#even when he’s being a monster

[bluegiragi]

debrief.

early access + nsfw on patreon

#soap is naturally more volatile leading up to a full moon but he just also dislikes feeling sidelined. #his previous teams were always pretty heavy on the offensive #(there's also a part of him that's annoyed at himself for still finding simon hot even when he's being a bit of a tosser #OH ALSO. im testing out a newer brush on this one #since for some reason my brain decided i hate how thick my lines usually look :3 #captain john price #john soap mactavish #kyle gaz garrick #monster 141 au #simon ghost riley #giragi art

[sysig]

Two skeletons in a trench lab coat (Patreon)

Bonus:

He’s very careful! Everything was fine before you interrupted!

#Doodles #Handplates #UT #FJdlsafjdsf Handplates fuzzes my brain #I cannot tell you how weird it feels to draw Gaster with the Lost Soul head after all this time away haha #It drops me back into the person I was when I first read Handplates - for better or for worse. It's a very strange feeling #Even drawing Sans and Papyrus again sends me back! Not as strongly but certain little details stand out #Sans' eyes especially... Very strange feeling #Anyhow! Since Fellplates sent me back down the rabbit hole and I've gotten back into rereading lightly - still not a full commitment! #Maybe soon tho 👀 I feel like I always say that haha #But in the meantime thinking of the pre-Plates Handplates time period <3 Since that's the one I'm still most familiar with haha #I love when they're still growing and learning ♪ Scaffolded baby talk! Twin language! Love 'em ♥ #And fearless* mischievous little troublemakers hehe #They're so cute <3 I love the little ways they interact as young'uns - like when Papyrus will just lift Sans by his arms lol #I'd been thinking about and then had to go read the one of Sans as a the blanket/coat tickle monster and then - this ✨ #''Excuse me sir I'd like One Ticket to the R Rated movie I am an adult Monster'' lol #Probably another one of those moments where Gaster is just *nervously sweats in Dad* lol - stop being so cute! #Also there's no particular meaning to when I use WingDings for his text :P Just convenience and if I remember to lol #Comics where he talks a lot are not convenient XP I have enough trouble editing on this paper ugh I will Not miss it when it's done #Even attempted this comic in as few pencil strokes/erasing as possible and it was still a pain to work with! >:0 Rude #Doubly so that I've had a Handplates comic idea for past like - year lol - and /this/ was the first one I finished pfftbl #To be fair to the other I do want to at least attempt making it a look-alike hehe ♪ You know how it is with Ideas™ #I can't be too mad about it haha ♫ It did turn out quite cute after all :3

[monsterfucker-geralt]

It's a lonely life for witchers

#every time I see geralt meditating in monster lair waiting for it to show up I feel such a loneliness #and it's even worse when I kill it #anyway don't mind me I'm just being dramatic #tw3 #the witcher #geralt of rivia #oh and his eyes black cause he took cat in case you're wondering #also did I tell you I love hags cause I love hags #my art

[a2zillustration]

I carried this thing for MONTHS with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of putting Raphael in it (knowing full well Larian wouldn't let me do that, mechanically) and I had one major miscalculation.

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

#Ok I'm gonna ramble in the tags about all this get ready: #I KNEW Larian wouldn't let me actually pull this off but I PROMISE you that stupid flask sat in my inventory since the moment I grabbed it #WAITING for when I could write this little bit about putting Raphael in it #I even threw it at him in the fight with a 30% hit chance and it succeeded so I considered that Larian giving me permission to say it workd #But as I was reading up on it again when I was sketching this I saw the bit about native planes and I cried LMAO. But it's dnd- #so I rewrote is as it would've happened in a game. U kno. #Also I have been waiting to use that fox line for SO LONG bc of Croissant's dad being a fox-like fey creature #So much backstory that's slotted in PERFECTLY with the BG3 narrative #Anyway absolutely wild that we managed to take out this ancient powerful devil - and on the first try! #Lae'zel with a potion of speed did WORK. Gale came in clutch with hold monster. Astarion gave Raph stage fright. Croissant made him dance #(I'm pretty sure he just doesn't have a dance animation in ascended form lol) #Hope didn't even need to use divine intervention - this party is terrifying #Croissant hated him but in the end I loved Raphael I see why all you people like him #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #act III spoilers #house of hope #croissant adventures #tav #raphael #lae'zel #iron flask #comics #ALSO shoutouts to you if you both noticed and knew which worthikids animation I borrowed the expression in panel 5 from

[ballisterboldheart]

dragonheart by charles edward pogue, based on his screenplay

#nimona #nimona spoilers #nimonaedit #ballister boldheart #r you guys picking up what i'm putting down. here. because i could also write a wholeeee wall of text abt the similarities between #this film & dragonheart. an essay even. #because it's like. ough. that line when the director kills fake ambrosius. ''may gloreth forgive you'' #its about ballister being the only one other than her to use gloreth's name as a stand-in for ''god'' #its about ballister trying to prove he's Devout. he's following the will of gloreth. #but then realizing. well. even if she's holy. he doesn't care about her forgiveness. #he only cares to save her monster/her devil. god. do you GET it.

[leisi-lilacdreams]

i'm reading a manhwa where people are getting red eyes and it's allowing them to see monsters that live in an alt version of our world

and things are mostly ok with the 2 sides living side by side without each other's knowledge

until you do something to get the monster's attention

then they hunt you

12!donnie is sometimes shown to have red eyes

my brain made connections

the manhwa's called "prey" btw

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #2012 tmnt #tmnt 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles 2012 #2012 donnie #donnie tmnt #tmnt donnatello #tmnt donny #came up with a little au while doodling this #like tang shen being a miko before giving up the profession to get married #and she also saw the monsters #yoshi couldn't but believed tang shen #that's why he reacted that way to donnie #the au was a mix of xxxholic vibes with donnie being haunted by otherworldly creatures that only he can see #i even had the idea of usagi miyamoto and usagi yuichi being reimagined as the father and son oden fox cart characters from xxxholic #the 12 boys never went up top till they were 15 #donnie had no idea what he had done when he stared at something weird in the distance...and then something followed them home

[spacedace]

Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.

Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.

Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.

They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).

They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).

And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.

(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.

Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!

Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.

Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.

Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)

I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.

(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).

#batman #ra's al ghul #al ghul family #talia al ghul #nyssa raatko #cheshire dc #sensei dc #no more racism and fucked up dark family dynamics #the al ghuls aggressively adore each other #violence and schemes is their love language #in the full au version of all of this i'd like to imagine how canon plot points change with the al ghuls having these vibes #Just imagine Damian still trying to kill Tim when he first ends up in Bruce's care #but instead of it being a ploy to get rid of a threat its because he's just so excited to meet one of his big brothers #and attempted murder is just how you tell someone in your family that you love them #Tim just SO CONFUSED because Damian is talking so animatedly about how happy he is to get to have some brotherly bonding with Tim #while ACTIVELY trying to run him through with a sword #idk how things change with Cass exactly but i feel like they would in this #like either David Cain isn't an absolute monster or the al ghuls catch wind of what he's doing & are like #This is NOT how al ghuls treat family! what is this shameful behavior! She can't even insult you while you fight! #fighting and violence is a perfectly healthy way to express your love but only if there's actually LOVE involved! #The Heretic & other Damian clones still get made but only because Talia just misses her son so much that she makes more of him #Nyssa has just been bopping around the world for a few centuries & pops up every now and then to have a death match with her baby sister #i just have a lot of strong feelings about the al ghuls deserving better and combined that with the vibes of my favorite unhinged family #Dick still hates Talia but Talia takes all his insults as her darling step son telling her how much he loves her #which only drives Dick even crazier #Tim rocks up to the League of Assassins during his whole trying to prove Bruce is alive thing already seen as an al ghul #Oh yeah that's Cousin Timothy he's one of Talia's kids - never met a truer al ghul in your life #You see how he blew up all those bases? Ra's cried he was so proud #Ra's spoils his grandkids absolutely rotten which is giving Bruce SO MANY gray hairs

[heartofarcanum]

OK AND ANOTHER THING

I have to give credit to Amen and Evthys’s enemies to lovers plot and Amen’s character. How many times have I read “it’s enemies to lovers” and it’s just two people who sorta hated each other but now it’s fine. How many times have I read “he’s brooding and bad and has done horrible things” but he also saves kittens from trees and helps orphans in his spare time?

Like she pulled no punches. Amen wants to kill Evthys, he thinks about it often. Evthys knows he will kill her, knows and loves him almost against her will anyway. They know what they are, they know they’re destined for tragedy but they can’t help themselves. That is what enemies to lovers should be.

And the follow through with Amen. She told us the man is a monster and the man is in fact a monster. He doesn’t have a heart of gold, he doesn’t secretly help orphans or donate money in his spare time. He is a hunter, a killer, and he does not pretend or act otherwise. He tortures and he kills and he isn’t kind about it even when she asks him to be. There’s no way to excuse his actions and there shouldn’t be. There should be no “but it’s ok because” — it’s not ok, it’s fucked, and that’s the point.

Their relationship is fucked, but it’s what enemies to lovers is supposed to be. He’s what a morally gray character is supposed to be. These are not supposed to be happy or kind things. In scn they’re not sugar coated in any way and that’s part of what makes it just so freaking good.

If you hate Amen, good you’re supposed to. If you love Amen anyway, good you’re supposed to. That’s the trap and tragedy of enemies to lovers—it’s a car crash you can’t look away from, because no matter how bad it gets you’re always hoping they survive. You’re always hoping that somehow all of this will end and they’ll be happy, no matter how unlikely that is.

#I have brain rot how can I not #good GOD this book #I feel like I’m on a ledge rn fr #like she said he is a monster and he is a MONSTER #there’s no excuses to be made and he makes none and it does something for me #it was just all so well written #dia doing everything she could to the end #amen being completely unforgiving #he has not made a special exception for evthys he’s just not sure what she is yet #but what will he do when it comes down to the wire? #can he really kill her? even he doesn’t know #AND IT MAKES ME CRAZY #romance club #rc #song of the crimson nile #scn #rc amen #rc evthys #amen x evthys

[rapidhighway]

Okay this is gonna make no sense, so here’s to me posting random comics about AUs I pulled out of my ass 🥂🥂i spent the entire day sitting in a car and was suddenly just like, what if it was Sam who ended up in Purgatory with Cas? That way I can finally daydream about them having some (traumatizing) bonding time which they sooo needed after Cas destroyed Sam’s wall and then took on his cage scars. Then I remembered how pissed I was when they made purgatory to be this forest with nothing to do but fight each other, then I realized I can have Sam and Cas actually explore purgatory in my AU bc I’m sure Sam would be much more into it than Dean and here we are idk what I’m doing :’) also Cas is depressed after but what’s new. Here’s my comic about it sidhkvndfgkj

#spn #sam winchester #castiel #purgatory #supernatural #comic #art #fanart #digital art #pls accept my ramblings #I was literally so bored but didn’t want to think about any of my existing AUs and was just like #what if I invent purgatory lore now? and put Sam in it cause I want him there with cas thanks #also I think being in purgatory would be torture for Sam just bc he believes he’s a monster and that’s where he’s gonna go when he dies or #whatever #meanwhile cas wants to stay there and stuff bc they are the same #whateverrrr pls #I’m always so embarrassed when I just pull out whatever random ass au #this doesn’t even do much I just wanna good purgatory thanks #also if I made mistakes in the dialogue no one correct me I don’t care for this language

[everysongineverykey]

i dunno it kinda bothers me sometimes to see characters who are referred to with they/them pronouns in games described as "ambiguously gendered" or "gender left unclear" or "gender unstated" by fans and stuff like. yeah absolutely they are sometimes that. sometimes the creator had a gender in mind for them while creating them and just didn't think to talk about it in the game. but also, like. sometimes characters can just be nonbinary? and it makes me kinda sad that everyone's first reaction to they/them pronouns in games is "oh, they have a binary gender, it's just up to the player/not stated in-game".

#this is just something i was thinking about #after reading the ut localization book and seeing monster kid and onionsan described this way specifically #like. onionsan isn't really a big deal to me. they're just never talked about in the game. #i'm not treating them as Important Canon Nonbinary Rep because even though i use they/them for them #they're not canonically Anything. #monster kid is sort of the same deal? undyne uses they/them for them #and while it could be argued that she doesn't know them you could also argue they sneak out to follow her a lot #she could've met them before. #eh. it's a non-issue in this case really. at least they didn't describe napstablook that way #but honestly why are they so scared of saying 'nonbinary'. it's clear that that's what napstablook is #with the 'theirself' and all that #which. singular themself/theirself is not a word you see often in media at all! #it certainly wasn't when undertale came out! that was a pretty uncommon word in games! #so props to toby for featuring the first singular themself i ever saw in media and making me go 'woah' #but anyway. if you're curious. the lol book simply says #'the game refers to napstablook as 'them' not 'him' or 'her'' #which. yeah! they're a them! but why do you act like this is some sort of narration quirk #and not just. a character being nonbinary. #i think that became pretty clear when the first few rounds of the undertale art book #came out and used he/him for them #but then someone asked toby about the pronoun difference #and he called them all back and changed their pronouns to they/them in the book once again. #honestly i. only vaguely remember hearing that so if someone has sources i'd love to see them #but like. why can't characters be nonbinary. why can't people just say nonbinary. it's not a scary word.

[nerdie-faerie]

TVDu was all 'family is really important to the Mikaelsons, they have a whole saying about it' only to turn around and be like oh yeah that only applies to three of the siblings though !?! what!!?! how dare you!!

#TVDu #The Mikaelsons #Klaus Mikaelson #Elijah Mikaelson #Rebekah Mikaelson #Kol Mikaelson #Finn Mikaelson #Henrik Mikaelson #Freya Mikaelson #the audacity!! as someone with 8 siblings im furious that they act like only half the family matters #youre telling me their baby brother died and they got turned into monsters as a result and they never talk about it?!? wheres the grief? #the underlying blame? the tension that never really goes away? wheres the blatant gap left from their brother being gone? #and from finn being in a box???? like it should have mattered they should have been a family #it shouldnt have just been about klaus elijah and rebekah kol has like 1 bonding scene with rebekah 2 with klaus and none with anyone else? #finn gets treated like a stranger and the only positive sibling interaction he has is with freya?? #im literally writing this after suddenly writing a drabble where klaus and kol bond because i am incensed #theyre siblings goddammit!! even when there are siblings youre closer to and some youre distant with youre still siblings you still #care and interact with each other wtf like im not saying vampirism wouldnt warp my sibling relationships it would #but those bonds would still be there to be warped and twisted by time and betrayal fck you

[sysig]

So much experimenting to be done, where to even start (Patreon)

#Doodles #Handplates #UT #Fellplates #Gaster #Papyrus #Sans #Mostly silliness :) Mostly :) #It's still fun to draw these two Gasters next to each other hehe ♪ Even interacting! #They're more similar than I think either of them would admit haha - ''No clearly we have very different ideals'' sure but you're both Gaster #I like the idea of classic being So Annoyed at any iteration of himself thinking positively towards humans haha #I mean it would probably hurt - that's a big piece of his trauma! - but on the surface it's just Ugh I can't believe this -.ó #I feel like they'd have a lot more common ground when it comes to their experiments tho - not a perfect Venn Diagram but enough! #Maybe even just different enough to offer a new perspective - enough to give them new ideas! Uh oh that's never a good thing lol #I do love Fell!Gaster just so pleased to be having a conversation haha so smiley - classic still not smiling but interested! #Cute face <3 #It was after making the Toriel comic that the thought Really occurred to me - like obviously I saw so I knew they were still in the gowns #But it took a bit for that to strike me as odd since I mean that's just what they wear! That's normal! For Handplates anyway #He talks a lot about isolating whatever it is in Monsters that Make Them Like That - what does that entail #Gaster no seriously what are you doing to them don't just smile actually reply #And as much as I like the boys being a bit more Fell-ish I've always been of the opinion that no matter what they're brothers! #They love each other <3 And in Fellplates they'd have to rely on each other even more than regular Underfell #If anything would cause some codependency it's the Handplates setup - no matter what version you throw at it! #They're still both delicate little things - they need each other to survive ♥ If Gaster is sometimes kind to them well... #Similar to Mercyplates but Not Quite hmmmm #At least sometimes doing cute and harmless things tho! Studies how they react to flowers and teaches them to make chains hehe ♪ #There's also that Underfell thing of Sans calling UF!Papyrus ''Boss'' rather than ''Bro'' yeah? Doodling ideas around that haha #An opportunity to teach! Sans only came away with the basics tho it probably annoys Gaster lol #The idea of them doing cute harmless little things and /that/ being what gets under his skin hehehehe #And ending with a Babybones! :D Surely he'd have no problem being attached since they're meant to be good...? Surely

[moreaugriffins]

Every day i just want to write a post that just says "The Brigadier is so damn autistic."

but I then worry about what other people might say if I do that

but fuck it

The Brigadier is so fucking autistic, and nobody can change my mind

#classic doctor who #brigadier lethbridge stewart #'hes just like that because hes a military man' no he's like that because he's autistic and in the military. there's a difference #(please - we see so many soldiers in classic who and he's so different to them) #lack of expressions (especially s7) which caused others to comment his 'lack of emotions' in certain situations (he has commented that he #does in fact feel..) #the constant swagger stick with him (they arent common for soldiers nor officers to have.. havent been since past WW2 i believe) which he f #fiddles with and holds #stickler for the rules and hates disorder (things not being done 'right') #(thinking of the 'rules arent rules for alistair' bit from Daddy Fights Monsters) #his reaction to mushrooms in The Green Death. that's it. that's the point (he just hates mushrooms and so do i) #he's so.. military when he speaks even when speaking to civilians or when he's off duty. ik that's not much of a point but in the military #you're told exactly how to speak and interact with others and to be blunt and clear and to the point with your words. you're saying he does #find comfort in it? #and this man's strong sense of morals! my god. he can have quite black and white thinking in situations (so does 3 which would probably #explain why they butt heads often) and he is insanely stubborn #im sure i'll think of more things as time goes on but this is all i have for now #also im sorry i might be a bit tipsy when posting this but i really need courage lmao

[cloudsoffire]

big godzilla fan but i will never in my life interact with the fandom based on what i've seen on here

#firstly i hate all godzilla ships even mothra/godzilla #just because she's queen of the monsters and he's king of the monsters doesn't mean shit #second i hate those comics that portray the characters as silly and stuff #i especially hate how minus one is always portrayed as a baby because he isn't massive in his first appearance #or giving godzilla earth glasses or making him the 'group' grandpa #or just anything that gives them dialog really #i generally just hate blorbofication #third i absolutely hate king kong and i feel like legendary has really been pushing godzilla and kong being two sides of the same coin #and like generally the only actually good legendary godzilla movie is king of the monsters 2019 #2014 is boring because it's carried by an unlikable and boring cast #godzilla vs kong was just pretty alright #and godzilla x kong was a scaling nightmare with forgettable monsters thrown in as well #and they both fought sea serpents #and godzilla's was still more interesting!! #i have my gripes but i'll save them for when i review them #what am i taking about again

[cryptvokeeper]

i havent even watched the new episode of dungeon meshi yet but just seeing all the posts abt it is bringing back memories of the manga and like.

Oh, right, it was actually really vital to have this episode go here.

Because we've just spent the last several episodes being told over and over by everyone around him that Laios is bad with people, that Laios is socially inept, that Laios cannot handle interpersonal party dynamics.

And all of that is 100% true! But it is absolutely vital to remember that even with zero social awareness whatsoever, Laios is still a good friend. He may not pick up on the typical, expected social cues but he does pick up on other things. He knows his friends' habits, their beliefs, their personalities, and uses those things to find differentiate his friends from the fakes. It ends up kind of overshadowed because he still has to go dogboy mode to actually defeat the monster, but Laios was right on all three counts. He still does it through the lens of his knowledge of monsters, and not the way a "normal" person might, but its the way that works for him and gives him at least some understanding of his team.

TLDR; Laios may be stupid but he's not an idiot and he knows his friends.

#dungeon meshi #someone once said that dungeon meshi is serious even when its funny and funny even when its serious and its exactly that here #the premise starts out being as a joke like 'oh haha the guy whos bad with people has to play amogus' #because its still being framed as “you have to understand people to win” #and this is something laios has gotten told over and over the entire journey that people skills are more in a party than monster skills #but laios wins (twice over in fact!) using his monster knowledge #he doesnt go through some growth where he pays attention to some subtle clues or plays 4d chess and manipulates anyone #he flips the game #he doesnt have to find his friends he just has to find the monster #and he does

[autisticcassandracain]

I dunno man I feel like most statements along the lines of ‘Batman isn’t REALLY x, he’s y’ don’t hold much water because usually, there’s a pretty good chance a number of writers over the years have written him as x, you just didn’t like it or think it doesn’t count for some reason.

For example ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a good parent, he’s actually a bad parent’, when Batman has been written as a good parent by a number of writers, and has, in addition, been written as realizing that he’s screwed up with his children and resolved to fix it by even more. At the same time, stating ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a bad parent, he’s actually a good parent’ is also incorrect, because Batman has been written as a bad parent by a number of writers, either intentionally or not; in addition, the pattern presented by the tug-of-war between writers who believe he should be a good parent and writers who don’t has, over the years, created an unintentional pattern that strongly resembles that of an abusive relationship. So, stating he is a good parent is inaccurate and dismisses a bunch of his canon writing, but stating he is a bad parent also dismisses a bunch of his canon writing and the intentions of the authors that wrote him.

The secret here is realizing that Batman has had so many writers over the years that it’s practically impossible to find a universal truth about him beyond the basic premise and maybe very, very basic characterization keystones. Writers with different beliefs about both the character and the world at large have written him in accordance to their worldview, and sometimes that worldview will align with yours, and sometimes it won’t.

Like, at this point, Batman is more an idea than he is a character. He is the bare-knuckled fight against injustice, but what ‘injustice’ is depends heavily on your worldview, as does what ‘bare-knuckled’ and ‘fight’ mean. Batman has been interpreted in dozens of different ways over the years, and singling out a few of those as the True Batman is largely arbitrary and dependent on your personal taste and belief in what the character should be. The only ‘objective’ measurement you could apply here are the old Golden Age comics, and I think most fans can agree that measuring modern Batman comics by how faithful they are to the Golden Age comics is, more often than not, a little ridiculous.

For the record, I do think that arguing about what Batman should be matters; if right-wing assholes use the character as a mouthpiece for their worldview we can and should critique that, but not because it’s ‘OOC’, but because the worldview espoused by those right-wing assholes is harmful and shitty. Batman should be a good parent, not because it’s ‘OOC’ for him to be a bad parent, but because having your paragon of justice be a child abuser is pretty shitty. Etc.

I don’t really have anywhere specific to go with this, I just think it’s a little strange when people try to view Batman as a character with a clear-cut characterization, rather than a concept that many people have approached in different ways over the years. Can that concept be mishandled? Sure. But it’s usually mishandled for reasons a bit more substantial than ‘a previous writer wrote it differently’.

#part of me feels like it's a cop-out to say #'batman isn't really a character so much as a concept and he can rarely ever be truly ooc' #'because he's been written by so many different people that practically any interpretation of him has canon back-up' #but at the same time. when you have a decades long history as one of the most well known pop culture icons of our time #i do think you kinda stop being a character and start being more of a concept #this post was inspired by a lot of stuff but the thing on my mind rn is conversations about why batman doesn't kill #and a lot of people being like 'saying batman doesn't kill because he thinks it'd turn him into an unstoppable killing monster is wrong!' #which. isn't true. that's a take many writers have on his character. #you may not like you or think it's stupid or whatever but. it's an interpretation of the no-kill rule with canon backing #and for that matter. even 'batman doesn't kill' is kind of up in the air with many writers taking a more relaxed stance on that #or even outright doing away with it. batman was also written before the concept of him not killing was added to his character #like. with a character with a history as long an profilic as batman. shit's complicated i feel #bruce wayne #my posts #infodumping