#and I know that’s probably not going to happen because dc loves it’s legacy characters or whatever but PLEASE

[kierancaz]

Listen I do not ship Jon and Damian.

But if dc is trying to convince us that they wouldn’t work as a couple they are doing a horrible fucking job at it.

Also literally what the fuck is the dc timeline right now bc I’m literally so confused bc on one hand we have like the new Wonder Woman series which is like far enough in the future for Lizzie to be either a teen or young adult and Damian is Batman and Jon is Superman but then we also have the Batman and Robin series where Damian literally just started high school so like wtf is this Dawn of Dc reboot doing and where are we.

Whatever the fuck happened in Future State is lowkey like bothering me now even tho at the time I was really happy bc we got Yara (which I’m still happy about bc I love her and I want more stuff with her in it) but also I feel like jumping ahead in the timeline was a bad decision bc now it’s all fucked up and weird.

Ngl I haven’t really read the new Wonder Woman series, I started it but didn’t get too far bc I was reading on my phone and there were just sooo many text boxes I wanted to wait until I can get it in graphic novel form. But I see pages from it and stuff (of Damian and Jon raising Lizzie) that are like 5, 10, idk years in the future bc we’re watching Lizzie be grow up and it just makes me go ??? Bc Lizzie is going to be a permanent character (I’m assuming) but they’re just kinda skipping over all of her life ?? And also fast forwarding Damian and Jon’s ??? And if they’re gonna keep with Damian and Jon raising her then they NEED to be fast forwarded in their stories for Lizzie/Trinity to exist. I think Lizzie has had a comic before this (I remember casually comics made a video on it) but Lizzie was a full adult and Damian and Jon were already Batman and Superman so like. Idk the only way Lizzie seems to be able to exist is by cutting out years of story from Damian and Jon and also as someone who doesn’t want Damian to end up as Batman it’s kinda like with Lizzie’s existence it just kinda seals it in stone that Damian is going to be Batman.

#I know I know Damian’s character was literally created to be Batman’s successor or whatever but I just don’t like it ok #I think he should get to define who he wants to be as a vigilante outside of some preexisting mantel of Robin or Batman #and I know that’s probably not going to happen because dc loves it’s legacy characters or whatever but PLEASE #and also I think it’s kinda annoying that Trinity exist bc now we’re probs not gonna get any more Yara comics #like we have the one but we’re probs not getting anymore bc she was branded as the ‘next Wonder Woman’ in future state #but now she’s been like demoted to wonder girl which she is a grown woman so I think that’s a bit dumb and also Cassie is still wonder girl #at least I’m pretty sure she is #idk time for real tags now #wonder woman #wonder woman 2023 #damijon #jondami #jonathan kent #damian wayne #lizzie prince #trinity dc #batman #superman #superboy #robin dc #damian al ghul #jonathan samuel kent #yara flor #wonder girl #bruce wayne #diana prince #diana of themyscira #clark kent #dc comic #dc comics

[uhhhyaenbyjade]

How I Would Change Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (if i was smart enough to direct and write movies)

DISCLAIMER: I loved GxK, and I believe it is an entertaining movie! This is just my take on how I would've liked to see things happen, with it connecting to the previous installments more, as well as tweaking some minor details here and there.

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT! DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE

So, the biggest change I am adding is that Madison Russell from Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong. I was honestly surprised when I heard that Millie Bobby Brown wasn't involved in the project at all, and I feel like Maddie's presence could have really helped flesh out some of the human aspects of the movie.

The only other thing I am really changing from the movie is adding cameos that link the movies together better, as well as making some minor attempts at making the science less... fantastical. I am not deleting any scenes from the movie, just altering them and adding a few more. Hopefully, this keeps a good balance between the human aspect versus the Titan aspect. So, the movie would probably turn out to be approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes in length, compared to the 1 hour 55 minute run time. I am only going to have bullet points for the parts I am altering/adding, so anything I leave out from the movie is otherwise unchanged or doesn't have enough of a difference to warrant a bullet point.

During the scene where we see updates of MONARCH over the past few years, we don't just see Dr. Ilene Andrews in interviews, but also cameos from Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling Chen, and possibly some other cameos like Sam Coleman or Mark Russell. Less emphasis on being thankful for Godzilla's help (because yeah he's helping, but also thousands of people are dying directly from him), but more emphasis is placed on MONARCH helping with relief efforts, and the usage of the Titan Warning System we saw in MONARCH: Legacy of Monsters. Also, instead of the other MONARCH person we see in charge (who I think is Hampton, Rachel House's character?) we see Deputy Director Verdugo.

Another small change is that MONARCH isn't trying to "stay ahead of DC" here. I understand why they did that, but from my understanding of the previous iterations in the Monsterverse series, MONARCH was supposed to be considered trustworthy and the top Titan research group after King of the Monsters, especially after the fall of APEX. So, instead, MONARCH is just trying to find what answers they can give to the United Nations as soon as possible.

When Godzilla kills Scylla, we get an explanation of how Scylla was causing problems to the natural world, as well as directly challenging Godzilla for Alpha status, which was explored in Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted.

At the MONARCH school (which I really hope is a school for children of MONARCH employees, or at least a school funded by MONARCH, and not an indoctrination school), we see that Jia is a student at the school, and Maddie is there as well (I don't know what year this movie takes place in, but it takes place sometime after GvK in 2024. Timeline-wise, Maddie was 17 in 2024, and probably a junior/senior in high school, so depending on how long it's been since GvK, she could be a teaching assistant of some kind, or a senior in high school) and friends of each other. They both have visions as the Hollow Earth signal is received; Jia has flashbacks of her past on Skull Island and of her time in Hollow Earth, and Maddie has flashbacks of her encounter with Mothra, Godzilla, as well as when she faced Ghidorah and MechaGodzilla. Both of them also have the same quick flashing vision of the future events of the movie.

When Ilene comes to check on Jia after the incident of her drawing on the desk, Maddie is there, and there's a new scene where all three of them talk about what is going on. Maddie says that MONARCH is too rigid in their thinking, and mentions that there's someone who could help them.

In Miami, Maddie and Ilene meet up with Bernie, and Maddie is integral in helping Ilene convince Bernie to help.

During Trapper's introduction scene where he gives Kong his new tooth, we also have Nathan Lind and Mark Russell show up to witness the event. They are both there to say goodbye to the Hollow Earth transport team, and Maddie joins Trapper, Ilene, Jia, Bernie, and a MONARCH military member (instead of the asshole Mikael, it would be one of the G-Team members from Godzilla KOTM to add more emphasis on their death; either Jackson Barnes or Anthony Martinez would probably be the most recognizable ones)

Instead of Godzilla going to France's nuclear power plant and destroying the place to absorb the radiation, and therefore attacking the humans who attacked him (which kind of went against the whole "the Titans are the guardians of nature" thing and the previous characterizations of Godzilla in the Monsterverse), he goes to some abandoned nuclear site. I would say Chernobyl, but I doubt they'd put that in the movie due to Russia's Invasion right now. But just some abandoned nuclear plant somewhere would work.

Inside Hollow Earth, there are issues with the HEAV due to the signal disrupting the systems, but they are quickly able to figure out the best way to traverse the land; when Jia and Maddie sense the pulse, the HEAV lands until it is over, and then repeat. On their first landing, the G-Team member dies. After they find the Mothra temple, it is Maddie who approaches the glowing dragonfly and presses the button on the wall, allowing them to find the Iwi civilization.

In the scene where we first see Shimo, there is more emphasis and origin on the crystal that Skar King uses to control her; perhaps the crystal is a part of Shimo's ice crystals that we see on her back, and has strange properties due to the Hollow Earth's radiation? We also give Shimo more of a personality. When she first appears, Shimo would be curious about Kong, but flinch at sharp movements from anyone. And then when she is forced to attack, it'd be obvious that she doesn't want to, but Skar King forces her to with the crystal.

I want Shimo to have more characterization in the movie. I've seen people complain that she was just... kinda there. Like, her whole purpose was to keep Skar King from getting bullied too badly. So, by really showing that Shimo is being forced into this and that her natural state is curiosity and warmth (as opposed to her icy nature ;D ), it provides more depth to her character, making the viewers want to see her freed.

When Godzilla arrives at Tiamat's lair, they fight again, but instead of killing Tiamat, Godzilla is able to force Tiamat out like he did in Godzilla: Dominion. Again, too much unnecessary (although insanely badass) murder for a "guardian of nature". He goes into the hibernation to evolve himself.

In the Iwi civilization, we get a more scientific look at the Iwi culture. I don't understand the gravity thing the movie tried to go for, so instead I want to focus on the cultural aspect; they are similar in most aspects to what was seen in Kong: Skull Island, but there are clear differences in dress, the markings they wear, and their ceremonies. This would also be where we go into more detail about how essential Mothra is to this group of Iwi people, instead of her being shoehorned in when all we've seen previously was the Iwi and Kong's species. We see Jia figuring this out and clearly being happy at this. I would also go into them using crystals more, like how we saw with the guard's spears, instead of the gravity-based science. These crystals would be seen to have a mystic quality, explained by Mothra's radiation, perhaps.

When Kong arrives at the Iwi civilization with Suko, that's when Trapper leaves to go back to the Outpost to retrieve the gauntlet for Kong, THEN we go into seeing the lore behind Skar King and Shimo at the temple. This provides a better sense of time between Kong's arrival and his getting the gauntlet since it honestly felt way too fast.

Inside the crystal temple itself, we see the history of the war between Skar King and his ape versus Godzilla and Mothra. I'd love to have Shimo seen more as a threat, with them explicitly saying and having a longer conversation that Shimo was the one who started the last Ice Age, and that before she was captured by Skar King, she had frozen Ghidorah in Antarctica. There is perhaps slightly more exposition here, with the prophecy including not only the "Iwi from Skull Island", but "a girl touched by Mothra".

In this scene, I want to explore Maddie's connection to Mothra. In the Godzilla: King of the Monsters Official Novelization, it is implied that there is some connection between Mothra and Maddie after the scene in the Temple of the Moth. It is hinted at when Maddie has a vision of Mothra while she is unconscious during the Boston battle. I would love to explore that more, and there'd be a deeper explanation in the Official Novelization, something with Mothra bonding with Maddie since there weren't any twin priestesses like there usually is, perhaps.

This is when Trapper returns and gives Kong the gauntlet, and when Jia sends the latter up to bring Godzilla down to help.

Maddie and Jia both go up the crystal temple to the top, where they find that Mothra has a cocoon up there; Maddie realizes that this is what Mothra must have been doing before she arrived in Boston to help Godzilla (I remember reading somewhere that the director said that Mothra was likely off laying an egg during her absence between showing MONARCH where to find Godzilla and her arrival in Boston. This would work really well in my opinion, and a lot better than her materializing out of magic crystal dust.

When Kong arrives on the surface to summon Godzilla, they still fight a bit. However, it becomes clear early on that Godzilla really isn't into the fight; he has obviously been sensing the signal the whole time, so he knows that something is happening with Skar King and Shimo. With previous movies (and especially MONARCH: Legacy of Monsters) trying to convey Godzilla's intelligence, it isn't a far stretch to suggest that Godzilla would figure out that Kong is trying to get his help. Still, the fight goes on for long enough that Mothra arrives to keep them from beating each other up too much. We see Jia and Maddie reach out to Kong and Godzilla respectively.

When Skar King arrives at the Iwi civilization, the Iwi tribe uses their knowledge of the region's radioactive properties (again, nothing gravity-based science-wise because that was all confusing and likely very bad science) to try and send energy through the crystals, messing with the portals from Hollow Earth.

There is no more anti-gravity fight scene. Although I enjoyed it a lot (seeing Godzilla swim through the air and the apes use the rocks to climb around were honestly so cool), it doesn't fit with the "improved" science I am attempting to do. Another ground fight, but they go around the tunnel so they're all still fighting on different planes.

Due to the close proximity to the surface, Ilene is able to warn MONARCH, and they work with the United Nations to evacuate Rio de Janeiro, since there is a tunnel appearing there. This brings us back to the beginning, where I wanted to do away with the "be grateful for Godzilla even though he destroys thousands of people's lives every time he's on the news" thing at the start.

When Skar King and Shimo arrive in Rio de Janeiro, since Kong, Godzilla, and Mothra are unable to stop them due to the immense amount of apes in Skar King's army, there is a lot of destruction. We see Skar King force Shimo into starting another Ice Age, though again, we see that she really doesn't want to do what he says. She starts freezing the city, and the MONARCH evacuation teams there panic as they get closer to their position, before Godzilla, Kong, Jia, Maddie, Trapper, and Bernie (the humans are in the HEAV, with a brief exposition that Mothra was staying back to stop all of Skar King's apes from destroying the Iwi civilization).

This fight is pretty much the same, but the civilians are barely present, and we only see them evacuating a few people away in the HEAV. The final battle still focuses mainly on the Titans, with a heavy amount of emphasis on the crystal from Skar King's whip. I'd keep the absolute bullying that Skar King got the same, but the explanation for this is that Skar King is much older now, and his opponents over-leveled themselves expecting him in his prime.

Mothra arrives from the tunnel, and this is what distracts Skar King long enough for Suko to use Kong's axe to break the crystal that controls Shimo. Once this happens, we see that Shimo can feel it, and she immediately stops attacking Godzilla and looks around in curiosity and amazement. She flinches when Skar King is trying to order her around while he is being bullied by Kong, but with a trill from Mothra and a growl from Godzilla, she joins in bullying her tormentor.

After the fight, there is more of a delay before the ending; we see Bernie on the news talking about his podcast, achieving his movie-long wish to be believed; we see Maddie saying goodbye to Mothra as she leaves and Maddie reunites with her dad and also Josh from GvK; Jia stays with Ilene, but she has a newfound connection to the Iwi sister tribe in the Hollow Earth; Mothra flies across the ocean while Godzilla swims below her to emphasize the symbiotic relationship, and they both take a nap in the coliseum (Godzilla is considerably more careful as he steps through the city this time); Kong returns to the Hollow Earth with Suko and Shimo, and he leads the apes out of their imprisoned area and to the main area of Hollow Earth, where his kingdom is.

For an end credits scene, it'd be Ilene and Jia in the Iwi civilization, where they get permission from the priest lady to see a special part of the temple, where it reveals prophecy-art of Kong, Mothra, and Godzilla fighting against their next enemy.

Obviously, without anything known about future projects, we don't have any end credits scene for this movie. If there is another movie (I thought I saw somewhere that Adam Wingard wanted to direct a trilogy of Monsterverse movies, which means another GxK installment could be in the future, perhaps?), I don't think they'd do what many people want and bring back a Toho villain. Based on the trend of what they've done in the series so far, the next installment would include an original villain with some connection to both of them. So I'll list out some options of what I'd like to see, of both Toho villains and original villains:

Toho: Hedorah, Biollante, Destoroyah, and my personal choice; Battra.

Original: Methuselah, Leviathan, another threat from space (not SpaceGodzilla, since that'd be difficult to work out in this series I think, but maybe something along the lines of Ghidorah's family, since I think they were briefly mentioned in the King of the Monsters Official Novelization), or another threat that goes against Hollow Earth and the surface. Maybe a giant worm-like creature or burrowing Titan could be a good idea, since it'd be able to go back and forth between the two worlds. It'd provide a nice background for how the portals are made.

So, there it is! I hope you guys enjoyed it and like my ideas for how Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire could have been improved. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

#godzilla #gojira #kong #mothra #skar king #shimo #monarch #monsterverse #legendary monsterverse #gxk #gxk spoilers #gxk: the new empire #godzilla x kong: the new empire #godzilla x kong

[boyfridged]

If the main dc comics continuity was to ever come to a definitive end, how would you personally want to see Jason’s character arc finish?

(ik that’s like, really open-ended and speculative, so please feel free to ignore! I just really enjoy your dissections of his characterization and history and was wondering if it’s something you’d ever had strong feelings for. Apologies if this is something you’ve discussed in another post 😁)

this is such a beautiful ask and i've been thinking about it for months. i think i knew the answer from the beginning, but i was wondering if there was any other way to convey it; any details to spare; any particular course of the plot to conceive. but what i am left with every time when i think of it is this:

it is difficult to imagine it, because the very nature of serialised comics like batman is that they are defined by their never-ending quality. if the end were to come, that paradox ought to be addressed. the question here is, does the finale mean the end of the cycle that the characters are trapped in? does it mean they are free? or should we signal that even beyond the cards of the book, the story will go on, and even in silence, sisyphus goes on, as does the serpent?

i don't want violence to be jason's final legacy, but i do want him to bite into the story again. still, there ought to be subversion in it. so the scene that i picture is as i follow: he's back in the crime alley, his face bare and flushed with life. and just for the moment, the light of his childhood is back. and this is what happens:

so how do i imagine it? circular-shaped, as i always do. just as the diagram of love and grief. i think jason's storyline in many ways encapsulates that dimension of batman's lore. except as opposed to the probable end bruce thought it would bring him to in that alley, jason shall get a beginning.

i hope it's not disappointing that the minutiae of the background is lost on me. i don't know if jason is still a fighter and if so, if he has another name. i'm not sure if bruce is alive (although i have an intuition that perhaps the scene would become more complete with the knowledge he is dead; however, i don't want to refuse him the role of the final girl he is destined to), and i have no idea what jay will decide to do with his life beyond that. but the bargaining stage is over. and life will bloom around that grief.

#one must imagine ouroboros happy #perhaps a bit of a throw back to the “jason todd is happy” panels #except they are tears in his eyes and he will never go back. he can never go back to what it exactly used to be #but the exile is over. #for a moment there's sun. and perhaps it will stay #outbox #jay.zip

[queenretcon]

I have slept on it, so here is a mostly unorganized list of every thought currently in my head on the blue beetle movie. lots of spoilers. this is really long.

SHE WASNT BEAS DAUGHTER. I WAS STRESSED.

That was straight up Ted’s origin story. Why did a Jaime movie include Pago island or carapax at all. You could’ve made a movie about one of Jaime’s stories and you literally just adapted Wein Beetle?

(Despite my frustration at it being included in a Jaime led movie, it was a good adaption of that source material. but again, why make it the source material?????)

I don’t know why DC doesn’t believe the best legacy character of all time can stand on his own two feet and why they don’t understand the magic of the three beetles all bringing something radically different to the legacy but it was my biggest frustration.

Despite that, I thought it was a really good movie, and in the end most of the things that frustrated me won’t matter to the kids getting to see themselves reflected for the first time. And people in my theatre definitely enjoyed it. Jenny & Jaime’s kiss got like. A lot of claps. I am not with them in that space but it was nice the movie got applause.

He was a perfect Jaime. I knew he would be, but goddamn. In general, it was a really well-directed and acted movie with great visual design with a script that was very weak at points.

(people clowned on the ‘family makes me strong’ cliche stuff in the trailers and it was very cliche and on the nose in how the script incorporated it.)

I am probably going to see it again soon now that I’m not sleep deprived and sick with anxiety over the whole thing fdjdjjsksk

okay into specific shit I keep thinking about: Bro was that Jarvis’s skull or Dan’s they crushed. that shit is haunting me.

Victoria sucks. Jenny is generic and doesn’t make sense to me but not offensive. I liked Rudy by the end.

I think most of Jenny’s screen time would have been better spent on setting Khaji Da up as a character rather than a resource. That “KHAJI DA” moment was fucking electric when it happened in the comics for the first time and the movie totally mishandled it. Khaji should be a huge presence in a Jaime movie I feel.

On that note, the “Khaji, I need you” was probably one of my fave moments. More of that would’ve made me happy.

The first scene with the transformation was pure fucking joy. They captured perfectly the terror and horror of Hamner’s art in those first few issues when Jaime doesn’t have control yet and the suit looked SO good. I didn’t think it looked bad by any means in previews but even after seeing all those previews I literally gasped seeing it because it looked so much better on the big screen. Seeing the picture perfect recreation of the lights at the fingertips was like a transcendent experience I’m different now

In general the fight scenes were great. I still hate Khaji’s voice and how much the movie version seems modeled after iron man shit but seeing the reach alphabet on screen was like. A level of joy I didn’t expect it to be fjdksksks and the moments of khaji just pulling out toy after toy to an increasingly into it jaime was really fun

I was nervous about grown up milagro because I just personally have a very firm concept of grown up milagro she’s important to my future jli ideas but um. mouthy goth in stompy boots with fishnets who punches hard and calls women hot is actually literally exactly who she is to me so. big fan of that adaption.

They did Bianca DIRTY. I liked that she influenced Khaji to start speaking Spanish (I love that khaji started speaking Spanish) but she felt like a totally different, worse character than comics Bianca who fucking rules. leaving out entirely that she was a doctor frustrated me and could’ve made the Alberto heart attack scene much better. A lot of more interesting character was lost to “streamlining” that wouldn’t have been necessary if they focused Jaime’s movie on Jaime’s supporting cast instead of ted kord fanfic

Killing Alberto was a fucking mistake and focusing a JAIME REYES story on anger and revenge was frustrating. So much of what makes him special was ignored I felt and they tried to make him a more generic superhero type when Jaime was a new kind of hero who influenced a lot of legacies that came after him.

Which leads me to Dan! The decision to make Dan’s connection to Khaji the same as Jaime’s sucked. Jaime is special BECAUSE he can utilize the scarab in a way neither of his predecessors could. They undercut THE PROTAGONIST to make some old white guys look better. It made me very frustrated.

No dentist reference :( pre-law instead :(

Nana being a former revolutionary was delightful, but her using a ted-designed Gatling gun to mow people down completely ruined any attempts to have Jenny stopping kord industries from making weapons matter. That SHOULD have been a good plot point, but the movie couldn’t stand by it.

Here is the section where, despite complaining the movie focused on Ted too much, I focus on Ted too much:

Listen he’s bad at having a secret identity but not “scarab tile mosaic over the secret entrance to his lab” bad

I understand the narrative & social reasons to have Jenny’s mom be what inspired Ted to be a better person than his family but as a Ted fan it did irk me to imply his compassion for the little guy was something he had to learn rather than something he always had that set him at odds with his family. Like I understand why and I don’t have an issue with it being included in this version of the story but I am required to point out it isn’t true of the comics character

I wanted to hate the extended focus on teds lab but omg that’s my friends teds houseeeeee. I loved the suit and the video game console and the fact it was my friends teds houseeeee in a movieeeeee

I lost my goddamn mind at ‘like Batman but with ADHD’ like yes! you correctly boiled him down to his essence!

when Jaime went to put on some of Ted’s clothes I was like ‘lol they’re not putting him in anything Ted would wear’ and then he walked out in a matching silk tracksuit in beetle colors so like yeah movie you got me there he would own that

BUG AS MECHA. I was BESIDE MYSELF.

Like I can NOT stop thinking about that scene. With the bug crawling over the wall while some Ted-as-hell 80s music blared with three of my favorite little comic people inside. I am also different now after this scene. I will probably see this movie in theaters several more times just for this scene.

“Kickstart my heart” being the song tho Ted you are so annoying and I love you

me for most of the movie: SHUT UP ABOUT TED SHUT UPPPPP

me at the after credits scene: if I don’t hear everything about ted right now I will die

I find ‘trapped in a computer’ stories really compelling and unsettling. The chances of me writing movie verse fic with fucked up weird tech horror is high. I love tech horror.

Mike Norton is related to a family friend and from the area and I happened to go to the movie with my family bc I was visiting for my moms birthday and so we did all lose our minds at somebody we’ve met being thanked in a movie credits fjdjdjsksk

#talk tag #this probably actually isn’t every thought but this ended up so long god

[barclaysangel]

Ok so last night (at 3am) my friend and I were rambling and we actually came up with something.

So obviously we know that after the “flag incident” no one checked Miss F’s pulse or anything and we literally see her breathing when Price walks around her and we know it’s physically impossible to be suffocated by a flag (I’ll skip the whole rant, we’ve heard it before). So anyway they obviously take her out of there.

But what if Kyle, Andy and Nica saw Chucky on the news, went to DC and discovered where the White House was dumping the bodies and they find Miss F probably unconscious but very much alive.

It would be a cool way to tie the legacy characters into the story and I hope this is what Don is gonna do or at least something like this (he probably won’t)

Omg that’s such a great idea!

So great that Don didn’t even think about it and most likely that’s not what’s going to happen 🙄

But I love the idea of Andy, Kyle, and Nica being the ones to find Miss F and help her because there’s no way she’s dead, she has to be alive!

#Luna talks #admin #chucky #chucky 2021 #Child’s Play #Rachel Fairchild #Miss Fairchild #andy barclay #kyle simpson #nica pierce

[thevindicativevordan]

I suppose you already saw the new DC Gods and Monsters announcement by gunn. What are your opinion and speculations?

Anonymous asked:

Commentary on James new DCU plans ?

At long last: the wait is over.

Running through the list:

Film

Superman: Legacy - Not really much to go off of other than the name being rather boring. Probably chose it over something like Superman: Man of Tomorrow simply to make sure people wouldn't confuse it for a MoS sequel. It's coming in 2025 and will be the first "proper" DCU film, which means we will get casting by the end of 2023 at least. I've seen some folks speculate that "Legacy" means the real focus will be on Clark mentoring Kara or Jon and I don't see that happening. If that was the plan then there's no need to drop Cavill, since he just would be playing support. Whoever the new Superman will be, he will be front and center.

The Authority - No one saw this one coming. How the hell this will work in the DCU is anyone's guess. I think they'll have Manchester Black form the team as a reaction to Superman, and ultimately there will be a clash between Supes and the Authority that ends with Black being ousted in favor of Jenny Sparks. Perhaps it will even lead into an adaption of Morrison S&tA given the Morrison influence seen elsewhere in the slate? Either way I'm very excited to see what Gunn does.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow - I loved the mini, I'm excited for this.

Lanterns - I get both of my favorite Lanterns in the DCU! Surprising that they would scrap Berlanti's show right after signing a big deal with him. I'm going to guess that they discover evidence of the White Martians invading, and that's what leads into the DCU JL forming.

The Brave and the Bold - Skipping right to Damian is surprising but that might be to avoid stepping on Reeves toes. I guess there will be another age gap between Superman and Batman?

The Batman Part II - Batman fans eating good, you'll get solo gritty dark Batman and more comic-y Batman.

Swamp Thing - As if you needed any more confirmation that the Abrams JLD projects are dead. I love Swamp Thing but I'm going to need more info.

Television

Creature Commandos - Exact sort of obscure property we were expecting Gunn to love. Good to see DC is investing in animation still.

Paradise Lost - Might be good if they look to Historia for inspiration. "Game of Thrones with the Amazons" could go sour really quickly depending on how they characterize the Amazons.

Waller - If Bloodsport shows up here I'll watch it, otherwise I think I'm good.

Booster Gold - Never really cared for Gold myself but this character is exactly the kind of character Gunn loves. If he casts Pratt in the role all hell will break loose and I would be there for it.

Misc.

Seems like Levi, Gadot, Momoa, and even Miller(!!!) might get to continue in their roles. You won't see actors play two characters at the same time in the DCU, so I guess Momoa won't be Lobo after all? Look, part of the problem is that Gunn can't say anything that will negatively impact the box office returns for 2023, meaning he's not going to say they're done even if they are because then people might go "these don't matter", and stay home. The Wrap claims that The Flash is going to get the Elseworlds brand which makes it unlikely Calle would continue on as Supergirl, but it's too early to say at this point.

Keeping any of the main Leaguers in their roles is going to cause the same kind of continuity clusterfuck as the New 52 not rebooting Batman and GL did, but you know what? At this point I don't care. Not my problem, all I want are good Superman and Supergirl movies, with some exciting spinoffs like LoSH too. Don't give a rat's ass if the JL film sucks or the continuity makes sense as long as I get what I want. I'll follow the projects that look interesting and ignore the ones that don't.

There's a "brain trust" of writers advising Gunn, one of whom is Tom King which is sure to piss off plenty but leaves me rather happy. Maybe King is even writing the script for Supergirl? Morrison and King are clearly Gunn's guiding lights, and far as Superman goes they're two of his best writers. Adam Strange fans are in for a rough ride no doubt.

Gunn also confirmed that they continue to plan on synergy across multiple mediums which makes me nervous. If his Superman sucks then I'm going to be stuck with a take I don't like showing up everywhere in a way not even Snyder/Cavill's take did. On the other hand the emphasis that the synergy will include DCU games makes me hopeful that maybe we might finally get a goddamn Superman game, and if that happens then I'll take that synergy. S&L may get to run for 1 to 2 more seasons - wasn't clear if S3 is included in that 1 to 2 more - but that will hopefully let S&L last for 4-5 seasons which is a solid tenure for a show. Not sure how MAWS will fit into Gunn's plan, but I hope he just lets it run and makes his own Superman cartoon if he wants one.

Feels nice to be excited after years of flinching and dreading every DC announcement. Not a perfect slate, not what *I* would do, but there's a healthy mix of A-Listers, B/C-Listers, and oddballs that appeal to Gunn. Not all of the slate has been revealed, and I'm sure we will get another JL movie before the decade is done, but for a starting slate I think DC's future looks bright.

#dcu #james gunn #peter safran #superman #batman #dc studios #tom king

[slapegg]

Some Thoughts About... Dead Cells/Return To Castlevania

Long time readers will know that I'm a big, big fan of Castlevania, so I'm coming at this almost exclusively from the Castlevania side and not the Dead Cells side. Dead Cells is... okay. It's just not my kind of game. I can appreciate it for what it is and means to be, but that's not what I'm looking for in a game. I'm mostly not a fan of rogue-likes and I prefer exploration over combat, so yeah, Dead Cells is not meant for me and that's okay. But I do like Castlevania!

To get the Dead Cells bits out of the way first, don't buy the bundle of the game and the DLC together. It was significantly cheaper to buy the standalone game and then buy the CV DLC, so check your store before making any purchases. The thing I appreciate about Dead Cells is the speed it moves at. The game is zippy! But it comes at the cost of an awful camera. There's almost no dead zone for how much you can move your character before the camera starts moving too, so once you're running and moving all about, the camera is really swimmy and unpleasant until you get used to it, and the air combat is particularly bad too. There's also a near constant issue with your character grabbing onto things you don't want them to grab. Try to drop through a block near a wall and they keep  pulling themselves back up to the block you just dropped through. So frustrating! The accessibility options are really nice and they give you some great gameplay tweaks. Especially since I'm only here for the Castlevania content, there's a lot you can change to get rid of the filler and some of the grinding. The game also shows you content you can't access because you didn't buy the expansions. You explore your way through an area, find the exit, and... you're not allowed to use it because you didn't buy a specific expansion. It's not like you can just buy it there and access it right away like in a mobile game, so why populate the map with exits in the middle of the game that you can't use? I could understand having the advertisement there at the start or end of a run to push you to make a sale, but getting it in the middle of a run didn't make me want to buy the new stuff, it just frustrated me. Which probably isn't the emotion most conducive to getting people to spend more on DLC. I'm also surprised at just how grindy the game is. Finding new outfits or weapons doesn't unlock them for use. You also have to spend currency once you have the blueprint and some of the costs are nuts. It costs an entire highest difficulty run's worth of cells to unlock a new outfit that's just a color swap of an outfit you already have. It feels like the game should be all about experimenting with different weapons but they cost so much to unlock that the game seems to be working against itself.

The storytelling is also really disappointing. The game throws so much at you with so little explanation of even basic who/whats/wheres that it just seems like stuff... happens. Why did that man attack me? Why did I blow that man up? I dunno! I was exploring and trying to find lore bits but there are so few of them in a particular run and you can get so far into your first runs that it feels really poorly put together. Compare that to the story telling in Rogue Legacy, one of the few rogue-likes I enjoy. Man, I loved the story in Rogue Legacy. It's sparse, but I was so excited to find the little bits and pieces that built everything up and slowly unfolded what was going on behind the scenes as you push deeper into the game. So good! And RL did a great job of tying game mechanics to the story. But in DC, you'll kill named characters before you're introduced to them or know anything about them and it takes multiple play-throughs before it comes together, and even then it's just "I dunno, unexplained time rifts that only affect some people and not others!". I'm also not sure if I'm done with the content of the game and how much I'm missing. It seems like it's just randomly finding lore drops and then I see online somebody mention that different events happen if you use different items or wear a specific outfit in a certain area and then you have to use specific modifiers and then a specific move to access the final area of the game. And then you have to do that again a second time to get the final ending. Also, you have to get DLC to get the actual ending. But now the DLC isn't available anymore. But maybe it's been rolled into the main game now but I don't know because the game doesn't tell you any of this and you get different results from searches because it might be different depending on where you're playing the game. You made the content, I paid for the content, so let's explore that content and not hide it from me. I shouldn't need to follow a guide on a wiki page to see this game I paid for. This doesn't feel like a cohesive package. It feels like a bunch of stuff taped onto a core but with the expectation that you've followed every release and know all the changes before you sit down and try to play.

So on to the important/Castlevania stuff! The game does a really poor job of telling you how to access the CV content. I'd heard from people online about the CV content being certain exits during a run so I was searching for it through my first run and found nothing. Then after your first run, there's an explosion and lava that the game leads you to! But no Castlevania. But then bats fly by! But nothing there... You still have to hunt down the stage exit that leads to the CV content, which I would have missed on my second run because I found a different exit first and if I hadn't seen somebody play it online, I wouldn't have known to skip that exit and find the CV one. This game's UX is bad. Did it just not dawn on anybody that doing a licensing deal with a major IP would bring in new players unfamiliar with the base game so a quick "here's how to access the thing you paid for and care about" would have been good?

You can access the CV music right away but the implementation is pretty disappointing. During the non-CV stages, you get music mostly from Symphony of the Night and that is surprisingly low quality. SotN's soundtrack is great, but I was hoping for more CV 1 and 2 and a little more breadth from the decades this franchise has been around. And it's not a variety of music either. The CV music it applies to that biome is just the song you get. I was expecting more like a jukebox where each biome would have a playlist of songs rather than looping the same one.

The new stages are... okay? They're pretty short and the first one is fairly plain. There are no interesting gimmicks to set it apart from the other normal DC stages. The second stage is also plain but there are several moments where Dracula teleports in and messes with you in some silly ways. It's fun because it doesn't feel like Drac is menacing. He feels like, at best, he's toying with you and at worse, he's just there to knowingly be a dick. There are only the two CV stages but for no apparent reason, you're only allowed to play one per run. They occupy different spots in the route (Death at the beginning of a run and Dracula at the end) so it doesn't make sense why you can't do both. The stages also don't run very well. It took so long to load into Dracula's Castle that I thought the game had locked up and once you're in, the game hangs up when some effects play, like it's loading them in as they happen.

There's nothing special about the enemies. Armor Knights, fishmen, skeletons that throw in an arc, buer, bats, and a harpy. It really took me a while to realize the werewolf was supposed to be a werewolf. No Medusa heads, fleamen, white dragons, or any of the other dozens of recognizable characters. There's a miniboss pulled from CV but it's just the one. You come across other bosses, but they're just objects in the background, the Beheaded makes a quip about them, and that's all. The CV heroes don't look great, but Richter fares the worst. They're so much bigger than the Beheaded, but they retain the faceless look of older CV sprites. That worked because their faces were so tiny on your CRT TV, but now all big and defined, Richter's head is a fleshy void. And for some reason, Shanoa is there to serve as the Collector's role in the CV stages. Weird choice as this thing is almost all SotN-based but then you get a random Shanoa appearance. At least Konami remembers she exists?

The sub-weapons are pretty no-frills takes on the axe, cross, bible, and so on. They included that weird rebound stone one that's rarely ever useful. The main weapons are more interesting, but DC already had whips so the scythe is the only one that stands out (but it's pretty bad against bosses, so I usually drop it by the end of a run).

There's a "Richter Mode" mini-game you can stumble upon, where you play as Richter and the gameplay mechanics are set more like Castlevania's. It's... fine. It's a regular stage that adds the Bone Pillar enemy and you use the high jump and dash relics for Richter's movement upgrades. It looks like an explorable space from the map, but it's really a linear path to the two movement upgrades and then two paths that wind up in the same place. You fight the same mini-boss in the Dead Cells CV stage and then it just ends. The jumping feels really bad so it's not particularly fun and there's nothing there to encourage replaying it. Weirdly enough, they use a different Richter model from the DC content and since it's smaller, it looks so much better.

If you're a Castlevania fan only, this DLC isn't for you. The CV window dressing is nice but it's not going to make you like Dead Cells. If you're a Dead Cells fan already, you may be into it, but you're not getting a lot. Maybe wait for a sale or just look up videos of the boss fights depending on what $10 is worth to you. It's not outstanding and it's light on content, so it's not going to hold you over for the next Castlevania game.

#dead cells #Castlevania

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

Excited for any superhero projects?

Hi Anon! I am, yes. Off the top of my head, in terms of things coming out in the future, I’m very much looking forward to the Thunderbolts movie. And you have good timing because I was just thinking about the Thunderbolts movie yesterday. What If? season 2 looks like it could be very fun, and I’m tentatively looking forward to Avengers 5 and 6. Depending on if they treat the characters well of course- I can’t take another mess like Endgame. Will fully admit that if they let me see Natasha, Wanda (main Wanda, none of this rumored multiverse nonsense), Pietro (ditto), Tony, Steve (an actual in-character version please), and/or Loki again, bring Jane back as a Valkyrie, or write Thor well I might be willing to forgive a lot though.

I’m also pretty excited for Armor Wars since I love Rhodey, though admittedly that excitement took a bit of a hit when I saw the relevant Secret Invasion spoilers. Blade as a character isn’t really my jam, but I am looking forward to seeing Dane Whitman again in that movie, especially as Black Knight, so I’m gonna list that too. And I’m very curious about the Agatha tv show rumors I’ve heard and if we might be getting Billy, potentially with Teddy, and if Wanda might be back.

…Nearly forgot Cap 4! Looking forward to that, with a few caveats. Those caveats being I need them to not villainize Sharon and take back the Power Broker thing, and I… truly have no idea how to feel about Sabra, given current events. I was excited for her inclusion, if dreading the discourse, now I don’t know how to feel about it because the likelihood of her inclusion being tone-deaf is even higher, and said discourse is going to be 100 times worse.

I also still have to watch the Loki finale episode and The Marvels. Very much looking forward to The Marvels; I have mixed feelings on the Loki finale since I’ve gotten a little spoiled for it, but I want to see how it ends just the same.

I’m super behind on Marvel movies, I kind of lost steam after Multiverse of Madness and haven’t seen the last 4 or 5 movies. Of those, I’m most looking forward to watching Wakanda Forever. (That would’ve been Love and Thunder because I adore both Jane and Thor but uh, 😬 I’ve heard about it and I had no faith in Taika Waititi to begin with, so…) After WF I think I’m most looking forward to watching GOTG 3 even though I’m fully aware I’m probably gonna cry my eyes out. Feeling a bit meh on Quantumania sadly, despite loving Cassie Lang in comics, based on what friends who’ve seen it have said, and fully expecting to have to grin and bear it through Love and Thunder.

In terms of unconfirmed projects, I need Eternals 2 yesterday. Also a Shang-Chi sequel and a second season of Moon Knight. The rumored Vision Quest show could be very good or alternately very bad, but I love Vision and he deserves a starring role, so I’m crossing my fingers it happens and isn’t just a retread of Tom King’s Vision because that comic was incredibly depressing. (Adore Viv Vision though, and would love a proper robotic Sparky the dog!) I also saw a rumor a bit ago that we might get a Clea backstory show, which I would be incredibly down for since comics Clea is one of my favorite underused characters, and has a really coolbackstory with a lot of potential for an interesting story. And I love the Young Avengers, so if we get to see them as an official team in the future I’ll be hyped for that.

For non-MCU things, I’m vaguely looking forward to Deadpool 3 despite not being a mutants/X-Men enthusiast because a. Deadpool is just fun, b. the Taylor Swift Dazzler rumors. For DC, The Superman: Legacy casting has me really really excited. I love Superman and it seems like we might actually get a good take on him this time! In terms of things farther down the DC pipeline, I’m a big Supergirl fan so naturally I’m hyped for the planned Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie, despite being halfway through that comic and still unsure if I like or not. And I love Damian Wayne so cautiously excited for the rumored Batman movie featuring Bruce and Dami.

#thanks for the question lovely anon! #asks #answers #my stuff #also re: dc i will admit i’m v sad it’s likely we lose gal gadot as wonder woman. #not only was her casting perfect but her writing and acting in her origin movie was also #however I do hope we get good wonder woman content down the line because she deserves it #diana is just as cool as clark and bruce and has a huge and interesting corner of dc; she needs more time in the spotlight #(diana is the thor of dc no i will not be taking questions at this time) #(actually the fact that I have to be describing her with that analogy instead of the other way around is a little absurd)

[popculturebuffet]

HBO Max's madness continues with it being confirmed DC Super Hero Girls 2019 (the one from MLP Friendship is Magic creator Lauren Faust) is also a tax write off like Final Space and be sealed away once it leaves Netflix this year. Thoughts on this?

And I say this as someone who, while liking what I saw for the most part, still saw massive flaws in DC Superhero Girls, i.e. making a good chunk of the young adult male characters into shallow sterotypes or wasting the titans characters, paticuarlly Dick Grayson. (We already have a show for that). I do feel though the crew had a genuine passion for dc, going with some deeper cuts like bumblebee, zantana or GL Jessica Cruz for the main cast, bringing in my boy ted, and even going so far as to use Julia, wonder woman's surrogate step mom, and doing the character great justice. It wasn't the best thing ever but it wasn't half bad and like everything good or bad does not deserve oblivion. That said at least in this case.. said oblivion is more obvious and something far less easy to hide if someone didn't know of the show thanks to a VERY visible first party tie in game with nintendo, a decent amount of merch, and a crossover film with "please stop punching my children". It's a lot easier to hide what they did to say final space because while well loved and having enough of a fanbase to sell out the finale graphic novel on day one, it's not a huge crowd pleaser. Kids will notice this series is just.. gone and once they find out why they'll be pissed, and dc fans are not the type to really.. forget something happened. Trust me Dan DiDio tried. A lot. The sad part though is they probably will keep doing this as long as they can get away with it. While this will thankfully bite them in the ass more, they've so far been VERY careful at picking their unpersoning targets: while they cancelled tuca nad bertie they weren't stupid enough to unlist it. It's telling my mom hadn't even heard of them doing it, so i'ts likely a lot of general audiences are either ambivilant because it hasn't come for them yet, or simply didn't know because none of the shows affected were things they cared about. Good/bad news is that Parmaount is doing the same shit.. but their also being WAY louder with it, canceling Rise of the Pink Ladies and Star Trek Legacy. And even Trek fans who didn't like Legacy, probably won't be nearly as quite to see an entire series vanish, not helped by paramount having as recently as LAST MONTH promoted having all of star trek with legacy on the banner. While WBD has had a horrifying ripple effect.. it's also getting to the point where said ripples can't be ignored. We also have an ongoing writer's strike which is in part thanks to shit like this, which also means them doing it will just make it harder to settle. Which is bad for consuming media, true.. but is great for making sure this never happens again.

#max #paramount plus #warner bros discovery

[batfleckwayne]

the new dc slate looks amazing wym? dont assume its gonna be bad, give it a chance! one thing about gunn is he actually likes comics so i think theres hope here.

It's just my opinion, I mean I'll go through each thing and say what my feelings are on it. And tbh I'm not so assuming it'll be bad so much as I think most of it is just not things I'll enjoy. That's why I used the word underwhelming.

Also there is literally never gonna be a day I'm happy about Gunn being in charge at DC, you can try and convince me all you want, but it's never gonna happen. I'm sure for some people him there is a dream come true, for me it's a nightmare.

So to explain in more detail my feelings about each item on the slate...

Creature Commandos - Just not interested in this, won't watch it.

Waller - Love to hear Viola Davis is sticking around. I'll probably at the very least check this out. Not thrilled to hear it's being billed as a spin-off of Peacemaker though, since I didn't like that show.

Superman: Legacy - Hearing Gunn is writing this and may direct is enough to kill any interest I could have had in this.

Lanterns - First thing I'm actually excited for. I'll DEFINITELY tune into this. Hearing that Greg Berlanti is no longer attached and it's now gonna include John Stewart is great news to me.

The Authority - I have essentially no opinion on any of the characters and so I'm not particularly excited by this.

Paradise Lost - This is an interesting concept but it doesn't get me excited. Idk why because I think a show about the Amazons is a great idea. Maybe I'll get more excited about this as more details get released.

The Brave and the Bold - I'm...intrigued by this. The good is that we're gonna have a Robin right off the bat and that it's being billed as a "father-and-son story". The bad, the rest of the description does not exactly inspire confidence, and I absolutely despise the Morrison era of Batman comics. I can't imagine a world where I don't go see this though.

The Batman sequel - Very excited for this, I'll be there opening night.

Booster Gold - I've got nothing against Booster Gold, but do I really want to watch a whole show centered around him??

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: "Taking its cues from the recent Tom King-written miniseries" No thank you!

Swamp Thing: I'll keep it real this could be the greatest film ever made and I'll never know because I'm a little baby who can't handle horror scarier than The Haunted Mansion (2003)

#where do these anons come from #like i get no asks 99% of the time but then i make an UNTAGGED post about how i feel about the current state of dc and there they are #i dont actually mind them i'm just curious like where are you seeing my posts

[danny-chase]

Do you think that Tim saved Dick in a way? Because we see Dick getting better as he gets closer to Tim and healing and getting back into the family, and ig it’s Tim who initiated that.

I literally don't have a yes or no answer for this... like most things in the Batfam - it's complicated. (Following answer is informed by 90s-00s comics, i can't really speak for new52 because it just... has so many issues one of which being erasing the relationship between Dick and Tim for *checks note* no discernable reason other than possibly *checks note* Didio hates legacy characters and wants only bad things for them so he could have excuses to kill them off or cancel their comics... idk just a guess)

Warnings: for Bruce stans - just look away i'm about to bring up bits of canon you most likely don't like, for Dick stans - Devin Grayson's run is mentioned, for the lovely anon - i wrote an essay, hope you are prepared

Tim coming into the family gave Dick a reason to occasionally hang around Bruce and i'm not sure if this is an exaggeration or not but he did sort of save that relationship - but whether that was a good or bad thing at the time, i can't really say. For sure - it starts off good, Bruce is actually trying to be a good dad (he comes down to Blud to check on Dick, adopts him, trusts him with his own city, calls him for backup, etc.). But we also see throughout Bruce Wayne: Fugitive/Murderer how unhealthy the relationship between the two can be. Dick built his core values around Bruce - if Bruce had actually killed here it would have been devastating for Dick (he was pretty much on the verge of a mental breakdown simply because they couldn't find proof Bruce wasn't guilty). The two literally got in a fist fight during the arc because Bruce was being uncommunicative and Dick couldn't take it anymore, snapped, and punched him when Bruce said "Bruce Wayne is dead only Batman now" - this tied into Dick finally having the relief and validation of being adopted and he couldn't handle Bruce stripping himself (and by extension, his fatherhood of Dick) away. In this era of comics Bruce had gotten physical with Dick before (here's me venting like an annoyed loser), and here's a clip from Bruce Wayne Fugitive that i just, *sigh*, canon Bruce, my detested.

Now on the other hand - getting Dick involved in the batfam more doesn't just mean he was hanging out with Bruce. His relationship with Tim is pretty great and I can definitely see where it was healing for a while - but also - to give credit where credit is due, the healing he goes through during this era of comics can also be attributed to Barbara and the Titans (the fab five specifically). Wally literally joins the Titans to give Dick a "social life" (me - it's because he's gay and wants to spend more time with Dick, actually, screw you DC you know i'm right). Donna plays a major part in keeping Dick's emotional well being in check. So like everything was going fine - Dick was healing, spending more time with friends, spending a lot of time with people he loved, like Tim, except he was neglecting his health and not sleeping - but overall he was in fact, managing, and moving past the deaths of Jason and some of the other Titans. With the current Titans - he was a hardass (which like ~trauma~ so I understand), but like things were going relatively okay.

And then Donna and Lilith died. And hooof Donna dying was like really really bad for his mental health.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003) #1

[Image ID: Dick sits in a room staring at a photo, the phone rings in the background, and he doesn't even acknowledge it, the voice mail plays: "I'm not here. Leave a message after the beep." The photo is shown closer in the next frame, it's of the five original Teen Titans - Roy kisses Donna on the cheek, tipping his hat his other hand making the okay sign, Donna has an arm around Roy, the other hand on Dick's shoulder, Garth proudly stands beaming with his hands on his hips, and Dick has both his arms around Wally's neck. Everyone is smiling in the photo. A voice plays over the answering machine: "Dick, it's Roy - pick up the phone... c'mon... please... I know you're there... just pick up. Dick, we need to talk... you can't just... please..." End ID]

For context - the previous page noted that this is Dick SIX WEEKS after Donna died. Usually Dick's the one who moves on quickly, but Donna dying broke him in a way nothing else had before - and that could be partly because he was still recovering from everyone else's death.

Up to this point, Dick had been healing and Tim was definitely a part of that, but then DC decided to throw the absolute book, bookshelf, and library at him. Reading Outsiders (2003) it's very clear he's very traumatized, and around the same time, Devin is literally whumping him like it's the whump Olympics, breaking him and Babs up, burning down his childhood home, blowing up his apartment complex (killing all but like two of his neighbors), he's literally sleeping on fire escapes using newspapers as covering because he has nothing, and the bad thing i don't like to think about (i'll let you know if you ask but that one needs lots of tw, but if you know where i'm going you know what it is already), Blockbuster is killed and he blames himself - and loses it over breaking Bruce's one rule, Bludhaven is nuked, and he pretty much tries to kill himself.

So basically, he was on the path to healing (with Tim as part of that) before he got absolutely destroyed (and almost killed off by Didio in one of the crisis). Tim in his own right, was also going through a lot in the meantime, his dad died, Steph died, Kon and Bart died, i don't remember what else happened and i haven't read that era of Robin yet. Things were good until they weren't anymore, and sometimes i think Dick would regret ever exposing Tim to the life they live, and questions whether he should have just sent Tim packing x2. They do get to spend a year together on a mental health cruise, but then Damian comes into the picture, Battle for the Cowl happens, and they have their falling out. But whatever happened on that cruise must have been really healing for Dick because he actually kind of rocks it in this era - he keeps things light with Damian, Alfred notes at one point how he makes things easy because he has lightness in him, and he patches things up with Tim - catching him in that panel of Red Robin - from there they kind of go back to normal, there's a lightness to the way they banter with each other (also here) and Tim returns the favor (from the Red Robin incident) by pulling Dick out of the water.

They've saved each other multiple times over (physically), and in both in the Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, Tim helps out in a period where Dick is starting to fall apart from the pressure of holding things together for so long (something Tim might feel guilty for, because he did run away from Gotham on a wild goose chase for Bruce). In that period, it's really clear that Dick saves Tim (he reminds him in RR, that someone does actually care for him) and then Tim saves Dick from being torn apart by Gotham.

I should point out - Damian, while starting off as kind of a hinderance, does eventually start helping Dick as well. By the end of their relationship (before the New52 destroys everything i love), Dick has helped Damian grow emotionally, and through that process Dick probably finds meaning and value in their time together, probably a lot like he used to feel with Tim. And of course, physically, they've both saved each other multiple times by the end of the run.

So yeah. I think Dick finds meaning in growth in mentoring his younger brothers, and it's likely a healing process, that healing just has some twists and turns along the way, and sometimes, on bad days, he probably feels like maybe he shouldn't have intervened at all, but i think on most days, he's proud of what Tim's become.

...I hope this is coherent lmao

#the old: blame everything i hate about comics on Didio #thank god he got fired #tw suicide #i am so long winded oop #i'm in too deep #does this count as character meta? #maybe #Dick Grayson meta #Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #i'm kinda sad that Dick and Tim's relationship is misunderstood in a lot of fanon - because it's something that can be so personal #it's not as black and white as people seem to think #as in like... they're usually really good for each other and have a healthy dynamic #even in RR (I haven't read all of it) people take things out of context and just... ignore that Dick reached out to Tim afterwards #and like asked him to go to therapy (not arkham why are y'all obsessed with Dick throwing his brothers in arkham get help) #Tim also straight up throws Dick over his shoulder and starts a physical fight in that series #so... it can be a toxic relationship too but idk i like to highlight the good parts #i see a lot of - Dick begs for Tim's forgiveness for taking Robin away fics out there #but like there relationship isn't that simple #if they ever talked it out in canon - they'd have to address Tim lashing out physically at Dick (Dick would probably not be having it) #and the writers might then be like - hmm maybe we should address all the times we had Bruce hit him too #so like yeah i get why we never saw their reconciliation on panel (they just kinda were like okay we're fine now :D) #but still it's something i'd like to see explored from a more balanced perspective - instead of a - i project on Tim so he's always right #i probably also wouldn't be the best person to write it because i project on Dick too much #not that i would make Tim beg for Dick's forgiveness - Dick would forgive him in like .000001 seconds and def doesn't hold it against him #that's just how Dick is (he'd probably prefer if it wasn't brought up and they just pretend it never happened) #but also knowing Dick he probably feels guilty as fuck for the way RR went - which like *sigh* martyr #batfam #batfamily #batfam meta

[forestlingincorporated]

I hate the way the media sensationalizes when legacy characters come out as queer, because it always starts some bullshit fake outrage from people that don’t even read the damn comics. 

People wanna be mad “Green Lantern” and “Robin” and “Superman” are “gay now,” and it’s not even a character they damn well know. They shout to the heavens that Superman’s in love with Lois Lane and would never date a pink haired man, and it’s Not Being Homophobic, It’s Just Not Canon™, and they haven’t read the comic, and they haven’t read more than the headline, because if they did, they’d know they were talking aBOUT LOIS’ FUCKING SON. 

It’s the same BULLSHIT that happened when Alan Scott was gay at the start of the New52. People who had NEVER FUCKING HEARD OF ALAN SCOTT AT ALL saw “Green Lantern’s Gay Now” as a headline and wrote up whole ass think pieces about how Hal fucking Jordan is a ladies man and what has the world come to and It’s Not Homophobic, It’s Just Not Canon™, and how the gays are “ruining things for everyone.” 

The comments about Robin where a bit different, because the joke for people who didn’t understand the queer Robin was Tim Drake and not Dick Grayson, or even that there were more than one Robin, was generally “lol, of course he is, he’s Batman’s boyfriend.” And that’s just ALWAYS been uncomfortable, because it’s not a gay joke... it’s a gay pedophilia joke. It’s a gay, incestuous, pedophilia joke. And that’s homophobic for entirely different reasons. 

And here’s the Thing. It shouldn’t MATTER if Hal Jordan, or Dick Grayson, or Clark Kent was revamped or revealed to be queer. There’s still hundreds of other characters who are straight, a small handful of big name characters revisited as queer should mean NOTHING to straight fans. If you truly ONLY relate to Hal Jordan because of he’s a straight man, and DC suddenly decides to “make him gay,” well damn, go read a fucking Kyle Rayner story, the world is your goddamn oyster. 

But these fucking clickbait titles just stir up made-up bullshit attacks against the queer and queer-affirming fans. Now I have to see fucking posts on facebook joking about how some rapper who went to prison under unknown circumstances “probably saw Superman kissing that dude and just lost it lmao” - a joke that both trivializes whatever actually happened there, and also very casually endorses the gay panic defense and homophobic violence. 

All the while, Jon Kent being queer shouldn’t matter to anyone but queer comic book fans. Make your fucking think pieces about how Alan or Tim being queer is “bad” because they were “straight” for 71/32 years, but Jon? Jon has only been a character for 6 years. He was a small child 3 years ago, before he was aged up. There’s no “he was straight before,” he doesn’t have the history to be “established” to be fucking anything. This is his establishing, early characterization. 

You’ll find people who bitch about “pandering” or “bandwagoning” when ANY character is gay, but revealing a character who’s only been a teenager for 3 irl years is bi can’t even count as a retcon. 

And nobody outside the DC community would be saying their dumbass stupid shit about it if the reporting on it wasn’t calling him “Superman” in their goddamn titles. 

#rant #this is a rant #i am mad #bisexual characters don't owe anyone years and years of Word of Gay before finally dating someone of the same gender #and gay characters dont owe you their gold star membership #and piss the fuck off with your I'm Fine With Gay Characters Until It's Someone I've Heard Of #tw: homophobia #tw: biphobia

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

-

(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

-

Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.

#naqib #the boys #islamophobia #racism #tired tropes #orientalism #mcu #disney #homelander #tony stark #the ten rings #the boys tv #yinsen #muslim #representation matters #bad writing #white hollywood #hollywood #critique #the boys critical #disney critical #mcu critical #representation #mena #swana #mena actors #swana actors #muslim actors #muslim characters #mena characters

[hacked-by-jake]

Hey Ho! :D

You will always find this post in my blog description.🥰

(Well, since there’s not really much information about me, here’s a post of things you’ve been interested in and some facts about me.)

(Thanks to the Anon for the motivation to do this here! <3)

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So, Hi! You can call me HBJ! I don’t want to mention my real name and age here. 😁

I started publishing my fanfictions here on Tumblr a little over a year ago and haven’t left since. xD

My mother tongue is not English, I am from Germany. So if you find some mistakes, please excuse it, I’m doing my best and still learning. <3

I honestly have no idea what to write here so, have fun, if anyone reads through this here. 😂 At least that’s a little bit of me. :D

>The Ask Box is always open. So feel free to ask a question if you are interested (but I want to warn you, I am not answering everything, but I will let you know in this case) < <3

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Let's start! ❤️🌹🎭

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First of all 10 Random Facts about me. This was asked by an anon. Here is the original post.

I’m a giant nerd, there’s no place in my room that’s not full of merchandise.

I prefer to read stories that are self-published, for example here on Tumblr or on other sites, rather than real books.

I have a problem with jackets, I have tons of them.

I usually dye my hair according to the colors of characters I like.It all started with green/purple - because of the Joker. And the last color I have at the moment is all green because of Joker / Loki from Marvel (Oups)

Almost all tattoos I have are about fictional characters (also Oups)

No one, really nobody knows what books/stories I read because that’s something very private to me.

I listen to music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Also, it’s hard for me / I don’t like to talk about the music I listen to because this is very intimate for me for some reason.

When I watch a series, it’s at least 2 times behind each other, sometimes more often. But never just once.

Films that I watch for the first time and that excite me, I watch every second that I have time. When the movie is over, I start again unless there are several parts. But then I always watch my favorite one 500 times.

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Random questions from you.

(Asked by @procrastinatingrobin) -One place that you'd like to travel at least once in your life?

---- One of my biggest wishes is (what a cliché xD) New York. For example the “Joker Stairs”, which is one of my biggest dreams. *-*

I would love to travel to a lot of locations from my favorite movies/series.🤭

America in general is a dream for me (a German potato 😂😅).

But there are so many beautiful places to which I want to go. For example, I would love to travel to Tenerife. I know someone who lives there and every time I see pictures I get very jealous. xD

Unfortunately, I’m incredibly afraid of flying, so if that doesn’t improve, I’ll never get anywhere near these places.😫😂😂

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(Asked by Anon) How many tattoos do you have?😄

I love tattoo questions. 😂🤭At the moment I have eleven tattoos🥰

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(Asked by Anon) -What's your favorite animal?

Hmmm I don’t really know, I think they are dogs because I have a dog now. *-* But to be honest, turtles are so cool.🤔 My brother has a turtle named: Schiggy (based on Pokémon)🤭

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(Asked by Anon) -The stupidest thing that ever happened to you?

Ohhh hahaha there I have something good!😅Story Time with Hbj xD

Okay: As some might know, I’m a big fan of The Joker by DC.🃏Well, in 2019, the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix came to the cinemas and I was at the cinema premiere with my best friend. And the movie was absolutely amazing. I really wanted to watch the movie again..Aaaaand I was lucky because my best friend’s boyfriend also wanted to see the movie in the cinema so I went back to the cinema 5 days later to watch the movie again. I was so excited and so extremely happy that I trembled and could not stand still. xD And for these two reasons, I accidentally dropped my not really old phone. It just fell straight down on the stones in front of the cinema and the display was completely broken..Well, what can I say? I needed a new one.. 😂😅But the movie was still fantastic!😍🤭This is actually one of the stupidest things that ever happened to me. xD

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(Asked by @kyras-things) What are the little things that make your day happiest?

Oh that’s a really nice question! *-*Well, I have really little things that can make me happy. :)-It is enough for me when I wake up tomorrow and see my merchandise shelf😅 (This is right in front of my bed)This is for most something really small but for me really great and makes me happy. <3Other things are music, stroking my dog, messages on my phone, my hair color, my tattoos, when the sun is shining in the morning, coffee, riding longboard and of course (yes this is my absolute serious and not only so therefore said) tumblr and thus at the same time Duskwood. 💕I think these are the most important things. 🤭All I need is to see something that matters to me.😅🥰

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(Asked by @leetjep) Seriously....Do you ever sleep?

Very rarely😂 Last time I slept was in fall.😂

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(Asked by Anon) Ios or android?

Only related to the phone: Android.Yes, I stand by it!😂

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(Asked by @booklover-01040) Hello!I was wondering have you got any paranormal or creepy experiences? If no, then a nightmare that you will never forget.

Hey Ho! In fact, I haven’t experienced any paranormal things. Which is probably also because I don’t believe in that and I’ve found a rational cause for everything so far. (Important: I don’t believe in it, but I don’t say it doesn’t exist, I don’t want anyone to feel attacked)

And a nightmare I’ll never forget? In fact, I can’t think of any one. There’s a dream I’ve have since I was a kid: It’s about two little wolves trying to eat me. xD And I can even tell where that came from.

The movie to blame for this is: Twilight xD

Yep… When I first watched this movie, I was way too young, and as a child I was always very anxious. Just such things and horror movies in general were terrible for me (today it is actually no longer so) (Even the dream is no longer bad today and yet it has a bitter aftertaste of childhood.)

In any case, I was much too young and that did not let me go back then. xD But a really unsettling dream I had was: Well.. Do you know the Pink Panther? 😂

I once dreamed that the Panther “chased” me through an endless long corridor. It was an endless corridor in pink with countless doors. He sang the theme song and threw clocks at me…😅 And that went on all night until I woke up.

(This, by the way, had a trigger too. A German song (the rapper only took the melody of the title music and wrote his own lyrics. The text isn’t really cool though and that’s the reason)

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(Asked by @dreamer-writer-fangirl) What color is your hair?

Well, at the moment my hair is green🤭

Check HERE and HERE for pictures.

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(Asked by Anon) Is your brother younger or older than you?🤗

My brother is older than me.🥰

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(Asked by Anon) Do you have a nickname?

Yes, actually I have one. I can even say it because it has nothing to do with my real name. :D But please don’t laugh at me. 😂Well, I have the loving nickname: Little Onion. yep…My mom gave me that name for some reasons. 😂

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(Asked by Anon) some information about your dancing?😄 you mentioned it a few days ago💃

Yeah, well, I danced for 13 years, in different groups, also several groups at the same time. :D It was the hip hop/breakdance direction. But at some point I stopped because I didn’t enjoy it in the groups anymore and time was getting tighter. :/ Unfortunately, there was and is no real other groups here, which is why I stopped completely and now only dance for myself and just for fun.🤭

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(Asked by Anon) What's your favourite food ?

Uhhhm, I think everything with pasta is my favorite food.😂 I can eat noodles all day. 🤭🍝🍜Well, and of course, Pizza!🍕Pizza is adorable. 😂

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(Asked by Anon) What type of video games do you like to play?

I don’t really have a favorite type / genre, I don’t play video games that often. I’m actually playing what looks exciting to me without any particular genre or type. 😁🤭

But if I do, I guess I’m the most Nintendo type. So most of the games I play are related to Nintendo. <3

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(Asked by @mirajane01040-duskwoodmemes) Do you play... Minecraft?

I used to play a lot of Minecraft, but nowadays not so much, and if so, then only the mobile version. This is fun for in between and dispels the boredom. I even started building Duskwood several times, but never finished it. xD Well, yes, sometimes I play Minecraft.

Answer a few days later: Yes, I do!

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(Asked by Anon) If you could be a fictional character, who would it be and why?

Oh, there are a few. xDBut the three main characters for me: Evey Hammond because of V for Vendetta. Harley Quinn because of The Joker. And, of course, my MC because of Jake. 🤭I know, very superficial reasons but I hope they are enough for you, because these are the main reasons xD 😅🤭

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(Asked by Anon) Hey hbj i'm curiousFamily or a career? 😋

I choose the career.🤭 After that, there is still enough time, and who says that not both work?😉

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(Asked by Anon) do you like alcohol?🍷

No, absolutely no. Not a little bit.

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(Asked by Anon) What is your favorite drink?

If I don’t drink coffee, I only drink sparkling water, my entire life. I very rarely drink something different. Water for life! 🧊

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Either/or questions from you.

(Asked by @duskwood-legacies) -What would you rather see, Northern Lights or sky lanterns?

That’s easy for me🤭 Northern Lights! If you ask me.. that is magical! *-* (Well, unless it’s like “Tangled” and I get a Flynn Rider.. then sky lanterns xD)

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(Asked by @duskwood-legacies) -Strawberries or raspberries?

Definitely: Strawberries🍓 *-*

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(Asked by@duskwood-legacies) Do you prefer angst or fluff?

I think it depends on the general mood I’m in.🤔 I think the best is angst with happy ending.😁

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(Asked by@duskwood-legacies) Milk or cereal first?

Obviously: Cereal first! 😂🥣

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(Asked by @justubi) Would you rather have a nosy neighbor pr noisy neighbor?

Unfortunately, I have both. xD But if I could choose, I would opt for the noisy neighbor as I wear headphones all day anyway.😂

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(Asked by @justubi) Would you rather be poor but love your job or rich but absolutely hate your job?

One hundred percent and without having to think about: poor and love my job!I could never have a job I don’t like. This is a real horror imagination for me😂

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(Asked by @kyras-things ) Prefer to write fanfics or read them?

Oh that’s a really hard question for me! 🤔 I can’t really make up my mind, but I think I’d rather read than write myself. With stories of others I can better dive into another world and relax. 🤭Because when I write, five hundred other thoughts always fly around in my head and I have to decide how to write something etc.I love writing but sometimes I wish I only had to think about a story and it would be written on a sheet right away. xD <3

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(Asked by @leetjep) Would you rather have one eye in the middle of your head or two noses?

I take the eye in the middle of my head. 😂Then I would make the Jake eye as a tattoo around it, which would be really cool.🤭

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(Continues on new asks)

#It's me :) #personal #hbj talks #about me #have fun lol

[greycappedjester]

Since I log the fanfictions I read, I’m realizing that June 19th marks the first day I read one of your fics! I read All in the Cards and was blown away by the storyline. Then, I continued to read your HQ series, the other cards fics, and your Dr.STONE fic too. I want to read your DC fics as well. I don’t know much background on it though, so I’m working on it. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your writing and how it has honestly made this past year a lot better. With all that being said though, what’s your favorite thing/theme to write in each of your individual series? Like world building, relationships, etc.? Also, what inspired you to write in the first place?

Ahhh, thank you so much! This is honestly such a sweet ask and I am so, so glad that I could make your year better.

For what's my favorite thing/theme to write in each series, that's a tough one as a lot of times in changes; but, after thinking about it, I think these are my favorite things overall for each....

(I also thought I'd do something fun and put what my favorite line to write was in the last few chapters for the ongoing works. I always wonder what lines are people's favorite so figured it would be fun to add mine)

Hq at Hogwarts: I really love writing Oikawa and Hinata's relationship. Which is kinda an odd thing to say since they purposefully only have a few conversations spread out through each story. But, they're my two favorite Hq characters to write hands down and so I absolutely love showing them as foils to each other in the series. That said, I also love writing them (and especially Oikawa and Suga) as foils/parallels to the Giant and Hisashi (Suga's grandfather). I love both foil relationships and writing parallels between generations--especially if the next generation is completely unaware/uninformed of the previous generation's mistakes

Favorite Recent Line to Write: Kenma met his eyes and his voice broke: “Why am I the only one you have to hide?”

*Note: Okay, technically not the most recent chapter but fun fact: I wrote the Kuroo/Kenma conversation waaaay in advance and used it a lot as a reference to where I wanted this relationship to be headed and I viewed this line as one of the biggest break points (along with "I am waiting" from the dance)

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Cards: This one is the most tricky for me to think of one since it changes a lot. I love doing the world building for this one (like the huge long time line I have for the history of the country). I love writing fantasy politics. As I consider a Hearts Civil War story more, I'm getting back into the groove of just really love writing Oikawa's complicated relationship with being King. And, of course, I love writing Tsuksihima and Hinata's relationship

Favorite Recent Line to Write: Oikawa swept across the office, never seeming to pause for even a second as he pointed a quill at Iwaizumi. “So, tell me, are invasions just like a semi-annual thing?”

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The Hq/Scooby-Doo AU (Investigations Inc.): the humor and banter

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Walking With My Eyes Open: I think this might be my favorite romance thing I've ever written. I really, really wanted to show a view of romance that emphasized the choice to be in love (and the work that goes into a functioning relationship). I especially wanted to do this with Hanahaki since this trope is so tied to the forfeit of choice on the patient's end and the inherent unfairness/weight on the person they're in love with. Couldn't imagine it with any other characters but Senkuu and Gen tbh.

Favorite Recent Line to Write: But, human shoulders weren’t meant to bear the expectations of divinity.

*Note: Lol, this scene got cut and reworded so many dang times in editing, the one thing that stayed consistently I feel like is me really wanting to keep this specific line

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After the Fall of Olympus: Three things and I find it really hard to pick which one is my favorite.

(1) I love that this story format lets me show the slow growth/aging of Dick as a character and (I hope) that each chapter shows how he's grown to the point that Dick at age 14 in Ch. 1 is noticeably younger in internal monologue than Dick in his 20s in the latest chapter.

(2) I love writing tricky political/social issues where all characters have their points and there truly is no write answer...with that, I love writing Dick and Jay Garrick's relationship.

(3) If I had to pick, I don't know if it's my favorite but I think it's the most important element of the story. I very much wanted to show a more realistic view of grief where it feels like the world ended; but, it's not actually an apocalypse. They recover. At the start of the story, it is without a doubt the lowest/most devastating point, but they rebuild. It's slow and there's set backs but they are rebuilding a world that isn't (and shouldn't be) the same but is there and is new and is important. I know a lot of stories that focus on grief view it as a tragedy and an end which it is in a huge way. There's the phrase "it gets better" but a lot of times I think it's viewed as "things will go back to what they used to be" which is understandably hard for people to believe because a lot of times, it fundamentally is impossible for what's lost to be regained. That doesn't mean it's the end of everything. I think sometimes we forget that the previous world (be it actual in this story or what feels like the entire world) may not exist anymore but something different can still be built. The new world and old should never be compared because they can't be. It won't be the same. But, it can be good and they can be happy.

Which is honestly the recovery of what Dick Grayson, to me, should represent rather than the constant grief/vengeance of Batman.

Favorite Recent Line to Write (technically the last line here, just doesn't make sense out of context)

“You need someone with you. I’m not just leaving you alone!” Selina shouts.

“No? Why not?” Dick spits back. “You’re so good at it !”

Selina flinches back and Dick is viciously, painfully glad.

“You don’t get to care just when it’s convenient, Selina,” he says and it hurts, a wound that’s never going to heal. “I needed someone eight years ago. I needed someone when Bruce died, when Batman was gone, and the city was falling apart, and you weren’t there. You didn’t call. You didn’t check on me. You didn’t even say bye. And that’s fine. I lived, I rebuilt it.”

He steps away. “But, you don’t get to come back now and pretend it never happened. I don’t have to let you just because it hurts either way.”

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Flash Facts of Bart Allen: Lol, what might be my least popular but in my opinion best written story. Favorite thing is Bart and Len's relationship hands down, followed by showing Bart's relationship with how he navigates the weight of the Flash legacy while feeling like he's fundamentally different than the Flashes that came before.

Partly since this is getting so long and partly because personal story, I'm putting why I started writing under the break.

I started writing for a lot of reasons.

My first fic--and the first book I ever finished--was the first Hq at Hogwarts story (Mirror of Erised). For background, I started the story when I was in my first year of getting my master's degree (which was surprisingly a lot less busy than my undergrad for a number of reasons but me getting sidetracked into that is a whole other ask about grad school).

My first reason I started writing was that I had more time. I'd had the idea for the story for years; but, I finally had enough details that I was like "okay, now, I gotta write it" so I did. I'll say exactly what the final straw was when I actually get the series finished since it's a major spoiler.

My second reason probably didn't consciously occur to me at the time but is what I consider the most important reason I write and continue to write. I fundamentally want to write stories that make people's days better. It doesn't have to be anything big; I just really wanted to write the kind of story that people could get lost in for a few hours when they're scrolling through AO3 and looking for a distraction. I wanted to write something with happy endings.

Here's the more personal part. I really don't mean this in a sad way so please don't take it as such. However, when I started writing and posting, my dad had just died completely unexpectedly a few months earlier and right before I had to move cross country for masters. It was definitely a hard time (though I had friends and a good support network, again please don't worry--it was years ago now). But, writing then definitely helped me be in a positive happy attitude while thinking of plots and friendships in my favorite anime that always puts be in a better mood.

My point here is that while that was never the reason that I wrote, it's something I reflect on a lot for why fanfic can be such a positive force. Someone can have either the worst day ever, a mildly inconvenient day, or a perfectly fine day and still want distraction. To have a community with both writers and readers interested in the things you're interested in. To have a site where fic can be easily shared and for free. There's something just wonderful about that.

So, most of all, why I write: I want to show people that care about each other. I want to make someone's day better and often that day is mine.

That's really all there is to it.

#atfo #hq at hogwarts #cards #wwmeo

[bluegarners]

If you're taking asks I would love to hear your thoughs about the Ric arc and the current state of Nightwing comics!!!!!!!!!! :))

Oh goodness, where to begin...

To start, I share a lot of the same opinions as @nightwingmyboi and @hood-ex ~~ they have very extensive and well thought out takes on the Ric Arc and the general direction DC has decided to take Dick Grayson with, along with his legacy of Nightwing. I highly suggest you read some of their posts about it, as they are very informative and probably more well versed in explaining opinions, haha!

So, my thoughts on the Ric Arc? Like most fans of Nightwing, I believe it kinda sucked ass. Like, sucked ass in the way where DC kinda just forgot characterizations (again), made it all about Batman (again), and ignored good side characters (Bea). The only thing positive I can really say about that whole arc was the art- I really enjoyed the take on Dick's features in Nightwing #74. I was happy they gave him more ethnic looking features with the fuller lips and the more angular nose. (However, they kinda screwed up with the heights??? Jason was tiny!! Barely 5' 4" it looked like LOL) The colors were pretty as well, Ryan Benjamin is a favorite artist of mine, and most of the scenes were fluid.

Another positive I can say about the Ric Arc is one of the very beginning scenes, where Damian goes to see Dick in the hospital while he's still recovering. It was moving that they let Damian be an impatient child when "demanding" for Dick to wake up, and then follow it up with him essentially fleeing and crying when he's not answered. Of course, Damian isn't really mentioned again after this, but it was still really nice to see this side of his character.

The plot.... where do I start? I don't think I'll get too much into it because it'll only frusturate me more sdfslhf but I'll say this. While I am a fan of Dick Grayson angst, DC made it very... unenjoyable, for lack of a better word. It felt like they just threw in as many villains as possible, what with the introduction of the new "sidekick" for Joker, aka Punchline, the Court of Owls appearing for a very brief time just to screw with Dick's memory more, KGBeast and Bane conspiring to get to Batman through Nightwing BY SHOOTING HIM IN THE HEAD (okay, mini rant here: DC, if you're going to make this comic about Nightwing, please please please actually make it about Nightwing. Make the problem about him, not Batman. I get that Bane is kind of the main motivator here, what with him trying to break Batman by killing his oldest allie and destroying his marriage with Seleina, but surely there are writers at the DC headquarters that can come up with a separate problem that doesn't always involve Batman. Surely that's possible right? Nightwing's whole persona was made so he could be recognized separately from Batman; stepping away from Robin was supposed to free Dick of his restrictive ties to the Bat symbol. By always tying Dick's problems immediately back to Batman or one of his enemies, it defeats the purpose of Nightwing being his own hero with his own villians and his own freakin city with its own dozens of problems!!)

Continuing on with villains, here's what I can remember off the top of my head: KGBeast, Bane, Punchline, Joker, Harely (not really, but I'm going to add her anyway), Talon, and the Court of Owls. Now, this is going to controversial, but I'm also going to add the Batfam as part of that list, and here's why. They didn't care. Plain and simple, they didn't care about Ric, they only cared about Dick and what he could do for them. There were a grand total of maybe three times where the Batfam reached out to Ric to try and reason with him, but before all of that, they re-traumatized an already amnesiac and confused person by showing him get assassinated. Like, Bruce. Wth?? I know a lot of this was mostly character assassination, especially with Barbara, but come on. Barbara was really weird throughout this entire arc, and even after he goes back to "normal", she blames Dick for being mean to her, completely ignoring the fact that he didn't know who she was half the time. And that he was, ya know,

mind controlled by multiple villains for a majority of the comic.

Moving past all of that, since I feel like I could rant for ages about it, I didn't like how abruptly they ended that arc. The crystal being my main problem. DC has many scapegoats, the lazerous pit being their biggest imo, but a crystal? All they had to do was show it to him and BOOM cured??? There was no character development. The build up to it could hardly be called build up, as it was done and over with in the span of a few panels. Nothing felt high stakes anymore, and then after he got his memories back, everyone cheered and was like "yay, he's back to normal! you were a real ass to us, and we're not going to apologize for leaving you homeless and left to fend for yourself against all these villains even though you had no memories! oh, but don't worry! we were watching this whole time, so we just let all that stuff happen to you! wow, so glad you're back- we really need Nightwing, but I guess having Dick back is okay too."

That's a very crass interpretation of what went down, but that's what happened. Bruce's half assed excuse of "I was always watching" was awful because then it just leads to more problems of, oh well, if you were always there, why didn't you rent him an apartment so he didn't have to live out of his taxi? Or get him out of trouble and bar fights? Or stop the Joker from getting him and taking control of his mind? Or any numerous terrible things that happened to Ric? It's just annoying that no one seems to actually try and emphathize with what Dick went through, and it's all getting brushed to the side in favour of, "oh, well, back to work!"

They could've gone down so many pathways with Dick getting shot in the head, but instead they gave him amnesia, trauma, bad reception from the fam, and being passed around from villian to villain just to be used over and over again. It felt like this weird dump fest where the writers just woke up one morning and was like, "how many characters can we fit into this arc to get the most amount of readers as possible? How can we become more controversial?"

I know that in the arc after Ric, we're getting some of the aftermath. I'm so so happy they let Dick cry over Alfred's death (he really needed that release of emotions, poor boy has been bottling them up for the sake of others [again, DC, I know he's supposed to be the emotionally controlled one, but please let him be healthy with his emotions and not a shut in with them]) but they still haven't addressed Damian? Like, Dick and Damian were arguably the closest before shit hit the fan, and Dick isn't wondering where the kid is? Or exactly what happened with Alfred and how Damian witnessed it?? A large part of it is the Batfam not telling Dick any of it and kind of just leaving him to his own devices now that the "issue" has been resolved (sound familiar? history repeats itself yet again....). Something else that bugs me a bit is that everyone is telling Dick what he should be feeling/thinking/doing/etc. No one's letting him... grieve. Like, Dick just got his memories back and he's probably grappling with old trauma that's now fresh in his face. Additionally, everyone is assuming he's just going to go back to normal, as if none of what just happened, well, happened. They're erasing this brand spanking new trauma, along with the news that Alfred was murdered, and the fact that Dick is still trying to do his best for his family because it's whats expected of him. I mentioned earlier that Barbara was being really weird, @nightwingmyboi actually already made a post about it, but when Dick tries to apologize and talk to her about what happened when he was Ric, she just kind of... runs away? Dramatically? Didn't even attempt to hear what dick had to say- she was just so consumed with her own hurt that talking wasn't an option for whatever reason. WHICH IS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF HER CHARACTER. It's frusturating because Dick is doing his best to apologize to people when he should have nothing to apologize for- he wasn't under any of his own control and the things he did while Ric or "Dickie-boy" weren't under his own will. If anything, Dick is the one that should get an apology and a hug; he's been through so much and no one seems to be acknowledging that.

All of that to say: I liked the idea of what the Ric arc could've offered, but the plot fell through and just disappointed a lot of people. I'm hoping a lot of the issues presented in the Ric arc that went unaddressed do end up being properly resolved in the newer arcs coming out, but I'm not going to be surprised if it doesn't. Sorry for the long answer LOL

#dick grayson #bruce wayne #batman #nightwing #nightwing 74 #ric grayson #ew #what an awful name though #like #even joker didn't like it #why didnt he just call himself richard??? #ric sounds like dick and i thought he didn't want that name anymore??? #richard would've been better #batfam #barbara gordon #batgirl #i wonder where the writers get these ideas #i heard the original writer didnt like the idea much #but then #DC #and forced them to do it?? #no idea if thats true #BUT IF IT IS #imma throw hands #man i miss the days where things were simple #and nightwing was just chillin with the Titans #and everyone wasnt complete assholes #jason todd #damian wayne #alfred