#its literally about the dangers of the 'spectacle'

[ojerasgigantes]

Just watched Loch Henry, and I'm just going to say that those who think that this episode shouldn't belong in Black Mirror because it has "nothing to do with technology" has zero media literacy.

#literally #it has everything to do with technology #and media #like #its literally about the dangers of the 'spectacle' #and the show of things atrocious and those who it hurts #its literally a satire of what netflix did to Ted Bundy #with their documentary #and then the zac efron series #loch henry #black mirror #black mirror s6 #horror #personal

[i-sveikata]

Okay so I’ve been legit thinking of Nope nonstop since I saw it last night and I’ve only just realised the difference between Jupe and OJ and their understanding of animals and how this translates to Jean Jacket

So I was thinking about that scene when Jupe is preparing for the show and he’s sort of leaning against the desk and not moving. At the time I saw it I just assumed he was unwillingly revisiting the traumatic moments of his experience on the Gordy Show but now I’m thinking there might have been more to it.

From the first time we ever see OJ he’s wearing a cap which works sort of well at shielding his eyes especially when he’s ducking his head which is something he seems to do often (and is probably what unwittingly saved his life those first six months!!!). And we hear him talk about not looking the animals in the eye which eventually culminates to his understanding of JJ and how it ties in with its territorial nature and how it views eye contact as a challenge or a sign of aggression. And when we see that horrible moment of Gordy set off by the balloon and behaving like the wild animal he is on set we as the viewer can see that Jupe doesn’t look away once, that in that moment he stays perfectly still hidden beneath that table and watches it all unfold so when Gordy approaches and seems to calm down and reach out to him, he takes that as a sign of having done the right thing in that moment. Which I think is what that scene in the office before the show is alluding to. Jupe believes that the answer to encountering dangerous and volatile animals even extraterrestrial ones is to be as non threatening as possible as a way to connect to them. Jupe, not understanding the table cloth that separated his and Gordy’s eyes from one another is what protected him in that moment, and not the fact that he stayed where he was and didn’t move. We see the poor young actress moving on the floor before Gordy attacks her again, as well as the actor father coming down the stairs and attempting to run away. Putting all that together, Jupe thinks the key here is his stillness. Which is what I think he’s practising before the show, reaching that sense of calm before he faces JJ. But the problem with that is Jupe never fully comprehended that being a passive viewer to spectacle is just as dangerous as creating it and using wild animals to profit from it. Because of Gordy he never learned to look away, to break out of the cycle of witnessing spectacle and being made into a spectacle after Gordy’s attack so when JJ arrives and comes to eat, Jupe looks up perfectly still and watches as he’s sucked up and devoured. This movie had such great commentary on the horror of spectacle, the danger of people being first and foremost viewers, even of the most appalling moments and at the expense and exploitation of human and non human lives. I just thought it was really interesting that some people have said Jupe had no idea what he was doing but I would say he absolutely did and that was his hubris, that he truly believed he could bond with JJ like he supposedly did Gordy. His misinterpretation of the traumatic event with Gordy is what actually misled him into believing stillness was the key to being a viewer of JJ/The Viewer. So instead of turning from the spectacle he and his audience were literally consumed by it instead.

#nope 2022 #nope film #nope spoilers #just my thoughts on this film because I literally can’t stop thinking about it #it’s has SO MANY LAYERS

[xamaxenta]

god i LOOOVEEE feral animal asl its so true. they truly could not care less about "laws" or "public decency" whatever that is. the straw hats manage with just luffy but the whitebeards sometimes have to deal with TWO of them? at ONCE? theyre used to ace because sometimes pirates are just like that, pops has seen plenty of them and hes just happy to see that nasty stray cat finally come inside to relax and he simply counts the shredded furniture as a Personality Trait to keep the house interesting. but then sabo rolls up and everyone at first chuckles and says oh well at least one of them has manners. except. sabo is secretly 4 ravenous feral dogs wearing a top hat. sabo is polite until the food comes out when he starts snarling and snapping (he and ace start wrestling on the floor BITING each other for a single chicken wing) or when he gets the Predator Stare and anyone who crosses within view of it feels their hair stand completely on end. marco has no particularly strong feelings about sabo when they first meet aside from "ace loves him, hes probably a freak, and he looks ridiculous dressed like that (kinda cute)" except. sometimes ace and sabo make noises at each other that are so far from human language they sound like an entirely different species. he swore one time he saw ace come up and just Lick the side of sabos face, who bit his whole ear in return like they were discussing the weather. there is something Wrong with sabo for sure. but its not until he and ace are bickering at the table and thatch throws a spare chunk of raw meat trimmings at ace (because theyve learned ace can and will eat raw meat, even the fatty or gristly bits, and as much as marco insists its not good At All for his health, the crew likes feeding large and dangerous animals) and as soon as the meat hits the table both ace and sabo go perfevtly still for roughly half a second before SABO lunges forward and grabs it in his TEETH while ace starts pummeling him for it. the top hat goes flying, theres the sound of the galley bench screeching across the floor and boots and fingernails scrabbling across the wood and the Chief Of Staff of the Revolutionary Army runs, hissing, on all fucking fours, with a chunk of raw meat in his mouth up the rigging while ace quite literally snaps at his heels. theres distant snarling and growling. sounds of tearing fabric. screams of shock and horror from the crew on the deck. and it is in that moment marco comes to the devastating realization that he is unfortunately attracted to sabo, and that his taste in men simply cannot be salvaged

Sabo standing there all prim and proper, all neatly buttoned up and his accent has this crisp edge to it like a winters morning flinty with fresh snow or perhaps new parchment waiting to be scored by the writers pen

And then Ace shows up and the mask slips abruptly something wicked spills past the pleasantries and hes kinda like fangs bared growly in a way only animals get with each other

Everyone up until this point knows the basic history Ace loves this guy, Sabo to put it bluntly would die to protect Ace with his life, they share a childhood the jungle that fucking jungle, this means Sabos also a beast but what kind theyre hoping if Ace is anything to go by he would be the same

Except Sabo brings out a monster in Ace and clearly hes so much worse, the raw meat spectacle and then the poor crowsnest lookout scrambling down trembling cold sweat like what the fuck happened to those two?

Eventually they comeback down sabos clothes are in tatters and Ace is just naked lmao theyre blood smeared and everyone hopes its the meat but its wishful thinking because thats way too much blood for a fist sized piece of flank steak

Marco unfortunately realises he has a type

Sabo pins him with a baleful pale eyed stare, those freaky mismatched eyes of his locked the fuck on, someone whos blind in one eye really shouldnt have that sort of focus, Ace headbutts him nippy bitey for being ignored but

Follows Sabos gaze and smiles

#MAS #OHOHOH ANON #rubs my lil fly paws togethehehe #marco gets taken to monster pound town #but the funny part is its Ace and Sabo who are the beasts #and Marcos the zoan

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group E Round 2

[image ID: the first image is of Goo, a blue blob with a 2 little black eyes and a half smile. the second image is of Shrimp, a black creature with a blue and white collar. he has bright white eyes, 4 spindly legs, a long tail, and an oblong head. end ID]

Goo

okay so goo . goo is like the silliest little goofball ive seen on a web series . he dances with PINECONES and makes and says weird wacky analogies and keeps all of them in little notebook for later use and also made a 3-5 hour film for his best friend bot after they said they wanted a new identity BUT he single-handedly spent like 30mil dollars or something for that but it’s okay hes trying his best !!!!! also he did NOT deserve to be voted out for that i really hope goo and bot reunite btw because they didnt get to talk much right before goo’s elimination and not ONLY that but literally goo got eliminated BEFORE he got to see bot’s transition he doesn’t even know that their name is bot he still thinks its tbd (…like literally. he still thinks their name is literally “tbd” because they said their name was tbd. yeah he’s kinda dumb like that but it’s okay i love him for it/p) as far as i know anyways their silly little meaningful conversation before his elimination that made me cry "yeah,, i liked it !! but.. it was,,. a lot :[ listen goo,, i-i dont need this new identity to be such a big grand spectacle , i just want you to treat me like. llike me . with all the uncertainty lately, it helps everything feel just a bit more,, normal , yknow .?" “oh,, ohfor sure ,! i get it !! it’s like,, you just wanted a slice of cake, and i went and gave you the whole bakery ,:D !!” “hehe, yyup, nailed it !! ,:)” UWAHHHHHHH😭/LH/POS and also he’s apart of an alliance with his bestie called the cheer factory !!!! and they focus on cheering people up and theysure as hell do well at it !!!!! they cheered up clover and the floor ithink yes the floor is a character ssshshshshhsshh / and goo literally lost one of the challengesbecause he laughed at the floor’s joke in order to cheer him up AND HE DID NOT CARE he was just glad he got to cheer somebody up !!!!! “another satisfied customer at the,, CHEER FACTORY !!! :D” LITERALLY HE WAS SO HAPPY and also when goo and bot were separated into two seperate teams goo is IMMEDIATELY sad when he notices bot isnt with him “sigh… i guess the cheer factory has become the.., cheer llc. :[“ I FELT SO BAD FOR THE BOTH OF THEM / but ahemem anyways goo is a silly little goober and that’s why he should be in this competition !!!🎉🎉 also a few extra bonus facts about him (sorry not sorry/lh/silly) 1 . he doesnt have limbs but like he also doesnt write with his mouth . his voice actor said he dances on top of the paper until it leaves a smudge 2 . did i mention he dances with pinecones/silly 3 . he likes fudge sundaes 🎉🎉 4 . his voice actor has made him diss subway before due to a request on one of his livestreams ( “lalalalala- SUBWAY⁉️eat fresh my butt‼️>:[[” ) 5 . hes blue

Shrimp

Ok so Shrimp is public enemy #1 and I love him. He's the funny little guy you see on your loading screen during the game who you don't think much of until eventually you find an asylum on one of the floors of the Upturned Inn and oops! Shrimp is there! And you need to free him to progress, which Ik is alarmed by even though you can also just tell him you didn't see/free Shrimp. You can put a collar on this little guy to make him look snazzy, despite how little he's with you. On the floors where he's friendly he kind of just follows you around, so you get to have a little buddy for parts of the game! He's basically just your pet dog who may or may not be severely dangerous. And by may or may not I mean a definite yes he is, because he turns aggressive when he gets especially hungry. He can eat the food objects scattered around, though, so that's avoidable! He can also stay with you for nice little elevator rides, which does concern Ik, but it works out! until he starts trying to attack you but if you don't feed your dog then I don't care if it attacks you [additional propaganda 1]

#obscurecharactershowdown #group e round 2 #obscure poll #goo inanimate insanity #inanimate insanity #shrimp the upturned #the upturned

[theculturedmarxist]

Many US papers are giving front-page, above the fold treatment to university administrators going wild and calling in the cops on peaceful campus protests, first at Columbia, followed by Yale and NYU. Harvard, in a profile in courage, closed its campus to prevent a spectacle. Demonstrations are taking hold at other campuses, including MIT, Emerson, and Tufts.

This is an overly dynamic situation, so I am not sure it makes sense to engage in detailed coverage. However, some things seem noteworthy.

First, in typical US hothouse fashion, the press is treating protests as if they were a bigger deal than the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I am not the only one to notice this. From Parapraxis (hat tip  guurst; bear with the author’s leisurely set-up):

I am employed as a non-tenure-track professor in a university department dedicated to teaching and research about Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness. One day, I arrived at work to find security cameras installed in my department’s hallway. I read in an email that these cameras had been installed after an antisemitic poster was discovered affixed to a colleague’s office door. I was never shown this poster. Like the cameras, I learned of it only belatedly. Despite the fact that the poster apparently constituted so great a danger to the members of my department as to warrant increased security, nobody bothered to inform me about it. By the time I was aware that there was a threat in which I was ostensibly implicated, the decision had already been made—by whom, exactly, I don’t know—about which measures were necessary to protect me from it. My knowledge, consent, and perspective were irrelevant to the process… The prolepsis of the decision did more than protect me—if, indeed, it really did that. It interpellated my coworkers and myself as people in need of protection…. I was unwittingly transformed, literally overnight, into the type of person to whom something might happen. My employer has a campus—three, actually—meaning that it has a physical plant. I navigate one of these campuses as my workplace, but it almost never figures for me as “the campus.” In fact, the first time since beginning the job when I felt myself caught up in an affective relation, not to the particular institution where I work, but rather to “the campus” was when I looked up into that security camera and felt myself being “watched” by it. Only then did I think, a couple of months into my temporary contract, that I was not just at my workplace. Now I was on “the campus.” This incident with the poster and the camera occurred, of course, some weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the onset of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza. Against so horrific a backdrop, and relative to the intimidation and retaliation to which those who speak out against the war (including—indeed, especially—in the academy) have been subjected, my story sounds banal. And it is. In its very ordinariness, however, the anecdote is quite representative: first, of how decisions get made at contemporary institutions of higher education (generally speaking, without the input of those whom they impact); and second, of the logic of a peculiarly American phenomenon I call campus panic…. The months since October 7 have aggravated the most extreme campus panic I have witnessed. To judge by the American mass media, the campus is the most urgent scene of political struggle in the world. What is happening “on campus” often seems of greater concern than what is happening in Gaza, where every single university campus has been razed by the IDF. When all the Palestinian dead have been counted, it seems likely that these months will be recorded as having inflamed a campus panic no less intense than the one that accompanied the Vietnam War.

Second, many otherwise fine stories, like Columbia in crisis, again by the Columbia Journalism Review, and Columbia University protests and the lessons of “Gym Crow” by Judd at Popular Information, start off with the 1968 protests at Columbia as a point of departure. And again, consistent with the Parapraxis account and being old enough to remember the Vietnam War, I find the comparison to be overdone. Yes, there are some telling similarities, like the role of right-wing pressure in getting campus administrators to call out the cops, the device of dwelling on the earlier uprising seems to obscure more than it reveals. The Vietnam War, unlike Gaza, tore the US apart. Today’s campus students are, with only the comparatively small contingent of Palestinian students, acting to protest US support of slaughter in Gaza. In 1968, for many, the stake were more personal. The risk of young men having to serve was real.

Similarly, conservatives then supported the military and were typically proud of their or any family member’s service. Draft dodging and demonization of armed forces leaders was close to unconscionable. It took years of the major television networks and the two authoritative magazines, Time and Newsweek, showing what the war looked like, and intimating that the US was not succeeding, that shifted mass opinion.

And even the initial 1968 protests were more disruptive. The first wave at Columbia occupied some campus buildings, presumably disrputing operations. Today’s were encampments, as in outdoors. So they were more analogous to Occupy Wall Street, where the ongoing rebellion was an offense to authority even if it caused harm. But worse, the ones at Columbia and other schools now are by elites in training, and not presumed loser riff-raff.

So the aggressiveness of the crackdown looks like very insecure leadership. For instance, why escalate to calling in the NYPD immediately, as opposed to campus police, when the city’s cops reported everyone cooperated with the arrests?

This takes us to the third issues, that it isn’t just the students who oppose the stifling of protest, but also faculty. From the Popular Information article:

[President] Shafik’s actions were blasted in a statement issued on Friday by the Columbia and Barnard College chapters of the American Association of University Professors: Shafik also drew a rebuke from the Columbia student council. In a statement, the council said that “students possess the inherent right to engage in peaceful protest without fear of retribution or harm” and called for “the preservation of freedom of speech and expression among students.”

Popular Information also points out how the Biden Administration is, natch, whipping up fear about possible dangers to Jews while ignoring that Muslims have been on the receiving end. Recall that ex-IDF soldiers who attacked pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia in January went unpunished. Again from Popular Information:

On Sunday, the White House released a statement in response to the protests at Columbia, denouncing “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students”: What incidents prompted this statement? A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But some media outlets are interpreting it as a response to this video, in which two unidentified men promise more terrorist attacks against Israel. According to the individual who posted the video, the incident did not occur on Columbia’s campus. There is no evidence that Columbia students were involved. An NBC reporter, Antonia Hylton, who was on Columbia’s campus with protesters, reported no instances of “violence or aggression” among students.

Now we’ll turn to Rajiv Sethi, who as a professor at Barnard, has, for better or worse, a front row seat on the turmoil.

By Rajiv Sethi, professor of economics at Barnard College. Originally published at his website

My campus is in turmoil, and it’s hard to think or write about anything else. Dozens of students have been suspended, arrested, and barred from the premises. Others have been advised to leave for their own safety. Most entrances are closed altogether, and the few that remain open are guarded to prevent entry of non-affiliates. Calls for the resignation of leaders are coming from multiple quarters—some concerned about excessively punitive measures and others about inadequate enforcement and protection.

There are several reports on social media of harassment, intimidation, and the glorification of violence. Such reports often conflate what is happening outside the gates—involving people who may not be affiliates and who are on ground over which the university has no jurisdiction—with the protests on the South Lawn. Based on what I have seen personally, the latter protests have been peaceful, prayerful, and even joyful at times.1

I did see one sign directed at President Shafik that I felt was offensive and ill-advised. And there is one phrase—recently deemed anti-Semitic by an act of Congress—that has been repeated loudly and frequently within the gates. This post is about the meaning of that phrase, and about meanings and messages in general.

While on stage at a political convention in July 2015, Martin O’Malley said the following:

Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.

Taken literally, these words are entirely unobjectionable, even laudable. But O’Malley apologized for them within hours, saying: “That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect.”

Why was the apology deemed necessary? O’Malley was running for the Democratic presidential nomination at the time, and to many of the voters he was courting, the words “all lives matter” had come to mean something else entirely—an expression of indifference to racial inequality at best, and perhaps even a racist dog whistle.

As phrases come to be endowed with new meanings, some people respond by carefully avoiding them, while others are motivated to adopt them with relish. This further entrenches the new meaning and reinforces the process of selective abandonment and adoption. Thus “Democrat Party” can come to be intended and perceived as an epithet, and the seemingly harmless chant “Let’s Go Brandon!” a vulgarity.

This process is decentralized and largely uncoordinated, and there is little that legislation can do to enforce the attachment of meanings to messages. Of course, this hasn’t prevented our elected officials from trying. On April 16, by a vote of 377-44, the House passed Resolution 883:

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the slogan, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic and its use must be condemned.

One day later, Columbia President Minouche Shafik was asked by Congresswoman Lisa McClain whether she agreed that such statements were indeed anti-Semitic. President Shafik answered as follows:

I hear them as such, some people don’t.

The problem with this response is that it suggests that listeners are free to assign meanings to expressions, regardless of the identities and intentions of speakers. But meanings are created jointly by speakers and listeners, and the same message can carry different meanings depending on what is known about the parties engaged in communication.

People have often appropriated and de-fanged racist, misogynistic, and homophopic insults aimed at the groups to which they belong. Even the most vile and vicious slur in the American language carries a different connotation when used by Randall Kennedy in conversation. The meanings of messages cannot be established independently of the indentities of those who use them. They cannot be established by listeners alone.

Thus the attempt by the House of Representatives to define the meaning of a phrase is likely to be futile. The meaning will evolve over time based on the process of selective avoidance and adoption. And this meaning is vigorously contested at present.

Consider, for instance, the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism. This document states clearly that “denying the right of Jews in the State of Israel to exist and flourish, collectively and individually, as Jews, in accordance with the principle of equality” is anti-Semitic. However, it also proclaims:

It is not antisemitic to support arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants “between the river and the sea,” whether in two states, a binational state, unitary democratic state, federal state, or in whatever form.

President Shafik could have referenced the above in pushing back against the idea that meanings can be assigned by elected representatives or college administrators. I understand the pressure she was under, and it is difficult to give thoughtful responses under such circumstances. But it is important that moving forward, the use of this phrase alone not be used as a basis for disciplinary action.

One organization that I have come to admire over the past few years is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which has been admirably consistent in defending freedom of speech on and off campus. On this phrase in particular, FIRE’s position is the following:

If students at a peaceful protest chant anti-Israel slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” that speech, taken alone, is protected political expression. Even if some understand the phrase to call for the destruction of Israel, it is still—absent more—protected as political speech, advocating in general terms for violence elsewhere at an unspecified time against a broadly defined target… But context is determinative: Were the same statement to be directed at a specific Jewish student by a student or group moving threateningly towards him, during a protest that has turned violent and unstable, it may arguably constitute a true threat.

This is the right position to take and I hope that Barnard and Columbia will adopt it. The keynote by Killer Mike at the 2023 FIRE Gala explains in the clearest possible terms the value of this perspective, and it will join the Reith lecture by Chimamanda Adichie and the Stanford Memo by Jenny Martinez (along with the Kalven Report and the Chicago Principles) as a classic in the pantheon of free speech advocacy.

Among the people who have addressed the students on the South lawn are Madmood Mamdani and Norman Finkelstein; I caught the tail end of the latter’s speech but couldn’t hear much because amplification was limited and he tends to speak quite softly. I do hope that the students who invited him will read his latest book, which is as fierce a critique of identity politics as one is likely to find anywhere.

Norman Finkelstein addresses student protestors at Columbia on April 19th, 2024

I received a response to this post from Seth Weissman, whom I first met when he was a graduate student at Columbia many years ago. I remember Seth fondly, and have enormous respect for him. His message is posted (with permission) below:

Rajiv, as usual, a very thoughtful take. That said, you are missing something. I say this as someone who knows and respects you as fair-minded and as an Orthodox Jew who is: So what are you missing? I’m all for “from the river to the sea, Palestinians will be free.” That could mean in a binational state alongside Jews living freely, or in two states, one Palestinian (West Bank, Gaza, and the Arab sections of Jerusalem such as Abu Dis) and the other a Jewish home where Arab citizens are accorded full rights, which is the current (albeit imperfectly realized) concept of Israel. This is in accordance with the Jerusalem Declaration. But the chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” explicitly and willfully denies Jewish self expression. In a context where some of the protestors (not all, and I am making no claim as to what percentage) have expressed solidarity with Hamas, it can be taken no other way. And while the majority of the protestors would denounce Hamas (I hope), they are standing shoulder to shoulder with those who empathize with Hamas. FYI, I have the scars from confronting nationalism and Islamophobia on the Jewish side. If I could pay the price for denouncing Jewish nationalists on my “side,” I can expect the protestors at Columbia and Barnard to do the same—criticize Israel without providing political support for terror and anti-Semitism.

1

After posting this I came across a credible report of significant harassment and intimidation within the Columbia gates. All classes at Barnard and Columbia are remote today, which I imagine is a prelude to clearing out of the encampment.

#naked capitalism #palestine #israel palestine conflict #norman finkelstein #columbia university

[hauntedwitch04]

Vampires

🎃Halloween party🎃  

Azriel x reader

Words: about 0.8k words

Warning: a lot of fluff, mention of sex and sassy Azzy with Cassian + some swears 

Author’s note: Hi loves! 4th day and here we are with our Azriel! Hope you like this!

✒️:  “You know darling, it’s dangerous to walk around after midnight.”

Requests are open I  Ask  I  My masterlist   I  Join the Taglist

All you can focus on is the sound of the clock moving around the room as you toss and turn in bed, unable to find the sleep you so long for. Defeated, you snort and get out of bed. You place a robe over your shoulders so you don't feel cold, and then walk toward the kitchen of the Windhouse. Once there you begin to make yourself some tea, but once you put it on the stove you are distracted by the view from the terrace. You step out the window and immediately the cold wind of the night envelops you. The stars above you watch over your steps as you approach the balustrade of the terrace, away from the window, since this terrace is immense.

Below you the view of the city at night disperses among the darkness of its surroundings. Its lights seem like a beacon for sailors lost in the fog, a symbol of safety, of home. You stay what seems like seconds to observe that spectacle, but is actually almost an hour. You feel a hand on your shoulder that startles you, causing you to turn away. Once you turn around you see that it is none other than Azriel looking at you with a puzzled look. You do not respond and turn back to the city, leaning with your elbows on the balustrade. He imitates you, placing himself at your side, looking, however, instead of the view, at your face.

"What is it?" You say finally, feeling his gaze on you.

"You know darling, it's dangerous to walk around after midnight." He says in a whisper near your ear. You feel chills run down your spine, but they are not from the cold.

"Az, we are in the safest place in all of Velaris. Do you think you will scare me with your usual monster stories you tell Nyx? If I'm not mistaken, last time Feyre was literally about to kill you." I reply laughing, as he chuckles with me.

"Monsters are everywhere, I just want to prepare him for the world ahead." He says turning serious again, bringing his gaze in front of him. "A monster is right next to you, looking at the stars with you."

At those words a deep sense of sadness permeates your chest, and you feel as if a boulder has taken the place of your heart. You look at him with teary eyes as you gently touch his shoulder. His shadows wrap themselves around your arm like a soft caress of the night, and a sense of anger pervades you toward those who made him suffer so much.

"You are not a monster Azriel." You say in a soft but at the same time firm voice, and he turns at your words, looking at you, seeing the tears that threatened to fall due to sadness and anger. "You are the sweetest, best, kindest, most loving person I know, even if you don't like to admit it." You continue, staring into his eyes.

For the second time tonight you lose your sense of timing by gazing into those beautiful chocolate-colored eyes, which remind you of the color of wet earth in autumn covered by the red and orange leaves that have fallen from the trees.

You don't know how, you end up being closer and closer until you are practically breathing the same air and your lips are touching. From that moment a dance starts between your tongues, with your arms and legs, coddling you all the way to his bedroom. There you spend a night of love, losing each other, while the stars from the open window continue to witness this love, all the way from your first kiss.

In the morning Nesta is surprised to see the teapot on the burning fire. She removes it only to wonder who had forgotten it there, when she sees you arrive in the kitchen with a big smile and obvious red marks on your neck, the answer is obvious to her, the only incongnity was who she had spent the night with. Beside her Cassian looks in amazement at the girl in front of them, until Azriel also entered the room with the same smile, but several more marks on his neck, not hidden by his uniform. Immediately you and the Shadowsinger fall into a routine, preparing your breakfast, circling each other like dance moves you've known for years. Nesta can't help but smile contentedly, while her partner can't help himself.

"Damn, are you two fucking vampires or what? Did you see what you broke up or what?" Shouts the Commander to his friend, who turns and with a small smile looks at you, before turning back to look at his brother.

"It's better than fucking in the dining room." He replies cheekily.

No one had ever heard Nesta laugh so much and so loudly before.

#Azriel Headcanons #azriel imagine #azriel acotar #azriel shadowsinger #azriel x reader #azriel x reader smut #imagine acotar #acotar x reader #becky's writing #becky's halloween party

[greenerteacups]

hi gtc! i wanted to ask if you could tell us more about your favorite books, films, shows, and media/pop culture in general! would love to hear you gush about and spill the tea on all your favorite things

also, i feel like i've known you forever because i discovered lionheart in its early stages. literally when only the first book was out. it's been an honor and pleasure to see you grow and to see your work getting all the love, recognition, and praise it deserves. ilysm greenteacup 🩷

Man, I don't know where to start. Favorite books: Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, Little Women, Atonement, Mrs. Dalloway, Love in the Time of Cholera. Also, equally loved, but loved in a different part of my brain: Dracula, Anne of Green Gables, Howl's Moving Castle, The Locked Tomb series, Normal People, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, The Bloody Chamber, the Six of Crows duology, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ender's Game, Station Eleven, and a million other books that I'm going to remember and kick myself for forgetting, because any book I love is always my favorite when I'm reading it, but I don't have just one. There are a lot of poets I love and learn from, too: Louise Glück, Margaret Atwood (hot take: I like her poetry more than her novels), Anne Carson, and Richard Siken. In terms of movies, I watch what my friends tell me to, but my favorites tend to be spectacle sci-fi productions like Nolan or Villenueve's ouevre, movies that really take advantage of the scale of the thing. Or Wes Anderson's middle period. Or Audrey Hepburn movies. I watch those whenever I need a pick-me-up.

#thanks for sticking around!

[demon-girl-izalith]

I think we should keep something in mind this Christmas/holiday season. As the Christian narrative floats around, the white swaddled newborn plastered on billboards, and the focus on what's "sacred" and "holy" circulating through churches around the western world...

The body being "sacred" has nothing to do with some fucked white European idea of chastity or purity. It has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with making sure people are able to feed themselves and their children, not be straight up poisoned by pollutants, or fetishized and exploited for profit. Holiness has nothing to do with being clean or looking your Sunday best.

It was never actually about "purity" or "virginity" or "cleanliness". If it was, why the hell would Jesus have been crucified? The real historical dude said stuff that pissed off people in power so much they fucking merked him. Nothing pisses off agrarian feudal lords or modern capitalists more than telling the masses that they aren't simply morally justified, but on the side of GOD when they steal medicine and food for their children. If you don't believe me, I highly recommend reading William Herzog's "Parables as subversive speech", read about what theologians actually think historical Jesus was talking about all those years ago. Whether you believe in God or not, think religion is a plague or pray a rosary every night, I think keeping this in mind is like super important.

Christianity becomes dangerous and, in the opinion of this demon girl, blasphemous when it is removed from the context of its social cause, when it's co-opted by those in power and disarmed of the radical rhetoric that it was born from originally. I think that's exactly what we see in broader society. I think that an entirely rational response to this is to equate all of Christianity or even all of religion with evil... But I think there's nuance here.

To be clear, I stand with the satanists who support the fight for separation in church and state by chastising the corrupt institutions who have become the opposite of what they claim to espouse. I stand with the atheists who keep the naive theologians in check, and offer peace to the people who have been ravaged by the monster modern Christianity is to so many. Don't stop doing what you're doing. If Jesus was standing here today he'd be standing with you. You're fighting modern day pherisees out here and I'm for it.

Now, this is not to say there aren't problematic things that were always present in the Christian religion, of course there are. And they're quite abundant. I think Christians need to be very aware of that as well. There's nuance there. What I'm calling for here is a realization that the religion of the oppressed is not the same as the religion of the oppressor, and that the religion of the oppressed, when not stripped of its merit and co-opted by systems of greed, can be a force for good. And when we use that lens to look at this bizarre spectacle we call "Christmas", we can learn some interesting stuff.

What I'm saying is, if you're trans, gay, whatever, for the love of God, literally, please LIVE. Listen to your friendly demon izalith. By existing as who you are, you are sacred. Don't let the people wearing robes and claiming to be on the sides of angels and "God" tell you who you can or can't love, or what you can or can't be. If there is a God out there, and he's with those punks, then he's no god. I spit on his name. Angels are overrated anyways... It's the demons, the poor person who steals from Walmart to feed themselves and their children, the prostitute who is proud of their job and the life they work hard to sustain, the fat trans person who goes to Christmas mass in goth makeup... It's those people who the religion was originally made for. It wasn't made for the rich, the white, the straight, the normative. It was made for us. For all those people who are downtrodden, cold this winter, unable to buy food, scared and tired. Fuck that shit they used to traumatize us and belittle us when growing up. It's all lies and venom anyways. If no one loves and accepts you, this demon will.

#christianity #counter-culture Christian #some demon theology #blasphemy is kewl #jesus would scoff at whatever the hell y'all been calling Christianity. especially if we're basing that off the greek orthodox jesus #queer theology #liberation theology #religious commentary #religious trauma #trans #Christmas #tw: religon

[metawatts]

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part One

I've been workshopping this review for a week it is 9 fucking pages but anyway: It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!

Table of Contents

#1. Introduction: Not for DC Fans

#2. Starting off: “The Good-

#3. Propping Up RWBY over the Justice League

#4. The Texas Character Massacre

#5. Oh boy lets talk about the writing

#6. Other General Notes: -The Bad, and The Ugly”

#7. Final Scores!!

TL:DR- They better not make the 'part 2'. Let's get into it.

#1. Introduction: Not for DC Fans

Let’s get this out of the way: this is a movie made for RWBY fans. It’s made for people who are familiar with RWBY, with the characters, with the worldbuilding, and it’s made with the idea that the people watching are RWBY fans, with DC fans as the backburner. The first reason why I think this? The DC characters get a lot more exposition on who and what they are, while the RWBY characters get to exist and be ‘cool’.

The second reason? This movie is, lets face it, mean-spirited towards DC. And yeah whatever, a DC comic writer wrote this, but to be fair with the state of comics nowadays that says absolutely nothing about respect given to the characters that are popular and well-known (hint: it’s not RWBY). This movie is drenched in schoolyard meanness. It’s all about pointing and laughing at the DC characters. Our introductory scene to this film involves Superman being systematically humiliated in his first scene (unable to use his powers, having his hero codename be mocked, etc.), and that sets the tone.

Meanwhile, the RWBY characters are introduced with action set pieces and knowing about the world they are in. The DC characters are the ones who are comedic relief, who need to be ‘taken down a peg’, who must struggle and prove themselves to RWBY to get the ‘honour’ of working with them, while RWBY doesn’t have to struggle and instead gets to just be ‘cool’. And that’s detrimental to the RWBY characters as well too, by the way, so don’t think I’m being unfair. No one in this film has a character arc, except Jessica, supposedly, and Batman, unfortunately, and you would think that coming off the back of volume 9, often called the ‘character development’ volume, people would be complaining that RWBY and JNR are quite flat, in how they progress through the film.

Basically: The RWBY characters are set dressing; the Justice League are punching bags. With that as our thesis, let’s review this movie. (warning for spoilers)

#2. Starting Off: “The Good-

Now, I won’t pretend this movie was enjoyable for me by any means, but I’m not unreasonable, it had its positives. Four, specifically.

The first one is obvious: the Spectacle Fight Scenes. This movie had a bunch of fights packed away in it, and the overall quality of them was on the whole, in the higher tier of rwby’s Maya fight scenes. Bar a few bits of wonkiness and the general writing surrounding the fights, they were fun. A particular shout-out to my favourite one at the end, Hacked!Flash vs Everyone, that one was fun and fast and highly enjoyable.

Number 2: Batman’s semblance. I’ll fully admit that I’m pretty sure my enjoyment of this power implementation was purely because I like Batman: Arkham Asylum, and this is literally just ripped right from that down to the aesthetics, but, well- I like Batman: Arkham Asylum, and therefore I like Bruce’s Detective Vision semblance and how it was used pretty creatively compared to most other semblances.

Third times the charm: Superman was my shining light, my beacon of hope in this film. He was kind, he was polite, he was supportive and brave and friendly and also, surprisingly for RWBY, managed to do all this without being spineless, he was willing to stand up for himself when he thought he was being treated unfairly (at least, 80% of the time). I wouldn’t even normally consider myself a massive Superman fan, I like when he’s well-written and I notice when he isn’t, but this movie had me actively rooting for any time where he was on screen, he was my absolute highlight in this film, love him even if his fit is fuckin ATROCIOUS. (and his voice acting was, by and large, one of the strongest performances, beyond Kilg%re and Hacked!Barry, who were just clearly having a delightful time villain monologuing)

Number four: the idea of Grimm absorbing dust. It’s a brilliant idea that really ups the stakes in RWBY fights, considering dust is their go-to offensive weapon and literally powers all their bullets, and, amazingly, it was also a cool idea that was carried throughout most of the film. Every Grimm in this film had the ability, more or less, and they used it often and to great effect. Very nicely implemented.

(Final tiny shout-out: the Justice League’s superhero outfits in their own world, that we regrettably only see in a few flashback images, looked GOOD. I wish they kept them instead of getting the outfits in the film proper)

But alas, this film really did have a lot more negatives than positives, so lets get into the first big flaw, and the one I would consider the movie’s biggest failing:

#3. Propping Up RWBY over the Justice League

I mentioned it in the intro, but this movie is consistent in how it utterly devalues the Justice League characters and does everything in its power to showcase RWBY and JNR as ‘better’ in every way. Now, the argument is that this is intentional, seeing as the villain deliberately nerfed the JL characters into being teenagers to weaken them. To which case I point at probably what is probably the most referenced episode of the Justice League cartoon in regards to this movie, the one where they’re turned into literal children, appropriately named ‘Kid Stuff’, and I’ll also point out the lesser known episode of Justice League Action called ‘Trick or Threat’, which had the added bonus of wiping the JL character’s memories of being superheroes.

Now, why am I bringing these up? Its because both of these episodes had the same villain idea as this movie: de-age the Justice League to weaken them, and both of these episodes also did something that the movie failed to do: keep the characters in-character and acting their age, and treat them with respect. I’ll get to the character issues in the next section, but the idea of treating characters respectfully is not done in this film.

Superman, as stated prior, is nerfed, his name is made fun of, he’s talked down to constantly, he’s insulted, he’s distrusted, and not just by team RWBY. But he is not the only one. Wonder Woman has a mishap when trying to get the hang of her new abilities and Blake and Yang laugh at her. Flash, Vixen, Cyborg, and Green Lantern spar against JNR and despite still maintaining most of their adult memories beyond the immediate, and supposedly their skills minus powers, end up on the defensive. Against JNR, not even against the main team RWBY or against Pyrrha. They are outclassed by the side-character team. Batman, the hand-to-hand specialist, is outclassed by Weiss in close-quarters and then a few random SDC guards, Wonder Woman and Superman mostly escape unscathed, beyond the new drawbacks of their semblances, but it’s telling that most of the fight scenes are more focused on the cool things RWBY and JNR do instead of the JL characters (bar the Big Three). Cyborg’s biggest combat moment that’s given any narrative weight is him powering up Nora. Vixen doesn’t even get a moment, and Flash’s only moments come when he’s being the Villain and not Flash. The JL characters are supporting characters in a movie that’s supposed to be about teamwork.

Second point: they really hype Grimm up as scary, even stating ‘Grimm aren’t like your normal monsters, they’re soulless beings that only care about destroying and killing’. And it’s treated as a big moment of internal revelation and horror for the Justice League. Let me say that again, the fact that monsters only care about destroying things, is played as horrifying. For the Justice League. The guys who faced down, canonically in this film: Vandal Savage, an immortal sadistic genius who literally just wants to destroy the world consistently, and Brainiac, a hyper-intelligent alien android who’s goals range from ‘destroyed krypton in some continuities’ to ‘hobbies include horrifically mind controlling people to do evil and shrinking Actual Cities for his snow-globe collection’.

But yes. Grimm are scary now. These are the same Grimm that basically act as cannon fodder in all of RWBY’s actual run time, bar one-offs, and exist just to give the protagonists something they can guilt-free rip their way through to show off. Those Grimm. Those are the scary ones now, supposedly. Despite this artificial attempt to make RWBY seem more badass then the league for fighting monsters, the Grimm are still cannon fodder, the movie doesn’t stray that far from RWBY’s conventions.

Finally, there’s a consistent running theme that ties into the leadership qualities of Ruby vs Clark, but mostly ends up as ‘the Justice League try to come up with ideas and plans, and team RWBY and JNR yell at them for daring to tell them what to do’. Most particularly, it’s Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman who actually spark Team RWBY into realising that there’s a problem that needs solving. It’s them that comes up with 90% of the plans, and its them that put their money where their mouth is on being not only a good team and smart heroes, but also as friends (more on that later). But instead, whenever they come up with good ideas, it’s shut down, mostly by Nora, and also Yang, as ‘I’m not going to listen to you/don’t tell us what to do/you’re not the boss of me’.

There’s a very big sense of undeserved ego there, especially since the RWBY characters haven’t actually given a reason why they shouldn’t listen beyond general contrariness. But also, it’s a sentiment that does not work on a battlefield, and it does not work in a movie that tries to have a theme of ‘coming together’. Mostly because in a standard plotline about ‘working together’, the disagreements usually require resolving, or meeting in the middle. There is none of that here. The Justice League just bends the knee and goes with being mistreated by teenagers who have not shown their chops as heroes, but it’s still given the ending of ‘we’re all friends now’. The first of many character assassinations throughout this film.

#4. The Texas Character Massacre

This one’s a doozy. No one escapes. Not even Superman, who is almost entirely spared, even he gets a dose of a ‘RWBY Heroic Speech that is just Empty Token Hero Stuff’ (AKA the thing that’s been plaguing Ruby since vol4). But I’ve used Superman already a lot, and he’s probably the least egregious of what happens here, so let’s get into the meat of this topic.

Everyone and their mom on twitter has been commenting about how Batman does not feel like Batman in this. And it’s true. Batman, the self-admitted ‘I haven’t been a kid since I was eight’, the man who is so obsessed with Gotham City it will one day kill him, the man who, even if in this continuity is not a father of 4-8+ adopted children, still has Alfred who he would die for and would die for him, the man who in the current comics run of RWBY in the DC universe says with his mouth ‘I don’t want this semblance, relying on it is detrimental in the long-term’. This Batman. Wants to ditch Gotham because he has wings and powers now.

‘Batman getting powers’ is not new ground, by the way, but the absolute moping this version of Batman does is not only annoying and actively unlikable, it also makes no sense. In the span of ten seconds, in the same conversation, he goes from ‘I want to go home’ to ‘I want to stay where I have powers’. This isn’t presented as a conflict of interest either, by the way. He just completely switches his mind because Weiss said ‘hey stay here’. There’s no consistency, there’s no internal character motivation, it felt like they just wanted to have one character conflicted about leaving HoloRemnant and decided just to throw a dart at a board without caring who it fit. So yes, Batman? Massacred.

Wonder Woman also got severely screwed over too. I had this in my notes that Wonder Woman only acted in character when she was reuniting with the rest of the Justice League and was allowed to show kindness and compassion. The rest of the time, Wonder Woman, a character defined by her love for the world (and was created to showcase feminine power, btw), is a Strong Female Character, and I do mean that in the Negative Way. She’s literally got a Batman Growl on her voice for 99% of her lines, she talks about how tough she is, about the ‘warrior’s life’, and she’s the first character to get violent in a situation. Yes, even beating out Yang ‘punch first, talk later’ Xiao Long. This feels like a parody of Wonder Woman written by someone who read the Whedon Wonder Woman script and took ‘some crazy strong bitch in a tiara’ as their entire central concept for the character. It’s not a Wonder Woman who believes in anything, she’s just a sidekick for the bees to prop themselves up with as ‘warriors’. I could write a million thinkpieces on what makes Wonder Woman an excellent hero character, but all I’ll say is this film’s Wonder Woman would not count.

Green Lantern will get her own post on how this movie handled her so fucking badly because that would balloon this review to a massive size when it’s already a Longk Boi, but suffice to say: she was whitewashed, her anxiety was mishandled, and fucking HELL I miss Simon Baz, why are we erasing Jessica’s friendship with Simon for some screentime-sucking white boy. (Racism and islamophobia, the answer is racism and islamophobia)

Cyborg, Flash, and Vixen all aren’t really characters in this movie as much as they are there to fill out the cast, but suffice to say, they were handled badly. Flash was at his most interesting when being visibly possessed by the villain because beyond that he was just entirely forgettable to the point that you will not notice he has been written out of a fight scene until Vixen goes ‘where’s Flash’. Vixen herself literally is the most sidelined of all the characters in this film, she doesn’t even get a Cool Action Moment, and has just two character traits: Sassy and Vaguely Animalistic Sometimes, not just because she’s a faunus, but her first scene we’re introduced to her sniffing a paper plane for what is literally the only ‘plot point’ she’s involved in, namely, that Flash ‘smells wrong’. And Cyborg. Man, Cyborg. They literally handed the hacking plotline to Weiss with the excuse of ‘the tech here is weird’ and instead shoved Cyborg into some weird jealousy triangle where he was so disrespected by Ren and Nora that even his goodbye to them is met with disdain. Cyborg and Vixen deserve so much better, guys.

Now, onto team RWBY and JNR. Remember how I said they were flat characters? Yeah, this bit’s gonna be a bit shorter. Ruby had probably the most ‘characterisation’ in the film, in that they literally just took volume 9’s idea of ‘Ruby has self-doubts’, slapped it on her, explored nothing, and then Clark gave her a quick Friendship Speech and she’s all smiley again. Weiss has a bit of flirting with Batman, suddenly gained hacking abilities out of nowhere, and is mainly the ‘nice but snobby’ archetype she’s been in main RWBY for ages. Actually, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jaune all mainly exist to serve plot points in some way. Weiss and her little storyline with Batman is just designed to reveal the villain, Jaune is there to push Jessica’s storyline of getting her powers back by Literally Curing Her Panic Attacks, and Blake and Yang? Well, they get Wonder Woman to the places she needs to visit, first Beacon, then Atlas, and then Vale again. Oh, and they have Moments. Your mileage may vary on if that’s good or not, it’s mainly superfluous to the film overall. Ren and Nora don’t actually contribute anything, beyond Ren being jealous of Cyborg and Nora, and Nora getting mad at both of them for being overly protective (I think it’s meant to be pushback against misogyny but. It’s poorly handled).

Actually, I lie. Blake does have at least one big thing of characterisation. But I’m going to put it in the next section, because it’s more of a writing problem. The final other characters in the film are Kilg%re, our villain, who is laughable, and the simulated versions of Glynda, Kali, Jacques, Ozpin/Oscar, and Pyrrha. All of whom are there just to… show that it’s a simulation, or something. They don’t do anything beyond Pyrrha being so obviously a trap for Jaune and Jessica that of course only Jaune ignoring Jessica’s common sense could have made it worse. Now, Onwards!!

#5. Oh boy lets talk about the writing

So. The Faunus racism plotline. Listen. It’s bad. We all know its bad. I’m not going into it because there are a million people smarter then me who already have done elaborate and well-thought analyses on why its bad. Can we just accept the Faunus plotline is horrendous and go from there? Okay? Okay.

So: Blake introduces the concept of faunus by describing her own race as ‘humans with ears or a tail’. As I saw someone else put it when the movie dropped, ‘people don’t describe themselves as a white person with darker skin’. Anyway, the faunus plotline. It’s not really touched on in this film beyond Jacques being racist towards Bruce and Blake being generally weird about it, and the idea that ‘the animal-themed superheroes are faunus now’, but it’s a plotline that RWBY will never escape and therefore must be mentioned as having some impact.

So lets talk about the actual racism in the movie and mention how the black woman is a Sassy Side Character, the two men of colour are shoved into a jealousy plotline over a white girl (again, reiterating: Weiss and Bruce have the hacking plotline), and the Latina girl has a white boy solve her mental illness for her after her character design was whitewashed. While I don’t think it’s intentionally racist, it is a bit of a pattern for all of RWBY’s stuff that characters of colour are either written off, villainised, or sidelined. I also want to mention: Oscar shows up in this literally just to get slammed hard into a pillar by Wonder Woman. They really can’t go five minutes without beating up this kid). This movie is not kind to the characters of colour, whether its by Actively Fucking Whitewashing Them or by just making them non-characters, and it’s just, unfortunately, exactly what was expected from a piece of RWBY media.

The mention of Oscar above reminded me: the simulation characters are… handled oddly. Ozpin is the most obviously fake, even before he starts glitching between his old self and Ozpin. But what’s strange is that out of all the simulations, Jacques of all characters has the most personality of them. Kali was always a side character, Glynda just creates exposition and sets up a fight scene, Ozpin isn’t even given a character he’s just Creepy Hologram, and Pyrrha has about one minute of ‘no wait its totally me’ before she goes The Most Evil (sidenote, they keep bringing Pyrrha back just to be evil, I hope that’s not another pattern). It’s just… strange. The way the whole villain thing in this film works is strange. Which leads me to:

Kilg%re. When I found out who the villain of this film was I went on the mother of all rants on discord. And I will post it here for posterity, just so you know exactly what the gut reaction was.

As for why this reveal sucks: well. I mean, first of all, if you introduce the concept of your surprise villain as a joke earlier in the film, which they did, then it doesn’t really make them feel all that villainous. Sure enough, it gave Kilg%re a chip on the shoulder in his villain monologue, where he was whining about being ‘the one who finally trapped the Justice League’ (bestie they’re a superhero team from comics, they get trapped once a week and twice on Sundays, you’re not special, babe, sorry). And a character desperately yelling at the screen that ‘no I’m really cool trust me’ is not… fun. It’s just sort of awkward. Sorry, Kilg%re, they treated you badly. Also, they didn’t reveal the second villain on Remnant’s side beyond saying ‘he’, even when setting this during the Vol7 Montage, so I guess that’s a mystery for the next movie, if it’s ever made (personally I’m hoping for Dr Merlot, why not).

On the flipside of villains being written badly, this film also has romance written badly. It’s just jealousy and love triangles, jealousy and love triangles. Not even interesting love triangles either, just ‘character A shows interest in character B, which makes character C get really possessive and (in all but one case) mean to B’. The As: Cyborg, Yang, Bruce. The Bs: Nora, Diana, Weiss. The Cs: Ren, Blake, Diana (again). It’s not cute, and it’s especially not cute when it’s repeated three times in the same film. It’s just boring.

Finally: and this is the thing that truly, genuinely, made me want to write this whole thing because of how rage inducing it is, is this monologue given to us by Blake:

"They sound lucky. They've never had to worry they were gonna die just from going to school. To train like your life, or worse, your friends' lives depend on it. To have to live with the fact that there's a real chance you're gonna lose them. They had a childhood."

Lets count it down, people!!

Superman: literally an allegory for illegal immigrants, refugee orphans (an alien who was adopted and raised in America after his home was made unsafe) and in many case Jewish people, what with all the Moses Allegory. Had to hide the fact that he was an alien all his life, starting from childhood.

Batman: watched his parents get gunned down in front of him at age 8. This is so integral an event that it is a fulcrum point not only of his character, but also of most of the main Dc Universe that Bruce’s Parents Die.

Flash: his mother was murdered in front of him by a time-travelling speedster and his father was arrested for it. Barry grew up with the stigma of having a murderer for a father who he is generally seen as visiting constantly in jail.

Cyborg: he is a disabled black man whose father fused him with alien technology to keep him alive after a near-death experience that also completely replaced 90% of his body and meant he had to give up on his dreams of being a sports star. Usually also has a dead mom around there too.

Green Lantern: a Latina woman who had a decent childhood by most accounts in the comics, but had the unfortunate luck of witnessing gangsters hiding a body while out hiking with her friends. Watched her friends get gunned down around her, spent the next four years extremely agoraphobic to the point of never leaving her apartment because of her trauma and the fear that the gangsters would finish the job. Family’s alive, but that was only the start of the ‘Jessica Has A Bad Time’ train.

Vixen: Mari’s backstory is a bit more nebulous as long as the main points of ‘was born in an African village, got the tantu totem, moved to America and became a superhero and usually also a model’ is met, but she also tends to have a dead mom or dead parents floating around too most of the time, whether that’s by poachers, warlords, or some other awful human-caused tragedy.

Wonder Woman: raised on an island that was in comics literally called 'Paradise Island' by her loving mother, trained with all her Amazon family to become a warrior, the island is explicitly protected from all of the evil of Man’s World by magic, and willingly chose to leave to go do good and protect people.

So we have one princess raised on a paradisal island ethnostate with loving, caring parents telling another princess raised on a paradisal island ethnostate with loving caring parents that ‘yeah your friends have horrific backstories, but they were lucky because they didn’t do what we did and WILLINGLY sign up for a job as a monster killer where we get four years of training and preparation and also are paid well for our actions instead of freelance vigilante work for charity, so if you think about it, us RWBY kids are the real victims/warriors here’.

Just in case anyone was wondering why I think Wonder Woman’s OOC in this film.

Oh also this monologue is an allegory for gun violence and school shootings, as confirmed by the writer in this article and I am including the quote for posterity and also so people can’t say I made it up: https://animemojo.com/other/exclusive-interview-with-justice-league-x-rwby-super-heroes-huntsmen-writer-meghan-fitzmartin-a14773#gs.w1iou8

“These kids are warriors and these RWBY kids are a really good look at what we’re putting a lot of kids through today. There’s a statistic I saw recently that said 1-in-5 kids will die in gun violence in America. That sucks. That’s the level of warrior stuff we’re putting our kids through and it’s a good example of what’s happening to this current generation. I wanted to make a point of saying, ‘What does that do to us?’ Looking into the leadership or what these characters go through, it’s interesting to see what they have to give up to give future generations a chance. I think that resonates a lot with kids today.” - Meghan Fitzmartin

Just. In case anyone else wants to be angry about this with me. Hey, RWBY, you can’t have the actual tagline of your show be ‘it’s also a gun’ and then go ‘gun violence is bad tho’ because oh man then your main characters look like real monsters for all the times they pull guns on people (such as all the unarmed civilians or people who they pulled guns on first who then pulled out their own guns in self-defence). Also, if this is one of the themes of the movie, then this is also the only time it’s touched on. The concept of ‘being a warrior’ becomes instantly watered down to mean ‘badass fighter’ and not ‘person carrying constant fear of death by rising gun violence’, so it’s also a really shallow use of an actually serious theme, which is par for the course with RWBY but is also still very annoying when it happens.

#6. Other General Notes: - the Bad, and the Ugly”

The music in this film was very weak. No hate to the composer but it’s barely noticeable and doesn’t really have anything of note. Normally I find a lot of DC stuff has decent music and RWBY in particular is praised for it. This was disappointing, audio-wise

The designs: Listen, RWY and JNR were fine, the Beacon designs are serviceable even if they aren’t my favourites overall. But anyway, lets rank the Justice League, best to worst!

#1. Vixen: even, somehow, in the world that is RWBY modelling, Vixen slays. She simply cannot look bad, ever. The focus on black and orange contrast instead of a million eye-searing colours, the sleekness of the jumpsuit, the fact that it’s not overly complicated, and that she actually has hair with curls in it? If not for the tail and the fact that it is literally just Harriet’s model, top points. You cannot keep a bad bitch down.

#2. Cyborg: Listen. It could have been worse. It could have been. So much worse.

#3. Wonder Woman: girlypop’s gonna cut someone on that chin, and her arm muscles look like braided bread. The ponytail would be passable if not for the way they modelled her hair tendrils, and the outfit… also could have been worse.

#4. Superman: The babyface and the way his hair is plastered to his head does not work, but I like how expressive his eyes are. The outfit is an atrocity to god but they all are from this point so at least his boots are cute and the whole denim jeans and denim jacket would work if they didn’t have that massive gold S on the shirt or the Fake Cape.

#5. Batman: ugly as sin. He has No Hood, Cowl, or Mask, his hair is bad, the scar on the eyebrow is the one cool thing, his outfit is awful, and when it’s folded up it looks like Weiss is swinging around an empty pizza box. Gotta say, at least the ears in the comic were kinda cute, the bat wings are just bland in comparison.

#6. Flash: Sir your zipper is in the shape of a zigzag and it’s very cringefail of you. The one redeeming feature is the visor but like, the hair? No. The scarf? No. The way they placed the colours on his outfit? Yikes. Throw the whole man out, Kilg%re did.

#7. Green Lantern: they put her in a blender with Ben 10 and hit ‘emulsify’ (this is insulting to Ben 10 which I am very sorry for, Ben 10 didn’t deserve this but then again neither did Jess). Her long curly hair is gone, her melanin is gone, her cute jumpsuit is gone, her brown eyes are GONE like I had my issues with the comic designs but at least it was a design and not just Ugly Bad Wrong.  

Final note: they really want us to believe that Batman beat up a guy and stole his tuxedo to blend in but during the entire time he was changing out of his hero costume and into a suit he somehow didn’t notice a pair of big honking WINGS on his back. Yeah right.

#7. Final Scores!!!

Plot: 2/10

Characters: -100/10

Spectacle Fights: 4/10

Themes: 1/10

Overall score, not including the points for ‘characters’: 2.5/10

Do NOT make another fucking movie with this premise. (I will write up Jessica's personal meta in the future, keep an eye out).

#rwby #rwde #rwby x justice league #rwby spoilers #justice league x rwby #jl x rwby #rwby x jl #justice league rwby #rwby-meta #mod watts

[seregios-seer]

Monster Review: Ceadeus

Now this is what underwater combat is. Ceadeus is so impressive and cool and I love him so much that even though the fight can be underwhelming at times the sheer spectacle of it all is enough for this elder dragon to coast through as one of my favorite monsters! I think that Ceadeus does the underwater leviathan in such a unique and impressive way that I have found myself literally fixated on this thing. The massive horns, fur and beard, and bulky tail make Ceadeus stand out as a monster from the generic sea dragon, and the fact that it's, y'know, MASSIVE already biases my opinions. Although weirdly enough, and I have to include this just because I think about it often enough it's a defining aspect of Ceadeus in my head, but I think it'd be spongy to the touch. Like waterlogged mattress foam, y'know? Ok with that out of the way I also want to say that the fact everything about this encounter, from the music, arena (I could do whole posts analyzing these so deeply), and even that you can't kill Ceadeus the first time around is designed to bolster that incredible grandeur makes this an incredible experience.

3U (DB): So the first thing to discuss is obviously phase one of the fight, where you trail Ceadeus through underwater cavern systems, attacking whenever you can, and more or less being completely ignored. Now there's obviously not too much to actually engage a player during this segment, but as mentioned earlier, the specatcle of seeing this hulking beast slide out of the shadows and through the deeps so casually is enough to do me in, and I'm not really that upset by this segment (moreso upset by the fact I didn't realize it can be skipped when Ceadeus is already in area 3). The slow intro to Ceadeus' attacks and movement is unique, and the way you have time to analyze and really appreciate the creature you're fighting is something I wished more focal-point fights had. But as you progress, you become more aware of how Ceadeus moves, and it makes the second phase far more natural to work around. Speaking of, in that second phase, Ceadeus begins to go on the offensive, and that's when the fight hits its peak. So, the arena itself is grand and incredible, honestly on of my favorite parts is just looking around in it, but more importantly, there's a submerged dragonator towards the top, and slightly right of that, an underwater ballista. The dragonator is a massive boon, but shockingly hard to hit the lean Ceadeus with, even with how massive he is. The ballista is nice if you've procured ammo beforehand from the Argosy Captian, but I don't really think it's worth it if you need to gather ammo in the arena. That's mostly because Ceadeus has two beam attacks it uses pretty frequently, and even from across the arena it means you can't really gather ammo in bulk without likely getting hit. Both water attacks can inflict waterblight, have really long windup periods, and deal pretty massive damage if you're hit. The first has Ceadeus stay in place, and blow the water straight forward, sliding back from the force, meaning you can't really attack the head safely during this fight, but anything behind that is pretty much free damage. Second is the sweeping beam, where Ceadeus arches its head and swings it down, making a massive vertical pass at everything directly ahead of and above/below it. This also has Ceadeus stay mostly in place, so if you're to the side of the attack, you can get a lot of easy hits off in this time. Aside from those are the physical attacks, one where Ceadeus lurches forward, and this particular move seems to always hit everything to Ceadeus' right and almost never anyone on its left, so if you keep to that side of the dragon, you'll be good. Ceadeus is also massive, so even being slow, its movement, double horn swing, and especially its dash attack (which is actually pretty fast) deal notable damage, and provide a pretty good challenge to the fight. The most dangerous and important attacks are however the aforementioned beams, as with how large the arena is, especially with a third dimension, if you don't want to be near Ceadeus, you don't have to worry about anything else, you can keep away easily. It's not an overly challenging fight, but the insane gravity it has from the story and general importance given to it by everything else, it's still immensely satisfying to fight.

Rating: 9.2/10

THIS is how you do spectacle

#monster hunter #monhun #MH Reviews #ceadeus #I think I'll default to spoilering after the description from now on with how long these posts are becoming. Don't want to make the tags #unusable to everyone else

[erabundus]

@roleplay-abiogenesis2 &&. said... What's this? There is a suspicious oversized box left right in the middle of the road. How big? About big enough to contain a Ren-sized individual, maybe. [100% Accurate Inazuman History Facts Inside] read the words in meticulously applied paint. [NO REN ALLOWED], a signpost nearby informs. [THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A TRAP!] is spelled on a paper sign hanging around the neck of an old man who appears to have been paid to just kind of stand there. Not that someone like Ren would fall for the elementary tricks of reverse psychology, right?

the  wanderer  stands  motionless  in  the  center  of  the  road,  one  hand  raised  to  tip  back  his  kasa.  he  wonders  if  he  should  be  INSULTED  by  the  display  —  assuming  this  isn't  some  manner  of  elaborate  JOKE,  than  is.  if  the  intention  is  to  inspire  amusement,  he's  still  waiting  for  the  punchline.  do  they  actually  believe  he's  so  foolish  as  to  fall  for  a  trap  so  obvious,  so  juvenile  in  all  of  its  transparency  that  it  quite  literally  includes  a  sign  displaying  its  duplicitous  nature  for  the  world  to  see?  he  has  half  a  mind  to  sweep  this  entire  mess  away  with  a  flick  of  the  wrist  —  shred  it  into  so  many  tattered  pieces  that  reassembly  would  be  rendered  wholly  impossible.  perhaps  that  is  the  only  reason  why  the  faux-saboteur  behind  this  infantile  display  sought  to  include  a  BYSTANDER  in  the  mix.  a  dangerous  game,  if  so;  there  was  a  time  not  too  long  ago  where  that  wouldn't  have  stopped  him.

tongue  clicks  to  shatter  the  SILENCE.  the  wanderer  slowly  resumes  walking,  stepping  carefully  around  the  spectacle  —  he's  not  entirely  convinced  there  aren't  more  traps  hidden  out  of  sight.  perhaps  that's  merely  giving  the  creator  a  bit  more  CREDIT  than  they  deserve,  however.  in  any  case,  he  certainly  isn't  going  to  give  this  sad  display  more  of  his  valuable  time  than  he  already  has.  what  do  they  expect  him  to  do?  sit  in  the  box  like  a  particularly  self-satisfied  house  cat?  the  nerve.

❝  ...  ❞  but  what  if  there  really  is  something  inside  the  box?

in  an  instant,  he  returns  to  the  scene.  (  heralded  by  howling  anemo.  )  the  wanderer  narrows  his  eyes.  he  isn't  going  to  climb  inside  —  he  isn't  a  FOOL.  so  be  it,  then.  there's  only  one  thing  left  to  do.

he  flips  the  box  over  and  SHAKES  IT  —  violently.

#roleplayabiogenesis2 #𝟎𝟎𝟗 : 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯. ◟ crack .◝ #( i'm sorry for taking a million years to answer but i want you to know this ask has been making me die laughing the entire time )

[nellasbookplanet]

I rewatched Nope last night and while it’s an incredibly good movie that I'll probably rewatch again whenever I find myself craving quality scifi horror, I still find myself perplexed and frustrated at how it seemingly fumbles its near masterful handling of its theme near the end.

It’s about spectacle, right? And how seeking and exploiting the spectacle, especially involving dangerous animals, for the sake of profit will ultimately lead to suffering, right? We see it with the Gordy's Home incident, with Jupiter refusing to learn from said incident and ultimately recreating it, with the TMZ and documentary guys walking straight into death to Get That Perfect Shot. They will not let go of the spectacle and so the spectacle eats them.

But the Haywood siblings also will not let go of the spectacle. Even after knowing how dangerous it is they still keep chasing that perfect shot. And I get their motives are different, that it isn't just about fame and fortune but about reclaiming what has been denied them and stolen from them through systematic racism in Hollywood. That their methods are different, knowing that a dangerous animal cannot be trusted but only understood and worked around. But none of this changes that, ultimately, they’re still exploiting a wild animal for profit, leading to its eventual death, just like Gordy, when it was only ever acting according to its nature. And yet, where everyone else dies chasing this spectacle, the Haywoods are rewarded.

But it’s such an otherwise excellent movie and I've literally never seen anyone else mention this, that I feel I must be missing something obvious, a plot point or a thematic aspect that makes it make sense. I don’t want the characters to die (I'm generally not a tragedy enjoyer) but having the movie end with them being rewarded while still pursuing that spectacle to the very end feels so weird to me.

#nope #nella talks #this is fully an invitation to tell me if i missed something btw #i want to love this movie bc it IS GOOD but my overall enjoyment of it is shadowed by my frustration with the ending

[xumoonhao]

yknow, i know most people mean well and its usually done with the best of intentions, but seeing ppl reinforce the gender binary when trying to do away with it is just...so counter productive. like...i think its most egregious with men/male presenting people who do or wear things traditionally 'feminine' (baking, doing ballet, wearing skirts/dresses, wearing makeup, etc.,) because if they do anything like that then suddenly theyre nonbinary, or genderqueer, or genderfluid, or an 'egg', or literally any identify other than cis, which, first of all, is a) none of your fucking business to begin with, and b) potentially dangerous to speculate on. cis ppl (especially including straight ppl, bc my GOD some non-straight ppl act like straight ppl arent allowed to experiment with their gender) can fuck around with gender and how they present themselves as much as anyone else can, and theyre completely allowed to do so and you have no right to assume anything about them. you dont get to point at someone not following traditional gender roles and say 'look, look! they must be [xyz]', as if theyre a goddamn spectacle. like i get where youre coming from, i do; we live in a cisheteronormative society and in we're desperately trying to make it more inclusive, but gate-keeping gender non-conformity to solely people who arent cis is just not the way to go about it

#and i know this happens for women too but i do believe in how homophobic society is that this will always (at least currently) be #a bigger issue for ppl who identify as male/men :/ which is a problem in and of itself but really and truly im not gonna #sit here and try to dismantle the differences of men vs womens gender issues under our society. like truly thats a fucking thesis #not a tumblr rant . anyways hi i hope this made even a little bit of sense 😭 #also ok to rb if u want <3 #🎆.txt

[onewomancitadel]

You might think that you can mitigate audience misunderstanding or countertextual interpretation with a side of entitled rage but the reality is that you could write the most forthcoming, basic, handholding, spoonfeeding narrative with characters saying the thematic statement verbally and someone would twist it into something else, including and especially something more complicated than it really is and overall tonally inappropriate. Literally just give up trying to do that.

That's why the morally didactic approach to fiction (and children's literature is more complex than a list of commandments) is so dangerous, because the minute you start trying to control what people should be taking away, the minute you've already lost.

But when it comes to say, criticism of something like R/WBY, I literally could not give criticism which would help them ameliorate the problems with the fandom. There is nothing that can be done. The handholding and spoonfeeding they've tried to do before has failed particularly since the fundamental approaches of That Part of the Audience is at odds with the fundamental approach of the text, no matter how much you overexplain something.

Bafflingly - bafflingly - R/WBY is a very straightforward show! It's only opaque to people used to stories where storytelling doesn't matter materially, only as far as it gets the spectacle forward, and it's little more than cover for self-insert dramatic fights. This isn't a question of narrative quality - I mean absolutely in terms of what you can take away the show is trying to say, which a lot of people struggle with and get mad at R/WBY about. (Of course narrative message is tied to execution, but it uses very straightforward techniques to achieve its ideas and it does so very successfully. If you listen to what the characters are saying and pay attention to what they're doing or any sort of substantial narrative content).

I often wonder about how R/WBY is so at odds with its audience and if it's salvageable. I'm not really sure. I think part of its issue is how it transgresses expected genre boundaries narratively (from V1, by the way) and where it does lean into it aesthetically. There's an audience it wants to court, and thought it could court, but... didn't really, and even with V9 I get the continual sense that they're still trying.

Just drop the farce, tell the story you have to tell; people will make up their own version.

#stirring the pot

[agentnico]

Prey (2022) Review

Plot: A skilled Comanche warrior protects her tribe from a highly evolved alien predator that hunts humans for sport, fighting against wilderness, dangerous colonisers and this mysterious creature to keep her people safe.

Shockingly enough, I haven’t actually seen any of the other Predator films prior to this. Obviously I’ve seen clips of Arnie screaming his signature line “GET TO THE CHOPPA!!!” and also have heard about the hatred towards those Alien vs Predator spin-offs, but overall I’ve been pretty oblivious to this science fiction franchise. However here comes Prey, which is presented as a prequel of sorts as well as a bit of a reinvention for the franchise, so as to get new fans (such as myself) interested in the property. A soft reboot so to speak. As such, this movie very much brings it back to the basics. Of course there are action sequences and plenty of gore, however it is literally the one Predator against a few Comanche people, so it is fairly self contained. There is good tension and atmosphere created, and I must say I really enjoyed it. Was also nice seeing the Native American culture being brought so respectively (not the French though, they get the short end of the stick in this one), and overall this is a decent monster action movie.

The issue mainly lies in the film’s release tactic. Why isn’t this being shown in theatres? From my awareness the Predator franchise makes enough money, so the fact that Disney dumped it straight on their streaming services is confusing. Especially since this movie would have worked really well on the big screen. There are quite a few action set pieces set in the dark that would have been very beneficial and worked more powerfully in a cinema. And there isn’t much dialogue either, so the film focuses more on bringing the visual spectacle, however that spectacle in diminished by only being available to watch on Hulu or Disney+. I don’t know, just seems mindboggling is all.

Overall though this is a suspenseful thriller that really threw itself to its central theme of survival. Half of the time you end up sitting there wondering who actually is the predator and who is the prey? I mean, yes the Predator is obviously the predator, but I must say a few of the Comanches get some real good hits in there, and I’m not just talking about the main girl. All the Natives in this are super cool. Would I call this the best monster movie ever? No, like, it is what it is. It’s yet another Predator movie. But it’s a solid good time, Dan Trachtenberg who previously helmed 10 Cloverfield Lane has a solid eye for attention to the details, so I look forward to seeing what he does next. Anyway - Prey, check it out! As long as you don’t mind the gore. There’s a lot of blood spilled and heck a lot of decapitations. 

Overall score: 7/10

#prey #predator #prey review #amber midthunder #dane diliegro #dakota beavers #dan trachtenberg #2022 #2022 in film #2022 films #movie #film #movie reviews #film reviews #action #thriller #science fiction #adventure #comanche #streaming #disney+ #hulu #michelle thrush #kuhtaamia #10 cloverfield lane #female empowerment #horror #alien

[onlyetherial]

Superman/Batman; Friendship V Inadequacy

So I don’t have a ton of time for the “what if Batman and Superman FOUGHT” stories outside of mid control or some other kind of compulsion because, while the spectacle can be fun with the right team behind it, the larger stories about considered conflict between the two hinge on interpretations of one or both characters that I’ve never been too enamored with. Yeah, they’re different people with different priorities and outlooks on life, and that can drive tension between the characters, and tension between people who share the same goal and similar methods makes for great storytelling, but these guys do ultimately share the same goal. They even have similar perspectives on their duties as heroes. 

Superman is an exemplar for humanity and a symbol of hope (which, I’m told, is what the “S” stands for), not just that the most powerful man on the planet will guard us from its horrors, but that the world and the people in it really are capable of deep-down genuine goodness. There is good in the world, good in us all, and if you ever doubt it all you have to is look up. Look up to the man with the colorful suit and the kind eyes. 

 Batman, likewise, seeks not just to save and protect the innocent, but incite a feeling, in both directions. The powerful and the cruel must know fear. They don’t even have to fear him necessarily, they just need to look out into the night, the time that once felt so unimpeachably theirs, when Gotham and all its little people felt like theirs and know that they are not safe. That somewhere, out in the dark, there’s a figure waiting to swoop down and plant a boot on their neck. And the little people? They know it too. 

And the stories that involve these two that are my favorite, are the ones where they’re friends, or, even better, where they’re gonna be friends. 

So I have a lot of problems with Tom King’s recent run on the main Batman comic, but there’s a dynamic he introduces between Batman and Superman that I love. Essentially, at a time where the two characters are certainly allies and even on good terms beyond that, but are both still unsure how close it gets to friendship, Bruce excludes Clark from something personally important. When they’re each talking to their respective significant other, they each express the same thing. 

Clark isn’t that surprised. He and Bruce are coworkers, not friends. Why would they be, really? Why would Bruce have time for him?  

Bruce, severe as ever, also comes across a little deflated when he explains himself. He’s not gonna put Clark in that position, because if he tells Clark, if Bruce invites him into it, then, because Clark’s really nice, he’ll say yes, and then Clark and Lois will be stuck somewhere feeling awkward and obligated. 

They literally have the same reaction: “Of course this is this way, we’re not really friends, he doesn’t respect me. And on some level, I understand why he wouldn’t.” 

Superman and Batman look at each other and each feel so totally inadequate that the thought of the other viewing them as friends seems terminally unlikely to both of them. 

And I get it. Clark looks at Bruce and sees a man, mortal in ways that Clark himself just isn’t, leaping into impossible danger, over and over, because maybe he can help. Can he claim bravery like that? And even more, for Bruce, all this, the crimefighting, the sacrificing, it’s a choice. Clark has the powers he has and understands that it’s a moral imperative that he use them to help people and stand up for those weaker than him. He could never have been anything but extremely important. But Bruce? Bruce could have done anything and been anyone. He could’ve retreated from the world, and really, how much could we blame him? But no. Violence and crime and greed and the worst parts of the world took those he loved from him and he decided that he’d dedicate everything he had to make sure that happened to fewer people. A man who had all the choices in the world chose to be Gotham’s guardian, at great personal cost. Would Clark have made that choice, as a younger man? Any life he wanted, free of responsibility, simple and quiet and full of love, under the protection of some other super being? Would he have still made it his mission to help? He doesn’t know. And that shames him. 

And Bruce! Of course he looks at Clark and sees none of the frailty that might have cost innocent people their lives because Bruce wasn’t fast enough, wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t bulletproof. But more than that, he sees this man, this being with so much power, always choosing to do good. To be good. A man with the power to be anything, and he’s the best of them. Nigh incorruptible, not because he can lift buildings and holds a sun in his eyes, not because of what he is, but who he is, that bone-deep compassion that makes him a hero. A man who trades in hope, instead of fear. Bruce lost his parents and sought to protect others from that pain. Clark never had that. He doesn’t remember Krypton. There’s sadness there, and longing, but not the same kind of grief. There was no great lived tragedy in his life to make him selfless and giving and righteous. He’s just like that. He’s a hero. Would Bruce have been, without that deep sympathy that was so violently thrust onto him? Would he have gotten there himself, to that place of deep, actionable empathy, from which Clark operates? He doesn’t know. And that shames him. 

I just this love that. This deep admiration and insecurity it fosters is the best hurdle to these twos’ friendship. 

#superman #batman #dc comics #dc universe #superfriends #bruce wayne #clark kent #and yes bruce like all rich people would have the moral obligation to put his vast resources towards making the world better but shhh here