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viviennelamb · 6 months

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Hey Vivienne!

What do you think of Non Dualism? Particularly the 4Dbarbie/4DKelly pages and that sort. It doesn’t make much sense to me but maybe I’m just not articulate enough to understand what they’re saying. It seems like a lot of it is based on vanity and materialism. For instance I saw a post from 4Dbarbie saying you can shapeshift into a completely different person who’s a better looking person by just believing you can and another saying that we should all be trying to completely turn off the left side of the brain. It seems dangerously delusional and a bit like psychosis {if I’m allowed to say that 😬} I see their posts get thousands of notes and there are multiple blogs teaching the ideas of 4Dbarbie, similar to a mini cult following. I saw that you mentioned Neville Goddard and I don’t know much about him but he’s someone they reference frequently and it just made me think. If you are unsure of who I’m referring to {4dbarbie} I won’t be offended if you ignore this message. I’ve felt more connected to your essays than anything I’ve read on their pages and would like to know what you think. I was bullied a lot as a child for being thin and timid which caused me to develop anxiety and become a follower to fit in with the crowd. Even though I no longer experience anxiety as an adult many times I feel like I’m being tricked or going down the wrong path. You are inspiring me to try and become more of a leader than follower and I’m working on listening to my intuition more after reading your essays. Thank you.

Love Cody 🌟🩵

Hi Cody,

I've never heard of them, but I skimmed their tags I see what you're saying. My experience with every facet of spirituality except for the one I'm currently following is purely based on egoism. Valeria Lukyanova, the original human barbie, as well as a few other less dedicated doll-like girls who who started this wave of Law of Attraction in 2007 wanting to manifest her appearance as well as the current beauty standards, which is what all of this divine feminine nonsense is about. Valeria often talks about chastity, sobriety and meditation, but she believes she's a Pleiadian when she's definitely human, which speaks to how important it is to love God or the individual becomes increasingly delusional. I won't speculate on whether her beliefs are true or not because it doesn't matter, but this is where the vanity of modern spirituality stems from.

⚬ Non-duality

I see those barbie non-dualists quoting Yogis, but none of the quotes offer any praxis nor the full truth of how to become a Yogi, which is essentially what non-duality actually is as "Yogi" and "non-duality" are interchangeable terms. To escape duality, one must become pure through mind and body; intellectually understanding what Yogis are saying is the exact opposite of consciousness.

To become pure means to burn up all karma one has by taking action through chastity, meditation and loving God, i.e retuning one oneness instead of diluting the body, mind and soul. Barbie non-dualists display yet another situation where they do not speak of their personal lives, but say what will best garner them a following. People who don't talk about their lifestyle, but have quotes and intellectualism ready to throw at you - don't listen to them.

Intellectuals will isolate and willfully misinterpret quotes from Masters without providing any value, believing they are oh so intelligent for replicating other people's work. What everybody should do instead is read the book for themselves if non-duality is that important to achieve to the people they're quoting and see what the academics are skipping over. This most infamously happens with the Holy Bible; those who are staunchly against it haven't read it for themselves. When people skip over parts of a message because they do not fully adhere to it, that is where you know their vice lies (and it's usually sex and wine).

There is duality with non-duality though: there is a non-dual dimension where the individual can obtain all the materials they desire, but once they get it they are hollow. The other side of that are individuals who do not wish for materials, but only God's love in which they are hallowed. Look at it like this: century after century, people are always referring to individuals who had nothing but God, but those who had the world are forgotten about - that is how you know that God is the point of life and nothing else. If this is the case, the non-duality that would actually grant the individual everything the soul wants is loving God.

・ Non-duality and Egoism

Egolessness is when one is completely balanced; no longer wanting or avoiding anything. It's unconditional love and acceptance which can only come from the understanding of Karmic Law. The problem I had with spirituality was that nobody was explaining their methodology to obtaining this alternative reality they spoke of and the little bit they did explain was useless.

The truth is polarity exists with everything: there is a Satanic-Ego and a God-Ego, the former is the one most have which is why I mainly talk about that one. The Satanic Ego believes it must exist and as a result has an intense fear of dying. The Satanic Ego believes it is valuable because it must exist to be sexually attractive to others, it must be aggressive in the workplace, and it must put up a front to protect itself. However, the God-Ego is mainly interested in destroying evil, truth is the protector. Individuals who are indifferent possess neither are background characters. Either way, the God-Ego is so incredibly rare only those working to achieve God-Consciousness know about it because they know they are immortal kind of like how superheros never actually die, but villains die and there's always a new one because satanism is that rife.

Dimensions aren't necessarily "higher" or lower" (though they can be) but states of consciousness. The average non-dualist (like the ordinary person) resides in body-consciousness, which would be the "lowest" state of consciousness. People in this state do not have a purpose from God, but typically live to fulfill desires based on what their bodies demand.

For example, people who have families to take care of cannot reach God-Consciousness in their current lifetime - their attention must be on their children as their karmic responsibility. There's nothing wrong with this path as everybody has their role to play, but those who wish to go to the highest heights of divinity, do not listen to parents. I say this because many of these individuals who talk about lifestyle and beliefs and body-conscious themselves otherwise they'd be speaking similar to me and I wouldn't be surprised if most of them had kids and were dealing with some type of escapism through spirituality. All sexual diseases attack the mind. Many of these individuals are also on smoking on zaza, microdosing mushrooms, and sipping kratom which also causes psychosis pushing them further from purity and therefore God. They come upon these "realizations" but are totally ignorant. Of course, all ailments can be healed by loving God, it's a matter of willpower in the throes of addiction which is why I don't do the "poor addict" thing; if they want to be cured, they would be - it's a matter of definite choice instead of being a perennial drifter.

Many gravitate towards people who don't know anything but are prideful about it. The truth is just about everybody wants to avoid simplifying their lives through chastity and meditation and loving God. That's why every distraction exists. Also see what these individuals mix in with their message - often it is fashion, makeup video games and other hobbies, which again is fine, but a distracted mind isn’t pure, so advice shouldn't be taken from them. You want people who are staunchly in reality and don't indulge in the trinkets of the world if you're actually suffering enough to become a pitbull who won't let go until you get what you want, willing to sacrifice everything for Truth. If non-duality is just a pebble to roll around in one's mind for fun, I'd actually recommend reading barbie non-duality - they play a role too.

But if you want to achieve Divinity in Human Form, we have to act and practice on what we want to experience, not just sit around and intellectualize about it. If one wants to become God, she has to act like she's the soul first. Souls are not interested in the world except to see God.

Becoming God is true non-dualism and God is bliss, calmness and sweetness - none of that emanates from their posts. It's moreso... desperation which makes their followers desperate. And yes ignorance and shortcuts typically have hundreds or thousands of notes because most people aren't willing to put in the work for the most important goal of life.

There are very few eyes and ears on Truth because the body doesn't know truth, it's the soul. What's interesting about this is that just thinking about Truth will ethereally touch a soul, even if they never meet you in person. This is why it's important to do your duties as if 8 billion people (God) are watching without worrying about the inaccurate statistics shown online. Once you start writing, speaking and doing, the truth amplifies and purifies the earth.

As for you not being articulate enough, that's definitely not the problem. Satanism in all forms typically require you to be part of the hivemind to understand, but what actually resonates with the soul is easy to comprehend once the individual becomes receptive through non-egotism. Luciferic non-duality is purposefully "occulted" to waste people's time who get into it. If anything claims of obtaining omnipotence by "just realizing" it when the average person isn't pure, it's a scam. Anything worth having takes an immense amount of pointed work.

⚬ Supernatualism

I logically know that I (and everybody else) am the soul, an individualized little God, but I am nowhere near actually realizing that as in living as the pure soul. One way to know if somebody is living a non-dualistic life is their ability to control their energy as a result of becoming the soul and reaching God-Consciousness. Living on prana is not possible for the average person, but it is possible for individuals who have actually reached Samadhi to live as the soul in the human body, including not breathing and stopping their heart while keeping the body alive and other supernatural processes known to Yogis.

In Meditative-Consciousness, one is always with God and can focus on a part of their body to create the satisfactions of this part without engaging in materialism. For example, somebody who wishes to smell a perfume focuses on the tip of their nose to smell it in a filthy environment. Or somebody who is hungry focuses on the tip of their tongue to no longer remain hungry. This cannot be done by somebody who is not chaste, and therefore has no prana past the first three chakras nor somebody who cannot remain concentrated on God permanently, forgetting that she is the soul.

Some Yogis have kindly reported the ability to "live" on information instead of breathing, teleport, read an individual's electromagnetism, predict the future and so on which isn't surprising once they come to know all that there is to know i.e God. For the most part, people who have reached Samadhi keep these abilities secret because they will be crucified.

Keep in mind, the state of mind non-dualists claim to have is the state of walking meditation. So why are many 50+ year old monks who have renunciated the world still working on reaching God while this while probably 28 year olds are claiming to have reached this state by accident? What makes them so special if we're all in the same predicament of this dream-drama-school-game of life?

Somehow, I don't believe this is the extent of Infinite Intelligence.

It takes a lot of work and dedication to reach Cosmic-Consciousness. It can be reached in one lifetime, but since most people don't want to renunciate the world it would take the average person, who isn't consistent in their prayers and meditations thousands of lifetimes to reach the knowledge that she is God. Since we can become God in one lifetime, that is how I know that is the purpose of life. With that said, barbie non-dualists are playing their role of bringing yearning souls who have been disillusioned by religion individuals back to the the true path of renunciation/non-duality/loving God.

As a collective, our only goal is to seek and obtain happiness and the Divine Apex sitting on top of the throne of happiness, waiting for us patiently can only be perceived through purity and devotion.

⚬ God vs. Satan

Non-dualism and dualism are tricky topics that can't be explained, but experienced directly. God has created the world to be dramatic to incite the individual's awakening to their soul. The basis of reality is God vs. Satan (or Good vs. Evil) and all other dualities stemming from this primordial spiritual war.

Good is being still and knowing you are one with God.

Evil is being restless and believing you are separated from God.

Without a conscience, which is our intuition, one believes that she should be able to do anything to obtain the material "reality" she wants; this selfish thinking creates a downward spiral in which she reaps what she sows. Hypocrisy is a sign that an individual suffers from spiritual blindness which sometimes manifests as physical blindness as the individual is unable to learn their lesson and progress upwards from the depths of hell.

Satanism is being so concerned with the body that the individual would do anything to fulfill its needs. This creates rapists and the rigamarole of depravity. Once the individual becomes the soul, it is quite literally impossible to be overly concerned with one's appearance to the point where one spends their time desiring their appearance to change, so yes, almost everybody who is into the Law of Attraction are satanists or witches.

Non-dualists ignore the polarity of good and evil which is the main reason why I don't agree with their rhetoric even though they are correct about some points. The war between Good and Evil is participated in whether the individual knows of it or not and this world is currently filled with darkness, but there is a promise of light as God is always the Final Victor. The individual chooses what side they're on based on their thoughts, words and actions and victory is experienced immediately in your inner world. At this point, what happens externally doesn't matter, and I truly mean that. Somehow you will always be protected and provided for and you will know it's God.

In a world full of egoists, it is likely you are being led down the wrong path. Truthfully, anybody who doesn't direct you to your Soul or God is telling you a lie. To become a leader, you must become fearless and know that satanists will have their eyes on you, watching your every move to use against you, but you must be Truth anyways regardless of how unpalatable the world may perceive you. Individuals who stop others from being themselves is because that person is enraged they cannot be God and Satan's motto is to mimic everything God does because he's bitter he was casted out of heaven. Sounds familiar, huh?

My purpose is only to bring the innocent who have been lied to comfort in this world. I'm interested in very little else, so thank you for asking and allowing me to provide you comfort.

#ask #non dualism #non duality #nonduality #nondualism #spirituality

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tsubasa-1999 · 1 year

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First off, I want to say that this is my opinion and I do respect your if it’s in any way different than mine. We as humans have different experiences and those experiences shape our view of things. With that been said, apologies in advance, my english grammar is not the best, since english is my second language.

In this post I would mention triggering topics like suicide so please proceed with caution.

To start I would like to say that, initially I highly dislike Dabi, this was because of how the fandom sees him. I personally love metas and character analysis in deep and as loyal to the canon material as possible. However, in Dabi’s case, he is one of the characters that people have the worse takes on, and completely misinterpret what his actually personality is. I had seems some good ones tho.

“Dabi is a psychopath”

Now before anything let’s see the definition of a psychopath according to google:

(a person affected by chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior)(an unstable and aggressive person.)

Seems pretty accurate to how Dabi behaved, or does it?

You see, even if this might fit with Dabi’s behavior, truth is, in order to understand Dabi you need to watch what he do instead of what he says. Once he is introduce, the first thing that we are told is that he haven’t committed any flashy crimes, which means, he most likely just did a couple of petty theft in order to survive or something like it. Which means that he isn’t somebody that just kill a bunch of people randomly and just because he is crazy. In fact, all the people that he kills are either villains and heroes, which more than the actions of a psychopath, it ties more to the actions of a teenage who committed petty theft and misbehave in order to get their parents attention. Dabi’s criminal behavior is pretty accurate with what kids that are emotionally neglect by their parents do; they do everything to get positive attention and when they don’t get it, they resort to get any type of attention, even if it is negative. In fact, personally, I think that, Dabi burning Toga’s old house was a desesperate attempt to get Endeavor’s attention. Dabi’s thought process: “my father knows that I’m alive now, nobody else have blue flames, he is a hero, he is going to know if something bad happens, therefor, if he sees a house burning with blue flames, he is going to know it was me and, he is going to come” just a theory of mine.

“Dabi dones’t love his family”

This come from Shoto asking him if he knew that Ending almost killed Natsuo and Dabi saying that that would’ve been good. So, for this I would like to say that Dabi is suicidal; this is a very important, very canon fact. Suicidal people see the world in two ways, simultaneously, in one hand, they want to hold on to every reason to live, they want to see change and get out of the emotional position they are in. If you want examples, first there is when his mom was trying to stop him to go to Sekoto Peak, he first listens to what she has to say, before lashing out. Then there is Tokoyami, and Dabi asking him “who is the one that really needs saving?”, after showing him Twice dead body; almost like he has hope that Tokoyami can, at least understand that a hero killing is not right. Another instance is when he revel who he is and, after Deku fails to empathize with him, Dabi even asked Deku he doesn’t even feel bad for him. In the other hand, however, suicidal people want to die, or more specifically, they want to stop feeling, they are in too much emotional pain and want it to stop. This is why, in order to find the courage to kill themselves, they need to first, lose any reason to live. For Touya this reason is being hated by his family. If he kills Endeavor, and Shoto, if he is responsible for the death of Natsuo, half of his family would be death, and the other half would hate him for it. Therefor, giving him enough reason to die.

“Dabi hates his family”

There is a lot to unpack here. First “the women of this family are useless”. This have always been funny to me, because he doesn’t say this irrationally, there is a reason for his thought presses. First, Fuyumi, he went to ask Fuyumi why his dad didn’t let him train anymore, Fuyumi, being a kid only said “don’t know, stop hurting yourself”, words that trigger Touya because, they are not a satisfactory answer, not to mention basically a copy and paste of what Endeavor tells Touya whenever he sees him get hurt because of his own flames. Rei is something similar, with the added bonus that, her telling Touya to stop doing what he was basically breed for, and she is also part responsible for (to be honest, Rei “free will” in all of this is debatable but this post is already long enogh). So, yeah the woman in the Todoroki family are useless when it comes to Touya and the situation on the family. Also he say the woman in OUR family specifically so there is also that, he didn’t call woman in general useless.

Then, there is the sibling dynamic which at first he wasn’t very trill with Shoto and Natsuo being born, because he knew why they were there for. And this is important because, even though he have the same reaction for both Natsuo and Shoto, he ended up having a close relationship with Natsuo and hating Shoto. If you like math, the common denominator in this equation is Endeavor, and, how he made Shoto the golden child.

Also to add to this part, right after he woke up from the coma, and after being told that he might never be able to use his body and quirk the same way he did before, he still was hopeful, because all he wanted all along was Endeavor’s attention. Note: little kids don’t really develop strong desires to achieve something as early as 4 years old. If a 4 year old wants to do something really bad is most likely because their parents and/or siblings are doing it and they want to feel included. In Touya’s case though, Enji unknowingly did something call “classical conditioning”, by only giving Touya positive reinforcement when he train and give good results, he condition Touya to believe that he was only love if he train hard and was good enough.

So yeah Touya didn’t hate the woman of his family, he hated how submissive and compliant they were to what was happening in the house.

He didn’t hate his siblings, he hate that they were there to replace him and steal his dad’s attention.

And finally, even though he attacked baby Shoto, he don’t really hate Shoto, more so, he hate that he isn’t Shoto. Even in the “My hero one justice” dialogue with Shoto, he sound low key self conscious that he only has fire to fight Shoto, and in the fight of chapter 350-352 he sounds more like he thinks everything would’ve been good, if only he was good enough. Which is the most tragic thing about Touya, people saying that he was only mad that Endeavor replace him with Shoto, and didn’t care that Shoto was being beaten up. PEOPLE, the most tragic thing about Touya, is that he WANTED to be beaten up. He thinks that, that is normal, he thinks that if he would have had Shoto’s quirk, he could’ve had been the perfect master piece that his dad wanted, and he would’ve been happy. DO YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND THAT? He is okay with being use, he is ok with getting burn, he is ok with being beaten up, because he thinks that that is what you need to go through to be loved.

“If only I had been perfect, you would’ve loved me”.

#touya todoroki #bnha dabi #bnha meta

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becauseimanicequeen · 22 days

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RANDOM THOUGHTS: Big Dragon ep. 5 (rewatch)

(These are my random thoughts from my rewatch on the 29th-30th of March 2024)

Since my rewatches may contain spoilers, I’m putting my random thoughts after the “Read More” link.

I’m excited to see more of the confrontation between Yai and Mangkorn. And then I’m hoping for more moments with Big. I want Mangkorn jealous because I feel like it’s about time he turns straightforward rather than just provoking Yai and giving him mixed signals.

When Mangkorn told Cherry he already has someone, he means Yai, right? Because he and Hong are just childhood friends. All of us know they’re not actually getting married. Mangkorn means this more as in someone else already has his interest (possibly his heart) and I’m pretty sure it’s Yai (considering his reaction when Yai shows up). Mangkorn looks like he was caught cheating by his boyfriend. So, if he’s feeling that way for Yai, why not just clear it up? No, Mangkorn turns confrontational instead (granted, after Yai punches him, but still).

Btw, that moment in the pouring rain with ”Dancing with the Devil” playing is my kind of vibe. It’s tense, melancholic, and filled with complicated feelings. It’s beautiful.

And then Mangkorn uses the video as leverage to have sex with Yai again. And they do so without having cleared anything. They’re both such a mess. And I love them.

That red light surrounding them… Yai is completely in Mangkorn’s world now.

I understand why so many BLs are using the pushing-up-against-glass moments in their sex scenes. There’s something vulnerable and raw about them (especially if they’re pushing up against windows for the whole world outside to see), not to mention the potential for dimly lit silhouette shots that I, personally, find beautiful.

You can say what you want about why they were having sex in the first place (like I just did above). However, looking at just the scene… It was beautifully lit, the shots were great, the song matched so well with the whole scene, and the roughness and desperation in the acting matched the characters really well.

Once again, Yai is wearing Mangkorn’s color (red) and Mangkorn is in darker colors (which are Yai’s usual shades).

It’s annoying how cute they are while they still haven’t cleared up any of the shit. I mean, sure, actions speak louder than words to some. I can definitely back that up. So I’m sure some think Mangkorn has shown his feelings for Yai at this point. However, it’s a lot more powerful when those actions are backed up by words, or when the actions mirror the words. He needs to say something, not just use sex as a way to communicate his feelings. And, especially not use the leverage he’s got (the video) to keep Yai close to him.

Side note: I’m someone who is in contact with my intuition a lot and I’m pretty good at reading between the lines (especially in real life), so I can easily understand what people mean without being told. However, I still want people to pluck up the courage to tell it to me straight. Otherwise, it’s like they’re begging me to purposefully misinterpret them, and if that’s what they want, then that’s what they’ll get. I mean, as a girl, I was conditioned to be the “good girl” from an early age, so I aim to please and can purposefully misinterpret them for fun all day long. Because getting people what they ask for, especially when they don’t actually want it, is my favorite way to please others. But, I digress…

At least they’re communicating a bit now. But they still haven’t cleared things up about Hong… I mean, sure, Mangkorn said she was just a junior of his, not his girlfriend. But there’s more to it than that (we’ve seen it). Just be honest. Even if that means the end of both of you for the moment.

Mangkorn’s surprised look during that snack scene… He’s got it just as bad for Yai as Yai does for Mangkorn. Why doesn’t Mangkorn just admit it? Out loud. So Yai will hear it too.

The reason I’m pushing for Mangkorn to speak up is because the misunderstandings at this point revolve around him rather than Yai. The video situation and the Cherry situation have been cleared up. But there’s still Hong. The misunderstanding about Hong will keep pestering them until Mangkorn speaks up. At least if he’s honest, no matter how Yai is going to react (I remember how he did react), they can go their separate ways for a while to solve their own shit and then get a fresh start together.

Pong and Park showing up with aprons over their suits and doing those weird poses at the gate is too funny. They’re so weird. I love them to bits.

Yai is back wearing his dark green again. Is it time for him to snap out of the spell Mangkorn has on him?

Yep, seeing that photo of Mangkorn and Hong. The spell is broken. I feel so bad for Yai because he keeps misinterpreting situations and no one is helping him stop (Mangkorn, I’m looking at you).

Nadear is so fucking pretty.

The way Mangkorn is half panicking when Yai asks him about Hong…

That scene… There’s so much to unpack here. But one thing that stood out to me was the double standard. Mangkorn said that if he’d told Yai the truth, he would’ve lost Yai, which he didn’t want. I don’t know if Mangkorn realizes what he’s actually saying there, but he basically admits to being selfish and not caring about Yai’s feelings or his right to choose. Then, moments later, he accuses Yai of not caring about his feelings and calls Yai selfish (which, in some cases, I can understand since Mangkorn is under pressure from his family and it might be too much for him to be under pressure from Yai as well). So, in a way, they’re basically the same. The only difference is that Yai doesn’t deny it, he recognizes that they’re both the problem.

Another thing that stands out to me is that Mangkorn basically wants Yai to read between the lines. When Mangkorn admits that he didn’t tell Yai the truth because he was afraid of losing him, it acts as a confession of Mangkorn’s feelings for Yai. That’s the message he wants Yai to get. Mangkorn is clearly in a difficult situation because of his family, so it’s understandable that he might not be able to be straightforward about his feelings (as in actually speaking up about them). On the other hand, by keeping it from Yai, Mangkorn is also taking away Yai’s right to choose whether or not he’s okay being with someone who just admitted he has to marry someone else after graduation. Yai’s right to choose should (ideally) be respected, just like everyone else’s right to choose. But Mangkorn wanted to take that choice away from Yai by not telling him the truth (out of his selfishness).

Honestly, they should go their separate ways until they’ve cleared up their own shit.

Of course Nine shows up when Yai is drowning his sorrows.

Fuck, the way Yai’s speech made me cry (and I’m not even a crier). He just melted my stone-cold heart.

Wait, was that a photo of the three of them (Yai, Mangkorn, and Hong) together as kids? Or was it Yai, his sister, and Nine?

Oh, it was Nine’s bar. It’s obvious he would be there, then.

There’s Jet again. All I see is Top from DFF. I just can’t unsee it…

Oh, look at Yai. He’s willingly wearing Mangkorn’s color (red) now. Poor baby is so in love and heartbroken.

So, Yai is scared of worms. But we all know he loves the one-eyed snake.

Of course it would end with Mangkorn seeing Yai and Nine together. I feel bad for him. But I’m also loving it. I love the heartbreak because I know the reunion will be all the sweeter.

This was another great episode, I really liked it. Misunderstandings, complicated feelings, the heartbreak… I loved it. Can’t wait to see how they’re going to resolve the situation (because my crappy memory can’t recall). Also, I’m eagerly awaiting that scene where Mangkorn goes down on Yai in bed (but I can’t remember when that will show up).

#big dragon #big dragon the series #thai ql #thai bl #thai series #my shit #iq random thoughts

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gogogoats · 10 months

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Dragonblade Deep Dive - Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen – Confrontations

First of all, the Big Thing that we were told was going to happen this chapter doesn’t actually happen. Secondly, this chapter really doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I will do my best to summarise. Caution: swearword. Also spoiler: there are no confrontations in this chapter.

We’re back with Jester, who is feeling frazzled. He wants to chase down Gunther and force him to commit career suicide but acknowledges that his duty is to the royals in this time of anguish, so he goes in search of them instead. Jester admits that Lavinia is not in any danger with Dragon, and in fact Dragon is probably at greater risk.

Most of the court and castle staff have moved back inside, with “dozens” gathering in the throne room to remain close to the action. The population at the castle has certainly grown a lot in the last few years! The King and Queen aren’t there so Jester heads to their chambers, where he finds Ivon (miraculously not passed out drunk in the dungeon anymore!) standing guard. Ivon won’t let him in to see the Royals, telling Jester they need time to “boil in their anger” and that he should instead go and pack Jane’s bags for her as the knight says she will not be permitted to stay at the castle after this.

Jester of course starts crying again and, oddly, Ivon gives him a hug. Jester begins to go into mourning over all the seggs he won’t get to have with Jane, but Ivon reminds him he must turn his energy towards Lavinia and her current escapade. He stumbles out into the garden, where he sits and mopes at the fountain, fully self-absorbed until he catches a glimpse of Dragon’s silhouette against the moon and remembers he’s supposed to be doing something.

Dragon is delivering Lavinia into the market square outside the Merchant’s house. His house is the largest in the village and sits opposite the tavern. There’s some useful “lay of the land” type information here.

Dragon tries to warn Lavinia that she should talk to Jane rather than the Merchant, because Dragon doesn’t trust him. Lavinia wants to know why not and Dragon says there are lots of reasons, although his leading argument is that he wears scented oil and doesn’t like Dragon. He goes on to trash talk Gunther as another reason for not liking Merchant. Anyone remember the JatD TV series where Dragon and Gunther actually had a lot in common and sometimes got on well? Until Magnus sabotaged things? Yeah, me too.

Lavinia somewhat defends Gunther before also wilfully misinterpreting his plan to keep her safe. She also talks a bit about how she will be a queen one day, which means she will have to marry a prince from another kingdom. So she’s not actually opposed to the idea? What’s all this stupid carry on for, then?!

They land, and Lavinia sets off for the Merchant’s house, dismissing Dragon.

We change to Gunther’s POV. Fortunately his hangover appears to have miraculously cleared up, in keeping with all hangovers in this novel. He is in his father’s house, having snuck inside and up to his room just a few moments before, and is looking on in disbelief as the Princess arrives.

He reflects on the miserable childhood he has spent in this “forlorn place” ever since he arrived at three years of age after his mother married Magnus.* If he has any memories of his real father** or birth place or happiness, they have been completely smothered by this “dark and brooding house”.

Gunther continues his evolution into a Bronte sisters character as he considers his options for safety, and settles on running away. Now that Jester knows his plan (and has so completely failed to understand it) Gunther knows there will be no forgiveness from the King and no safety from his father. He has some money stashed away that he has earned on the side while doing dodgy deals for Magnus, and has snuck into the house to retrieve it before jumping on a ship and getting far, far away from this hell hole. Once again Gunther is the only sensible character in this story.

Some of Magnus’ crew is at the house, eating and drinking with their employer. They are even referred to as his “henchmen”, cementing Magnus’ rise to Villain-status even while Gunther is treated as though he is far worse by all of the people who should have been protecting him this entire time.

He sneaks by unseen, or at least unacknowledged, and into his bedroom, which is also treated as a storage space for his father’s wares. Gunther has been preparing for the possible scenario of needing to run away for the last THREE YEARS, stashing his money away in his bedroom walls, and is retrieving it when he feels Dragon land by the house. He sees the Princess and is instantly alarmed for her safety.

We are now with Jane, who is still riding down the mountain in the dark after throwing her torch away. She thought the moonlight would be enough to see by, but an errant cloud has parked itself in the way and now she must let her eyes adapt to see by starlight. Instead of giving her horse its head and letting it guide her back to the castle she decides that the safest thing to do is dismount and lead it. The horse rears in fright as she is getting off and throws her to the ground. Jane knows instantly it’s because the horse smelled a wolf. Jane knows this because she, too, SMELLED THE WOLF, while being thrown from the horse. She is now alone in the dark, except for the wolf and her extremely powerful nose.

Dragon watches Lavinia walk away from him and reflects on how much like Jane she is, except that unlike Jane Lavinia doesn’t have an ounce of self-doubt.

Gunther tries to get Lavinia’s attention from his bedroom window, to wave her away and warn her off, by throwing a button down at her. She sees him, but Magnus opens the door. Gunther turns back into his room and finds himself face-to-face with Pincher Bates, a debt collector who works for Magnus and enjoys pulling teeth. He calls Gunther “boy”.

Thoughts:

*WHAT

**THE FUCK

I feel like everyone in this novel, including the author himself, has forgotten that Gunther is a knight. Why does he still live at home when he could live at the castle with the other knights? Why does he need to stash money and make plans to run away and live in fear when he should be a valued and protected part of the castle staff? Why does his word mean nothing to anyone when he is a sworn knight of the King? Where are his brothers (and sister) in arms? Where are his protective mentors, his understanding friends, his COMRADES, HIS KING?! Gunther is clearly acting like a victim of abuse, he FEARS FOR HIS LIFE, and everyone, EVERYONE in his life is failing him on a spectacular scale.

All of that without even taking into consideration that there is no way in a small village like Kippernium that all of the adults don’t know that Gunther turned up one day as a three-year-old and wasn’t actually a born son of Magnus. And then his mother vanished shortly after. And then those same adults all sat back and watched this child be abused, and blamed him for his “father’s” and “grandfather’s” sins and used that to justify their own mistreatment of him too.

If you’re going to blatantly re-write a character’s entire history and backstory in such a nonsensical way, at least take a moment to consider how badly it will reflect on your other, favoured characters.

Theodore sat there in his office and looked at Gunther and reviled his “hesitation” as a character flaw instead of the survival mechanism it so clearly is, and TOLD HIM he was a chip off his father’s block, the man who abuses him, who ISN’T EVEN HIS FATHER, which he absolutely would know. And Theodore is supposed to be a good person? I’m afraid that doesn’t line up.

The usual blatant character abuse and re-writing aside, very little actually happened in this chapter, apart from Ivon telling Jester that Jane will be exiled over Lavinia’s actions and Jester accepting that as perfectly logical (um. what.) and the Royals “boiling in their anger” at Jane (note they never seem to blame themselves for their parenting failures. Also, Lavinia is clearly 100% on board with marrying and leaving the kingdom to become a queen elsewhere, so WHAT EVEN IS THE PROBLEM??!) and Jane developing super-scent all of a sudden. Roughly a 5-10 minute window of time elapses after Jester starts moping at the fountain. Dragon and Lavinia land in the marketplace, Gunther sees them and tries to divert Lavinia, and Jane is thrown from her horse. The rest is just re-caps and reflecting.

Dragon seems less like an independent character and more like a mouthpiece for the author. He’s gone from total disinterest in Lavinia and everything she has to say and failing to give her advice, to comparing her to Jane and trying to give her advice, in the brief amount of time it took to fly from his cave to the village.

Time passed since the start of the novel: Day Two –early night

Time Jester has spent crying: 1 hour, plus time in the catacombs, plus time in the castle/at the fountain

#jane and the dragon #jatd #dragonblade #dragonblade spoilers #dragonblade deep dive

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brekker-by-brekkerr · 1 year

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I think it’s unfair to say that both EJ and Ricky are teenagers but that doesn’t excuse Ricky’s action yet at the same time excuse EJ by saying he just thought he misinterpreted Gina’s feelings. The first time Gina gives Ricky advice with Nini she does it unprompted at his house, second time he tries stopping Big Red multiple times before she says “no it’s okay” and gives her advice, third time she sets a boundary and he clearly respects that the rest of the season and after she doesn’t even do the exercise with him he gives her all the space. They don’t even interact that much in 2B so this actually didn’t continue for a whole season. So clearly Ricky misinterpreted that maybe Gina is okay with giving advice and just wanted her opinion as a close girl friend. Maybe he thought she was moving on and okay with it too. Not saying EJ is a terrible person for cancelling the date under the circumstances but Ricky was also receiving mixed signals from Gina which led to confusion so it’s unfair to hold that against one but not the other. EJs problem isn’t that he cancelled it’s that he didn’t even feel the need to communicate why which led to her decline in self esteem that Nini helps build up. Ricky never made her feel that she had a chance because she states “he’s so happy now with Nini” which she wouldn’t say if she thought she had a chance. In Ricky’s case she was more upset about their romantic situation so had to take a step back from their friendship as well but he was never mean to her on purpose (not that EJ was either) but his intentions weren’t malicious so I don’t think that has to be held against him forever.

Okay first of alli didn't say being a teenager only excused EJ. both EJ and Ricky are teenagers and that can inform the way we view their behavior. It doesn't excuse any actions, it just makes them a lot more understandable. Just because I didn't specify that with Ricky doesn't mean I don't think that comes into play.

And once again, these are two very different situations. If you were going on a date with someone and found out they only thought of you as a sibling, how would that make you feel? Would you want to continue that date? Or if you were going to hang out with a friend you thought of like a sibling and found out they thought you were on a date--again, how would that make you feel? How else was EJ supposed to respond? Maybe he could have talked it through with Gina. But he didn't do something awful like continuing to talk to someone about your relationship even though you know that person has feelings for you. That's what I was saying in my original answer. Not that their age excuses either of them. Both of them make decisions that make sense for their age. EJ's actions are just not on the same level as Ricky's.

I went back and rewatched the s2 r*na scenes in question. the two times gina offers him advice are because she's sort of stumbled into these situations and those in no way invite him to ask her for advice later. also, it's the way he treats her throughout the season while disregarding what he knows about how she feels and how it builds up for gina that's uncomfortable to watch. i understand ricky may have just wanted to ignore the situation because he was going through a lot but he still had to know he was hurting her. and it's that scene in the 5th episode that really gets me. like why is he going to her knowing how she feels? why does he say, "if we were dating," and put her into that scenario, when he knows how she feels?? she was only trying to be nice the other times she offered him advice and he takes it a step too far and that's what bothers me. that we don't see an apology for that. i don't think ricky is the scum of the earth or that he committed this awful crime or anything like that. some people hate him for this and i don't. i still love him a lot. i just think this is part of a pattern we see with ricky not really being a great person for Gina. Like gina was clearly struggling all those other times she saw him yet she had to be the one being there for him and his struggles and his relationship issues. he still hasn't done that much for her in return.

Also, okay, so I guess I shouldn't have said a whole season because apparently Ricky making Gina feel like crap for half a season is better? Again, still worse than a one-night case of miscommunication. In my mind, it felt like the whole season because I remember Gina being upset about/uncomfortable about it for a while.

I understand Ricky was going through a lot and I don't think he realised how much he was hurting Gina, which is why I don't hate him, and I do think him being a teenager with a lot on his plate factors into his decisions and should give him some grace (again it doesn't excuse his actions but make them more understandable). Doesn't change the fact that he knew how Gina felt, he knew she cared about him so much that she was crying last season (yes part of that had to do with leaving but it also had to do with leaving him specifically), and he still disregarded her feelings versus EJ's decision was fueled by taking what he was told were her feelings by into account

So no, I don't think we should be holding these things against ricky. it's just that he doesn't have a pattern of treating gina well and on top of that hasn't apologised and also hasn't done that much to be the one pursuing her. that's my problem.

#also my blog is a portwell space and I'm not a r*na so frankly I'm not here to get into r*na debates #portwell #hsmtmts #anti rina

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quibbs126 · 2 years

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Do you think it would have been better if Bronev had never been revealed to be Layton’s biological father?

If you want to hear my thoughts, they’re under the cut!

Okay see while I think yeah, this backstory makes Bronev more interesting as a character and not just some evil old man, I also feel like because of this, the writers felt they had to bend over backwards to make Bronev sympathetic, and it just didn’t work.

Like yeah, personally I’d want some dimension to his character and reasons for his actions, because while we don’t need him to be good, if he had just stayed “evil old man” he really would not have fit with the other Layton villains, mostly because they all tend to have some level of depth to them. Like yeah sure Bill Hawks doesn’t get redeemable traits and we all agree to hate him, but he also wasn’t the main villain of the game; Dimitri and Clive were, and both of them got depth. So yeah, I don’t see a problem in adding something more to Bronev

Only problem is, I think making him Layton and Descole’s father just makes him that much harder to redeem, given that he’s tried to kill them and has murdered Descole’s family. Like okay, you shouldn’t do that to anyone, but it becomes a whole other level of messed up when they aren’t strangers, they’re your own children

Like maybe it could work if he’s supposed to be like a tragic figure, where he started out with good intentions but over time he grew so obsessed that he can’t even remember why he’s originally doing this and ultimately turns against the very people he once cherished, but only if they don’t try to redeem him; have him be a tragic character without being a redeemable one. Maybe the writers should have just picked a side and stuck with it instead of trying to have their cake and eat it too, if you get what I’m saying

Also his motivation isn’t clearly defined, all we really know is that he liked archaeology and that he intended to see out he and his wife’s “dream”, but it’s pretty clear her dream was likely just seeing their children again, and he just misinterpreted it, which doesn’t really help his motivation, it just makes him seem like a bit of an idiot. Also it doesn’t really justify hurting his own children; if he was unrelated to them it would be a lot easier to accept, he’s just harming strangers

Here’s a hypothetical tweak where Bronev isn’t the father of Layton and Descole: his motivation could still be about his dead wife (I know, it’s sticking to the formula but just stick with me), perhaps the two were archaeologists who studied the Azran, and their dream (or maybe even originally just Rachel’s) was to find the Azran’s ultimate legacy, but Rachel ended up dying prematurely and so Bronev dedicated the rest of his life to seeing their dream fulfilled because she never could. Sort of like Carl and Ellie from Up, albeit a bit twisted by the end. At some point Targent got involved (or maybe even Bronev created Targent if you want to go that route?) and Bronev became so consumed by his desire to fulfill their dream that he started to get more extreme with his methods, thinking no cost was too great, and he turned into the person we see now. Maybe the release of the golems gives him the realization that all the things he’s done now were for nothing and he gets a wake up call about all the atrocities he’s committed, and he ends up helping the group defeat the golems and goes away with the police to try and atone for his actions in some way

So honestly, it’s not that different from canon, but I feel like having him not be related to Layton could have really changed the way we interpret Bronev

Also side note, but something I’ve noticed is that aside from Anton, basically every villain’s motivation ties back in some way to Layton. Typically not because he’s the cause, but because he’s usually connected to their respective defining events, and I feel like having that not be the case for Bronev could make him stand out a little more

As for Layton’s actual parents in this scenario? I dunno, you could still have them be abducted by Targent, that’s pretty vital to Descole’s motivation, but maybe by canon day they’re long since dead. Mostly because this is late in the game and introducing Layton’s biological parents now as completely new characters who were just…part of Targent or something would feel really rushed and more like a cop out than anything else

And also I think Descole being Layton’s brother is still a fine twist, I don’t think it really impedes either character in any major way (other than Descole trying to off Layton and co a few times, especially in Eternal Diva, but I can also just equate that to weird writing choices or Descole just having fits of insanity or something), it’s just Bronev that makes things a bit iffy, you know?

Anyways, I think I might have gotten a bit carried away there. Bottom line, I feel like maybe it would have worked better if he wasn’t

#I now have my thoughts under the cut if anyone’s curious #…now I’m not sure what to put here #professor layton #leon bronev #hershel layton #jean descole #rachel bronev #I mean technically since I mentioned them #azran legacy #azran legacy spoilers #ramblings #questions

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lilgynt · 3 years

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I’m so anxious I’m light headed and on god my respect for high school graham has never been higher Jesus Christ

#personal #I hope that version of me gets my good vibes through the time line or something #I probably got them felt calm and freaked out bc I felt calm #no but it’s been like two weeks in this weird situation at my house and like #I was alright before it happened like I was eating regularly wasnt like on a watch list #had things I throughly enjoyed and shit you know?#plus wasnt off the walls bat shit insane #but high school graham was like today I will have at least 5 anxiety attacks and be actually insane #anyway it’s funny how every bad bad episode with my mom I’m like okay this will never happen again #then it does and I’m like HUH #I had like such a fun day today with Audrey and gg came home and felt CALM and GOOD #and then boom #like I could hear her talking to my brother across the house and she wasn’t yelling I could just hear her #and I listened and I came in and seeing Ben look so genuinely tired and defeated and just hearing my mom talk #and knowing it’s my fault just makes me raw from the inside out #and it’s like okay 🥰 time to dissociate while cleaning for a bit so I don’t do something #and I know! I know she can’t love normally but I still want it and I’m just trying and knowing #knowing she doesn’t get me and actually misinterprets a lot of my actions #and then I get in a loop of trying to understand her and it’s like I think we’re both dead and each other’s hell no offense #but I understand her to a degree and it just makes me want to die #i feel like a cat who doesn’t understand it’s dying and just wants to get away from the feeling but it just can’t #ugh and then I think about the ripple effect of my actions in regards to how my mom treats the house it’s just like #** * *** **** this simply wouldn’t be happening but ofc that’s just crazy talk so it just starts up again #the right answer is to leave get therapy and medicated and try to live my life #with or without her in it. I want her in it but :/ if I try to leave lmaoo who knows #and this is just whining but I’m just not ready?#like I spend most my day lying in bed thinking bout dying cause noises are too much and no one gets it #if I left now well 🤪#anyway! just gotta move forward to get this bad patch over with #and set up foundations so the next one isn’t as bad!

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daggerlove · 2 years

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one of my favorite underrated moments from the Loki show is from episode 5, when they're all facing Alioth and Sylvie hands Loki the Tempad she stole from Ravonna, knowing there's a chance that this is it, that this is a s*icide mission, that her plan might not work after all and perhaps this is also the last time they see each other

but she still wants him to go back to the TVA, because that way his chances at survival were going to be much higher. However, Loki refuses to leave her alone and stays

and that's something Sylvie absolutely can't deal with, because she's aware her plan might not be that great after all, and it might be a s*icide mission, and they might both die. Loki refuses to leave her and it's just...Sylvie has always been alone, she said she never had anyone

so now for the first time she has someone in her life for who she cares about and while she's seemingly aware and at peace with risking her own life, she doesn't want anything to happen to Loki because not only does she for the first time finally have someone in her life, she finally also has someone to lose

I just think it's such an underrated moment, because they're legit risking their lives not knowing if the plan will work and Sylvie wants Loki safe, but Loki's the ultimate ride-or-die and absolutely refuses to leave her alone

and this happens again during, or just before, their fight with Alioth, when Loki takes hold of Sylvie's shoulder and there's literally no word exchange, they simply look each other in the eyes, but Sylvie just knows he intends to offer himself as a distraction so she could literally work her magic in peace. Loki's risking his life, basically sacrificing himself so she could try to enchant Alioth and Sylvie pleads him not to do that. and yet, Loki once again insists.

It's such A Moment because Sylvie just truly cares about him a lot and it shows how important Loki actually is to her

So it bugs me when people who dislike Sylvie say she never cared about Loki and was simply just using him to get through Alioth and to HWR, because no, she legit wanted him AWAY from Alioth, away from the Void, away from any harm. That's the exact opposite of "not caring"

And idk how many times do Kate, Eric, Sophia etc have to repeat that Sylvie genuinely cares a lot about Loki for people to stop misinterpreting and misunderstanding her character and her actions. I didn't even need their words and interviews to understand that she cares about him, the show made it abundantly clear

for some people who are constantly going "subtext this, subtext that" they really ignore a lot of text or what's actually happening in the show.

#loki #loki series #loki show #sylki #sylvie #text post #mine

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mochegato · 3 years

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The Night of the Consequences

Continuation of Well, Well, Well, If It Isn’t the Consequences of My Actions

“Ladybug!”

Ladybug’s eyes widened, recognizing the voice booming through the Watchtower halls without even having to turn around. She eyed Chloe nervously. Why did these things keep happening around the nosy blondes in her life? She turned around with an overly wide smile. “Oh… hi… um… M.… Wing,” she stuttered out.

Son of a bitch! She really should have prepared for this. She knew it was coming. Granted, she didn’t know it was coming today, but it had to be coming soon, they couldn’t afford to let just anyone go around knowing their identities. If the family was really worried, they couldn’t afford to wait to talk to her about… well… her.

Bee side eyed her with an incredulous stare. “What the actual fu…” she started quietly.

“Is there something we can help you with?” Ladybug asked loudly, cutting off whatever rant Chloe was going to go on.

“Um well, first off,” he gave her an overly wide, supposedly charming grin, “you can call me Nightwing. M. Wing is my… father.” He cringed as he the last word came out.

Bee raised an eyebrow. “I thought your father was M. Bat.”

Nightwing puckered his lips. “Yeah… that’s… true.” He shuffled awkwardly.

“If you’re going to use that line, you’re supposed to say we can call you Night, which I’m not going to do, by the way,” Bee said flippantly and starting to study where her nails would be if she didn’t have gloves on. “Otherwise it really doesn’t work.”

“Bee!” Ladybug lightly chastised. She turned to Night… Wing… Nightwing! She wasn’t calling him Night either. “Sorry about her. I’d say she’s just tired, but that would be a lie.” She ignored Bee’s scoff and continued. “You said ‘first’, so I assume there’s a second?” she prompted.

“Right, right,” he nodded, finally seeming to settle a bit, his face becoming a bit more determined and the ‘charming’ smile returning. “I wanted to ask you about someone. She gave your name as a reference and I just wanted to see if it was someone we could trust.”

Bee leaned over to Ladybug’s ear. “Why does he keep smiling like that?” she asked in a normal volume. She shivered dramatically. “Creepy.”

Ladybug pursed her lips to stop the noise that wanted to escape, some kind of a combination of frustrated whimper and raucous laugh. “Okay,” Ladybug smiled tightly, focusing entirely on Nightwing. “Who was it?”

“Yeah, a name would be useful here, Smile Boy” Bee added in. “Or we could just give our opinion on everyone we know, along with a fashion critique. We can start with your costume history.”

“Bee, didn’t you have something else to do? Right now?” Ladybug’s voice was sharper than an obsidian edge. This was her boyfriend’s… future boyfriend’s?... love interest’s? Yes, love interest’s brother. She did not need to piss him off while he was asking her as a ‘reliable source’ about her.

“Nope,” Bee smirked back.

Ladybug groaned and turned to Nightwing. She nodded off to the side. “Should we…”

Nightwing nodded and followed her over. “Ugh, whatever. I didn’t want to hear anyway,” Bee grumbled and walked to get coffee.

“So, the woman I’m asking about is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You may have come across her in Paris?” Nightwing prompted.

Ladybug nodded. “I have yeah. She’s actually…” She bit her lip. She really should have planned this better. How much should she tell him? Clearly she wasn’t going to say it was her, but maybe she could say she was a part time hero? Or maybe she could just say they trusted her. The point was whether she could be trusted with their identities so maybe exposing her identity, one of them anyway, wasn’t the best idea. Maybe just that she knew their identities and had never told anyone? That should work, right? She just had to…

“It’s just,” Nightwing spoke up misinterpreting her silence, “my brother has kind of fallen for her.” He watched her face carefully when he said it to see if there was any indication of what she thought of the idea.

Ladybug’s eyes bugged out. That was not the approach she had been expecting. She thought he’d focus more on the identity aspect more than the personal aspect. Not to mention ‘fallen’? That was… they’d only just met. She knew he liked her but fallen was pretty strong. Did Jason really feel that way toward her or was Dick… Nightwing just exaggerating? And she didn’t even think Jason had told him they were seeing each other, let alone how he felt about her! She looked up and met his expectant eyes. Oh right, he was waiting on her to respond. But how did she respond to that? “Oh?” Very eloquent. Her eloquence was clearly not improving around the bats.

His face scrunched as he studied her reaction. It was definitely odd. “Yeah. It’s kind of bizarre really. Not to say anything bad about Marinette,” he rushed to assure her. “I don’t know her well enough to judge her, obviously. That’s why I’m here asking you about her. But he’s really taken with her really quickly. I’ve never seen him like this.” He suddenly stopped and his eyes blew wide. “Oh God! Don’t tell her that. Jason’ll kill me if he finds out.”

“Oh… um…” she looked away suddenly trying to hide her sudden blush and searched for a way to answer.

“Oh my god, y… Dupain-Cheng bagged another hero?” Bee exclaimed slapping Ladybug on the shoulder with her elbow and handing her one of the cups in her hands.

“Bee!” Ladybug exclaimed. “I thought you didn’t care! What are you doing here?”

“This is the thanks I get after bringing you tea?” she scoffed in pretend offence.

Ladybug rolled her eyes and let out a long suffering sigh. “This is just water.” She brought the cup to her lips. “Not even hot water! You brought me a cup of tepid water.”

“Oh my God, can’t you just be grateful I thought about bringing you tea?” Bee exclaimed, exasperation clear in her tone.

Ladybug gave her a deadpan expression. “Did you though?”

“No, not really,” she shrugged. “Let’s get back to Dupain-Cheng somehow managing to entice yet another hero though,” she continued, malicious glee sparkling in her eyes.

Ladybug’s mouth dropped in offense. “She does not date a lot of heroes,” she rushed to assure Nightwing. “Only the one, really…” She paused and looked at who she was talking to and her eyes widened in realization. “… not that there’s anything wrong with dating a lot of superheroes… if that’s… um… what you want to do,” she finished weakly.

Bee snickered at the flustered cover-up. “Yeah, she’s not like some heroes that date everyone they shake hands with.”

Nightwing gave an offended scoff. “I have not dated that many people… or heroes.”

Bee scoffed. “Maybe not that are officially sanctioned by the JL.”

“We didn’t say that you did,” Ladybug promised, “did we Bee?” she hissed at Bee through gritted teeth. “And even if you had, there’s nothing wrong with that. Right, Bee? Because there’s nothing wrong with dating around. Is there?”

“No,” Bee groused. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted for a moment before the pout became a vicious grin. “Yeah, sure, we can stop talking about his dating history. So, anyway, back to Dupain-Cheng…”

“Oh fu… I can’t believe I walked right into that,” Ladybug grumbled into her hands.

“It may be just the one she actually dated. The rest just have wet dreams about her.” She smirked at her.

“Bee!” Ladybug exclaimed her cheeks rapidly turning a dark scarlet.

“Relax, I know you and Dupain-Cheng have a… unique relationship, but that doesn’t change facts. And pretending like she isn’t getting lusty looks from other people doesn’t change it either.” Bee rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee. The cup wasn’t nearly big enough to hide her widening smirk. “You’re just going to have to suck it up.”

Nightwing perked up at that comment. Well, that was an interesting tidbit. “So you must know Marinette very well considering you know her dating history so well.”

Ladybug nodded while still glaring at Bee. “Yes. You could say that. We know each other rather well.”

“Extremely well,” Bee agreed, her grin getting even sharper. “I’ve known her since we were children but Ladybug still knows her much more intimately than I do. Why don’t you tell him about her?”

“And I would trust her,” Ladybug continued over Bee. “I have trusted her with a lot, both in and out of the suit.”

Bee cackled at the answer “Yeah LB do tell. Go on about her amazing attributes. Tell us all about her.”

“Bee,” Ladybug whined, her cheeks heating up. Nightwing observed the interaction with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, he’s going to think you don’t like Dupain-Cheng,” Bee teased.

“What! No!” Ladybug straightened quickly, her eyes going wide. “I do! I like Dup… Marinette,” she glared quickly at Bee before she whipped back to face Nightwing with wide eyes. “She’s great! She’s ama… She’s…” she faltered. This was so awkward. If she and Jason ended up getting serious, Nightwing was eventually going to know who she was and remember what she said here and if she overplayed it, he’d think she was pompous and hate her. Then his whole family would hate her and Jason would break up with her because his family would convince him she was a terrible influence.

But! But if she wasn’t complimentary enough he’d think she didn’t like… herself and that she wasn’t trustworthy. Then he would convince Jason that it was a mistake to be with her and he’d break up with her because he’d trust his family’s word over hers and think she wasn’t a good person and deserved to be miserable. She looked back up at Nightwing with a sigh. “She’s a good person. She deserves to be happy.”

Nightwing stared into her eyes for a few moments as if trying to read a part of her soul. Finally, his eyes softened to a more sympathetic glint. “I was worried about her knowing our identities but I’m mostly worried about him. He’s been through a lot and he can be pretty hot and cold because of it and I just…”

Ladybug’s eyes softened too. She looked down for a moment trying to figure out how to word her response. “She’s… Marinette’s pretty understanding. She’s had to deal with that before and it didn’t work then but… I don’t think that was on her…” She pursed her lips and looked down while the memories washed over her. When she looked back up there was a bittersweet look in her eyes. “She fights for the people she loves. She puts effort in. If you’re asking if I would trust her with an identity, I have before and she’s never let me down. If you’re asking me if I would trust her with your brother’s heart, I would. Whether it works out with him or not, she’ll still be there for him. She’ll do everything in her power to protect it. If you trust me, you can trust her.”

Nightwing reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you. This has been very helpful. I’m sorry if I brought up any bad memories.”

Ladybug shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I hope I made you feel less worried about her.”

Nightwing nodded. “You did. Thanks again.”

“You’re welcome,” Bee interjected loudly. “Even though you didn’t ask me my opinion.”

“Sorry. I hadn’t been given your name as a reference,” Nightwing said with only the tiniest touch of condescension.

“I grew up with her,” Bee scoffed. “And even though you didn’t ask, I’ll tell you my opinion anyway.”

“Bee…” Ladybug started, but her voice was tired.

“I don’t know who your brother is, but whoever he is…” Ladybug sighed deeply and dropped her head. “…he isn’t good enough for her.” Ladybug’s head snapped up and her jaw dropped.

“Are you… are you admitting you like m… Marinette?” Ladybug gaped.

“Relax, I’m not like hitting on her or anything. I’m just... Shut up.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away with a pout. After a few seconds she looked back at Ladybug from the corner of her eye and rolled her eyes. “Close your mouth, LB. There probably aren’t flies here to fly in, but Beast Boy could always be transformed as a fly for whatever ridiculous reason and if you swallow him we can’t go on our date.”

“You’re dating Beast Boy? When did that happen?” Ladybug exclaimed.

Bee grabbed Ladybug’s arm and tugged her back in the direction they had been heading originally. “I was trying to tell you before we were so rudely interrupted.”

Nightwing watched them walk away with a smile and a small wave. That was a lot to take in, but at least now he knew she was trustworthy.

<><><><><>

Marinette had just gotten home and immediately collapsed into her bed after an extremely long and wearing day when he heard an incessant pounding at the door that wouldn't stop. “What the hell,” she groaned. She pushed herself off the bed with a great deal of effort and shuffled to the front door. “Somebody better be about to die,” she grumbled to herself, “or someone’s going to be.” She looked through the peep hole to see a frantic looking Jason.

She whipped open the door for him. “Jason! Are you okay?” She reached to check him over to assure herself he was okay.

Jason stared at her for just a second. “Dick just… He said… You slept with Ladybug! She’s the one you dated?” he yelled.

Marinette blinked at him a few times trying to take in what he just said. “What!?”

Continued in Truth so Cold

Tags:

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver @ashbrea381writings

#maribat #jasonette #Jasonette July #Jasonette July 2021 #prompt - bee #Truth and Consequences

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myopinionhi · 4 years

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A Will Solace Character Analysis: the Underappreciated Soft Side

I've noticed many fanfictions have Will Solace OOC. So I’ve been thinking about aspects of Will’s personality fans seem to either gloss over or exaggerate. Here, this post is me doing an in-depth analysis explaining Will Solace’s canon personality in the books, and how it can sometimes differ from fanfictions. Sprinkled in this analysis are tips to fanfiction writers on how they write Will as more in-character.

There is one major aspect of Will that people seem to ignore or underemphasize. Nico best explains it when describing Will in this quote

Jason was a fighter. You could tell from the intensity of his stare, his constant alertness, the coiled-up energy in his frame. Will Solace was more like a lanky cat stretched out in sunshine. His movements were relaxed and nonthreatening, his gaze soft and far away. In his faded SURF BARBADOS T-shirt, his cutoff shorts and flip-flops, he looked about as aggressive as a demigod could get, but Nico knew he was brave under fire. During the Battle of Manhattan, Nico had seen him in action - the camp's best combat medic, risking his life to save wounded campers.

To sum it up, Will Solace is a very chill and calm character. A lot of writers make Will more irrational, impulsive, overbearing, and emotional than he actually is. Will is not the type of character to create drama unless he's, as Nico puts it, "under fire." In other words, the intense side of his personality doesn't come out unless the situation is urgent or dire.

Fans remember during the Second Giant War how he gets angry and argues with Nico over Nico's health and shadow-traveling, so many assume Will is going to be this fiery over a lot of other things regarding their relationship. For example, fanfic writers may make Will controlling or overly sensitive with Nico. However, keep in mind, Will gets heated with Nico during the Second Giant War because Nico's shadow-traveling is killing him. This is how Will describes Nico's dire state.

"Coach Hedge told me all about your shadow-travel. You can’t try that again."

"I just did try it again, Solace. I’m fine."

"No, you’re not. I’m a healer. I could feel the darkness in your hand as soon as I touched it. Even if you made it to that tent, you’d be in no shape to fight. But you wouldn’t make it. One more slip, and you won’t come back. You are not shadow-travelling. Doctor’s orders."

Will is a healer. When he touches Nico's hand, he can sense how little sleep and food Nico has been getting and how Nico's being taken over by darkness. Nico is on the verge of death and hasn't cared about his health for a long time. Nico is also stubborn about it, so Will has to be aggressive in order to save Nico's life. This aggressive behavior is not the norm for Will, but it can sometimes come out when he has to assert control in a life-or-death situation.

Will is a calming prescence. He's a diplomat. He stops violence on multiple occassions.

He's one of the few people who's able to calm Clarisse's violent rage, and he does so in a gentle manner.

Clarisse pointed her dagger at Rachel. "What about their allies, huh? Did you see that tribe of two-headed men that arrived yesterday? Or the glowing red dog-headed guys with the big poleaxes? They look pretty barbaric to me. It would’ve been nice if you’d foreseen any of that, if your Oracle power didn’t break down when we needed it most!"

Rachel’s face turned as red as her hair. "That’s hardly my fault. Something is wrong with Apollo’s gifts of prophecy. If I knew how to fix it –"

"She’s right." Will Solace, head counsellor for the Apollo cabin, put his hand gently on Clarisse’s wrist. Not many campers could’ve done that without getting stabbed, but Will had a way of defusing people’s anger. He got her to lower her dagger. "Everyone in our cabin has been affected. It’s not just Rachel."

One of the most underrated Will Solace moments is when he stops a bloody battle from happening between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.

But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. After weeks of waiting, agonizing and steaming, the Greeks and Romans wanted blood. Trying to stop the battle now would be like trying to push back a flood after the dam broke.

Will Solace saved the day.

He put his fingers in his mouth and did a taxicab whistle even more horrible than the last. Several Greeks dropped their swords. A ripple went through the Roman line like the entire First Cohort was shuddering.

"DON’T BE STUPID!" Will yelled. "LOOK!"

People are so used to seeing demigods, especially male demigods, being aggressive fighters that they can't wrap their heads around a brave and strong demigod who actively tries to avoid unnecessary conflict and destruction as much as he can.

And that's Will Solace's strength: he has the ability to prevent as much harm as possible.

Will is a difficult character to write. There's a lot of dueling factors with his personality. He's calm and pacifying while also being brave and assertive. He's fun and lighthearted while also being intelligent, logical, and grounded. He's laidback while also being responsible and hardworking. He's insecure but not melodramatic. He's very caring and protective but not pushy.

Will's personality confuses Nico sometimes too.

He’d always thought of Will as easygoing and laid back. Apparently he could also be stubborn and aggravating.

The trick to writing Will is to keep in mind his default personality is a soft and lighthearted character. Writers tend to overemphasize the hard side of his personality when his default personality is actually the soft side.

Think of the relaxing, lanky cat metaphor Nico uses for him. He and Nico bicker often, and it works for Will because he rolls with everything and doesn't take things too seriously. He's able to alleviate Nico's moodiness with humor, wittiness, groundedness, and patience. Nico affectionately calls Will a "dork" because Will usually keeps things light. Interestingly enough, he's able to be lighthearted without coming across as insensitive or an airheaded goofball, the latter of which is something Nico dislikes about Percy's personality. On a related sidenote, another way writers make Will OOC is they make him too dumb or too immature. I know I mentioned to focus on Will's soft side, but be careful to avoid that too. He's a SENSIBLE, lanky cat.

The way Will keeps his composure during a stressful situation by using laughter while still being mature is expressed well in this exchange with Apollo. (Yes, Will has a lot to manage.)

It was difficult to think of this young man as my son. He was so poised, so unassuming, so free of acne. He also didn’t appear to be awestruck in my presence. In fact, the corner of his mouth had started twitching.

“Are—are you amused?” I demanded.

Will shrugged. “Well, it’s either find this funny or freak out. My dad, the god Apollo, is a fifteen-year-old—”

“Sixteen,” I corrected. “Let’s go with sixteen.”

“A sixteen-year-old mortal, lying in a cot in my cabin, and with all my healing arts—which I got from you—I still can’t figure out how to fix you.”

“There is no fixing this,” I said miserably. “I am cast out of Olympus. My fate is tied to a girl named Meg. It could not be worse!”

Will laughed, which I thought took a great deal of gall. “Meg seems cool. She’s already poked Connor Stoll in the eyes and kicked Sherman Yang in the crotch.”

The fiercer side of Will's personality comes out only when the situation calls for it; this happens sometimes when he has to be a caring family member, a responsible healer, or a warrior in a dire situation. Even when he gets more forceful, he doesn't get more forceful than he has to.

Since Will has such a balanced and lighthearted personality, what are his flaws? What are the dark sides of his personality? There are four main things that stick out.

1. He's insecure about his self-perceived lack of abilities.

"I agree," Will said. "I wish I was a better archer … I wouldn’t mind shooting my Roman relative off his high horse. Actually, I wish I could use any of my father’s gifts to stop this war." He looked down at his own hands with distaste. "Unfortunately, I’m just a healer."

2. He sometimes struggles to endure the heavy responsibilities he has as a healer and as a protector to his family.

“I got it reattached,” Will told me, his voice shaky with exhaustion. His scrubs were speckled with blood. “I need somebody to keep him stable.”

I pointed to the woods. “But—”

“I know!” Will snapped. “Don’t you think I want to be out there searching too? We’re shorthanded for healers. There’s some salve and nectar in that pack. Go!”

I was stunned by his tone. I realized he was just as concerned about Kayla and Austin as I was. The only difference: Will knew his duty. He had to heal the injured first. And he needed my help.

3. He forces himself to bottle his emotions to keep his composure.

Will laughed under his breath. “I’m terrified. But one thing you learn as head counselor: you have to keep it together for everyone else. Let’s get you on your feet."

Here's a second example.

I rested my hand on Will’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back by dawn.”

His mouth trembled ever so slightly. “How can you be sure?”

4. He constantly worries about his loved ones.

Nico rested his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Apollo, we were worried. Will was especially.”

In conclusion, Will Solace's personality is difficult to get correct. But don't worry, if you write Will as a laidback, witty cat in your fanfics, I guarantee he'll be more in-character than many other fanfics with Will Solace.

(Note: I am only human. If you believe I'm misinterpreting some aspects of Will's personality, feel free to express it. What I say isn't 100 percent the right interpretation.)

#pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #will solace #nico di angelo #solangelo #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #spoilers #meta #character analysis #fanfic #fanfiction #blood of olympus #hidden oracle #long post #toa #hoo #apollo

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dylanobrienisbatman · 3 years

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The main problem with the whole mal vs the darkling thing in regards to being possessive (or really when it comes to any of their traits) is the fact that throughout, the darkling is clearly framed as the villain and his actions reflect that, whereas Mal as supposed to be the good guy and best romantic partner for Alina, and yet he has all these awful character traits and tendencies. So its less about how awful the Bad Guy is (since he's supposed to be), and more about how awful the person that we're supposed to believe is the best option for Alina is. I don't ship either, just my two cents.

Okay well... two things. First, your comment about "its less about how awful the bad guy is, since he's supposed to be", takes every comment I've made about Darkles out of context, which seems fitting since everything Darklina's spout about Mal is out of context. Him being the Bad Guy is fine, and if you like him AS A VILLAIN, and acknowledge all the bad shit he does, then my posts aren't for you. I think he's a very interesting villain, and a lot of the terrible shit he does that I have to keep making posts about make him a good villain, the problem is when the terrible shit the "Bad Guy" does is romanticized and viewed as the reasons why Alina SHOULD have picked him. So, don't assume everyone gets that "hes supposed to be awful". The point my post was making is that Darklina's love to call Mal possessive, but then turn around and act like Darkles literally enslaving her in somehow sexy and romantic. It's fucking not, and it's transparent as hell that y'all romanticize and sexualize the actually possessive character, and then project false character traits onto Mal. It's so transparent, it's almost funny.

But, more importantly, to your second, very wrong point, I wonder how much of the narrative about Mal having "awful character traits and tendencies" is actually a commentary on Mal as a character, or is it just Darklina's lying about things Mal has done and everyone accepting that misinterpretation as canon. Because, if were making a list...

Fuck boy - False! Mal was not a fuck boy! He was an attractive teenager who hooked up with consenting girls his age when he could, and he was not in a relationship during that time. Alina had never told him how she felt, so he is not beholden to her. (Also, nobody seems to have an issue with the fact that Darkles hooked up with Zoya in the show, that doesn't make HIM a fuckboy... interesting) (also also, nobody seems to discuss Darkles literally sexually assaulting Alina, and lying and manipulating her to get her to be physically intimate with him so he can use her... double interesting).

Slut Shames Alina - FALSE! The ever favourite callout line from Darklina's "He's all over you" isn't him slut shaming her. First, he has no idea what their relationship is like at that point, but more importantly, he is making an observation of her status in the little palace and how she has become his tool. He has dressed her up in his colors, made her put on a show for his benefit, and has created a situation where Alina appears to be his. Mal is noting that after months of searching for her, believing she was being hurt, tortured, or worse, when he arrives to save her, she looks like the Darkling's pet. (and, even if he WAS angry because he perceived them to be romantically involved, boy just spent months fighting for his life, lost multiple friends, and almost died to find her, all while coming to the realisation that he was in love with her, and then he shows up, after not hearing from her for months... I'd be pissed as hell too.) Important Note: He even acknowledges that what he said was wrong and tries to apologise, before Alina tells him that he was right. (Shadow and Bone, pg. 286). He also then apologizes, completely unprompted, for what he said. (Shadow and Bone, pg. 297).

Fat Shames Alina - False! This one is particularly laughable to me, because its one of the Darklina arguments that falls apart the second you actually read the scene. They are running for their lives in the forest, and Mal has to hunt and gather to feed them. He is noting that Alina's appetite has increased since he last saw her, and he makes a joke (ya know, how you do with friends) about how it would be easier to keep her fed if she still had her more meager appetite from before. He makes no comment on her weight, or her size, and he is not actually commenting on her appetite in a negative way, he is just acknowledging that it's a lot more work for him now that she eats more. Right before he says the line, the quote even proves that he isn't shaming her or thinking badly of her: "With a bemused expression, he watched as I gobbled down my portion and then sighed, still hungry". He is noting a change in her, and complaining that its made more work for him. If you think thats the same as fat shaming, well... thats a you problem.

Hates Alina's Powers - FALSE!!!! How to begin... do we talk about it was Mal's idea to hunt the stag in S&B, because he knew she needed it to be more powerful so she could stop the darkling? Do we talk about how he vowed to find the firebird for her, even though he was terrified of what all that power would do to her? Do we talk about how he literally died so she could achieve the power she needed to save the world? Or maybe we could talk about how he believed in her power more than anyone else, like when everyone was making bets about her abilities with the Cut and he knew she'd go further and better than anyone else expected her too, or when he tells her that he was never afraid of her powers, only what seeking all that power would do to her (which is literally the theme of the books, that power corrupts and seeking unmatched power can destroy you)? Mal being afraid of what is going to happen to Alina, being protective of her and worrying over her, is not the same as him hating her powers. He exists to help remind Alina of the themes of the story, and to guide her into maintaining her humanity.

Abusive - ... Do I even need to explain this one? Must I deign an explanation as to why this favourite Darklina lie is so fucking stupid, and also totally hypocrisy? No? Because we all know Darkles is actually the abusive one and they're trying to project their own shit onto Mal to further their abuse apologist agenda? Cool. Moving on.

Possessive of Alina - False! Throughout the entire series, Mal is quite literally the opposite of possessive, but yall just cant read. Not only does he quite literally step out of the way and allow Nikolai to court Alina without argument, which is the most direct example of him not being possessive, he also spends two full books believing, and repeatedly saying over and over and over, that they can't be together because he is not good enough for her. Mal believes, fully, that Alina deserves more than him, better than him, because he's just a tracker and a soldier, just a regular man with nothing to offer her but his love and his protection, and she is a Saint and should be a Queen. Possessiveness is the wish to own and control someone, it is literally the opposite of Mal believing that he's not good enough and doing everything he can to ensure that Alina achieves everything and gets everything he believes she is owed. A possessive character would not tell her to tell him to leave because he has nothing he can offer her, no title or land or country or crown. A possessive character would not promise to be the blade in her hand, because he believed he had nothing but the blood he could spill to offer her.

Angry - True! Yeah, omg, you caught us, Mal is ANGRY! Heaven forbid a teenager who is traumatized beyond belief and has to give up everything in his life, his position in the military (he deserted for her), his friends and the job he loved (Mikhail and Dubrov died for him, and he can't be a tracker in the army... because he deserted... for Alina), and, most importantly, he has to give up Alina (she should be Queen, he believes, and he has to give up the future he imagined with the girl he loves, who he was pretty sure loved him back, because she's a saint and queen and he's just a man), and more, is ANGRY. He has to be the one to find the amplifiers that he knows will end up hurting her, because thats what she needs to save the world. He has to sit by while Nikolai treats him like the dirt on his shoe and tries to woo Alina for his own personal gain (because Nikoalai did not love Alina. Maybe he came to care for her, but he proposed and spent all of S&S trying to get her to marry him when it was obvious they were not in love. He straight up says its so that the next King of Ravka can be married to the Sun Summoner. It's a power grab.) and he can't do anything about it. So yeah, Mal is angry. And yeah, sometimes he's even angry at Alina, just like sometimes she's angry at him. But they always find their way back, always apologize and try to be better for each other, and if you think anger is a toxic trait, and not simply a natural human emotion, might I suggest touching some fucking grass?

Idk why you thought I'd stand for Mal slander on my blog, cuz I will not. So, I'm gonna stop there, because I have shit to do today, but I really do wonder how much of Mal's 'toxic' or 'terrible' traits, that make him such a 'bad' love interest for Alina, really comes from Darklina's who refuse to actually read the text critically at all, and instead take everything he does and says out of context to further their agenda that Alina should have ended up as the Darkling's fucking slave forever, because thats the "girl power feminist" ending somehow. Mal supports her, loves her, sacrifices for her at every turn, and does everything he can do, to the point of literally dying for her, to ensure that she can defeat Darkles and save the world. He protects her, and when they end up happy and safe together on the orphange that they've rebuilt to help the children that were victims of Darkles war and genocide, he spends his days bringing her tea and cakes and flowers, kissing her silly under the stairs in the view of all the teachers, and calling her names like beauty, beloved, cherished, my heart for the rest of their ordinary life together, if love can ever be called that.

#Malina #anti darklina #malyen oretsev #mal oretsev #shadow and bone #if yall could just learn to fucking read... i am begging you

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esther-dot · 2 years

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I understand the antipathy and suspicion about Rhaegar and Lyanna when its viewed through a modern lens. But at the same time I can totally see the two of them enthralled by each other when Rhaegar discovers Lyanna is the KOTLT. If these two had not gotten together, there would be no Jon Snow or the aura of destiny and prophecy around him which GRRM created for the books. Also we can't forget that the TOJ was likely so well guarded because Jon was the rightful Targ heir by Westorosi standards.

(continued) I think R+L is meant to be read as a tragedy. There is not a lot of value narratively for him to go from being a Stark bastard to a Targaryen bastard.

(I edited out a part that I think would have been misinterpreted)

I was pretty amused to get so many Rhaegar fans yelling at me recently (not you, you’re fine) when I’ve said repeatedly, I really don’t know what Martin is doing there. Personally I hate Rhaegar, but I do entertain the idea that Martin would go for Lyanna being infatuated and running away rather than a kidnapping. I don’t like that, but in addition to learning how she was moved by Rhaegar’s singing (which serves as a parallel to Sansa and Jon who are also moved by singing), we’re told that she is willful. That’s something Ned connects to her premature death which to me is significant because if he is under the impression she was kidnapped and raped, that’s an odd thing to say? I think it indicates Ned’s perspective on what happened? Also, something we know about Lyanna, she takes matters into her own hands to right wrongs (as the Knight of the Laughing Tree), and she didn’t want to marry Robert, could have definitely viewed it as a wrong against herself that she was expected to marry him anyway, so the running away idea is a real possibility.

To me, there are a lot of reasons to believe that she would have entertained running away. Obviously, we have no idea what she knew or felt about Rhaegar’s plans, and, even if she did choose to go with him, we don’t know that she loved him or that she wanted to have a child with him. I tend to think she was enamored because of the singing, but agreeing to run away to escape an unwanted marriage doesn’t necessarily mean she agreed to the rest of it.

I mentioned why I don’t dismiss the possibility that Rhaegar either a) convinced her he could take her as a second wife or b) actually did marry her in secret in this ask (link). I have a hard time believing he had the good fortune to fall in love with the person he needed for the prophecy baby. Like, the fact that we’re given the scene where he says he needs another child puts a very dark twist on his interest in Lyanna. Also, considering how preoccupied he is with the prophecy, the idea of his head being turned so entirely that he throws away everything (I mean, he was meant to be king one day and how was that going to work after he offended so many people?) is a hard sell to me. So an impassioned choice seems ooc for him, but it makes no sense as a planned action either.

So, that’s why I say I’m confused. As for the purpose/destiny around Jon....I suppose that’s where another one of my issues with R/L comes in. Do we believe that Martin is saying ends justify the means? Is he saying do the bad thing because it’s worth it? Or is he examining the consequences of the bad thing? Just because women have no recourse, is it acceptable that men treat them badly? Is it worth it for a man to treat his wife in a horrible way if it’s for the greater good? Is it worth it for a man to abandon his wife and impregnate a teenager for the greater good? What is the greater good? Is the idea that we are not to judge men who allow prophecy to override all decency and morals? Or is it, look how these forces shape and destroy people if you do not adhere to basic concepts of good?

“what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?”

"Everything," said Davos, softly.

(ASOS, Davos V)

To me, we already know what Martin’s answer is to that, so I don’t see how he can present Rhaegar as being in the right. I would think the proper subversion of the idea that Rhaegar needed to have another child is that Jon isn’t the key in defeating the Others, he is the one who ends the Targs.

And, a big problem I have with romanticizing R/L is it means we ignore the true victims, the people who had no hand in the events, no power to stop them, but had to endure the consequences: Elia and her children. In your second message you mention that R/L should be read as a tragedy, and I think Lyanna’s fate certainly is, but I don’t know that it’s a bad thing Rhaegar died. If we look at his decisions, I don’t see how he would have been a good king. He wronged his future subjects when he ran off with Lyanna. Of course he’s preferable to Aerys, but even if Rhaegar didn’t know the worst about his dad, he did know enough that he admitted he should have done something before. Also, I’m not sure that there were any lines about this, but I think he likely knew what his father did to his mother? And while we don’t know exactly what went on in his marriage, I’ve seen people run the timelines and it looks like he impregnated Elia very quickly after she gave birth which may be a “Mr Martin, so bad at math!” thing, or it might indicate something even worse about how he viewed women, and how he may not have ended up being that much better than his father. That’s totally speculation, and maybe we were never intended to focus on that stuff, but I do wonder.

Anyway, I find the characterization very odd, what Martin is saying there is confusing to me. I still think this post is the best explanation for it which isn’t as romanticized as your view, but isn’t the kidnap/rape version either.

#ask dot

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stxleslyds · 3 years

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Red Hood and the lost art of telling Joker to shup up.

Okay, I know that I talked about Jason and Joker in a recent post but this is something different, I promise.

I really want to talk about how different Jason has been written since UtRH when it comes to him confronting Joker. Jason hasn’t been put in that position a lot but the times that he has, he lets Joker talk for far too long and actually pays attention to whatever he has to say.

The Jason vs Joker thing is basic in on itself and letting Joker talk isn’t exactly the problem here, the real problem is Jason letting Joker’s thoughts shape his future thoughts and decisions, I do understand that that’s exactly what writers want though, they want to build the problematic of: “Jason is just like Joker and the fact that he uses the name Red Hood only proves that Joker made who Jason is now”.

But the thing is that THAT problem is overdone at this point and the only time it worked was the first time it was brought up and it worked because Jason shut the Joker down.

Let’s see all the times (that I remember) the Joker and Jason have had a little chat and/or the times Joker’s words actually influence Jason’s thinking and decision making.

Under the Red Hood – Batman (1940) #649

This is the first real confrontation we get to see between Jason and Joker after Jason’s death and it is beautiful. It's absolutely amazingly written, Joker goes on and on forever about how he killed Jason about how Jason is just as bad as him but that he is also just like Batman because he hasn’t killed him yet.

“You let me live after everything I did, you couldn’t pop my balloon. You just couldn’t. The apple doesn’t tumble too far from the paterfamilias. You are just like daddy-kins”

Jason lets him talk, yes. But he absolutely destroys Joker with what he tells him next.

“You couldn’t be more wrong about me. If right were a country on earth you’d be circling on the edge of the milky way. Yeah, I let you live but like always, every damned minute of your addled, posturing, psychopathic life, you think this is about you. You’re a worm. I’ve pitched you on a hook and dropped you into the brine. And I will beat the hell out of you Pagliacci because it was too much fun not to.”

“Listen to me Joker, I’m not you. I´m nothing like you. I know what I do and I know why I do it. You, you are, clinically speaking, a whack-job. But I know a secret, a good one.”

“You are not nearly as crazy as you would like us all to believe or even as crazy as you would like to believe. It just makes it easier to justify every sick monstrous thing you’ve ever done when you play the part of the mad clown. You are crazy, bubba, but you ain’t that crazy. Look at that. I wiped a smile off of Joker’s face. I have been waiting a long time for that.”

Everything about this is perfect, Jason gives Joker no room to mess with him. Whatever the Joker had planned on saying he had to eat because Jason wasn’t playing games and he was ready for any kind of lie the Joker had ready to tell. This is Jason Todd. He won’t let the Joker get under his skin because he knows the Joker and he, also, knows better.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #15

Here Jason comes across Joker during the “Death of the Family” event. In this issue the Joker has information about all of the members of the “Batfamily” and he uses that to mess around with each one of them, in Jason’s case he insinuates that he was present in very specific moments of his life when Jason’s father got shot, when his mother overdosed and when he was on his own before joining Batman.

Jason doesn’t quite believe that Joker was there but as the reader, we can see this sort of sense of doubt in Jason. He hesitates a few times before resolving that the Joker is playing with him.

But as far as this issue goes let’s just say that what the Joker says doesn’t get to Jason, this changes though in the issue that follows up this story.

Teen Titans (2011) #16

This is where that story continues and where Jason starts to buy the story that Joker is selling.

Joker convinces Jason that he has his father and Tim’s father and that the only way for Jason (or Tim) to save their dads is by killing the other (Jason or Tim). Tim doesn’t believe it but Jason is ready to shoot Tim almost immediately.

However, Jason changes his mind about killing Tim just as Tim comes up with a plan for them to not actually have to kill each other. Here is where Lobdell’s writing shows all of its flaws, Lobdell is so desperate to show that Jason and Tim are besties that he forgets that Jason had no reason to stop trying to kill Tim to save his shit father because it is later revealed that Jason truly believed that Joker had found his father and had him captive. It wasn’t until Tim explained his thought process as to why those men weren’t their dads that Jason just goes “you realize, of course, the only reason I didn’t kill you right off is that I knew your big brain will figure out some way out of this” HA, nice save Lobdell but I see right through your bullshit.

Jason bought what the Joker was selling and that is the beginning of Jason’s downgrade when it comes to not playing Joker’s games.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #17

Well, in this issue Lobdell goes back to Jason kinda not believing what Joker told him, and Jason asks Bruce of all people if he thinks the Joker truly “made him or not”. Bruce says that he doesn’t believe that and that he didn’t have anything to do with the man that Jason has become either. For some reason, Jason is actually happy with what Bruce said and for a couple of moments, Jason goes back to being sure that the Joker knows nothing and that he is his own man.

It doesn’t last long though. At the very end of the issue, the trap that Joker had set up in Jason’s helmet triggers and Jason gets his face fucked up with acid or something.

But that’s not all because a hologram of Joker has something to say: “you were supposed to be my masterpiece from start to finish. But you were too stubborn to stay dead. So here is what we are going to do… You’re so determined to be your own man? Fine, let’s start with a clean slate”.

Basically, the Joker insinuates once more that he had something to do with who Jason was supposed to become and that Jason isn’t truly “his own man”, This is all a setup for a very dense storyline that will be continued in this run later.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #18

In this issue, Jason is in a coma after he is dosed with that gas in the previous issue. The Joker isn’t really present in this issue but he does make an appearance as part of Jason’s “nightmare” while he is unconscious.

That’s not all though, Jason has an illusion of Ducra (someone that he appreciates a lot), telling him that “after you left the All-Castle after you went back to the world you continued to let your life be defined by the actions of that man. You became a killer, lashing out at people who may or may not have deserved it. Eventually, you will hurt all those you have cared for. In that way, how are you any different from the Joker?”.

In this statement, there is a lot of wrongs that can come from two places, either bad writing on Lobdell’s part or just Ducra telling lies as a plot point.

“Let your life be defined by the actions of that man” is a sentence that horribly simplifies Jason’s thinking during the events of UtRH, because while he did resent the Joker, his real problem was with Bruce who had not avenged his death by killing the Joker himself. Also, Jason was doing other things back then, like being a pain in the ass for Black Mask and disrupting the drug trade in Gotham as well as trying to control the drug dealing to children. So that little sentence is just a gross misinterpretation of the true events which means that Ducra was wrong, and “she” continues to be wrong when she says that there might be no difference between Jason and Joker.

Luckily Jason thinks the same because he tells “Ducra”: “…don’t you dare compare me to that monster Ducra. I am nothing like the Joker! Nothing!”

Once again please don’t be fooled by Jason’s thinking because in the next issue it turns around really fast and really bad.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #19

Just a heads up this issue has a change of writer, Lobdell isn’t writing this arc, the writer that gives us this hellish story arc is James Tynion IV.

All that talk about Jason not being affected or not believing what the Joker told him is yeeted out of the window and it’s not a fun ride.

In this issue, Roy and Kory find a Jason that doesn’t know who they are or who he, himself, is. This is because S’aru that little floaty little shit took his memories away after Jason asked him to do so, well Jason asked S’aru to erase every memory that darkness has touched (Joker) and he does that. But him doing that is apparently erasing everything which, holy shit, how messed up is that?

But let’s take a look at what Jason says before he gets his memories taken away: “Not only did the Joker almost take my face, but he tells me he might have manipulated my entire life from the beginning! Even the good is tainted by him now. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t have that kind of doubt. If you take it away, I can go on living. I can keep fighting”. So, yeah that was a pretty emo speech. But the thing here is that if Jason is asking this dude to erase every memory that has been tainted by the Joker and he erases all of them then we might be facing one of two situations, either Joker has been messing up with Jason’s life from the beginning or S’aru is just a little bitch.

We will later find out in #20 that S’aru and Ducra planned the whole thing, meaning that they took all of his memories for ulterior motives not because the Joker had actually tainted all of them.

For many issues Jason has no memories and now that I am revisiting these issues, I now remember the twisted and completely insane plot they came up with for the “League of Assassins” and Jason being the “Chosen One”, everything was happening in this run, my god, it's like they wanted Jason to be the center of every single trope in writing history.

It’s in issue #26 that Jason asks for his memories back but the Joker having tainted his memories or not isn’t important anymore to anyone, including the writer (because he is too focused on telling this messy story), Jason (because he has enough problems at the moment) and the reader (because this book makes zero sense and it changes the story and motivations every single issue).

But there is another truth to be revealed in the next issue.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #27

Jason has planned along Ducra and S’aru to give up all of his memories to be cleansed so he could defeat Ra’s Al Ghul. But (there is always a but) Ducra says this: “Your greatest enemy returned and nearly took your face away from you. And in the process, shook your sense of identity to the core” “The final battle here will take place in the Well of Sins, and with all the doubt and fear clouding your mind, it would eat you whole”.

So yeah, now we have confirmation from Ducra that Jason had indeed let what the Joker told him cloud his sense of self and made him doubt who he was and if he really was in control.

All that back and forth for these many issues just to say, yes, Jason let Joker’s words affect him.

So here it is, let Joker get in Jason’s head to build the plot of a story, fantastic, the story was a mess because it had so much information, the mischaracterizations of Roy and Kory were at their maximum potential, and in this particular story arc not only are the events of Red Hood: The Lost Days officially erased from Jason’s canon but something quite out there is added to Jason’s canon from before he was even Robin (that’s a whole different story that I won’t be talking about here).

What an insane ride this arc was. Definitely not the kind of story I enjoy in a Red Hood book but that’s just my preference.

*This whole arc was written by James Tynion IV.

Red Hood/Arsenal #11

Joker is dead during the events of this run but the person who has something to say to Jason about how the Joker made the person that he is now is Duela Dent (“Joker’s daughter”, she isn’t his daughter she just found Joker’s face somewhere and she puts it on and “becomes” crazy, she is an incredibly weird character).

She says this, “You’re a lot like dad in that way” to which Jason says “He is not my father. He’s not even your father” but Duela continues by saying. “You’re kidding yourself if you genuinely believe that. Yeah, he took your life but look what you got in its place, you ingrate. You got your freedom. You were reborn.”

Jason doesn’t fall for it or anything of the sort but once again writers are bringing up the Joker as the maker of the Red Hood and “suggesting” that what Jason has been doing and who he has become is all thanks to Joker. The idea of Jason having no free will is still present in this narrative, even when Jason doesn’t believe it.

Red Hood/Arsenal #12

I talked too soon because in this issue Jason is having some weird thoughts.

“Funny, isn’t it, so easy to call Duela “crazy” because she wears a dead man’s face. Because isn’t that what I’m doing? Before he was the Joker, he was the Red Hood. So maybe the line between men and the Joker’s daughter is a lot thinner than I’d like to admit.”

Here he is comparing himself to Duela and to the Joker to an extent, writers often bring up the fact that Jason uses the code name that his killer once had and they have people or Jason himself questioning why he uses that name.

Personally, I don’t think there is much to build from it (at least not from the perspective of Lost Days and UtRH), it was just a joke, a morbid one if you will. He wears the mantle of the person that destroys Gotham and fills its people with fear while he is trying to control the city’s drug trade and trying to keep the people safe in his own way. And the way he wanted to do it is almost the complete opposite of the way that Batman does things.

I just think that he is being ironic and acidic about the whole thing. He has obviously moved on from the fact that Joker killed him but he has issues with the fact that Batman has yet another child working with him while the Joker is still alive. And Jason really wanted to make Bruce suffer, so him taking the name and a similar appearance to how the joker used to look is also done to get a reaction from Bruce.

I really don’t think there is any sort of connection to make between Jason and Joker beyond that, much like there is no connection between the name Nightwing and the Court of Owls. Even though Lincoln March tried to convince Dick Grayson that he chose the name Nightwing because Owls fly at night and that meant that he was supposed to become a Talon and all that Dick still didn’t believe it because he knew why he chose that name and no one can twist his reason.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #10

Finally, I can stop re-reading New 52 books, I don’t enjoy it but I have to do it if I want to talk/complain about stuff.

This one is a little different because while Jason does talk with the Joker, the Joker isn’t really there he is just part of Jason’s imagination just like the Robin Jason that he is also seeing.

In this story, Jason is helping Artemis discover who she is but he gets captured in Qurac, yup that place, and worst of all from where he is being held, he can see the place where he died. All of that is helping Jason have some very vivid memories/illusions. He does actively hold a conversation with the imaginary Joker and Robin Jason though, and he is also having a lot of thoughts that let us know how the Joker affects Jason.

“This is why it was stupid of me to come back to Qurac. Even to help Artemis, even if I thought I could handle it. Physically, I am alone, but in my head? I’m drowning in memories of the worst day of what was my very short life. The day I was murdered.”

That’s what Jason is thinking but what I write next is what Jason’s saying as he talks to the imaginary Joker.

“Not interested in replaying this over again, like I have every night of my life since it happened Joker”

So, we are told that Jason thinks about that day very often, the Joker might not be involved much in Jason’s books but he definitely has a bigger role inside of Jason’s head. They chat for a bit up until Jason decides to “kill” the Joker, he knows, of course, that it is not real but it does give him satisfaction. (If only they would have let Jason actually kill the clown for real, or at the very least chase him just to show the reader that Jason does actually want to finish the job since the Bat won’t do it himself).

Having said all that, Joker’s imaginary death doesn’t last long because Jason is trapped in his mind and the Joker is basically functioning on a loop inside of it.

That is where the problem lies in this issue because Jason is letting us know that he is still heavily influenced by what happened that day and that he hasn’t been able to walk away from it. But once more that’s not the worst thing, because all of these thoughts have led Jason to think that he (in the present and as a fifteen-year-old) is the one to blame for having ended up dead. Yeah, it is messed up.

This is what Jason says to imaginary Robin Jason, “He is never going to die, Jason. Not here. Not in my mind, not if at some point I don’t stand up and walk away from my memories. From you.”

This is a major downgrade, from the Jason that we had in UtRH because that Jason had moved on from the fact that he had been killed what he was looking for was for Batman to avenge his death. He had other things in mind as well, like I said before in this post Jason had a lot of things going on, killing Joker wasn’t his only plan.

And this situation (written by Lobdell) is also very different from what was going on in New 52 where Jason being influenced by the Joker was used to build a plot. This is just a writer letting us know that this “new version” of Jason hasn’t worked out his problems when it comes to his death and his killer. That means that we are going backward.

After he realizes that he was unconscious all that time and that he was being tortured he does get his shit together in order to get out of captivity and go help Artemis.

The Joker and that whole thing that happened in his mind aren’t mentioned again, it was just for the reader to know that Rebirth Jason has unsolved issues with his death.

Batman: Three Jokers #1

Oh yes, here we are, we have arrived to that dreaded book, awful writing gorgeous art. In this book, the “Joker made Jason as he is now” trope is at its full potential; Johns drives this hellish truck of a book at full speed into our homes and then ends it by giving us one of the worst takes on Jason Todd’s characterization ever.

But first, let’s talk about the Joker and Jason interaction in the first issue. As Jason and Barbara are left alone with the Joker that they came across moments ago the Joker begins talking because that’s what he does.

He says this, “I’m the loop-de-loop, the hamster-wheel-of-doom. The cycle of pain each one of you is trapped in. Take “Red Hood” here, for example. Have you ever wondered why he uses my former moniker? Who in their right mind would take on the identity of their killer? Am I right?”

He is obviously being a little shit on purpose and is waiting to see if somebody will take the bait. Jason is the first to talk and he says this: “I took it because I’m owning what you did to me. You made me into this. I will be your destruction”.

Congratulations Jason, you took the bait, and now Barbara will fight with you over it.

Jason raises his gun to “break the cycle” and Barbara is like “please don’t do it” and boy is Joker having the time of his life! Both of these idiots are playing his game, Johns really did both Jason and Barbara dirty with this.

Here is where THE problem with letting the Joker talk is. This Joker got under Jason’s skin in seconds and Barbara did nothing while it happened.

This is what the Joker had to say. “Let’s look at the facts here bat-people. I bashed this boy’s skull in. I killed this Robin” to which Jason says “You didn’t kill me, you only made me stronger” which is weird because the Joker did kill him so I don’t know what kinda comeback that was supposed to be but Joker wasn’t done because he continues by saying “Yes, you crawled from the shallow grave I left you in. You lived on to fight another day. Hurrah! You survived because of your tenacity! Or maybe… maybe I beat you to a bloody mess… I took you right to the edge… because I wanted to leave you alive.”

Great that’s where the clown is going, just fantastic, more of the “I made you” but that’s not all because the Joker tells Jason that him having hurt Jason wasn’t because he didn’t like Jason, it was all about Batman, Jason doesn’t matter.

But that’s not the worse thing that was written in this awful book, Geoff Johns seems to have felt that the trauma that Jason went through in the original “Death in the Family” story wasn’t enough because he decided to add something new.

That’s why the Joker says this next, “Do you recall what you said to me while I was breaking your head in with that crowbar? As your blood streamed into your eyes and your skull cracked? Because I cherish those words. I’ll always cherish them. ‘Please stop! Please! If you let me live, I’ll do anything you say. I’ll be your Robin’” “And look at you now my little “Red Hood” shooting up people and making Batman’s life miserable! You are my Robin!”

What a nightmare Johns decided to put Jason and Jason Nation through huh? I hate this, this is the worst thing that has ever been written in a Jason Todd story (although I can say that about many things that were written in this three-issue book).

Jason kills the Joker after he says all that, Barbara does (for some reason) try to stop him from doing it but luckily, she can’t stop Jason.

But here is the thing, Jason killing the Joker doesn’t make me feel as satisfied as I would have liked, and it doesn’t feel that way because Jason let Joker talk for far too long and what Joker said ended up getting in Jason’s head and messing with him.

Batman: Three Jokers #2

Yeah, there is no rest for us, Jason Nation, in this issue Jason goes looking for another Joker to kill and he finds one but he gets captured. Johns really had to get Jason naked for Joker to torture him mentally and physically? Johns is, himself, a major red flag but that’s not what I am here to talk about.

In this issue the Joker that captures Jason has the same things to say as the other one, DC writers really have no imagination when it comes to building conflict between Joker and Jason, huh?

Anyway, Joker says this, “tell me something. Why would you put on that helmet and call yourself Red Hood after what we did?” Jason of course replies “Come on, is every one of you copycats gonna ask me the same thing? It’s a joke” the answer isn’t enough for Joker (the two of them that are here with Jason) so he continues talking. “A joke? We left you with brain damage and permanent nerve pain. Physical and emotional trauma so severe that the only relief you ever find is when you inflict pain on others. You and me, boy, we’re more alike than you’d care to admit. But you know that already. You nearly died and you blame the Batman. You hate him for it. Me too. You hate him most of all don’t you?”

Now, here is the thing, that whole thing is bullshit, none of it makes sense. From Jason having permanent nerve pain to Jason hating Batman the most, everything is a lie. And my confusion here is that I don’t know if I have to feel like Joker is doing it on purpose to be a little bitch or if Geoff Johns was on crack when he wrote this and he had actually never heard of Jason Todd in his life before.

The whole thing is a mess, it feels like he is writing Jason from an origin and story that we never read. I don’t know how to explain it, but the whole thing feels cheap, it’s a cheap trope and it’s a cheap take on who Jason Todd is, was, and will be.

The nightmare doesn’t end Jason Nation because these two Jokers have something else in mind, you see, if they said that they made the Red Hood when they killed Jason the first time, maybe if they kill him this time then he could possibly come back as the Joker. Yeah, this book did nothing for Jason.

Let’s make something clear, Jason does NOT hate Batman/Bruce for not being able to save him, he hates the fact that Batman/Bruce didn’t kill the Joker to avenge him. That simple thing doesn’t exist in Three Jokers and that’s why things like the ones that happen next are allowed to happen in this story.

Bruce and Barbara find Jason and when Bruce asks if he is okay Jason just goes berserk, he says: “Am I all right? What do you think Bruce?! You did this to me. You put me on this path. And I do hate you for it. For leaving me in the dirt. Replacing me one Robin after another without a thought.”

This, everybody is what you get when you mix bad writing with Jason being mentally manipulated by the Joker.

It's a shame that Jason is being treated this way at this point in time, in a book that came out in 2020 when Jason was able to shut the clown up with a knife and a couple of words back in 2005. What a downgrade.

At the end of this issue, Jason is safe and recovering but he still is in the same mindset, he says, “What the Joker said about how I’ve been on the path to being like them for years… they are not wrong. I don’t want to be like them though. I really don’t.”

It’s like a never-ending wheel of pain with this book. Jason is talking to Barbara when he says that and he is trying to look for comfort in her. And here is where the Jason/Barbara subplot begins and I only bring this up because something that happens in the next issue is based on the kiss that Barbara gave Jason but then was like “that doesn’t mean anything, I was just trying to comfort you”. Johns shouldn’t be allowed to write Barbara and Jason ever again.

Batman: Three Jokers #3

It’s in this issue that we find out the big subplot that Johns has prepared for Jason, are you ready for it? Yup, Jason should stop being the Red Hood because if he keeps it up, he will eventually become the Joker.

I know, I know! Jason would never stop being Red Hood, he is not on a path to become the Joker, that’s crazy! Jason’s Red Hood is a character on its own and he is amazing and just because he has different morals from Batman doesn’t mean that he is a bad guy! Right?...

“I’ll give up being Red Hood for us. I can be something else. Or I can be just Jason.”

To this day I cannot believe that those words supposedly were written by Jason Todd to Barbara Gordon after Barbara rejected him three times. The level of “what the fuck is this” is incredibly high with this one…

This whole book was a mess and I am so glad that it didn’t last longer.

Anyway, that’s it. In conclusion, Jason didn’t let the Joker get under his skin the first time they interacted after he came back from the dead but later when DC decided that UtRH was just too good of a book they came up with stories where Joker does get under Jason’s skin and Jason becomes convinced that he has no free will (or at the very least he doubts his free will) when it comes to him becoming his own man.

As I have said before, that for Jason Todd is a major downgrade. And it's one of the many things that hurts Jason’s characterization in current comics.

#jason todd #Jason Todd #red hood #Red Hood #red hood and the outlaws #red hood outlaw #three jokers #batman under the red hood #dc comics

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nitw · 3 years

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Can you explain what you mean with misinterpreting Chara? I've always been confused about that character and you seem to have a pretty solid read you alluded to in that post about Snowgrave.

of course!!! as your local chara defender since the ripe age of 13 i hope you don't mind me doing a small essay on this. please bear with me tho because i sometimes can't articulate my thoughts well on stories that deal with philosophical themes ;;

UHHH SPOILERS FOR UNDERTALE AND DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 BELOW

first let me make a few things clear so i don't have to repeat myself a bunch:

only tobias radiation fox himself has The Word of God privilege when it comes to things that haven't been explicitly confirmed in the games yet, EVEN if they're strongly hinted at. don't take anything i say about the plot as more than firm personal interpretation based on the info we have right now!

i cannot stress this one enough: undertale is a game that was never meant to be experienced from a singular perspective/mindset. the genocide route doesn't JUST exist for the sake of "enjoy your personalized edgy fuck-you run for being a serial killer in a video game", every one of the total 93 endings (look it up) in this game exists to reflect the player who achieved it in one way or another. the genocide route is really no different from any of the others, because in the end, no matter what, the player who decided to go through with the things they did will ALWAYS be rewarded for it. the question the player will have to ask THEMSELF afterwards is "is this what i wanted?"

OK MOVING ON-

let's think back to the little but vital amount of info we have on who chara actually was, like, as a person. we know pretty much all of this due to 1) the tapes in the royal lab 2) asriel's additional dialogue at the end of true pacifist.

while we'll never really know why frisk fell into the underground, asriel tells us explicitly about chara's hatred for humanity, and how they jumped from mt. ebott for "not a very happy reason"; supposedly a suicide attempt. chara "never talked about why", it's left intentionally vague because their reasoning isn't really what matters. what DOES matter is how this is relevant to the genocide run, ESPECIALLY with the new obvious parallels in deltarune's snowgrave route. i'll get to that.

when you finish the genocide route, chara will talk directly to the player in person. they talk about your (you AND chara's) success, despite "their plan (having) failed". this "plan" is one they secretly made with asriel when they were both still alive, as revealed from the tapes. chara got terminally poisoned from eating buttercups (whether this was fully intentional or not is still kiiinda up for debate), and while on their deathbed, asriel says that he doesn't like the plan anymore. yet despite his fear, he still fused his soul to chara's when they died.

the actual plan here was to become a monster powerful enough to slaughter humanity, specifically chara's home village by their own dying request - this all ties into their mysterious spite and hatred mentioned before. but due to asriel's resistance against chara, their fused body was killed by the humans - which eventually led to the creation of flowey, and asriel's inner demons after death.

but back to the genocide route. during chara's monologue to the player, they give us a LOT of important exposition. basically:

at the very start of the game, frisk's own determination is literally what brought chara's soul 'back to life'. we know how human and monster souls are different and how "determination" in this universe is something only humans possess, so it makes sense why it awakened them. i won't get into the whole narrator theory because i feel like it's not that relevant to my point (it's fun tho), but chara is always present from the moment frisk falls down, and stays regardless of the player's actions.

if you managed to finish undertale at all you'll already kinda know this (thanks sans), but the EXP and LV you (can) gain throughout your journey aren't just numbers on your screen - they're genuine in-universe manifestations of power that increase when you kill someone. and in genocide, chara explains how they were directly affected every time your stats rose. they could FEEL their spirit growing stronger for every life you decided to take (REMINDER THAT THE GENOCIDE ROUTE CAN BE PERMANENTLY STOPPED AT ANY POINT BEFORE SANS. YOU DID THIS.), so is it really that strange that they felt the desire to grow even stronger?

and once you do reach this point, there's no return. all that excessive time and effort you put into killing off a civilization OBVIOUSLY has some consequences. the consequences HERE being - if you paid attention to chara's life story - you took advantage of a traumatized child who was already at the breaking point and making irrational choices on their own, and you led them to believe that this was what they needed!

this is VERY MUCH SUPPORTED by the snowgrave/weird/pipis/whatever route of deltarune chapter 2 that was discovered about 2 days ago as i'm writing this. i'm gonna go ahead and assume you know what happens in it and i don't care to go into details if you don't, since this post is about chara, but surprise: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO NOELLE, TOO! even in a completely normal run, noelle makes it clear multiple times that she wouldn't mind staying in the dark world; that in spite of how scary and dangerous it seems at times (something something horror movies), she started to feel at home. POSSIBLY even more so than her ACTUAL HOME, with her dying dad and negligent mom. like chara, noelle is a young person with low self esteem and her fair share of trauma, even if it's not as apparent. and like in the genocide run, the player's desire to ruthlessly kill in order to grow stronger affected her already-poor mental state.

someone else already pointed this out specifically, so don't credit me for it, but the main difference between chara and noelle is that noelle managed to break free in the end.

if you're like Most People Who Played The Genocide Route Back In Like 2016 and you played the genocide route with no further knowledge about it than "i have to follow these specific steps to get a harder fucked up version of the game", i don't blame you. you didn't actually know what you were doing in the end, did you? but did the outcome disappoint you, make sense to you, or did it just leave you with an empty/confused feeling? i love undertale because it WILL force you to think about things like that. i mean, if the result wasn't gonna affect you in SOME way, why would you go through all of that trouble in the first place? you had your reasons, as the player of any video game where you know your choices matter. would you have carried out the entire thing if you knew what was coming? the answer to that is only relevant to yourself.

#i'm EXHAUSTED girl.#asks #chara #ut #undertale #dr #deltarune #noelle holiday #dr spoilers #deltarune spoilers

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kuroos-moon · 3 years

Text

Mistaken Kisses pt. 2

☾ pairings: atsumu x reader, sakusa x reader, kenma x reader

☾ part one | oikawa, tsukishima, sugawara, kuroo

☾ scenario: they see you kissing someone else (not intentionally though)

☾ warning/s: v tiny bit of angst for atsumu’s

Miya Atsumu

Growing up as a twin, he’s used to people mistaking him for Osamu and the other way around. Now that they have different hair colors though, those occasions came down to rare if not none.

You’re innocent, you swear. Briefly calling out his name as you enter their gym, his back to you with his hood on— and you grab him slightly by his arm, shifting him a quarter so that you could stand on your toes and plant your lips on his.

He smells a bit different, tasted quite different too, but who cares? This was your boyfriend— or so you thought. Pulling away as his hood falls off his head, your eyes widen and your heart skips a beat. Is that gray hair? Is he seriously not blonde?

Realization hits you the same time you hear him. “Ya treacherous pathetic excuse of a brother!” You blink once and they’re already on the ground after Atsumu lunged at Osamu, fists, kicks and swearing thrown here and there.

“Stop it!” You hiss, about to grab Atsumu but Aran stops you, afraid you’ll accidentally get hit in the process.

“Y/n is the only thing I can’t and will not share but ya sneak in a kiss on her when I’m not around!” Another fist lands on Samu’s cheek, and that had to hurt. Atsumu was genuinely enraged. This wasn’t their usual brawl.

“Ya have eyes, Sumu,” Osamu knees his back before turning to his side, throwing Atsumu to the ground. “Y/n kissed me!”

“It’s true Tsum, I was the one who kissed him.” That halts their actions in an instant, tension suddenly thick in the air as he remains lain down on the floor, recovering his breaths as he struggles to process what you had just said.

“It was an accident, I thought he was you,” you say in a small voice, dreading what was going to happen next at the way he scoffs at your words. “Get off me,” he shoves his brother off him, standing up and brushing off his clothes.

He coldly looks at you and you squirm inside. Profoundly intimidated by his stare, you look away, eyes landing on whoever or whatever else that wasn’t your boyfriend who looked so spiteful and disgusted. “One of me ain’t enough, is that it?” He bitterly says, glaring at you.

You immediately look back at him, surprised at his words. “I told you it was an accident, Tsumu, I’m sorry.”

“Well, ya kissed for quite a while, was there no tellin they weren’t my lips?”

“He was wearing your hoodie,” you try to say, but he looks away, disinterested.

“Atsumu,” you sigh as you step closer to him but he turns on his heel, walking away from you.

“Don’t want ya nymore, have fun with my brother,” he clicks his tongue, unable to erase the image from a while ago. It was painful—both what he saw and what he said to you after. He knows it wasn’t your fault, but that didn’t really do much to change how he felt.

It was his typical defense mechanism, masking his hurt by hurting you back and putting up a show of indifference. His sharp tongue, the hostile words he had said to you were filling him with self-resentment the second he let them go— never does he want to hurt you but he did so anyway; simply because he got hurt first.

“He’ll come around,” Osamu places a hand on your back reassuringly, “though I doubt he’ll make the first move to fix things.”

Sakusa Kiyoomi

Oh, what a lovely day to be standing outside the restroom, waiting for your boyfriend to finish washing his hands; especially when out of nowhere, you’re yanked and kissed. Oh, for your boyfriend to have such lovely timing of walking out the restroom the moment the stranger’s lips touch yours.

You push the guy off immediately, eyes meeting Sakusa’s in a panic, fearing he might misinterpret. However, your worries should come to an ease, he saw the whole thing and he trusts you completely anyway. But his eyes aren’t on you, they’re sharp and glaring at the guy who had kissed you. All he sees is dirt. Pure filthy garbage, worthless and far too shameless—having the audacity to taint you.

Clasping your hand in his, he securely pulls you to his side. “You okay?” He asks, looking at you and you nod. He’s possessive and territorial, that’s a surprise to none. What he had just done equated to a life-ending treason, but he’s never really one for violence.

“Call the cops.”

“Wait, no, dude, I’m sorry it was an accident. I thought she was my girlfriend.” He frantically says, bowing repeatedly before the two of you. “I’m really sorry,” he says again, looking at you, making Sakusa glare at him as a warning to not even breathe the same air as you.

A girl walks up to him, clinging to his arm as she asks him what was going on and now, he has fallen at your mercy; his girlfriend didn’t look anything like you at all—hair and height especially. You’re not even mad, you’re much too preoccupied worrying about what Sakusa might do next.

“Do you have any colds?” He asks the guy, who like you, was shocked at his sudden question.

“What?”

“Are you blind and deaf too?” Oomi narrows his eyes, making him gulp. “Uh, no, I’m perfectly well.”

“Any infectious disease? Tell me even if its minor.”

“None.”

“Y/n I thought I told you to call the cops,” Sakusa timidly looks at you and you flinch, a nervous chuckle escaping your throat. “Do we really have to?”

“His excuse was pathetic, he’s clearly some pervert, a cheating one at that.”

“Please, I won’t do it ag-

“If not the cops, would you rather I destroy you right now? I’m not one to be forgiving when it comes to my lover.” That wasn’t even directed at you but you feel your body shiver, he was scary and domineering; his narrowed eyes and heartless expression screamed that no one should take his threats lightly.

Other than the intensity of his words though, you felt your heart melt at the way he called you his lover. You’re practically looking at him with heart eyes, touched by his sentiment, butterflies going wild in your stomach as you admired him.

It took a lot of your nagging and attempts at pulling him away for the both of you to actually be alone in his car—now on your merry way home. Contrary to the butterflies earlier on, you’re now silent in your seat, stealing glances at him warily.

If you’re mad, say something, you try to tell him with your eyes but they remain set on the road.

“Yoomi?”

“What?”

“I’m sorr-

“Save the apologies for when you’ve done something wrong.” He coldly cuts you off and you close your mouth immediately.

After a few seconds, you try again, “are you mad?”

He finally looks at you, and though it was subtle, you did notice how he glanced down at your lips a second too long. “I’m not.”

“You could at least try to be convincing; your face says it all,” you pout, “you’re mad and disgusted.”

“I’m neither of the two.”

“Prove it.”

He looks at you incredulously, like ‘tf am I supposed to do??’

Sighing, he slightly nods, “fine.”

“I’ll kiss you until you drop after you brush your teeth.”

Kozume Kenma

Kenma is multiple cats in one easily-exhausted human body. He could be a soft domestic cat, allowing you to love the hell out of him while you cuddle—or he could also be one with sharp claws if he’s aggravated, not really one with specialized attacks but still terrifying.

Right now though, he’s debating whether he should be a dejected cat who’s ready to leave its owner (which is you) or a level-headed laid-back one. The latter was easier said than done, how could he remain calm when you’re being kissed by someone else? It’s a heavy pang on his chest and an excessive blow on his insecurities—but oh, wait, you pushed him off.

“What the hell?!” You shout at the guy. It all clicks, of course you’ll never do that to him. Okay, he starts seeing red and no it’s not his Nekoma jacket. He could almost imagine his legs sprinting disgracefully towards the guy and attacking him in any form. Biting, punching, scratching, he doesn’t care, he’s going to unleash the sharp-clawed cat within him—the same one that quarreled with Yamamoto.

But before he could, you’ve marched away, and he catches a glimpse of your teary eyes. He follows you shortly, glaring daggers at the guy who was totally creeped out. Kenma could be terrifying.

He’s mad and frustrated, but that could wait. You are far more important than his anger and he’ll always put you first. He patiently waits outside the girls’ restroom, sending you a quick text to let you know he was waiting to walk you home like he always did.

As you head out of school, you remain silent beside him. Your irritation was gone but he could easily tell you were worried about him and about how he felt. “Y/n?” He meekly says. You look at him. This time, you note, he wasn’t on his phone which he would normally be using right now.

“Wanna hang out in my room?” He offers you a rare soft smile, and you smile back at him.

You both laze off on his bed, his head on your stomach and your fingers running through his hair while he plays with his switch. He looks unbothered, but you’re just struggling to find the right words and time to talk to him about what he saw earlier.

He may have looked unaware of your silent distress, but he was just waiting for you to be comfortable enough to talk to him about it. He’s ready to assure you it was fine though he was actually really embittered—of course he would be after seeing someone else kiss his beloved kitten.

“Ken… about earlier in the classroom, aren’t you mad?” You softly glide your fingers across his cheek.

“I don’t care much for it, y/n,” he sincerely says. “See, you’re lying,” you pinch his cheek causing him to look away from his game.

“I’m only concerned about you, you must’ve been mad,” he says, tossing his console to the side and turning to face you, his cheek pressed to your stomach. “I’m fine, Ken, I was only worried you’d be mad.”

“Then rest easy now that you know I’m not,” he smiles before taking your hand to cover his face. You look at him in surprise as he groans, and you didn’t have to take your hand away to know that his face right now was rather expressive.

“I’m still super ticked about it though,” he huffs and you chuckle at how adorable he was as he alternately kicks his feet up and down his mattress in a mock tantrum.

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