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multiscribe · 4 months

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Title: Just Like Daddy

Fandom: Daredevil

Characters : Matt murdock /female reader little mini Matt (you’ll see)

Rating: soft R for cannon typical violence and cursing and maybe some flirting

Notes: inspired by this pic I saw this morning-done in one day special thanks to @hellskitchens-whore for the inspiration

In memory of my darling Sammie who would fit right in with Matt

“Let me get you some excedrin honey” you whispered as you rose from the edge of the bed trying to be as quiet as possible.

Your husband Matt Murdock the devil of Hell’s Kitchen was having a rare night off. Not because he wanted to of course but migraine’s as a rule fucking sucked donkey eggs.

It had been a whirlwind courtship between the two of you but even Karen and Foggy could see just how far gone he was. And when you knew you knew right?

So it surprised no one when a year to the day you two broke the news that you were expecting your first child.

Of course there had been some heartbreak when you learned your little girl would never be able to see like normal kids. And it had taken some extraordinary prodding from you to bring Matt back from the utter ocean of Catholic guilt he had been wallowing in.

‘Teach her to defend herself Matt teach her how to fight like you do so we never have to worry’

Famous fucking last words as you would soon learn.

Because your baby girl took to it like a duck to water and these days when she wasn’t working on her homework she’d usually be up at Fogwell’s with Matt either helping him train or training herself

Even Stick had taken a liking to her.

By the time she was 4 and a half you two had learned that her senses far outpaced those of her father.

But she’d been content to do normal little girl things. Like paint Auntie Karen’s nails or braid uncle foggy’s hair.

Until tonight.

Until tonight Matt had never come down with a migraine so bad it stopped him from going out to his ‘night job’.

Gently pressing the two pills into his left hand and water bottle into his right you whispered “I’m gonna go check on her then I’ll come to bed okay?”

He had barely taken his meds when your panicked cry sent him rushing toward your daughter’s bedroom.

She was gone

Glass on the floor and perfume winding through the room. Someone knew they knew about her abilities and his.

He could only pull you close as the devil in him seethed and raged. Someone was going to pay dearly for having taken their little girl.

He had called Karen and Foggy to come sit with you in case she managed to find her way back. He also didn’t trust whoever took her to not swing back and try and snatch you too.

What he ‘saw’ down by the docks was not something he expected and a ton of emotions hit him at once

Pride

Shock

Worry

Fear

Relief

Because leaping silently from container to container there was his daughter.

She was dressed in a miniature replica of his black outfit and some pleased part of him saw that she’d remembered to wrap her hands.

He took off after her having to catch himself several times from stepping in. All that training with Stick had done her good. You were gonna kill the pair of them of course but that was a fight for another day.

She had found an illegal dog fighting ring and had beaten the fighters to a bloody pulp. This was no surprise to him as she LOVED dogs and you and he were discussing the merits of getting your daughter a service dog prospect for Christmas.

However hearing the unmistakable scrape of metal that signaled a gun being raised had him reaching for his Billie club.

But as it happened she didnt need his help

Because before he could even throw it there was a huge hulking black shepherd that launched herself out of the darkness and latched her teeth onto the man’s arm drawing a scream from him.

Once all of the threats were down he heard his daughter call softly to the dog who dropped the man’s arm before she could rip it off and came to sit by her side.

He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised that when he approached there was an ominous sounding snarl from the dog.

The devil in him smirked. It seemed they found her Christmas present early

“It’s okay girl..that’s my daddy” before finally she stepped around the dog and launched herself into his arms

“God baby do you know how scared you made your mommy and I?” He knows he should loosen his grip but she’s here and real and safe thank you god above for protecting my little girl

“Didn’t mean to” she whispers against his shoulder “you was sick daddy people needed help. I was careful like uncle stick taught me”

Oh he was SO gonna kick Stick’s ass the next time he saw him!

“How many people did you help tonight baby?”

He felt her tiny lips curl into a smile “well I stopped some bad men from taking an old lady’s purse. I helped another lady when the guy she was with he was gonna hit her-you said a man should NEVER hit a woman that it’s..illegal? In the state of New York”

Matt could feel the tears pricking at his eyes. God when had his daughter gotten so smart?and so brave?

“That’s right baby what else?”

She leaned up looking thoughtful “well I thought I should come home soon and I was on my way I promise!! But then I heard someone hurting doggies so I came down here.. they kicked one and they hurt it bad so I made THEM hurt instead. Then you found me!”

Matt exhaled gently before setting her on her feet “right now little miss there’s gonna be some ground rules. First you do not leave the house without me understood?You scared me and your momma half to death when we couldn’t find you. Second your grades fall even a little this?is done” she gave a silent nod “okay daddy” he could tell she was confused so he softened a little “your grandpa Jack had the same rules for me.He didn’t want me to fight but kinda like you I found my way into it but not til much later”

She tilted her head “what’s rule 3 daddy?” He chuckled softly “you have to apologize to your momma for worrying her”

She nodded “Kay I didn’t mean to honest! But I’ll ‘pologize can we keep Sammie?”

How could he say no to his angel?

The trek back was slower on foot as both had to slow down to allow Sammie to keep pace. She had some glass shards in her foot that would be cleaned up as soon as the chaos died down.

The sound of the roof door opening had you running for the stairs before Karen or Foggy could stop you

“Mommy!!” A sob tore from you as your daughter launched herself into your arms

“Baby are you hurt?where were you what happened?” It took you a minute to process what you were seeing

Your daughter pulling the black mask off her dark hair tumbling down her shoulders in a mess of curls

You looked to Matt silently questioning caught between relief and pure mamma bear rage

“I found her by the docks. She wasn’t taken she just wanted to help out. We already laid some strict ground rules” because you knew she was as stubborn as your husband -at least this way you knew she would be safe as she could be.

“Oh and this is Sammie” the shepherd eyed you warily before drawing closer for a sniff. When she learned that you were related she merely laid down at your feet with a tired huff and rolled over on her back demanding belly rubs

You had a love of dogs too especially Shepherds so it was no real question there. But it took you a moment before you realized what Matt had said and looked to your daughter who smiled “the bad man was gonna try and hurt me with his gun..but she protected me. Just like you said ‘member?”

At that you fully broke embracing both Matt and your daughter fiercely.

You had told her that story when she was first learning how to be respectful of other animals. How when you were at your lowest long before you met Matt that you had a pure black shepherd who was insanely protective of you. When you had suffered being homeless not once but twice in the cold Pennsylvania winter she was the only thing that kept you going.

And how someone had placed a call to animal control and she had been taken away.. for good

A nudge under your arm drew your attention. The resemblance was uncanny but it couldn’t be.. you were told she had been put down as she had seemingly out of the blue turned vicious and it had broken you.

A little bit of gray on her muzzle she’d be the right age..

“Sammie..babygirl?” When you were knocked back onto the floor by a black missle of fur and began to weep hysterically at first Matt was concerned.

But then he picked up your words between sobs “it’s you! Oh my god it’s you! My darling oh god how oh I don’t care!”

Matt pulled his daughter up onto his lap his own mask discarded and smiled at his daughter’s questioning look “you know I was thinking she was gonna be your service dog…but do you think you could share with mommy?” The little girl nodded “sure! Why’s mommy crying though?”

Matt smiled and kissed her temple “despite you scaring us half to death…you made a miracle happen sweetie… that IS Sammie”

Your daughter’s eyes widened almost comically and soon the three of you were on the floor together alongside Karen and Foggy being covered in kisses and the occasional paw to the face (you’d allow it this once she was happy to be home after all!)

You leaned over whispering to Matt “I’m still gonna kick Stick’s ass the next time I see him”

Matt smirked and pulled you close for a kiss “gotta beat me to it first sweetheart”

The End

#matt murdock x fem!reader #fluff #little angst #happy endings #Matt being a good dad #Christmas miracles

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game-boy-pocket · 13 days

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I'm an early zoomer who wants to familiarize myself with the SNES and pre-GameCube games in general. Can you recommend any that can be finished in a short time, like two or three sittings?

I guess that depends on how long your sittings are, but I think SNES is better known for having substantially longer games than the more simple arcade ports that came before, so "two or three sittings" might be a tough recommendation. Personally speaking I get a bit fatigued and tend to take a while to finish games that are considered short and beatable in one sitting, I use save states in between play sessions ( or I used to, when I was still using emulation ) but if you want a shortlist of "one sitting gaems"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV - Turtles in Time

Super Castlevania IV

Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse

Super Mario World

Any of the Super Mario All-Stars games

Do Dre Mi Fantasy: Milon's Quest ( may need english fan translation )

Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3, they're tough so some learning curve may be required

Generally any beat-em-up, Final Fight, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, ect, but Ninja Turtles is best.

Suppose any fighting game, if you care for those, Super Street Fighter II would be a god choice.

Star Fox, I'd recommend trying out the Star Fox EX romhack, as it makes the game run a bit more smoothly and has a lot of extra content.

Kirby superstar is five smaller games in one and each one is pretty short. You could easily split those play sessions up

An American Tale: Fievel Goes West is an adaptation of a sequel to a fantastic Don Bluth film. I don't remember if the sequel was any good but the game was a pretty average platform shooter that I beat in just a few hours, not very hard, mouse protagonist is cute.

You could probably take down Yoshi's Island pretty quickly I think the Mega Man X games are designed to be beaten in one day, they're a bit too hard for me though.

And you can probably pick up just about any puzzle game or arcade port and have a good time, some of them aren't meant to be beaten, rather, you set a high score. Bust-a-Move, Tetris Attack, Wario's Woods, things like that. If you want some interesting history, check out the SNES Mouse and Mario Paint, as well as Mario and Wario.

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the-weirdos-mind · 4 months

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Unexpected Reunion

It was completely unexpected. The Heartless had jumped onto the Gumni Ship as the four inside were traveling to another world. “Uh guys, we got company.” Goofy said.

“You think?!” Donald yelled. He held the controls for the ship, tightly in his wings. The ship had started to sway as he tried to rid the creatures off.

“Is there anyway we can fight them?” Selena asked.

“No, if we leave the ship then we’ll just be floating in the Lanes! All I can do is try to get them off!”

The ship started doing a variety of turns and loops as Donald tried to rid the Heartless. Sora and Selena held onto their seats when the duck started. Goofy held a hand to his mouth. “Gwarsh, I think I’m gonna be sick.” He mumbled. Before anyone could hand him something to contain the vomit, the alarms started going off.

“What’s happening?” Sora asked.

“The Heartless have damaged the engine.” Donald said. “We’re gonna crash!”

“But we’re not even close to a world!” Sora said.

That’s when Selena felt her Keyblade in her hand. Something in her was telling her to use it to open up a gateway to a world. Why? Why was her instinct telling her this? She had no time to think, she simply pointed the Keyblade ahead and fired a spell. A portal opened just as the ship started to plunge down. The next thing she knew, she and Sora were falling from the sky. Fast.

The two landed on the ground. Selena grunted when her body made contact with the ground. She groaned as she steadied her arms to lift herself up. “You okay Sora?” She asked as she looked at her friend. The pained groan confirmed that he is still alive. She got up and helped him into a sitting position.

“Thanks.” He said. He then looked around. “Where are we? Where’s Donald and Goofy?”

“I don’t know. We should get some answers.”

After making sure that they had no major injuries, the two stood up and took off. They were on the rocky ground of a mountain. They walked until they came to a path and followed it up. After some time of walking, they came across a gate. They saw ivy covering the bottom of of the metal bars and some pillars. On top of the pillars stood a raven holding a key in its beak, looking at each other. They looked at the top of the gate to see an insignia, a raven donkey a key and flying with black wings on the edge of it. Then they saw the name of the location, Night Raven College.

“A school?” Sora said in confusion. “Who could help us here?”

“The principal.” Selena said. “Let’s go in and find them, maybe we can get some answers.” She grabbed a hold of one of the gates and pulled. The metal swayed in her direction and the two entered. They walked along the cobblestone streets to find the campus. They stopped when they saw something particular. The street they stood on had seven statues, four on one side and three on the other. These weren’t ordinary statues, but statues of people they had defeated. Selena felt a chill go down her spine when she saw Malecent’s statue. She then looked at the writing. “The Thorn Fairy.” She mumbled.

“Why are there statues of—“ Sora started to say but another voice joined in.

“They’re called the Great Seven, and you shouldn’t speak bad about them here unless you want to be beaten to a pulp.” The voice said. They turned around and saw a girl with a cat like creature next to her. When Selena saw her, she felt the color drain from her face. She knew who this is, even though both had gotten older, she knew those eyes. They’re the eyes that’s shared between her family. The girl with glasses looked at her in confusion.

“What are you doing here?” The creature said. “We can’t hold any more people in Ramshackle!”

“Grim! Be nice!”

“Don’t tell me what to do Henchman!”

The girl rolled her eyes before looking at the guests again. “I’m sorry about him. Can I help?” She asked.

“Do you know where the principal is?” Sora asked. “We need his help with figuring out where we are and how to find our friends.”

“The Headmage here is a bit useless. I’ve been trying to find a way home because he can’t be bothered to do it. But, y’all are in Twisted Wonderland, a world full of magic.

“Okay.”

“What’s your name?” Selena asked.

“Oh I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” The girl said. “I’m Estella.”

“As in Garcia?”

“Yes… how do you know that? Who are you?”

“Look, you may not remember me since it’s been so long but I’m Selena, your cousin.”

Estella’s eyes went wide and she took a good look at Selena. Memories started to resurface, the girls playing with toys, playing games with her and her brothers, watching movies at sleepovers they begged their moms to have. She softly gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. “Selena?” She mumbled. “My god, I-I can’t believe it.” She immediately ran and gave her cousin a hug. “I can’t believe you’re still alive.”

The long haired girl returned the hug. “And I’d thought I’d never see any of my family again.” She whispered. Both girls started crying as they hugged each other tighter. Never in a million years would either of them expected to reunite with each other in a different world. It was completely unexpected.

@adrianasunderworld @mangacupcake @writing-heiress @marrondrawsalot @anxious-twisted-vampire @achy-boo @abyssthing198 @yukii0nna

#estella garcia #selena garcia #garcia cousins #AND THE REUNION IS DONE!!!#they’re definitely gonna be swapping stories of their adventures later

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redeyeflyguy · 10 months

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Wonderful Things That May or May Not Be Wonderful!!! The evil Ghastly King has sent his forces across the land to steal all the bananas and solidify his rule as king of the jungle. Donkey Kong wants to show him otherwise. Go get him! This game comes from an era of the stubborn ape's history where Nintendo just didn't know what to do with him. An era that gave birth to the DK Bongos, a bongo game controller peripheral that predates the first Guitar Hero. For this instrument of fun, only five games were made but considering Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is one of them, I'd call the whole experiment worth it. DKJB is a platformer with a functionally simplistic control scheme all about collecting bananas, stringing aerial combos and tricks together, and mercilessly pummeling any weird looking creature that gets in your way. It's got plenty of variety too with swimming segments, riding segments, and even Punch-Out styled fighting matches against evil gorillas! Yeah, the lack of every other notable DK character is concerning, it is a bit of a short and easy ride, and your arms will probably hate you after prolonged play sessions but like the story I describe to start this post, it doesn't really matter. The fun, frantic, unique, accessible and super repayable score based gameplay does. That's what make Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat so wonderful!

P.S. I think I've only played this game on the DK Bongos once as a demo in a Toys R'Us. I actually beat the game with a Wiimote and Nunchuck using the New Play Control! version on the Wii. Aside from that one time my brother and I got grounded because we got into a brawl after I said he was stupid after he called Donkey Kong stupid (yes, that happened), I have really fond memories of this game.

P.P.S. I do currently own the version with the DK Bongos but I haven't played it yet. It's currently on the long list of things I need to do.

P.P.P.S. Did you know that the team behind this game would go on to make Super Mario Galaxy and the teams' leader would go on to be the director behind the Nintendo Switch? Yeah, not bad for the bongo platformer!

P.P.P.P.S. I was originally going to end this post with a crack about how a platformer played with a music peripheral is something that a speed runner would come up with but then I wondered "Wait has someone beaten Dark Souls with the DK Bongos?". Lo and behold, here is a video of a guy beating a boss from Dark Souls with DK Bongos.

youtube

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lizardthelizard · 2 years

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Ranking Pinocchio Adaptations Part 2

Hello! Disney’s horrible cgi Pinocchio is due to release soon and I promised myself that I would finish this ranking before it does...

Anyway, this is part two of me ranking the 22 Pinocchio Adaptations that I’ve seen. You can find part one here.

This ranking is in order of worst to best. Therefore, this part includes all the middling rankings.

(Obviously spoilers for every adaptation listed).

Numbers 15 to 8. Mixed/Mediocre/Good but not great

15. ‘Pinocchio: The Series’ (1972) by Saban

Wanna see someone beat the shit out of Pinocchio? This is the adaptation for you.

I mean, seriously, Collodi might have burned Pinocchio’s feet off, hanged him from a tree, chained him to a doghouse and turned him into a donkey, but even all of that pales in comparison when you start watching this. I swear, they beat the crap out of this kid every, single episode. And, if they’re not physically abusing him, the other characters are bullying him and making fun of him.

This series is long and very, very strange. I’ll confess that, whilst I have technically sat through all 52 episodes, after a while I did mostly put it on to nap (and every now and then I would wake up to the shrill yelling of Pinocchio, never knowing if he was being attacked or having fun).

Anyway, there’s a lot going on in this series. Witches, mermaids, kings & queens, talking animals that only Pinocchio can understand (which is something I do quite like). But what’s probably most noteworthy is Pinocchio’s own characterisation. Because this kid is a complete brat. Sometimes to the point where you kind of want him to get some comeuppance because he’s so whiny and mean spirited at times. AND YET, on the flipside of that, when he does get punished for his actions it’s...way too much. And you start to feel so sorry for him again because he’s being burned at the stake or beaten and dragged across the floor (and, ofc, the Fairy only ever appears to help him out well after he’s learnt his lesson).

This series is bizarre. There’s one particularly notorious episode in which Pinocchio throws a rock at this kid that had been bullying him, accidentally knocking the boy into a river. The boy can’t swim and, after some deliberation, Pinocchio jumps in to save him. But he fails. The kid drowns and Pinocchio spends the rest of the episode trying to make it up to the boys mother, including substituting himself in place of her son and allowing her to take care of him and play mother to him. THIS IS A WEIRD SERIES, OKAY.

Anyway, this show has some fun elements and it is so damn wild all the time that it’s often impossible to look away but mostly? it’s pretty average in terms of quality and not something to be binged. Rather, a show to catch an episode of every now and then and go ‘hey what the fuck did I just watch?’ at the end of it.

14. ‘Pinocchio’ Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1997)

Okay but this is a very cute adaptation. As stated at the beginning, part 2 of this ranking is for both ‘mixed’ adaptations and adaptations that are ‘good but not great’. This falls into the latter of those.

The basic plot of the episode is essentially just the Disney movie but extremely trimmed down (since this is only half an hour long). It features Will Smith as Pinocchio and Chris Rock as the termite, which is absolutely bizarre (especially in light of recent events)

Idk it’s not very long and (like half of these movies) you can find it on youtube pretty easily if you do wanna give it a watch. Oh and also? The Blue Fairy becomes the ‘Blues Fairy’ in this which is SO fun. It’s not particularly captivating and tbh I wouldn’t feel the need to rewatch it for a long while yet, if at all, but the representation is really nice to see and there are one or two interesting little ideas.

13. ‘Pinocchio’s Christmas’ (1980) Rankin/Bass

I’m such a sucker for stop frame animation...

PLEASE his design is so sweet!!! And the animation is just beautiful, truly. Really lovely to look at and I love the designs for Pinocchio, the Cat and the Fairy in particular.

The story is sort of a mash up of the original book + the Disney movie + ...Christmas? And also they give him a love interest for some reason (which apparently ‘Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night’ stole seven years later, when they also tried to give him a blonde puppet love interest.

The songs are fun and pretty catchy tbh although I will say that ‘Let ‘em Laugh’ is a blatant rip off of Singin’ in the Rain’s ‘Make ‘em Laugh’.

I know that this movie is a huge classic for a lot of people but its an adaptation that I didn’t watch until very recently so I guess I don’t have the same nostalgia for it. It’s a really nice little movie, for sure, but I can’t rank it much higher because it was kind of just...okay. Good, but not great.

12. ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ (1972) Dir. Giuliano Cenci & Jesse Vogel

There’s something so terribly enchanting about this puppet and I don’t know what it is.

This is an adaptation that’s extremely faithful to the book which is fun although maybe to it’s detriment at times. I like this movie, I like this Pinocchio especially. He’s a sweet boy and also a little shit and I love his design and the way he talks. His design is pretty obviously inspired by by Attilio Mussino’s illustrations (see below, right) and I very much love and appreciate that.

The animation is mostly really lovely (although rip Lampwick, the ugliest bitch in this movie) and overall I think it’s nice to look at.

I guess the reason I can’t rank this movie too high on the list is that it’s just a little flat. If you want to watch an accurate adaptation of the book in an animated movie format, then I would absolutely recommend this. However, because it IS so book accurate, it does drag a little bit here and there and there’s nothing new or interesting in it to make it stand out or give it any decent rewatch value.

However, the ‘hammer throw scene’ (aka, the scene in which he throws a hammer at the cricket and kills the little bastard) is extremely funny and easily one of my favourite takes on that particular moment from the book.

11. ‘Pinocchio’ (2002) Dir. Roberto Benigni

I have no idea what to do with this movie so I’m sticking it here.

It’s just...It’s such a weird movie but also....it’s not as bad as you might expect it to be. Because, yes Pinocchio is played by 50 year old Roberto Benigni and the Fairy is played by his wife. Which is...Weird, guys. It’s weird.

But there’s also clearly a lot of love poured into this project and once you immerse yourself in the movie, you’re able to enjoy it for the odd little movie that it is.

Also, Pinocchio and Lampwick (sorry. I mean ‘Leonardo’) share a tangerine lollipop in literally the gayest scene in any Pinocchio movie so like?? good for them

This is also the only adaptation I’ve ever seen that actually bothers to include my fave guy Eugene (left, below).

(For those unaware, Eugene is a character in the novel that gets hit in the face with a textbook and knocked unconscious. He’s only in one chapter and is never seen again. I love him dearly.)

10. ‘Pinocchio’ (2012) Dir. Enzo D'Alò

You know...I really, really WANT to like this adaptation more than I actually do.

The visuals are GORGEOUS. The character designs are just beautiful. The songs are not especially memorable but they’re very sweet and enjoyable enough as you’re watching (the doctors rap is a BOP).

And yet? It’s just lacking something for and I’m not sure what.

The movie is pretty faithful to the book, even including some of its more obscure elements (such as a passing allusion to the snake that appears in one chapter, the eating the pears ect) whilst still putting its own original spin on certain areas (the almost psychedelic circus-like designs of the land of toys particularly stand out to me). Also, the Fairy is exclusively a child throughout and that really works in this version.

This is a really cute movie. Pinocchio has a good balance of being a sweet lil guy and also being...kind of an obnoxious brat. It’s just...not quite there for me. But I would definitely recommend that any Pinocchio fan watches this movie at least once, if only for the stunning visual designs.

9. ‘Pinocchio’ (1940) Disney

Some people will probably tell me this should be much higher on the list...some will tell me it should be much lower. But LMAO I have extremely mixed feelings about this movie so it’s going right in the middle.

Disney’s Pinocchio, in my opinion, is a great movie in its own right. Pinocchio is BABY and very likeable because of that. The soundtrack is really wonderful + always fits perfectly with it’s accompanied scene. The animation is incredible and still holds up today, 80 years later. It also has one of my favourite adaptations of the Cat and the Fox, two villains that I often find extremely tedious in other versions. Not to mention, the donkey transformation sequence is one of my faves because DAMN it’s absolutely chilling. The use of the focusing on Lampwick’s shadow on the wall is just so, so clever.

Oh, and Figaro (beloved). Best addition to any Pinocchio movie.

But of course it’s also got it’s cons. Stromboli for starters, whom of which I don’t really want to dwell on but...yeah. Jiminy is a useless little prat and does nothing but flirt with the Blue Fairy and oogle inanimate puppet women. I hate him so much. Geppetto doESN’T EVEN WALK HIM TO SCHOOL???????

But I guess what really gets under my skin when it comes to Disney’s Pinocchio, is just how far removed Pinocchio is from his book!self. Disney’s Pinocchio is a sweet baby boy and that’s...nice, right? Very charming. But Pinocchio (despite the fact that he can be genuinely sweet and kind) isn’t meant to be like that. Not ALL the time. So when these bad things happen to Disney’s Pinocchio, it doesn’t really make any sense narratively speaking. He doesn’t get the opportunity to make bad decisions on purpose, suffer the consequences (even if said consequences are unnecessarily cruel in most adaptations) and learn from those actions. Instead, the poor decisions he makes are born only of naivety, and he’s constantly manipulated into EVERYTHING and it’s just...not right. Walt was so terrified of making him unlikable that he ended up stripping away so much of Pinocchio’s original personality and ngl it kind of hacks me off a bit.

Also, Disney’s Pinocchio never got the opportunity to be...different. In the book he’s treated almost as sub-human. He’s beaten and used by various characters constantly throughout because ‘he’s a puppet and therefore it’s fine’ (and I have MANY feelings about this sentiment). The second he arrives at school he’s bullied because he’s not like the rest of them. (And yes, okay, there are moments like this in the Disney movie (the most prominent being when Stromboli threatens to turn him into firewood) but Stromboli is a VILLAIN). He was never treated badly by his peers and so?? Why does he even WANT to be a real boy here? There’s just no real motivation outside of ‘the Blue Fairy told me I should be a real boy’, something she told him from after the second he was born.

10/10 WILL watch again. It’s a good movie, no doubt. But there’s something...missing...Something kind of...off... and THAT is why it doesn’t make my top 7.

8. ‘Pinocchio and Friends’ (2021)

‘Pinocchio and Friends’ has SO much heart and love and care put into it and the ONLY reason it doesn’t rank higher is because it’s a show that is explicitly for very small children and therefore some of the episodes can be a bit tedious/ overly simplistic.

Anyway, this show is SO good. Every single main character is a character from the book (including more obscure characters like Medoro the dog and the Snail maid) with the exception of the pirate doll Freeda (but she’s a great addition and an excellent companion for Pinocchio to go on adventures with). There are so many little references to book material and it’s extremely evident that the creators are passionate about what they’re doing.

And Pinocchio’s design is so cute (I love his paper hat)!! And the Cricket is actually funny in this!! And the Fairy is ALSO hilarious and gives off ‘weird aunt’ vibes!! And Master Cherry looks like THIS:

This show is so genuinely funny and the character designs are so unique and SO good and I have a LOT of love for it I really do. I can’t wait for the rest of the episodes to finally be released <3

#pinocchio tag #IT'S BEEN 7 MONTHS WHOOPS #I finished over half of this in like march. Idk why it's taken so long IUSDIFISBDFU #btw serena I stole your image of eugene sorry #I couldn't be bothered to scrounge around for a screenshot of him on the horrible quality link i have #benigni's pinocchio is shockingly hard to find for some reason #god this post is SO rambling I'm sorry AAAAAAAASKUDHASDBHJASHDA #pinocchio #libby ranks pinocchio content #let's see if it actually shows up in the tag or if tumblr wants me to censor the swears 😌😩

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thebibliomancer · 2 years

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Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #13: The UNIFIED FIELD Theory

October, 1986

GRAVITON RULES!

Like hell he does!

Hm, now that Graviton has come back again again, now would be the best time for Hawkeye to remember those anti-gravity arrows he once invented. Fight fire with fire, Clint.

Anyway. I don’t love Simon Williams’ constipation face front and slightly off-center on this cover.

But it reminds me that the team deserves this loss for enabling Simon’s bad costume decisions.

Last time on West Coast Avengers: the team has been dealing with one-off threats and goofus villains for a while while not dealing with the arc plot of Master Pandemonium. A trio of villains got together and attacked L.A., loosely themed after three of the four fundamental forces. The West Coast Avengers managed to beat them, with teamwork and the good ol’ TRADE PLACES, but then Graviton showed up like a jerk to make this a two-parter.

Also, he’s trying to make Tigra his catgirl girlfriend or something? He’s a creep.

Graviton: “Yes, Quantum -- Halflife -- here’s a scene to live forever in your alien memories -- the destruction of the Avengers! And remember this as well -- you owe it all to the genius of Graviton!”

Hawkeye: “I’d stick it in my memory, too, Mr. Heavy -- but it’s already fulla the other times you claimed you’d beat us -- so you can stick it where the sun don’t shine!”

Good comeback, Hawkeye.

No, seriously. Good one.

Villains always be ‘i’m unbeatable, i’m so hot, i can get a perfect score in Donkey Kong’ and ignore that they’ve been beaten so many times before.

It’s like Kang in the recent three-parter in East Coast Avengers. Where Cape Kang’s entire plan hinged on the idea that the Avengers couldn’t possibly beat a Kang (despite so many times that they did) but they could weaken him for another Kang to take out.

I guess they wouldn’t be villains if they got themselves a humility.

Anyway, Graviton takes Hawkeye’s mockery in stride and just starts gloating how cool he is.

Graviton: “We stand on a rock ten miles above the Earth -- because of me! A breathable atmosphere is held in place around the rock -- because of me! You and Mockingbird cannot pass through the gravi-net without being crushed to the rock -- because of me! Iron Man and Wonder Man, despite all their power, cannot push themselves away from the rock -- because of me!”

Hawkeye: “When do you get around to creating Heaven and Earth?”

Graviton: “This is Heaven and Earth -- for me! Graviton was meant to be a god and rule supreme -- and here I am!”

Oh man, Hawkeye mockingly called Graviton for thinking he was god and Graviton just went ‘no, I really do.’

He’s doing a hubris.

Can’t wait to see things fall apart.

Anyway, Halflife agrees yeah sure Graviton beat the Avengers when Zzzax, Halflife, and Quantum weren’t able but, hey, she and Quantum have feelings too! Ego feelings, specifically.

Graviton soothes them that he needs them for his cool fundamental forces theming.

AND THEN RECAPS HIS ENTIRE LIFE

To be fair. These guys are apparently aliens. They really have no context for any of this.

We already covered his backstory in his introduction in Avengers #158 (wow its been a while) but here we go again.

Frank Hall was a scientist working on teleportation (not gravity) who decided to double the power and see if that did anything.

And what it did was blow up in his face.

But also scramble his molecules with those of an experimental anti-gravity element. Because, sure.

Frank Hall tried to hide his new gravity powers at first, for fear that people would think him a freak.

But the opportunity to be a petty dick proved too great and he started throwing things at people who criticized him.

And as is well known, throwing things is a slippery slope to levitating a scientific facility up into the sky on a chunk of rock and wanting to take over the world. Also, he was being a real creep about one of his female co-workers.

Wow, flying rock. Being a creep? The more things change, right?

Anyway, Graviton claims that his only remaining link to humanity was that he really wanted to bone his female co-worker. When the Avengers attacked, he easily defeated them (with gravity) but when “the woman proved too petty to deal with exaltation” ie chose to jump off his floating rock rather than be his captive love interest, that was his real defeat.

And he blames all his subsequent defeats on co-worker Judy.

Graviton: “You see, all I’ve ever wanted as Graviton was total control -- total satisfaction -- but it may truly be said that I’ve never recovered from that betrayal!”

Hilariously, Halflife is listening to Graviton’s version of Graviton’s backstory and realizing that teaming up with this dude is a mistake.

Anyway, after the West Coast Avengers kicked Graviton’s ass to close off their limited series, Graviton started wondering if maybe he was going about this all wrong.

So instead of making trouble as soon as he easily escaped the law, he went back to the metaphorical drawing board and jumped on the idea of the unified field theory, the idea that “four forces account for everything in nature!”

Graviton: “First and foremost, of course, is gravity -- the attraction between two bodies! Then there’s electromagnetism -- the attraction between the particles in an atom -- the strong force -- the attraction between particles in an atom’s nucleus -- and finally, the weak force -- the attraction between matter and anti-matter -- the attraction that leads to death! So, since my power grants me control over anything with mass -- including light waves -- I altered all light leaving Earth to carry my plea for those who might fill the other three slots --”

This is wild.

Anyway, Graviton claims that Quantum lived in an alien sun and then moved into the Earth the Sun because of his message. I still don’t get how he represents the strong force.

And Halflife apparently killed every other being on her home planet. Which doesn’t exemplify the weak force as described here because she ages people, not explodes them.

No alien responded to his call for an electromagnetism guy, so Graviton chose Zzzax instead but he didn’t expect much of him and yeah, no, he sucked as much as expected there.

And Graviton’s Grand Evil Plan and why he gathered Three Loosely Considered Fundamental Forces and sent them after the Avengers... to keep them busy so he could kidnap Tigra.

Like a creep.

Graviton: “The nature of all forces which compromise the unified field is attraction -- the yearning of two polar opposites to unite -- like you and me!”

Like a super creep.

Graviton says that since he’s been spying on Tigra for so long, he knows that she’s too horny to resist and then starts making out with her.

And she doesn’t resist.

Cool, great, I hate this subplot, this is awful.

It gets awfuller or Graviton interprets it as awfuller because Quantum says something in his language and Graviton interprets it as Quantum asking for a turn.

Graviton: “No, Quantum! We are agreed to assist each other on projects of evil -- and nothing more!”

Halflife: “We all have projects of evil, gravity man!”

You card-carrying villains. Ridiculous. Sound like Saturday morning cartoon villains. ‘We all have projects of evil!”

Then again, Halflife did kill her entire planet for shits and giggles apparently so whatever.

After Graviton leaves, Mockingbird pulls out a secret radio transmitter that the guards didn’t find and tries to send a distress message to the East Coast Avengers.

But everything is proceeding as he has foreseen, etc etc, and he catches the radio wave and shoots them into space. Because he can do that. Its science.

Meanwhile, back in the subplot that only Hank Pym remembers, Hank Pym is following up on the Master Pandemonium subplot.

And like he suggested, he’s picking up where Firebird left off looking for information at occult bookstores.

He visits Mr. Carstairs’ Grimoire Book Shoppe and asks Mr. Carstairs if he knows anything about the Darkhold or Master Pandemonium.

Mr. Carstairs denies that the Darkhold even exists or that he’s heard of Master Pandemonium. Hank figures that he’s lying but it’s not his job to follow up on that. It’s enough of a lead that he can point the Avengers at.

What Hank misses is a demon emerging from the floor after he leaves the Grimoire Book Shoppe.

The demon under the floor: “He says he searches for Master Pandemonium... but demons deal in lies, thrall! He could as easily be from the master, searching for me!”

And she decides to follow Hank out of paranoid suspicion.

Right, there is that thing where Master Pandemonium hates demons and is looking for demons. Stands to reason that there are demons that want to avoid being found.

Anyway, back at Graviton’s newest flying rock, he decides to do a trust exercise with Tigra and takes off her leash and collar. The one he put on her because he’s a creep.

Tigra immediately tries to jump out the window and bonks into a gravity field.

Graviton isn’t surprised that she tried that. He tries to convince her that she wants to be his catgirlfriend and all the benefits it offers.

Graviton: “You can rule my empire as an empress -- a priestess to the glory of power made flesh! And as for your plan to kill Master Pandemonium --”

Tigra: “How -- how do you know about that?”

Graviton: “I have watched you these past months by bending light waves to my eyes! I saw your talks with the Balkatar! I certainly have no use for a man as headstrong as Pandemonium -- I’ll kill him for you!”

To reiterate: he’s kind of a creep.

Tigra gets angry with him talking about her like he owns her and declares “I’m a person! I’m a person with claws!” and lunges to attack Graviton.

And he just faceplants her with gravity.

He leaves her in a gravity dome and tells her that she’ll join him eventually because TOTAL PLEASURE.

This isn’t remotely the point but I bet you anything Graviton is a shitty lover.

Left in the dome with nothing but her thoughts, Tigra thinks.

She thinks what a creep Graviton is. But big and strong. But he humiliates her. Which maybe she’s into. She liked kissing him and likes the sound of total pleasure.

Tigra: “I could soften him up over time! I could end up a goddess! OH NO!! What was I DOING?!!”

Freaked out suddenly about how far gone she is into the whole cat soul thing, Tigra activates the cat amulet on her top. Which turns her into her human self. Or just makes her look like her human self?

It’s been described both ways. But Tigra describes it like its a transformation, not a magic image inducer thing.

Greer Nelson, Not-Tigra: “I’m not an animal -- and I won’t become one!”

A guard wanders by and sees a random woman trapped in a gravity dome, that she’s not Tigra who Graviton has dibs on, and that there’s nobody around... and, uh, I’m pretty sure he has some thoughts about that.

Random guard: “Hey, baby, you got a name to go with those gorgeous legs?”

I expected the work culture of Graviton’s flying rock supervillain lair to be absolutely rancid.

Greer asks how the guard just walked through the gravity bubble like it ain’t no thang and he explains that he has a little device that neutralizes the gravity effect.

Greer: “THEN I’M TAKING YOURS!”

And she jumps the guy.

Apparently her fighting skills suck when she’s not cat powered. (And she does note later that her body feels stiff and strange compared to being in the Tigra body). Like she gives as good as she gets but the guy is tossing her around and punching her in the face and shouting stuff about how how he’s stronger because he’s a man.

Greer does eventually knock the ass out by capitalizing on the gravity dome.

He’s immune to it but it slams her down like a ton of bricks. She just arranges it so that when the gravity dome slams her arms down, they land on his throat.

Take some more judo lessons from Cap(tain America) when you get the chance, Greer.

She steals the little device and the duder’s uniform and heads off to enact A PLAN.

Some guards try to stop her as she’s wandering around because they don’t recognize her and points here to their minioning, its good guarding to actually question something out of place even if she’s wearing the right uniform.

A guard: “Hey! I don’t know you!”

Greer: “Yeah, well, I don’t know you either! But the boss knows me, and if you want to call him, I’m sure he’ll explain my duties to you in great detail!”

A guard: “Hey, no problem! If the boss vouces for you, we got no problem here!”

Another guard: “You’re not Tigra, and that’s all we have to watch out for!”

Well. You get what you pay for with minions and faceless guards. Good aggressive bluff, Greer.

As Greer searches the shadowy parts of the base, she thinks how much she loves sunlight and how she’d rather be Tigra basking in the sunlight and getting head pats from Graviton before rejecting the notion.

Wow, Tigra has her claws in deep.

Anyway, Greer finds Halflife meditating and claims to the alien supervillain that Quantum is totally planning on destroying her. And then finds Quantum and claims the same of Halflife.

Both Halflife and Quantum stomp off to confront the other.

And apparently there’s some goofy ideological differences here, or at least according to Halflife.

As ever, Quantum speaks to the beat of his own drum.

Halflife: “You! Alien scum! I should have known a power devoted to expanding life would turn against my dark destruction!”

Uh, sure?

You’re really identifying with that ‘weak force’ thing, huh?

This feels like a very silver age sort of thing. I may be way off base but it just feels like older, simpler, sillier character writing.

Halflife declares this whole team-up a mistake and goes to attack Quantum, who becomes a crowd, and then they fight.

Any Quantum she touches “ages halfway to his final hour” but there’s so many Quantums that she can’t avoid taking hits. And Quantum is strong enough to give Wonder Man a good fight.

Graviton notices the big, noisy brawl but doesn’t want to wade into it himself. So he calls over guards to throw at the mess.

Most of the guards guarding the Avengers come running at Graviton’s word, so Greer goes into action.

Still disguised as a guard, she claims to the two remaining guards that they need to go help the boss. They argue that someone needs to guard the Avengers but Greer just needed to keep them talking long enough.

She snatches their anti-gravity boxes and shoves the guards into the gravity cage, slamming them into the ground.

Greer tosses the anti-gravity boxes to Hawkeye and Mockingbird so they can escape the gravity cage.

Hawkeye: “Tigra! I knew you were fakin’ with Graviton! I knew you were an Avenger through and through!”

Mockingbird: “You sure are a heck of an actress, cat-lady!”

They’re right. She is a heck of an actress and an Avengers through and through. But they’re assuming that she faked her make-out with Graviton so that’s going to have to be a conversation later, I guess.

The anti-gravity boxes are then used to dispel the gravity effect on Iron Man and Wonder Man so they can get up off the ground.

Wow, these anti-gravity boxes work really well.

If the Avengers don’t take them back to the Compound to reverse engineer and keep them around for In Case of Graviton, then they’re idiots.

Speaking of the man, the Avengers go looking for him to throw hands but they find that he’s had to wade into the Halflife/Quantum fracas after all.

And the three-way fundamental force fight is causing a build-up of their respective energies.

Wonder Man suggests that the Avengers need to stop the fight before it’s too late but by the time he does, it’s too late.

Quantum is blown off the floating rock with a SPLAMM! and Halflife falls down smouldering. Leaving Graviton the winner of the three-way but only in a pyrrhic way.

The fundamental forces fight has caused his powers to go out of control, shooting the floating rock toward SPACE.

Iron Man tries to push the rock back toward Earth by doing a handstand

but its very goofy looking and I don’t know what he was thinking he would accomplish and I guess he doesn’t either, since he abandons the attempt after one whole panel of trying.

He quickly switches gears from ‘push rock back down’ to ‘ABANDON ROCK!’

Wonder Man concurs and tries to grab Graviton to save him.

Graviton: “I refuse to be subservient to anyone now! Not even a Wonder Man may carry a god!”

Wonder Man almost argues the point but decides ‘fuck it’ and leaves Graviton to get shot into space.

I know heroes try to save everyone but sometimes you just gotta let a man hubris into oblivion.

Instead, Wonder Man and Iron Man grab Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Greer, and ALL THE MINIONS! ... Uh, well, the ones that are conveniently nearby. The ones that Greer knocked out... uh... well...

Most of everyone was rescued, yay!

Graviton gets launched into space. But, y’know, fuck ‘im.

And then the West Coast Avengers take the two piles of minions to the Rancho Palos Verdes Police Station.

I’m not even sure what they’re going to be charged with.

Anyway, Hawkeye decides to say something only a little patronizing to Greer for her MVP role in this adventure.

Hawkeye: “You did great, Tigra -- again! It used to surprise me sometimes, but not any more!”

Greer: “I’m not Tigra! Don’t call me that! I’m Greer -- a woman with a cat’s soul overlaid on her! I almost forgot that -- but I never will again!”

Mockingbird asks if that means Greer will never become Tigra again. Greer says she has to change back to Tigra in order to still Avengers (which she does want to do). She’ll just have to stay on guard against the “seduction of that form!”

Which she privately doubts she can.

Can’t wait to see how this goes.

I know that eventually it will lead to Hank putting her in a cat carrier but there’s a lot of middle bits I don’t know.

Anyway, back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, Hank gathers baseball gear for the big East vs West Coast Avengers baseball game (AvA? Civil War -2?) unaware that the demoness from the Grimoire Book Shoppe is spying on him.

I also can’t wait to see how that goes.

But seriously, there’s a baseball game to get to.

... Although the East Coast Avengers need to wrap up some Namor nonsense first. After that, baseball.

Follow @essential-avengers because I will cover THE DRAMATIC BASEBALL GAME and some less important dramatic other stuff that happens after the game.

#essential avengers #west coast avengers #avengers #Graviton #Halflife #Quantum #Hawkeye #Mockingbird #Hank Pym #Iron Man #Wonder Man #Tigra #and someone who is less Tigra #essential marvel liveblogging

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mental-mario · 5 months

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100%'ing Games and the Pressures of Perfectionism

"Hey baby I'm not your superhuman, and if that's what you want I hate to let you down. I got your hopes up, now I got you hoping that I'm gonna be the one to let you down."

If you know the song/band without looking it up, I f*** with you! 👌

I know there are many competitive gamers out there, but I am not particularly one of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm no slouch, but I sure do not claim to be an expert. If you beat me online, you won't be the first! 🤣

But I probably will beat you...if you want to find out, friend me on Switch with my friend code: SW - 4419 - 5159 - 3401

Beat me, and I'll s*** your d*** (proverbially) with a shoutout, plug, whatever you like! (within reason) but WHEN I beat you, you gotta chuck a nice tip my way...because I want your tip, baby! Don't worry, I will appreciate you for it.

Anywho, back to the topic of this post, I was raised to be rather competitive, even though my nature is really not to be so competitive. For example, if I got a B for a grade, my parents would be concerned and ask why it wasn't an A. Needless to say, I'm a huge disappointment to my family in this life. Oh well...Comment below if you can relate to that! So it makes for an odd paradox in me of being highly competitive in some respects and not at all in others.

In terms of video games, there are many games I have beaten but not completed 100%. Two that come to mind are Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, but there are many others. It used to bother me quite a bit, due to my OCD, that I didn't finish every task and complete every achievement, even though it really means nothing.

I have also achieved high scores as a kid in the arcade for TMNT, where my name and score was posted up on the cabinet, until it was eventually beaten, and I also participated in the Donkey Kong Country competition edition at Blockbuster, where I had the high score almost to the end. Someone did wind up beating it, and I finished in 2nd place. I have finally accepted that about 25 years later, but I was pissed at the time when I was about 8 years old.

As good as I was in gaming, my friends were always more naturally competitive than me. I have one friend whom I used to beat senseless in Super Smash Bros Melee when we were high school seniors. Didn't matter if it was 4 players, one-on-one, items or not, and no matter what stage or other conditions, I would beat him every single time. I would be Mario and he would always be Captain Falcon. I was a gracious winner, and he was not. He was also a sore loser and couldn't accept losing. He would continue to challenge me for rematch after rematch all the way until 3am, when I would finally let him win a match so he could screech victoriously and I could go home to get some sleep! He never did seem to question the fact that I would always win until that final match...and of course, I had to make it look competitive or else he wouldn't accept the win and harass me for yet another match.

I've known many people growing up who were similar in that they were completely incapable of accepting a defeat or even a setback. They took the phrase "win or die" too literally and grew up competitive to what I believe amounts to a very unhealthy level. I'm thankful to say I have laid down the conditioning of perfectionism and have accepted that I am, of course, not perfect nor do I pretend to be. I think everyone accepts that they aren't perfect, but the attitude and approach and veneer that they were on a daily basis promotes themselves as nothing but perfect. Perfect status, perfect life, perfect possessions, perfect friends, perfect relationship, perfect family, perfect parents, perfect career...you get the gist. Any veering off course of this image portrayed to the world can send one spiraling out of control into a pattern of self destruction, self sabotage, and self abuse (and regular abuse as well). Might be why we as a society need to get super intoxicated on the regular, so as to be able to tolerate ourselves and our shortcomings that we were taught to never embrace, display, or learn how to harness into a strength in our lives.

I'm rambling on now, so forgive me. I have recently reached a more manic, creative and inspired state, so I'm on a bit of a roll now. I've also begun jotting notes towards a script/storyline for a game that came to me last night. Came so hard that me and it were practically up all night together. That said, I'll look to share that in a future post, as long as you promise to click Follow and like the post because I can use your friendship...for my personal gain!!! Hahahahaa!!!!

Wait, did I say that out loud? Whoops!

Please donate as well because I can also use your financial support. The bigger the donations, the better the gifts get! Last gift winner requested to stay anonymous, but thank you so much anyway!

Friend me on Switch and send an invite my way! I'll be happy to help you reach a high score or if you'd rather compete, I can put you in your place...8th! 😁

Until next time, friends, keep your heads up and remember that life squashes us all sometime, but it eventually gets up off of you so it can go squash someone else! (cheery, ain't I)

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raekleindogpaintings · 3 years

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Sometimes when I feel so consumed by anger, or sadness, or numbness and I just need to start ranting for hours about politics or the obliviousness of my nation to their extreme racism/ableism/general bigotry or about my trauma or about somebody else's trauma and I’m just too tired and can't find my words I listen to no children and it makes everything bearable

#it's so cathartic #it's unapologetically hateful and that's really validating y'know #like sometimes I just can't gather my fancy words and talk about how misogyny has affected me since I was a lil baby #or about all the animal cruelty I’ve witnessed and all the animals I saw with my own two eyes get killed #or about how every time I open my mouth to criticize something racist in some Egyptian comedy I get the weird disgusted looks and the ‘’stop #-being a twitter snowflake’’ talk #and about how the teachers in my elementary school mistreated us #and how worse they've mistreated the disabled students #I remember once when I was in first or second grade one of our fucked up teachers said:#do you want to get beaten up like donkeys? donkeys who never care and beg for more beatings? do you want us to treat you like the cripples-#-down there? and he pointed to the ‘’special school for differently abled children’’#the children were all cannibalizing each other and getting cannibalized and nobody cared #they encouraged it. even #and about how normalized child abuse is here #and about how I can never walk down the street without clutching my keys and glancing around #and I just need to cry ‘’I hate you. I fucking hate’’ at so many many people #it takes all of my hate and anger and turns them to something so beautiful #it's beautiful #the melody is not angry as the words are. it's cold and full of light like a winter morning #like running away in a meadow until your feet are blistered and never looking back #it's like they're saying ‘‘your anger can be this beautiful’’#music loveposting #vent #very reliable posts #child abuse tw #ableism tw #animal cruelty

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sky-berrie · 3 years

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How do you think the batboys (+ possibly Bruce) would react to a male SO having an inappropriate emotional response. Specifically laughing as a reaction to pain/extreme emotions. Not being able to control it and seeming hysterical. - ⛓

Hi there!

Thanks so much for the ask! I hope you enjoy this 😊

-Sky

Bruce

When you and Bruce first start appearing in public as an official couple, Bruce’s public relations (PR) manager will probably voice their concerns about your relationship. His PR manager might feel that you are not good for his public image. “If Y/N has a fit of laughter at the gala, you’ll be the laughingstock,” argues the PR manager. Bruce will fire them on the spot. It’ll probably blow up into a big scandal in the tabloids.

If you happen to read the stories, it probably plants a seed of doubt in your mind. You might start to feel like you don’t deserve to be with Bruce. However, don’t bother trying to be noble and break up with him to preserve his public image. He won’t let you go unless you truly don’t want to be with him.

Bruce doesn’t like it when you use self-deprecating humor. If you say something like, “Your PR manager isn’t going to be happy with me. You’ll probably have to give them a raise for all the damage control they’re going to have to do,” Bruce will immediately shut that down. He refuses to let you talk about yourself as if you’re a burden, even if you are half-joking. He reminds you that, “laughing isn’t something you can control and that’s okay.”

If you’re nervous about attending an event, Bruce helps you prepare by scoping out the building and figuring out where to stand and mingle so that you always have a quick escape if you start to feel overwhelmed or need to take a break.

If people are gossiping about you, Bruce will confront them. He doesn’t use threats. He’s composed and professional when he insinuates that they’re insolent ignoramuses for being judgmental. That usually leaves them feeling embarrassed and Bruce is satisfied with that.

Dick

Dick is a former entertainer so he enjoys making people smile and laugh. He doesn’t see your uncontrollable laughter as a negative trait. If you need some cheering up, Dick will tell you how much he adores your laugh and how lucky he is to hear it. Of course, he understands how uncontrollable laughter might cause you distress, so during those times, he will likely hold you and tell you that everything is going to be okay.

Dick won’t force you to go out in public if you’re anxious about having an uncontrollable reaction in a social setting, but he will strongly encourage you to try. He doesn’t want you to miss out on life and he also just really loves your company. Some days are good and you challenge yourself to get out in public while other days are harder and you don’t feel up to doing anything outside. Dick will let you know that it’s okay to take the day off. If you’re skipping an event (e.g., graduation, a concert, a party), Dick will do his best to bring the event to you. He’ll decorate your home appropriately for the festivity and make sure you have a great time.

If an episode of laughter occurs in public, Dick will find you a safe and comfortable place to calm down. If people are sincerely concerned for you, Dick will politely explain if you are comfortable with him telling people. If people are being obnoxious to you, Dick will tell them to mind their own business. If you are getting harassed, Dick will pull out his badge and become Officer Grayson. He’ll give the douchebags a warning and will make arrests if necessary.

Jason

When Jason witnesses your laughing fit for the first time, he’s genuinely worried about you. He doesn’t know what to do and feels useless. He’s not sure if you want physical contact or space so he just hovers around, waiting for a hint. If you want comfort, he will hold you in his arms and rub soothing circles on your back. If you want alone time, Jason will busy himself by making you your favorite snack so you have something to eat when you’re feeling better.

Jason absolutely hates when you feel ashamed of your emotional reactions. If you put yourself down and say, “I laugh like the f*cking Joker! I’m as screwed up and damaged as him!” he will immediately tell you otherwise. “You are nothing like the Joker. You’re kind and compassionate and selfless. Living with inappropriate affect doesn’t change any of that. And I don’t want to hear you say you’re damaged ever again. There’s nothing wrong with you. Got it?” he says sternly.

If someone else dares to compare you to the Joker, Jason will go berserk. Even if he doesn’t intend to seriously hurt the person, he will by accident because his strength multiplies by tenfold when he’s beyond furious. Sometimes Red Hood’s foes will mock you because it never fails to get a rise out of Jason. Anyone who knows Jason’s story knows that the depraved clown is still a major sore spot for him. Having been mercilessly beaten and murdered by the supervillain and being forever haunted by his maniacal laughter, Jason’s hatred for the Joker is probably justified. Jason refuses to let others disrespect you like that.

Tim

If you are distressed by your inappropriate emotional reactions, Tim will do everything he can to help you manage them. He will suggest therapy and doctor’s appointments and will offer to take you there. He will even ask to attend a meeting with you so he can learn how to best support you. If your therapist recommends using an emotion chart to practice labelling your emotions, Tim will constantly remind to use it throughout the day. He’ll even print out the chart and hang it on the fridge so you have the option to share your feelings with him if you are comfortable. If your doctor prescribes medication, Tim will make sure you take it properly (e.g., at the right time, with/without food).

If you are feeling down about yourself, Tim will use logic to try to convince you that you shouldn’t be ashamed because it’s not something you can control. “Would you tell a person with allergies to be ashamed of themselves? No, that would be ridiculous because they have no control over it.”

Tim, like the rest of his family, is treated like a celebrity in Gotham. Naturally, the public is interested in his dating life which means you are also a target of the paparazzi. If you are worried about experiencing a laughing attack in public and having it captured on camera, Tim will get you “anti-paparazzi” clothing. It’s made out of a reflective material which causes the flash from the camera to reflect back and completely ruin the photo. It’s common for celebrities to wear an anti-paparazzi jacket, but Tim will get you all sorts of custom-made clothing pieces so that you can still be stylish. For example, if you are attending a gala, he will have some fancy clothes designed for you.

Damian

If kids at school are cruel to you, Damian will stick by your side and act like a personal bodyguard. He’s witty and often has a snappy comeback for the taunts and teases that you endure. You might be hysterically laughing and a passerby shouts at you, “You sound like a donkey!” and Damian will retort, “Your native language, I presume?” He won’t engage in physical fights unless it’s necessary for your safety. For example, he will intervene if someone is shoving you around or stuffing you in a locker, but only using enough force to stop their harassment.

Damian is overprotective which can make things worse for you. He’s always fighting your battles and that’s just one more reason for bullies to pick on you. They prey on you when you’re alone, “Hey chuckles, you going to man/woman up and fight me like a big boy/girl today? Or should I wait for your nanny to show up?” If you mention this to Damian, his first impulse is to confront the bully about their behavior. You have to remind him that would only prove the bully right. Damian will grumble something about injustice but will leave the situation be as per your request. He makes an effort to respect your independence and let you stick up for yourself, but he often slips up because it’s his instinct to protect you.

If you must leave class because of an episode of uncontrollable laughter, Damian will accompany you. The teacher might tell him to sit back down because he doesn’t have a hall pass, but he doesn’t care. He will walk out of the room without a second thought. He’ll stay with you and help you calm down in any way that he can. He’ll also offer to work on the homework with you so that you don’t fall behind.

#batfam headcanons #batfam x y/n #batfam x reader #batboys headcanons #batboys x reader #batboys x y/n #bruce wayne headcanon #dick grayson headcanon #jason todd headcanon #tim drake headcanon #batfamily headcanons #batfamily x y/n #batfamily x reader #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #time drake #Damian Wayne #robinchicklets

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shutupanddance · 3 years

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Idea? Loki *the God who loves to talk*

Meets a mute who dosent mind listening.

How cute!! Coming right up <3

The market was deafeningly loud, full of voices and clanging pots and screaming chickens. Loki made his way through the crow, enjoying the chaos. But he wasn’t the only one enjoying it.

You were a hooded figure standing behind a fruit stand, adjusting the small wooden signs on your baskets that named prices. You wore a soft smile on your face, and Loki was struck by how clear and bright your eyes were. He was stopped dead in his tracks, staring at you.

Another man appeared out of the crowd. A large, blonde, scarred man with three fingers on his left hand. He tried to haggle with you in a language Loki didn’t recognize, and your contented smile turned into a definitive frown. You placed your hands on your hips, and shook your head. When he continued to try and haggle with you, you made a shooing motion with your hand. He swatted it out of the air.

Loki watched your eyes turn icy.

Grabbing a bushel of corn, quick as lighting, you slapped the blonde man clear across the face. The sharp edges on the corn stalks cut like razors across his face.

The man looked like he wanted to fight back, but with you standing menacingly there with that corn in your hands, and with blood now dripping down his face, he decided it wasn’t worth it, and left.

Your smile returned at the sight of his back.

Calmly and carefully, you dipped the bushel of corn into a water basin by your feet, cleaned it thoroughly, then placed it back with the rest of the produce.

Loki made his way over.

”Hello, miss!”

You looked up, beautiful bright eyes meeting his not-quite-blue, not-quite-brown ones.

”May I purchase that corn, please?”

Your smile expanded, lips parting over teeth. You nodded.

But when you tried to hand him the corn, he shook his head.

”No no no, that price will not do. I’ll pay ten less.”

You snatched the corn away, and, as quickly as you had smacked the man earlier, your smile vanished. With a harumph sound, you flipped over one of the wooden signs (this one hung in the air from your tent), and on the back it said “closed”.

You began to gather up your baskets and place them on a donkey cart behind your tent, clearly fed up with the market today. Loki felt bad.

”Miss, miss, I didn’t mean-“

You whip around, fresh corn stalk in your hand, and wave it in his face. The message is clear: don’t come any closer. He nods.

”I just admired how you handled the man before. I wanted to see you in action once again.”

You rolled your eyes. Once everything had been packed away, and you mounted your donkey and took off, you realized that this tall, dark-haired stranger hadn’t left. You sigh.

”I’m Loki, by the way.” Ugh.

He has the nerve to keep walking and keep talking.

”You handled that other brute quite efficiently. Wonderfully, really. Though I’m not sure you could have beaten him if he took it to the next level.”

Without a word, you lifted the hem of your shirt, revealing an impressive array of scars scattered across your ribs and side. You should see the other guy, they seemed to say.

”I see,” Loki said. He got the picture.

He walked quietly for just a moment, which gave you the chance to take a good look at him. You observed quietly until suddenly, with that same lighting speed again, you plucked his wrist from his side.

Loki half sprung into fighting stance, then realized that you were inspecting the bones in his wrist. With a disgusted look on your face, you jerked your head back, signaling the god to get into your wagon. He obliged.

What happened next is history.

You made Loki a hearty dinner (having convinced yourself that he didn’t eat enough). He talked most of the time, so it took several hours to get him to finish it all. But as much as that bothered you, his stories didn’t. He had seen many worlds you never experienced, learned languages you’d never heard, and seen beautiful sights you couldn’t dream of.

And there was something about his voice that was soothing. That put you at ease. It was like honey on a scar. Softening.

You practically have to chase him out after the sun sets, because he’d much rather stay there and watch the way your eyes dance in tune with his tales. But he finally leaves.

And comes right back the next day.

Loki doesn’t visit every day, and sometimes you won’t see him for weeks on end. But, when he does come, he comes with more stories of what he’s been up to. And he‘s useful, so you can’t complain. He’s good at counting money, even if he’s horrible at stacking fruit without knocking everything over. And your donkey seems to like him, wonder of wonders.

Even if all he did was knock fruit over, or cause scenes in the market, he provides something else you needed:

A friend.

And you‘re eternally grateful for that.

#loki odinson #loki reader insert #loki fluff #loki imagine #loki x reader #loki the series #mcu loki #loki #loki disney+#masterlist

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the-king-andthe-lionheart · 3 years

Text

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Arya Stark and her Cinderella Motifs

In A Song of Ice and Fire, GRRM often uses fairy tale motifs to help tell a character’s story. Sometimes this motif spans all throughout the characters arc while other times it will only be used for one or two scenes, or anywhere in between. And often one character can have several fairy tale motifs at different times in their arcs or even running concurrently. For Arya, she has quite a few fairy tale motifs in her arc, but for now I’m going to focus on her Cinderella motifs that are mainly prevalent in A Clash of Kings but do show up at other times all throughout her arc as well. I’m going to focus primarily on Arya’s A Clash of Kings arc, but we will be stopping by A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows a few times too. And I am going to use several versions of the retellings of Cinderella, including the Disney version, but only the 1950 original and none of its sequels. I also want to note that not all the parallels are obvious due to things being more metaphorical or symbolic, while other times being whatever subversion that tickled GRRM’s fancy at the time.

There are many common aspects across the board when it comes to Cinderella retellings. Often it entails the heroine losing one or both of her parents, being oppressed by her abusive stepmother and stepsisters and being forced into menial, backbreaking labor that leaves the heroine dirty and often covered in ashes. It usually entails a magical guardian who helps the heroine, magical transformations, ballgowns and a ball where she falls in love with either a Prince or a King. An identifying item is also involved, usually a slipper made of gold or glass, where one of the pair is lost when the heroine is running from her beloved. And the Prince/King almost always searches the realm for the woman that identifying item belongs to, and when he finds the heroine they usually marry.

Written out like that it’s hard to believe that this is a motif used for Arya. After all she’s not in the position to be going to balls and she’s just a child so it seems unlikely at the time she’s at Harrenhal she’s going to fall in love. However, this motif appears all throughout her arc in various and creative and subversive and repetitive ways, and motifs don’t have to be all or none and they don’t have to be in the order the original stories were laid out. A lot of people also don’t like the idea that Arya has an actual Disney Princess motif in her story because she’s a “tomboy”, but the fact is that Arya is a Princess at the time she’s at Harrenhal, it’s even explicitly stated in Arya X ACOK, whether people acknowledge it or not, where a lot of these motifs take place. I know some people will be dismissive of this and think I’m reaching, but I hope upon reading this I’ll have convinced you of this motif being present. :)

Step-Mother and Step-Sisters

Some of the two most common features in any variant of Cinderella is the “Persecuted Heroine” and the “Female Persecutor”. Often this manifests as the wicked stepmother and the evil step-sisters, but in some versions a stepmother does not appear, and it’s the heroine’s older sisters who confine her to the kitchens instead. In the opera, La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini inverted the gender roles where the heroine Cenerentola is oppressed by her stepfather. And in some retellings at least one of the step siblings is somewhat kind to the heroine even. We symbolically see these archetypes many times in Arya’s narrative with various types of inversions.

When we enter ACOK, we find a dirty and disguised Arya traveling with Yoren and the Night’s Watch recruits, having just lost her father (a subversion of the prevalent theme of Cinderella losing her mother very young). She is also being bullied by two older boys, Lommy and Hot Pie:

At Winterfell they [Sansa and Jeyne] had called her “Arya Horseface” and she’d thought nothing could be worse, but that was before the orphan boy Lommy Greenhands had named her “Lumpyhead.” - Arya I ACOK

That wasn’t the hardest part at all; Lommy Greenhands and Hot Pie were the hardest part. - Arya I ACOK

“Look at that sword Lumpyhead’s got there,” Lommy said one morning […] “Where’s a gutter rat like Lumpyhead get him a sword?”

[. . .]

“Maybe he’s a little squire,” Hot Pie put in. […] “Some lordy lord’s little squire boy, that’s it.”

“He ain’t no squire, look at him. I bet that’s not even a real sword. I bet it’s just some play sword made of tin.”

Arya hated them making fun of Needle. “It’s castle-forged steel, you stupid,” she snapped, turning in the saddle to glare at them, “and you better shut your mouth.”

The orphan boys hooted. “Where’d you get a blade like that, Lumpyface?” Hot Pie wanted to know.

“Lumpyhead,” corrected Lommy. He prob’ly stole it.”

“I did not!” she shouted. Jon Snow had given her Needle. Maybe she had to let them call her Lumpyhead, but she wasn’t going to let them call Jon a thief.

“If he stole it, we could take it off him,” said Hot Pie. “It’s not his anyhow. I could use me a sword like that.”

Lommy egged him on. “Go on, take it off him, I dare you.”

Hot Pie kicked his donkey, riding closer. “Hey, Lumpyface, you gimme that sword.” […] “You don’t know how to use it.”

[. . .]

“Look at him,” brayed Lommy Greenhands. “I bet he’s going to cry now. You want to cry, Lumpyhead?” – Arya I ACOK

In the first two quotes we have Arya likening the behavior of Hot Pie and Lommy to that of Jeyne Poole and Sansa. In AGOT, Sansa and Jeyne took on the “evil step-sister” archetype (and before anybody attacks me, I don’t think these two are actually “evil”, just children who think it’s okay to bully someone who is different from them), but now we are shown that this archetype has temporarily shifted onto Lommy and Hot Pie, with some subversions. These two are now male and they aren’t related to Arya in any way. Some variants of the Cinderella story do portray male siblings mistreating the younger “Cinderella” sibling though. One of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights depict a story called “Judar and his Brethren”, in which the main character is poisoned by his biological brothers in the end, depicting a rare tragic ending for this retelling. However, these subversions are completely fine because either way, they took on the role of the “bully” to Arya’s Cinderella archetype currently in the narrative.

Furthermore, while Septa Mordane was the obvious “wicked stepmother” archetype to Arya’s Cinderella archetype in AGOT, I think arguably this has fallen to Cersei now (and the Lannister’s as a whole). Cersei may not be present, but she is the reason why Arya is in the situation she is in right now. After all, Cersei takes on the role of “Evil Queen” for Sansa and Jon (they both share Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs motifs) so I do think she is the metaphorical “wicked stepmother” in this equation regardless of the fact that Cersei isn’t anything remotely close to a stepmother to Arya in the narrative, but she fits the general archetype of “female persecutor” the most in the current situation. For the case about Septa Mordane being a “wicked stepmother” archetype, I want to point to Cenerentola by Basile, in which the “wicked stepmother” started out as being the heroine’s governess, and Septa’s are the closest substitute to a governess in the universe of ASOIAF.

This isn’t the end to these archetypes being in play. As the early chapters of ACOK go on we see the animosity between Lommy, Hot Pie, and Arya disappear to the point where they become allies and then friends. With this shift in dynamic we see the archetypes disappearing with some of these same characters taking on entirely new Cinderella archetypes, while the “wicked stepmother” and “evil step-sibling” archetypes move onto other characters as well.

At Harrenhal we are introduced to two wicked women who next take on the “evil step-sibling” archetype, Goodwife Harra and Goodwife Amabel. These two even comment on Arya’s feet:

When Arya's turn came round, Goodwife Amabel clucked in dismay at the sight of her feet, while Goodwife Harra felt the callus on her fingers that long hours of practice with Needle had earned her. "Got those churning butter, I'll wager," she said. "Some farmer's whelp, are you? Well, never you mind, girl, you have a chance to win a higher place in this world if you work hard. If you won't work hard, you'll be beaten. And what do they call you?"

Arya dared not say her true name, but Arry was no good either, it was a boy’s name and they could see she was no boy. “Weasel,” she said, naming the first girl she could think of. “Lommy called me Weasel.”

“I can see why,” sniffed Goodwife Amabel. “That hair is a fright and a nest for lice as well. We’ll have it off, and then you’re for the kitchens.”

“I’d sooner tend the horses.” Arya liked horses, and maybe if she was in the stables she’d be able to steal one and escape.

Goodwife Harra slapped her so hard that her swollen lip broke open all over again. “And keep that tongue to yourself or you’ll get worse. No one asked your views.”

The blood in her mouth had a salty metal tang to it. Arya dropped her gaze and said nothing. If I still had Needle, she wouldn’t dare hit me, she thought sullenly.

“Lord Tywin and his knights have grooms and squires to tend their horses, they don’t need the likes of you,” Goodwife Amabel said. “The kitchens are snug and clean, and there’s always a warm fire to sleep by and plenty to eat. You might have done well there, but I can see you’re not a clever girl. Harra, I believe we should give this one to Weese.”

“If you think so, Amabel.” They gave her a shift of grey roughspun wool and a pair of ill-fitting shoes and sent her off. – Arya VI ACOK

Later Goodwife Amabel even threatens to rape Arya:

Three Frey men-at-arms were using them that morning as Arya went to the well. She tried not to look, but she could hear the men laughing. The pail was very heavy once full. She was turning to bring it back to Kingspyre when Goodwife Amabel seized her arm. The water went sloshing over the side onto Amabel's legs. "You did that on purpose," the woman screeched.

"What do you want?" Arya squirmed in her grasp. Amabel had been half-crazed since they'd cut Harra's head off.

"See there?" Amabel pointed across the yard at Pia. "When this northman falls you'll be where she is."

"Let me go." She tried to wrench free, but Amabel only tightened her fingers.

"He will fall too, Harrenhal pulls them all down in the end. Lord Tywin's won now, he'll be marching back with all his power, and then it will be his turn to punish the disloyal. And don't think he won't know what you did!" The old woman laughed. "I may have a turn at you myself. Harra had an old broom, I'll save it for you. The handle's cracked and splintery—" - Arya X ACOK

Menial, Backbreaking Labor

When Arya is enslaved and forced into the oppressive walls of Harrenhal, she is forced to scrub floors and do other menial, backbreaking work from sunrise to sunset, just like Cinderella:

Weese used Arya to run messages, draw water, and fetch food, and sometimes to serve at table in the Barracks Hall above the armory, where the men-at-arms took their meals. But most of her work was cleaning. The ground floor of the Wailing Tower was given over to storerooms and granaries, and two floors above housed part of the garrison, but the upper stories had not been occupied for eighty years. Now Lord Tywin had commanded that they be made fit for habitation again. There were floors to be scrubbed, grime to be washed off windows, broken chairs and rotted beds to be carried off. The topmost story was infested with nests of the huge black bats that House Whent had used for its sigil, and there were rats in the cellars as well . . . and ghosts, some said, the spirits of Harren the Black and his sons. – Arya VII ACOK

She spent the rest of that day scrubbing steps inside the Wailing Tower. By evenfall her hands were raw and bleeding and her arms so sore they trembled when she lugged the pail back to the cellar. Too tired even for food, Arya begged Weese's pardons and crawled into her straw to sleep. – Arya VII ACOK

Magical Transformations and Mice

In Disney’s Cinderella, the fairy godmother transforms mice into different creatures. On the road to Harrenhal, Arya not only likens herself to a sheep, but a mouse and continues her time at Harrenhal referring to herself as a “mouse”. This is also a subversion, while Cinderella in the Disney incarnation befriends mice, in our story Arya becomes the meek mouse:

On the road Arya had felt like a sheep, but Harrenhal turned her into a mouse. She was grey as a mouse in her scratchy wool shift, and like a mouse she kept to the crannies and crevices and dark holes of the castle, scurrying out of the way of the mighty. – Arya VII ACOK

He does not know me, she thought. Arry was a fierce little boy with a sword, and I’m just a grey mouse girl with a pail. – Arya VII ACOK

She was very small and Harrenhal was very large, full of places where a mouse could hide. – Arya VII ACOK

Even Jaqen calls Arya a mouse:

She crept up quiet as a shadow, but he opened his eyes all the same. “She steals in on little mice feet, but a man hears,” he said. How could he hear me? She wondered, and it seemed as if he heard that as well. “The scuff of leather on stone sings loud as warhorns to a man with open ears. Clever girls go barefoot.” – Arya VIII ACOK

However, through Jaqen, Arya begins to feel more in control of her situation, stronger and is transformed, if only for a short time.

“…Some are saying it was Harren’s ghost flung him down.” He snorted to show what he thought of such notions.

It wasn’t Harren, Arya wanted to say, it was me. She has killed Chiswyck with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate. – Arya VII ACOK

I was a sheep, and then I was a mouse, I couldn’t do anything but hide. Arya chewed her lip and tried to think when her courage had come back. Jaqen made me brave again. He made me a ghost instead of a mouse. – Arya IX ACOK

Lucifer the Cat

In Disney’s Cinderella, Lucifer is Lady Tremaine’s cat who is described as being a sly, wicked, and manipulative mouse consumer. He spends the whole film trying to torment and catch the mice. I feel that Weese takes on aspects of this feline character, and I think this because of certain descriptors that are given to Weese to make him appear almost catlike:

“Weasel,” Weese purred, “next time I see that mouth droop open, I’ll pull out your tongue and feed it to my bitch.” – Arya VII ACOK

In his own small strutting way, Weese was nearly as scary as Ser Gregor. The Mountain swatted men like flies, but most of the time he did not even seem to know the fly was there. Weese always knew you were there, and what you were doing, and sometimes what you were thinking. He would hit at the slightest provocation, and he had a dog who was near as bad as he was, an ugly spotted bitch that smelled worse than any dog Arya had ever known. Once she saw him set the dog on a latrine boy who’d annoyed him. She tore a big chunk out of the boy’s calf while Weese laughed. – Arya VII ACOK

So here we have Weese purring, strutting, being compared to the Mountain who swats at peoples, and being watchful and observant, very much like a cat. And like in the movie, a dog attacks him. Now Weese didn’t fall from a tower window, but Chiswyck fell/was pushed. Considering these two are the two people Arya had Jaqen kill, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are meant to make up two halves of a whole in this regard. After all, they are both wicked creatures who prey upon the weak, just like Lucifer and they both got their just desserts for it.

Jaq the Mouse

In Disney’s Cinderella, Cinderella rescues mice from traps, as well as from Lucifer, and dresses and feeds them. They perform favors in return. At the beginning of the film, a mouse named Gus is trapped in a cage, and the leader of the mice finds him and retrieves Cinderella to free him. The leader of the mice is a mouse named Jaq, and he was also a mouse that was saved by Cinderella from a cage. This sounds awfully familiar…

Rushing through the barn doors was like running into a furnace. The air was swirling with smoke, the back wall a sheet of fire ground to roof. Their horses and donkeys were kicking and rearing and screaming. The poor animals, Arya thought. Then she saw the wagon, and the three men manacled to its bed. Biter was flinging himself against the chains, blood running down his arms from where the iron clasped his wrists. Rorge screamed curses, kicking at the wood. “Boy!” called Jaqen H’ghar. “Sweet boy!”

[. . .]

“Good boys, kind boys,” called Jaqen H’ghar, coughing.

“Get these fucking chains off!” Rorge screamed.

[. . .]

Going back into that barn was the hardest thing she ever did. Smoke was pouring out the open door like a writhing black snake, and she could hear the screams of the poor animals inside, donkeys and horses and men. She chewed her lip, and darted through the doors, crouched low where the smoke wasn’t quite so thick.

A donkey was caught in a ring of fire, shrieking in terror and pain. She could smell the stench of burning hair. The roof was gone up too, and things were falling down, pieces of flaming wood and bits of straw and hay. Arya put a hand over her mouth and nose. She couldn’t see the wagon for the smoke, but she could still hear Biter screaming. She crawled toward the sound.

And then a wheel was looming over her. The wagon jumped and moved a half foot when Biter threw himself against his chains again. Jaqen saw her, but it was too hard to breathe, let alone talk. She threw the axe into the wagon. Rorge caught it and lifted it over his head, rivers of sooty sweat pouring down his noseless face. Arya was running, coughing. She heard the steel crash through the old wood, and again, again. An instant later came a crack as loud as thunder, and the bottom of the wagon came ripping loose in an explosion of splinters. – Arya IV ACOK

So here we have Jaq who is leader of the mice, who also helps Cinderella by doing her favors. Then we have Jaqen H’ghar who is the leader of Rorge and Biter (this name seems even more fitting now) and who is performing favors for Arya, which leads me to Jaqen’s dual Cinderella archetype: Fairy Godmother.

Magical Helpers

Some versions of Magical Helpers come from fairy godmothers or talking animals or genies. In other versions this help comes to the heroine through her dead mother, often manifesting through animal aid. In One Thousand and One Nights, in the story of “Judar and his Brethren” Judar is our Cinderella figure, whose own brothers betray and poison him, but before that he was gifted a genie named Al-Ra’ad al-Kasif who granted Judar’s wishes. In the passage below Jaqen grants Arya three “wishes” which is typical for genies to grant in our popular consciousness:

She remembered that she hated him. “You scared me. You’re one of them now, I should have let you burn. What are you doing here? Go away or I’ll yell for Weese.”

“A man pays his debts. A man owes three.”

“Three?”

“The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life. This girl took three that were his. This girl must give three in their places. Speak the names, and a man will do the rest.”

He wants to help me, Arya realized with a rush of hope that made her dizzy. “Take me to Riverrun, it’s not far, if we stole some horses we could—”

He laid a finger on her lips. “Three lives you shall have of me. No more, no less. Three and we are done. So a girl must ponder.” He kissed her hair softly. “But not too long.” – Arya VII ACOK

Later, we also see that “wishes” have consequences, which is also prevalent when genies are concerned. GRRM himself is a big fan of consequences and unintended side effects.

Jaqen is not Arya’s only form of Magical Help at Harrenhal however. Jaqen may take on the role of Fairy Godmother/Genie, but we also see Arya experiencing the help of not only an animal aid, but from a dead parent. For instance, the heroine in Aschenputtel, by the Brother’s Grimm, is given a hazel twig by her father that she plants over her mother’s grave. She waters it with tears and over the years it grows into a glowing hazel tree. The girl prays under it three times a day, chanting, and a bird emerges from it that grants her wishes. There are two instances of something similar happening in the books:

In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. “Tell me what to do, you gods,” she prayed.

For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya’s skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father’s voice. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” he said.

“But there is no pack,” she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. “I’m not even me now, I’m Nan.”

“You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.”

“The wolf blood.” Arya remembered now. “I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.” She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. – Arya X ACOK

Here we see an inversion. Arya’s mother isn’t dead at this time, but her father, Ned is. He is who we hear through the heart tree giving Arya this empowering “Mufasa” moment that gives way to Arya’s true transformation in this arc, she reclaims her identity. And as soon as Arya asks the old gods for aid, a wolf howls in the distance as if in answer. It’s not confirmed but I do truly believe that this howl came from Nymeria, by way of the Old Gods/Greenseers, who somehow helped strengthen their bond. It is after this moment that Arya starts having full on wolf dreams in earnest and it’s through her first wolf dream that we see that Nymeria may have become Arya’s animal aid:

Her dreams were red and savage. The Mummers were in them, four at least, a pale Lyseni and a dark brutal axeman from Ib, the scarred Dothraki horse lord called Iggo and a Dornishman whose name she never knew. On and on they came, riding through the rain in rusting mail and wet leather, swords and axe clanking against their saddles. They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them.

She was no little girl in the dream; she was a wolf, huge and powerful, and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and bared her teeth in a low rumbling growl, she could small the rank stench of fear from horse and man alike. The Lyseni’s mount reared and screamed in terror, and the others shouted at one another in mantalk, but before they could act the other wolves came hurtling from the darkness and the rain, a great pack of them, gaunt and wet and silent.

The fight was short but bloody. The hairy man went down as he unslung his axe, the dark one died stringing an arrow, and the pale man from Lys tried to bolt. Her brothers and sisters ran him down, turning him again and again, coming at him from all sides, snapping at the legs of his horse and tearing the throat from the rider when he came crashing to the earth. – Arya I ASOS

We see here that Nymeria and her pack protected Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie against their pursuers after their escape from Harrenhal.

Here is another instance of Arya praying under the heart tree:

Arya went to her knees. She wasn’t sure how she should begin. She clasped her hands together. Help me, you old gods, she prayed silently. Help me get those men out of the dungeon so we can kill Ser Amory, and bring me home to Winterfell. Make me a water dancer and a wolf and not afraid again, ever.

Was that enough? Maybe she should pray aloud if she wanted the old gods to hear. Maybe she should pray longer. Sometimes her father had prayed a long time, she remembered. But the old gods had never helped him. Remembering that made her angry. “You should have saved him,” she scolded the tree. “He prayed to you all the time. I don’t care if you help me or not. I don’t think you could even if you wanted to.”

“Gods are not mocked, girl.”

The voice startled her. She leapt to her feet and drew her wooden sword. Jaqen H’ghar stood so still in the darkness that he seemed one of the trees. “A man comes to hear a name. One and two and then comes three. A man would have done.”

Arya lowered the splintery point toward the ground. “How did you know I was here?”

“A man sees. A mean hears. A man knows.”

She regarded him suspiciously. Had the gods sent him? “How’d you make the dog kill Weese? Did you call Rorge and Biter up from hell? Is Jaqen H’ghar your true name?

“Some men have many names. Weasel. Arry. Arya.”

She backed away from him, until she was pressed against the heart tree. “Did Gendry tell?”

“A man knows,” he said again. “My lady of Stark.”

Maybe the gods had sent him in answer to her prayers. – Arya IX ACOK

In Cenerentola, the heroine’s (Zezolla) father is given a date seedling by a fairy and he gives it to his daughter. Zezolla cultivates the tree in which a fairy lives. This fairy gives Zezolla magical aid. When Arya prayed beneath the heart tree in the above quote it almost seems like Jaqen appeared from the trees, leaving Arya to question if the old gods sent him.

And like in Aschenputtel and Disney’s Cinderella, Arya spends time at Harrenhal singing/chanting to herself as well:

Barefoot surefoot lightfoot, she sang under her breath. I am the ghost in Harrenhal. – Arya IX ACOK

This is very strange for a couple of reasons. When we first meet Arya she claims not to like songs and doesn’t sing. She continues this up until she goes to Braavos. There she discovers that she likes the bawdy songs when she is using the name, Cat of the Canals. The only exception to this is when Arya is at Harrenhal. Another reason this is odd is because of where Arya is at physically and mentally. So either Arya was always lying about not liking songs, or Arya singing here is supposed to tell us something.

And while this might not mean anything, I found it interesting that Arya spends a lot of her time in ACOK barefoot. Now Cinderella isn’t really said to be barefoot in the stories, but she did usually lose a shoe when running away from the Prince/King, hence making her barefoot. When Arya decides to escape Harrenhal, she does don a pair of shoes again and from then on out she mostly wears them. This also leads to a fun bit of subversion. In the originals tales it’s always the Prince/King saving Cinderella from further oppression. But in Arya X ACOK, not only did she (a princess) plan the escape, but she saves Gendry, a lost (albeit bastard) prince, along with Hot Pie, from further oppression (and torture and death) by their slavers in their prison camp. (Hot Pie definitely reminds me of Gus Gus as well by the way :D)

From Rags to Riches

In many versions of Cinderella, we also see the heroine become physically transformed. The heroine is usually dirty, covered in ashes, and wearing “rags” before they are made over. In the most popular version, Disney’s Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother magically turns her from dirty household servant to highborn lady, adorning her in a silver ballgown and glass slippers. In Ye Xian, magical fish bones, help the heroine dress appropriately for a local Festival, including a light, golden shoe. And in Aschenputtel, the doves that emerge from her hazel tree, that grant the heroine wishes, drop a gold and silver gown and silk shoes down to her to wear to the ball. Also, noticeably, this is the time the Prince/King notices Cinderella and finally “sees” her.

While we didn’t get anything like that in ACOK, we don’t have to look much farther than ASOS, when Arya goes to Acorn Hall and meets Lady Smallwood, who puts her in two different dresses:

And afterward, they insisted she dress herself in girl’s things, brown woolen stockings and a light linen shift, and over that a light green gown with acorns embroidered all over the bodice in brown thread, and more acorns bordering the hem. – Arya IV ASOS

It was even worse than before; Lady Smallwood insisted that Arya take another bath, and cut and comb her hair besides; the dress she put her in this time was sort of lilac-colored, and decorated with little baby pearls. The only good thing about it was that it was so delicate that no one could expect her to ride in it. – Arya IV ASOS

And while there is no ball, Arya and Gendry spend their time in the forge together. This is the very first time Gendry has seen Arya look like a proper lady. Cinderella and Arya are no longer dirty and in rags and they are now in gowns looking their place in society, despite Arya’s dress not being nearly as grand. However, it’s enough of a change for Gendry to finally realize just who Arya truly is when it comes to her place in the world. And judging by his behavior after this event, he also begins to acknowledge that if he continues to stay by her side he could potentially love her romantically in the future as well:

Gendry reached out with the tongs as if to pinch her face, but Arya swatted them away.

[. . .]

Gendry put the hammer down and looked at her. “You look different now. Like a proper little girl.”

“I look like an oak tree, with all these stupid acorns.”

“Nice, though. A nice oak tree.” He stepped closer, and sniffed at her. “You even smell nice for a change.” – Arya IV ASOS

Runaway Princess

Now we may not have had a ball, but while taking shelter in a stone stable with the Brotherhood Without Banners, Arya does run outside, trying to get away from everyone:

His words beat at her ears like the pounding of a drum, and suddenly it was more than Arya could stand. She wanted Riverrun, not Acorn Hall; she wanted her mother and her brother Robb, not Lady Smallwood or some uncle she never knew. Whirling, she broke for the door, and when Harwin tried to grab her arm she spun away from him quick as a snake.

Outside the stables the rain was still falling, and distant lightning flashed in the west. Arya ran as fast as she could. She did not know where she was going, only that she wanted to be alone, away from all the voices, away from their hollow words and broken promises. All I wanted was to go to Riverrun. It was her own fault, for taking Gendry and Hot Pie with her when she left Harrenhal. She would have been better alone. If she had been alone, the outlaws would never have caught her, and she’d be with Robb and her mother by now. They were never my pack. If they had been, they wouldn’t leave me. She splashed through a puddle of muddy water. Someone was shouting her name, Harwin probably, or Gendry, but the thunder drowned them out as it rolled across the hills half a heartbeat behind the lightning. The lightning lord, she thought angrily. Maybe he couldn’t die, but he could lie. – Arya VIII ASOS

Now it’s not explicitly clear that it was Gendry who ran after Arya, calling her name, but due to the possible symbolism in the scene, and also his behavior in AFFC, it makes me think it was him. But whether he was or not I believe just Arya believing it might be him makes this applicable enough as a loose parallel for the Prince chasing after Cinderella, only for Cinderella to disappear like in many of the Cinderella retellings.

Searching the Realm

At the end of ASOS in the epilogue we learn that Lady Stoneheart and the Brotherhood Without Banners, who Gendry is a part of is actively searching for Arya:

The outlaw gave him (Merrett Frey) an encouraging smile. “Well, as it happens, we’re looking for a dog that ran away.”

“A dog?” Merrett was lost. “What kind of dog?”

“He answers to the name Sandor Clegane […] Did you see him at the wedding, perchance?”

[. . .]

“He would have had a child with him,” said the singer. “A skinny girl, about ten. Or perhaps a boy the same age.”

“I don’t think so,” said Merrett. “Not that I knew.” – Epilogue ASOS

In many retellings of the Cinderella story, the Prince/King searches the realm looking for the heroine with an identifying item, and typically that item is a shoe of some sort. Once the shoe is placed on the heroine’s foot it symbolically means the heroine is reclaiming her identity. Arya, however, didn’t lose a shoe, and I’d argue that when Ned/the Old Gods/the Greenseers spoke to Arya through the heart tree, empowering Arya, that’s when Arya reclaimed her identity, at least for that time as Arya must reclaim her identity multiple times in her arc. I’d argue that Arya’s connection to the North and her family is her overall identifying item. But I fully believe Gendry himself might be another “identifying item,” along with him still taking on the archetypal role of “prince”.

Why do I say this? Because in AFFC Gendry is stationed at one of the last known places Arya was sighted at with the Hound, the Crossroads Inn, where he is blacksmithing while also helping to look after orphans. He was likely stationed there by Lady Stoneheart and the Brotherhood Without Banners because he knew Arya the best out of everyone (remember LSH would probably have a hard time recognizing Arya after two plus years and a resurrection). So if she returned, he would not only have a better chance at recognizing her, but also possibly a better chance at keeping her there compared to anyone else. If people are doubting that this is Gendry’s role, just remember that the BWB is actively looking for Arya, and also note Gendry’s personality shift post-ASOS. Gendry has always been rude and moody, but in AFFC it has been taken to the extreme. He is absolutely furious and instead of being just plain rude, he’s actually become mean and more violent. He also seems to have something against the Hound now, someone who he previously had nothing against during the Hound’s trial by combat earlier in ASOS:

…The boy came and stood beside her, his hammer in his hand.

Lightning cracked to the south as the riders swung down off their horses. For half a heartbeat darkness turned to day. An axe gleamed silvery blue, light shimmered off mail and plate, and beneath the dark hood of the lead rider Brienne glimpsed an iron snout and rows of steel teeth, snarling.

Gendry saw it too. “Him.”

“Not him. His helm.” Brienne tried to keep the fear from her voice, but her mouth was dry as dust. – Brienne VII AFFC

That “him” was very pointed and because of the symbolism in the scene surrounding that “him” and the overall change in Gendry’s behavior I definitely take it to mean Gendry does have a problem with the Hound now. So what changed? The Hound kidnapped Arya. I think it’s safe to say that Gendry is just as invested as the rest of the BWB, if not more so, to finding Arya again, hence making him the “prince” searching the realm for his lost Cinderella.

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

In Disney’s Cinderella, songs like “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, “So This Is Love”, “Cinderella”, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, “Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale”, and “The Work Song” are included into the film. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this in the previous retellings however. Like I mentioned earlier the Brother’s Grimm, Aschenputtel, features this as well to some extant. In Aschenputtel, the heroine would “sing a chant” to call upon the white doves that came from her glowing hazel tree. These birds would help her grant wishes and help her complete tasks, and it was most likely the inspiration for why birds were included in the Disney version, although birds have featured in more than just Aschenputtel. I mention this because GRRM wrote Arya a song in the novels:

“My featherbed is deep and soft,

and there I'll lay you down,

I'll dress you all in yellow silk,

and on your head a crown.

For you shall be my lady love,

and I shall be your lord.

I'll always keep you warm and safe,

and guard you with my sword.

“And how she smiled and how she laughed,

the maiden of the tree.

She spun away and said to him,

no featherbed for me.

I'll wear a gown of golden leaves,

and bind my hair with grass,

But you can be my forest love,

and me your forest lass.”

This is very clearly a love song also and we know it’s most likely about Arya and her foreshadowing a possible future relationship with Gendry. And it’s very clearly about them as Gendry is a bastard Baratheon “prince”, hence the mentions of “yellow silk” and a “crown”, and also because Arya quite literally is dressed as an oak tree at this time and almost a maiden and will be a maiden when they reunite later in the series. We also know the song is meant to foreshadow them because of the context. Tom O’Seven’s specifically winked at Arya as he sang this song, and after the song was sung Lady Smallwood, when taking Arya to get changed into a different dress, said to Arya, “I have no gowns of leaves,” which further tells the readers that this song is Arya’s song, her future love song.

A Mother’s Legacy

In the Magical Helpers section above I mentioned that a dead parent may be the one to help the heroine instead of the typical fairy godmother, by either sending an animal to aid the heroine and/or granting wishes, or by the heroine’s mother transforming into an animal. In some Greek versions, in “the Balkan-Slavonic tradition of the tale”, and in some Central Asian variants, the heroine’s mother comes back as a cow who is then killed by the heroine’s sisters. The heroine eventually gathers the bones and from her mother’s grave the heroine is gifted wonderful dresses. In other variants, the heroine’s dead mother comes back as a fish or a female dog. These animals represent the heroine’s mother’s legacy.

Jon chuckled. “Perhaps you should do the same thing, little sister. Wed Tully to Stark in your arms.”

“A wolf with a fish in its mouth?” It made her laugh. “That would look silly…” – Arya I AGOT

That night she went to sleep thinking of her mother, and wondering if she should kill the Hound in his sleep and rescue Lady Catelyn herself. When she closed her eyes she saw her mother’s face against the back of her eyelids. She’s so close I could almost smell her…

…and then she could smell her. The scent was faint beneath the other smells, beneath moss and mud and water, and the stench of rotting reeds and rotting men. She padded slowly through the soft ground to the river’s edge, lapped up a drink, then lifted her head to sniff. The sky was grey and thick with cloud, the river green and full of floating things. Dead men clogged the shallows, some still moving as the water pushed them, others washed up on the banks. Her brothers and sisters swarmed around them, tearing at the rich ripe flesh.

[. . .]

The scent was stronger now [. . .] Only the scent mattered. She sniffed the air again. There it was, and now she saw it too, something pale and white drifting down the river, turning where it brushed against a snag. The reeds bowed down before it.

She splashed noisily through the shallows and threw herself into the deeper water, her legs churning. The current was strong but she was stronger. She swam, following her nose. The river smells were rich and wet, but those were not the smells that pulled her. She paddled after the sharp red whisper of cold blood, the sweet cloying stench of death. She chased them as she had often chased a red deer through the trees, and in the end she ran them down, and her jaw closed around a pale white arm. She shook it to make it move, but there was only death and blood in her mouth. By now she was tiring, and it was all she could do to pull the body back to shore. As she dragged it up the muddy bank, one of her little brothers came prowling, his tongue lolling from his mouth. She had to snarl to drive him off, or else he would have fed. Only then did she stop to shake the water from her fur. The white thing lay facedown in the mud, her dead flesh wrinkled and pale, cold blood trickling from her throat. Rise, she thought. Rise and eat and run with us. – Arya XII ASOS

“So you sewed his head on Robb Stark’s neck after both o’ them were dead,” said yellow cloak.

“My [Merrett Frey] father did that [. . .] I only drank some wine…you have no witness.”

“As it happens, you’re wrong there.” The singer turned to the hooded woman. “Milady?”

The outlaws parted as she came forward, saying no word. When she lowered her hood, something tightened inside Merrett’s chest, and for a moment he could not breathe. No. No, I saw her die. She was dead for a day and night before they stripped her naked and threw her body in the river. Raymund opened her throat from ear to ear. She was dead.

Her cloak and collar hid the gash his brother’s blade had made, but her face was even worse than he remembered. The flesh had gone pudding soft in the water and turned the color of curdled milk. Half her hair was gone and the rest had turned as white and brittle as a crone’s. Beneath her ravaged scalp, her face was shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails. But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated.

“She don’t speak,” said the big man in the yellow cloak. “You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers.” He turned to the dead woman and said, “What do you say, m’lady? Was he part of it?”

Lady Catelyn’s eyes never left him. She nodded. – Epilogue ASOS

In the Chinese retelling of Cinderella, Ye Xian, the heroine befriends a fish, which is the reincarnation of her deceased mother. In The Story of Tam and Cam, a Vietnamese version, the heroine Tam also had a fish which was killed by the stepmother and the half-sister, and its bones also give her clothes. And a typical scene in Kapmalaien tales is the mother becoming a fish, being eaten in fish form, the daughter burying her bones and a tree sprouting from her grave.

So not only is Lady Catelyn a symbolic fish, a daughter of House Tully, but she’s also been resurrected (reincarnated), and is looking specifically for our heroine, Arya, who I believe will be gifted several various things (both good and bad) by this incarnation of her mother, but we shall see if the parallel continues when TWOW and ADOS come out.

Conclusion

I really hope that after you read this monster you were as convinced as I am that Arya indeed has Cinderella motifs, and an extensive amount of them as well. Whatever it may mean I don’t rightly know, but what I do know is that at the end of the day, the many stories of Cinderella are an analogy. An analogy about someone “who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect”. Of someone whose attributes were unrecognized in their society, only for them to be recognized. And I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty hand in hand with one of her other biggest fairy tale motifs as well that runs concurrently with the Cinderella motif, and that is the story of “The Ugly Duckling”, who after years of neglect, finds acceptance within society, as well as self-acceptance within themselves. :)

#arya stark #gendrya #asoiaf

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