to stop a supervillain plot.

~

Some fans treat Tim's word-choice in the confrontation with Steph as him trying to control her. As him thinking he's got the authority to decide who can and cannot operate as a vigilante, at least in Gotham.

But. Like. One, aside from this one conversation, he takes no actions to stop her. He doesn't steal her gear (like Bruce sometimes steals people's uniform), he doesn't go and tell other people to stop working with her, he doesn't even go snitch to her mom.

Tim just. Tells the friend who got him very badly hurt while mindfucking him that he doesn't want to see her in the field again.

Two, it's a pretty dang similar response to when Bruce mindfucked him in the first example. Tim is the one who insists Batman needs a Robin. And here he is depriving Batman of Robin.

Yet if I tried to claim "Tim quitting Robin is his attempt to control Batman, is Tim acting like he has authority to stop Bruce from being a vigilante" you'd laugh in my face. Because that is a huge leap to make, with convoluted logic, and isn't supported by the rest of the text.

Bruce & Stephanie both screw Tim up really badly.

He confronts them and says he's breaking ties.

Then after a little distance, he goes right back to working with them.

And some people think this is...controlling? Don't get me wrong, Tim has some controlling tendencies, they all do, but it's usually teaming up with Alfred to stop Bruce patrolling while injured, and lying his ass off to everyone so he can do what he wants.

This? Is not that.

#Robin 1993 #and a little bit of RR #Bruce Wayne Critical #Stephanie Brown Critical #DC #Batfam #comics meta #Tim Drake #meanwhile Cass nerve strikes both Steph and Babs at least once each #to stop them from following her or stopping her when she wants to go do something dangerous alone #and nobody talks shit about her for THAT #I love Cass! she is simply not exempt from Being An Asshole sometimes #and it does drive me a bit buggy that like... #it never comes up in these discussions #Bruce Wayne #Stephanie Brown #characters are all tagged for archival purposes #dunno if this is Fandom Critical or just Fandom Exasperated

[yea-baiyi]

someone just posted this quote and it just hit me that it wasn’t that nobody loved xie lian after knowing how far he’d fallen and everything he’d done. it was xie lian who was too terrified to lean on them and share what he was going through, or he tried and they didn’t have the full context to understand him, and it just made xie lian feel more alone which made him push them away even more. he had feng xin and mu qing the whole time and they never ever stopped loving him even when they saw him falter and fail. and it wasn’t that hua cheng was unique in loving him anyway but it was hua cheng that happened to be present for all of xie lian’s worst moments and none of it made him love xie lian any less, and hua cheng is not the exception to the rule but the proof that xie lian was always loveable and always deserving and always loved despite despite despite. and after finding hua cheng he opens his heart up to his friends once again and accepts their love back into his life when he had shut it all out for centuries. i am in TEARS rn when i said i can’t think about feng xin and mu qing this is one of the reasons why

#tgcf #tgcf meta #meta stuff #fengqing #xianle trio #yelling is a love language #idk i just came across something someone posted on twitter and saw this quote #and it just SENT ME #i still just cannot think about fengqing ok ok ok my asexual ass can’t handle it #they loved xie lian so much both of them did and they never stopped #all those arguments. hundreds of years of anger. all that rage just misplaced grief. which was just love with nowhere to go. #i am in TEARS over them

[thewayuarent]

Boston and Ray deserve each other

In a very positive way

I have a theory that if we’ll think about this friend group in a long-term perspective, Boston and Ray have the best chances to keep their relationship and grow up to an actual friendship. Let me explain.

Boston and Ray, while being very different, have a lot of common traits. And what differ them from the other two in this friend group, is that both Ton and Ray are people who constantly judged by their surroundings (and society) for their behavior - Boston is a slut, which is bad for some reason, and Ray is a suicidal alcoholic, which makes him a burden in everyone’s eyes.

And that makes them outcasts from their perfect, level-headed, proper friends Mew and Cheum (seriously fuck them both I’m so sorry I tried my best). So I believe they have at least some level of mutual understanding. It’s not coincidence that Boston was the one who was responsible for taking drunk Ray home. It’s not coincidence that Ray was the one who listened about all Boston’s who’s and how’s. They may not be very much supportive of each other, but they know they don’t have a right to judge the other also.

The thing with these two, in my opinion, is that while they don’t necessarily judge other’s behavior, they know very well what’s other weak spots are. And they know how and when bring it to the table. Boston outed Ray in frond of Sand? Ray does the same shit with Boston in frond of Nick! Do I believe that Ray actually judges Boston for his sex adventures? No. But I know, and Ray knows, how it will look like in other’s eyes.

And don’t get me wrong, those two love seeing each other miserable. Boston fucked up Ray’s attempt to get a new start with Sand just because he was feeling like this. Because Ray in his eyes is, well, pathetic with his whole being in love with Mew situation. And did my boy enjoyed it.

Same way Ray is very much enjoys the view of Boston being screamed at by Cheum. He’s absolutely having fun.

But. But they still have a level they won’t step over. The bar is very low, but it’s here.

Because when Ray is on his lowest point, crushed by cops while Cheum screams at him (about the same thing Boston previously laughed at), Boston doesn’t have fun anymore.

Because when Cheum (why is it always her) tells Boston he’s cut off his friends and the project that will cost him his future, Ray doesn’t have fun anymore.

They don’t do anything to help or support each other, obviously, but they are worried. Cheum is angry, Mew is either black out or having the best time of his life, but those two are actually concerned. And I know it’s not much, and it’s absolutely not what you expect from friends, but this is Boston and Ray we’re talking about.

Both of them, very differently, have no idea how to love properly. Because both of them have no idea how to be loved either. They both know their roles - a slut or a burden - they know how people see them and they are used to it. This is why we get constant parallels between BostonNick and SandRay dynamics.

Because when was the last time someone - including themselves - saw them as something more than a number of dirty toxic unhealthy traits?

When was the last time anyone appreciated how talented of a photographer Boston is?

When was the last time anyone told Ray he has good taste in music?

Was anyone there before to not just love them, cause sometimes it’s the easiest part, but to see them, forgive them, be there for them again, and again, and again?

I honestly don’t think so.

And yes, for now they are absolutely not there, but I do believe that they will grow - they’re doing it already. They will learn how to care about others the same way they will learn to accept someone’s love and care.

And for now it’s Nick and Sand, but - baby steps - while they’ll continue their journeys, they will learn to give it for other people. And I would bet on them finding each other again. In a way more healthier place.

#ofts #only friends the series #only friends #only friends meta #sandray #bostonnick #only friends boston #only friends ray #yes I also believe they fucked in the past #I will never stop thinking about that #nothing in this world proves me the opposite