#interesting to explore as well right?

[not-equippedforthis]

really love characters who have varied panic responses. kirk stating himself that he does not panic outright, externally, not in high-stress dangerous situations, but instead becomes tense and level like a wound string, on-guard: mostly because his role as captain necessitates that he maintain level rationality even when facing potential death as his training as 'the guy who tells you what to do when shit hits the fan' requires, but also because his childhood experiences taught him early that drowning in the desperate haziness of panic won't help you survive. especially as kirk already follows his intuition so deeply. he learned to grasp and contort the feeling. spock is the main person who represses his emotions, of course, but kirk does it to those deep-set, personal ones (this includes how he doesn't reveal anything truly personal about himself willingly 90% of the time, only what others already know/shallow anecdotes) in a much more subtle way that's really interesting to me. certified expert at avoiding the subject as long as he isnt caught out on the lie. professional bluffer.

in terms of past or parents we dont know much!!! hes known as the heart-on-his-sleeve guy!!! like yes he yells, he gets irritated, excited, hes a whirlwind of quick-thinking and plans and intuition, he goes out of his way to connect with his crew and shows it, when he puts on a little act or bluff he puts his heart into it and clearly enjoys the dramatics so much, at times he wears his heart on his sleeve, he laughs openly and is honest to spock about what he means to him, he's very sun-coded to me in a burning, passionate way, always intertwined with the stars and seeking them out, but when it comes to genuine deep-set turmoil? we dont actually know all that much about him??? hes so full of emotion and character (i love fics where spock characterises jim's mind/bond as a whirl of colour and sensations, hes a quick thinker!!! intuitive!! lively!!!) and yet its still so outwardly surface level. tarsus iv gets mentioned like twice? so especially here where kirk gets briefly jumpscared by the creature, because like:

its subtle but his eyes. his eyesss!!!!! kirk commands with his emotions but there's always some sort of level of control to it, or he transforms them into something that spurs on others or uses them to ascertain a goal: seeing unguarded fear/distress in his eyes even if its faint and brief (in this instance) makes me go insane every single time. like!!! its such a small moment!!! he isnt even panicking!!! really, he just got jumpscared!!! its insignificant!!!!!!! but seeing a two-second flash of actual, naked apprehension is just...oughhh,,,,,,,,,

oh god, and dont even get me started on the galileo seven episode where he assumes a tense level-headedness throughout the whole thing, irritated and apprehensive but not panicking, making sure he maintains intelligent rationality, even when he has to leave them behind, but when spock and the crew are confirmed safe and the bridge is occupied the camera pans to him and his eyes look like they're fucking watering and he's so achingly relieved. don't even talk to me. im. fuck.

he shows so so much but at the same time reveals so little.

#just had to write something about this because i loveeee seeing cool characters in distress. sorry but i need to see that boy PANICKING #im only on season 1 still so i dont know if there is a point where kirk openly seriously panics in the typical way #in high stress situations hes guarded but controlled #seeing him genuinely lose his nerve and start panicking would make me ouuughghgughg #like if he starts actually hyperventilating for kirk you know somethings so wronggg #but no yeah even if spock is injured or kirk is concerned about him he still shows that in the tense guarded high strung demeanor #same with spock really - his tone becomes tense and he uses jims name and its subtle but AAACKKK #i love the note of desperation being logical. that one episode is such a good exploration of spocks characer #i just think its interesting. to me it reads not only of kirks headstrong nature but also of his experience on taurus iv #not equipped for rambling #star trek tos #star trek #james kirk #jim kirk #captain kirk #kirk tos #hope this is right because im only just coming to the end of season 1 so #i love kirk so much though i cant even #hoping so so much ive interpreted him well #and that this makes sense. this is a ramble to the max. #he draws people into his orbit hes lively hes intelligent hes a burning whirl of passion and arhrthhhh

[sysig]

Some Betty highlights from her way-too-long comic roughs (Patreon)

#Doodles #Adventure Time #Betty Grof #Simon Petrikov #Can you tell I like her intense expressions #Betty's so cool I really like her character #I like how she's set up in AT and how she's further explored in Fionna and Cake :) #Right from the get-go she's just so ready to take everything in stride and I like her! She's cute and charming and funny and interesting #She's just a really well-rounded character for how little screentime she gets :D #And she's quite fun to draw so that's just a bonus haha #Obviously a mix between Adventure Time and my own style - sharp hair swoops aren't really on-model but I just like them lol #But I really like AT's eyes - they're so simple but they can be so communicative! #And Betty gets two eye styles which is Very cool >:3c #It really makes her stand out :D #I dunno if you can in her blank/wide-eyed style but she's meant to be wearing her Magic Woman getup I just forgot her hair kerchief #She's not As fun to draw with it on but I want her to be accurate as well! #It was fun to draw her interacting with Simon as well <3 Them flirting just makes me so 💕💖❤️💞💝 #I'm /still/ not over his little lovehearts from Broke His Crown like fjdslafdshfdf it's so cute #Them being silly and gentle with each other gets me so bad ♥ #I imagine just from these even removed from context you can tell this doesn't go particularly great for them tho haha #Also lol @ myself - I wrote this caption before finishing Part 3 which uhhhh #Part 3 ended up being well over 150% as long as this so- #They're just too fun and interesting!

[thedreadvampy]

btw about Neil Gaiman I periodically agree with the 'Neil Gaiman is annoying' stuff bc I feel like both he and Amanda Palmer seem like people who I would go insane stuck in a room with bc we have very different ideas about art and suchlike. and I also do think that the career trajectory he's on lately is cynically redoing his greatest hits and pretending that was the dream all along when it clearly was not. which is at best meh.

having said which

as far as I can tell by far the most common complaint about Neil Gaiman is "Snow, Glass, Apples is problematic/gross/it's got incest and rape and frames the child as the aggressor"

which strikes me as a weird complaint to pull out of a 40 year body of work tbh when that short story is pretty clearly coming from a place of 'how far can I push this'. like you don't have to like the story. I don't really like the story. but it is. a horror story.

like and this is the thing with particularly 90s alt horror right? a lot of the interest is in transgression and sitting in the worst possible perspective and seeing what happens if you pull those strings. like I really like Clive Barker for example but there's a good chunk of his short stories that I'm like I'm not picking up what you're putting down Clive this seems Kinda Off. but that willingness to write some trite or Bad Message horror fiction that doesn't land is imo a side effect of being willing to try writing uncomfortable and unpleasant fiction at all. which is what horror is for, among other things, it's for creating discomfort as a form of catharsis or engagement.

like I am not a huge fan of the type of sex-horror that pops up in a lot of Gaiman's work and other contemporary horror writers - to me I don't find it upsetting or horny it just ends up feeling kind of edgy and tryhard - but I'm also a bit like. it does seem like a lot of people's beef with Neil Gaiman is that In The 90s He Was A Horror Writer

and this approach to Problematic Horror in Snow, Glass, Apples I find kind of microcosmic of how The Discourse often approaches art in this kind of 1:1 way. if you write a story which seems to line up with rape apologia it can only be because you agree with it. if you write a story about transphobia you're a transphobe. if you write a story that makes me genuinely uncomfortable you're attacking me.

but artwork, especially art like horror that's not necessarily trying to provoke enjoyment as its main response, is necessarily hit and miss. and if what you're shooting for is discomfort then whether it works, falls flat or goes too far incredibly depends on your audience. and making good art - as in art that makes its audience think, art that opens the audience up to discomfort and catharsis and sticks with them and changes them - requires the space to experiment and tbh the space to fuck up. like they aren't all going to be winners and they certainly aren't all going to work for you as a singular audience.

personally I don't see the appeal of Snow, Glass, Apples, less cause it's nasty and more cause it's hack. ooh an edgy monstrous version of a fairy tale where there's lots of rape and cannibalism? you're soooo original Neil. but like. that's fine. I don't really vibe with like 70% of Neil Gaiman stuff I've read but I still like Neil Gaiman because the stuff that works for me really works for me.

idk I think there's a lot of folk on this website who shouldn't interact with horror cause they clearly aren't interested in being horrified. that's not everyone who dislikes Snow, Glass, Apples, but it's a real undercurrent to a lot of the criticism and tbh this kinda vibe is shit for art. making standout art What Is Good also requires being ready to make art which stands out for the wrong reasons. sometimes they'll be the same art to different people.

#red said #not to Cancel Culture this but isabelle fall springs to mind in a lot of how folks talk about stuff like this #like she wrote a transgressive piece exploring her own negative feelings about transness and her anger around a transphobic trope #and she made something which i found really resonant and interesting #and she got torn apart for it because it Might From Some Angles Agree With Transphobia #and I'm not making a direct comparison. because i think attack helicopter is a really GOOD story and i think SGA is gratuitous and hack #but that's the thing right? transgression and discomfort and speaking about unpleasant things in an openended way are KEY #to making art that engages directly with your own pains and angers and discomforts #and that's hard to mediate tbh. but it's also very necessary. #i think as well thinking about Gaiman this is also a thought I've often had about Amanda Palmer #who over the years has written a lot of songs about things i find genuinely uncomfortable or offensive. #and i can engage with 'it's fucked up to tell your ex they transed their gender At You' or 'your partner's suicide is not about you' bc yeah #but #you can't celebrate someone for making confessional music then get mad because you don't like everything they confess #if you only take about your socially acceptable thoughts it's not really confessional is it? #if you only talk about discomforting things that people are comfortable hearing about its not really discomforting #and you can only really discern what's Good Transgressive and what's Damaging Transgressive through doing i think #so if you want challenging art you are going to have to get some art which challenges you and you go hmm no i still disagree #is what i think #so yeah you can hate the artwork but when an artist is specifically setting out to make challenging art it's weird to hate them #for making 50 pieces of art you like and 1 you hate

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Lord of the Empty Isles

sci-fi/fantasy

set on a supposedly utopian planet recovering from a climate crisis, where bonds between people are able to be seen and manipulated (by some people)

follows a young man whose brother was cursed and killed by an infamous outlaw 5 years ago, and he’s finally able to curse him back - but it rebounds, as he’s somehow fatebound to the outlaw

to find a cure and save them both they have to team up, and he quickly finds out that the resources the outlaw is stealing go to the thousands of people neglected on prison planets, and he has to go against what he thought was right to help them

no romance, aroace MC, focus on platonic relationships

arc from netgalley, out june 6

#Lord of the Empty Isles #aroaessidhe 2024 reads #I enjoyed this quite a bit! But I think it could have gone a bit further in places. #It has some interesting concepts and a great cast of characters and yay no romance #I do have a lot of thoughts and little critiques... #it's p obvious where the plot is going and what's going to happen #There’s clearly a lot gone into developing this bond system but to be honest I still don’t entirely get it? #It seems to emphasise that the bonds just reflect connections between people rather than predetermine anything; but also the plot kind of #hinges on Remy and Idrian having a predetermined bond? There are a lot of explanations of intricacies but a lot of it didn’t sink in idk #It’s promoted as QP but to me it reads as a general platonic relationship. I generally expect a depiction of a QPR to have like.. #some form of acknowledgement/depiction of the form of their relationship being a particular (undefinable?) kind #with some specific level of commitment? I’m being picky maybe they mean queerplatonic themes/vibes rather than saying it’s a qpr #specifically. the centred platonic relationship is good! it doesn't seem like a qpr to me; at most what could one day be that #also things are solved quite quickly and easily in the end - both the curse and the downfall of the bad guy. #I feared it would go down the route of blaming things on the person in charge rather than emphasising systemic issues which it kinda does…. #It’s impossible to ignore right now just how deeply people are willing to believe dehumanising propaganda - and how 'telling the truth' #and exposing the person in power as bad doesn’t actually do anything so that happening here made me go…… oh okay. well. #there is room for a sequel that maybe will explore this tho. idk #complaints aside - I do recommend this! It was fun and pretty unique. #aroace books #no romance

[roobylavender]

as you all well know by know i absolutely loathe the diminishment of the adopted robins to not being bruce's "real" children (i mean. i imagine most people do or i would hope so at least) and how this has been overexaggerated in canon at large by creating various unnecessary rifts and competitions between them and damian but that aside i do think it would genuinely have been funny in another world if bruce used being damian's "real" father as an excuse to actually like. impose on him. bc he was kinda soft with dick and jason (moreso dick) ya know like he would try to put his foot down on something and then he'd get too soft and be like yeah okay you're growing and finding yourself i can respect that etc etc but i'm obsessed with the idea of bruce looking at damian and being like actually you're going to school. end of discussion. and you're not going to use vigilantism as an excuse to find yourself. and so help me god if you refuse bc i will call in your mother

#nothing truly authoritarian obv but i like the idea of him using the excuse of being damian's dad for realsies to like #try to have some semblance of control before it all spirals downward for damian as well ya know #bc obv this isn't much an idea explored in the comics. or at least no the pre00s ones that i have read at large #but i think it would have been so interesting to interpret bruce's bouts of hesitancy when he was raising dick or jason #with his own fear that he couldn't be their real parent or that he didn't have the right to impose #actually now that i'm typing this didn't new teen titans sort of address this. like when it was overlapping with the nocturna adoption arc #lemme go back and reread lmao it's been a while #to be deleted

[whentherewerebicycles]

therapy was “helpful” and I “liked it” and sigh I’ll “keep going”

#I like my therapist a lot #the one point where we disagreed today is she feels it’s probably not ideal to read every single book available on a topic #so as to be able to make informed decisions #I was like ok MAYBE it’s a way of exerting control but ALSO I can just have a scholarly interest in mapping the critical landscape ok #it’s fine no one agrees with me on this point lol liz is always like not another rabbithole #but idk I am always trying to explain that like #having more information actually makes me feel more free to do whatever #because instead of having one fixed idea about the ‘right’ way to do something #I can explore/evaluate a ton of different ways of doing something #and see that they all basically lead to the same decent outcomes even if by different routes #and so then I can be like well I’ll just do what feels best/works best for me and not worry so much about if it’s the ‘right’ way #I feel like maybe it’s an anxiety behavior but the outcome is significantly less anxiety over day to day decisions #🤷‍♀️ #however maybe this is one of my ‘cognitive distortions’ lol #I did start getting really panicked at the thought of being told I couldn’t research stuff lol

[danidoesathing]

"Buck doesn't react to the ghosts because he has been able to see ghosts all his life and it's given him this fucked up relationship with death where he's both fascinated and desensitized to it" vs "Buck doesn't react to the ghosts because he spends most of the movie incredibly sleep deprived, constantly hallucinating and high off his ass on a transdimensional drug, so the ghosts are honestly only the 3rd weirdest thing thats happened to him that night"

#my desire for really interesting character exploration that's implied in the film #vs the comedic potential of him just going “this might as well happen LA is already so god damn weird” #cause like. he uses death as a metaphor A LOT in his songs esp Louisa. and he almost indifferent to the idea of dying himself #or killing for that matter. he just....doesnt really care all that much #and a lot of that I imagine would stem from the fact he'd be surrounded by it constantly and growing used to the concept #one day im gonna write that essay and/or fic about Buck and his fucked up relationship with death. one day #I have like four different posts about it in my drafts but it never comes out right #hes such a weird character I need to study him under a microscope #dani speaks #lord huron #vide noir #vide noir movie #lord huron vide noir #buck vernon

[meirimerens]

I'll be honest looking at your woman versions of artemy and daniil makes me feel like I have the plague itself since I start sweating and shaking with lesbian lust. they're soooooo good there are no words for it, thank u for blessing us with your art of them 💓

o7 glad you're liking them...!

i know they're not #much in terms of like character design since i'm just copy and pasting The Usual and then waving a magic wand at them but. well you know. if every game had crazy women in it i would play these games. give me the annoying cynical symbolist yuri where i can see homosexuality peeking through and I Will Now Play Your Game. i will.

#i could talk at length about how androcentric storytelling allows for male characters to be more complex & morally grey & interesting than #female characters; even well-written female characters; and i will Use My Body As A Shield in front of patho's female characters #but i can recognize with my eyes that like. they're not as hashtag explored #as some other male characters; & the main/playable characters are 2/3 men. right. #however. with the power of imagination i can and i will create weird cynical annoying yuri. for fun. #ring ring (answers) #anonymous #so herppy you liking them... it's fun to me. as someone who was madly in love with a brunette woman with brown eyes i wouldn't have been #able to play yurified haruspex route without twitching and squirming in my seat i'll tell you that much

[parvuls]

I could sit here for three hours and still not be able to touch even a smidge of the novel-length essay I’d like to write about jack’s teenage years and his addiction and his mental state and his dissociation from the world and his gradually distorted view of who and what he is or could be

and that’s before I even touch on the complex issue of what happened the night of the overdose and how aware (or unaware) of his actions jack was and the faint line between suicidal ideation and the desire to be numb to escape one’s torments, and which one jack was aiming for that day, and whether he’d even know the answer to this if asked 

and after all of that I would still not come anywhere close to being able to fully analyze what jack’s stint at rehab was like, and what his thought process was like, and how complex someone’s mind must be to be doing time at rehab because hockey aggravated their anxiety so severely that they almost died, while also spending this time at rehab putting together a plan that’d allow them to go back to hockey - to go back to the source of all that, because even almost dying didn’t deter them from their dream

#omgcp #omgcheckplease #jack zimmermann #jack may appear to be a simple man but he isn't really #there's A LOT to be said about whether jack's passion for hockey is healthy or not. I think the many many au's where he doesn't return #to hockey explore that pretty well. #but I think the beautiful thing about him is that jack's character arc didn't revolve around learning to let go of the thing that made #his life so hard. #it started from the point where it was clear that jack had no interest in living without hockey #no matter the consequences he'd have to face #and revolved around learning how to have hockey and still be healthy #jack zimmermann literally almost died because of the weight hockey put on his back #and he legit turned around and threw that weight right back on his back again and was ready to go down with it #until that little shit (and his entire team) helped him shoulder the weight #hi yes this has been me getting unnecessarily emotional #text #meta

[death-rebirth-senshi]

My original unfiltered opinion of the chantry boom was "Anders that's so terrible! Well at least something interesting is finally happening in this boring ass game" and while I don't 100% agree with that it's like. 90% agree.

#I don't hate all of the ideas put forth by act 3 of da2 but it was the point of the game where I was like. This can be over now. #I get it. Templars are kinda right. Mages are kinda right. You're gonna have to pick a side. I got that at the end of act 2 #Is that all you have for me. Nothing else. #And also it's done. Kinda boring. Like badly but more importantly. Boring. #(when blood mage Hawke is like 'omg have these circle mages resorted to blood magic' it's like. I have to laugh.) #I'm not even saying that Grace hating us no matter what is nothing. I'm saying. Well act 2 was more interesting. #That Inquisition is further uninterested in exploring this kinda puts the nail in the coffin.

[huntingrays]

so, i love and vibe w bi leo, it’s so good

however

something just hits different with gay leo who’s been performing heterosexuality for years

#heroes of olympus #leo valdez #like i could write a whole essay on this (not rlly but also yes rlly) #like lil him somehow getting in his head that you have to find someone who likes you and then you’ll grow to love them #and that all guys just think girls are pretty but don’t like them beyond that until they get to know them #and he doesn’t get to explore feelings for girls bc nobody shows interest in him and he keeps like running away from home #and then he meets fake memory jason and something just clicks #but he assumes it’s just bc they mesh rlly well #but then he has the classic italicized oh moment #but he just thinks he’s seeing why girls like jason so much #and so he ignores it and tries to get a gf. bc surely if he flirts w pretty girls he’ll find one who likes him right? #and once he finds a girl who actually likes him then he’ll fall for her and know what all those guys w gfs are on abt #but also mans probably has some catholic guilt n internalized homophobia n shit #bc yknow his aunt calling him a demon/devil (i forgot which it was) #i can imagine him and nico bonding over this and falling for heroes #and he’s SHOCKED when pipes is talking abt what she loves abt women after she comes out #and he’s like ‘wait what???? I’ve never thought that way abt girls ever. you don’t just like them bc they’re objectively pretty????’ #and then they have a long convo abt sexuality #and he has a realization that the way piper feels abt women is the way he feels about men (but mainly jason) #maybe he’s also aspec? I could see him being demi and only liking someone after getting a connection w them #valgrace #man now i wanna write a leo sexuality crisis fic #but i got so many fics i wanna write… the main one being a revival fic bc the boys deserve to be happy #but also i need more valgrace fics… and you should be the change you wanna see in the world #as someone who’s arospec i’m just projecting onto him but with a different flavor

[seagullcharmer]

gosh. drawing my botw lorule au again. i love my versions of these characters so much

#libra.txt #is it just because i gave pre-calamity ravio a ponytail? maybe #also need to draw reference images of ghirahim's sword form....... #also also need to like. actually write it. lol </3 #I HAVE IDEAS. I'M JUST BAD AT COMMUNICATING THEM. #also reference images for the divine beasts.... those'll be fun...? #like idk how in-depth i'll go for exploring the divine beasts #but it could be some interesting concepts #since like. one is a terrapin. one is a snake. #i haven't fully decided on the other two yet #i need to figure out what would fit thematically #'libra how does a terrain correlate at all' #Well You See. turtle rock or whatever. from albw + alttp #it was swampy or smth right #well instead of gerudo desert this lorule has a swamp. #look i've connected the dots (i haven't connected anything) #also the snake is subject to change #i'm trying to think of what would work for tunnels #moles would be both too obvious (it's in mogma territory) and too clumsy #but snakes.... could be fun. #think of the segmented body the divine beast could have! #need to think abt the zora in lorule..... think it might go back toward river zora designs like in albw #instead of the more sharklike ones in botw #hmmmm much to think about!! #i love rotating world building concepts around #it's just going to be hard designing major npcs #having thief girl become a major character is difficult enough #still don't actually have a name for her.

[netscapenavigaytor]

actually i feel like a whole essay could be written about "Random Humor" and how it did not really go away so much as get rebranded and change its presentation somewhat. tumblr especially loves its absurdist non-sequiturs but it is afraid to call it as it is (random humor) and quite frankly some of the posts on this site WISH they could be as funny as a ytp from 2009. i havent the braincells right now (or maybe ever idk) to write such an essay though

#error 0 #that being said i do think some part of it has to do with what stock phrases and topics are in vogue #a lot of old school random humor memes were based around like... food and unusual but charming animals #late 2010s was idk. teeth? convoluted death threats? #and right now wizard jokes are pretty big #my point being i guess that like. when a meme is Big you can get caught in the hype and find it funny just because its a meme #but in order to have staying power outside of that a non-sequitur needs to TRULY be a non-sequitur or do something interesting w the topic #we look back fondly on spadinner now but there's a reason people grew so tired of it back then #and i cant remember the last time an ''artsy'' unprovoked death threat crossed my dash except to complain about it #wizards... that's a topic with a lot of room to explore and make a large variety of jokes. but i wonder if it will last #maybe in 5 years we'll be looking back like ''i miss the wizardbloggers'' or maybe we will be like ''ugh remember all the wizard jokes?'' #i hope not the latter i actually rather like the wizards #but i digress the main point i was trying to make here was that a lot of ''random'' humor is not truly non-sequitur #both now AND back then #which is why its easy to pretend theres REALLY a difference between “ZOMG ZOMBIE TACOS?!?!” and “horse plinko eeby deeby” #and. oh my god i just went and wrote an essay in the tags instead of the main post. goddammit #oh well. hopesfuly this oversimplified rambling makes sense to someone else on this earth other than me

[throttlegainwell]

It's like I blink and another WIP manifests...

#writing tag #i'm not actually sure whether i'll write this one because it's *very* outside my typical range #i don't usually write substance abuse stories #but it just feels very plausible to me in a very sad way #but i'd like to approach it from a non-sensationalizing and non-angsty direction where the whole thing kind of sneaks up on him #and it's not super dark in tone just mature #i dunno i've gotta work out logistics but it's not a priority WIP just an idea #i think it goes without saying that this is yet more sad shit i'm planning to put one jonathan byers through #he's just the one character i've gotten really into where i'm interested in exploring this and see it very clearly #and he could slide into a real problem without anyone noticing #(totally outside the pot i'm thinking more a scrip for the back injury that turns into a problem from not addressing it) #(so a few years down the line the UD shit is over but he finally gets an MRI and yikes) #it'd be really a lot to write emotionally though and i'd want to get the balance right & not be gross and exploitative #because holy shit are there a lot of really horrific & cruel opinions on substance use and with opioids in particular #anyway i dunno i've just sort of been thinking about it all year #and like i know i keep sending him to therapy in my future fics #but what if he doesn't work on his shit y'know? what if he just keeps on keeping on like he knows #and through a combination of unresolved emotional wounds and very real chronic pain... well you know

[roobylavender]

Do you think Steph and Dick would get along?

it would definitely take time. not to draw a comparison but one thing i really dislike about what bruce and stephanie's relationship eventually devolves into is it runs pretty parallel to the destruction of bruce's character in general. he's steadily stripped of his ability to empathize; his tendency to shift the weight of all burdens onto his own shoulders so as to spare the people he loves is reinterpreted as him being a commandeering control freak; he's cold, cutting, cruel. not to say dick should be any of these things, or at least not to the extent that bruce is written to embrace them comparatively, but if anyone was going to be exasperated with and critical of stephanie's tendency to jump into things headfirst and learn as she goes without necessarily any regard for protocol or safety, it would be dick. dick thrives on an organized operation and an understanding with his peers that they will not cross lines or act recklessly to endanger themselves or others. obv they do cross lines, the whole crux of teen titans comics lies in various sorts of unprecedented rogue elements when it comes to a mission. but the titans do also try to improve and be consistent and accountable where they can bc they know it's the key to a happier dick and a more well functioning team. stephanie's not really there yet mentally. she's eager to learn, and she's clearly capable of putting in the work when someone she respects is at the other end of the line, but she's also impatient, and she doesn't react well to orders. that's why you have to dialogue with her. if you respect her, she respects you. if you let her take the lead in manageable steps it will mean the world and more to her

and i do think dick is capable of being that person, but with extensive time and effort. he's spent so much of his life training specifically to do this job that he kind of overestimates what people in the same line of work are capable of on a disciplinary level, despite the fact that their experience might not match up with his own. that's something dixon's portrayal of dick during the prodigal era really takes for granted, bc dixon makes the assumption that tim easily follows dick's lead like a sprightly boy scout and dick responsively is the coolest guy ever rather than the uptight guy whose marriage recently went up in flames and left him feeling absolutely aimless with respect to his own aspirations and vigilante work. like yeah, dick is principled and he won't let real life shit get in the way of doing his job, but he's more than capable of being the most emotionally bitchy person ever while he's at it as we see from how he blows up at donna when she temporarily takes over the team. any interaction between dick and a young sidekick should be colored by an initial inability from him to reconcile the fact that he is working with a vigilante with the fact that he is also working with a child. it should bother him and frustrate him and push him to actually evaluate himself and his sometimes ridiculous expectations. and while i obv don't think stephanie exists to be the sounding board off of which various men work out their control issues or misogyny i do think it would be fun to see her sort of aspire to someone of dick's level (bc lbr. she totally would) while nonetheless putting him in his place as to how he's holding totally unrealistic expectations of an amateur teenager with no training facilities to her name

#outbox #i personally think it would be fun if in the wake of knightfall and dick being like well what the fack do i do with my life now #bruce was like hey there's this girl and personally i wish she wasn't out in the field but she won't listen to me if i tell her no #and maybe if you're not really sure of what you want to do right now maybe you could help give her some pointers or something? #bc i do think bruce recognizes that stephanie desires guidance. like i said she's clearly open to learning she just has to be #approached in a way that's not insulting to her or her intelligence #and dick's probably like yeah how hard could it be and then oh. oh.. how hard it is to train a child #how much he overestimated bruce and downplayed every little rebellion he made bruce subject to in his younger years #when he was eager and wanting and idolized his mentor too #that would be a very interesting thing to explore

[no1ryomafan]

Characterization discourse is so funny for me to watch because it’s people getting upset that a character they really like has their personality changed over time, whether this be because their a new iteration of the character in a new canon or their still in one canon but changed how they act because of different writers, usually to appeal to a newer fans which causes long time fans to be upset more often. It genuinely does suck to see a character you’ve liked possibly as early as your childhood be butchered by the writers just to try to appeal to a newer audience that they feel like a shell of them old selves, especially when this is a character you consider to be one of your favorites OR all time favorite…

But then I’m standing outside of this fire like “good fucking thing the only character I liked that has been reintroduced multiple times is from something that’s not really ongoing but also never fucked up his character to begin with!” Even if the trade of being a ryoma fan is some people just flanderize him.

#meg text #getter robo #ryoma nagare #I will say: there’s a good few ryomas I don’t know well enough simply because I didn’t consume their source #but even with toei and devo being so “different” I don’t think they necessarily ruin his character #especially given the context their teenagers and meant to not be as violent as his other counterparts #I may love ryoma as a violent boy but that’s also what gets flanderize about him a lot #so nice to see variants like that spice things up a little and explore other aspects of him you don’t see much #but also like- wow ova wise ryoma fucking lucked out LOL #I say Kawagoe improved in writing with each show generally but this is easily reflected with ryoma #it took three shows for him to get a full on fleshed out character arc anime wise #but he was always a enjoyable character #arma has that missed potential but still ends up having a subtle arc of healing from his past #neo doesn’t have a arc but he’s interesting just for the fact he isn’t doomed by the narrative #then new fits so much manga characterization within him but gives him a different ending #my boy has a pool of depth despite not having like- 500 variants like a superhero lol #so much to pull and think about with him #yes this turned into a excuse to ramble about ryoma RIGHT after I made a Kei post but sh