#family is who you choose

[impishtubist]

I actually really need this fandom to understand that sometimes, yes, a friendship is more important than a sibling relationship. Sometimes, siblings are just acquaintances, and that’s okay. Sometimes blood doesn’t matter as much as friends do. Sometimes your friends are your family, and they’re more important than your blood family. Sometimes, sibling ties mean nothing, or they mean less than a friendship.

#please let sibling relationships have nuance i'm begging you #you can care for a sibling but care for a friend more #family is who you choose #it isn't blood

[dlartistanon]

With the release of Chapter 11 on CN, I need to mull over the new information revealed about Shining (AND Nightingale) and thus make any connections to the wild speculation I had after Shining’s module. I know several of my speculations have been debunked with this. My thoughts and observations are all over the place, I apologize. Spoilers ahead.

(From left to right: Salus, Confessarius, Shining)

To start off, the woman on the left is a relative of both Shining and Confessarius, most likely a cousin, or someone distant. She calls them family, and belongs to the same “clan”, but I don’t think she’s a particularly close relative, if only because she looks way different and Shining’s module put emphasis on a bloodline’s purity, to the point where even her parents looked similar to each other. (Creepy implications? Yes). As we have learned, Confessors are not just an occupation, but an ancient subrace of Sarkaz.

I was wrong about the inherent Arts of Confessors being necromancy, it seems like their true ability is being able to draw out memories from the previously-established Sarkaz Collective Consciousness, and transfer them into a body, to “recreate” an individual. 

Anyway, the BIGGEST bombshell that was dropped in regards to these characters is that Nightingale was indeed confirmed to be an experiment. 

Salus: By the way, Shining, the subject that you took away... Well, what was her name again? Lisa... or was it Liz? Is she okay?

Shining: ... Liz is fine.

Salus: Is her Oripathy getting worse? She has a very special body, you know, even that... that... medical organization you found, even with Lord Kal'tsit around, they may not really be able to help her. It's great that she's back in Londinium now though, your lab is still here, you can bring her back anytime...

Shining: ...

An experiment for what? It’s not entirely clear, but the prevailing theories are either:

1) to bring people back to life. Specifically: to transfer someone’s memories into another body. Even more specific: transferring Theresa’s memories. Nightingale is a “prototype” of the resurrected Theresa.

Or 2) to transfer the power of the Lord of Fiends into a body. Because Theresa chose Amiya as her heir.

If Liz was meant to have Theresa’s memories, even as a test run, that explains why she was able to recognize Doctor despite never having met them before, as well as her saying that Amiya gives her deja vu!

I had previously assumed that Liz’s unexplained familiarity with them was due to the Sarkaz Collective Memory. A sort of... in-universe Cloud, that gets added to whenever a Sarkaz dies and other living Sarkaz are able to unknowingly access it to varying degrees, thereby possessing memories that aren’t necessarily their own (see Surtr). But I think... collective memory wouldn’t have worked... if Liz was already dead.

It’s currently not clear whether Liz was still alive or already a corpse before experimentation. She is very sickly, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if she did end up dying in the process. Remember that Oripathy is not the sole cause for her current frail state.

As for what I think between the two possibilities? I think the Confessors forcibly injected Originium into Liz in order to try and transplant Theresa’s memories into her. According to the info we learned from Ptilopsis, Originium is capable of storing information.

It’s possible that Liz’s amnesia is because she is basically a reanimated corpse, or her mind got messed up somewhere during the transfer. Her Oripathy is getting worse, her body is deteriorating, falling apart (literally?).

Confessarius: Is the food not to your taste, my dear sister?

Salus: Don't be so silent, you finally came home, do you really want to be so indifferent? Salus: If this is because of what happened to Liz... I apologize. But you should know that Liz is not an ordinary infected person. Salus: Besides, from whom did her suffering and consciousness come from?And from whom did her pain and memory come from? When she recalls these things, will you still be able to get along with her? Salus: She's not our family after all, you want to—

Shining: She is my family.

Salus: ... oh... Salus: But... but if you don't come back to us, she will become an empty shell sooner or later. Don't forget why she was made the way she is. Salus: If you truly value her that much, then I sincerely hope that her end will not be too tragic. Come back, okay? Salus: You will not fail to understand.

Shining: ...

However, the Confessors say that the result wound up being flawed, imperfect. Liz��s original mind is still somewhere, possibly locked away, as written in her profile? She has some vestiges of Theresa’s memories, but isn’t wholly Theresa, like what her captors wanted her to be. Liz was an experiment on how to get a dead person’s memory (and remove emotion associated with it)

While Salus was trying to convince Shining to return to them, Confessarius adds that Liz’s body is “an archaic cage. If necessary, we can weave a new one”. Shining, of course, is having NONE of it. She will not put Liz through that again.

What’s also interesting is that both Confessarius and Salus remark on how long Confessors have been around; according to them, it’s thousands of years. And in those years, Confessors have been misunderstood in more ways than one. This could be a reference as to how resurrection is seen as heretical or sacrilegious in Sarkaz culture, because death is the final peace which must not ever be disturbed.

Moreover, going back on bloodlines, Salus’s own experiments have her trying and failing to separate emotions from memory during a transfer. Whatever progress she makes, it doesn’t last long until the memory itself vanishes. Presumably this is because her lineage isn’t as pure, whereas Shining and Confessarius are able to capture whole “moments” of memory from the collective Sarkaz consciousness.

Salus goes on to describe how “none of [Theresa and Theresis]’s ancestors have even been noticed by Confessors, and we have never collected their bloodline memories. Even if The Lord of Fiends had chosen the sister, it would not prove her brother.” 

This makes me wonder if the Confessors had also acted as Kazdel’s recordkeepers, or some sort of archivists.

The leader of the Confessors wordlessly sipped his wine.

Shining could feel that Salus had activated a spell. She can draw her sword and leave, it can be done, but then what? Will this really find her a way to save Liz? Confessarius: Shining. I allow you to act alone. I allow you not to come back to me for a while. But... don't interfere with the Regent's plans. Don't interfere with the Sarkaz's journey to our long-awaited future.

Confessarius: Shining. My sister. No one, no matter how much they spurn their bloodline and long to be free of those shackles, can ever truly deny it. There is no point in denying the Divine Right of this gift of blood.

Shining: I thought you already knew. You can't make everything happen the way you want it to... Patriarch.

Lastly SHINING JOINS THE BATTLEFIELD IN AN OFFENSIVE ROLE MEANING SHINING ALT WHEN

Confessor Guard: You still came to this battlefield. Once again you have disobeyed the will of the leader. Shining: If my actions are still subject to his control, wouldn't my departure be meaningless? Confessor Guard: You hate the leader so much? Shining: ... ...no. It was never him that I hated. I hate myself.

The mask on the guard's face cracked, and the Confessor’s scabbard reflected his expression before he fell. Shining stared at him, her eyes both calm and sad. Once again, the last flash of the fire of a creature--stained her sword forever.

#dltext #arknights #shining #nightingale #AAAAAAAAAAAAAA #SHININGALE MY BELOVEDS #FAMILY IS WHO YOU CHOOSE #dl talks ak

[amagnificentobsession]

Just a part of my beloved family ♥️

@docdust @bil-daddy @uziraphale @angelo-rib-shack @e-w-w-morningstar @the-metatron @baby-angelo @dream-of-pain

#go rp #family is who you choose #family is who chooses you #manic monday #the bangles #bildaddy #uziraphale #doc dust #The Metatron #Angelo and Eddie #Amag

[gravity-falls-fanatic89]

Over the weekend, I watched some Bob's Burgers with my husband, and we watched the most recent episode where Rudy was the main character. My husband got a little sad at the end, and said "Cartoons aren't supposed to make me cry, I'm supposed to laugh."

We both laughed a little, and I told him he better not finish Gravity Falls with me. 😬

But it made me think, once again on Gravity Falls, and it's impact on me. I had to go into another room, because I got a little emotional, and thought about how it seemed to show up at a really low point for me, and people I would have never met followed. I had a somber moment, thinking on (hopefully) years from now, I might be alone again, with people passing on, or myself, and we'll still have those connections in that media to each other. It already had a legacy, but I hope that it stays a good memory in my future, because I'm the youngest of 5 kids, and there's a huge age gap, so at some point, I know I'll be alone, with little family, at least biologically.

But family beyond that I hope exists for awhile, because I got chosen by them, and it retains a special place in my heart because of that.

I really need to go back to bed. I'm thinking too hard and too sad this early.

#gravity falls #family is who you choose #cartoons #i miss people #animation #i'm done rambling #tired #once again tired

[quietbirdee]

and I love you, and I'm glad, and I'm grateful you were here for me, you were kind to me, and I love you, I love you, I love you

#anyway!! still very upset by this haha #i'm trying to process it through drawing but oof #the owl house #toh #hunter toh #flapjack toh #sylphee art #to hold your first friend the first one to choose you because they love you #to hold them close to your chest and know that they're with you and they love you #flapjack loves hunter so much and wants him to live #wants him to be happy and finally live his own life #and this will hurt his boy who's already been hurt so much #but he'd rather have a hurt boy than a dead one and hunter has a whole family now #he'll be ok #ANYWAY!!!! as i'm sure is no surprise i'm very distraught! #i've also been thinking about a parallel comic to that other flapjack comic i drew earlier this year ;u; #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

Part of me would love to see Bells Hells bring Relvin with them to the big battle with the Ruby Vanguard - if only to get a moment where he and Liliana reunite. Where they lock eyes for the first time in decades. A moment where they can see the grey in their hair, the lines on their faces, and the way they hold themselves like they haven't had anyone to lean on over the years.

Liliana would be forced to confront the past she thought she'd left behind. Of course there was a chance her Ruidusborn daughter would follow in her footsteps, but Relvin was just a man! He should have stayed far away, in Gelvaan, where she wouldn't have to think about him too hard.

Relvin would be forced to confront the woman he believed was his future. The woman who promised to stay with him, but disappeared because his whole self wasn't great enough to be her other half. He had spent decades wondering what had become of Liliana and her quest, and here she was.

She'd look at him and realise just what her single-minded goal robbed her of: a lifetime with the man she fell in love with. And he'd look at her and realise that he hadn't lied when he told Imogen her mother was dead... because the woman he knew died the day she left her family behind.

#liliana's the kind of lady to say “i broke the world for us” #and relvin is the kind of man to say “no... you just broke me” #their story is so fucking depressing and i feel so bad for their whole family #but especially relvin! the dude probably saw enough of liliana in imogen that he felt like there was no point in trying to get close to her #because if he wasn't enough for the woman who chose to be his wife - why'd he be enough for the woman who didn't choose to be his daughter? #critical role #cr3 #cr meta #bells hells #imogen temult #relvin temult #liliana temult #ruby vanguard

[looseduke]

okay insane thought about names and the feelings i have about them as a transgender blended family kid. it requires a leap of logic where the fantasy high parent couples remain dating and get married or otherwise legally bind themselves together but follow me on this for a moment. also i don’t know or care if this follows canon im just deciding it does

gilear took sandra lynn’s last name

could not afford to change it after the divorce

gilear is just one of those ppl who really likes having the same last name as his life partners, doesn’t have to be his name, he just thinks it’s nice

(sandra lynn liked her name and though she has Many Issues and might have changed her name in an attempt at normalcy gilear’s name was definitely something outlandishly stupid and he suggested it first anyway so it worked out)

do u see where im going with this

gilear seacaster.

fabian is furious but this ain’t about him

something so funny about taking your (way funnier if they don’t even get married) girlfriend’s dead husband’s last name

he keeps faeth as a middle name bc it’s still a connection to fig that he values and wants to keep

anyway. jawbone hears about all of this. absolutely loves it. thinks it’s awesome

jawbone o’shaughnessy-faeth!

yes with the apostrophe and the hyphen. yes every time.

he likes the connection to gilear and fig as much as he does the one to sandra lynn <3

when consulted fig was SUPER enthusiastic about another dad. gilear was like sigh. that might as well happen. im already being dunked upon by my mean stepson. go ahead.

okay the grand finale. the reason i even made this fucking post

adaine kills her dad, gets adopted, and starts to wonder if she should change her name

adaine makes amends with her sister, and starts to wonder if she should keep it

jawbone lets her know right away that he’ll support her decision no matter what, but it takes a long time for her to decide

it takes watching gilear and fabian bicker over their shared last name, watching fig get sappy over gilear holding onto the name faeth, watching fig and jawbone get sappy over THEIR shared last name, watching sandra lynn hide a smile whenever it comes up, watching, watching, watching

watching her sister learn and grow and love her unconditionally

she makes her decision, and when her dad brings her home from the fantasy dmv, there’s a new name on her ID

adaine abernant-o’shaughnessy-faeth. yes all three names. yes with the apostrophe. yes with the hyphens. every time

it’s for her dad, yes, for the man who gave her a home, who helped her find her strength, who is always her safe space, but it’s for more then that too

it’s for her sister, who for better or worse is in all of her earliest memories. who never underestimated her. who’s trying, every day

it’s for her sister, who called her awesome on the first day of school. who’s always there for her. who wears her heart on her sleeve and teaches adaine it’s okay to be emotional. who’s her best friend

it’s for the man who took her in when he had next to nothing to offer, who shared his extra garlic knots and vending machine snacks, who hosted his daughters strange friends night after night without question or complaint

and it’s for the elven woman sitting across from her at the dinner table, who understands her greatest fear better then anyone else and has built a life for herself despite her mistakes. who protected her on their quest. who opened her house for about 6 teenagers to live there permanently and anywhere between 3 and 10 more to hang out as much as they want

adaine abernant-o’shaughnessy-faeth, the people’s oracle <3

#there is absolutely nothing wrong with being family and having different last names. or having the same last name and not being family #but personally #choosing my name and who got to be included was one of the most powerful things in the world and i want that for her <3 #dimension 20 #fantasy high #adaine abernant #also i personally am an o’[name]-[name] #and let me tell u. every computer hates you so much forever. but it’s okay

[lilaccatholic]

I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them

#it's about simba coming back to pride rock it's about aragorn using andúril to fight for middle earth and assuming the throne it's about #hiccup marrying astrid and assuming his role as chief and moses returning to egypt #and it's about irina loving her people so fully that when she claims all of her subjects as hers that chernobog must release them to her!!! #and it's about miryem choosing to stay with the staryk and repair the damage and assume responsibility for the land and people!!!!! #and! it's! about! gen!!!! #it's ALWAYS about gen!!!! #gen who didn't want to be king. who hated being king and only wanted to marry a queen but who obeyed his gods and became a king over kings #who lost his home and half his family and his HAND but who ushered in a new golden age. #and it's about sophos who ran away but who shot the ambassador and took back his kingdom #it's about duty and it's about sacrifice and it's always ALWAYS about doing the right thing even at great personal cost because it's about #submitting to a power higher than your own. of recognizing that the calling on life is one for serving others and having so much more to #answer for than just yourself. it's knowing duty is love is duty #i cant stand stories where the answer is 'give up the throne and reject your duty' because no!!! you dont get it!!! #thats how you get the monsters!!! thats how you get the prince turned into a beast and thats how you get every terrible weak king that #aragorn feared becoming #to accept your throne is to die to self!!! you are no longer you but 'king' or 'queen' #it's like queen mary says to qeii in the crown 'elizabeth mountbatten must die #elizabeth regina must take her place.' #that's terrifying! but it's also everything!!!! #die! to! self! die! to! self!!!!!! #lilac rambles #lilac goes to the movies #lion king #prince of egypt #lotr #spinning silver #the crown #tqt #the queen's thief #httyd

[gideonisms]

THE number one most irritating thing about life is deciding when you're meant to speak or make eye contact and when you're not, and for how long and how many phrases you're meant to say at a time

#i know i make this post every week. i know this #but it's just constant! #all my other problems are either solvable or no one has ever solved them in the history of humanity you just have to live with them #but this one is soooo omnipresent and it takes up 80% of my brain space at almost all times #and it's not like i can really condition myself out of it because consciously Not thinking about it is the same as thinking about it! #try to think about my surroundings but people are a part of the surroundings! #how i avoided this level of constant decision making as a child is i just didn't speak to people besides my family unless i had to #i've read people's experiences who were like 'you need to decide when to put on your normal face and how to present yourself' #'being able to choose will give you more autonomy' and like! yeah! guess why i'm able to support myself and live an independent life #that doesn't mean making those choices every second of the day is enjoyable!! or really sustainable over decades and decades!! #rhghghgjhhbhhhhghghhhhghh #hisses like a cat going to the vet

[ky-landfill]

#death in the family #screenshot redraw #jason todd #joker #dude about to snap #context from the DITF choose your own adventure movie #bruce dies saving jason in Ethiopia #by using his body as a human shield #rip batdad #jason doesnt go down the criminal path in bruces memory #nightwing becomes batman #years later jason meets normie joker in a diner without knowing who he is #they talk for a bit #joker says a slmething that triggers jasons memory and makes him realise who he is #and he snaps #stabs the dude in the eye #and calmly gets arrested #kind of badass mostly sad #this is actually canon for the movie go watch it if you havent already #there needs to be more fan content of this

[hecksupremechips]

Ever think about Date’s view on family and how that relates to his character? When Mizuki asks him to define family, he just awkwardly offers that its like being blood related to someone. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth and Mizukis, but like, he literally had no idea what a real family looks like. He’s an orphan, a man who grew up with no family and no name, but he doesn’t know that yet. He has no memory of his past, no way of knowing if there’s someone out there waiting for him to come home, if he even had a place to call home. His only frame of reference for a family is Mizuki and her parents. Deep down he knows it’s not right, not loving, but it fits the mold of a nuclear family, man and woman, blood related, so that must be what family is. When he’s asked to take in Mizuki, he’s absolutely clueless because he literally has zero frame of reference for how a child is supposed to be cared for. He puts distance between them because this isn’t his place, he doesn’t have the right to love this child as his own because he isn’t the real dad. There’s no place for someone like him in a family. And it’s baffling to him to hear that Mizuki not only loves him, she needs him because he is her family. Date believes he’s a nobody, just a sad, lonely man with no name who absolutely does not deserve this kind of love. But he has it anyway because he chooses it, he makes something that neither he nor Mizuki have ever had before. HES HOME

#aitsf #ai the somnium files #kaname date #mizuki date #just crying about the date family for the millionth time nothing new #also i just had this realization that like date literally had absolutely ZERO clue what he was doing #cuz its not like he remembers his own childhood so he cant use that as a frame of reference for how to treat his own child #and yet despite this he does a much better job than renju and shoko ever did just because he like. actually loves mizuki lol #honestly kinda fucking insane that date was asked to take care of her instead of hitomi #like renju has a choice between his long term friend who hes really close with and who he knows has lots of experience in childcare #versus his silly friend who lives in the smallest apartment with tons of debt and has literally never seen a baby before #then again thats probably why he didnt choose hitomi cuz he probably wanted to keep mizuki separate from the family he actually cares about #also for meme purposes its just like date is like wow renju youre literally the worst dad ever #and renju is like well okay hotshot if you think its so easy then how about you raise my daughter asshole #and date is like okie and does a significantly better job at it #i love kaname date so fucking much you guys will never understand what we have 😩

[uncanny-tranny]

Hi! would you by any chance have tips on how to get a binder when your parents refuse to buy you one? ☹️

That's definitely a sensitive and complex answer, and while I might not know of the best option for your unique situation, there are some ways you can go about this.

If it's a foregone conclusion that you cannot convince them of this, what I used to do is DIY my binder. The ways I primarily did this were:

Option One: Wearing a camisole that was one size smaller than I actually was (so, wearing a small instead of a medium, for instance), then folding it up over my chest. As a disclaimer, this may only work well if you are smaller in the chest

Option Two: Layering two sports bras in my size over each other. Some of the DIY tips I found before I got a traditional binder advised to wear one sports bra in your size, then wear another sports bra backwards in a size smaller. I would advise against this for potential safety reasons, but also because (at least personally), it can be ineffective and a waste of resources.

Some people have also had friends or other family members order their binder for them, but this can be risky, depending on your situation. While I don't know the ins and outs of your specific circumstances, risk management is important to me, so I would recommend this if it is a risk that is acceptable to make.

I understand what it's like to not have access to this resource, so what I will do is advise you against:

Binding with ace bandages (I did this before (multiple times, in fact, because of dysphoria), and believe me, not only did it hurt like hell, but it constricted my body so heavily that I may have done long-term harm)

Wearing a DIY binder (or any kind, for that matter) for longer than your body can handle

Doing DIY in such a way that even mimics binding with ace bandages. This means that your binder shouldn't constrict your ribs, breathing, or range of movement

Here are some general good practices that you should use to guide you for any type of binding, whether traditional or DIY:

When you start binding, only do so in very short sessions to begin with. While binding shouldn't outright hurt, it can be a weird transition while your body is getting used to that new sensation

Minimize heavy lifting or exercise while binding. If it is unavoidable, drink plenty of water and take plenty of breaks

Stretch after binding

Don't bind while sick or have inflammation in your lungs or chest

If you DIY, treat your binder like it is a traditional binder. Don't make the mistake of assuming you don't need to listen to your body because you aren't using a "traditional" binding method

Ultimately, listen to your body. If it is telling you that it needs a break, honour that. Your body isn't punishing you, it is trying to keep you (and it) safe, even if it doesn't feel like it

In the end, this isn't perfect. Sometimes, parents do come around, even in their own ways, even if little by little, they come around. When I first came out officially around 2016, I was convinced that my transition would be completely forbade by my family; I concealed a lot of it in the worst instances of this. However, now, I think most of my family has come through their own journey with the understanding of the reality of what and who I am. I tell you this, anon, because I want you to know that this, too , shall pass. You can make it. I know this might be devastating to you, and believe me, I know what that's like. But it won't be forever. These bridges aren't burnt forever, and I hope you can find your happiness and contentment wherever it may be.

#ask #anon #trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #nonbinary #long post #if anybody has other tips or ideas then feel free to speak up #this is what i did before officially binding and what i have seen other trans people do in lieu of getting a 'real' binder #it did suck when i was coming out because i don't think my family had any idea how *their* hang-ups with... me as a person... affected me #and i think a lot of people get their preconceived notions or headcanons of you stuck in their head to the point that it is Reality #i think part of why my dad started actually *trying* to accept me was him realizing that i was actively hiding things from him... #...like he loves me and our relationship is fine now but i'm not going to pretend like he didn't massively blunder after i came out #and if it turns out that your parents don't ever come around (gd forbid) then you aren't obligated to keep them #you don't choose your parents but you can choose your family i think #i always always hope that parents come around to their child/ren and the reality of who they are but i recognize how messy it all is #anon i wouldn't blame you one bit if you feel many complex or 'negative' emotions toward them #i have many complex feelings about this and that's my own baggage. i hope i haven't put words into your mouth or assumed anything too much #i am sending you best wishes and care. this too shall pass💛

[amagnificentobsession]

@andagon I’m late getting breakfast and alcohol ready for brunch!

Can you get me motivated with some music?

@angelo-rib-shack I need some help with the invites. I always seem to miss part of the Morningstar family 🤦‍♀️and it’s important they all know how much I appreciate them.

@kleenexwoman, morning dear! Can you help with getting the drinks ready. I know I need a drink, now. It’s already been a day, and it’s just begun. 😉

#go rp #Saturday brunch #family is who you choose to love #the angelo situation

[crossbackpoke-check]

Why I Am Not Coming In To Work Today [abridged], Jess Zimmerman

part one | part two

#me when everybody is posting the maple leafs sad narratives and i am furiously generating this like HOLD ONNNN HOLD ONNNNNNN #honestly i could've been SOOOO MEAN about this because i saw this poem & alexandra got the preview on the poetry blog #where i just reblogged the first half of this poem point blank with the tags #kyle dubas #toronto maple leafs #& got yelled at aksdaksf & it literally only didn't go on this blog bc i usually write more & then it was percolating & i looked up the poe #& it was only the FIRST PART i'd reblogged i didn't know there was more & then brain immediately went brrrrr ok time for an edit. #this is a long one lol & i also have no idea if it makes sense to anybody but me but because y'all know me i will always overexplain so!! #my reasoning for the reasons obvi kyle. that's a given i hope he's doing well i hope he & his family r good but man is not coming in to wor #the second edit took me a stupid amount of time bc i am nitpicky but also i learned how to do the layers & transparency from the claude edi #that actually y'all don't know about lmao but i lost my mind when i saw how perfectly those pictures align i was scrolling getty & was like #ok december i'm gonna do a headline one (in my brain with the november/june quote about choosing to die again) w/ maple leafs playoff odds #how they say at winter break you know who's gonna be in the playoffs & who'll win & they thought they had a shot but it's mitchie overlaid #the 2003-04 team who'd last won a playoff round with the atlantic division stats from dec for 22-23 & how long it's been & dec headlines #i wanted breakup/recent/never loved to be a recent trade acquisition somebody who bounced around & somebody else so i almost had simmer #brodie & zar but then i wanted to make murray for breakup at any time &i forgot zar & him were on the pens together &it hit me like a truc #bc there's a photo of the two of them EXACTLY the same so close it's scary of this one but them as pens so they had to be it & i did always #know never loved again was mitchie. sorry. also mitchie in the penalty box the last game but i couldn't find footage of it & this one works #no i could not find a photo of tyler bertuzzi fighting a leaf for a dog looked at me yes i tried. #i almost made the bunting photo jt but instead it's 'bunting a rat etc' anyway the one i really feel unhinged about is dead pets bc at firs #i was gonna make it the handshake line & look to see if the leafs had drafted anybody on the panthers (dead pet former draft pick) #& they had & it was carter verhaeghe & i couldn't get a good pic of matthews & verhaeghe but it's fine bc i thought about the mo/luke schen #narrative (in which they are a perfect d pair long lost) & schenn was drafted by the leafs & that line fits jut trust me. also how i feel #about the kniesy luminous line that one possessed me it had to be kniesy idk why. i almost put gussy as girls are too pretty though ALSO #did u like my joke. daylight SAVINGS time on the goalie. thank u. also my photo magic on the jt (me very poorly editing in him as an isle) #OK ALSO HOLD ONNNNN there is a part two but i have to wait for the Content i want it will come out as soon as [redacted] or sooner #if i get bad at waiting &everyone will pretend like it is always the way it will be once i have the photos i want. speaking of did the leaf #simply not take a team photo this year?? it Does Not Exist for me i have tried very hard to look for it also i'm excited for part 2 #one of them is named oh you're so unhinged for this one & the finished product is you're unhinged in ways you didn't even know u were sorry #liv in the replies

[betterthanbatman1]

Children: Trick or treat!!

Jason wondering how tf random children found his home: Trick! *shoots a water gun at a child’s face*

Or

Children: Trick or treat!!

Jason: Trick! *Hands them an Uno reverse card* Gimme your candy.

#Rip to the kid who used toilet roll to be a mummy #Jason should get to be a menace to children at some point #At least to rich bratty kids #or his family #What happens if you choose trick? #Why must I give candy if I choose trick? #I deserve sweets and candy for having to be so kind to children #jason todd #red hood #batfamily #batfam #dc #My brain thought of this after Halloween so I’m going to post it as if it’s Halloween anyway #Halloween

[boyfridged]

i’ve been thinking a lot about what is so unique and appealing about 80s robin jay’s moral standing that got completely lost in plot later on. and i think a huge part of it is that in a genre so focused on crime-fighting, his motivations and approach don’t focus on the category of crime at all. in fact, he doesn’t seem to believe in any moral dogma; and it’s not motivated by nihilism, but rather his open-heartedness and relational ethical outlook.

we first meet (post-crisis) jay when he is stealing. when confronted about his actions by bruce he’s confident that he didn’t do anything wrong – he’s not apologetic, he doesn’t seem to think that he has morally failed on any account. later on, when confronted by batman again, jay says that he’s no “crook.” at this point, the reader might assume that jay has no concept of wrong-doing, or that stealing is just not one of the deeds that he considers wrong-doing. yet, later on we see jay so intent on stopping ma gunn and her students, refusing to be implicit in their actions. there are, of course, lots of reasons for which we can assume he was against stealing in this specific instance (an authority figure being involved, the target, the motivations, the school itself being an abusive environment etc.), but what we gather is that jay has an extremely strong sense of justice and is committed to moral duty. that's all typical for characters in superhero comics, isn't it? however, what remains distinctive is that this moral duty is not dictated by any dogma – he trusts his moral instincts. this attitude – his distrust toward power structures, confidence in his moral compass, and situational approach, is something that is maintained throughout his robin run. it is also evident in how he evaluates other people – we never see him condemning his parents, for example, and that includes willis, who was a petty criminal. i think from there arises the potential for a rift between bruce and jay that could be, have jay lived, far more utilised in batman comics than it was within his short robin run.

after all, while bruce’s approach is often called a ‘philosophy of love and care,’ he doesn’t ascribe to the ethics of care [eoc] (as defined in modern scholarship btw) in the same way that jay does. ethics of care ‘deny that morality consists in obedience to a universal law’ and focus on the ideals of caring for other people and non-institutionalized justice. bruce, while obviously caring, is still bound by his belief in the legal system and deontological norms. he is benevolent, but he is also ultimately morally committed to the idea of a legal system and thus frames criminals as failing to meet these moral (legal-adjacent) standards (even when he recognizes it is a result of their circumstances). in other words, he might think that a criminal is a good person despite leading a life of crime. meanwhile, for jay there is no despite; jay doesn't think that engaging in crime says anything about a person's moral personality at all. morality, for him, is more of an emotional practice, grounded in empathy and the question of what he can do for people ‘here and now.’ he doesn’t ascribe to maxims nor utilitarian calculations. for jay, in morality, there’s no place for impartiality that bruce believes in; moral decisions are embedded within a net of interpersonal relationships and social structures that cannot be generalised like the law or even a “moral code” does it. it’s all about responsiveness. 

to sum up, jay's moral compass is relative and passionate in a way that doesn't fit batman's philosophy. this is mostly because bruce wants to avoid the sort of arbitrariness that seems to guide eoc. also, both for vigilantism, and jay, eoc poses a challenge in the sense that it doesn't create a certain 'intellectualised' distance from both the victims and the perpetrators; there's no proximity in the judgment; it's emotional.

all of this is of course hardly relevant post-2004. there might be minimal space for accommodating some of it within the canon progression (for example, the fact that eoc typically emphasises the responsibility that comes with pre-existing familial relationships and allows for prioritizing them, as well as the flexibility regarding moral deliberations), but the utilitarian framework and the question of stopping the crime vs controlling the underworld is not something that can be easily reconciled with jay’s previous lack of interest in labeling crime. 

#fyi i'm ignoring a single panel in which jay says 'evil wins. he chose the life of crime' because i think there's much more nuance to that #as in: choosing a life of crime to deliberately cause harm is a whole another matter #also: inb4 this post is not bruce slander. please do not read it as such #as i said eoc is highly criticised for being arbitrary which is something that bruce seeks to avoid #also ethics of care are highly controversial esp that their early iterations are gender essentialist and ascribe this attitude to women #wow look at me accidentally girl-coding jay #but also on the topic of post-res jay. #it's typically assumed that ethics of care take a family model and extend it into morality as a whole #'the ethics of care considers the family as the primary sphere in which to understand ethical behavior' #so #an over-simplification: you are allowed to care for your family over everything else #re: jay's lack of understanding of bruce's conflict in duty as batman vs father #for jay there's no dilemma. how you conduct yourself in the familial context determines who you are as a person #also if you are interested in eoc feel free to ask because googling will only confuse you... #as a term it's used in many weird ways. but i'm thinking about a general line of thought that evolves into slote's philosophy #look at me giving in and bringing philosophy into comics. sorry. i tried to simplify it as much as possible #i didn't even say anything on criminology and the label and the strain theories. #i'm so brave for not info-dumping #i said even though i just info-dumped #jay.zip #jay.txt #dc #fatal flaw #core texts #robin days