#all this because i said she-ra racist

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Something that bothers me in the worldbuilding of She-Ra is how Etheria doesn't feel like an actual planet

Every kingdom is like, miles alway from each other and the heroes can just walk to each one of them super easily. We never had an explanation on why there's some people who look animalistic while other look more human (i always assumed that the humans would be descendants from the first ones since Mara also looks very human, but since they all seemed to have left the planet i think that woudn't be possible)

And we don't really have a sense that the planet have multiple species. Like, we see that there's animalistic characters but there's never an explanation on what their species is, where they come from, etc. We never found out what is Double Trouble species, or Glimmer's, or those random goat characters that apear from time to time, it seems like they just wanted to make those characters...because!

The race thing is never explained in She-Ra, it feels a bit like the old Star Wars movies where they just made the aliens design without thinking on context, just because would make it looks cool. And it did, and we later found out where these guys come from, but we never have this with She-Ra

Also, everyone was kinda racist, they just call Rogelio "lizard guy" and the heroes seem to be disgusted at DT transformation

(And do they even have animals in Etheria? Or is kinda like pokemon where they mentioned an animal but that in the context of the show woudn't exist?)

this bothers me too. the worldbuilding is so lackluster, it hardly feels like a world at all. it feels like a 2d cutout of a planet. we never learn the difference between the cultures of each kingdom, because there seems to be no culture. and that's just realistic because culture and traditions are something that naturally comes about in a place where a bunch of people live.

i know i sound like a broken record but again, the reason atla's world seemed so real was because each nation had its respective culture and traditions, you could plainly see the difference between earth kingdom civilians and water tribe citizens, or fire nation locals and the air nomads. culture was, in fact, an important part of the narrative because it was the source of aang's biggest dilemma.

in spop, etheria is like a hologram or a metaverse kind of thing. apart from the heroes and villains, no one else matters. we never see the perspective of the civilians. and this is especially important because there's a fucking war going on. that doesn't just affect heroes and villains, it affects everyone. people were dying but that isn't really focused on because the crew was more interested in writing teenage conflicts and forced romances.

anyway, i digress. like you said, i wish we had gotten more explanation as to why some etherians were more animalistic and some weren't. they don't seem to be divided into groups and there's no explanation to why they are like that. its just for the ~ a e s t h e t i c ~. i'm not sure if the rogelio and dt thing counts as "racism" since they're different species, not different races. but it does feel a little iffy when put into perspective.

they do have animals in etheria btw, we see horses (swiftwind was literally a normal horse that was turned into a pegasus later) and i'm pretty sure there were aquatic creatures too? there was also melog though he's not a "normal" animal by any means.

#did.. did some of the etherians procreate with animals? is that why some of them have animalistic features?? #on second thought i don't want to know the answer to that #spop #spop critical #spop criticism #spop salt #spop discourse #she ra #she ra spop #anti spop #bad writing

[bigfan-fanfic]

How do you feel about Damien’s Mom Talia Al Ghul? Because some people said she’s a victim of bad racist writing and she’s had a bad portrayal in the animated movies. Is Talia really just victim of bad writing or she’s actually a horrible mother/person? I’m just confused because when I read the comics about Talia and the bad things she did and I just assumed that’s was part of her character because she’s a morally questionable villain of course she’s not a “good civilian person.” I knew DC is a dark adult comic book series and I already expected going in that the villain characters like Talia would committed terrible/horrible actions against the heroes. Like for example when she drugged Bruce and took advantage of him, I was slightly shocked but wasn’t surprised. Cuz to me this was the dark stuff DC was known for doing.

Alrighty, so the answer is a little bit of both!

TW for sexual assault mentions, miscarriage, parental abuse, etc.

There's a TL;DR ("too long, didn't read" summary) under the cut if you don't wanna read my report which is pretty awesome and was fun to write.

So, nobody seems to be able to agree on who Talia is at her core, and that's generally par for the course for a comic book character with multiple writers. She's been around since 1971, so that's already 52 years! And like Greek myth, there's just a lot of different interpretations of the character.

Let's get to the nitty gritty before we talk history. In 2006, writer Grant Morrison established that Talia drugged and raped Bruce, conceiving their son Damian (and also for some reason adding a whole unnecessary "artificial womb" thing? I don't get it either). However, this is based off the fact, which Morrison later admitted, that they misremembered the story they based the Batman and Son arc off of, and later comic arcs (in 2012 and 2014) would retcon the incident as consensual. Put a pin in this.

Talia was originally more of a damsel in distress slash prize for Bruce. Remember, this was the 70s. Her main deal is being the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and thus if Batman marries her, he becomes the heir, which Ra's wants. Despite not wanting to succeed Ra's, Bruce and Talia do share romantic attraction and Ra's considers them married. Then, later on, they do actually marry and she gets pregnant, and then Talia realizes that Bruce will always be in danger having to protect her and their child, so she fakes a miscarriage and they dissolve their marriage. She gives the child to an orphanage, and he is given the name Ibn al Xu'ffasch, or "son of the bat". This is the story arc Morrison adapted later.

Talia was kinda badass in the period before 2006, where she was sort of an anti-villain. She breaks out and starts having her own self after Ra's engages her to Bane whom she despises. She, under the name Talia Head, runs LexCorp as CEO while Lex Luthor is President of the United States, and basically not only tips Superman off about all his plans, but sells LexCorp's shares to Wayne Enterprises leaving Lex functionally penniless. Then she gets brainwashed and basically evil-fied by her half-sister Nyssa Raatko who literally kills her over and over, resurrecting her each time in the Lazarus Pit as an extreme form of torture and reprogramming. She usually does more evil shit after this like joining leagues of supervillains and such. However, her motives of helping Jason Todd recover and train are usually ascribed to her love for Bruce and not wanting Jason to kill him.

Then after 2006 she goes full tilt crazy ex girlfriend and murders people, trained Selina Kyle to resist any and all psychological coercion to reveal Bruce's identity, and PLANTS A DEVICE IN DAMIAN'S SPINE THAT LETS HER CONTROL HIS BODY, and reveals that she's started cloning him because she thinks he's too weak and disowns him.

Then comes the New 52 (the part where DC did a reboot to make everybody darker and "more realistic" that absolutely nobody liked, so it started in 2011 and then DC did another reboot in 2016 to make it better) and Talia is just off the wall completely evil. Genocide, cloning Damian, killing Damian, being resurrected, then fighting an ancient alien cult and claiming she's redeemed, then literally rejoining the League of Assassins moments later.

Incidentally, apparently Grant Morrison wrote Bruce, Talia, and Damian from their own experiences as a child of divorce, which is just... wow. Like... that's just a lot to unpack there, but we're just gonna step past it.

As of the DC Rebirth reboot, Talia is more or less sort of back to being anti-villain, still yes a killer, but also more emotionally open and supportive of her son and back to trying for true redemption.

Let's take, as I usually try to do, the sum total of these experiences and from other sources and try to average it out.

Unfortunately, despite the retconning, a lot of people now still see Talia's rape of Bruce as canon. I did too for the longest time, and honestly, although it makes Talia despicable and completely irredeemable in a very visceral way, it also does allow for interesting dynamics for Bruce and Damian, the batfam and Talia, Bruce in general, and allows there to be discussion for the tragically underconsidered circumstance for female-on-male sexual assault, and by having Batman, who is often used by hypermasculine dudebros for their weird ideals of stoic toxic masculinity be a victim, and be vulnerable, and go through this could be a deeply powerful arc that nobody in comics really wants to touch. It does however, deprive us of an interesting and nuanced Talia and instead catapults her right into mustache-twirling evil.

Ultimately, Talia is the daughter and heir of Ra's al Ghul. She sees no problem murdering people, and in fact she usually shares her father's genocidal ambitions of culling much of the human race to help preserve the planet. Ra's boils down to an ecoterrorist and genocidal maniac, and Talia his henchman, though when she does strike out on her own, I can't quite get a handle on her motivations. She does tout a desire for "equality and peace" but there's really no standard she gives for what this means, so I can't really see if she's just crazy or if she has good intentions.

I think, even at her best, Talia is a perfectionist and is very strict, intent on Damian being who she wants him to be. I think she has very little empathy or compassion for others, although parts of her, at her best, regret this and she tries to grow. At her worst, she is irredeemably evil, and at her best she is... morally shady to the point of never really being able to be thought of as a good guy.

I can't speak to whether or not racism plays a part in her portrayal either as mustache twirling villain or whatever. I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing because I don't know if Talia was ever intended to not be a horrible person or morally ambiguous, apart from the early days when she was mainly a figure to be pursued by Batman. When it comes down to it, adding sexual assault to her list of crimes is not going to change much because she's a mass murderer, an ecoterrorist, an abusive mother any way you slice it because she's training her child as an assassin, and generally just not great. A fascinating character, yes, but a terrible person.

TL;DR: Talia al Ghul is a terrible person in general, but the Big Incident you refer to has been retconned and is based off a poorly-remembered story. However, considering she's a mass murderer, assassin, eco-terrorist, and also let's face it classist villain, she's still not great even if you remove that from her rap sheet. She's done some cool stuff like putting Lex Luthor in his place and that one Elseworlds story where she left Bruce and gave her son to an orphanage to protect him, but otherwise, once she was made her own character and not just a love-interest-of-the-week, Talia has been morally ambiguous at best and irredeemable at worst. I can't say if it's racist or not because I don't know the motivations in her writing, but I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing to make her unsympathetically evil.

#talia al ghul #reports outside the fic #comic history #please read I actually did research on this

[spopsalt]

https://www.tumblr.com/zhanael/737323861598748672

This person missed the point of the criticisms SPOP has been receiving completely. I haven’t seen one person complain that the world was saved with the power of friendship bc it WASN’T. It was saved by a poorly written rushed abusive romance. In fact, the critics actually wanted to see Adora’s friendships save the day instead of her awful romance with Catra since the show is called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, despite the princesses barely getting a role. And if there HAD to be a romance, it could’ve been with Glimmer, which would’ve made more narrative sense and sent a better message to kids.

Next, I’m not sure why OP described SPOP as a show with a “pastel color palette about friendship and love and unity” as if these things detract from the bad writing, plus these themes weren’t even handled well. I have no issue with Catra being redeemed and I liked her in seasons 3 and 4. That’s not why the show is being accused of abuse apologism and this isn’t comparable to when Sugar was accused of being a nazi apologist over the SU finale. SPOP was rushed as well (I’m not sure if it got canceled like SU) but Catra’s redemption either should’ve started sooner or the romance should’ve been ditched. SU at least had a much better writing, representation, and messages for kids. It’s funny since imo SU and SPOP are not two sides of the same coin as OP claims. If OP wants shows that are ACTUALLY comparable to SU with “pastel colors, nuanced yet positive and relatable messages about love, fun for kids,” then they should watch MLP and Amphibia instead. Also I haven’t seen one SPOP critic who’s “appalled by anything that is remotely challenging to toxic masculinity” so that’s a load of BS. As for the remaining claims, those may pertain to the SU critics for all I know, but I have yet to see any SPOP critics express such sentiments or behave in such a way. The “hate blogs” for SPOP are really just critical blogs like yours that make valid points rather than “a shit ton of bad faith misinterpretations” and aren’t “tearing [the show] to shreds,” plus the only harassment I’ve seen towards teens over a kid’s show has been from SPOP fans themselves.

This post also included a bunch of nonsense in the tags which I can no longer see since OP recently deactivated their account (in fact the only reason I’m able to share a link to the post is bc someone reblogged it), but they contained more misinterpretations of the criticisms along with slander towards the critics. I’m so sick of SPOP fans continuing to have no critical thinking skills while blindly defending the show and demonizing anyone who dares criticize it. It’s pathetic.

Thanks for the ask! Yeah, the show was saved because of a rushed abusive relationship. The thing is, I wouldn't be half as mad if it wasn't directed towards kids. I don't believe it's intentional, but kids are getting the thought that the way Catra treated Adora is ok because she loved her. Basically the "He bullies you because he likes you!" thing. Instead of actually considering if they have a valid point, they just assume that the critical blogs are just angry homophobic white straight men when a lot of the blogs are queer women like me. Also, yes a pastel color palette makes up for us having to watch a rushed toxic relationship in season 5. It's like spop stans don't realize that their perfect little show can have flaws and anyone who calls them out are homophobic racist. Also from my experience, nobody said the creator romantizes abuse, they are complaining that the show itself does whether it realizes it or not. This show is being marketed to kids and kids will believe that this is ok. That's probably my biggest gripe with the show.

#anti spop #spop criticism #spop crit #anti catra #anti catradora #anti c//a #antic//a #spop salt #spop critical #spop discourse

[just-antithings]

The anti movement became like this with voltron legendary defender, it came from “fans” who wanted the creators to make Keith x Lance canon

i remember when a 13yo was repeatedly harassing bex taylor-klaus on tumblr and when they finally snapped from frustration and cussed the kid out all the antis jumped on them and were like "how dare you be abusive towards a minor!"

They also tried to get them fired. The attempts to fire them were unrelated to them cussing out the kid on tumblr, it was over allegedly breaking an NDA but they were willing to do anything to fuck over staff in the name of klance.

the reason klantis claimed bex was breaking their NDA was over not liking an answer they gave when asked about klance, meanwhile a she-ra storyboard artist who did things actually worth being fired over was being defended because she was a self-admitted klanti (klance anti)

she followed the klanti who wanted to break lauren montgomery's wrists. she also accused lauren & joaquim dos santos of being racist & homophobic for queerbaiting klance and said she-ra was better for having real gay rep.

wouldn't be the last time antis defend someone like that

yep yep

#mod erin #ask #just anti things #voltron mention #abuse mention

[littletealights]

Ra's met Talia's mother at woodstock. She was killed by a someone who was lurking near the lazarus pits (something others not allowed to do) and pushed her into the lazarus pit in panic and the pit's acids melted her or smth. Talia was extremely young back then and saw her mother get killed.

It's not that hard to do a google search before talking about stuff you have no clue about with a sense of entitlement and talking about punching someone for saying something YOU weren't aware of..

Talia and Ras are characters to be handles very delicately or you might enter the racist side of the fandom despite not knowing. I think it's not very safe to make assumptions about these complex characters, because they are evil but people blend them into 2D racist stereotypes. Which isn't good because. well. it's racist.

Contrary to popular belief Ra's al ghul isn't osama bin laden!

He has cried and killed over his PETS. Damian's love for animals was started by the al ghuls who want to save the planet and it's endangered species. They're like poison ivy but for animals idk 😭😭 Ra's literally thinks of Bruce as a son too. The al ghuls relationship with the family is extremely complicated and it's valid to not understand that!! BUT it's not valid to demonize them and feed into assumptions that could be cleared with a GOOGLE SEARCH.

I think it's a bit hypocritical to be so defensive of Damian's skin color but not his culture and heritage, along with demonizing the said heritage. The white savior trope isn't cute sis.

great. i didn’t know about talia’s mother.

in what world is sending your sister to rape a child so she can have his child not fucking creepy.

i did not demonise damian’s culture. i said that it makes sense that ra’s al ghul would clone himself as he is obsessed with having a powerful heir. i said nothing about the rest of the family. at all. point blank period.

me calling ra’s al ghul a creep based on knowledge i have from a comic book i read myself isn’t fucking racist. you infantilising him and saying anyone saying anything bad about a poc is prejudiced? that is racist.

obviously theyre complicated characters. i didn’t say they weren’t. i also never said he was fucking osama bin laden so who’s ass did you pull that from.

yall must be high outta you fuckin minds, good grief.

also fuck you. i’m not white and i never fucking have been. it’s actually something i talk a lot about on here.

the internet troll trope isn’t cute, bitch.

#askellie #im actually done with it this time #damian wayne #dc comics #dc #ra’s al ghul #al ghul family

[numinous-scribe]

hi so this isn't meant to be mean at all! but um, pit madness isn't...a thing. like, at all. the only cases that can be made for it is characters like ra's, who had prolonged exposure to it, but characters that have been dipped just once (jason, cass, damian, etc) aren't mentally affected by the pit in canon at all. at least during post-crisis, jason didn't Have a rule about not hurting kids—that was not his version of bruce's no-kill rule, it wasn't a hard rule of any sorts. he was an asshole. that was his whole character after he came back during post-crisis, until the n52 reinvented him (and the n52 decanonized all he did after he came back. so it didn't change what he did and why he did it, and since we're now in a hellscape where everything is canon, his motivations (is an asshole that chose to take out his daddy issues on a kid) are still the same they were back then, nothing changed.) he also mocked, kidnapped and blew up the school of a teenage csa survivor BECAUSE he was an asshole, so if he had any sort of "rule", it was one he made many exceptions for.

also, ra's had no interest in tim until red robin, he didn't gaf about tim back then past him being another one of bruce's robins. talia didn't influence jason's decisions; she was struggling to keep that guy in line during lost days.

this isn't saying you can't like jason—hell, i love him. but he did all that shit because he wanted to. he chose to do it, and sure he wouldn't have made them if he hadn't died and come back angry and hurt and struggling, but he did. and pit madness or saying talia made him/manipulated him to do it (which i think plays into the racist stereotype surrounding talia, but i digress) feels like absolving him of all wrongdoing for his own actions.

once again, saying all this in good faith, but it gets sort of annoying watching people make it seem lile jason didn't CHOOSE to be an asshole. for a while, he was just an asshole.

Fam. I get you're saying that you came here with good intentions, but all I'm seeing is you jumping in my inbox to "um, actually" me, which is, quite frankly, rude and unappreciated. No one likes to get "um, actually"ed. Especially over personal interpretations of things.

What all this really tells me is that you put on some selective reading glasses and chose to take offense to my tags in particular on a post that *checks notes* was initially about Tim having no obligation to forgive and forget Jason being an asshole to him. Which, fair. Point to that. But then the addition to the post was about *checks notes again* how the writing for Jason's comeback was all over the place, skewed, and completely dissonant with how his character was before. But the add on also offered some nice perspective on why people liked to use pit madness as a plot device (which, frankly, there has been other instances outside of Ra's displaying it. i.e. the first person dunked in the pits literally came out made and killed Ra's wife. It's just DC can never expand on the little bits of lore they drop surrounding this without either completely forgetting it or retconning it.)

But back to the point. Which was that people like the concept that pit madness brings to the table. They like using it as a means of explaining the shitty writing of "canon". Do some people over do it and use it to absolve him of all his sins without consequences? Yeah, and it's not great, but it's whatever. And I never said that I want it to absolve him of being an asshole. I said I liked it being A factor to skew his thoughts. The can also apply to other concepts that I toyed with in my tags.

Can Jason still be an ass just to be an ass? Yeah. He can. But I'm not here to explore canon's desperate fixation on toxic grimdark bullshit. And you can't say in one breath that something is canon, but then in the next say that canon is a hellscape where nothing makes sense. That's contradictory. You get how that's contradictory, right? Canon doesn't even know what's canon, plan and simple, that's why so many people disregard it in the first place!

I could go out and pull up receipts to counter a bunch of other things, but frankly, I don't need to keep justifying how and why I play around with ideas and concepts. So please, next time you feel the need to come into someone's inbox to "correct" them. Don't. You just make an ass of yourself.

#ask

[the-ocean-is-scary]

I guess I never did one of these

And I keep seeing people doing them so I will, too.

This is an introduction post. Yep.

(I run @is-it-weezer-wednesday)

So hey y'all I'm AJ.

Call me whatever stupid nicknames you have.

They/them.

I wasn't going to put my sexuality on here (since I don't find it too important considering what i post here) but since it may come up in other things, I'm a lesbian.

Don't ask for my age, I am not comfortable sharing.

INFP

I do art sometimes

Everyone is welcome here as long as you're not a dick (dick in this situation: terf, homophobe, transphobe, ableist, pedophile, and the like)

Don't throw me into discourse, I will join if I want.

That being said, I have my own interests. If I like a show/book/movie/song artist/band that you don't like, please don't come after me. If I say something wrong regarding those things, I was probably just joking and didn't know what I was saying. Explain it to me.

^^^ Still don't be a dick about it. Being a dick about it will get you blocked.

Fandoms I'm in/Things I like

Warcross*

Legend trilogy/quadology**

The Young Elites

Little Shop of Horrors

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Homestuck***

Nimona (comic & movie)

She-Ra reboot

AJR

mxmtoon

Weezer****

The Orion Experience

IDKHow

Cavetown

girl in red

Tally Hall

Green Day

Splatoon :)

The Amazing Digital Circus

Backrooms (counting it on here because the above has made me even more interested)

Skyhunter

Likes

^ Mostly all of that but this list is more of a generalization

Show choir/choir

Theater

Books

Musicals

Music

Perler beads

Friends

Pickles

Boba

Singing/dancing

Dislikes

TERFs and queerphobes. Sexist/racist people. You know, the usual.

Those Walmart frosted sugar cookies.

Socks

Potatoes

Hobbies

Theater, show choir, choir etc.

Art

Reading!

Coming on here hoping to gain some serotonin today

Kicking my brother (lh)

There are more but that's about it. I'm a pretty chill person to talk to online*****. Few warnings: Homestuck is it's own warning. I'm kind of the band/choir/theater stereotype so please...be patient. Bye y'all.

*- I talk about Warcross too much. TOO MUCH. It's my favorite thing in the world! I will 100% answer any questions you have about it. I practically have both books memorized and every QNA answer drilled into my head. So please. Talk to me about it. And maybe get into it too! I'd love to have more Warcross fans to talk to!

**- I used to be pretty obsessed with Legend. I'm not as obsessed as I used to be, but I still love it!

***- Look. I'm sorry. But the fan art lured me in. I'm not as feral as I am with Warcross, so please don't be too alarmed. You'll find fan art on here and a few reblogs but that's about it. I've been reading this for like a year and a half.

****- I don't even know if this is ironic or not anymore. Genuinely. I have 16 hours worth of Weezer on my playlist. Be forewarned.

*****- IT. DEPENDS. Be forewarned.

#intro post

[tinalbion]

A  R E A L  H E R O | e i g h t

You move to Evergreen for a fresh start, you’ve inherited your grandparents’ place, and then you meet the sweetest guy. But there’s a duality to him, something a bit darker. Then you meet Vigilante, a killer anti-hero who just looks out for the safety of Evergreen, but the dangerous side of him appeals to you more than you care to admit.

》MINORS, DO NOT INTERACT《

Pairing: Vigilante x f!Reader

Rating: Mature; Reader makes a brash decision, mention of murder, blood, the usual when it comes to this group.

Length: 6.2k

p a r t  8  | a m o u r

A/N: No smut in this chapter, only because it’s more story building time, and it’s important! But we may be graced in the next chapter~

You shouldn't have even THOUGHT of doing this in the emotional state you were in, it was wrong and ultimately went back on your conversation of trust, and yet you're the one who would break it first.

You tried to talk yourself out of this the further you walked up to the dirty glass of the abandoned movie store, but there you were as you cupped your hands over your face so you could peer into the setup, barely able to see anything through the random posters plastered all over the place. There had been a series of blurry figures you could make out until you stepped off to the side and found a peeling patch of newspaper that they hadn’t fixed just yet, so you squinted to make out whatever it was you were looking at.

You saw Vij, Peacemaker, and another man in the room, all chatting with one another as they had been packing things up like weapons and such. You were torn inside, wanting to get answers to what they were doing and why Adrian was distancing himself, or you could have relied on him to tell you in his own time. But with him, you never knew if the day you saw him would be your last to see him, you had always worried about his choice of pastime activities, especially last week when he came to you with a broken spirit and a damaged foot, you had an inkling of a hope that maybe he’d take it easy.

It only started to fester deep within you earlier this week, and despite the things you said to Adrian the last time you saw him and bandaged his foot up properly, he still hadn't confided in you much about anything. His texts were scattered and brief, but he still meant the sweet words he sent to you, but he was obviously distracted to the point there was very little interaction. 

You had even tried to visit him during one of his shifts, but he'd apparently called in due to "having the flu", to which you covered for him immediately and then left the restaurant feeling confused and worried. 

At one point in your deep thoughts and overthinking, you asked Adrian why he had to be dropped off by the blonde woman that night, to which he instantly tensed as you sat beside him on his sofa. 

“Come on, it couldn’t have been that bad. The Seabring break down?”

He took a breath and shrugged uneasily. “Harcourt was nice enough to drive me home because I was thrown in jail, so I didn’t have the car.”

You turned to him and stared wide-eyed. “WHAT?”

“Look, it wasn’t THAT big of a deal! I just tried to throw a garbage can through the police station’s window.”

“Adrian, what the fuck, why?” Your voice raised and you didn’t mean for it to seem like you were yelling at him, but you were so shocked that you couldn’t understand what the hell went through his head. 

He grumbled and sighed. “Leota, one of the people I work with, kept saying how bad Peacemaker’s dad is, how shitty Auggie is, and he IS. Racist piece of shit, he’s always making his life miserable. So she said she wished he was out of the picture so Chris could be happy… So I figured I could make him…go away. He was already in jail, so I figured I’d just deal with it there before he got out.”

“Adrian… you didn’t…” 

“No, I didn’t, I fucked up and didn’t do it.”

You sat there and looked at him as he faced the television, the pain was apparent sketched into his features, so you placed your hand on his shoulder and offered him a smile. “I’m proud that you didn’t do it, babe, you wanted to help your friend and I respect that, but those are his demons to face and he needs to deal with them, no matter how much you wanna help.”

“Yeah, I know, but still…”

You chuckled and leaned your head on his shoulder as you sat in silence with him, but soon after, he said he had to go home, despite you offering him to stay the night. Adrian declined and said he had a lot on his mind that he needed to work on, so you nodded and watched from your window as he left. 

Since that night, you worried for him so much that his friendship with Chris wasn’t exactly normal, though it wasn’t your business. He seemed to be incredibly dedicated, which was a valuable trait in a friend, but you hoped that wasn’t being exploited by the others in this group. As always, you worried, and in return, he worried about you.

But how could he involve you and sacrifice your safety with everything going on? Wouldn't that be absolutely selfish of him to do so? The more he thought about everything that was going on with what he was involved in, the more he wanted to tell you and express his worries, his thoughts, all of it.  It ate away at him that he couldn't tell you, and despite his protests to Harcourt, she scolded him AND Adebayo about involving those closest to them, their safety was important despite how much they wanted to keep them close. Leota reluctantly agreed and felt guilty about sending her wife away, but Adrian almost brushed it under the rug and dealt with the growing dread that sat in the pit of his stomach. He sat in silence sometimes and his thoughts drifted to you and how you would be handling his distance, he knew it was wrong of him, but how else could he tell you to stay away from this whole butterfly ordeal without revealing too much? 

But when he saw you burst through the door of the video shop with that look on your face, he knew something was going to happen and it wouldn’t end well, but he froze to the spot when you glared directly at him as he held a large black container. 

"Adrian you absolute asshole," you spat as you flung the door open. Still, you couldn't get another word in until the man known to be Peacemaker stepped forward, his hand gripped onto a black duffle bag as he looked absolutely confused by your presence. 

"Hey, lady, you got the wrong place of establishment," he said in a slightly raised tone. 

"I don't think I do, because he–" you said while pointing at Adrian– "is just the man I need to talk to."

"You know this crazy chick?" Peacemaker turned to Adrian with a distasteful expression. 

"Uh yeah, she's my girlfriend." Adrian looked over at you and gave you a meek smile and a half-hearted wave.

“No she’s not,” he argued, dismissing Adrain completely.

“Yes, I am.”

The room went silent for a moment. Both John and Peacemaker looked at the brunette man and just stared, mouths hanging open in disbelief.

"There's no way this fucking idiot has a girlfriend," Economos said. 

"And one that hot," Peacemaker mentioned. “Oh, I get it, is she a nerd like you? Met her playing one of your fruity little dungeons and dragons games?” He turned to look over at Adrain, who seemed to be overwhelmed by everything going on.

You turned to look at the man with a scowl on your face. "First off, don't call my boyfriend an idiot," you snapped at the large, bearded man. "And second," you whipped your head toward Peacemaker, "watch your mouth, this isn’t your business."

"You're kinda making it our business when you're busting down the door and yelling at the only people in the room," Peacemaker stated. 

You gave a sigh and shook your head, but you walked up to Adrian with your consistent glare, then pulled him off to the side. "Can I talk to you in private?"

“Vij, we don’t have TIME for this, we have a cow to– SHIT to do!” 

"You shouldn't be here, babe, what if the others come back and see someone they’ve never seen before? They could freak out."

"People freaking out is only a problem for you when it's one of these members of the half-assed Justice League, but when I'm the one freaking out, it's not that bad, right?" Before he could speak, you cut him off. "I don't understand you, Adrian, you're distancing yourself from me and it's not like you at all! I don't mind supporting you with whatever is going on, but you're scaring me…" Your words trailed off and felt almost too embarrassed to admit it. “I don’t know what’s happening with you and I wanna know what’s going on.”

Adrian looked at you and stared, he couldn't come up with an excuse for how you'd been treated, but he also wasn't sure what to really say in front of the others in the room. 

"Sounds like trouble in paradise over there, Vij, she ain't keeping you pussy whipped, is she?" 

When your eyes met the man's, he seemed incredibly unbothered by your poor attempt at intimidation, but you couldn't help the intensity of your hatred after hearing this man only speak a handful of times. 

"I wish Adrian would have warned me about how you can't seem to keep your mouth shut, but I guess I found out the hard way. Now can you shut the hell up?"

"Jeez, you really need to ease up," Peacemaker groaned as he shook his head. “Either way we gotta fuckin’ go and soon, guys, this place is gonna be swarmed any minute now.” 

"Can you guys stop talking about me as if I'm not even here?" Adrian said, the tone in his voice conveying his frustration. "Look, I get that I fucked up and shouldn't have pushed you away, but I can't tell you what's going on here thanks to these guys telling me to keep my mouth shut." He offered you a calm expression and then turned to his friend, who he stared at with much more annoyance. “And can you at least try not to be a dick to her, I don’t care if it’s aimed at me, but fuck dude?”

You glared at Peacemaker and took a step closer to Adrian, feeling the distrust of everyone in the room except for your boyfriend, who just seemed to be wrapped up in all this shit without really knowing what he was getting into. 

“He wouldn’t be in this shit if it weren’t for you,” you pointed at Peacemaker, “ever since you came back he was so happy that ‘his friend was back’, and now, he’s running off doing your bullshit for these clowns.”

“Hey!” Economos complained.

“Look, I don’t know you, for all I know you’re the reason he’s here.”

Peacemaker erupted into a fit of laughter. “Fuckin’ dye beard here couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag and you think he can conduct a mission to kill butterflies?”

Your brow furrowed. “Butterflies?”

Adrian’s eyes widened as he stared at Peacemaker. “Chris, shut UP. Don’t involve her.”

“Why?! What is so damn important that I can’t be involved to the point I don’t know if my boyfriend is alive or not?” You were getting way too worked up to think properly, but you had a suspecting feeling that there was more going on here. “This isn’t just a simple hit mission, is it?” You turned to Adrian and your pleading expression spoke volumes. 

He sighed and looked down, but then leaned in and kissed you softly, one you didn’t want him to pull away from. “I promise you I’m gonna tell you everything, but you gotta trust me, okay? I don’t want shit happening to you… Not again."

How could you stay mad at him when all he wanted to do was keep you safe? It was once again falling under the entire identity thing and if they could use something or someone he loved against him, he'd never forgive himself if you were caught in the middle. 

"Things are getting intense and we gotta go, but I promise I'll be back and we can talk about whatever you want, I swear. I just need you to lay low, the group’s head guy doesn’t want anyone on the outside involved just because it’s not safe. I want you to be safe,” his sentence trailed off and he smiled at you.

“Adi, please, I don’t want you doing this, what if–”

“Promise me. Promise me you won’t get involved in this right now and I’ll tell you everything.”

"Vigilante, you can't just–" Economos began, but Adrian cut him off. 

"No, I owe her that much, you weren't there when she was taken! She needs to stay safe, but she's gotta know."

Peacemaker scoffed and began to shove his guns back into their holsters. "Your funeral." 

You spun to face Peacemaker again and stepped up toward him. "What the fuck is your problem, huh? Are you so spineless that you must demean everyone in this room just to feel like the big tough badass? No one gives a shit, Chris," as you drew out his name, they could hear the venom in your voice. When you stormed off toward the door, Adrian called out to you. You stopped at the door and looked back. 

"I promise." He seemed so sincere, and you wondered just how far that promise would come, so you offered him a small smile and left them in the shop.

Economos felt incredibly uneasy as he stared at the pair of friends as he shifted slightly, and decided he would go and check on Judo Master, their captive that knew about and willingly worked with the butterflies. 

"Ahh shit, he's gone, he's gone! Judo Master is gone!"

Adrian peeked in and looked around, obviously confused. "Judo Master was in here?"

*

You walked to your car as cautiously as you always did, slid into the seat, and locked the doors as soon as you leaned back into the seat. Your hands rested on the steering wheel, but all you could do was stare out the windshield, your gaze set dead ahead as you tried to empty your head of all your thoughts. You trusted your boyfriend, you had even before you knew it, but you definitely didn't trust the people he hung around. 

As you thought of his promise, you couldn't get the fact that Peacemaker had been absolutely shitty toward him regardless of the situation, was he like that all the time with Adrian? His presence made your blood boil as you thought of his smug look, looking down on Adrian in that short amount of time. Your attention was stolen by the sudden burst of the door being flung open with force, the three of them ran to the large RV and piled into it, you watched as they disappeared into the vehicle and closed the door, and your body lurched forward slightly as you couldn’t help but release a sob you’d been holding for some time now. 

“Fuck,” you whispered to yourself in annoyance. 

Whatever the case, you took his words into account and drove out of there as fast and legally as you could, because if the place was going to be surrounded, might as well get the hell out of the vicinity in case you got caught and questioned. 

You figured you should get some lunch for home, get some paperwork done for work, and just keep yourself at home before anything got too bad. 

As you pulled into the driveway, your food in hand as you went to unlock the front door, you couldn't help but feel a deep sinking feeling in your gut. You worried about Adrian all the time, but something about the urgency of today and hearing whatever the hell about the butterflies, you couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread. 

You sat cross-legged on the sofa and flipped through channels as you ate your takeout, you stopped on a news channel that had the headline: Captain Locke Press Conference - possible link to Sturphausen and Goff murders. It stated that Christopher Smith, also known as Peacemaker, has the belief that aliens are posing as humans and it's his job to find and kill them. 

"Find and stop the Peacemaker by whatever means necessary." 

Your eyes bulged as you stared in disbelief at the fact there had been a 33-victim massacre at the Glan Tai Bottling Factory, all of which Adrian probably knew about and had possibly gotten his toe injury from all of this. You sat back and almost dropped the container of food as you lost all function of your limbs, you were dumbstruck. 

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK, this isn’t good.” You stood up from your seat and began to pace back and forth, your food was long forgotten as you wondered what you could do before anything had gotten too out of hand, but the real question was should you even get involved when Adrian specifically asked you not to?

You’d been captured and tortured, you had gone down that road and wanted nothing to do with getting caught again, mainly if Vigilante was too preoccupied to save your ass again, you needed to think of a way to help any way you could. The more he associated with Chris, the more danger he was in for getting caught in the crossfire, and if his identity was compromised… You scolded yourself and shook your head, what you were thinking was absolutely insane, you’d barely held a firearm except for the times you practiced with Adrian, but you knew that wouldn’t be enough to save you if things went south.

With a frustrated growl, your fingers slid across your hair as you thought until your head pounded and you couldn’t think straight, so you decided without much hesitation that you’d raid Adrian’s stash of guns and do what you could to make sure he’d live. You owed him that much.

As you drove to his place, you talked to yourself in the car, berating yourself for the choices you were making, you figured that if you went back now he wouldn’t hold it against you. He did his job of keeping things as silent as he could without involving you, despite how he’d gone about it, so he wouldn’t be upset that you wouldn’t be there. But even as you went inside his place, you rifled around his things and grabbed all you could as you strapped his holster to yourself, and you felt as if you could take on an army. You made sure everything was back in its place and properly put away until your eyes swept over the nightstand, where he kept the first photo of you and him that you took when you guys officially started dating. A smile crept across your face and you settled on your plan; you were going to help him no matter what. 

It was a stupid idea to an outsider, sure, you were planning to burst into a facility with no way of knowing who or what you’d come across, but you knew the group Adrian was working with would be there, trained guns for hire, so you’d possibly get lucky and somehow manage to live. 

You walked over to the police scanner, listening in on anything that you could pick up on the whereabouts of the Peacemaker, and with a bit of patience as you turned the dial as slowly as you could, you picked up on an intercepted conversation, the radio static barely allowed you to hear it until you finally set the dial and it was clear as day.

“-the Peacemaker was seen headed north-west down Highway 99 in a Burgundy 2016 Ford Fiesta, two other suspects in the vehicle, possibly Vigilante accompanying them. Calling in a 10-85 to follow to Coverdale Ranch.”

“10-04.”

“Shit,” you huffed and shut off the machine, then you headed out in your car and didn’t look back. You pulled out and began your lengthy drive to Coverdale Ranch, the infinite possibilities of the situation ran wild in your mind, but all you knew is that Adrian could be in heaps of trouble, and you wanted to help him as he had helped you.

Though you had trained with him in the basics of weaponry and self-defense, you couldn’t help but shake the feeling that you’d be more of a burden than an actual help to them, but if you died doing this, you had felt that you wouldn’t regret the choices you made. You’d loved him despite everything, you loved the times you shared, even loved the strange and wild way you both met. Your foot pushed down further onto the pedal, the speed picked up and you would make it, you had to.

*

The field was a bloodbath and you were out of your depth, your hands shaking as you ran past the dead group of people on the ground, blood splattered everywhere as you ran toward the center of the fighting, the gunshots rang louder than you expected and caused you to constantly flinch. You saw the familiar faces of Economos and Harcourt, Economos was on the ground, making his way to the firefight as the blonde woman was shot several times, then she fell to the ground and coughed up a large amount of blood.

Everyone was in a panic and yet they continued to fight until they couldn’t anymore, except you couldn’t see Adrian anywhere, and that’s when you began to panic. Your eyes searched for him frantically as you held your gun as you were taught, but you were pulled out of your search by the scream of a man who bolted right toward you. 

You tensed but eagerly spun to have your barrel meet his face, and with a quick breath and a fast aim, you shot at him and braced for impact. None ever came. Blood spurted from his throat and he collapsed to the ground, his movements slowed until there were none at all, and you couldn’t get over the fact that you killed someone.

‘You knew this would happen if you interfered, there’s no reason to back out now, Adrian needs you. Keep going.’ 

A few more stragglers that made their way to you were easily taken care of, their movements were sporadic and sloppy, so you were able to dodge them by controlling the speed of your feet. You stopped quickly and allowed one of the attackers to swipe at nothing and you watched him tumble over almost comically, then you shot him square between the eyes. You were more confident in your abilities now, but you still wouldn't allow yourself to grow an ego, you needed to focus and be sure to keep yourself alive long enough. 

Your feet took you as fast as they could go toward the group that was gathered in the center of the chaos, Ecomonos had finally reached the halfway point as you booked it past him, and he paid you no mind. Finally, you saw the suit you’d been so well acquainted with, and a wave of relief washed over you. Your feet carried you as quickly as you could manage and you were so close to reaching him, but a shot rang out and you saw that teal and black suit stained red with blood shortly after. 

You couldn't hold back the blood-curdling scream you released as you raised your gun and shot at his attacker, all while Adrian still managed to throw a knife directly at the man at the same time your bullet luckily hit him dead in the eye. 

The skin of your knees was now bruised and slightly bloody as you slid across the soil, rocks be damned, you wouldn't let something happen to him as you crawled to reach him. You could hear that he was still breathing but wasn't as strong as it could be, and when you rolled him over slightly to take a look at him, his suit was all but destroyed, there had been so much blood on your hands when you pulled them away. The sight of it had you almost to the point of hyperventilating because you were already thinking the worst, so you removed his visor and checked him as best as you could without moving him too much. 

Leota had just finished saving Harcourt as she ripped out one of the butterflies from her mouth, and shot it before it could take over her body, then her attention was pulled toward you hovering over Adrian's body. 

"Hey, is he alive?" She asked as she still remained at Emilia's side.

You looked up and stared at her through your teary eyes. "Yes, but barely. I don't know how long he'll be okay… Is she okay?"

Leota stood and looked down at Harcourt then back at you. "For now. We gotta get them out of here, though."

The blonde woman gripped Leota’s arm and shuttered. "Help… Chris," was all Harcourt could muster. 

Leota looked terrified, scared of the fact that they could die at any point and yet they wanted her to leave them there. 

"Go and help, I'll stay here and protect them if I need to." 

The woman looked at you in confusion for a moment. "You're… Adrian's girlfriend, right?" You nodded. "He talks a lot about you, pretty ballsy you bein' here. But you're good people, so here, take this just in case."

She handed you one of her guns and you waved your hand in protest. "I got plenty, you need that, now go and do whatever you need to do."

"Leota!"

Ecomonos had suddenly appeared and rolled a silver Peacemaker helmet toward her, his body now weak as he collapsed onto the soil to rest. You watched them with curiosity as Leota suddenly left and made her way down an eerie-looking entranceway that led underground, leaving you with everyone in an uncomfortable silence.

You hadn't left Adrian's side as you stroked his hair while he slept, all you wanted was to make sure he continued to breathe, so you did what you could with his wounds and put pressure on them as you wrapped them up with whatever you could find. You only left his side long enough to tear off chunks of cloth from the bodies that were scattered around you, you helped out Economos as best as you could without fucking up his leg even further, to which he thanked you. 

"Sorry we sorta ganged up on you back at the video store."

"It's fine," you replied coolly as you made your way back to Adrian's side. "Sorry I yelled at you."

He scoffed and shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose we deserved it. Why are you here though? Shouldn't you be staying as far away from this shit as you possibly can?"

You looked over your boyfriend's face and contemplated for a moment, not quite sure what went through your head while you did all of this. "Honestly, I did it for him. I didn't care what would have happened to me, I just wanted to help him. Even if it killed me." 

John stared at you in what you would assume was awe and possibly even lunacy, but he gave you a small smile in return. "He's lucky to have someone like you. Why you came out here was fucking insane but really brave of you."

You chuckled. "Thanks, man." 

You clung to Adrian and your mind was slightly more at ease, you wanted to believe that he would be okay and that everything would be as it was in a week or two, but you were scared shitless. With any luck, they would finish whatever mission this was and you could all escape the police before they came to collect Peacemaker and company. So long as his breathing continued to remain steady, you would feel okay, you wouldn’t be able to handle it if something went wrong.

A low rumble began steadily beneath your feet, both you and Economos stared at each other, unsure of what the sound was or what you should do, if anything. When the rumble became stronger and more violent, you got to your feet and scooped Adrian in your arms, pulling him from under his arms away from the danger, though you didn't get far. The man was already heavy with the muscle he gained, but with the suit on top of it, it was almost impossible, but you had your burst of adrenaline to thank. Economos crawled further away despite his leg protesting, the shooting pain he felt was unlike anything he'd felt before. When the rumbling slowed and came to a stop, you stood still and gently placed Adrian back down, which caused him to stir.

He grumbled and groaned as his eyes fluttered open, his brown pulled together while his eyesight tried to adjust with no glasses to peer through. But as he looked up, there you were with a smile on your face and worry in your eyes, your face splattered with droplets of blood. 

"Wait, what happened? What are you doing here, babe?" His voice was hoarse and dry.

You knelt back down and placed several kisses on his forehead as you brushed his hair back. "Oh thank fuck, you're okay. Try not to move until we figure out what's going on, okay?"

"How are you here?"

You looked away sheepishly and hummed. "Well, I saw the news, so I went to your place and got some weapons, then overheard on the police scanner that you were spotted coming up this way. I came as fast as I could."

"Shoulda saw her in action, Vij, she was pretty crazy," Economos said matter-of-factly. "She's been by your side since she got here." 

Adrian squinted and looked at you with concern, which wasn't a good look. "You coulda got hurt."

"And you could have died, but I don't care, Adrian. You saved me, I wanted to save you."

He was upset that you didn't listen, all he wanted was for you to be okay and safe, away from all of this nonsense. But overall, he did take Economos's words into consideration; he was pretty lucky to have someone like you.

A sound came from behind you and you all turned to see Peacemaker pulling himself from the wreckage that followed behind him, Leota right behind him. Economos sighed in relief and groaned. 

"You guys are okay, holy shit."

"Get to Harcourt, she's not doing good," you said loudly as you pointed at her, and Chris followed your direction and immediately scooped her into his arms. "Come on, handsome, we gotta get you to the hospital." You stood up and pulled him to his feet gently, the groan that emerged was painful. 

Adrian hobbled one step ahead and almost collapsed again, but you caught him in time. "Come on, I'll be fine, I just need a nap."

"Adrian, no, you're going into the hospital." 

Peacemaker said nothing as he carried the blonde woman who lay unconscious, breathing, but alive. As if it were a cruel joke, several members of the Justice League came to greet them, but the entire group kept moving past them. 

"You're late, you fucking dickheads," Chris complained with a sneer. 

The members looked on in disbelief, but you didn't care, you just needed to get everyone to the hospital, especially before Harcourt didn't have a chance to make it.

*

Vigilante stood there, his hand placing pressure on the gunshot wounds beneath his ribcage, but the way he could barely stand was a cause for worry, yet he didn’t say a word and watched as Harcourt and Economos were carted off to be taken care of. Chris and Leota stood beside you two and it almost felt awkward as you all 

Chris looked over at Vigilante as you continued to hold him up, but he swayed a bit too far and almost toppled over. “Dude, you’re shot. You gotta be admitted.”

Vigilante sighed and shook his head. “I’m fine, seriously. All I need is a good nap.” After a moment of silence, Vigilante fell to the floor with you trying your best to catch him before he did. 

“Can someone help him, please?!” you called out desperately, and your call was answered almost immediately as a group of nurses and doctors swarmed around you both. 

They picked him up and wheeled him into a room with you not far behind, but one of the nurses turned to you and placed a hand in front of you to stop you. 

"I'm sorry, miss, you have to stay out here, okay? Please, we just need to get him into surgery as fast as we can, and as soon as it's finished, we'll call you in."

You wanted to protest, you wanted to be there for him and you wanted to keep that promise, but getting thrown out wouldn't do much good. So you sighed and nodded, then walked back to the waiting room where Peacemaker was sitting. His head was hung low as his elbows rested on his knees, and you had just caught a glimpse of Leota leaving through the front door. 

As much as it pained you to be near him, you sat beside Chris and looked over silently, not wanting to force a conversation. You sighed as you leaned back in the chair and closed your eyes, all you wanted to do was take a breath and not have to worry about anything for at least twenty minutes. Your body relaxed and you felt yourself falling asleep, but Peacemaker looked over at you and cleared his throat.

"Hey uh, I know you didn't have to come to us at the ranch, but thanks for helping," he said gruffly. “Heard you took some guys down.”

Your eyes opened and you turned your head slightly to look at him. "Yeah well, I did it for Adrian, he did it for me." You turned your gaze back toward the help desk and stared at the constant movement until you heard your name called. Your head whipped up and stared at the doctor holding a clipboard as he made eye contact with you, then you made your way to him with a blatant expression of pure worry. 

"Mr. Chase didn't need much done, he just had some sutures, the bullets were removed and everything seems to be going well. He's lost blood from the wounds, but his recovery is miraculous. Did you want to see him?"

"Yes, please." You followed quickly on his heels as he guided you to his room, and of course, he was already awake and moving around in his bed. 

"Mr. Chase, could you please not remove the IV yet?" 

His gaze rested on you and the smile that followed was one you wished to see for the rest of your days. "You're still here!" He said excitedly. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" You turned around and looked over at the doctor. "Can he go home today?"

"Yes, so long as he waits patiently for us to discharge him," he said with emphasis on the last of the sentence. "But I'll come back in a bit once we initiate the paperwork." The doctor left and closed the door behind him, which left you both alone. 

You turned back to him and he was already discarding the IV and the heart monitor, and all you could do was laugh. "Adi, calm down, he said to wait." 

"And I did. I waited until he left the room," he said with a smirk. 

You sucked your teeth and shook your head as you sat down on the edge of the bed beside him, and once you did that, he finally settled down a bit. He looked up at you, his face a tad bit bruised and puffy as he stared at you. When you looked over at him, he couldn't help but smile at you. 

"What?" you asked.

"Nothing, just wish I coulda seen you in action, did those lessons I gave you pay off?" He wiggled his eyebrows and smirked. 

You almost wanted to blush. "Shut up, Adrian. But yeah, gotta say, I was scared as hell, but that adrenaline? Woo boy, really paid off. But I was so fucking scared, Adrian…” You sighed as you reached out for his hand, which he allowed you to take, and you squeezed it gently. “I was so scared you weren’t gonna make it.”

The look of guilt seemed to sink into his features, but you placed your hand on his cheek to have him look at you. “Look, babe, I–”

“Ssh, I don’t care right now, I just wanna enjoy this win, okay? You’re alive and that’s all that matters.” You leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips, slowly being consumed by him until you felt him pushing back, his mouth opened to allow his tongue to caress your bottom lip. You pulled back with a smile. “Adrian, in the hospital room?” You asked, your voice light and playful.

“Sure, why not?”

“Because you just had bullets removed from your body,” you replied with an overwhelmed tone, but you barely fought back against his advances, his hand slid down the front of your shirt, and a small whimper escaped your lips. His devious smile made you want to rethink it, but you had a better idea. “How about,” you began as you pulled his hand down and placed it on your leg, “we get out of here and if you can make it from here to the house, I’ll change my mind.”

His smile only grew. “Deal.”

The television inside the room was on and as soon as Adrian looked up, he patted your arm and pointed. Your eyes followed and you saw Leota at a press conference.

‘A.R.G.U.S. Agent Speaks Out’, the prompt read. “–Which means Christopher Smith never wrote any diary. Both the Peacemaker and the costucrime-fighterhter Vigilante were working in a deep-cover operation for the U.S. government called “Project Butterfly”. This is all part of a black-ops program known as “Task Force X,” where convicted criminals are undertaking dangerous missions for the United States in exchange for time shaved off their sentences.”

You looked back over at Adrian, completely stunned. “Holy shit… that’s… that’s insane.”

Adrian only shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Well, what are you gonna do, a woman in power like that? Does whatever she wants. Glad Leota was on our side.”

“Yeah,” you breathed… “Hey, let’s go home, yeah?”

Adrian smiled and sighed in relief as he was already slipping out of the bed and across the room to grab his things. “I’d like nothing more. But we gotta go my way.”

“Adrian, you’re not–”

“Oh yes, I am.” He gathered all his things and slung them over his shoulder. “You comin’? I’ll catch you, promise.”

You looked over at the large open window and sighed, you shook your head in disbelief. “I guess so, let’s do this.” You walked over toward the window and looked down, the height wasn’t that bad, so you looked up at him and gave him a playful smirk. “You’re lucky I love you, Adrian Chase.” You placed a quick kiss on his lips and didn’t even give him time to process as you jumped from the window and screamed. 

Adrian stood there for a moment in the room and looked back outside as you recovered quickly from the jump, and you stared up at him. “You what?!”

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[raphael-angele]

Why can't writers and editors stop being selfish and just give the fans what they want?

What's their real and reasonable excuse?

The author of Banana Fish wanted to give Ash and Eiji a happy ending but an editor of the comic said to give them a sad ending cuz gay couples don't deserve to have a happy one. (Or so I've been told)

Bendis aged up Jon just because he didn't feel like writing a kid, so he made him go through all that trauma from his grandfather and act as if nothing ever really happened to him and what his grandfather did was just help him. I saw no emotional strain portrayed in his character after that besides in that crossover with Nightwing and the last Super Sons Issue. Furthermore is when his dad died. He acted as if he didn't and stayed happy. And don't you DARE tell me that that's his way of grieving and he's still in denial. I know what denial during grief looks like. Jon acts as if it wasn't a big deal. It's like Simba in Lion King all over again with the "I Just Can't Wait to be King" song.

Grant Morrison villainized Talia and made her a rapist because he is racist. In earlier comics, she and Bruce got married and Damian's conception was consensual. The two of them separated after Talia lied to him and told him that she miscarried. "But she still lied to him about Damian" So? Maybe she wanted to protect him. Maybe she couldn't take the risk of having her father use Damian as leverage on him. Maybe she just thought it would be best.

"But didn't she abuse Damian?" Talia was always a loving mother to Damian. She was part of the training but she never abused. If Ra's wasn't such an ass and was depicted the way I visualize him, maybe I would have forgave him, maybe I could have even idolized him even though he's a genocidal maniac. (I see you sickos who fantasize about being kidnapped by a mafia boss. Don't you fucking dare say a word. I said idolize, not fantasize about becoming their spouse. I'm on AO3, too)

And do not get me STARTED on the writers who villainize Damian. "He's a brat" You don't know how abuse and trauma works. "He's vengeful" You do know that Dick was around 8-10 when he became Robin and the reason he became robin was for revenge for his parents' death, right? "He's reckless" Bruce was taking kids on the streets to fight crime with him when they were 9. "He's a know-it-all" You're insecure about your own skills and talents. "He's disrespectful" Tim hacks into other people's devices and accounts without their permission to dig up any dirt on them just to spite them.

Let's not forget that Damian DIED to save his family and Talia CRIED because of it (even though it's depicted as her fault in the comics).

Why couldn't he stay dead? If he was gonna be revived and this is what he was gonna get in his 2nd life? It's not even worth it.

He could have just stayed dead to spare him from the misery.

When Jason died from the poll the writer posted, someone made a program to vote 'yes' every hour. The writer knew it was biased. They knew it was flawed. But they decided to give the fans what they wanted anyway for the benefit of the doubt.

So let me ask them again, "What's. Your. Fucking. Excuse?"

#dc comics #dc #robin #damian wayne #batfam #batfamily #tim drake #jason todd #dick grayson #red hood #nightwing #red robin #talia al ghul #ras al ghul #damian al ghul #banana fish #ash lynx #bruce wayne #batman #jon kent #superboy #super sons #damijon #jondami

[sepublic]

Okay, imagine Philip Wittebane sitting on the couch eating apple blood ice cream and watching “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”.

I presume this is in reference to my recent meta on Philip, and by extension how he and Catra are dependent upon this one blonde “golden child” who's close to them, and whom they blame for joining a group they're opposed to and thus resolve to hate that person, miss them, AND go after said group even more now. In which case, I can imagine Philip watching She-Ra and being like

That, or he refuses to relate to Catra on the condition of her NOT being human or something. Or maybe Belos still relates because like, he's definitely capable of the cognitive dissonance it takes to relate to this non-human character, and then go out and remain racist to non-humans in his life regardless; Plenty of people do that already!

If we REALLY wanna get meta, one could point out that if Philip is watching She-Ra, that of course means it's a fictional work, which means it's 'canon' in this scenario that it was made by humans, in which case he might have less qualms about engaging with the story. And/or he'd still hate it because it's gay or something. I feel like I'm missing a point here, or all of them even.

#the owl house #philip wittebane #emperor belos #Catra #she ra #ask #reply

[the-hushed-one]

you just keep reblogging stuff from anti taylor blogs and follow them. oh and some of them even support her being ra***.

First of all, you can't see which profiles I follow. Secondly, I only reblog the posts which I think have a valid point. And I'm sorry, I didn't get that ra*** part, do you mean racist? I'm so sorry. And I hope you aren't saying this aggressively. Also, both of them are at fault here. I never said only one of them is right or wrong. I am genuinely happy about Taylor's success and everything just like I used to be, okay? I don't hate her!! If Taylor was so outspoken in the relationship, Joe was extremely silent which is also not at all great!!

I might post more about things in his favour, that is just because how I am. I mean, I know almost everyone is on Taylor's side and not a lot of people are on Joe's side. So naturally, I tend to show my support for him more than I tend to show my support for Taylor. That is all.

Just because I don't constantly post about her awards and stuff, doesn't mean I'm not happy about her success or anything. I am happy her career is thriving and she has talent and hardwork and she deserves every bit of it.

I can't pick up sides here because I love both of them and I DON'T HATE HER. I just feel like sometimes swifties can be impartial, which makes me see the matters with a different perspective sometimes, that is it. Just like I talked in this post I made ages ago In April ig... Here it js

I don't wanna start a fight or whatever. And it takes two to work a relationship. We can't blame just one. Without any evidence, I can't just attack or blame Joe (or Taylor)... We can just talk about what we see.

#send anons #anon <3 #anonymous #anon post

[rwdestuffs]

In most media, the idea between a hero vs. villain where there is a notable wealth and class difference is that it’s often the hero who is from the lower class/income level.

Superman is a farmhand who ended up being a reporter, and his arch rival is Lex Luthor, a rich CEO who has massive xenophobic and darwinist ideals.

Spider-Man is a lower-middle class photographer who struggles to pay rent. His most iconic enemy is Norman Osborn, a CEO of a weapons company that produced a super soldier serum that made him a murderer.

Captain America is, in his own words, “A kid from Brooklyn” and he fights a fascist in charge of an army that has agents everywhere.

Now, when the hero is rich, it’s hard to make a villain for them unless it’s something that’s more of a clash of a greater scope villain or a clash of ideologies.

For example, Batman is a Rich CEO who declared war on crime after crime took his family away, his most iconic foe is the Joker, an insane (sorta) mass murderer who challenges his ideologies on order and his no-kill rule, which Batman has to grapple with as often as he does the Joker. Many of his other foes are merely challenges to his ideology, such as Poison Ivy and Ra’s Al Ghul being challenges to how industrialization can harm the planet, and that it makes it a clash of making industry jobs and manufacturing goods for people vs. saving the planet so that people can survive.

Iron Man is also a Rich CEO whose enemy is often a bunch of other more vile CEOs who manufacture weapons and don’t care whose hands they fall into. Sometimes he fights global terrorists or other people looking to turn his inventions against innocent people. Iron Man often has to grapple with the fact that he’s saving the world from the weapons he himself made, making it less of a fight against an enemy, and more a fight against his past self. Tony is atoning for his sins as a weapons manufacturer.

Now take Blake. Blake falls into the “Rich Hero” category. She may not be a CEO, but she still ultimately came from a rich family (no matter how much her backstory and dialogue in the first three volumes hinted otherwise). Another thing that the “Rich Hero” will often do is clash with a “Rich Villain” to contrast how each uses their money and/or position in the overall fight. Very rarely does a “Rich Hero” clash with a “Poor Villain.” And if the villain is poor, more often than not does the “Rich Hero” then use the points made by the villain to try and gain a new outlook on life.

Was Adam an extremist? Possibly. His final dialogue in Volume 2 indicated that he didn’t care about Faunus casualties during the Breach, and his attitude in the Black Trailer implied that he didn’t really care about civilians at all. A person who is reckless and is willing to hurt bystanders and their own people to get what they want is a legitimately good idea to roll with… That the writers didn’t do. Instead the writers decided that the “right” thing to do was to uphold the status quo and try to obtain equal rights through nonviolent, though explicitly ineffective protests.

And at the end, they got rid of the only member of the WF that was making sense. Blake said “Never fight back because it makes us bad” while Adam was saying “We should always fight because we won’t get anywhere otherwise.”

Sienna was saying “Defend yourselves, your fellow person, and your communities, but don’t actively seek confrontation.” Sienna was basically saying that doing things in such a way that would eventually point out that the fight shouldn’t be Faunus vs. Human, but Rich vs. Poor. Given recent political events, I think it’s safe to say that if a Faunus could have been someone exploiting other Faunus for the sake of profit, that they would easily and rapidly side with the racists.

The racism subplot was more than what the writers could handle, and that can be said until the heat death of the universe, but that isn’t to say that there was something there that could have been said.

In fact, the overall story could have been one of priorities. Do our heroes focus on the looming threat of Salem who is trying to destroy the world in one big cosmic attempt at suicide, or do they try to help the disenfranchised so that there’s a world they’re willing to go back to if they’re able to save it?

The story could have been one where Adam is a rich villain willing to use his position of wealth to get people to throw away their lives for the sake of revenge while Blake could have been one who doesn’t want to sacrifice people.

Blake could have easily been the “Poor Hero” wanting peaceful resolution in the name of her (honestly should have been deceased) parents, while Adam could have been the “Rich Villain” who just wanted to expand his wealth by merely pretending to be on the side of the Faunus.

There was no need for the racism subplot, but if the writers wanted to do something, they should have gotten information from somewhere OTHER than some white karen’s blog about how minorities “should” behave.

The main point of this is that the writers ultimately fucked up by making Blake the princess of Menagerie. This could have easily been a clash of ideals from two people on the same class. Adam, the one who disregards civilians, and Blake, the one who wants to save civilians. Both from the same lifestyle, but with vastly different outlooks. And making Adam be branded is also a massive mistake because there shouldn’t have been any kind of scars like that unless there was some on Blake as well. Put them both through the same ordeals, but come out with different perspectives.

There’s a quote from Justice League Crisis on two Earths that I want to put here that should have summed up the difference between Blake and Adam:

“There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us… You blinked.”

The story could have easily been Adam blinking in the face of oppression, turning into what he sought out to destroy; while Blake looked at it unflinchingly, turning into someone who wanted peace, no matter how hard it was to attain. Two people whose stories aren’t that different, ultimately coming to vastly different conclusions as to what their ideologies are.

Would it had been perfect?- Far from it. This sort of story is always hard, no matter who is writing it.

But would it had been decent, or dare I say… Good?- Probably.

#rwde #blake crit #adam crit #writers crit #Faunus Racism

[bi-sapphics]

Hey i read your DNI and i have two questions:

1. Whats bad about she-ra o would like to learn

2. What do you mean that people wo think _4_ is like offensive to trans people? (Im a trans guy dating another trans guy and im all for people dating people who get them, its awesome, what could be bad about it?)

- in addition to the entire show having many racist/antiblack undertones (tiktok link lol), the crew itself is problematic; ND (showrunner) has drawn offensive Black stereotypes of bow, a cishet man has said dyke, and someone else made jokes about double trouble being a pedophile. after i post this ask i'll edit a twitter screenshot from when it happened. the entire series is a really bad case of "quantity over quality." their poc rep is diverse and many but very shallow and tossed-aside. it doesn't actually mean anything just because it's there. also apparently both hordak & horde prime’s VAs are Black. so is shadow weaver’s. pretty much everyone else, though...? yeah.

- your guess is as good as mine. there is no issue with it. but some transmeds love to claim that _4_ is oppressive and/or appropriating of t4t somehow, like someone else's relationship choices directly affects theirs. idk, i have too much common sense to know how to explain that to ya.

#chase answers #spop tag #spop critical #she-ra critical #she ra critical #shera critical #racism #antiblackness #t4t discourse #t4t #bi4bi #les4les #aut4aut #blk4blk #magicalpaz

[lesbianmarrow]

I hate hate hate the she ra fandom so much for how they treated/reacted to glimmer… like it was truly awful. I saw a lot of similarities between her and the treatment of Finn by fans, honestly

Like adora, like Rey, is white. Catra is kind of nebulous because she is visibly brown, but she’s also an anthropomorphic animal voiced by a white woman with no confirmed or implied racial identity… (like in contrast to a character like clawdeen wolf from monster high… a wolf girl who’s clearly meant to be read as black). Catra was read by many to be a woman of color, but read by as many (if not more) as white or simply “raceless” (by white people who see whiteness as default). Regardless, I don’t think it was women of color who saw themselves in Catra who were the problem. Catra was also a much better character than kylo, particularly as a sympathetic and reformed villain, but still.

Finn/Glimmer we’re both the secondary protagonists of their story, were both poc, were both besties to their main protagonist, who happened to be white, and were both in stories that seemed to have racism problems (the whole… she ra from before adora wasn’t white but pretty much became so as she ra was sooo fucked up). And both of them were so unjustly hated by white fans who would often try to minimize harm done to them by the antagonist(s) if they didn’t go out of their way to try to frame them as the antagonist in what they really saw as meta-analysis of the text. The justification ALWAYS boiled down to how they annoyed said white fans. Glimmer was written as a well rounded character who went through changes and had flaws and nuances which was awful to people watching the show who couldn’t accept that in characters of color. Finn was a black man (and also perhaps the best written character of the sequel trilogy) who had the audacity to be close to a white woman emotionally. Both of these were Crimes white fans felt the need to punish them for (or expand into full blown villainy) it was genuinely sickening to watch. It’s worse too since I feel like the storytellers gave into the pressure to sideline them. Like for Finn he clearly had a diminished role already in tlj so who knows if things could have been different but I kind of feel like glimmers story just. Didn’t get resolution there were plot threads for her that didn’t get tied

Not that the other comparisons you made weren’t valid and this does seem to be a particular issue for Asian girls/women/characters but my two sense bc your post threw me back to a darker time

yeahhhh like i love she-ra but i barely interacted with the fandom at all bc it had a lot of issues with racism especially with how it treated glimmer, like ppl were racist about catra as well but like the general fandom attitude that glimmer was annoying and detracted from the story was just so awful. i thought the show itself did a really great job of making glimmer a 3 dimensional character and giving her an excellent character arc over the course of the show. i don't really remember any unresolved plot threads with her? though maybe there were and i just forgot. but like overall i was very satisfied with her portrayal in the show, but the FANDOM was just.....eugh.

and the racism with finn.....oh it just makes me so boiling mad. tfa was not perfect in its portrayal of him but there was so much POTENTIAL and john boyega really made him such an excellent compelling character, truly the heart of the film, and the racist side of the fandom just could not stand it. like the thing about reylo and its popularity post-tfa is that it really was born out of a refusal to consider finn as a love interest for rey, even though their relationship is one of the most important and positive relationships in the whole film. the fandom would rather bend over backwards to find a way to make the creepy antagonistic tension between kylo and rey romantic than accept that rey and finn could be in love. and the way tlj validated those racist fans by sidelining finn and pushing the rey/kylo relationship was just awful. and that's not even getting into what tlj and fandom did with rose tico.

and then ppl will like minimize these issues by being like "well it's just fandom/shipping drama" which completely erases that it's an issue of RACISM. and aaaaaaaaaaahhh sorry for ranting there it just makes me so MAD.

#anon

[cangrellesteponme]

What disappointed you about She-Ra?

well. for context, i got into she-ra during the release of its last season. so i bingewatched it all, as one does. the show's not bad - it's disappointing in many ways, and the writing is not exactly stellar, but it gets the job done, has a few nice twists, and okay-ish world building. plus, it's pretty.

HOWEVER. when multiple people have the fucking audacity to recommend it for "diversity" when it very much fails to deliver... that gets on my nerves.

(i'm going to complain about racism and white bs in relation queerness. and i'm not being articulate or moderate about it.)

this isn't about the queer rep. i'm perfectly fine with it and i have zero issues with it in she-ra. i'm pissed because i am black and autistic and allistic white queers dared recommend it to me, and many others like me, saying that i was included in that show's rep. that entrapta's characterisation and treatment weren't vile and dehumanising. that the conditionally positive representation of people of colour was good, diverse, well-researched and beautifully executed. i'm very sorry (i'm not.) but if your idea of positive, ground-breaking representation that will help black people feel more seen and loved is only showing black people presenting in ways we're taught to adopt to be seen as non-threatening... that's shit rep. but i can deal with that. the worst part is, of course, catra and adora, and the inevitable stereotypes and objectification of women of colour in queer circles that gets excused or overlooked because "we're not like dirty white men"... the way this was done in canon and the way the fandom received it just has that vibe of white sapphics who are way too into rev girl utena and way too into woc. so that gave me very big, very bad feelings. but that's just how queer fandoms are. most people are white. that gets uncomfortable at times. it happens. it's overall still bearable and i can live with it.

but unfortunately, it was not just a vibe!! these hoes are fr racist actually. i'm not going to go tell the whole thing because i don't have that kind of energy but there was a whole racist joke moment with the she-ra crew... which was not handled well. like, handled poorly enough for me to know with absolute certitude that every single person in that room is not good to black people. which. i. i was not surprised but y'all. why do all of your fave queer creators have so much racial prejudice in their bigoted little bones???

anyway that's pretty much it lmao she-ra's not as good as y'all said and it's worse than i expected in many ways. i still think it's an okay show lmao

#not tagging much because this is very negative ofc #ota's ask answers

[chronicsyd]

Lets Have A Chat She-ra Fandom

alright so I haven’t checked up on the She-ra fandom on tumblr in a bit but my discrepancy has mostly to do with the fandom over on tiktok (because yall are just HORRID over there) but I don't have the time to post a 3 minute video with several takes trying to figure out my wording so you're gonna hear it here. 

I’m getting BEYOND tired of the back and fourth of “I like it I hate it” narrative from the fandom. one minute you Love Double Trouble and like that they’re our nonbinary rep the next minute you Hate them and the fact that they have shape shifting powers. one minute you Love Entrapta and are excited that she’s autistic the next minute you Hate it and hate anyone that likes her as autistic rep. one minute you Love Catra and her complex story of being a victim of child abuse and how that affected her relationship with others the next minute you Hate her and claim she’s the most “evil vile toxic person in the show” 

And no its not like I'm seeing different people with different opinions on my fyp or anything its the Same People CONSTANTLY going back and forth of “I like this- wait no I don’t anymore” and the MOST chronically online take I've seen as of late about the show is “its the most racist cartoon in most recent years” Now I KNOW the show/ND Stevenson aren’t great when it comes to POC representation. I KNOW this but claiming THAT when I could list shows that are still airing that are Blatantly more racist is just Completely ridiculous.  

It’s like you guys don’t even know what you want anymore. And the crazy thing is I’ve seen this happen with EVERY single show that has since had lgbt representation. I saw it happen with Adventure Time, I saw it happen with Steven Universe, I saw it happen with Legend of Korra, and will most likely see it yet again with things like The Owl House (in fact I'm ALREADY seeing it with people getting mad at Amity for being upset that Luz had Blatantly Lied to her. Twice. even AFTER Amity apologized after Luz explained to her what was going on. and some people with Raine and them being our nonbinary rep. like SHUT UP. OH MY GOD SHUT UP) 

Next problem is that you people probably wouldn’t be able to tell what an ACTUAL Abusive relationship was if it Smacked you upside the head. am I gonna pretend that Catradora is perfect? no. but comparing it to LUMITY of all things is utterly ridiculous. the issue on that lies within the fact that Catra and Adora and Luz and Amity are VERY different people with different upbringings, issues, Whatever. (and that is Another problem I have with people Constantly comparing wlw ships. like knock that shit off) 

And a whole other issue of people ACUTALLY saying “Adora and Catra share character dynamics to Jinx and Vi so therefore Catradora’s relationship is actually sister like and its incest” like do you HEAR yourselves sometimes?! Holy Hell you DO realize that character dynamics and types or relationships are TWO Separate Things correct? 

And I could make a whole OTHER post about people talking about “Glimmradora being the “healthy option” out of the ships” (yall IGNORED S4 with That trash take) but like I said this is getting incredibly long and I think I've said what I needed to.   

#shera #shera fandom #lets have a conversation #yall have some trash takes #i like it i hate it #SheRa and the Princesses of Power #im getting so tired of it #honestly #relationships aren't black and white #they never have been #and why do you hate our rep #hot take