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threewaysdivided · 2 years

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As someone who just recently rewatched some of young justice through clips on YouTube for nostalgia, perused a little around the tags and found the absolute goldmine of writing analysis in your blog I just wanted to say thank you! Your knowledge and your care for these characters really shines through and reflect some truths that I feel are more appropriate than ever: no one individual should be pedestaled for the success of a narrative, especially when he seems to misunderstand his own themes. It's very refreshing to see criticism so pointed and razor sharp, especially for a series I wish was better than it is. Your essays certainly gave me a lot to think about in my own writing!

Thank you! 💜 That’s really lovely of you to say.

It always makes me happy when someone stops by to tell me that they enjoyed/ got something out of my analytical posts. Part of why I write things like the YJ Narrative Breakdown Essays is to get the thoughts out of my head, but a lot of it is that I want to share them with other fans who might feel similarly and want to talk. (I’m especially proud of the YJ: Invasion Case Study - it doesn’t get a lot of love because it’s so long but I’m super happy with how it came out as a capstone to the set.) It’s really gratifying to hear that someone found them useful or that it helped articulate a feeling they were having or gave them some new concept/ framework to use when thinking about other stories.

If you want more Young Justice stuff, I’ve done some Season 1 metas on The Light, A Different Take on Martian Racism and Dick and Wally’s Friendship. I also made a short list of other stories that I think capture similar vibes to Season 1 in aspects of their theming/ genre/ character-writing/ structure/ tone etc. which might help any lingering cravings.

I also have a general writing tag if you’re looking for writing discussions, as well as this resource primer for analytical readings.

pssst! If you want to see me try to put some of these ideas into practice, I’m also writing a fic. It’s a YJ crossover (canon-divergent post S1) and Arc II which started this year at Chapter 18 is intended to emulate some of the things I really liked about S1, including an overarching mystery and missions.

When it comes to pedestalling individuals, I completely agree. I think Auteur Theory and Great Man Theory are mostly fallacious - not only in art but in general. A lot of successes are collaborative (“self-made entrepreneurs” who were actually financially supported by family or succeeded through connections etc.) and, while the lone-visionary idea makes for a simple and compelling story,it can also cause IRL problems in how it disproportionately elevates certain voices, devalues less visible work and creates unrealistic expectations. It’s good to have a healthy scepticism about those narratives, especially when they centre on people who already had privilege greasing their wheels.

I also think we often underestimate just how many people are involved in commercial art production. Even Books (one of the closest mediums to sole-creator) often involve input from editors and possibly a publication house - as well as potential ghost-writers, co-writers etc. Television teams can have dozens of staff across multiple production areas, and for big-budget films and AAA Games that number can balloon into the hundreds.

The role of developer/producer can be a real mixed bag in that space. Some are close to the visionary/ auteur type - very involved with their teams and in steering the creative process - but others can be coattail-riders or even active liabilities that their teams have to work around. (The Danny Phantom fandom has some real showrunner war-stories).

Still, it’s easy to see how we could go from talking about a team lead/ spokesperson as convenient shorthand for the idea of The Author™, to accidentally treating that person like they are the only significant member and attributing all the credit to them personally.

Whether by accident or design, Greg Weisman definitely presents as the visionary type on the surface (something that the fandom and the wiki creators have unintentionally and well-meaningly contributed to). His ask blog’s visual style certainly makes him look like The Gargoyles Guy™, and the Young Justice wiki editors put a lot of emphasis on him, often directly inserting information from there and his social media straight into main page content as “unconfirmed canon”. That ask blog also creates a very parasocial environment; I’ve seen fans write posts like they’re talking to/ about him as a friend, and directly attribute specific lines or episodes directly to him. To look at the wiki, his blog or hear the fandom talk he is the mind behind.

However, once you look closer, he has much fewer direct creative credits than you would expect for that reputation.

And, as it turns out, Young Justice is one of 3 separate series to see substantial drops in story quality after Weisman assumed control as primary writer, with common complaints including weak/inconsistent character-writing (even for characters he supposedly helped create), poor story structure and a seemingly shallow understanding of those stories as a whole.

Now, if it was just a case of Weisman just being a passionate doofus - someone sincerely having fun exploring ideas that interest him but who shouldn’t be left creatively unsupervised because he can’t hack it narratively - that would be frustrating but ultimately fine. It happens. Unfortunately though, there has been… quite a bit else that has pushed me more towards parasocial enemies territory.

As I’ve mentioned before, all three series contain instances of Weisman disempowering strong female characters; rewriting their narratives to centre on men and/or a sudden desire to conform to traditional gender roles. Plus other sexism that resonates uncomfortably closely with pick-up-artist/ incel rhetoric. His work on both Magic: the Gathering and YJ: Outsiders was also criticised for casually racist and overtly queerphobic writing - especially in his treatment of feminine bisexuals. A lot of the most egregious instances can be found in the book - the medium where Weisman had the most direct creative input. Weisman also doesn’t seem to understand the difference between organic character-conflict, manufactured “negative drama” and abuse - something that combines really badly with his seeming unawareness of the invasive implications of telepathy; which results in several telepaths being written as borderline predators/rapists, only for Weisman's narratives to either make no comment or take their side.

I also find his conduct very disingenuous. I have no problem with ask blogs but the fact that over 80% of Young Justice’s critical narrative content can only be found there, and the implied attitude that fans who are surprised by the sudden appearance of information that was never previously set up in-story are at fault for not seeking it out strikes me as creatively dishonest. I’m also not best pleased with his responses to the criticism over his insensitive writing (discussed above). One instance that’s really emblematic to me is Weisman getting kudos for posting a snarky twitter-clapback to a bigot asking him to remove the diversity from Young Justice, despite himself having actively attempted to erase the sexuality of one of Magic: the Gathering’s fan-favourite queer characters (a scandal that made it onto his Wikipedia page). Respect is something that really needs to be Shown not Told, and Weisman’s work frequently shows the complete opposite.

And look, I don’t know this guy; I can’t claim to understand what Weisman’s deal is or what’s going on in his head. Maybe he’s always been like this and it just passed under the radar until recently because previous co-creators were skilled enough to pull him up with them. Maybe he used to be better but let the success of other series he’s been involved in, and the showers of personal praise from his ask blog, go to his head. Or it could be something else entirely. I think the only answer we’re going to get is that we’re not going to get an answer.

Which is super disappointing and frustrating. Like I said in this post, we come to stories in good faith; we want to put our trust in the promises made by the narrative, we want to be able to take the creators at face value, and we want to see the love and respect we have for their story and characters reflected in the effort they put into telling it. Fandom in part reflects the passion creators have for their work, and when those creators start treating that work carelessly, cynically, or taking their audience for granted, the fandom can start to wane. (Danny Phantom being one of the only communities I’ve seen thrive after completely severing ties with their producer.)

Circling back to the pedestal/auteur thing, I think that mindset makes it much easier to take this kind of thing personally when it happens. It starts feeling like a single person chose to make all those promises and show that potential to you, only to intentionally betray them; rather than the Swiss-cheese model of compounding changes, failures, mistakes and/or poor choices from multiple people that more likely happened.

In these situations it helps to remember that we are the ultimate arbiter of our personal relationship to a story. We don’t even have to be part of fandom; our fan experience can be just between us and the part of the work we found compelling, or us and a small group of buddies who feel similarly. There’s no rule requiring us to perform fannishness or conform to the mainstream fandom consensus. A good book/ game/ movie/ season/ comic can stand on its own, even with a few unresolved threads - we don’t have to personally accept subpar sequels, poor-quality prequels, rubbish retcons, superfluous side-content or extraneous add-ons just because they happen to exist.

a good plot was one which made good scenes. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing. -Raymond Chandler

There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much. - François de La Rochefoucauld

And, for stories that are created by multi-person teams, it can really help to change how we talk about them; to step away from that auteur mindset and start giving credit where it’s actually due.

So, in service to that, here is a breakdown of main episode credits for Young Justice Season 1:

Putting this together actually made me realise that I’d had too narrow of a focus; I’d previously speculated about changes to the writing staff but I completely overlooked the impact of episode directors. Which is nuts because directors can potentially have major influence over the structure and presentation of the finished narrative.

A few things strike me. First is that Weisman doesn’t have a lot of direct writing credits; he has the most (albeit only by 1 episode) but it barely amounts to 25% of the season, and you can see that the specific episodes he scripted aren’t ones that put a lot of character focus on the main cast or paying off the emotional narrative. (Which isn’t to claim that he wasn’t doing other developmental/ production work behind the scenes, but it does make sense; characterisation and narrative resolution are not things Weisman is good at).

The two names that really started to stand out were Jay Oliva and Michael Chang; each individually credited as director on over a third of episodes, and covering more than 75% of the whole season between them. That’s not to say that they alone were the secret sauce that made S1 so good (that would just be applying Auteur Theory to a new target and, while their IMDB resumes are impressive, it’s likely that other, less-visible team members were also involved) but having that level of direct input across so much of the season would have given them opportunities to maintain consistency and provide structure/ guidance.

And notably, neither Oliva nor Chang have any major credits post Season 1. For whatever reason, the directors who handled over 75% of the episodes never returned for future entries. (Compare most of the Season 1 writers, who do make repeat appearances - although no writer other than Weisman or Vietti gets more than a single episode per season of the revival.) Which is a pretty substantial gap to leave behind. From that perspective it’s not surprising that the show saw big changes going forward; to some extent it really wasn’t the same creative team driving things.

At this point we might be tempted to speculate that, if Oliva, Chang and the rest had stayed on (or come back for the revival), then Young Justice would have stayed good or at least been better than how it turned out. But the truth is, we can’t know. It’s possible that Season 1 was too much a product of that specific team, time, production environment and media landscape to ever last. Maybe it was always a doomed venture; the lack of proper planning, Weisman’s creative weaknesses and aversion to endings, Vietti’s relative inexperience with original storytelling, Cartoon Network’s infamously awful treatment of “less marketable” PG-rated series, and executive mandates from DC Comics as they pivoted to push the New 52 and got increasingly spooked by the astronomic rise of the early MCU inevitably destined to force changes which undercut the narrative. The only answer we’re going to get is that we’re not going to get an answer.

But, you know what?

Despite everything, as frustrating and disheartening as things may have turned out… Young Justice Season One is STILL really good. It has a distinct creative verve with its combination of espionage-meets-superheroics, grounded-but-still-positive tone, character-focus and interwoven plot threads that pay off as a remarkably self-contained fair mystery. There is a reason why Season 1 is so enduring; why people still make art, and write fic and reference those characters even now.

So, to that original team; to Michael Chang, Jay Oliva and all the other creative staff - be they writers, directors, story-boarders, animators, colourists, composers, sound designers - who are so rarely mentioned when we gush about how clever and good Season 1 was: thank you for what you gave us.

Because that first season, when Young Justice was just trying to be itself?

It really was lighting in a bottle.

Hats off to them for that.

#Young Justice #Greg Weisman #Greg Weisman Critical #Michael Chang #Jay Oliva #Anonymous #3WD Answers #Scattered Thoughts #YJ Essays Collection #I’m really really flattered to hear that you like my approach to criticism #the rule I try to go by is that (even when I’m being uncharitable or unkind) I should still try to be fair #(believe me there is a LOT in that book that could easily be used to make Weisman look very terrible)#(including some Humbert-Humbert-adjacent nonsense)#(but doing that would be intentionally misrepresenting him and I don’t believe in that)#Weisman’s writing strikes me as that of a deeply incurious person who aestheticizes intelligence and progressivism #someone who wants to see themselves as those things (because it makes him feel good) but who doesn’t do the work to embody those values #which is how you get things like token 'girlboss’ moments for female characters who are still written in fundamentally chauvinistic ways; o #empty dialogue about ‘pronouns’ or ‘identity’ from characters who are still written in fundamentally prejudiced ways; or #lines that sound superficially profound/philosophical but turn out to be contradictory/meaningless/nonsensical when examined.#it’s definitely the mistake of thinking ‘I used the language of [thing] therefore I am [thing]’#Not 'I am [thing] because I try to act in ways that show respect to [thing]'#It's telling that Weisman wants to release tweets positioning himself as better than the bigots #and yet he has a million excuses for why THE SAME bigotry in HIS OWN writing is 'not his fault'/ 'not a big deal'/ 'a misunderstanding'#he looks down on others for not meeting a standard while effortlessly carving out exceptions for his own substandard behaviour #it's all very hypocritical (and in ways that are consistent with other patterns of right-wing conservatism throughout his work)#In short: a deeply tiresome and condescending fellow #I think a much healthier approach would be to talk about the people who made YJS1 good than dwell on the guy who bollocksed it all up #So I propose that we henceforth refer to Weisman as ‘That guy from War of the Spark: Forsaken’ NOT ‘the YJ/Gargoyles Guy’#and talk about the season 1 production TEAM instead #Weisman's writing credits could be covered if every other writer picked up just 1 episode. Meanwhile Oliva/Chang would need 20 substitutes

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ivysangel · 4 months

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Snuggle wuggle bear and goofy little pumpkin is so real of you, I’m assuming we’re talking ab yj Wally? (Though an argument for jl/jlu Wally can be made, he’s always acceptable)

Actually, if I was in the justice league and Lex Luthor killed Wally I, too, would become a justice lord bc there is no need for happiness in life or freedom when you took the embodiment of those things away (can you tell I’ve seen those shows way too many times)- 💌

i was def talking about yj wally bc i'm in the midst of a jl/jlu rewatch rn and he also is so babygirl in that too but yj wally...oh my heart. love him so bad, me and my irl always talk about him and when he d*ed. bc wtf. #bringwallyback!!! can't even put into words my love for wally, he's my cute nerd bf, my fave goofy little guy, i love him!!!!!!!!!!

#★ 💌 ★#wally west lover #★ messages from friends ★

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criminalmutantsins · 3 years

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Top 10 Favorite Young Justice Characters

10. Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle

Starting off the list is Blue Beetle. Young Justice introduced me to him, and I was hooked. He’s probably the most mellow and calming voice. His arc and relationship with Bart (friendship or not) were my favorite aspects of S2. They bounced off each other in every scene. I was very disappointed when Jaime and Bart were sidelined so much, and hope S4 changes this (particularly with Bart).

Jaime in the number 10 spot since he doesn’t really have much of a memorable personality. Still love him to bits though.

9. Will Harper/Red Arrow

Funny enough, I did not like Will. He was an asshole in S1; S2 kind of changed my mind about him but not enough since he didn’t appear as much. What really changed my mind was the episode “Private Security” (S3 Ep.4). I started looking back into Will’s storylines and, I have to admit, his is probably one of the best character development.

The first season had him unwillingly living a lie and betraying the people he cared for. In season 2 he was so consumed into finding the original Roy for five years, not even caring or focusing about his own life. I felt really bad for Will because he was probably going through an identity crisis and thought he couldn’t live his life without finding Arsenal. Probably felt guilty.

Seeing him living his own life and being happy with his daughter was so heartwarming. I smiled every time Will appeared in the latest season (totally ignoring the Will x Artemis fiasco), especially with Lian. I’m very proud of him.

I feel bad for putting him so low, yet I adore the next characters more.

8. Garfield Logan/Beast Boy

I have been a massive Beast Boy fan since Teen Titans so you probably can imagine how excited to see him. His origin story was unique and his brother-sister bond with M’gann was very sweet. It was pretty weird seeing how much younger Gar was than Dick, but I got used to it. I was bummed that Gar wasn’t in S2 as much; however, S3 truly made up for it.

After watching Beast Boy being a great leader in S5 of Teen Titans, I wanted a leader-like and more mature version of him. Young Justice truly delivered with Gar being the leader of the Outsiders. It’s nice to see him treated with respect rather than as a joke because that was my biggest gripe with Teen Titans. Though it was weird seeing him not crack a joke at all.

Gar’s story with his mom was heartbreaking to see. I literally cried seeing his reaction to revisiting his trauma in S2 and S3; I just wanted to hug and tell him how awesome he is. My only complaint with Gar in S3 was that the Outsiders weren’t established until near the end of the season.

His voice actor being Greg Cipes also gives him extra points (He’s a chill guy and radiates BB energy).

7. Dick Grayson/Nightwing/ Robin I

Sorry to all the hardcore Nightwing fans.

I love Dick (don’t get any ideas), but he doesn’t get enough development in the spotlight. One of the things I really wanted to see from him is his growth as a main leader, and his journey to becoming Nightwing. I was really bummed when these happened between the first two seasons.

To be honest, I don’t have as much to say about him other than straightforward qualities I enjoy about him.

1.His Voice (it’s so soothing)

2.His Personality (very charismatic)

3.Very Handsome (Probably in the top 3 my most handsome YJ Men list)

I put him higher than the others since he made a lot of contribution to the story and his new words (gotta love that aster!)

6. Megan Morse/M’gann M’orzz/Miss Martian

If I made this list during S1, M’gann would have probably been in my top 3 (maybe even No. 1), but S2 didn’t give her any brownie points.

I really liked S1 Miss Martian because of her kind heart, awkward girl next door personality. Her trouble fitting in the beginning reminded me of when I was going through a time in high school; seeing her having trouble as well helped me feel not so lonely. M’gann powers were (still are) my favorite since I am a big fan of mind-like powers. I would feel so powerful. Watching her identity crisis(?) arc was great too. I’ve had trouble feeling comfortable in my own skin as well as my social anxiety (I’m a mess) and I could understand how scared Megan was of her friends’ thoughts on her true form.

Oh boy. Season 2 basically ruined her. Learning what she would do to enemies was terrifying to see and left me wondering what happened to Miss Martian that made her step this far. What she almost did to Superboy was almost unforgivable. You do not try to manipulate with your boyfriend’s mind when you guys have an argument! Shame on you M’gann. If Superboy hadn’t forgiven you then I wouldn’t have either.

Good thing S3 somewhat redeemed her. Her kind heart was noticeable again and she refused to do that mind trick again (thank god). Very excited for the Superboy and Miss Martian wedding! Please creators, I beg of you to not skip over it. I want to cry my eyes out in happiness!

5. Kaldur’ahm/Aquaman/Aqualad

Now we’re in the top 5 with Aqualad (*ahem* Aquaman) starting it off.

Creating Kaldur was the best decision the creators ever did. I love him with all my heart!

He added diversity to the original team and was a great leader. S1 was not his breakout season, though the second season definitely was.

Kladur played the villain so well that he deserves an automatic Oscar. I never doubted that he was with the heroes, but he didn’t disappoint. My favorite part about Aqualad’s performance was when he rose from the ocean slowly like a cliché villain (he made it work), and the line he said right after he “killed” Artemis; it sent me chills. Love it!

Pretty disappointed that he didn’t appear as much in S3. Very happy that he is a part of the LGBTQ+ community and is in a happy relationship. I’m a part of the community and loved that there was finally some representation in one of my favorite shows. Even so, I have to criticize how rushed and sidelined it was. I hope Kaldur and Wyynde’s relationship gets development.

4. Kon-El/Conner Kent/Superboy

Like Will, I did not like Superboy at first. Mainly angry and volatile characters were never really my cup of tea. I do understand why he was upset and felt bad for him; I just handle anger the direct opposite as him. My love for Conner started growing around the end of S1. He was very sweet towards Miss Martian (bless him for not caring about her appearance) and his anger was in control.

Season 2 pretty much switched my opinions on him and M’gann. It was awful what M’gann almost did to him. That scene with him being so sad that what she did ruined that special bond they had almost made me cry. I wanted to give him a hug. He grew so much too since I don’t think he would have handled the whole M’gann drama as well in S1. A lot of furniture would’ve been broken.

I gotta admit something. I almost put Conner near the bottom (maybe no. 7). A comment in a poll in Amino changed my mind. I wrote a poll asking other fans who did they prefer SB or MM. At that point I said SB, though I didn’t think much of it. Someone (specifically yjfangirl) responded “Superboy has the best development in the show.” This had me thinking about how far SB has gone. In the beginning, Conner was an angry guy who felt alone and rejected by the person who he was meant to emulate. Now he is happier and living for himself rather than to be the next Superman. He’s getting married people! A little detail I noticed when rewatching S3 was Superboy mentioning to new characters that they weren’t obligated to be a hero because of their abilities. I adored this! The main reason why Superboy was created to be Superman if the original ever died, and another one of Luthor’s puppets. But he strayed from that pressuring path and is doing his own thing. Conner doesn’t want other people to feel like he did. What an absolute pure soul.

Also, yjfangirl, first I want to say Hi (*waves*)! Then say thanks for writing that comment. It made me really think about the bigger picture with SB and my love for him as grown exponentially. You probably didn’t mean to do that, but I still want to thank you. 😊

3.Wally West/Kid Flash

We’re in the elites now.

I don’t know how to explain it, I just love Wally. He makes me laugh, and his character growth was great. At first, Wally was this cocky flirt who didn’t take the hero work as seriously. That changed in “Cold-hearted,” one of my favorite episodes in the series. This was when I really started seeing more of Wally than being this dumb flirt. It was great seeing him actually caring about helping people since I believed for a long time that he wanted to be a superhero to just have powers rather than actually protect others. The regret in his eyes when he thought his impulsive behavior killed Perdita helped me see who he really was- this somewhat arrogant speedster who had a kind heart. Episodes that can make me change my perspective on characters are truly special.

I was very upset that he wasn’t in S2 a lot. I understand why since he gave up the life, but I was still bummed. Seeing him being so loving and protective towards Artemis was amazing. Spitfire is my favorite ship and I will not give up on them. All I want is a happy ending! The penultimate episode of S3 was a hint that it will happen. Watching the S2 finale was heartbreaking, I cried watching him disappear, his love for Artemis being the last things he said. Artemis’ reaction did not(I just wanted to hug her).

I have more to say, though I’m leaving it for another post. 😉

2.Bart Allen/Kid Flash II/Impulse

Picking between Bart and Wally for second place was tough. Took me a while to decide; I’ll talk about it later on.

The moment Bart made his appearance, I absolutely adored him. He is amazing and I live for his hyper, fun attitude. His arc and relationship with Jaime were my favorite aspects of S2. What can I say, their chemistry is great to see.

That scene when he was meeting the Flash family was so adorable. His excitement was infectious and spoiling his dad and aunt’s births was hilarious! I watch it occasionally whenever I need a good laugh or reason to smile.

Unlike most time travelers- at least the ones I’ve seen- Bart was very involved with what was going on and befriended his biggest enemy- evil and weirdly huge future Blue Beetle. He was pretty careful about disclosing very important information and took things very seriously. You never know if disclosing everything was the thing that brought the world to chaos.

What I found interesting was his choice on how to interact with everyone. He seemed pretty gloomy in the future, but decided to portray this cheerful, devil-may-care attitude to be more likable. I understood (still kind of do). I had terrible mental health issues and I pretended to be happy in front of loved ones because I thought they wouldn’t care about me anymore. Bart got some brownie points for that.

I was dissatisfied when his role was greatly reduced. I wanted the creators to go further with Bart by revealing his past and how it affected him. He was pretty much comedy relief. You couldn’t imagine how disappointed I was, especially with it involving my second favorite character. Season 4 better change that.

I know that you shouldn’t assume a character’s sexuality, yet I really hope Bart is gay. There needs to be more clear representation and Bart can be one of them. I’m also a Bluepulse and Bartuado shipper (fine with either one as long as Bart’s bond with each of them stays strong).

Anyway, I mentioned that I would explain why I chose Bart for 2nd place over Wally. It mostly stems from wishful thinking. I really want S4 to have Bart as a main character since I believe the future will be strong plot point in the season. Development could surely happen such as Bart opening up more about what he went through. Let all those feelings go.

I’m going to write an article on my hopes for S4 when a release date is announced. Bart and Wally will most definitely be talked about.

…..

We are finally near the end!

And my No. 1 favorite character is…

Drumroll please!

…

1.Artemis Crock/Tigress/Artemis

That’s right people!

Artemis Crock, original member of the Team and daughter of villains!

She is such an inspiration to anyone who wants to go their own past without their parents’ support.

It’s hard to describe how much I love Artemis. She’s brave, strong-willed, and a kind person. It’s crazy how great of a person she is after all the terrible things that happened to her. I look up to her because I don’t have a healthy relationship with my parents (verbal and mental abuse) and there are times I don’t feel strong enough to stand on my own. I want to carry the amount of strength Artemis has as my own.

After all that happened in S2, it was amazing to see Artemis come back to the team and train the new generation. It must have been hard to walk away from a safe, comfortable life for a chaotic, dangerous life. I admire that in everyone, but I hold more respect for Artemis since “the life” “killed” Wally. I wanted to hug her so bad.

She’s also one of the kindest people in the show, the events in S3 being the best example. When Zatanna was crying about her dad, Artemis was there to comfort her. It was so sweet! Roy and her also took in Halo and Terra like they were a part of the family; the archer treated them like the best big sister. That rainstorm scene was heartwarming to the core.

Wouldn’t Artemis be an amazing mother? Lian and her have a strong bond like a mother and daughter; I loved it, and Lian is in good hands with Roy and Artemis. Though Jade deserves a chance to be a mother. Artemis also seemed to enjoy taking care of those kids in that S1 episode. Wally too. You guys know what I’m guys insinuating. 😉

Get ready for some fanfics on that someday.

My favorite Artemis-centered episode was the second to last episode of S3. I was waiting for this episode centering around Artemis missing Wally and learning to move on. It was great yet heartbreaking. Nothing bad happened. That Will and Artemis kiss never happened. Everyone makes a mistake. No matter how terrible it was.

Anyway, seeing Artemis and Wally living their lives and having a baby gave me life, even if it was fake. It was a vision of the future. I will believe this until there is confirmation that Wally will not come back.

Did anyone else cry when Artemis was so desperate to, but Wally wouldn’t let that happen (the real Wally would do that)? They are a great example of a healthy relationship with all the love and support they have for each other. I want that.

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fastestloseralive · 3 years

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Because I’m in a mood and I watched a lot of Wally’s episodes in justice league animated it’s amazing how his “heart” of the group status is so subtly highlighted in the show? Like the overall writing of the show really doesn’t faulted honestly but that aspect is one of those things that really makes you feel like the show really was…planned? If that makes sense. He is the one always making the move to reach out and bring everyone closer of the original seven. Obviously Shay and John are his closest friends (no one ever talks about how even in the first season of justice league Wally was pissed at Shay because she left John behind and went on his own to look for him and yelled that they don’t leave friends!) but I think after them I was surprised how many scenes Wally had with Clark especially when the justice lords are brought up, there were many other factors but Wally’s death was the breaking point for him in the justice league verse. When Wally disappears, Clark runs for him first, and then defies his other self actions by refusing to kill Luther. I love to imagine a scene where Wally and Clark are joking around and Wally turns serious for a moment and just tells him “I wouldn’t want to be avenged like that, because that’s not what we do to our enemies,” echoing what he said to Diana when she wanted to squash toy man for seemingly killing Clark in “hereafter,” he knows killing is not Clark he wants to know Clark knows that too. Similarly he was the only OG member to make an effort to heal the relationship between Diana and Shay in unlimited and Diana’s dialogue before that makes it seem that Wally seeks out his friends to hang out with and just talk just on his downtime because of course he does!! HE IS DISHING OUT TOUCHING HUGS WHENEVER SHIT GOES DOWN, hugging Shay as she leaves and hugging J’onn when he goes too! Also something not intentional but I clocked so many times in the show when shit goes down Wally is often paired with j’onn randomly, I like to think on other holidays Wally would spend them with j’onn so he wouldn’t be lonely like Clark too. Then him and Bruce are just funny because it’s just that slow respect growing on Both sides for me !!! (Also in my personal “JLU Wally is yj Wally with better writers and sent through the speedforce to a Wally less universe” (slaps bruce) “this bad boy can fit all Wally’s feelings of wanting to reconcile with dick after their major fight in the second season he never will be able too”)

JLU Wally my beloved…this is long I apologize. It’s just well written dynamics that get me hyped. Like I love rewatching the opening episode when they all act like they know each other or have heard of each other when we’ve never seen some of them interact before in universe 12 before like nothing will ever get me more than knowing so many heroes could have answered j’onn’s call for help (justice league unlimited makes it clear heroes have been active a lot longer than the league has ever been a thing) but didn’t expect these six other knuckleheads and like they made a superhero club to help people and it really is super friends like I’m gonna cry.

I love this all so much

#asks

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ectonurites · 3 years

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so i read the big long young just us kon vs yja conner post. (amazing analysis btw) but i have another question about your thoughts on superboy as a character. So in the dc animated universe (that's over now but whatever) there's the Reign of the Supermen movie, and in that one Kon learns that Lex is his dad very very very early on. And since you said that you think Conner learning about Lex early was the biggest thing that changed it, I was wondering if you have thoughts on DCAU Superboy?

awh thank you! i am so pleasantly surprised people actually read that

[link if u are only seeing this post and want to read the other one]

BUT AH YES THAT BOI i very nearly included a section on this version of him in the other post but decided not to just because it was. already nearly 6k words. however im glad you asked this because I DO have thoughts on him (sorry no pictures this time just words):

My ultimate thought regarding him is: the Reign of the Supermen movie managed to create a Superboy that the Lex reveal wasn’t anywhere near as big a deal for, compared to his other versions. Which I personally think was really cool to see!

This reveal having a smaller impact allowed him to maintain what was basically his 90′s comic characterization even after it, instead of going deep into broody tt 2003 territory or being anything like cartoon yj Conner.

Though, that now raises the question of why it has such a lesser impact

In this setting, he already had an association with Luthor from basically the moment he’s in the movie. Here, he is LexCorp’s Superman, rather than him partnering with Tana’s news station like in the comic (because they chose to understandably omit Tana. Also, trying to adapt the actual role Lex had in the comic version of this whole event would be a mess especially because this was during that era where Lex had like... faked his death, was pretending to be his own illegitimate son, had long hair, and was dating Supergirl? it was very weird, and understandably a movie adaptation wouldn’t wanna touch any of that with a 10ft pole. In general the Reign of the Supemen movie changed SO MUCH from the original comic, but I think did a pretty good job of integrating a lot of the spirit of the story into something new. I haven’t rewatched it since reading the comic though, so I might be looking through memory-fogged rose-tinted glasses, but I plan on doing so soon and will prob talk about it).

Anyways, even before the actual reveal that Lex was also one of his DNA dads, Lex is out here acting like he’s Conner’s stage dad and... is literally in charge of him. Thus, even though obviously Lex still isn’t a great guy in this universe, it has nowhere near the same impact as finding out ‘renowned supervillain, that I have seen heroes go up against time and time again, is my dad!’ It’s more like finding out ‘oh my weird controlling boss is actually my dad?’ Still weird, still a lot to deal with, and he still gets sulky for a bit after finding out, but it’s way less drastic.

Not sure if I’m going to be able to articulate this next point well, but there’s another thing I think that kinda factors into it too. In my other post I had talked specifically about how not only the timing of finding this out was relevant, but also how the level of confidence Kon had in who he was as a person at the time mattered.

In the comics, when Superboy found out, he had been very confident in himself and been an established hero for years and thus learning this new information made him (to some extent at least) feel like his whole life had been a lie, and he now felt he was a danger because of how evil Lex is known to be. [Also of note: not only was he worried about hurting his team, but this happened after the point where he’d started living with the Kents. He had a lot of anxiety around thinking Clark wouldn’t trust him to live with his parents if he knew, and fear that he might hurt them.]

In the Young Justice cartoon, when Superboy found out, he had confidence in his abilities as I said before, but he still didn’t really know who he was. He still never got to experience trying to be Superman like he had expressed always wanting to, because he was brought into a world that already had a Superman. So this revelation is just adding onto a pile of confusion. [And I believe (I haven’t watched season one of yj in a while so this might not be correct) that at the point he finds out, Lex was already a known adversary of heroes & The Team themselves. So the fact that someone they were actively going up against had a connection to him (and was manipulating him through the patches) was a point of concern.]

Then we look at movie Superboy. He’s cocky and pretty confident in himself and his abilities, and was getting to shoot his shot at filling that Superman role right away, just like his comic counterpart. But he doesn’t go years believing a lie about himself, since he finds out about the Luthor connection so early. At the time of the reveal he also doesn’t have the same connections to other people (either the Teen Titans & The Kents like the comics or The Team in the cartoon), meaning he’s not going to angst over being a potential danger to all of them.

Also... he finds it out while he’s still actively working under Lex. In the comics, he finds out from an email he and Tim get while they’re at Titans Tower. In the cartoon Lex baits him to meet somewhere alone to tell him, before demonstrating he has a code word that effects him. In the movie, Lex brings him down to the very lab he was cloned in while lecturing him, because he works for Lex, and the reveal happens because of one of the scientists. It’s just such a wildly different circumstance for the reveal to happen under, because movie Superboy doesn’t see Lex through the same “only exists to me as a villain” lens his comic & cartoon counterparts do.... he’s basically just his overbearing boss at the time.

Like yes this is where the seams start to unravel, because Superboy then realizes ‘oh god Lex was bringing me down there to kill me then just decided against it’, but he’s going through an entirely different struggle with that than what his other counterparts had going on. Also by having this reveal happen in the middle of the movie like, before the final battle and everything, he doesn’t really have time to dwell on all of this. He’s gotta go stop Cyborg Superman with the others he doesn’t have time to go ‘angst angst angst’ about it for long!!

This also means that by the time he met Superman, Superboy already knew about the Lex connection. In both the comics and the yj cartoon, Clark and Conner met and knew each other (not necessarily in a close way in the yj cartoon BUT regardless) before Conner found this out. Meaning it was something that he kept a secret from Clark for a period of time, as it ate away at him. But here, since he finds out before Clark is even active and alive again, it’s not something he ever needs to hide! Like he deadass tells Lois about it the first time he sees her after he found out.

SO to summarize, the Lex reveal is way less drastic for this version of Conner because:

Superboy and Lex had a completely different dynamic at the time of the reveal than any other versions

Superboy in this setting didn’t have as many connections to others/wasn’t on a team at the time he found out, meaning there were less people he’d be concerned about putting in danger

Superboy never felt the need to keep this a secret from anyone for any extended period of time

Honestly I would have loved to see more things with this Superboy because it puts him in this unique position of having already faced this big challenge (dealing with Lex being a DNA dad) but not letting it bring him too deep into the angst, he’s not hiding it from anyone, he can just kinda... exist as himself! But noooo Apokolips War had to. Do that. that whole thing.

#conner kent #superboy #Anonymous #sam writes

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eyrieofsynapses · 4 years

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First Thoughts on YJ S4 Panel

WARNING: SPOILERS for the DC Fandome YJ S4 panel!

Okay, before I start chattering away, can I just saw how much I love this title poster? Because I love it. LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT HOW BADASS IT IS.

Warning: this first bit is a teeny bit ranty, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t genuinely love the panel. It was really fun, but I have a few gripes with the amount of information we got. If you wanna cut straight to the cheery bits, check under the cut.

So... uh. I’m not gonna say I’m disappointed? Because I’m not, this was good, we got info, it was nice to see the voice actors. But I’m... underwhelmed. I definitely wasn’t expecting a lot but this was still, mm, not as much as I thought we’d get. No poster, no previews of character designs, not a peep as to when we’re getting the new season, nothing on where it’ll be streaming, nothing as to new characters, nothing as to who’s going to be the villain, and the Q&A session was maaaayyybe 3 minutes long. Oof, guys. Thought you said you’d leave us with something that’d leave us “more than just ‘whelmed.’”

Essentially all we got was the title, and a few snippets of information regarding what the current status of the Team and its characters is. They didn’t really get the chance to talk to us at all about the actual season, either- I think Brandon spoke maaaybe three or four times? He got the title reveal, but, well, we knew that already, not that it’s their fault, but still. I love hearing the voice actors chat about their experiences and we got none of that, so that was disappointing. I’m wondering if there wasn’t some material cut, actually, because I distinctly recall seeing a clip on Twitter with Phil Lamarr talking about what it was like returning to the show, and it wasn’t in this. So what’s the deal, DC? Short-changing us on YJ again? When are we gonna get some actual news?

There is the little problem that their big reveal of the title was spoiled, oh, maybe three or four months ago, and that isn’t their fault, but it does make that revelation more of an “okay, well, glad that’s confirmed” rather than an “OH MY GODS IT’S PHANTOMS WHAAAAAAAT” like I think they were hoping. Still, that’s definitely exciting to hear, and the new title poster looks cool.

I got a “WHAT!!!” moment maaayybe three times, which is significantly less than I thought I would. There just wasn’t that much new info. But I think that’s less of a Grandon/production team problem and more of a world state and DC problem. I’m not annoyed at them, I’m annoyed at DC and at the pandemic, because I’m willing to bet their snippet was cut short by DC and what information they could’ve revealed just isn’t ready yet because of current events. Probably we would’ve gotten character designs if it weren’t for that.

As for the audio play, it was pretty good. They were definitely struggling what with having a distinct lack of people to pull from for a voice cast, but made some tongue-in-cheek references to it to take off the edge. I don’t think I realized just how many people voice for YJ until now... or how many characters each actor does. It’s a bit janky, and weird what with the arguing over who’s narrating the story (why, are they telling us the story, or are they telling it to someone else? Are you breaking the fourth wall, are you not? Make yourselves clear) but I’m blaming that on the fact that they’re more used to scripts than they are audio plays. These are different mediums, so there’s an inherent gap there; this probably would’ve gone better as an actual episode.

So, FIRST watch-through, here’s my HAPPY cheery thoughts and reactions, in no particular order! I might do a second one later, we’ll see. (Under the cut, because it’s long.)

Return of Bowhunter Security!

Clipboard makes a comeback!

The Supermartian marriage has taken place and they’re making reference to taking a long journey with Conner, M’gann, Bioship, Gar and J’onn. So... Mars? Do we finally get to see Mars?

Forager gets to be sassy! And a hilarious narrator! Which, c’mon, it’s Jason Spisak, honestly, I don’t know what I expected.

Ahahah, Jason makes the most delightful faces when he’s voicing Forager. (And a few flubs, but he’s good at covering them.) We all miss Wally, but man, he does a good job with this character. Also, hey, that’s how he does the clicks!

Rocket! Even though she had a relatively minimal presence, sigh. I’m hoping they build her character more this time, she always get short-changed.

ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM, repeat, ARTEMIS IS LEADING THE TEAM!!! YES!!!

And she also makes a reference at some point to being in this fight for ten years, which, HMM, do I hear a reference point for our time jump? They started back in 2010, so this implies that the season’s caught up to 2020. So... season one was 2010, season two was 2016, season three was... 2018, I think? So does this make the next time jump two years too, or am I off? It also takes place on February 23rd. Eh, either way, it’s absolutely not as long as a lot of people were fearing- heck, I’m thinking this might be the shortest jump yet. Yay!

I’m not sure if the Snapper Carr dialogue is cringy or hilarious. I’m going with hilarious because I’m betting this would’ve been great if it were animated. It definitely loses something without the animation.

Is... is Crispin Freeman playing four characters? Five? Will, Roy, Jim, Captain Boomerang... I think I’m missing someone, I’m gonna have to go back and rewatch this later, but wow. He switches between them so fluidly, too, that’s impressive.

Forget Freeman for a hot second, Nolan North, what are you doing, dude? Conner, Clayface, Mallah, at least one or two others, with a LOT of animal noises included... wow, okay. I definitely didn’t realize how many of these guys do two or three characters.

Phil Lamarr doing Brick, Black Manta and Kaldur all at once is definitely impressive. I’m gonna take a guess and say he likes doing Brick best. He seems to get a little grin sometimes when he’s playing the character.

Ahhh, Danica McKellar definitely likes playing Terrence Terror. Don’t ask me why, I’m just getting that feeling watching her. Villains are fun to play.

...Wolf? Where’s Wolf? Uhh, guys? Where’s our fluffy doggo? Don’t tell anyone but I’m scared.

Oooookay, that was unexpectedly gruesome. Dehydrating a man into sand? I mean, okay, it’s Clayface, but we didn’t know that till later. Eeeewww. Y’all, ik you’re going more dark, but that wasn’t an image anyone needed.

Jokes about Dadbod!Will are... hhh, cringy or funny, cringy or funny... I’m going sorta funny for now. Not enough to make me laugh, but enough to make me smile.

Okay, Will’s definitely still hilarious. Literally that entire scenario with Captain Boomerang was amazing, and only made better by the fact that it was entirely Crispin Freeman. The “are you the Green Arrow fanclub president or something?” “...you have no idea” moment, the “boomerangs are better and Batman said so!” “...okay, FINE,” FLINGING CLIPBOARD, Boomerang teasing Will for his dadbod and Will answering with a wicked uppercut... ah, man. This is 100% Roy/Will Harper and I am here for it.

I can see some people disliking this humor, but personally, I’m gonna just sit back and enjoy it. YJ has some quirky humor, but honestly, if you’re part of the fandom and you don’t like it, why are you even here?

Huh, Raquel’s a vegan and nobody’s making jokes about vegan burgers? Nice!

Oh, my gods, Forager deciding that Lian and Amistad playing with the food is an educational activity is AMAZING, 100% in character, and something I really, really want to see.

(Fanartists? Fanartists, pleeeeaaasse?)

Will and Artemis ribbing each other will never get old.

...wait. Hang on. Is Will the comedic relief character now along with Forager? Is this a thing? I guess it is. If you’d asked me who out of the original Team would replace Wally as the comedic relief back when I had finished the second season, I would not have thought of him first, but I think I’m good with this. It’s definitely in character to his comic version.

Ahh, Conner and M’gann’s relationship is still... interesting. Still not sure how to feel on this one. But hey, they’re married (?) now? Uh... nice?

Nightwing’s off on some mysterious mission, hmm? I’m assuming that’s because of Jesse McCartney not being there, but I think I’m gonna headcanon that there are Other reasons for this.

Yay, Clayface getting redemption! I love this in the Rebirth Batman: Detective Comics, so I’m 100% down for seeing it here.

Tim did that for Clayface! Sweet! Not a plot thread I expected to go anywhere from that one season three episode, but one I am very happy to see used.

...more secrets. Uhh, M’gann keeping secrets from Conner is... icky... again... but granted, keeping them because of confidentiality agreements is, well, a better excuse than she’s had in the past. Still, this is getting old.

Huh, so Waller will let out the Team’s secrets if they tell anyone about Belle Reve. I think this was already covered in the third season, but maybe not so explicitly. The reactions... hmm. Of course Conner’s okay with letting out all their secrets (and M’gann’s willing to... go along with that? ...okay...?), but the others, maybe not so much? Hmm. I wonder what Dick would have to say about that one. He definitely has something to lose. Not sure about Kaldur or Artemis, though.

Jason did NOT get to make any Wally references. That makes me even sadder than if he did make one that made all of us cry. C’mon, guys. Let him have his references.

I’m always a little meh on M’gann, but hey, M’gann gets to be a 100% certified badass! Saving Clayface AND taking down a ton of baddies with telekinesis, yay!

Oh, my gods. LOOPHOLES. WHAT IS WITH THIS TEAM AND LOOPHOLES. I love them so much.

The Team signing on as Bowhunter Security- oh my gods, all of the Team in fucking Bowhunter Security uniforms- oh my gods, so very in-character, so very true to YJ, so absolutely goddamn hilarious, I wanna hug whoever came up with that. That is the BEST mental image and it is a CRIME that they didn’t animate that.

And, of course, Kaldur just immediately goes along with it. The Team’s corrupted him fully now. I mean, we knew that, but he’s done now.

Black Manta attempting to roast Kaldur for his security uniform and Kaldur roasting him back 100 times worse is wonderful. “I wear my dignity on the inside, Father. Where do you wear yours?” KALLIE I LOVE YOU

Ooooo, Artemis is inviting Roy to the Team? This should be interesting. He’s definitely not totally stable, but it seems to me that Artemis should be able to more or less keep him in check. Hopefully. She had to deal with Wally for five years, surely she can keep Roy in check?

...hmm. We’re all thinking there’s gonna be a Red Hood arc... Roy’s joining the team... Roy and Jason did have that run as the Outlaws in the comics with Kory... and this version of Roy has the sort of temper and attitude that I can just see Jason possibly getting along well with... hmmmmmmmm...

Hah, villain shenanigans. Having Task Force X argue all the time is in character and admittedly sort of funny, especially as Black Manta’s sort of pulling a Kaldur and playing the absolutely exasperated denmother. I dislike BM thanks to him being a Baddie and all, but watching (listening to?) him struggle to contain them is enjoyable if only because I like watching him suffer.

Ahh, watching the VAs is fun. It’s definitely nice to see that little view behind the camera. There’s the little smiles, the tiny grimaces at the icky bits, the responses to various bits, the way their demeanor changes with each character, everyone egging Nolan on when he’s yelling for Clayface being disintegrated... I’m sad we didn’t get to see them chat, but watching them interact while they work is fun. Pity Jason and Stephanie didn’t really have any interactions, though, I bet watching them work together would’ve been fun. Ah well. Still fun overall.

There’s a lot of variation in where they are/what setups they have. Some of them seem to have proper studios, some of them don’t but they have mics, Danica’s on the lower bunk of her son’s room with what I’m betting are several sheets hung behind her, and then... well, then there’s poor Stephanie with earbuds and what I’m betting is her phone at her friend’s house XD Also, Greg’s library is really awesome, can I steal it please?

Green title card... I know people have been positing this for a while, but Lazarus Pit? Also, the thing people haven’t talked about: Mars?! Is this a nod to the Martians, since M’gann, Conner, Gar and J’onn seem to be going there?

Lots of speculation regarding Phantoms, but that’s been going around for a while, so *shrug* I’m not gonna spend any time on that for now.

Someone’s gonna have to write this out, methinks, for further examination. We’ll see if I get around to doing that or not before Fandome ends. I’m betting someone will record it and post it on YouTube, but a written-out version of the script would be useful. If I do, I’ll probably post it, so keep an eye out.

So... season 3.9, episode 1? Hmm. Does this come directly prior to the fourth season? I kinda wanna say it does.

I have more thoughts, but I think I need to do a rewatch first, maybe in a little bit. Anyway... not what I was expecting, I sincerely miss Dick and Wally, but lots of funny jokes all the same, and lots of interesting information on the fourth season even if it’s nowhere near the amount we wanted. I might be underwhelmed but I’m certainly not disappointed.

#dc fandome #dc fandome reactions #Young Justice #young justice cartoon #young justice: phantoms #phantoms #young justice season 4 #PHANTOMS IS CONFIRMED #underwhelmed but still feeling the aster #BRING WALLY BACK PLEASE #and no we're not gonna shut up about that

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thingr1 · 3 years

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INTEREST POLL: Would anyone be down for a “chapter” fic of my old, incomplete, never before seen Young Justice fics?

(I’m RascalJoy on FFN.)

—————

Back story: My bro and I started rewatching the first season of YJ the other day (aka, the BEST season by a bajillion miles) and I started getting nostalgic and remembering how much I loved the show and how solid the quality (the first season) was and everything. So I started looking through my old YJ fics and I literally have SO MANY STORIES that I haven’t touched since literally 2016 or earlier and will therefore probably never finish (especially ‘cause it’s my old writing style which I’m decidedly less fond of so even if I fill in the blanks I wouldn’t really want it to be considered my “current” writing when I post, and I’m way too lazy and not motivated enough to rewrite everything). But like...they’re not bad, and there are literally some that are upwards of 500, 1000, 3000, 4789 WORDS that are just...sitting there. Growing dust. And I’m considering just...maybe giving them a grammar once over and posting them as is so that they’re out there, and people can read them and maybe even take an idea I’ve abandoned and run with it.

Quite frankly, I’ll probably make the decision on my own anyway. But I’m just seeing if anyone who still remembers my old stuff (and if you’ve followed me that long, major kudos to you and also please tell me who you are because I need to know whyyyyyy are you still here and how did you find me 😂) would want to see something like that.

#young justice #yj #fanfiction #yj fic #rascaljoy #likely delete this later #but hey #i don’t have enough followers for this but i don’t know where else to ask XD #anywho #poll #testing the waters #lol what even are tags

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ragingbookdragon · 4 years

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So That He Wouldn't

A/N: After rewatching a few YJ scenes, this idea popped into my head. So, enjoy my fic about Bruce being a good dad to Dick! -Thorne <3

Robin needed to help bring the men who murdered his family to justice.

So, he could turn out like you?

So that he wouldn’t.

It’s not hard to recognize that there’s a change in Dick. Even if the boy’s been extremely subtle about it, it’s made such a distinction in his normal habits that’s it’s jutting out like a sore thumb. For a time, Bruce doesn’t break the ice with his son, simply observing Dick to see if he can figure it out without having to have the boy tell him. He’s learned that if he wants to be competent at communication with Dick, he has to help fill in the blanks when Dick’s voice quiets and his words fall short. But with each passing day, the intrusive change is growing larger and more prominent, and Bruce would let it pass until Dick came to him, however, he’s seeing that whatever’s bothering the boy is beginning to affect his ability as Robin. And the only thing more dangerous than messing up on patrol is messing up because your mind was preoccupied. So, Bruce waits. And he waits until they’ve completed patrol for the night, and as they pull into the cave, Bruce gets ready to pull the ice pick and begin picking at Dick’s carefully constructed fortress.

The Batmobile slides to a stop along the parking spot and the engine shuts off. Dick barely spares him a glance as he mutters, “I’m gonna go change and go to bed.” His fingers are curling around the door handle when he hears a distinctive click and the lock descends into the door. He pauses, shock diverting into confusion as he turns back to him and questions, “Uh Bruce? You locked the doors?” There’s no change in Bruce’s demeanor as he sticks his thumbs under the cowl, lifting it from his face, and he looks over, steel-blue eyes searching cerulean. There’s a slight hesitance in Bruce’s voice as he begins, but he hurriedly locks it down, reminding himself that in this moment, he’s got to be a parent.

“What’s been bothering you lately Dick?” Seven years the boy had been in Bruce’s care, and each time he recognizes that there’s a problem, it still amazes Dick that his father has absolutely no sense of delicacy when it comes to conversation; but what amazes him even more, is that Bruce has always been able to tell when he’s been at a low point. It takes Dick a moment to recover, but when he does, he doesn’t clip his words, figuring that honesty is going to be the best policy in this conversation.

“Things have been difficult lately…I’ve been thinking about something that’s been weighing on me.” Bruce waits patiently for the boy to continue, eyes still searching Dick’s face for a sign of weariness; Dick sighs, but keeps speaking, the words soft, but full of conviction all the same. “I’ve realized something Bruce…the thing inside you that drives you to be Batman…to save everything even at the expense of sacrificing everything you have…” He halts, the silence enveloping the car seems to beat at slow intervals until Dick takes the all the courage he’s built over the years and stares into his adoptive father’s eyes and admits, “It doesn’t drive me…and I don’t want to be you…I don’t want to sacrifice all I’ve got to do this job…I can’t.” There’s so much confidence in his voice, for a moment, Bruce is wondering if Dick is trying to convince himself more than he is Bruce. He’s waiting for his father to say something, anything; the stillness between them is widening at breakneck speed, and Dick is regretting even opening his mouth, so he backtracks swiftly. “But it’s not something that’s going to keep affecting patrol. I promise it won’t. I promise that I’ll-” His words break off like the sheets of ice that crack and collapse into the Arctic Oceans. His mind is screaming at him to move, to say something, but all that he does is watch helplessly as Bruce closes the door and walks off.

Dick’s head bows, and his heart clenches painfully in his chest as tears well in his blue eyes, and he’s squeezing them tight to keep them in. His jaw is clenched so tight that his teeth hurt, but he swears he wont let the sob break the barrier he’s created; however, the passenger door swings open and he gapes at Bruce as he kneels beside him, a sad smile on his face. Bruce reaches forward and gently takes Dick’s hand, and he pauses a second, taking in just how much Dick has grown since he was a young boy. Before, Dick’s hand fit inside Bruce’s, but now it was almost as big as Bruce’s; it made him realize just how much time had passed. The smile he’s wearing makes Dick’s heart relax, if only a bit, but when Bruce speaks, it’s the reassurance that truly makes him calm. “Dick…I’ve never wanted you to be like me.” It’s only after Bruce has said the words a second time that Dick reacts, and he chokes,

“You don’t?” Bruce gives a sharp nod and he squeezes Dick’s hand tightly in his own, keeping his words firm, but caring too as he vows,

“Dick, all I’ve ever tried to do when raising you is to try and guide you away from what I am. I’ve never wanted you to be like me…I want you to be better.” He raises his other hand, pointer finger pressing into the center of Dick’s combat armor, right against his heart. “You have a light inside you that burns so bright and with such a conviction.” Bruce shifts his hand, gently cupping the side of Dick’s face, his thumb wiping a tear that had escaped Dick’s eye. “You’re everything I couldn’t be because of my past…and all I’ve ever wanted was for you to be better than me…to be something greater than the darkness we came from. And son-” He waits until Dick’s caught his eyes, even if Bruce’s face is blurred by the tears in his vision. “I’m proud of how far you’ve come…and I can’t wait to see how far you’ll go.” Bruce barely has enough time to react before Dick launches himself into his arms, sobbing onto his shoulder. It makes Bruce smile as he wraps his arms around his weeping teenage son, to know that he hasn’t been a complete failure as a father. It’s something that Bruce has thought about so many times…if he was as good a father to Dick as Thomas had been to Bruce, even if he’d only been given a handful of years with them both.

But as he listens to Dick’s stifled whimper of, ‘I love you dad’, it’s all he needs to hear to remind him that he has.

#batfamily imagines #batfamily imagine #dick grayson imagines #bruce wayne imagines #dc imagines #dc imagine #dc comics #dc fanfic #dc fanfiction #batfamily #batfamily fanfiction #batfamily fanfic #batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #robin

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bag-of-teeth · 9 months

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what if. what if i said personified caligula from 2.07 was gender.

#this is a problem i am unwell #can you tell i’m rewatching yj #yellowjackets #yellowjackets spoilers #yj #misty quigley #misty yellowjackets #caligula yj #yellowjackets shitpost

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bionicdragonguardian1 · 4 years

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Voltron Rewritten Defender (1/8)

Also known as My Almost Raging Bitch List for this Goddamn Disastrous Disappointment of a Show

I binged all 8 seasons in under a week, so believe me when I say almost nothing was forgotten between seasons/episodes and I do tend to note that.

If it’s not obvious by the title, I’m planning an entire show AU. I am extremely open to people’s opinions on what I’m currently thinking and when I finally post this I’ll be open to criticism there too. If you would like to avoid seeing anything in regards to this feel free to blacklist #voltron_rewritten_defender because that’s what I’ll be using for this whole thing.

Enjoy, I guess.

Fair warning I am a multishipper, but for this show I leaned towards Klance, so if that bothers you that’s okay, I’m not going to be bashing any other ships (mainly just Dreamworks’ forced Allurance). If you think I missed something for any other ship lemme know! If you wanna have a ship discussion that’s cool too. The only other thing I can think of is that Allura’s attitude in S8 really stuck with me to the point that she bothered me throughout the entire rewatch (I was admittedly one of the people who thought she could be very Mary Sue ish when I first watched this) so that’ll show up now and again.

If you want to look at the Google Doc for the whole show, click the link, if not you can expand this post to see Season 1. I’ll be doing these in chunks, but as some of you know I do a FicRecList on one of my other accounts here @sorcerusdragonbionics so I’m gonna be alternating between that and these for the next couple days.

If you do the Google Route it’ll have you ask me for permission, this is normal and if you request it I’ll give you commenting abilities.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t30IRJonrBFh0qvs8recf3ayGoQ0rx02y0Tg1e4NTaI/edit?usp=sharing

Key

Things I kinda wanna bitch about

Things I did genuinely enjoy and like

Rewatch Thoughts (basically what I remember from further forward and how I feel like it reflects back on earlier seasons)

Ship Talk (behold my multishipping insanity)

Things I think I’ll do in the Rewrite

Writing Notes (mainly for me or as explanation for what I’m planning)

VA and Closed Captioning Things

Other Fic Thoughts

This ended up being music commentary in S8

Season One

Problems with the Season overall:

To be honest if I hated this season I wouldn’t’ve kept watching because by the time I started S3 had just dropped

Episode 1

Here’s the deal, WHY ARE YOU SO LONG BUT SO EMPTY?!?

Yeah, nope, that’s mostly it

Fix the problem of telling instead of showing about the other Lions and remove Allura’s explanation of the Lions if possible (thank you Kross for explaining why it felt so empty- this vid is actually where I started getting the idea to actually go through with a full series AU)

DON'T RUSH THE LION INTROS

Also let the 5 introduce themselves to Allura and Coran

Also Character Drive to Complete Mission Should Be A Thing

Flesh out Paladin Personalities so that the Aris Arrival is End of Part One (making it closer to the length of E1)

Flesh out Lion intros so part 2+3 are more like full Eps without Sendak

Episode 2

75 degrees… that’s definitely in Fahrenheit, which why?

How does no one have a watch with a date on them?

“A man can be driven to do anything if a beautiful woman is just really really mean to him”

More inbetween scenes bc I can

I will accept the transformation sequence here, I’m just not going to write it

Episode 3

Please watch the use of Earth Time Slices please, because it’s confusing

I love the portrayal of PTSD in this show and I would die before I change it

Bye bye transformation sequence

Pidge’s talk with Shiro can please change

Episode 4

“I say Vol, you say Tron” will come up again if it kills me

Lance, how do you know what hotdog water and feet taste like?

I love how Coran is completely nonchalant about the fact that he’s drinking a hair tonic

Shiro, don’t bring down the mood

Goddammit Sendak, you could stay for this arc, but god I want you GONE!

Keith, having an emotion? Really?

The Pidge plot DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN LIKE THAT!

Fight me I will change it

Or minimally change the fact that their selfish motivations are revealed to BAD and should be changed

Oh yeah, let’s not give the ONE GUY with notable homesickness a character arc around that

That moment when you realize Allura is like ‘wtf is a peanut’

Allura, don’t push it, some people don’t want to talk about it

You will have something to talk about, BIOLOGY

Decryption happens here, and next attempt to find family occurs… when?

Poor Coran, if there is anyone who was more forgotten than Lance it was him

Keith isn’t wrong, but he also doesn’t know how to say it without getting mad, which mood

Just pointing out Lance is not only smart, but selfless, tell me how he’s not the main character

My inner Shance/Klance shipper is sobbing

“Bomb fuel” mentioned here, occurs… actually it’s ok

Timelines need to be a thing!

Can I make the fight scenes more intense? Yes, I write them for my YJ Scripts. Will I? Almost definitely.

Keith with that much fire your mask should be closed because smoke inhalation is bad

Can we explain Vrepit Sa before s6?

It feels like Coran forgets that 10k years have passed under an evil empire and part of me likes it, but it hurts me

Episode 5

The Katie flashback is hurts me

I want to add Gender Identity

Can we talk about how Shiro is a nickname for Takashi Shirogane?

That’s not how an EMP works

The Coran sitting on Hunk’s shoulders with a machine gun is everything

I know the back x-ray was a joke, but I still don’t like it

Rax is an idiot, just saying

Bonding Moment!!!

Episode 6

“Intergalactic time measuring competition.”

“We had a bonding moment!”

Where is Sendak’s arm?

Fight me, Pidge’s ‘gender speech’

It will be a gender speech if it kills me

Lance, why are you acting the way you are?

“I figured” and “We were supposed to think you were a boy” ARE NOT PROPER REACTIONS!

Rolo, sometimes I want to punch you in the teeth

Lance’s boner is going to get someone killed

Lance had 4sec of logic and then Nyma brings up Keith, which ofc does him in

Let’s expand on the Komar, yeah?

Quiznack means fuck and NO ONE can tell me otherwise

Keith’s ability to fly is impressive and it’s awesome

Friendly reminder that Lance acknowledged the bonding moment

Episode 7

I LOVE the laser gun sound effects!!!

I just realized that Allura has no clue what an Acronym is

We… literally just talked about this and YOU didn’t know that Shiro, I understand the point, but seriously?

LIONS are TELEPATHIC Shiro DID NOT need to say that aloud!

I do actually like the fact that Kieth gets excited before realizing what he did

FIRE and ICE PEOPLE come on! What the hell?! You barely had to try

“Yes sir?” Keith to Shiro, what?

I love them and their cute little arguments

Left vs Right, thank you Zamber

We be lovin’ Hunay bc it’s pure as hell

Thank you Shiro for validating Hunk’s concerns

You could check a little faster, Allura

I LIVE for this scene

Was it actually Rolo?

Do they have teleporters?

Keith being weird is my favorite thing

I love good big bros who argue tradition to save their baby sis

Zarkon is a bit of a moron

THEIR LIVES ARE IN DANGER ALLURA!

They all came through different doors… how?

What if the answer was no?

I’m ok with Lance embarrassing himself when he’s cocky, some people seem to forget that

Bye transformation sequence, I explained you ONCE and that’s it

Prorock… why are you familiar?

Episode 8

I admittedly forgot that they didn’t know these things would be different

Flying fight scenes I can do, teleporting not so much

Poor Shiro he thought he had an idea and he was wrong

I love Coran’s reaction

Also NO SHIT Allura

UHHHH Pidge said that not and of the other three so how did He know?

Allura may piss me off, but I do love this speech

“Your Altean Energy”??? Coran, you’re an Altean, I’m confused.

The “Sacred Altean” thing I get, but you must be more specific cuz it makes Coran sound like he thinks he’s not a proper Altean.

Oof, angsty

Also, I know we can’t kill Allura yet, but...

I love that Hunk forgot they hadn’t formed Voltron

Bye bye transformation sequence

Ummm, they NEED to explain the Bayard Equip bc that’s… two very different things that occurred between Hunk and Keith’s Bayard Weapons

Why is this a scene? It’s not a dog. So, yeah, I’m with Keith here

Episode 9

THIS IS NOT HEALTHY ALLURA!

I just realized that this doesn’t come back until S..7? 8? Whatever, WAY too long

I can’t unhear “Training Dick”

Did they have homework on Altea?

Be still my Punk shipper heart

WHY is he SO pretty?!

Y’know, the glowing red eye is usually a bad sign

I could SO mean and hurt Keith here

That moment when you’re like 90% sure Shiro heard that somewhere

Not what haunted means Coran, but accurate

Why could Lance see Alfor for a second?

I too would like the answer to “where was the Red Lion?”

PTSD IS AMAZINGLY WRITTEN!

It’s a shame this is NEVER treated properly again

Thank you for NOT making the swimming thing a thing

You didn’t need to TRY Voltron, what the hell?!

Here’s the deal, Altea not being Obliterated-obliterated is actually a really interesting idea

Lance still wins, for the record

If she was infected in any way this wouldn’t drive me crazier than a bot on Halloween

But she’s not so this is BULL

Shallura confuses me SO much…

Ok, admittedly the scene with Allura and Alfor is beautifully heartbreaking

Episode 10

The fact that Zarkon was a close friend to Alfor should be addressed

Also Shiro calling himself “an inexperienced Pilot” hurts

Allura’s a MORON!

YES! MASSIVE ISSUE WITH YOU COMING

Nice puppetry Hunk

What happened to THIS Allura?! She’s reckless but not INSANE (or so boring I might cry)!

Is this the same Druid from Season 8? Pretty sure it’s 8… I forget which, but the one Keith fought

“Don’t walk through that door!” / Keith does/ “I think I told him” // “You are a paragon of leadership, Lance”

Hehheh I love Hunk teasing Lance about Allura

I do actually the fact that I can’t tell what size the purple container is until Keith grabs it

Heheh the Allura interacting with the Galra soldier

The computer sounds like Lance

Also Shiro had that “holy shit” moment

I HATE WRITING TELELPORTING FIGHTS

I’m 99% sure that the ONLY reason I didn’t fall into the Galra Keith rabbit hole was the fact that I binge watched

This scene confuses me… so much now that I know Shallura was apparently never going to be a thing

So confused

Episode 11

That hair flip though...

Coran, I get it, but calm down

Okay, but Keith has a point. Seriously, he’s not wrong.

For the record, Haggar scares me

So much makes so much more sense now that we know Zarkon is the Original Black Paladin

That… makes no sense… “enough essence to open a wormhole”

Why are you transforming? More pieces to shoot at is usually a smart idea…

Hey hey, THACE!

Why can’t you have two active at once? I’m honestly serious.

I mean too OP, got it, but you can maneuver around that for temporary stuff

Shiro, use your words, yeah?

“Thinking” uh huh you mean “telepathy” right?

I genuinely forgot that Shiro got booted from Black

Damn! Yes Shiro! Kick some ass!

Ok, here’s the deal, Keith’s not listening to Coran, but he doesn’t have all the info (LIKE THE FUCKING BAYARD), Zarkon’s the OG Paladin, and he’s in distress

I HATE TELEPORTERS!

“Could have been” … uh Kuron exists ??

Also, Shiro with yellow eyes is fucking terrifying

We ain’t ficking stupid VLD

Zarkon’s a fucking idiot

Written properly his power-hungry attitude works even with him destroying his own ship

But it wasn’t so it’s null

You aren’t even subtle about Galra Keith

How can Allura see through Illusions?

Nobody knows!

Shiro, you have no jetpack, how are you so fast?

“Who cares, wormhole!” mood

I… uh… I want to do SO many things with this idea

Preferably not what they actually do...

#voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary disappointment #voltron legendary disgrace #voltron legendary disaster #voltron #voltron rewritten defender #voltron season 1 #ship thoughts #multishipper #episode thoughts #season thoughts #shiro #lance #keith #voltron allura #pidge #hunk #coran

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ptw30 · 5 years

Text

New Content ≠ New Information

- or why you might have been underwhelmed by the recent Voltron: Legendary Defender trailer.

A few people dropped into my messages yesterday and said the exact same thing, “But Dev, we got new content in the Season 8 trailer. How did we not learn anything new?”

I’m paraphrasing a bit here, but the intent was all the same - we got new content, so we know more about Season 8, right?

Not really, no.

Below the cut - what trailers should tell us, how Season 2′s trailer rocked, what we didn’t learn from the Season 8 trailer, and - okay, I give. There are two new things we learned about Season 8 from yesterday’s meatless burger.

(I can do food metaphors, too.)

A trailer is supposed to do a few things, but its main purpose to explain what plot is coming up and give relevance to the new content.

Let me put this in a food metaphor for you. Let’s say the Voltron Twitter handle promises you food. You assume a burger. Now a good trailer is just about half the burger because a season has two main obstacles - the first problem the heroes must overcome and then a second, harder issue at the season’s end.

So a trailer should explain the initial problem and foreshadow to the final problem. That means you’re still hungry at the end of the trailer, and that’s a good thing. You now need to eat the rest of the burger - or see the season.

Do me a favor - rewatch the Season 2 trailer on Netflix. I’ll wait.

...

You didn’t, did you? *mock glare*

Within the first 31 seconds, you know the “lions of lore” have returned. You know Zarkon, the villain, can only be defeated by these lions, and you know that Zarkon is actively hunting Voltron PLUS to raise the stakes, Zarkon can find Voltron anywhere.

...that’s pretty much, in 30 seconds, is a recap of Season 1 and the entire plot of Season 2.

Then we get - New Worlds, New Allies, New Villains - which rounds out the new places we visit, the Blades, and the Robeasts. The trailer ends with the defacto showdown you’ve been waiting for since the end of the previous scene.

Now, we don’t know if Shiro will win this battle verse Zarkon, so we’re not hungry but ravenous for the rest of this burger. And double points to the creator of this trailer because the scene above in “Space Mall” also foreshadows the second showdown between Zarkon and Shiro in “Blackout,” the second problem of the season.

You essentially have S2 wrapped up in a 1:45 trailer.

Then, when we watched Season 2 - not only did Voltron deliver the rest of the burger, they also threw in some fries and a milkshake.

Good job, VLD Season 2.

Season 8 Trailer - where’s the beef?

The issue with the Season 8 trailer is that it gave us a salad, not even the burger, and I’m not hungry after eating the salad. But I’m also not satiated. In fact, I think the tomatoes weren’t good, and I’m just...not...feeling right.

The trailer starts with a longer version of the teaser trailer from October. I wasn’t thrilled with the original teaser trailer, but I understood it. The paladins have changed over the last two years. Now, we’ve arrived at the final season.

No need to redo that in the first 30 seconds of the new trailer and certainly no need to just take random quotes that don’t really reflect where we are now. But - I’ll give. Okay. You want to set the scene, Voltron. Got it.

But then once the new stuff is supposed to show, you cut to a scene from “The White Lion,” an episode from Season 6.

And okay - the paladins are heading back into Oriande, but...we knew that from the NYCC trailer. Show us something we don’t know.

Then we see Hunk firing his bayard -

- which was great in the Season 7 trailer, too. How about something new? ...sure, okay. He’s in a forest. That... doesn’t thrill me - unless I know the forest is the Forest of Life or something. ...more on that in a moment.

Next, the trailer cuts to Lance who is going into the Void - an old scene from “Postmorteum,” Season 5.

Then we see Allura making a tree glow.

So? Allura can make Voltron glow. She did it in Season 4 - “A New Defender,” so why is this tree important? I have no attachment to this tree - or Hunk’s forest adventure. You gotta give me a reason to care about this forest, Voltron.

Then we see Hunk and Lance flying through the forest, so...again, we’re in the forest. Good. We know Pidge is also in this forest from the NYCC trailer, so...I’m glad the paladins decided to go for a picnic.

Then we see an explosion with the lions - which we’ve seen explosions with the lions before. Why should I care about this particular explosion? (I have a point! I’m getting there...)

Then we see Matt from the NYCC trailer. Not new. Green comes for Pidge. That happened in the first season, “Return of the Gladiator.”

And here - 49 seconds in - is when we get our first new information of the trailer!

We didn’t know that Haggar fired on the original paladins, possibly killing them. Yes! FINALLY. After all, we knew the original paladins were going to show up from the Voltron Tumblr Questions after SDCC. So good. Now we have context. (More on to that in one moment. I have to put Keef in cuz it’s Keef.)

Then Keith uses his Blade of Marmora blade -

- which he’s been wielding since Season 2.

My point is - none of these things mean ANYTHING without context, which the trailer does not give us.

Who is Keith attacking? Why is he using his BoM blade and not his bayard? Without the context, as far as I know is - he decided he likes to use his BoM blade, which he did in “The Black Paladins.”

The forest! Why is that forest important? Give me a reason to care about this forest - that it holds the Tree of Life and the universe grew from that tree. Something! Anything!

Even Allura’s end remarks -

- are a lie because there was an episode called, “Defenders of All Universes” in Season 6.

Voltron, DreamWorks, been there, done that. Move on.

The trailer needed to explain what is actually happening in Season 8 and what makes it special, the final dark night, what are we facing? Haggar? And what? What is she really trying to do and how is it different from what Lotor did in Season 6?

That’s the beef.

Instead of having Shiro promise the team is going to come home triumphant - it’s Voltron. Of course they are going to win. If you actually have them lose and the universe be destroyed, then at least that’d be a true plot twist. Ultimately - the Defenders of the Universe fail to defend the universe. -

- tell us Haggar’s plan. Have Allura say, “Haggar wants to go back in time and change what happened to Altea and Daibazaal. She wants to rewrite history using the Tree of Life.”

What’s the hook here? The reality that we know might never exist. The Voltron Paladins may never have existed, and more over - should the paladins try to stop her - or help her? Is it wrong for them to wipe out the last 10k years of Galra conquering, and if so - why?

And then the lions are also in the middle of this - because they are the reason Altea and Daibazaal ultimately destroyed each other.

Then, show us context or delete context and show us new aspects of the show. Don’t show me Lance and Keith plugging in their bayards to create the big thrusters on Voltron again.

We watched Season 7. We know!

And explosions don’t thrill us anymore without the context. So either show that this is Earth being destroyed - OR better yet - show me the Blue Bayard being plugged into its slot by Allura or Lance. Show me the Blue Bayard and the Red Bayard. Show me the Yellow Bayard and the Green Bayard. Show me the Black Bayard and Yellow Bayard. Show me Black and Green, Red and Yellow, Black and Blue - these are all combinations that have never been done!

Give me something to look forward to finding out, not things we have already seen.

...Okay, there are two places where the trailer achieves this. The first place was above with Haggar and the original paladins, and the second was here -

Sincline or Haggar attacking Atlas, which arguably isn’t new content because we just saw them on different sides of the battlefield in the NYCC trailer - but I’m making an exception because we didn’t know that Sincline and Atlas would actually meet up.

TL;DR - Where’s my burger, Voltron? You’re dropping thirteen episodes two weeks from today, and yet - we’ve only seen 53 seconds of new content. What gives?

I’m not asking you to feed me like YJ, with the entire Dollar Menu. They gave me a five-minute trailer six months before the drop, then a scene three months before the drop, and then a full trailer a month and change out.

I’m just asking you for a solid two-minute trailer. That’s it.

#voltron #vld season 8 #trailer #it's a marketing thing #voltron critical #haggar #vld season 2 #zarkon #shiro #keith

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bluboothalassophile · 5 years

Text

Chemistry

Been a bit since I wrote BluePulse and the YJ rewatch is getting me in the mood for Bart and & Jaime! =)

~~~*~*~*~~~

The night of the winter formal came in a whirl wind of excitement for his mamá was bustling about as Jaime tried not to fidget with his tie. The bug chirped unhelpfully at points when someone moved to fast, but overall, he endured his mamá’s fussing with minimal hassle.

Jaime stood in his room right now, fixing his tie up when Milagro marched in with purpose in her eyes.

“Hermanita, I’m busy,” Jaime warned her, he was trying to remember how the fox chased the rabbit to make his tie work.

“Does Bart know you like like him?” Milagro asked, and Jaime froze, the material of his tie slipping from his fingers as the bug chirped dangerously then, and he looked panickedly at his sister in the mirror. Jaime knew his mamá wouldn’t care, but papá…

Papá was a proud man, and Jaime knew how his papá looked at people like him. It wasn’t good to be different, his papá didn’t mind the bug, but if Jaime liked boys… he dreaded that talk. He didn’t want his papá to be disappointed in him, and he didn’t want the worst reaction to happen and he’d have to move to the Titan’s Tower if the worst happened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Milagro,” Jaime stated firmly. Trying to keep his cool so the bug didn’t lose it’s shit.

“You can tell me!” Milagro insisted.

“No estoy hablando de esto ahora ni nunca.” He snapped.

“You should! He’s cute and he’s totally into you!”

“Milagro!” Jaime snapped spinning on her. “I Do Not Like BART!”

“Lo que sea mentiroso,” she rolled her eyes.

“I am not lying! Get out of my room I have to get ready!” Jaime barked as he shoved her off his bed and out of his room with a defiant slamming of his door. His family might be modern. His mamá would still love him, and Milagro might not care, but his papá was a different matter. And Jaime had barely started mending fences between himself and his papá with how the bug always reacted to his papá! He wasn’t running it!

Leaning on his door he closed his eyes.

He liked Bart. Bart was cute. Bart was fun. Bart understood him. Bart was his best friend. Jaime wasn’t ruining his life because of a simple crush.

Also, despite what Milagro thought, he didn’t know if Bart even liked him.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Bart looked himself over carefully and looked at his sneakers as he walked into the kitchen now.

“You look so handsome!” Joan praised him with a smile, looking him over in delight.

“Very mature,” Jay agreed with a smile, as he looked over his glasses.

“This is ridiculous,” Bart announced. “Totally crashes the mode,” he stated firmly as he folded his arms in a huff. Even his hair was combed back, Tim had said that’s what one was supposed to do for these parties.

“Well, I want pictures,” Joan stated picking up a camera.

“What!?’ he sputtered, feeling his cheeks heat up as he stepped back from the range of the camera.

“Yes, to mark this moment! You’re growing into a fine young man!” Joan praised and he grinned now, shoving his hands into his pockets. There was a flash he didn’t see, but heard, as he indulged her picture wants.

Then he bolted to the Reyes house, snatching some flowers as he neared; he’d been told by Kon that was the right thing to do, and he didn’t trip as he stopped on their front steps. The house was old, one story, looked a little tired but homey as he walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Rocking on his toes he waited a bit, wondering how it was he had agreed to come to the Winter Formal.

The door opened, the light spilling over him and he stared at a lean man, who had greying hair and Jaime’s eyes. He smiled brightly as he tried not to rock on his feet; his uncle had pointed out that it was an unbecoming habit.

“Hey, I’m here for Jaime to go to the Winter Formal!” he said, he was kind of excited about this, but he was trying really hard not to quiver about it.

“¿Qué?…” the man started in stunned tone.

“Is that Bart, oh, yes,” a woman appeared, she was rather slight of build with greying black hair.

“I was told to get flowers,” he said holding them out for the woman.

“¡Qué amor! Come in, Jaime’s almost ready,” she said taking the flowers.

“Kay,” he said nervously as he walked into the house. It was lived in, he could see that, things were old but cared for.

“I’m Bianca and this is Alberto,” she announced reappearing with a vase.

“Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Reyes,” he said. His uncles had drilled manners through his skull before he had ever even left the mainstream timeline of his future.

“Tipo!” Jaime exclaimed.

“He brought you flowers,” Bianca said.

Jaime shot a nervous glance at his dad then smiled at Bart. “You shouldn’t have, hermano.”

“Iris told me to bring them!” he defended.

“Uh-huh,” Jaime rolled his eyes slinging his arm around Bart’s shoulders.

“Wait I want pictures!” Bianca shouted.

“What is it with everyone and pictures!?” Bart groaned.

“You both look so handsome and grown up!” Bianca smiled.

Jaime sighed but nudged him, Bart smiled as he looped his arm around Jaime’s waist and smiled at the camera.

“Later! We’ll be home at ten, Bart’s hanging out here tonight!” Jaime shouted as he steered him out of the house.

“Have fun!” he heard Bianca shout behind them.

“Thanks Mrs. Reyes!” Bart called out as he stumbled, struggling not to trip. “Dude, this is so crashing the mode,” he stated.

“You brought flowers!?” Jaime sputtered as they were now walking on the street.

“I was told that what you did to go to the dance.”

“For a date! Not a friend!” Jaime clarified.

“Oh.” Bart hadn’t thought of that, but he did like Jaime… perhaps this was a date? “Isthisadate?”

“Hm?”

“Never mind!” Bart squeaked.

“Did you try Pokemon Go!?” Jaime asked excitedly and they launched into a bated discussion about the Pokemon that Bart found adorable, and he wanted them all!

~~~*~*~*~~~

Jaime pretended he hadn’t heard Bart ask if this was a date, covering the blush up with a question about a topic Bart loved. However, the bug questioned him about his unsteady heart, and Jaime smiled at Bart’s contagious enthusiasm about Pokemon.

#bluboothalassophile #fanfic #one shot #chemistry #part 3 #hopes for a bastard universe #jaime reyes #bart allen #bluepulse

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b-ap · 5 years

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[181117] B.A.P Forever Tour in Philadelphia - Highlight of my Life

This was really one of the best concerts I’ve ever gone to. Despite being skeptical of JSJ from the beginning, I was still willing to risk it and buy the tickets. I was debating for a while to drop $400 or not for m&g but when you think about it, it was only $30 per photo with each of the boys (+ a hat, hoodie, and whistle) so that’s HELLA worth it. So I dropped nearly $600 for this concert but for real it was SO worth it. I was even willing to go down by bus all by myself and possibly wandering the streets of philly late at night for it but luckily was able to catch a ride!

These two BABYz gave out numbers from the very beginning like they marked down if you were plat or baby package and in the end JSJ and fans actually honored them! It was really great cuz we were able to leave the line to go to the bathroom or get food! BABYz around me were so nice and friendly too ;u; When it was time to go in to soundcheck and for the concert, we all actually got in order! It was REALLY nice like wow thank you philly babyz!! We were let in a little late for soundcheck cuz apparently bap was doing some kind of interview?? As for soundcheck, it was sooOOOoooOOO good!!! They kinda mixed up plat and baby but oh well whatever I still got like 3rd row so *^* WOOHOO! The stage was up really high and the venue was quite small, but philly crowd’s passion was explosive and powerful!! At the beginning of soundcheck Zelo kept like peeking out from the backstage door *^* they were ODing the fog machine so you could only see silhouettes at the door sometimes OTL. Daehyun was the first to come out! He came in this big puffer jacket and had earphones and and was smiling so cutely!! That wonderful wonderful kitty smile!! OH MY HEART PLEASE HAVE MERCY!! And then the others came out! <3 Zelo was wearing like PJ pants lmao the same one he wore in that IG pic of him in the truck, jongup was wearing leather (i think.....), himchan wore the tour hoodie, and youngjae wore a long coat. BUT YEAH the first song they did was TMJ and the crowd was hella LIT!!! Like everyone was singing their lungs out and jumping and being really really excited! We all started jamming out hardcore at the very first note of TMJ and I just knew it was about to be epic. BAP was sooo happy!! They really enjoyed it as well! And then they did DWIF and omfg daehyun was soooo cute cuz we were so loud during the OH!! part that he was like :O!!!!! and gave us two thumbs up!! The others were really happy too!! And then Zelo was controlling the crowd with his hands LOL like he was making us go side to side like a wave and then jongup was doing this weird dance too lmaooo we hyped up each other so much! It was soo much fun ;A; too bad we couldn’t record but JSJ got a ( video )~!! Like just listen to BABYz singing along at the beginning!! ( dh shocked at 0:41, thumbs up at 0:51)

We had to go back outside again after the concert and that’s when the line got a little messy since now there was also GA peeps and the sidewalk is only so big to fit like 3 different lines. But it worked out in the end and we got in order!! AND YA GIRL GOT FCKN 2ND ROW HEEEEEEEEELLLL YEAHH!! I had a GREAT view!! There was actually quite a lot of space and like NO pushing!! (except this one bishhhh but whatever that’s another story -.- i’ll delete her from my memory) But wow pit was fCKN great like wow the fanchants!! The whistles!! NO PUSHING!! LIKE WHAT WOOOW I LOVE YOU (this was an all standing venue btw). When we were waiting for the concert to start, they played a bunch of their songs and everyone was scream-singing the lyrics (well more like trying to LOL we can’t korean) We had our own bap concert with an empty stage lmaooo

AND AHHHH BAP WAS SOOOO GOOD AT FANSERVICE!!! Himchan noticed me like several times i fucking cRy!! He looked and waved at mee TWICE and like gestured to focus on zelo for recording and taking pics when it was his part AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Like last year he saw me struggling in pit (cuz that was HELL) and looked worried I CRY and he smiled at me too huuuhuuu himchan youre a fckn angel I LOVE YOU!!! I made a half heart at daehyun and hE FCKN COMPLETED IT I WAS ABOUT TO FCKN DIE RIGHT THEN AND THERE LIKE !!!!!!!!!!!! JOngup threw so many hearts and kisses at the crowd and youngjae blew so many kisses!! They were waving as much as possible to fans and daehyun, bless his heart, kept saying thank you!!thank you!! at any chance he could get!

During Q&A, bap spent the longest time arguing about harry potter houses pmsl and then yj was just like idk i never watched it (shame on you bro) and then himchan was like EXPECTRO PATRONUM!! (nerrRRRddddd). Jongup said he was fckn Dobby like bruH thats not even a house!!! YJ was like forget this!! and said, “PASS!!” Himchan said that he was Slytherin and then jongup said that Himchan would be fkcn Snape and did this dramatic coat sweeping straightening up his back thing LOL so himchan said Jongup would be a muggle pmsl Zelo did like a broom riding imitation??? irdk.... Next question was what was your favorite song that you’ve ever made. Jongup answered Photo and sang a little of it (so then where is the studio version biiSHHHhh) but lol BABYz were like SEXY CLAP!!!!!! Youngjae pulled out a question, looked at it and was like NOPE! and put it back pmsl! The next question was what tricks can Mochii do and then youngjae was frckn like body slamming zelo and jongup lmaooo. Zelo was sooooo cute he was telling the story of how Mochii bit in all in English!! He said how he was eating and was struggling to explain that Mochii was under the table so BABYz were helping him! He said that he dropped cheese and then Mochii went to eat it but Zelo tried to stop him. Mochii bit and and then Zelo was like “ooh! bloood! my dog is ...wildlife” but the way he said blood was soo cute like the oo in moon instead of “blud” This sweet precious boy!! His English was so good!!!! The next question was to sing happy birthday to a BABY named Jenny (wow you LUCKY girl im sooo jelly omfg). So Zelo sings her hbd really dramatically lmao and they give her their sweaty towel and Zelo gave her a water bottle too!! They’re so sweet!!!!!!!

During their other talk segment, Youngjae was like since our tour in america, philly has been the most passionate! So we all SCREAMED and cheered like crazy! Daehyun was like hold up!! AGAIN! and went to grab a phone. He made us all scream and cheer again so he could record it. The boys kept gesturing to scream louder and more and were totally enjoying the cheers! I hope we conveyed our love for them well enough!! Also Daehyun release that footage soon pls!!! He told us we did a good job screaming lmaoo! Youngjae kept making sounds for us to repeat lmao like ooOOoooo (idk how to describe it LOL) and then was like “maestro!” when trying to silence us with his fingers like a conductor LOL but we kept screaming things LOL someone was like “this is my first kpop concert!!” so youngjae was like “sounds good!” and gave a thumbs up. Jongup also did the conductor thing hahahah Daehyun promised to come back again next year and I REALLY REALLY hope that they do!!!!

The solos were beyond amazing. Like rewatching youngjae and daehyun’s solos made me tear up like how do such beautiful voices exist in this world? Did I really hear those ethereal voices in real life? It was sooo mesmerizing and breathtaking! Youngjae’s gorgeous baritone voice singing that smooth ballad huuuhuuu my heEArt!!! Daehyun’s heartwrenchingly beautiful voice, song, and lyrics wow let me just lie down and drown in my tears rn bYE! DaeUp’s duet was so cool, Jongup’s TML was perfect as usual, Zelo’s solo was sinful oh my those hip and that peach *blushes* it was suuuper fun and Zelo enjoyed it a LOT too!!! He lifted up his shirt!!

THEN IT WAS M&G TIME!!! They set up the background right in front of the stage. We lined up to go in and bap was standing like: jongup, youngjae, daehyun, himchan, zelo! It was plat individual photos first, then baby group + hi-touch, then plat group + hi-touch. BABYz really went for it!! Like a lot of us got hugs! We were able to watch the whole m&g but they didnt let us have our phones out ;A; (and I also had used up all 6.5 GB of space on my phone OTL) BAP were SOOOOOOOO sweet UGH we stan literal ANGELS!! They love BABYz so fricken much!! JSJ was sooo nice to allow a lot of fan interactions AHHHHHHHH BAP did a lot of cute poses and played around with BABYz! LEt mE TELL YOU THAT BAP IS SERIOUSLY SOOOO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL, HANDSOME, GORGEOUS, STUNNING, MESMERIZING, UP CLOSE HOW DID MY HEART EVEN SURVIVE?????? I GOT TO BEAR HUG EVERYONEEEE THEYRE ALL SO TALL AND IM HELLA SMOL SO THEY HAD TO SQUAT DOWN FOR ME HUUHUU THYE LIKE PATTED MY BACK DURING THE HUGS TOO AHHHHHH WE HAD A DECENT AMOUNT OF TIME WITH ALL OF THEM!!! I TOLD DAEHYUN I SAW HIM IN KOREA IN ASU AND HE WAS LIKE OOOOOH THANK YOU!!! CURSES TO MY TINY AF VOICE CUZ I DONT THINK THEY ALL EVEN REALLY HEARD WHAT I SAID SOMETIMES!!! I told Zelo he was too tall for me lmaooo I really wanna see how much he had to bend down for me! I seriously wished that my m&g was recorded but :((((((((((( After my m&g I legit squealed and hugged my friend lmao but the staff yelled at us for being too loud LMAO BUT GIRL WE JUST HUGGED FCKN KINGS LIKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We tried to contain ourselves as much as possible LOL Daehyun said thank you out loud to a lot of BABYz after their m&g! Zelo kept dabbing at BABYz lmaooo a lot of them didnt notice tho cuz he would do it after they had already passed him HAHAHA when it was my hi-touch I dabbed at Zelo hahah and he dabbed back :D I wanted to get a group hug from them but i got too excited and FUCKING FORGOT to ask for a group hug *kicks myself* Now I wish I had written my name on a name tag (like “HI I’M JUNIE”) and hope they wouldve said “HI JUNIE” but I didnt OTL

I really wish I could relive the whole day. I wish I was able to record my m&g and got a group hug or them to say my name or I had said something more to them but it’s ok my heart is very very happy and I love bap soo much. My 7 year love for them continues and I will really love them forever. Let’s meet again soon, my loves! I’m looking forward to then~!

#i wrote this during the 2 hour drive back to the city #i actually ditched my friends that weekend to go to the concert LOL cuz it was the same weekend as an anime convention #but i dont regret it at all LOL im sorry friends #i still remember the m&g #i miss them a lot #this fanaccount is so cringe but hey its my feels #lowkey wish i can like steal the venue's security footage of the night lmao #gosh theyre so beautiful #i wish i couldve gotten that last group hug though huuhuu #oh yeah warning this thing is hella long #if you read it then wow #fanaccount #bap #reread this to relive that night #and now im sad #:(

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