#that characterization is what the general public sees him as. but still

[ducktracy]

never posted these here but wanted to prop this up: a well directed sequence! some VERY strong and in your face parallels (especially that up angle of Popeye and Bluto throwing Olive onto the couch, establishing her as the helpless middleman), little nuances that support those parallels, and just a great helping of personality that is always so dominating of the Popeye cartoons. that the dominating music here is “Love thy Neighbor”—used with an acerbic irony—ties it all together.

the punches Popeye and Bluto throw at each other is my favorite part. Bluto only needs to throw one punch—it matches how big, imposing, and “whole” he is. Popeye throws multiple; they’re smaller, just as he is, but more spry and split the difference. likewise, Bluto throwing in that extra “runt” after his punch is a great reflection of his character—he resorts to violence AND petty insults, making him seem even more unlikable. Popeye gets back at him with the violence, but he doesn’t stoop to his level with the name-calling.

even how they react to Olive offering candy is indicative of their character. Bluto is indulgent, pleasure-seeking (even if it is from a mere chocolate), and seldom thinks before he acts. Popeye on the other hand is more courteous, polite, and doesn’t succumb to his instincts as easily. his “no thank you,” is more genuine than Bluto’s own coy expression of thanks

#Bluto has made me realize just how much i love completely lecherous characters. him Scoutmaster Lumpus Plankton… i hesitate to add Daffy #because those are not the traits i think of when i barf my 10000th ‘i ❤️ Daffy Duck’ post but i would also be remiss not to note him since #that characterization is what the general public sees him as. but still #even then i love Olive AND Popeye just as much as Bluto so it all evens out. but Bluto is such a fun character because of how just. utterly #despicable and an example of human scum he is #popeye #pleased to meet cha! #bowsky #vid

[tswhiisftteedr]

Not to be rude but you accidentally put val's story in vox's masterlist instead. Srry I didn't feel comfy dming you. Nothing against you at all I'm just a coward wanting to hide in anon haha. Ig while I'm here could I get vox general hcs pls?

What the Tv do? ☆ Vox General Headcanon + Drabbles (SFW & NSFW)

☆ Vox General headcanon + Vox x Gn!Reader(Employee!Reader??):

Some general thoughts about the tv man and also his relationship with the ‘reader’. This is silly, this is fun, fluffy and smutty.

Warnings: Mature Content, Not Proofread, Drinking, Death(literally overdose on coffe nothing gruesome), Drug use(c0caine and others substances), Sadistic Tendencies, Dub-Con, Power Imbalance/Power Play, Obsessive and Possessive Tendencies and Acts, Stalking, Voyeurism & Exhibitionism, Boss x Employee, Pet Play?(Just collaring and slight animal based pet names), Valentino.

Words: Total: 5496 = Sfw - 2609 + Nsfw - 2887

Note: I only wrote 1 drabble, i might add more if people request it about the specific headcanon they want more on. so I’m not good with request like these, I like when they are more specific so I have sort of something to base my writing on, so sorry if you anon or people don’t like what I’ve wrote, r.i.p. >:/ Though tell me if you want more!!

☆ more under the cut. ☆

SFW:

☕︎ Coffee addict and 𓏊 Alcoholic

Vox is the figurative and quite literally incarnation of the ‘don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee’ phrase.

But we’re talking coffees instead of coffee with him — two cups straight out of bed to be precise. When totalling the day’s consumption, Vox indulges on average, 6-7 cups of 10 oz coffee; in addition to his morning coffees, he likes to have a mid-morning cup, then two during lunch and finally 1-2 cups during the afternoon depending how late he is working.

Is this per say, ‘healthy’? No, not at all, Vox couldn't care less — worst ‘worst’ case scenario, he quote on quote dies, the coffee he had intake ends up intoxicating him due to the splurging amount of it, turning this mondaine drink into a lethal liquid for the overlord’s body. His heart would stop, sub-consequently, him and his body would be out.

Though the good thing — or bad, it all depends on your angle — about hell is that in about the span of 10 minutes his body will have fully regenerate and be back open for business. Some sinners call it it a curse, he calls it a blessing, as this part of the ‘eternal punishment’ practically makes him immortal.

So is he going to work on regulating his caffeine intake? Obviously not!

Worst thing he gets from his ‘little problem’ is a heart attack, and they don’t permanently keep him down. — Sure, they hurt like a bitch, and he would rather not be having them at all to be truthful.

But he honestly he doesn’t see his bimonthly cardiac arrests as that steep of a price to pay. (Honestly how can such a smart businessman be so dumb about his health. * face palming and baffled at the idiocy of it all *)

Now when alcohol is the subject of conversation, Vox takes a slightly different approach, albeit one still characterized by overindulgence.

You see, he prides himself on being the epitome of a charming, classy, and self-controlled casual drinker, compared to his drunkard of a pattern —Valentino— our lovely show host with anger issues and both inferiority and superiority complex is a sophisticated and savvy man.

However, beneath this facade of self-control, which he upholds quite well to the public eye, hides his obvious alcoholism issues.

While he may not be stumbling and blubbering around, picking fights,— in most instances at least— Vox is certainly what you might call a “day drinker."

In fact, this is actually a canonical trait, which was displayed in episode two of the show; Him discussing with others Vees on how to deal with the radio demon’s comeback, a drink in hand.

I presume thatit was a scotch on the rocks due to it’s colour but also it’s historical relevance in relation to Vox’s person— Scotch whisky poured over ice, gained popularity in the 1950s primarily in Western countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

It became a symbol of sophistication and leisure, often enjoyed in upscale bars, clubs, and lounges frequented by the affluent and fashionable crowd of the era.

Additionally, its popularity was bolstered by the rise of cocktail culture during the mid-20th century, as well as the increasing availability of Scotch whisky in international markets. — this fits quite nicely Vox’s character as it is both a drink of his time on earth but also one that remains relevant in the contemporary era.

It easily mirrors Vox's overarching desire to maintain relevance and significance, both in the present and in the ever-evolving future.

The overlord definitely adhere to ‘it’s five o’clock somewhere’ religiously. Though he does prefer to enjoy his daily drink around 5 p.m. PRT (Pride Ring Time).

He will occasionally enjoys a drink with his lunch, often opting for wine, although this isn't a regular occurrence for the man.

As someone constantly under stress, with his mind racing to keep up with the ever-changing trends and opinions in hell, Vox is a type to indulge in a nightcap or two before bed.

It helps him unwind and achieve the relaxed state of mind necessary for a restful night's sleep.

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 Sleep

While the notion of ‘Vox's dreams playing on his screen while he's asleep’ is an amusing concept for fanfiction or artwork, I personally find the idea of ‘the VoxTek logo bouncing around like the DVD logo’ to be more fitting for Vox.

Before delving further, it's important to note that initially, it wasn't necessarily the VoxTek logo projected on his screen; however, I'll address this shortly.

The reason I lean towards the DVD logo concept is because I find it unlikely that Vox's screen would be completely black during sleep. A completely dark screen would imply the device is completely off, no energy is being received or given by it, which would suggest that it is no longer alive. Having some activity on Vox’s screen while asleep would signify that his program is still active, indicating he's still functioning, essentially alive.

Now regarding the widely shared headcanon, I have my own personal take on it.

When Vox first manifested in hell, his 'real name' appeared on screen. By 'real name,' I mean the one he had on Earth, which I believe wasn't Vox —That name seems too futuristic for a person born in the early 1900s or the kind of name you'd associate with a 1950s businessman— Vox is a name he chose for himself after death, symbolizing a fresh start, though I do think that his real name might also have started with a V.

(This perspective extends to other 'Vees' as well, although Velvette seems more plausible as a given name, I suspect it might not be her original one. Valentino, on the other hand, feels like a name assigned to him, but he too might have adopted a new one after death.)

Initially, Vox was unaware of his old name appearing on his screen while he slept since he wasn't conscious during that time. It wasn't until about half a year into his time in hell, during which he introduced himself as Vox to everyone, that one of his acquaintances pointed out this aspect of his physiology. Something along the lines of "Who's V———?" or "Why does V——— show on your screen while you sleep?" triggered a cascade of reactions in him.

Firstly, he panicked, realizing that people had access to his old identity. Secondly, he was puzzled by this phenomenon since no TV he had encountered displayed such behavior, which was normal considering DVDs weren't invented before 1996. — Hell sure was weird, he possessed technological features as part of his physiology before they were even invented— Lastly, this revelation instilled in him a new fear of sleeping.

This behavior stemmed from Vox's desire to construct a fresh existence in hell, complete with a new identity, image, empire, etc. The thought of others accessing his old name and exploiting it to uncover details about his past, including his behaviors, weaknesses, and tactics, filled him with dread.

As a result, he became hyper-vigilant, refusing to sleep unless he was certain of his solitude, fearing the potential repercussions of his former identity being known.

It wasn't until the mid 1960s that Vox had finally managed to upgrade his system, replacing ‘V———‘ with 'Vox'. However, even after this upgrade, he still harboured reservations about sleeping around others for about a year or two. He feared a potential glitch that could revert his screen to displaying his previous name.

Around the late 1970s he had made an adjustment to this aspect of his body once more, replacing 'Vox' with the VoxTek logo after a certain moth had suggested it.

ᯓᡣ𐭩 Sexuality

Our beloved Tv Demon a canonical bisexual man, but I personally believe that while he may have bisexuality as his sexual orientation, — his attraction to men was something he only came to realize after death. Although there were subtle hints of his attraction to the same gender based on how he felt about them, he unfortunately didn't grasp them while still alive;

It would have been the late 1950s, and Vox had been in hell for about a year or two. In his earthly life, he had been with his fair share of women, and even in the "surprisingly not so fiery pits of the underworld," his ability to attract partners hadn't diminished much once got over his TV head appearance and let place for his charming and savvy persona to take over.

His love life seemed unchanged, perhaps with occasional exploration of new kinks, until that fateful night of October 11, 195X...

Vox had gone out for a drink after a grueling day at work, back when he was still toiling away at a low-paying job in an electronics factory, toasters, vacuum, etc. Despite the shitty work he had to go through, he had the perk of taking home broken scraps, which eventually played a role in his rise to success. But let's refocus on his night out, shall we?

He walked into his newfound favorite spot, a comedy bar where he sought solace in laughter and libations after a hard day. Arriving just as the performer began their set, he headed straight to the bar for his usual whiskey on the rocks, with nothing else on his mind. It wasn't until the comedian delivered a particularly hilarious joke that Vox turned to look at them and found his attraction piqued.

It was evident that they were a man with the specific style flashy outfit and makeup they wore. The voice was also a dead giveaway. The person now standing on stage, delivering one funny punchline after another, was a drag queen – a stunning one in Vox's eyes.

He couldn't tear his gaze away; there was something irresistibly captivating about the humorous individual on stage.

After the performance, as they made their way to the bar, Vox seized the opportunity. He introduced himself, and they exchanged pleasantries. They shared drinks and engaged in lively conversation, making for a truly enjoyable night that ended with a bang, quite literally.

In the morning, as clarity returned, Vox couldn't help but feel confused. He had never been attracted to men before, so he initially chalked it up to the alcohol or the fact that his night companion appeared so feminine that he mistook them for a woman.

However, as memories of the night flooded back, he couldn't deny his genuine attraction to every aspect of his partner, even the unmistakably male parts.

Initially, it felt strange to Vox as he reflected on the experience. However, after hours of deep contemplation, everything started to fall into place.

Vox realized he had always felt an affinity towards men, though expressing it as "liking men" might have appeared odd to outsiders. When he used that phrase, it wasn't in the context of sexual or romantic attraction but more of an admiration.

Yet, upon further reflection, he acknowledged that his feelings surpassed mere admiration.

He had never entertained the idea of it being anything akin to sexual or romantic attraction, but his recent encounter forced him to reconsider as he contemplated his life and the events of the previous night.

Vox liked men;

— Vox had always been drawn to the men of his time who exuded masculine confidence and assertiveness, finding their presence alluring and desiring to be in their company constantly.

He liked when they wore classic masculine fashion, such as tailored suits with narrow lapels, fitted jackets, and straight-leg trousers. These outfits oozed sophistication and professionalism, and Vox admired the attention to detail displayed.

Additionally, he liked when men would add classic accessories like fedora hats, skinny ties, cufflinks, and pocket squares to their outfit, they added to the polished and stylish appearance.

The preppy style also appealed to Vox, as he admired men who wore V-neck sweaters, button-down shirts, khaki trousers, and loafers. This style exuded a sense of casual elegance and refinement that he found attractive.

He also had a penchant for rebellious men who embraced a non-conformist aesthetic, often seen in leather jackets, denim jeans, white T-shirts, and motorcycle boots.

Vox liked when men were smart and witty, could keep up with the conversation and also teach something along the way.

Vox liked men who exuded strength and athleticism, finding their ability to handle themselves physically appealing. For instance, witnessing a fistfight between coworkers would stir his emotions, initially attributing his excitement to the violence of the altercation.

However, he would inevitably find himself gravitating towards the winner, intrigued by their display of strength and skill, and feeling drawn to them in some inexplicable way. There was something about winners that captivated him and sparked his desire to get closer to them.

He like men who were daring, adventurous, and unafraid to push boundaries, they appealed to his sense of excitement and thrill-seeking.

He liked men who were ambitious, goal-oriented, and willing to pursue their dreams with determination might have resonated with Vox on a subconscious level.—

After his one-night stand, Vox was determined to clarify things once and for all. Following another grueling day of work, he ventured out again, this time to a gay bar, seeking the company of someone who embodied the traits he found most appealing in men, wanting to ensure it wasn't just the alcohol or the femininity of his previous partner. Without delving into detail, let's just say he had quite the night and afterward, there was no doubt in his mind: ‘he liked women, and he definitely also liked men.’

Following that experience, Vox began seeing more individuals of the same gender. However, he still held onto the notion that while he might be attracted to men, he didn't believe he would be interested in them as anything more than sexual partners. That was until he met Alastor...

Initially, Vox approached the radio demon seeking friendship or perhaps a partnership, given Vox's burgeoning company and rising status as an overlord. However, he soon found himself enamored with Alastor. Unfortunately for Vox, his feelings were not reciprocated. After that, Alastor distanced himself from Vox, leading our TV host to regard his old love as an enemy.

In response to the rejection, Vox decided to cease seeing men altogether, engaging in a series of short-term relationships with women. However, he soon realized he was simply idealizing Alastor and shifted his focus from woman to men for meaningless relationships, attempting to prove to himself that any other man was better than "that Bambi bitch."

But this approach only intensified the emptiness he felt. Recognizing the detrimental effects of his frantic behavior on himself and his company, Vox resolved to regulate and get back on a more business focused path.

The fact that rumours began circulating about his supposed "homoerotic relationships," was also a big push into getting back on track, as a word like that getting out was detrimental to business, since being gay was still stigmatized even in hell, during this time period.

It was around the late 1970s, with the rise of gay rights activism, that Vox began publicly dating men. Coincidentally, this was also when he met and began his business partnership (and more) with Valentino.

𝜗𝜚˚⋆ Names

Vox has a penchant for using endearing or patronizing nicknames, regardless of the gender of his employees. He will refer to them as "sweetheart," "doll face," or simply "doll."

In moments of frustration or when faced with resistance, he's not shy about using terms like "little girl" or "little boy," or even "kid," to belittle those who question him.

Additionally, he might employ terms like "Princess" or "your highness" as forms of condescension, no matter the gender of the person he is addressing.

NSFW

𓊔 Party

Despite Vox's obsession with his and the Vees' image, when it comes to partying, he becomes a total animal — I’m talking ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ type of wild.

Lavish gatherings marked by obscene spending and excessive drug intake, especially cocaine.

Vox typically indulged in doing lines off his desk or the luxurious crystal table in the lounge. However, what truly exited him was snorting lines off someone, getting his rocks off at their inability to refuse his advances and delighting in the control he exerted as he pinned them down to prevent any squirming.

The slight anxious tears and nervous mewls from whoever served as his snorting surface always stirred something within Vox. While he would grow irritated if they moved too much, the subtle signs of fear, such as the wetting of their eyes and trembling breath, would quickly reignite his unstable emotions. He found himself intensely aroused by their scared state, and more than once, he acted on these desires…

Drabble:

You were a VoxTek employee, more specifically; Vox’s secretary.

As Vox's secretary, navigating Alastor-related tantrums and enduring the grueling hours could be incredibly taxing, but the job itself had its perks.

Thanks to your position in the company, you enjoyed luxurious accommodations in the finest suites the V Tower had to offer.

Despite the challenges, Vox could be surprisingly pleasant, his charismatic charm reminiscent of his earlier days when his hypnosis wasn't as potent. And beneath the unconventional exterior of his TV head, there was no denying the appeal of his well-built physique.

Given the close proximity and constant interaction with Vox, it was inevitable to develop a small crush on your boss. His magnetic presence and the fact he was practically the only person you interacted with regularly since he requested you to work closer to him about three months ago only fueled this infatuation.

You liked your boss, but at this moment, you couldn't stand him;

It was 3 a.m. on a Sunday, the one day of the week you were supposed to have some semblance of off-time, with the luxury of sleeping in until noon.

But instead of enjoying your well-deserved rest in bed, you found yourself reluctantly entering the elevator, begrudgingly making your way to the usually closed-off top floor of the building.

Why? Because you had received a threatening and slightly slurry phone call from your boss, demanding your immediate presence or else face termination.

With your livelihood seemingly hanging in the balance, you complied without questioning, even though you loathed every second of it.

After punching in the code provided, you entered the lounge area of the top floor to find all three Vees lounging about. Valentino was enveloped in smoke, while music filled the air.

"Y/N! So glad you made it! Come 'ere," Vox exclaimed, his gestures frantic, urging you to approach quickly. He appeared laid-back, friendly, and strangely excited, a stark contrast to his usual demeanor of coldness and condescension.

Confusion clouded your expression as you approached the couch, unsure of what to make of Vox's sudden change in behavior. Velvette, noticing your bewilderment, chimed in with an explanation. "He took some MDMA before he called you — actually, he couldn't stop blabbing about your ass once that stuff kicked in," she divulged matter-of-factly, adding another layer of peculiarity to the already bizarre situation.

‘Ah, he’s high — that explains the weird friendliness.’ You thought to yourself.

But before you could dwell on it too long, Valentino's words snapped you out of your thoughts, "Yes, little Voxxy over there couldn't stop talking about how much he wanted his little secretary with him right here. He just had to call you, despite it being the middle of the night. I'm sorry you're losing your beauty sleep right now, cariño," he said, his tone tinged with insincerity from false remorse. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he finished speaking, adding to the surreal atmosphere of the moment.

“Val, Vel! You can’t tell them that! Or they’ll, they’ll… fuck!” Vox began to say, but something mid-sentence seemed to frustrate him.

Before you could question it for too long, Valentino answered that question for you. “They’ll figure out you have a little crush on them. Aww, don’t worry papi, it’s not like they can say no to you either way,” the moth darkly announced, frightening you, as it was technically true that you had to obey whatever order your boss gave you; it was in your contract after all.

To your somewhat relief, Vox scoffed at his part-time boyfriend's comment, as if to convey that he wouldn't behave in such a manner.

"Shut the fuck, Val!" Vox began, his frustration evident, before redirecting his attention back to you. "And you, lay down on the table." Confused by the request, you briefly wondered if he was joking, but the seriousness etched on his face made it clear that he wasn't. Resigned, you followed his instruction and laid down on the table as he commanded.

As soon as you complied, a smile spread across Vox's face. "Good, good. Now be a good little secretary and stay still as I do some lines off you, m'kay?" he instructed.

Before you could process anything or say something, he pushed your shirt all the way up, ending just under your chest, and tugged your bottoms down slightly — exposing your whole stomach.

Attempting to voice your discomfort, you were promptly shushed by Vox. "Shhh, you're being a table for me right now, and last time I checked, tables don't talk, now do they, sweetheart? So be a doll and shut up," he said, eliciting laughter from the two other Vees.

You complied with his instructions and remained silent as you felt him pour some powder onto your abdomen. Knowing the drugs he usually made you order on his behalf, it was probably coke.

With that, he quickly formed about three lines and began snorting them. The sensation felt odd and somewhat ticklish to you, but what you didn't expect was for him to lick the parts of your belly where the powder had just sat — long lines that started from top to bottom, causing you to squirm involuntarily.

Vox didn't appreciate your movement, because ‘how dare his table move?’. In response, he firmly gripped your waist on both sides and forcefully slammed your hips against the table as a warning to ‘stop moving’.

However, his claws dug into your skin, causing you to cry out slightly. Upon seeing the small tears in your eyes, his mood shifted once more, from aggravation to something more lustful.

He relished the sight of you with tears in your eyes, so he decided to inflict a bit more pain. With a predatory glint in his eyes, he bit at your sides, knowing that you couldn't retaliate due to the hierarchical difference between you.

His bites started from the top, gradually getting lower until they ended up just above your crotch. With a slight, heavy breathing, he remarked, "Now what do we have here? A snack for me? You shouldn't have." As he removed your bottoms, leaving you in your underwear, a slight moist patch formed due to the position you were in.

Sure, Vox was an entitled asshole, but god, did he look and sound incredible when he was being mean and bossy. How could you not get aroused, especially when his face and long tongue ass were so close to your intimate parts.

"You want me to play with you, darling?" Vox asked in a manner that almost made it feel like you had a choice. There was something about it that suggested he might respect your decision if you said no—sure, he wouldn't like it, but he definitely had this thing where he wanted you to want him, to beg for him, to need him. Forcing himself on you wouldn't align with that desire.

You nodded, but he tutted at you, wanting a verbal answer. "No, no, no, it's 'Could you please, sir?' or 'Would love to, Mr. Vox,' or 'Please, I need you, Vox.' You've got to speak up if you want me to do anything to you, got it, dollface?" he clarified, emphasizing the importance of explicit consent, whether it was due to genuine respect for your boundaries or just his enjoyment of your yearning for him, it was a bit unclear. However, knowing Vox, he probably just got off on your embarrassment.

"Yes, sir," you said, feeling embarrassed. "So? Do you want me to give some love to these," he asked, tracing the outline of your underwear, "lovely parts?" He perked up.

"I would love for you to, sir," you managed to speak out. With a 'perfect' from your boss, he was now eagerly devouring you with his tongue, sending small pleasurable shocks through you as he did. No part of you down there was left un-licked.

Just as you were about to reach that sweet, sweet release — Vox removed himself from you, causing you to whine at the loss of pleasure.

"Don't worry," he said, but before you could complain too much, Vox lifted you up and threw you onto the couch, your face soon hitting the satin pillows. As you heard the sound of his belt unbuckling, you felt your hips being repositioned, leaving you face down and ass up.

Vox quickly pumped his cock a few times, not needing much as it was already hard from the sight of you writhing due to his tongue. Getting close to your ear, he whispered, "Cuz I'm not done with you, dollface."

Then he promptly shoved himself inside of you. Thankfully, whatever he was doing with his tongue a couple of instances ago had prepped you, because, woof, did the stretch sting.

After giving you a few moments to adjust, he began pounding you into tomorrow, playing with your front and sending small shocks here and there. With no regard for his colleagues sitting right beside him —or should I say colleague, as in singular—Velvette had left as soon as he began working you with his tongue. However, Valentino remained, watching the scene unfold with keen interest.

Your soon came undone due to his rough ministrations, but he was far from done with you...

⫘⫘⫘ Ownership, ⛌⛌⛌ Humiliation & Collar

If you haven't already figured it out yet, Vox is a sadist. He thoroughly enjoys power dynamics and the act of humiliating others.

Continuing from the previous headcanon, picture yourself as either hired as his secretary or as a low-ranking demon in his company who catches his eye. If you're the latter, he'll undoubtedly arrange for you to be transferred to work closer to him.

But anyway, my point is, as soon as you're in his close proximity, he'll literally makes you his bitch on call in the blink of an eye. And obviously, you can't refuse because, one, he's your boss; two, he's an overlord; and three, he's Vox.

Who would refuse that hunk? Even if you weren't initially attracted to him, you'd find yourself becoming so after a couple of weeks, even if it's just some weird mild attraction—you're still into him.

Once he's got you in his grasp and has fucked you at least once, this is when he begins to play with you. He'll make you start wearing a vibrator under your clothes at work, ordering you to remove your clothing every morning and show him, to ensure you did it. Then he'd send you on your merry way.

If he wasn't physically with you, he'd be watching you through his cameras.

And every time you would be talking to someone and he deemed it too long, you weren't paying attention to him, or you were zoning out/getting distracted, he would turn the vibrator on to 'get you back on track'.

Though he did like to sometimes turn the vibrator on just to tease you. For example, you're in the middle of telling him about a shift in his appointment in a room full of people, and he would suddenly turn it on to fuck with you.

He also has a huge thing for pulling you by your soul chain. He just loves, loves, loves summoning it out of nowhere and just tugging you along with it.

For instance, you could be telling him about some issue concerning a recent project, and he would tell you to come closer so he could hear better.

As you walk closer towards his desk, he deems your pace too slow. Without warning, he summons and tugs at the chain around your neck, causing you to fall to the ground.

In an attempt to brace the fall, you put your arms out, catching yourself and ending up on all fours.

But as you try to get up, he would tut at you, ordering you to “Crawl to me.” You’re humiliated, but you still do it as he watches you like a hawk, a satisfied grin on his face.

If you also happen to scrape or bruise yourself when you fell and some small tears form in your eyes, let me tell you, he would get so bricked up as soon as he noticed them.

And of course, he would make you blow him, though it would end up with him face-fucking you, as it usually did.

He would also hold your head down as he dumped his cum down your throat, then he would pull your nose with his free hand, saying that “you don’t get to breathe until you’ve swallowed it all.” And of course, you would do it because you don’t want to literally choke to death on your boss’s dick.

Once he was sure you had swallowed it all, he would finally release you, allowing you to take some air in. Then he would make you stick out your tongue, and he would spit in your mouth, making you swallow that too.

𐂯 Training

He liked using small electrical charges as a ‘training method’, and this method has two stages. This would happen after he already had you as his personal toy— I mean, ‘secretary’.

At first, he uses electricity to reprimand you whenever you weren’t paying attention to him, questioned him, said no to things, or did anything that he considered as bad behaviour.

He would shock you, making you associate ‘bad behavior’ with pain, so you would end up automatically correct yourself before you even do or say something.

If you take a bit too long to ‘adjust’ to this new way of acting, he might resort to a little bit of hypnosis, but he would prefer not to.

He gets off on the fact that he can train you to behave just with his words and actions, without the help of any special ability.

Anyways, when he is sure that he has drilled into you what proper behavior is, he’ll employ phase two. He’ll start training you to enjoy the sting of his electricity.

So, whether he's fucking you, giving you head, touching you, or basically providing any sort of pleasure, every time you would be close to reaching your peak, he would send jolts of electricity through you, gradually increasing the dosage over time.

Things would get to the point that a small shock from him would be enough to get you turned on, and bigger shocks would be able to literally make you cum.

ฅ Pet

For the most part, he wouldn’t see secretary!reader as a partner. It’s only after a while, like a year or more, that he would start considering it.

He views them as his romantic interests, but not on his level. To keep face with the other Vees, even though they both knew about his crush from the beginning because he was so obvious with it, he would call you his pet.

Sometimes literal ‘pet names’ like puppy, kitty, bunny, etc. (Personally, I would love for him to call him his bunny <3.)

What he calls you all depends on your appearance and behaviors. For example, if you manifested with a more feline appearance, he would call you his kitten or kitty. If you didn’t have animal-like features but for example, were very needy, had a tendency to follow around, and were a sucker for praise, he would likely call you his puppy.

𓌏 Punishments

Besides using electric shocks, he is definitely into spanking as a form of punishment—whether it involves pulling down your pants or lifting your skirt, spanking you for every ‘transgression’ you’ve committed is something he’s totally down for.

It can be a really strange experience if you weren't a masochist to begin with because he'll end up having you conditioned to enjoy physical punishments;

For example, he would be spanking you, and you find yourself getting turned on, arousal literally leaking due to his rough treatment of your behind.

Edging and overstimulation are also big in his book, though each has its own set of circumstances where they would be implemented.

For instance, if you weren't paying attention to him because of someone else, he would overstimulate you to the point where you couldn't think about anyone but him, asserting his superiority over whoever had your attention.

If you weren't paying attention for any other reason, he would edge you, because ‘how dare you ignore him when he should be the most important to you!’.

Thanks anons for requesting!

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#tswhiisftteedr #hazbinhotel #hazbin hotel vox #vox x you #voxtekoverlord #vox hazbin hotel #the vees #vox x reader #hazbin vox #vox smut #vox #vox x valentino #voxval #Valentino #hazbin hotel x you #hazbin hotel x y/n #hazbin hotel x oc #hazbin hotel smut #hazbin hotel x reader #vees hazbin #hazbin hotel vees #hazbin hotel the vees #hazbin vees

[echo-and-dust]

now that my brain has somewhat unscrambled itself i have gotten most of my thoughts in order about season 3.

and the first thing i will say is: i loved it.

while it was gutwrenching and polarizing in some ways and i feel that i am entitled to financial compensation for what its done to my mental health, i loved this season for pretty much almost everything it did.

i cannot fault people for having issues with much of the characterization and plot choices made—that’s been the trend during the entire run of the show after all, and imo it’s a testament to the phenomenal way it generates nuance—but i wanted to share my feelings on the recurring opinions i’ve seen about some of these things.

first, i do not blame simon at all for the things he said in the final scene. he’s a child who has been receiving endless verbal and physical harassment on top of all the trauma he is still trying to heal from. he just watched his boyfriend lash out in anger and hurt—while not at him, but it must’ve been a close resemblance of how he might’ve seen micke act. at least, that's what i thought, though i've seen others say otherwise.

and yes, wille is not micke, but just because wille’s source of outbursts is different from micke’s doesn’t mean simon is wrong in drawing similarities. at least he's finally getting a true glimpse into what wille has had to deal with. i've honestly grown to like that they didn't have simon immediately comfort him though; wille's mental illness is not his fault, but it is his responsibility, and instead of pushing a message of unhealthy co-dependence, the show has simon be honest: "but i see that everything hurts you and that hurts me too." and to me, that's so important.

plus, it doesn't make their love any less genuine. wille is a victim of the circumstances; he is not evil, and he is not undeserving of simon. he just has a lot of growing and healing to do, a lot of unlearning and exposure therapy because he's still blinded by privilege even when he tries not to be.

speaking of, i have so many thoughts about wille that i feel like i need to save for its own separate post, but to sum them up: i'll still defend him with my life, and he needs to get the fuck away from that institution.

also, the fact that the responsibility of controlling simon's media decisions was placed solely on wille confused me at first like—why wouldn't they get a professional to give him proper media training?

then i realized, this could be the royal court's way of sabotaging their relationship. they knew that making wille the one to tell simon what he can and cannot say or post would create distance and animosity between them. despite the ramifications of simon's behavior on social media, it seems they still thought it best to have his boyfriend be the one to try to mold him into the system. because they knew that's how they could get rid of him. in conclusion, fuck the royal court (we been knew but still).

one of the standouts this season was their transparency regarding the show's politics. it not only works well with the show's arc (wilmon is public, everything's out in the open now and there's nothing to hide), but also it felt necessary at a time where censorship has been rapidly gaining momentum. it felt so refreshing for these characters to talk so openly about racial discrimination and queerphobia and class disparities, forcing both character and viewer to acknowledge that they exist and you should feel uncomfortable about it.

i don't think i can add much more to what was already said about it—most of the fandom is more eloquent and observant than i am anyway—i just wanted to reinforce how important this season is to myself and the story even with how controversial it is to fans right now. a lot of people may disagree with me and that's fine.

#young royals #wilmon #simon eriksson #prince wilhelm #yr spoilers #yr s3 spoilers #ad speaks #i don't know how they're going to tie everything together in under an hour but so far this season is strong enough for me to like it despit #what ending we receive #and i know i'm in the minority in that sense but i've been spending most of the hiatus trying to keep myself from setting expecations #so i haven't really been let down too much #i really don't want to let this show go though :'( #forever my heart #yr season 3 #young royals season 3

[autistichalsin]

All dialogue options for Halsin's request for a story for the children in the epilogue

There are generic options, unique options for Durges, each Origin, and even for Origin paths (I.E. Justiciar Shadowheart vs Selune path Shadowheart) so I thought I'd collect them all here! There are some nice characterization moments here, and I love Halsin's reactions to some of these. (Also, I had no idea Gale could still ascend to godhood as a mindflayer? Or at least there's dialogue for it here...) I hope you guys enjoys these!

All characters/Tav:

Regale Halsin with tales of your past six months.

Halsin: You have kept yourself busy - I expected no less, in truth. I shall be able to keep the children enthralled for a few more nights yet, thanks to you. And should you wish to retell of your exploits in person? Well, I shall not object to a night off.

All characters/Tav:

The truth may be a little flat. Spice it up a little. (This triggers a skill roll for deception)

If the roll succeeds:

Halsin: You are truly incapable of disappointing. The children shall be rapt - and have no fear; all due credit shall be given to the tale's originator.

If the roll fails:

Halsin: Hmm, do I detect a certain... exaggeration? You could give Master Geddarm a run for his gold - though I suppose he has little need for it now, Oak Father bless him. In any case, my audience will favour a good tale over veracity any day - I thank you for your offering.

Any character who accompanied Karlach to Avernus:

Halsin: I am glad you and Karlach have an enduring friendship - it shall serve as a strong lesson for the children, as well as a stirring tale.

Any player who became a mindflayer:

My exploits have been limited by my new form. I live as a pariah, feared by most.

Halsin: Yet not by me. I shall tell the children of your heroism and sacrifice. They shall know what they owe to you, trust me.

Mindflayer characters who have plans with the Emperor:

I have been dwelling far from the public eye. Yet the Emperor and I have grand plans in motion - that I cannot speak of.

Halsin: Too murky for a children's tale, I fear. Perhaps I should focus on the hero you were, and the sacrifice you made. But thank you for sharing, nonetheless.

Mind flayer characters who are allied with the Emperor:

My new form demands discretion. I have been amassing power in the shadows with my ally, the emperor.

Halsin: I see. Perhaps the children can learn something from your ambition in the face of adversity. Thank you.

Mindflayer characters who killed the Emperor:

My exploits have been limited by my new form. I live as a pariah, feared by most.

Halsin: And with an appetite for the grey ambrosia that dwells within every skull, I presume? Perhaps I shall remind the children of your heroism and self-sacrifice... and skip over the brain-eating until they are older.

Dragonborn Dark Urge:

How about a ghost story? A spectral dragon who will haunt the little ones' dreams, if they don't behave.,

Halsin: Most enthralling - though perhaps it may lead to some sleepless nights for the younger ones. I can make something palatable with a little showmanship and creative licence - thank you.

Any Dark Urge:

Tell Halsin a detective story, where in the end, the intrepid Fist discovers they had been committing the murders all along.

Halsin: A touch bleak perhaps, but considering the amount of orphans in my audience, I am sure they shall manage. I can make something palatable with a little showmanship and creative licence - thank you.

God Gale:

Recall the parable of the Yearning Orphan, your youngest follower and already a great prophet spreading your doctrine...

Halsin: You are truly incapable of disappointing. The children shall be rapt - and have no fear; all due credit shall be given to the tale's originator.

Also God Gale:

Tell him of the tribulations of godhood. The politics, the bureaucracy, the endless prayers to answer...

Halsin: Well luckily for you, mortals have a habit of embellishing their run-ins with gods... I am sure I can muster something to captivate the children from what I can glean of you.

God Gale:

Well, I have developed a taste for togas, for one thing.

Halsin: I am glad you have kept yourself occupied. No doubt I will be able to spin a few yarns from the children from this. Thank you.

Mindflayer God Gale:

Well, I've been doing my best to not frighten my followers. I'd hate to be one of those gods.

Halsin: I am glad you have kept yourself occupied. No doubt I will be able to spin a few yarns from the children from this. Thank you.

Non-god Gale who went back to Waterdeep:

I've been researching the tale of the first Blackstaff, Khelben Arunsun. My abridged notes would make for a fascinating bedtime story.

Halsin: I see... well I trust your sources, of course. Perhaps the historical record can survive an embellishment or two, for the sake of the children. In any case, you have my gratitude.

Non-god Gale who didn't return to Waterdeep:

What haven't I done? Delved into dungeons, read secret tomes, taken out a rogue shadow mage or two. Enough magic and mystery for a treasury of tales.

Halsin: Why, Master Dekarios, I had no idea you would continue to stoke the fires of adventure. I commend you - as shall the children, once they hear of your exploits. Thank you.

Dark Justiciar Shadowheart:

Tell Halsin of how you consolidated your power over Lady Shar's church, purging the disloyal with bloody vigor.

Halsin: My. Perhaps a tale for the older children, once I trim off a few of the... less savoury details. But thank you, all the same.

Also Dark Justiciar Shadowheart:

I have been continuing to serve Lady Shar however I can.

Halsin: You are stalwart, even in service of darkness. There will be a lesson there for me to impart to the children... with a few details glossed over, perhaps. Thank you.

Selune path Shadowheart who killed her parents:

Tell Halsin of how you've roamed far and wide, now that you are free of Shar.

Halsin: The shadows were concealing a true adventurer's heart then. Thank you - the children shall be rapt.

Shadowheart whose parents are alive, whether Selune path or Dark Justiciar:

Regale Halsin with tales of your tranquil life with your family and coterie of animals.

Halsin: Yes, I thought I caught the scent of a wolf upon the wind... the children shall love this, but be warned - they may insist upon a visit.

Selune path Shadowheart:

I have been forging my own path, away from Shar's influence.

Halsin: I shall be honoured to speak of you to the children. To embrace change as you have shall make for a stirring example. Thank you.

Any path Shadowheart:

I've been at something of a loose end - roaming and adventuring as I see fit.

Halsin: Countless tales have begun with a roaming adventurer - I am sure I shall keep the children enthralled for years to come with your exploits. Thank you.

Orpheus path Lae'zel:

I have ridden a red dragon to battle as a Warrior of the Comet. The lich queen Vlaakith will fall by my hand.

Halsin: Oak Father preserve you - I hope you have a tight hold on the beast. But this shall make for a most stirring tale for the children. I may even have to tone down the details, for fear they get too excited...

Lae'zel who stayed in Faerun:

I have travelled the harshest lands of the Sword Coast, piercing the hearts of the lich queen's countless assassins.

Halsin: Ha! I think some of the more bloodthirsty children will relish this, thank you.

Wyll who became a Grand Duke and made an eternal pact with Mizora:

I embraced my hellish side and dedicated my life to rebuilding the grand city of Baldur's Gate.

Halsin: The makings of the multi-night epic. The children shall rush to their bunks in order to hear the next chapter, thank you.

Wyll who became a Grand Duke but didn't continue his pact with Mizora:

I turned from my hellish past and dedicated my life to rebuilding the grand city of Baldur's Gate.

Halsin: A noble calling. Your tale shall inspire a whole generation. Thank you.

Wyll who stayed the Blade of Frontiers and made an eternal pact with Mizora:

The Sword Coast is safe as ever thanks to the Blade and his infernal powers.

Halsin: The classic tale of the Blade, but with a twist? This shall go down very well with the children, I sense. Thank you.

Wyll who stayed the Blade of Frontiers and ended his pact with Mizora:

The Blade of Frontiers is back on the hunt. The Sword Coast is safe as ever.

Halsin: Many of the children have already heard of you, as it were - do you know some of them scarcely even believe this old bear could be acquainted with such a hero? But the authentic sense that your recollections bring to the tale shall win them over, no doubt. Thank you.

Wyll who became the Blade of Avernus and made an eternal pact with Mizora:

No hellbeast is safe from the Blade of Avernus and his infernal powers.

Halsin: Thank you, the children shall be agog. I do believe some of them use the number of beastly fangs and claws present in a tale as the yardstick for its quality - which puts yours right at the top of the heap.

Wyll who became the Blade of Avernus and but ended his pact with Mizora:

The Blade of Avernus is on the hunt. The Hells shudder at the very mention of his name.

Halsin: A classic tale. I expect it shall inspire more than a few of the children to start practising their ripostes with wooden sticks.

Wyll who became the Blade of Avernus, made an eternal pact with Mizora, and went to Avernus with Karlach:

The Blade of Avernus and his companion are on the hunt. No hellbeast is safe from his infernal powers.

Halsin: A formidable duo. I am glad that you and Karlach have each other - it shall serve as a strong lesson for the children, as well as a stirring tale.

Wyll who became the Blade of Avernus, did not make an eternal pact with Mizora, and went to Avernus with Karlach:

The Blade of Avernus and his companion are on the hunt. The Hells shudder at the very mention of his name.

Halsin: I am glad you and Karlach have an enduring friendship - it shall serve as a strong lesson for the children, as well as a stirring tale.

Astarion who didn't ascend, but defeated Cazador:

I've been revelling in my freedom, rediscovering the joys of the night.

Halsin: Sanguine joys, no doubt? Perhaps I shall smoothen out some of those details - the children do not need to know the full truth of your diet. But they shall be rapt all the same, thank you.

Astarion who didn't defeat Cazador:

Halsin, I've been hiding in sewers and eating rats. It's not a glorious tale.

Halsin: Ah, but the glory can be found in the telling. The children love tales of underdogs, facing odds most unlikely. They shall appreciate your story, trust me.

Astarion who didn't defeat Cazador and became a mindflayer:

Halsin, I've been hiding in sewers and eating rats' brains. It's not a glorious tale.

Halsin: Ah, but the glory can be found in the telling. The children love tales of underdogs, facing odds most unlikely. They shall appreciate your story, trust me.

Ascended Astarion:

My tales are a little heavy on murder and sex. But if the children want to hear them...

Halsin: Hmm. Perhaps I can substitute the bloodlust and... eh, general lust for cuddles and animals in the retelling. The children may be confused, but no matter - they will soon be asleep. Even with a few little white lies, rest assured that they shall be engrossed. Thank you.

Ascended Astarion who became a mindflayer:

My tales are a little heavy on murder, sex, and tentacles. But if the children want to hear them...

Halsin: Hmm. Perhaps I can substitute the bloodlust and... eh, general lust for cuddles and animals in the retelling. The children may be confused, but no matter - they will soon be asleep. Even with a few little white lies, rest assured that they shall be engrossed. Thank you.

Karlach who went to Avernus alone:

Tell him of how you lost your horn.

Halsin: Truly? I never would have guessed that is what happened. And to think I believed I had the measure of you... but I am glad to be wrong - the children shall be captivated.

#halsin #halsin silverbough #astarion #astarion ancunin #gale dekarios #wyll ravengard #karlach #karlach cliffgate #shadowheart #lae'zel #dark urge #the dark urge #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[sleepysnk]

a/n: this is a repost. i hope you guys enjoy! also, my characterization may be shit, so i apologize if he seems ooc!

pairings: kunigami rensuke x fem!reader

warnings: college au, mentions of alcohol consumption, party boy!kunigami, tutor!reader, kinda enemies to lovers, flirting, nsfw, smut, public sex (they’re at the uni library), exhibitionism, use of pet names (baby, princess, baby girl), virgin!reader, loss of virginity, dirty talk, praising, creampie.

synopsis: you were assigned to tutor the infamous party boy, kunigami rensuke. you really didn’t like him and he felt the same way about you, but that all began to change when you two started spending time with one another. you planned to meet him to help study for his english final, but kunigami wanted to tutor you in something other than academics.

study buddies ft. kunigami rensuke

Being a tutor at your university came with lots of good.

To be honest, you hadn’t expected to become a tutor. It was something one of your professors had suggested you do for some extracurriculars and it honestly didn’t sound so bad. You excelled in all of your courses and you honestly didn’t mind assisting those who needed it. The people who often came into the tutoring center were polite and were always looking for help in the right manner. You even helped a few students pass exams they swore up and down that they were going to fail. It was something you genuinely enjoyed seeing. Being able to help someone else made you such a happier person. It warmed your heart seeing their smiling faces when they showed you their exam results a few weeks later. You didn’t think you would enjoy tutoring that much, but it eventually became something you looked forward to.

You were a sophomore in college, so you knew a bit more than the freshmen who were coming into your university. Although the majors often differentiated, you were able to help with basic general education classes despite being a nursing major. You helped mainly with English, since it was your strong suit. You would help the students with writing essays or with homework assignments that required lots of thinking. It was fairly easy and you were able to help them out a lot with whatever they needed. It was rare for you to see anyone come back more than once, but if they did by chance, you would help out no matter what. 

It was a judgment free zone.

However, that zone soon started to fizzle out when a certain someone walked into the tutoring center on a Friday afternoon. 

Kunigami Rensuke.

For a minute, you thought him being there was a complete joke, so that’s why you didn’t pay much attention to him at first. You thought that he was looking for someone in there, but that was untrue when he approached you and asked if he was in the right place. It annoyed you that he was there, but what got you going the most was that he needed help with English. The subject that you tutored people in. 

Obviously the professor who was there recommended you right on the spot, and you wanted to disappear into the floor right then and there. You didn’t want to tutor him if you were being completely honest. You and Kunigami were both in the same grade and you really didn’t like him that much. He was honestly one of those weird party guys that spent his weekends making his liver suffer with the sips of alcohol. You had also heard plenty of things on campus from your peers about him, and he wasn’t one of the nicest guys out there. He had a mouth and often messed around whenever he could. There was a time freshman year when he swore to god he had an ego because he won one of his stupid soccer matches. All he spoke about was soccer and it never really attracted you. It was just some sport to you and you never paid much attention to it. It honestly amazed you that he was still able to play with how much he partied. Though, you didn’t care much. He wasn’t your problem and you wanted to steer clear of him.

That was practically impossible now because he was now another student you had to tutor.

Kunigami was close to failing his English class required for him to pass into the next year, which was no surprise to you. He explained that he had two exams upcoming that he had to ace in order to maintain a good GPA for soccer, so you honestly had no choice but to help him. As much as you tried to oppose it, the professor insisted and you were left to tutor him. 

He never batted much of an eye at you. He had seen you a few times on campus by yourself or occasionally with another friend, but otherwise, that was it. Kunigami spent too much time practicing for soccer or partying that he didn’t really care much for the random people he used to see on campus. Though, he didn’t fail to notice how tense you always seemed around him. You always kept your conversations fairly professional and you never crossed over to personal ones. He knew it was normal to keep it that way, but it was so odd to him. He reciprocated that energy and you never seemed to dislike it. He assumed that you probably didn’t like him and he didn’t know why, so it annoyed him. He’s never spoken to you, nor have you ever had a bad interaction, so what was the big deal? 

For a little while, both of you really didn’t like each other’s presence. 

It was strictly just tutor and student. There was never a moment where you and Kunigami got personal with one another. Hell, neither of you even cracked jokes around each other, which was unusual for Kunigami because he was such an easy going guy. He loves to talk to new people and make friends, because that’s just who he was. Despite him seeming intimidating at times. 

However, that began to change a few weeks after you helped Kunigami pass his first exam. 

He came to you with excitement, for once. He showed you the grade he received on his exam and it showed that he had passed with a high grade. It was the first time in his entire life that he scored that greatly on an exam like that. He couldn’t hide how happy he was around you, and to his surprise, you were thrilled for him. You were actually taken back by how well he had done that it genuinely impressed you. It made you wonder if he wasn’t just some party boy athlete who didn’t have a brain. It sounded cliche, but you wanted to know more. You didn’t know why or for what reason, but it made you so damn curious that it almost kept you up at night.

So, eventually, you began to become more friendly to the athlete.

With being nice came him beginning to open up to you just a bit more. You learned a lot about him in your time studying with him, and it turned out he was actually a pretty decent guy. Despite having such a relevant nature to him, he was actually pretty cool and you learned that you had some similar hobbies. Both of you liked the same shows and even some of the same music. It completely astonished you that he was similar to you in some aspects. You thought a guy like him would be the exact opposite if you were being honest, so it made you even more curious to know more things about him. 

Soon enough, study sessions turned into full on hangouts and you both started seeing one another more often.

Along with that came some interesting things from Kunigami.

Kunigami, although he somewhat hated to admit it, thought you were pretty attractive. You two were on opposite sides of the world, yet that didn’t stop him from finding you to be really pretty. He never thought he would see you that way, but he did. He found himself thinking of you at random hours and even yearning to see you whenever he had free time throughout the day. It was so new to him, but he didn’t regret spending any of his time with you. You made him laugh, smile, hell, any little emotion. He just liked that about you. You were able to make his day better with one small text or smile, and it was honestly amazing to Kunigami. There was nobody else in his life that could do such a thing to him. It was almost overwhelming in some ways. He just didn’t know how to not sound so corny whenever he spoke to you.

That didn’t stop him from flirting with you, though.

He was a big flirt and it was obvious. There were times where he would compliment you or hit you with a pickup line that would make your cheeks burn. You couldn’t lie, some of them were actually really good and they would make your heart flip from it. He knew how to wrap you around his finger and it didn’t help that he was pretty handsome. He was tall and quite a big guy too, so all of it would make you feel nervous. He just knew where to get you. He must have known where your weak points were, because he hit them all at the right moment. It had to be like a talent for him. 

“You look good today, pretty.”

“Yeah? Someone’s excited to see me.”

“Heh, give me a kiss then and maybe I’ll consider studying.”

“Do we really have to study? I wanna check you out right now.”

It’s all he did. You tried to brush it off for as long as you could, too, but your friends constantly pushed you to make a move on him. You have had boyfriends before and stuff like that, but you never became intimate with them. It was all years ago and you honestly forgot how to date somebody. They told you frequently that Kunigami liked you and he wanted you more than just a friend, but you were so unsure of what to do that you refrained from making any sort of move on him. You didn’t want to make him uncomfortable with anything, so you wanted to just watch. It just bugged you on the inside that there wasn’t much you could do.

You had to meet up with Kunigami that same day. He had a final exam coming up for his English class and he wanted some help with it. It was honestly no surprise, so you told him to meet you in the library. You didn’t have much going on that day anyway, so it wasn’t much of a problem. You planned to meet towards the end of the day so the library would be extra dead when you both arrived.

You thought it was going to be a usual day. Help Kunigami with studying and then you would go back to your dorm and start your assignments.

However, it was the opposite.

You didn’t expect to be on top of Kunigami with his cock buried inside of your pussy. Both of his hands were on your body. One was on your waist and the other was on your hip, guiding your body as you rolled onto his cock. He couldn’t believe things had ended up like this, but he just couldn’t hold back anymore. There was so much tension inside of the study room that he would be damned to let you go without doing a single thing. He also just couldn’t keep his eyes away from the skirt you wore on that day. Your pretty thighs were exposed for him to see and his mind played the most delicious images of him grabbing them and spreading your legs apart with his large hands. 

He was big, much bigger than you had expected him to be. Sure, you had fantasized about what it might look like, but seeing it in person made your eyes grow with awe. You didn’t know if you could take it, but Kunigami helped you with everything. He made sure to prep you with his fingers, but that didn’t even assist with the incredible stretch of his cock. 

Not to mention, you were a virgin, so this was a lot for you.

You hadn’t expected your first time to take place in such a public space. You were in a study room with Kunigami in the library of your university. It was already pretty late. There weren't many people there, so it was honestly not that bad, but there were still people lingering. Someone could hear you or even see you on top of him. It was so fucking hard to not let out a scream. He was making you feel like you were on fire and he was only pouring gasoline on you to make it burn even greater than before. His cock was splitting you apart and finding places inside you that made you feel on top of the world. If you knew he was going to be that great in bed, you would have fucked him much sooner and maybe in a different spot than this one. 

Kunigami was in heaven with how you felt. You were so tight. Your walls were gripping him like a vice and you refused to let him go. He thought you were lying at first when you said you were a virgin, but that completely went out the window when he saw your nervousness about his cock. He thought it was so cute when you were shivering as he entered your cunt. It was so warm and wet. He didn’t think you’d be that good, but it was much greater than he ever imagined.

His palms squeezed your hips. He was trying to teach you how to ride him and to have that control, but you had no clue. Kunigami wanted to be the one who showed you every little thing that was great about your body. Nobody else deserved to have that access to you more than he did. “Shit.. that’s it, baby, just keep going like that..” he looked up at you like you were an angel sent from Heaven itself. You were so gorgeous on top of him with your tits in his face.

You had your hands on his shoulders, holding onto him for dear life while his cock pumped in and out of your hole. White stars danced inside your vision every time his tip kissed at the button in you. It was so fucking good. “Ah..! Kuni.. I can’t! ‘Too much!” you whined, digging your nails into the fabric of his shirt. 

He knew you were already close. Your pussy was starting to tighten and feel even more wet than it already was before. There was also something about your body language that told him that. Your twitchy thighs, sharp moans, your hold on him getting tighter with every thrust. He could read you like a book. It only gave him motivation to make sure you finished off nicely. He wanted to see you fall apart on his cock. You’d be satisfied once he was done with you and that was a fact. 

Kunigami then gripped your hips harshly. He started thrusting upwards into you, sending you over the edge with pleasure. Your mouth fell agape from the pace he set himself at. His cock was so fucking big that every thrust made your mind become cloudy. It was becoming even more difficult now to stay quiet. You feared someone would hear you or come by to see what was going on between you both, but you just couldn’t resist anymore. He was driving you up the wall that if you stayed quiet you’d probably go insane from it. 

The pit inside your belly was only growing deeper and deeper. You leaned into Kunigami’s ear so you could speak, but to also place your head on his shoulder. You felt so weak. Your body was pushed past its limits and you honestly wondered if you were going to be able to walk out of there after that. “Kunigami..! Fuck.. so good, it’s so good!” your fingers clenched around his shirt, trying your best to hold back any obnoxious cries of pleasure.

He couldn’t lie, he felt the same exact way about you.

He gripped the fat of your thighs and dragged his hands wherever he could place them. You had such a pretty body. It still astounded him that he was the one to take your virginity. “Yeah..? It’s good, princess?” he questioned, smirking. “Then cum on my cock, baby girl.”

You couldn’t hold back anymore and just let yourself go for him. After a few thrusts, your pussy clamped around his cock. Your orgasm hit you, hard. Your whole body practically shook in Kunigami’s hands and you couldn’t stop yourself from crying his name like it was a prayer. A creamy white ring circled around his cock and your walls spasmed while he fucked you through your orgasm. Seeing you act in such a manner made Kunigami all the more determined to finish up. He wanted nothing more than you. 

Kunigami continued bouncing you on his cock. You were tired, exhausted even, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to fuck you. His own orgasm was creeping upon him. His dick was twitching and there was a knot that had formed in his abdomen. “F-Fuck.. ‘gonna cum, baby!” he groaned. “Gonna fill this pretty pussy..”

Within seconds, he reached his high. Kunigami gritted his teeth as his orgasm finally washed over him. His cum filled your cunt, seeping into your womb. It made you shiver when that warmth spread across your belly, but it felt so fucking good that you honestly craved it more than you would like to admit. 

You both sat there for a bit, trying to recover from your orgasms. You were now pretty exhausted and Kunigami was somewhat sweaty. He had his arm snaked around your waist and your head was lying against his chest. You honestly wanted to fall asleep right then and there, but you knew eventually you would have to go back to your dorm which was kind of a lengthy walk. Judging by how your thighs felt, though, you weren’t sure that was even going to happen. You sort of regretted having such a fast pace put on you, but in the moment it was like you were on cloud nine.

Kunigami sighed, looking down at you with a grin. He thought you looked so cute laying on him like that. You seemed so sleepy and out of it if he was being honest. “I still gotta study for my exam..” he chuckled, which made you laugh in return.

You rolled your eyes playfully. “You are capable of doing it on your own..” you said, jokingly.

He placed his chin atop your head, feeling a big smile write itself onto his features. He really liked being with you right now. He never imagined he’d be in such a position, but he didn’t have a single regret about it. “Nah, I’d prefer to have my study buddy with me..” he replied, squeezing you tightly.

#blue lock #blue lock fanfiction #blue lock smut #blue lock x reader #blue lock x you #blue lock x female reader #blue lock x y/n #bllk smut #bllk x reader #bllk x y/n #bllk x you #bllk fanfiction #kunigami rensuke #kunigami rensuke x reader #kunigami rensuke x you #kunigami smut #kunigami #kunigami x reader #kunigami x y/n #kunigami x you #anime fanfiction

[fromthedragonsdesk]

On Visual Novels and Catharsis

I never had a high opinion of Visual Novels. In my mind, they always seemed to boil down to the most basic wish fulfillment tripe that we'd collectively assign to the isekai genre these days, I'd wager. To me it was a waste of time or energy trying to interact with them (as an aside, I'm well aware that the Phoenix Wright series is arguably a visual novel, but I missed that boat by not having DS-era device). Even today, with a glance over most of games tagged 'visual novel' on Steam, you'll see what could be generously described as fetish pornography. So, seeing all this, I reinforced my belief that visual novels were for people who wanted some plot with their porn, and never thought much of it.

To my surprise, Steam insisted on recommending visual novels to me. I usually just tossed them aside from the recommendation queue, until I got two recommended almost back-to-back: Mice Tea and Changeling Tale.

Mice Tea had generally positive reviews, and many of them cited that the game's writing and characterization were generally humorous and appealing. So, given that it was on sale during the Steam Winter Sale, I figured it was worth a shot. Then, after basically binging on the game for 20 hours, I walked away thinking that I might have misjudged the genre on some levels.

I wouldn't say I was entirely surprised by Mice Tea - the reviews did it justice in terms of you, as the reader, wanting to root for the main cast to succeed. Most of the conflict didn't necessarily arise from an outside force, but rather internalized conflicts and the struggle to essentially be honest with yourself and those around you, risking vulnerability, essentially. At its core, I still felt like it was wish fulfillment to a significant degree, but the implausibilities were generally smoothed over enough to allow for suspension of disbelief to ride along with the story. And yeah, there... was a fair amount of catering to various fetishes and such worked in, but all in a fairly world-consistent sort-of perspective? At its core, the story was light, cheerful with moments of self-reflection and introspection, and wrapped up in a generally nice bow all in the end.

But what Mice Tea ended up doing for me, personally, was allowing me to lower my defenses during a particularly stressful point in my life, staying present in my mind when I then read over the reviews and such for Changeling Tale. I brushed off the emotion reviews, thinking that they were likely being dramatic.

I could not have been more wrong.

While set in a backdrop of old Scottish fantasy, I continually found myself impressed at how grounded Changeling Tale managed to make itself felt. I believe this is because the main character / player character of Changeling Tale (hereafter referred to as "Malcolm") is primarily reacting to the supernatural events occurring around him, rather than necessarily driving them by his own volition. Malcolm is thrust into a world that he already feels disconnected from due to his service in the military, and it cracks further open as fae magic begins seeping into the world around him.

That said, no one in the backwater town in which Malcolm has returned to handles the public appearance of fae magic particularly well, much less the three parallel storylines available to the reader between Jessie, Marion, and Grace. If anything, the most unreasonable reactions come from the player themselves, in how flippant or otherwise easygoing they handle changes happening to the people around them. That said, many decisions have a snowballing / weighted effect that can change plot directions far later on than one might expect, leading to fallings-out with friends and family, or worse.

But then something strange happened to me, as a reader, while working my way through these split storylines. Core messages seemed to stick out to me, interwoven among the stories. But they cut me straight to the core as a person; after finishing all 3 major storylines I was left shaking and bleary-eyed, wishing events could have turned out differently, desperately trying to reject the messages that had been suggested despite knowing deep-down that they were right.

"Be the best you that you can be."

"Encourage people to chase their dreams, but make sure you're pursuing your dream too."

"Sometimes peoples' dreams are irreconcilable with one another. That doesn't mean the love is gone, it just means that it isn't fair to either person."

"The size of the dream does not diminish its value; the holder of the dream determines its value."

(I intentionally omitted the storyline associations I would make)

When I held all of these thoughts together, an emotional dam burst in my heart. For years I never considered myself as having dreams or goals. For years I felt kind of confused and wondering if what I was doing mattered, or had worth. But somehow, a visual novel about fae shenanigans that dances alongside a transformation kink broadsides me with the realization that I AM where I want to be, doing what I am doing. I have a family who l love and loves me back. I am not pursuing a dream; rather, I am cultivating and maintaining a dream I have already attained. I am doing what is important to me and my family, and even if I'm not changing the world around me and leaving a name in the history books, I know that I am here and directly affecting the lives of those around me, and I'm not sure what more I could want for at this very moment.

And for the first time in quite a while, I feel content and satisfied.

#visual novel #changeling tale #catharsis #mice tea #scalie #furry #visual novel review

[devieuls]

I’ve always been there for you. part.I

Childe ( Tartaglia) x Fem Reader !smut¡

Warning : Smut 18+ MDNI; Childe Dom! ; unprotected and rude sex; dirty talk; threats; slaps; spit; bites; hickeys; punishments; blood;  power play; teasing; choking, jealousy and possessiveness; pseudo-toxic relationship; violent foreplay; BDSM.

Reader with Cryo vision.

Synopsis : You are the only daughter of the Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya, heir to the throne and general of the nation. The diamond of that place characterized by the eternal winter, loved by the people and adored for the angelic but fierce facade that you show. The only person with whom this mask fell is your secret lover, the one who manages to make you forget your duties with a touch and takes you to heaven whenever you end up in bed together. Your relationship was reserved for the bedroom, although you liked to tease him in public, as the 11th Harbinger was also your personal guard.

Everything was great and perfect... until one day your game was pushed too far, breaking the thin thread that gave you so much stability. Appearances were deceiving, and everything you thought you had under control suddenly hit you, dropping that house of cards you built for fun.

Length : 3.5k+

Notes: In the story there will be some slightly violent or excessively harsh parts from the reader or Childe himself, read the warnings to better understand what it is. It’s a mini series, I hope you like it.

OH, CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT YOU'LL WEAR IN THE MEETING!

Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4 END

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The icy wind of Snezhnaya hit your still too sensitive skin after coming out of the warm bed sheets, causing you chills and goosebumps. Your gaze fell on the messy hair of the boy across the bed, failing to see his face completely because of the rebellious strands that hid him; His bare shoulders out of the blankets, showing much of his back, not reacting at all to the winter cold of the capital.

You stretched towards him, passing your hand over his soft skin, stroking with your fingertips some scratches left by you the night before, observing how he shuddered at that attention from you. That back, like his whole body, was your favorite canvas to paint with hickeys, bites and scratches, framed by some battle scars who aged with time.

You couldn’t say you didn’t appreciate your guardian, after all he was a passionate and devoted lover,  and it was he who took your virginity, making you completely obsessed with him, even if you didn’t admit it so easily. Not that your jealousy toward him didn’t scream how crazy and possessive you was toward him.

No one could know what was between you two, it would be too inconvenient for the princess of Snezhnaya to attend her own guardian, even if only sexually. A Harbinger was clearly a respected authority but was supposed to serve the Tsaritsa and her family, not fuck the princess of the nation.

You followed his column, slipping your hand, making the boy growl under you. Childe woke up slowly, enjoying your gentle touch on his skin, hoping to stay a little longer in that corner of paradise you had created as a loophole from public duties.

< Good morning, my Harbinger. Did you sleep well? > You asked once you heard that the red-haired guy had woken up, leaving a gentle kiss on his neck, approaching his face turned sideways.

< My princess, how could I sleep badly if I have you by my side? > He answered by turning towards you, then quickly locking you under him, putting his hands on the sides of your shoulders. You passed one hand over his bare chest and the other over his face, caressing him gently.

< You’re always so flattering, Ajax. > You said smiling, and then receive a kiss from the boy above you, who soon became wet and needy, as if the two of you hadn’t kissed each other until your lips were consumed just the night before.

The kiss was interrupted by the "knock-Knock" produced by your closed door, accompanied by a voice. < Your Highness, it's bath time... are you... are you awake? > she asked in a trembling and low tone, but always remaining delicate.

You raised your eyes to the sky, mentally vowing to have your caregiver cut off her tongue. Childe smiled knowing what you were thinking, breaking away from the kiss and then moving away from you.

< Your Highness, is rude not to answer the servants > he whispered on your ear, causing you a sigh of dissent.

< Come back in a few minutes, 15 minutes will be fine. I need to be alone for a while. > You said in a tone obviously annoyed and maybe slightly acid.

< But Your Majesty the Tsaritsa told me... > She continued obviously uncertain about the business.

< Your princess commands you. My mother will not disagree about a bathroom postponed for a few minutes, don't dare to bore me further. > Your voice now hard and sharp had made sure that the servant left apologizing.

The guy next to you looked at you and then laughed and bit his lip, holding a hand on his face and then in his hair. < Do you want to hunt me, your Highness? > He said blatantly provoking you, not that you were sorry, you liked the way Childe took these small liberties in private.

< Hmm... I don’t know, do you have something to offer me in such a way as not to bore me? > You said turning to him and taking him by the face with one hand.

< All that your highness desires > He answered the mischievous tone, knowing where you were going. < Sometimes I forget how sexy you are when you’re so bossy > he caressed your naked side and squeezed it slightly, admiring the little marks he had left you the night before.

< Oh, I think you know very well what I want. > Your gaze was mischievous, clearly suggesting to the boy your desires.

< My princess, fifteen minutes wouldn't be enough to ensure that you enjoy properly. I thought you understood after all those nights. > He answered taking you by the hips, carrying you above him, admiring your naked body and exposed to him. He would never get tired of seeing you like that.

You snorted at yourself from the bed, taking away your sheets and covering yourself with it, knowing that it was an obvious wrong to your lover.

< I’m your princess! I can have what I want whenever I want and as much as I like. > Your dramatic voice rang out in the room as you wandered around the room not to give him the pleasure of touching you again.

<  Y/n, you’re not just my princess, don’t play these games with me, you know I like to strip you of your titles. Also, in the bedroom, I’m in charge and.... Look, we’re in the bedroom.  Come here before the maid returns and forces me to flee like a thief. > he responded in tone, knowing perfectly well that your titles in that chamber were completely cancelled.

You approached him daubed, then you were greeted by his warm arms, resting your face on his chest. He began to kiss your head, caressing your body, causing you chills along your back.

Will you be at the meeting with the Harbingers today? Her Majesty is going to force you to participate if you refuse to be present again > He said by clutching you to his chest, hoping to persuade you to leave again.

< Her Majesty, Her Majesty and Her Majesty... blah, blah, blah, blah, she is always spoken of as the center of the universe. I’m not going to go along with her wishes like anyone else > You responded acidly, sinking into his warm embrace.

< My angel, don't do so... is still an archon and is our Tsarina, it's obvious that everything revolves around her in Snezhnaya. You should really participate out of respect for your people and your servants Harbingers > continued, stroking your hair.

< I don’t care about the other Harbingers, I already have you... what more can I want? > You said lifting your face and kissing his jaw. < I really don’t want to hear my mother’s plans to "bring peace to Teyvat". They are hers battles, not mine > You answered by mumbling between one kiss and another, touching the boy’s chest. < Don’t insist... Why don’t you skip this meeting and hang out with me? I know it bores you too > You continued, leaving a few bites and making pant the man under you.

He had to detach you so as not to give in to the temptation to really stay with you, it wasn't like him to disobey the Tsarina’s orders. He was loyal to her and deified her as the goddess she was, not that it prevented him from giving in to lust with you and letting go.

< Mh... y/n, one day you’ll take your mother’s place and you’ll understand... You are close to the throne, you should really think about participating, if not for your majesty, do it for me > He said as he got out of bed and dressed, knowing that the longer he was with you, the more he would be carried away by your rebellious spirit.

< Come back here, come on! It sucks when you’re so devoted to my mother, phew. > You snorted and dropped on the mattress, watching the guy putting his clothes back on. < How can I be here if I see you sexy in your Harbinger uniform? I wouldn’t stay focused and just think about the ways you fucked me last night. It’s frustrating for me, Ajax. Don’t do this to me > You grumbled with your hands on your face, making the guy who took you from the foot laugh and pulled you towards the edge of the bed, then get you up slightly and kiss your lips.

<  Not that I find you unattractive and sexy dressed as a general. If you showed up being a good girl, I could think of rewarding your good behavior > He said on your lips, and then pull away and approach the door before being stopped by yet another "knock-knock".

< Punctual as death. Perhaps it's better to get out of the balcony, I hope to see you at the meeting, my princess. > He whispered kissing the palm of your hand, then went out on the balcony and disappeared completely in the light fog of the capital.

You bit your lip with a smile, maybe he really convinced you to play your mom’s stupid power play. You covered yourself again and told the maid to come in, then follow her to the royal baths and let her wash you with the other women.

< Anya, no daily clothes today. I’ll wear the uniform of the nation’s general. > You said smiling at your most trusted servant, surprising her for the first time.

You had never directly asked to wear your uniform, except in military events that required your presence. The girl nodded and notified her subordinates to start cleaning and fixing your uniform.

.

.

.

Hours later you were ready for your entrance into the great hall built to house the Harbingers in the royal house. You had never heard that room of yours, it was yet another thing existing because of your mother, not that you hated her, she just always stood up, watching you and criticizing you in silence.

You waited to be announced before you entered the room, out of respect for the people who gave themselves every day to keep the nation safe.

Once inside, you found all the Harbingers standing solemnly bent over you, while remaining around the rectangular table. You could tell from their looks that they were amazed to see you come in, after all, it was a long time since you had actively attended meetings like this.

You could feel your mother’s sharp, burning look on your body, you knew she was surprised but you didn’t know if she was positive or negative, after all this time it wasn’t her who extended the invitation.

You took your seat at the head of the table, parallel to the Tsaritsa’s raised throne. That seat was usually reserved for the Fatui's leader, but it had to be ceded in the event of the presence of the General of State, namely you, as well as the princess of the nation and future Tsarina of Snezhnaya.

< I hope I’m not late, I know Her Majesty the Tsaritsa loves punctuality and it would be rude toall of you to arrive late. > You said and then nodded your hand to allow them to sit down again, sitting down after you gave the Tsarina a sharp look.

< Not at all, Your Highness. We're honored by your presence. > Pierro’s strong but servile voice broke the silence that was being created in the room, always with a calm tone as usual. You gave a gentle smile to Leader of Fatui, then crossed your legs and looked at some documents left on the table.

< So, what were we talking about? > You said looking up at the man waiting to be made aware of the various plans and events. Your tone was firm and professional, really interested in political dynamics, participating in the various debates and moves to be made to help the Tsarina get the gnosis and counter the power of Celestia.

The only thing wrong was to literally have your lover by your side, unfortunately or fortunately, the place assigned to Childe was exactly the one by your side and it was ironic how you could forget about it. Not that you were sorry, you had the opportunity to take a little risk, put a shiver in your hidden relationship.

You knew it was risky for both of you to look more intimate than you should, but who would have noticed your foot climbing on his leg? after all, the table concealed perfectly your hidden games, to betray you could only be poor control over your body or in the reactions of the face.

Ajax’s eyes were looking at you, as if to ask you what you were doing or why you were doing it; he didn’t mind, no, you would have noticed if you were invading his space and comfort zones, he liked it when you played like this, but maybe there was concern in his eyes. On the other hand, it was one thing to be discovered by a citizen or a servant, history changed if it was the highest authority of the nation to discover you two.

It was difficult, indeed, impossible not to drop the eye on the boy’s gloved hands, on the tight shirt or on the scarf that you yourself had given him; not to mention his posture so elegant but at the same time they made him seem annoyed or disinterested in conversation; the face in a perennial poker face, as if you were not touching his dick right at that moment.

You continued to play on his leg while discussing ways to retrieve the electro gnosis, possessed by the Raiden of Inazuma, famous for being ruthless and difficult to deal with; your speech was not an impediment to finish on Childe’s thigh, touching the groin and his crotch wrapped in his pants.

Suddenly Childe’s grip made you stop, tightening your grip slightly, fingering your stocking, making you shiver slightly, which could be excused by the slightly cold temperature of the room.

You sighed as you listened to the ideas of all the Harbingers and the Tsarina’s opinion about it, involving the manipulation of a certain Traveller who had become a renowned Hero in Teyvat. You looked at Tartaglia once it was his turn, talking about how he could direct this girl to do whatever he wanted. It bothered you his intimacy with such hero, since for months you were forced to stay away from the boy, all without being able to complain.

.

Your game of touches proceeded throughout the meeting, leaving both of you really eager for each other. Your professional demeanor, your authoritarian and firm tones, as cold as the nation you belonged to, had you two horny as fuck. Not that the clothing had relieved the thoughts of jumping on eachother, indeed, it was perhaps the first thing that had brought you back to the night before.

The boy left your leg just before he got up to bow down at the exit of the Tsaritsa, greeting her in the same way as everyone in that hall.

The Harbingers turned to you, waiting for your exit or permission to be discharged, they would never have allowed themselves out without your decision. You returned to your upright position after greeting your mother, immediately noticing how one of the Harbingers was watching you with an accomplice look, passing the gaze from you to Childe, smiling maliciously.

Shit, did he understand? You thought worried. You cleared your voice and looked at the other people in the room. < You’re discharged, go ahead... > you said and then take a short break. < Pantalone, please stay. I need to discuss some business with you. > You concluded by inviting the man to sit down again while the others left without any problems, except your lover. He gave you a confused look, not understanding why I let Pantalonve stay and not him.

Once you were alone in the room, you approached the black-haired man at a decisive pace. < I know you saw and you know. > You started with a firm and cold tone.

< My princess, I have no idea what you’re talking about > his tone made everything shine except innocence.

< Regrator, don’t play innocent with me. We both know what I’m talking about, don’t pretend not. That would be a huge disrespect to the royal family > You ended up putting a threatening hand on his shoulder.

< Princess, with all due respect, I think you disrespect the royal family plus what you and Tartaglia do. Don’t you think? > He responded by teasing you, he knew where to hit you and he did it fucking well. < Tell me, my general, does Her Majesty know what you do behind everyone’s back? I suppose not... that indecency, with one of his Harbingers...> He smiled brazenly, knowing he was right.

You held on to his shoulder, looking at him in a dark way. < You are not showing me respect by addressing me in these ways. I know you, my dear Regrator, I don't ask you to keep my secret at the cost of anything, you know better than me that I can give you everything you want. > You started by sitting in front of him, crossing your legs and your arms across your chest. < So, what is the price for your silence? Money? More power? Tell me what you want. > your tone was serious, just like your look, while his mocking and not caring.

< My princess, you shouldn’t ask a man what he wants, especially if you promise to give him everything he wants. > He breathed deeply, his tone was slightly mischievous. < Even if you are the princess of Snezhnaya, you shouldn't say such things... Now I could ask you anything and you couldn’t say no, are you sure you could afford it, my princess? > He concluded with a cheeky smile.

< A good general never retires when she knows she can win the battle. I do not take back my words, so tell me the price of your silence. > you slammed your hand on the table, waiting for an answer from the man.

The black-haired man approached you, placing a hand on your face, stroking it and then tightening the grip around your jaw and approaching him. < The battle, not the war, Your Highness. If my price was to have you? Could you really afford it, General? >

You swallowed looking at him, trying not to let emotions shine through your face. < What exactly are you asking me? > your words clung desperately to a stable and serious tone, hoping to have misunderstood his request.

< I don’t need to teach you about birds and bees. Tartaglia is always away on missions, leaves you alone for months and then comes back as if nothing had happened. I see you, my princess. How you look at him, how you need to be touched when he’s not around, the flesh is weak. You may have stability with me, I’m in the Tsaritsa’s good graces, and I wouldn’t mind ruling by your side in the future,  I wouldn’t mind your little flings with him once in a while, although I know you wouldn’t need it after trying. > your hand rose to strike his face after that blatant offense to your person, and then be stopped by his firm grip on your wrist. His lustful and ambitious gaze watched you. < Come on, princess, it’s a reasonable price for my silence. It would be outrageous if it became known that our princess is no longer a virgin. What do you think? >

You sighed heavily, turning your face to the side and removing your hand from his grip.

< Oh, maybe our future Tsarina can’t really afford everything, didn't she? > he said in a mocking tone, laughing with taste, getting a look from you.

< It’s not something I can offer so easily, as well you know. Are you asking me something out of proportion, aren't you afraid that I will cut your tongue or condemn you to death? > You spit bitterly.

< See, my general, I’m not afraid of losing anything if I can make more. I fear nothing, life is a game, why not bet everything? > He said by fixing his glasses. < The choice is yours, I will keep your secret until I receive a confirmation from you but... the time is precious, you can not know if tomorrow or in a week the price will be higher. > He ended by getting up.

< Is it a threat? > You asked furiously.

< only if you want to understand it so > he answered with the same amused tone  < How dare you! Get out of here, right now. > You responded coldly, with an acidity never felt, your gaze was sharp and threatening, which made the man feel chills.

< My princess... > he said to then bow and kiss the back of your hand, then take leave.

You brought a hand on your face, clearly nervous that he’d asked for something like this. The nervousness didn’t subside at the thought that he had known about you and Childe for a long time.

You got up from the chair and threw some papers on the table, pushing the chair where it was sitting and dropping it on the floor.

< Fuck it. You manipulative bastard. > You said clenched teeth, furious with anger.

What to do now? Risk your mother taking away your title and throne and degrading Childe, almost certainly exiling him, or accepting Regrator’s indecent proposal?

#genshin smut #genshin x reader #genshin x y/n #genshin impact #genshin tartagalia #tartaglia smut #childe #childe x fem!reader #childe x reader #childe smut #ajax tartaglia #ajax smut #ajax x y/n #ajax #tartaglia #tartaglia x y/n #tartaglia x reader #tartaglia x you #genshin childe smut #genshin childe lemon

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

This one is so long I'm putting most of it under a readmore to save your dash

Anonymous asked:

AITA for stabbing a kid?

(this is less Am I The Asshole and more Was I The Asshole, bc it's really just a story from high school that I - as an adult in my mid-20s - was remembering recently and thought could be fun to toss to The People in as objective of a form as I can. anyways, all names are 100% made up to replace actual names, and everybody involved ends the story safe and alive)

I (16ish F then, 20s NB now) was trying to prep for an upcoming speech and debate tournament (yes, I was insufferable as a teen) with a group of other students in our debate coach's classroom. specifically, I was working with a younger student, Tammy (14ish F then), on understanding this specific type of debate (LD for my fellow insufferable teens out there) and brainstorming with her on some of the main components of her own case. as we were trying to work, another student, Tony (15ish M then), kept butting in to pester Tammy, making it impossible for Tammy or me to focus. in hindsight, I'm like 74% sure Tony had a bit of a crush on Tammy in that moment and expressed that feeling by being an annoying little shit towards her (as teens often do). that was at least how I would characterize the general vibe of Tony's actions and how he seemed to really need Tammy to be paying total attention to him. from my perspective and based on my basically decade-long memory at this point, Tammy (maybe?) asked him to leave her alone. she at least seemed frustrated and annoyed with him, or just generally flustered in a way I read uncomfortable. (take all this with a grain of salt here bc, regardless of how Tammy really felt, I was for sure super annoyed and that fact would almost certainly impact my interpretation and memory of the situation.)

idk if any teen girls out there (former, current, or future) have tried to teach or learn while a teen boy is flirt-bugging you or the person you're with, but it got old real fast for me. so, almost immediately, I asked Tony to knock it off so me and Tammy could work. he refused and kept bugging her. I continued to tell him to quit and he continued to ignore me, and this went on for a while. so, as one does, I figured it was time to threaten him with physical violence. I told him that if he didn't back off and let Tammy work, that I would stab him.

now, to give a bit of context for what the fuck I was thinking in that moment, I had learned a particular lesson earlier in my time as a supposed teenage girl dealing with supposed teenage boys in the 2000s-2010s: don't make threats you aren't willing to follow through on. so when I threatened to stab him, I 100% meant it. to provide a tad more context, I did also have a bit of a casually violent streak in high school for this reason (but maybe those stories are for a different AITA submission at another time, but they were all in a similar vein as this one in terms of cause and severity). also, does it help or hurt to add this was in a rural public high school in Texas? either way. to be fair to Tony, that's still undoubtedly a deeply unhinged and disproportionate thing to actually do, but would be a semi-common hyperbolic empty threat to make as a teen to another teen.

as you can assume based on the title here, Tony did not quit despite these threats. so, true to my word, after us arguing back and forth for a bit more, I stabbed him in the arm with the pen I was holding. he was obviously upset (to be clear, it did hurt him but did not injure him to the best of my knowledge beyond leaving a light mark for a bit of time that afternoon*) and he complained about having been stabbed. I said I warned him repeatedly that I would stab him before I actually did, to which he replied that that was an insane thing to actually do (fair enough, ya know?). the teacher was in the room, but if she saw any of this she ignored it. tbh, I don't see how she could have not noticed a kid loudly complaining about having been stabbed by another kid. so, I assume she chose to ignore it, possibly bc I was a bit of a teacher's pet (ie. president of the speech and debate team she was the coach of (I told you I was insufferable)). actually, now that I think about it, that was not the only time I stabbed another kid in her classroom in almost identical circumstances... maybe we are both TA....

anyways, in conclusion:

reasons I think I'm NTA: he was being an annoying dick to the friend I was mentoring at the time, and I did warn him that I'd stab him if he didn't quit being an annoying dick several times before actually following through (and it was only with pen and did no serious harm, but I think it does still count as assault regardless (?) and also I love the classic AITA storytelling technique of Being Dramatic, so feel free to ignore this point and *any other times I brought up that he was ultimately okay when considering how you wanna vote).

reasons I think I'm TA: I mean... I fuckin' stabbed a kid just bc he was being annoying and I fully got away with it bc the teacher liked me, plus I was a repeat offender of doing lowkey violence like this in response to other kids being Kinda Annoying and Shitty™. pestering other people on purpose bc you possibly have a crush on them is a very normal thing for a teen to do. stabbing another teen with a writing utensil just bc they did so though?... perhaps not.

(also, as an endnote: just to be clear, I do not stab teens at all in any context whatsoever since growing up. out of AITA-writing-character here, I think I was a kid who was just sick of guys around me crossing boundaries and dealt with that in a myriad of very unhealthy ways that were also informed by my general redneck upbringing that - understandably or not - sometimes saw some violence as a valid way to assert personal boundaries if it seemed they weren't being respected. that doesn't make it okay and is not at all a defense against being TA in this story, just trying to assure folks that regardless of whether you think I was TA I am now also a somewhat well adjusted adult who at least channels their overwhelming fury into organizing/activism stuff and mutual aid rather than stabbing annoying teenagers. while this isn't some stressful conflict that I feel torn up about or anything even close to that, I am interested to see what folks think, so thanks for reading if the mod(s) found all this worthy of posting for y'all!)

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #this was fully three and a half screens on desktop in ask form #on mobile it would be the 'do you love the color of the sky' of asks

[decepti-thots]

would you be down to give me a rough outline of how Prowl has been characterized over the publication history of the tf comics? I mean, in as far as you know about it. Every time you mention the costa stuff it makes me curious

I can try! I can't really drill down well without a thing to focus on specifically, but here are some general highlights.

Furman (and stuff that directly draws from Furman's run, like AHM as a whole) characterizes him basically as he did when writing Marvel G1, and gives him so little to do that not very much really comes out even then. Uptight, stick-in-his-ass, still a basically Good Guy TM and while he puts people's backs up a little, he's not under any level of suspicion. This is the closest to continuity-agnostic "fanon Prowl" you get in IDW, because that fanon figure draws quite a lot on the Marvel G1 characterization (when it isn't simply making things up wholesale, anyway). Furman copies his own homework, basically, lmao.

Roche is the guy who wrote phase two Prowl into existence as we know him. Rather infamously because he thought it was an interesting take on the character to er, ignore all the above stuff and make the Autobot SIC a rat bastard, lmao. Roche and Barber's interpretations came to dominate the character in IDW going forward, but they do differ. Roche's Prowl is more isolated from other characters (one does not really imagine Wreckers Prowl calling Bumblebee his best friend sincerely, as exRiD Prowl does), and people treat him as disliked by default. Even before the worst of what he does comes out, his reputation precedes him. Also, Roche's Prowl speaks fairly neutrally, whereas exRiD Prowl speaks more casually than fandom tends to admit to! Finally, Roche's Prowl is less spontaneously, outwardly emotional than Barber's is later on, and tends to fit the fanon stereotype of "always restrained" more.

Costa came in post-AHM but pre-Wreckers and hated all that, so he retconned it. LMAO. His Prowl is the archetype of the "good cop" protagonist surrounded by corruption, combined with surface level noir tropes that sort of work in tandem with those but lacking any grit. (Costa seems to understand what noir looks and sounds like, but none of the underlying narrative devices that make it function as noir.) This Prowl is specifically supposed to be (here's the retcon) someone who used to be more deliberately cold, removed and logical but who has specifically decided to change to be different following his experiences on Earth. (Spotlight: Prowl is a good one-issue explanation of Costa's perspective on Prowl, which is not the same as being a good comic.) As time goes on, the sheer unpopularity of this take pushed Costa to undo it a bit, and reintroduce some level of ambivalence to him... but by and large he remains kind of the "good authority figure who objects when the systems are misused" type, almost? His conflict with Spike is very much over the fact he expected better of Spike, see.

Barber's Prowl notably does not wholly throw the Costa stuff out the window. (This is why the Spike stuff features a lot; it's really the only strong emotional hook Costa's work gives you for his version of the character to grab at.) But Prowl is back to being a morally gray figure whose moral ambivalence is very strongly tied to his role as an authority figure- and that's worth mentioning. Prowl's downward spiral being intrinsically linked to his refusal to relinquish authority, and his abuse of it, is something that is all Barber and not Roche. (In Wreckers, Prowl is an asshole because of personal arrogance. In exRiD, he's more an asshole because of his role enabling a wider system, by the end. IMO that's a big difference, anyway.) He is not starting off exRiD loathed by absolutely everyone, or a figure of preexisting serious mistrust. That's something that develops over the course of the comic as things come to light for the characters in-universe, meaning exRiD Prowl feels like he's put up a more convincing shield in front of his worse dealings over the course of the war, perhaps. His position deteriorates significantly over the comic. He is more prone to balancing his deliberate cold-heartedness with angry or emotional outbursts than we saw in Wreckers, leading to him having multiple outbursts that worsen his situation over the course of the comic. This is the Prowl who holds grudges.

Roberts' Prowl is kind of different to talk about to the above because his Prowl in Shadowplay and his Prowl in Titans Return are different genres. I can do a post on that if folks really want but it probably is its own post, haha.

IDK feel free to clarify any specific stuff you'd like a vibe on if you want, this is all just what came to my mind instinctively!

#idw*2 is a mess and i would need to reread to criticise it properly. #dw is just Marvel Again but with the inexplicable stranglehold praxus has on fanon forever added

[hyatoro]

Sinbad Sub Headcanons

Sinbad

Part 2 of a request. You can find Kouen’s part here. 

SFW

Sinbad is a generous lover but because of everything that’s happened to him you can tell it’s all very surface level. Sure he can get up in people’s spaces and charm their pants off with his natural and hard earned charisma, but when it comes to his genuine relationships (as like a person) the ones that know him best have stuck with him even after seeing his ugly sides. 

How he loves and lets himself be loved can vary depending on what phase of Sinbad we’re talking about, but I’ll be sticking with the Sinbad we meet in early Magi. Not his prequel, and not late game Sinbad, though those are all sides of him. He is very welcome to public displays of affection, especially during festivals, but he hopes that his partner understands time and place, like when he has important meetings to arrange business deals. 

In contrast to Kouen, you wouldn’t need to be necessarily on his level djinn-wise. He just needs someone with a strong will to reign him in. He’s not as concerned about marrying another position of power. You’d likely still be somewhat of a power couple, since everyone he keeps around him is useful in one way or another. If we’re talking about having a relationship that has dom/sub stuff happening, then yeah. If he went to some red-light district and got dominated that’d be more a one time thing.

Your characterization is more open ended. As long as you find a way to make conversation with him and prove yourself, then you’re in. It’ll start as a fascination, and then evolve into an infatuation. Which honestly, he’d lie to himself about it because he doesn’t actually want to get distracted from his goals, which is what he thinks of it at the beginning. A distraction. Then he convinces himself that because you’re such a useful person that he’s just getting close to you to keep you in his arsenal. But then eventually he’d fold and admit that he’s weak for you. 

NSFW

Maybe he finally spills the beans when you corner him about why he’s been so annoying. “Why did you schedule me for so many meetings? All of which actually already have you in them so I don’t know why you would need me there.” 

Nervous sweating. “UH-”

He’s been in this wild mental state of “God she’s so hot and amazing and I’d be ok if she slapped me man i wish she would lol wouldn't that be funny” and “Haha eyes on the prize. Wake up and grind king.” 

So when you have him pushed up against a wall he’s frozen. And you already know he’s more than capable of just bolting if he wanted to. Then you realize exactly what weird emotions he’s feeling so you make the first move. 

A knowing look crosses your face and he gulps as you lean closer. You’re bent so that you’re looking up at him and he’s frozen like prey caught by a predator. And it’s kinda nice. 

You grab him by the collar of his shirt and whisk him away, and he can’t help but follow. Tired of dealing with his mental dilemma he surrendered the decision, the control, to you. 

As seen in my bondage headcanon for him, he needs a lot of trust. And that applies to all of this really. You may point out that dom/sub relationships need that in the first place. You’d be surprised. 

Of course he gives off his authoritative aura that exudes leadership, but he’s also just a silly goofy man sometimes. So it’s much easier to reign him in and transition to that dom/sub dynamic whenever, as opposed to Kouen where he has a hard line between private and public. 

Sinbad is down to get messy anywhere. 

Does not like choking. Is okay with gags if he’s not tied up. Basically if you want to tie him up you have to be thorough in making sure he’s comfortable. He doesn’t like anything around his neck like a collar or a choker because of his slave days. 

He likes edging and overstimulation. Testing his will and stamina gets him going and you can easily make him go crazy with little effort, or a lot. 

Kind of a masochist so he likes pain, but not to the point where you’re like actively trying to cause damage. It’s not like he hasn’t had worse but he doesn’t think getting beat is sexy. Spanking, pinching, slapping is all good. 

#magi the labyrinth of magic #magi #magi sinbad #sinbad magi #sinbad x reader #dom!reader #sub!sinbad #request

[transmutationisms]

sorry if uve gotten this ask before but in ur opinion how do u think shiv’s (and tom’s) ending fits into the general themes/arguments of the show and her characterization? ive seen a lot of split opinions about it

my opinion is that the build-up to shiv's decision in the boardroom was shortchanged in the editing, and the moment is consequently cheapened a bit. but the decision itself is good character writing and shiv and tom's ending is very strong writing in the sense that it accomplishes exactly what the creative team were aiming at. shiv is backed into a corner by the end of this season; in the boardroom, she's finally forced to choose between kendall, who from her perspective has been acting entitled to this position by virtue of birth, and tom, whom she is still married to and has been in a business-romantic relationship with. there are multiple things happening in her head when she finally votes against kendall. the main two imo are reacting against the perception that voting for him would be handing him the power over her that she's always seen as unjust and undeserved, as well as the calculation that kendall has repeatedly used his power to push her out of the highest echelons of the company, whereas with tom she might still have the smallest possible in. so, choosing tom is both shiv trying to stay in the game, and shiv trying to preserve her dignity: for her, nothing would ultimately be more humiliating than admitting defeat against her flop older brother whom she thinks has done nothing to earn this position, not even being a useful suck-up like tom. in the final shot, shiv puts her hand on top of tom's in the car, but doesn't take it: body language that indicates both a partnership and a bit of power-play. she's still in the game, or trying to be.

for tom this is a pretty hollow victory. matsson explicitly plans to use him as essentially a puppet. he also has said that he views waystar as a parts shop, meaning he's going to dismantle much/most of the company, so who even knows how much of an empire tom will still be ruling in 5 years. for matsson, tom is basically just the guy who will be answering to the board for whatever matsson does public-facing. tom has also both ruined and cemented his marriage: shiv has reasons to ally with him (both personal and professional), but will also always see him as the social striver who took over her family's company after she was screwed out of it because of matsson's misogyny.

the show has always been cynical about the possibility of actual structural change. matsson taking over may mean waystar is dismantled, but it also means a consolidation of power for him and gojo. tom getting ceo is basically because he did the best job of sucking up. this is not a show that has ever been interested in radical departure from the status quo; if anything, the underlying philosophy is that very little actually changes because people don't change on a deeper level. those who seek power and wealth will continue to do so, and power and wealth will continue to accrete largely in the hands of those who already have some.

in my communist opinion, what this narrative lacks is the larger frame that is an actually anti-capitalist analysis. to me, what makes it impossible for these people to change or for corporate power to be dismantled is the fact that everything is constrained within a capitalist system, which limits the characters' circumstances and the economic possibilities. this does not mean revolution is impossible; on the contrary, it means revolution is necessary, and is the foundational material change that will allow, among other things, the kind of psychological development that these characters can't access in their (our) universe. i'm not pretending that the show is making this argument explicitly (arguably it does occasionally implicitly), but i also think it has been pretty clearly conveyed since the end of 1x06 that this sort of bleakness is always where the narrative was going to go. there's no escape for these characters as long as capitalism (and resulting patriarchy, ableism, &c) continue to exist; since the writing has never been interested in discussing or exploring those radically alternative possibilities, this ending is tonally exactly what i would expect, and conveys the sense of entrapment that the show has always invoked.

[lunanoc]

first tentative meta post about wu xie my beloved, more specifically about his characterization in his less than stellar moments, sparked by a discussion with @thelaithlyworm about whether or not the lost tomb 2.5 is in character for wu xie according to the books. i figured i'd take the rest of my thoughts to a separate post since our exchange was clogging up poor OP’s replies, and because i feel like a difference in opinion like this is worth being made public if only so people can get both sides of a rare discussion about the books and reach their own conclusions, so for those who are interested here’s a link to the original post where this discussion takes place in the replies if you'd like the full context. sorry in advance for how long this will likely be, and i hope there's no problem with me directly tackling some of the arguments that were made in favor of lost tomb 2.5 being an accurate adaptation of book wu xie's characterization, which is a take i strongly disagree with

i think much of the problem in the discussion simply lies in the fact that we seem to have fundamentally different interpretations of wu xie’s character in the books, because as i see it, none of the insistences that were quoted prove that wu xie has ever acted the way he does in 2.5 in the books—if anything, they disprove it. the quote from ch. 92 of sand sea that was brought up goes as follows:

this is where i believe the problem of different interpretations is at play, and to be fair some of it is ambiguous so there is some leeway, but i read this recollection very differently from how @thelaithlyworm seems to. as i see it, wu xie is recalling a time where pangzi, understandably concerned about his friend because he sees the toll the sha hai plan is taking on wu xie, and the lengths he’s having to go to in order to set it in motion, tells him it’s not too late to stop and turn back. to which wu xie replies that even if he had decided to stop and live his life blissfully unaware of the extent of the wangs' reach and their machinations, things would have caught up to him eventually given they’d infiltrated the jiumen to the extent they had.

“and at that time you’ll have already left me one by one, leaving me to foolishly face those fists” is the most ambiguous as to what exactly it's referring to, but i personally see it as referencing either the fact wu xie and his friends would have by then eventually drifted apart or they'd have stopped giving him their support should he have decided to ignore the truth and sit around doing nothing, or more sinisterly, would have potentially all been replaced by then if there hadn't been a plan in motion. it's likely a little bit of both. to which pangzi replies that he’s right, conceding and agreeing that wu xie never truly had a choice about his involvement to begin with, which is more or less the entire point of sand sea and the wider narrative of the main story.

no part of this conversation is reminiscent of the open conflict between them in 2.5 in that neither of them here are angry, and neither of them are even aggressive or antagonistic towards each other or in general. this is quite a calm if resigned conversation wu xie is recalling that also fits the overall cynical tone of the chapter itself, and wu xie’s certainly not acting out and pushing his friends away in a bid to deal with everything himself. if anything the entire point of sand sea is to show that despite each character acting independently, the sha hai plan only succeeded because they worked together and not alone, and that wu xie needed his support system to create an invisible yet tangilble network that could take down the wangs. so no part of this particular passage reads as though pangzi is saying he ever considered bailing on wu xie because of his behavior, and even if that were the case, it would still be referring to a hypothetical situation and not their current one.

wang meng's behavior in ten years later is also not the greatest example to use as an argument to prove 2.5 wu xie’s characterization is present in the books, mostly because it's actually wang meng himself who's more so the one acting like that than wu xie himself. wang meng, in his concern for wu xie, tries to guilt trip him into letting go of his obsession with xiaoge, and he is the one who instigates a conflict with wu xie that culminates in him staging xiaoge's "death" as a last ditch effort once spewing bottled up vitriol at wu xie and threatening to take over wushanju don't work.

it's however misguided at best given that not only did all of wu xie's close friends who participated in the sha hai plan agree to do so willingly (i’m of course not talking about li cu and co among others who very much did not consent) and so accusing wu xie of having coerced them takes away from their own agency, but the sha hai plan was a necessity beyond freeing xiaoge, which is something wang meng fails to understand. wang meng makes the mistake many people in the fandom do of pinning wu xie’s determination to see that plan through solely on his desire to free xiaoge, and of course that’s an important part of it, but the narrative makes a point of building up over the course of the main books and tibetan sea flower that wu xie’s entire family was at stake as well, and had been for several generations, so on a personal level it went beyond xiaoge alone. but again, whatever truth there is to wang meng’s words (which is an interesting but entirely different topic) still doesn’t make it true that wu xie was either actively petty or vitriolic towards his friends as a way to vent his own frustrations.

several moments in which wu xie objectively does terrible things or acts horribly were listed as a way of justifying that his behavior in 2.5 is in character and in line with how he acts in the books. and of course these moments do happen, and it's very true in sand sea especially that wu xie does terrible things (it's part of what makes him such an interesting character). but again, this argument feels somewhat in bad faith in that it conflates all negative behavior and traits together regardless of what specific shape those negative behaviors take in order to justify that his portrayal in 2.5 is faithful to the books simply because he displays negative behavior in that adaptation, completely disregarding that his less than stellar actions and emotions aren't expressed in the same ways in the books and in 2.5. my dislike of wu xie in 2.5 doesn't stem from him doing unlikeable things, otherwise i wouldn't like wu xie as a character in general. wu xie absolutely does do a lot of terrible things in sand sea especially, but the inherent problem with 2.5 is that none of the things he does or the way he acts in the books ever lines up with the specific way he acts in 2.5. 

in the books, even before sand sea, yes wu xie is manipulative (re: threatening bodily harm to himself to force wu erbai into sharing information with him), yes he cut up bodies and sent them to li cu among other extremely morally questionable things, yes he kidnapped li cu and made him go through literal hell, and likely did much the same to other people before him (hence the seventeen scars on his arm). he has and continues to have even in recent book canon re: yucun biji the ability and will to inflict permanent psychic damage on people he deems to be deserving of it or a threat. he’s by no means perfect or even overly kind, and if someone were to say that a number of the earlier drama adaptations especially soften his character and make him much more wide-eyed and innocent than he actually is in the books, i would absolutely agree with them. i would also agree if someone said that gap in characterization is why some people don’t like him much in the sand sea drama. but the fact is for all the negative traits and behavior he displays at varying points in the books, none of them are ever expressed in the very specific way they are in 2.5.

@thelaithlyworm rightfully mentions wu xie's ptsd as justification for much of his more "toxic" reactions to things, and his ptsd is incredibly important in understanding how wu xie works as a character and what his experiences have forged him into, to the point it's a topic that deserves its own in-depth post. but saying we have different definitions of what ptsd is is both accurate to the complex nature of ptsd, and a bit disingenious because of the complex nature of ptsd, because the emotional dysregulation and impaired decision-making it entails won’t necessarily manifest in the same ways in different people.

in 2.5 wu xie, ptsd manifests in the form of vitriol and anger he directs at pretty much everyone in his immediate vicinity, more especially pangzi, because it has no other outlet in that situation than outwards. and i’m not saying ptsd expressing itself like that never happens, because it very much does. what i'm saying is that book wu xie's ptsd, while very real, doesn't manifest in the way it does in 2.5 wu xie.

in book wu xie, ptsd manifests in much more internalized ways, and so he’s far more prone to directing the anger and pent-up emotions inwards through self-harm, both mental and physical (i.e. the scars on his arm, his persistent self-hatred, etc.), and the emotional dysregulation very often comes not in the form of chaotically expressed emotions, but rather abnormal lack of them, as arguably wu xie's bad coping mechanism is emotional dissociation, and when the emotions are truly too strong to be distanced from, they come out in the form of panic attacks he often doesn’t recognize as such (i.e. when he finds xiaoge and believes he’s dead in book 8, or when he has flashbacks on their way to motuo in yucun traveling notes) or of general breakdowns (i.e. wu xie stays numb once xiaoge disappears behind the gate up until he starts crying in the street once he returns to hangzhou).

it’s incredibly rare that wu xie’s trauma directs itself outwards towards his loved ones, and while he might do so in his head quite frequently (which we the readers see since most of the books are from wu xie's point of view), it's rare he actually externalizes it, and since his comments can only lead to conflict if they're extrernalized, there's rarely ever genuine conflict between him and his friends. one of the only times it happens with pangzi specifically is in tibetan sea flower were he makes an honestly cruel dig at pangzi about yuncai because pangzi’s withheld information about xiaoge from him:

but even this scene, which is the closest to anything that's portrayed in 2.5 between them, plays out differently, not only because wu xie knows very well he’s going too far, his mention of yuncai isn't solely an outlet for his anger. he’s very consciously trying to bait pangzi into telling him what he knows, and so aims at where he knows will hurt most. it's targeted and mean because it's meant to be, but it's also not a gratuitious outlet either unlike his comments are more often than not in 2.5. it's manipulation, and he's certainly not trying to push pangzi away, nor is it driving a wedge between them despite how uncalled for his comment it. and more importantly, pangzi once again proves himself to be the most emotionally stable of the iron triangle by not stooping to that level or making light of the conversation. he knows perfectly well what wu xie is doing, so any conflict is diffused before it can even take root, and stays an isolated incident, whereas in 2.5, conflict is an underlying theme.

ironically there are more examples of this type directed at xiaoge, but even those don't showcase the same blind anger or gratuitous meanness that 2.5 wu xie consistently displays, and it's that specifically that's out of character. while wu xie vents his frustrations at xiaoge in book 4 over being kept in the dark, he's more serious about it than angry, and very quickly realizes his foot-in-mouth comment and backtracks accordingly:

he's at his most openly angry with xiaoge at the end of book 8 when xiaoge leaves them all in banai, and even goes as far as trying to have xiaoge detained by qiu dekao in a last ditch effort to force him to stay (which in itself is the real manifestation of him not being able to control his emotions correctly and reason going out the window where xiaoge is concerned, and it only ever really happens in relation to xiaoge, but that's also a topic for another post):

but again, while he's visibly angry and upset, and is looking for support from others around him to validate his upset at xiaoge leaving, he never actually spews any vitriol at xiaoge himself despite his anger being obvious, never actually calls him names outside of his own head despite the rare quality of his anger, never tries to instigate conflict for the sake of venting his overflowing emotions, nor does he ultimately stop xiaoge from leaving. even later as he follows xiaoge up changbai mountain, his desperation eventually turns into resignation and acceptance, not venting.

this post is way too long, but my entire point here as it has been from the start of this discussion is that while wu xie in the books does get angry, he does have ptsd, it does manifest in the ugliest ways and he's certainly not an angel, his anger in general never veers into extended open conflict or gratuitous vitriol thrown at his loved ones as a misguided form of venting his own emotions like it does throughout the vast majority of lost tomb 2.5, just like a number of the conflicts he gets into with other characters stem from out of character reactions from those characters to begin with (i.e. xiao hua absolutely losing it over wu xie hiding wu sanxing's betrayal of xie lianhuan in 2.5 vs. this information being very casually received in book 7). and that's where my point of contention with that adaptation lies.

i feel as though this is a case of agreeing to disagree as far as interpretation of wu xie's character goes, and that's absolutely fine, but in the same way that it's alright to dislike things simply because, it's equally as alright to like things for the same reasons. it's fine to like lost tomb 2.5, and my opinion of it is purely my own, but liking it doesn't necessarily have to be rooted in whether it's adapting the books correctly, even if it can be.

my dislike of 2.5 stems from how i consider it to be out of character by comparison to the books, and my entire point here has been to explain that different interpretations of any particular source material can exist, and therefore yes, it's entirely possible to view 2.5 wu xie as out of character, just as it's entirely possible to dislike that adaptation for the same reason. and i'm far from the only person to have this interpretation. so no, my dislike of 2.5 doesn't come from not liking it when wu xie’s doing unlikeable things, or else i wouldn't like wu xie as a character, nor is it because i don’t understand what ptsd is given the particular ways in which it can manifest from one specific person to another

#i just have strong opinions about this sorry if it's coming off strong #and i'm perfectly willing to debate with quotes etc #but lbr there's a reason lost tomb 2.5 is more or less unanimously the most disliked adaptation across the board #both in the western fandom and chinese fandom #though tbf the chinese fandom doesn't tend to like the dramas all that much in general #which is valid sometimes tbh given some of the takes i've seen about dmbj as a whole from people who refuse to touch the books but well #still #first wu xie meta #exciting #dmbj #dmbj meta #wu xie #dmbj novels #lost tomb 2.5

[tythehedgehogheadcanons]

General Knuckles HCs

Explaining my general thoughts for Knuckles and how I characterize him. I always include a lot of thoughts on the characters, as well as random things they do, their music taste, fashion sense, and all that.

My requests are open, please read the pinned message!

~ I see him as a closed-off guy, all he knows is being tough and being alone. It's hard for him to talk about feelings, so prefers to express himself through violence and yelling. In short; he would rather level a mountain than talk about how lonely he is.

~ I wouldn't say his tough-guy attitude is entirely an act, but there's definitely a part of him that wants to play it up to look cool. In reality, he's just a strong and determined guy who still has a lot to learn.

~ He is uneducated, but not stupid. He may struggle with concepts he didn't have on his island like things taught in school and ESPECIALLY social interaction, but outside of that, he is rather smart. (The fact he still has to hold his hands up to tell left from right does not mean he is stupid!)

~ Say it with me yall; Touch. Starved. He secretly craves physical affection but refuses to admit it. He's gotta keep up the tough guy look damn it!

~ I see Knuckles as a very "I don't have to understand it to accept it" guy. He doesn't try to understand something before he decides if it's good or bad, just accepts it at face value. Someone's trans? Just tell him what they want to be called and he will call them that. This does lead to a lot of pranks being pulled on him though!

~ Knuckles has anger issues he is still learning to control. A lot of small things that don't matter make him really angry, and he often lashes out in anger at times when a fight would only make the situation worse. He is very aware of this issue and is getting better at managing it, but things like teasing are still huge triggers for violent outbursts.

~ Knuckles struggles to ask for help. He swears up and down that he can do it himself when he absolutely cannot and just doesn't want to feel humiliated and ask for help.

~ That being said, Knuckles doesn't like help when he doesn't need it. It makes him feel humiliated and embarrassed that someone helped him when he could have very easily done it himself.

~ If there was a contest for who could give the best "cold shoulder treatment" he would have multiple gold medals.

~ Knuckles isn't an introvert, but not really an extrovert either. He doesn't actively hate or try to avoid other people, but he does tend to stay in areas without many people as it's what he is used to.

~ Knuckles hates small talk. If it's not something he enjoys or something important, he doesn't want to hear about it. He doesn't care about other people's business!

~ Knuckles always looks like he's pissed about something- even when he isn't. He never seems to realize this and always get's confused when people get nervous about his glare.

~ Due to Knuckle's lack of social awareness and social skills, he often stares at people in public, stands in the way, touches and grabs random things that he's curious about, and generally things that are considered rude or annoying. He doesn't mean to be rude, he just has no idea those things aren't very socially acceptable. He is often asked to leave stores after grabbing a bunch of things to mess around with (and very likely breaking them...)

~ Continuing off of that, Knuckles often just walks away when someone is trying to talk to him. If he doesn't want to be there, he will leave with no explanation and you will not stop him.

~ Knuckles doesn't care for being called a 'hero' or receiving praise for doing something small. He appreciates praise as much as anyone, but unlike Sonic, he would prefer to be praised for something like stopping Eggman, not getting a cat out of a tree. It should be common sense to help someone who needs it!

~ Knuckles prefers to spend time outside, either training or just a nice stroll. He has no idea what the appeal of "Movies" or "Social Media" is, and is very confused about how people find entertainment in it. Why fight someone with words on a small rectangle when you can go actually fight them?? (Please do not give him access to twitter.com)

~ Knuckles practices meditation and is often seen in calm or peaceful places with his eyes closed. Knuckles actually joined a local meditation group and considers everyone in that group a friend. He gets very upset when his meditation is interrupted!

~ Knuckles makes friends with some of the most random and strangest people, it honestly concerning. The store owner of a small pawn shop? Knuckles greets them whenever he sees them. A traveling merchant that sells weird and creepy trinkets? They have an inside joke!

~ I don't feel like Knuckles cares for music. He doesn't hate it, but he doesn't really listen to it on his own time- Knuckles prefers the sounds of nature instead! That being said, he DESPISES pop music.

~ Fashion sense! I always love Sonic characters in clothes, so always include this in my headcanons. Knuckles would prefer loose clothes, clothes that show off his muscles and don't get in the way of his movement. He just prefers to wear tank tops and sweatpants or cargo pants. He may wear an athletic jacket on colder days. He prefers white, black, or green clothes to stand out against his Red.

~ He absolutely asked for Amy's help picking clothing colors and begged for her to keep it between the two of them, people can't know he asked for help! He has a reputation!

~ Knuckles still has his old cowboy hat and treats it like his child.

Please reblog this to help me gain publicity, reblogs over likes! Thank you!

And please, comment with whatever thoughts you have. I love to read them all and it gives me a huge motivation boost to keep going! <3

#knuckles #headcanons #sonic headcanons #sonic the hedgehog headcanons #knuckles headcanons #knuckles the echidna headcanons #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #knuckles the echidna #sonic fandom #sth #knuckles x reader #knuckles x male reader #x reader #x male reader #x gn reader #gn reader

[brainrotdotorg]

sorry. thinking about piss and fuck again. gonna subject you to it.

when you love a niche-ish character you really have to scrape for content to learn anything at all about their personalities. as with every character, we are viewing them and the world through the lens of a cop-- of course people are going to interact with harry differently than they would with a friend or loved one. we dont get to really see who they truly are.

THANKFULLY our dumb boys are somehow both painfully sincere and also deeply ironic. so they have. entire fucking mission statements about who they are that can tell us a lot about how they view themselves and the world! a great source for learning more about them and i am gonna do a dive into it!!

here's piss's reasoning behind his name (all copied via fayde)

PISSF****T - "Well, first off, it's a statement and not *necessarily* something that characterizes me as a person, even though the statement has character. And I *do* like piss..."

[Og] *336.PISSF****T - "The word PISSF****T epitomizes the struggle taking place in the world, things being defined as they seem, not as they are. And -- I guess -- it's also about communal spirit, the future, and *truly* appreciating our differences."

[Og] *200.PISSF****T - "Also, you've got to admit, it catches the eye. And since the grand piper is slowly but steadily moving towards basing the economy on it -- attention -- it is imperative that the medium itself convey the message."

[Og] *235.YOU - "Ee... what?"

[Og] *177.PISSF****T - "What I mean by this is -- we are *all* Pissf****ts. And that the world is inherently meaningless."

thank you my boy youre such a genius. and here is fuck's:

FUCK THE WORLD - "I can answer that. Many men keep searching for *the one*. For so-called true love, which is actually just obsession masquerading as kinship. The thrill of the chase, the hollowness that fills your chest cavity after catching it."

[Og] *127.FUCK THE WORLD - "To catch a fish you need to hurl the lure many times, and even then it isn't certain that you'll get anything. If you blow up the lake, though..."

[Og] *40.YOU - "Blow it up!"

[Og] *364.FUCK THE WORLD - "...you get more fish in a shorter time. And, for time is of the essence and fleeting ever so quickly, one must think of a way to fuck the whole world -- and not get caught up in fucking some *one*."

[Og] *47.FUCK THE WORLD - "Because when one fucks everything, he fucks nothing. And that, to me, feels glorious -- sticking your dick into the void."

so what have we learned here!!

Piss believes:

it is a statement, not *necessarily something that characterizes him, though he is into piss (whether or not he's actually a faggot is still technically up in their air but. come on. yknow)

things are often defined as how they seem rather than how they are (public perception not aligning with the truth of a thing and how this is an inevitability)

in communal spirit, (community and unity)

the future, (vague but I guess uhhh he believes in a better one? he believes in A Future. thats nice)

truly appreciating our differences (explanatory. good for you piss, love thy neighbor and all that)

attention is the new currency, baby!! (also says 'the grand piper' sorry am i stupid what does that mean. what is up with your verbiage, girl. i love you.)

the world is meaningless! (seemingly anti-nihilistic approach about nothing meaning anything, with an emphasis on community and authenticity in a universe that means nothing rather than focusing on hopelessness)

Fuck believes:

"true love" is just obsession masquerading as kinship- probably some very cynical and pessimistic views on romance, believes also that its about the thrill of the chase and not the actual end result

(he believes in bad metaphors also. sorry buddy. i forgive you)

sees this chase as fruitless because you may not even end up with anything

life is short so get what you want as quickly as you can

generous interpretation. fish as representative of not only sexual partners but maybe opportunities? not getting caught up with just THE ONE and finding ways to have it all? (hedonism, question mark)

sticking your dick into the void. gotta give him credit there!! maybe some similarly aligned feelings with piss about nihilism? idk

non-monogamy is the way to go it seems!

(imo piss's statement of unity through the bizarre and pride in the perverse is a strong statement than sticking your dick into the void. not even saying that because i like him more. sorry fuck. maybe my interpretations are too charitable but I'm working with what I've got here!)

so today we've learned that piss is of the idea that things are not always what they seem, and the way to combat the common problem of making assumptions is to understand the differences of your fellow man and find what unity you can in an ultimately meaningless world.

and fuck is. a whore.?

jk fuck's philosophy is much more focused on romance and attraction than I remember it being but like... no it really is. about that. his thesis is basically about how there is no one SINGLE thing (or person) that will bring you satisfaction, so this life is all about getting what you can in the short amount of time you have. not bad!

i hope this read gives people a clearer idea on how i perceive them the way i do lol. these little mission statements are pretty telling of their character i wish everyone could give a little explanation like this of their philosophies . in the exact same stupid manner, preferably. if anybody has any other interpretations i would love to hear them

#disco elysium #pissfaggot #fuck the world

[kittycat-in-the-dark]

Jason is a character that seems to be very divisive in fandom... like he is not the only one, but oh boy is he the one that most of the times brings the extremes in people in fandom. Either people only talk about the bad he did or only look at him as a victim and try to justify/excuse every action he has taken. Of course, there are always people that can be more reasonable and properly discuss both the good and the bad Jason has done. But the extremes and their popularity never go away... And in all of this “fandom mess”, the canon department, and the fact that DC cannot seem to figure out what to do with him, isn’t helping either, especially in moving his character forward from his current status.

Anyways, i want to make a "list" of how Jay actually is like in canon. Also to point out that i am probably gonna forget something and that i am kinda gonna follow the most known stories and writing of Jason coming from post-crisis and Rebirth because they seem to be the more "concise and logical" canon Jay was right now (thou be aware that the New-52 is still canon to Rebirth)... like i know that canon selectivity is what also brings wrong and/or one-dimensional takes... but i am trying my best with this "overall look" into the character. My desire to make this post comes from some thoughts that have been on my mind about Jason, his canon and how he is perceived in the fandom for a while, and i guess that this post can be seen as a "personal liberation" of sorts. So, humour me a little...

And i suppose this post can also act as a guide to Jason's character in canon with some of my commentary. I hope it can be somehow helpful! *also, if people wanna skip my ramblings and just see some comic suggestions, the list of the comics i wrote about in this post is at the bottom of the post,, also with links to a character reading guide for Jason made by another user on Tumblr and with a link where you could read them.

Warning: i have to say that i never did this type of post so, again, sorry if i miss something and my writing is confusing. Also, aside from criticising some fanon interpretations, i will have parts where i also criticise dc's writing, because we cannot have a complete dc comics' post without criticising both sides, lmao. Also, English is not my first language so be warned of spelling errors as well. Also, because the subject matter of this post is who it is,, warning for some controversial subjects and takes! Also, that this is gonna be a very long post…

NOTE: this is obviously gonna have spoilers for a lot of Jason's comics. And because this is Jason and DC i am talking about, there are trigger warnings for death, violence, sexism, classism, racism, domestic abuse and SA mention (though i won't write about them in that much depth, but just to be aware that these are gonna be addressed in this post). Also, some of my thoughts in this can be very scattered, so sorry if something is confusing. And even if i talk about some events i am not gonna recapitulate them properly, only the important bits and/or just the characterization of Jason. This post is gonna be organized by points named after the comics era and the comic’s title, following the publication date of their first issue, so this is not gonna be 100% Jason’s chronological order in universe.

Obviously, some parts of this post might come off as my personal opinions and interpretations, thou when that is the case i usually point it out. I mean, actually most of this is my interpretation of canon (lol), thou a lot of the things i talk about are from the general interpretation that most people seem have of the comics, and includes just some specific comments on certain subjects that are more my opinion (thou i think it's pretty obvious when that is the case) and i had some parts where i linked some posts from other blogs made by other people because i think they are better at explaining and expanding those points than me, if you are curious about getting more details or a better explanation on those parts (thou i didn't put links to other posts in all of them), also, some of these posts also inspired me into making this “big Jason Todd post” and they are all credited to their respective creators at end of this post.

The purpose of this post is to put "all" (or almost all) the information on Jason's overall characterization through the current canon, so i am not gonna go into much detail on everything. Sorry for dragging this out so much but i wanna be as clear as possible!! (And to the fans that are more versed in the mess that is DC comics, feel free to correct me if it is necessary or to add to my post in reblogs. I would be very grateful if you guys did so.)

Anyways, moving on to the “list”..

Post-crisis Jason Todd

Robin Jason: i mean.. i have seen more and more people doing posts about how Jason is not so angry as Robin, or you know (even better) people discussing that "there is no angry Robin", which i appreciate so much. Like, none of the Robins have anger as a prominent characteristic, and when they are angry it is for good and personal, and just generally understanding reasons. Jason's main reason for his anger was towards the Injustices he witnesses every day and that he himself suffered since a young age and before becoming Robin. Another thing is that, well.. Bruce and the narrative are kinda "weird", aka injust, towards Jason's anger. Always pointing it as his "fatal flaw", and Bruce instead of addressing and trying to understand why his son feels and acts like this he gives him general speeches about justice and that "they can't be judge, jury and executioner". Though, i don't want to villainize Bruce in any way for this, as it is understandable that he comes from a very different perspective from Jay and he did try his best at being a dad (especially more during this time than later) and in giving Jay a loving home. Thou, one thing i will never understand and that still gets under my skin a little is,, how tf didn't Bruce realize sooner that Jason's anger was related to losing his parents and not having the chance to grieve them properly... like, i get that Bruce is Human, he is allowed to fail, but you would think he would have understood better considering he relates to that pain, you know. For not saying that Bruce also was kinda the one to "make Jason's anger worse", in the sense that, like i said before, Bruce focuses too much on this idea that Jason is being so consumed by his anger, when that is mostly not the case until Bruce starts and keeps talking about "channelling anger and grief towards vigilantism", like i am not necessarily saying that Bruce caused or was the one to make Jason's anger worse, but to a certain extent by projecting on to him he definitely contributed to make Jason more "guided by anger in the field", especially after Jason found out that Bruce hid from him that Two-Face killed his dad. And ya, Bruce did discuss with Alfred about if he made a mistake by making Jason Robin in A Death in the Family, but by then it was already too late to fix what he helped "break", in a sense. Also, him prioritising going after the Joker instead of looking for and later staying with his son in order to work together in saving Sheila (and as we all already know this is not the first time Bruce prioritises his mission over his kids, especially with Jason). Then, Jay is left to go on his own and, basically, ends up sacrificing everything to meet and save his biological mom, only to end up beaten and blown up by the Joker after she betrayed him.

Though, what should be the main take away from Jason's Robin run is that he is just a sweet kid that cares about people, to the point that in most missions with Batman he often stays behind to give medical care to victims and bystanders while Bats runs after the villains, but that can have a little bit of a temper that is mostly linked to his trauma from growing up in a difficult situation (poor, parents probably used to fight, mom sick, dad not present because he went to work for a mob boss, being needed to fend for himself on the streets and losing his parents). And that anger was made worse by Bruce's brand of justice, that he simultaneously uses to deal with his own grief, and Bruce instead of understanding, and then understanding when it was too late, that that was not what Jason needed to heal and have a good life, and ignoring/not realising that, even before meeting Bruce, he already had a "sense of justice" of his own (see it in how he helped Batman in the story they first met, when he realizes that Ma Gunn is running a criminal institution where she "recruits" young boys to work for her, i mean Jay stopping Ma is what made Bruce take Jason in in the first place, so..). As well as that Jay is a kid that appreciates living and having a new family with Bruce and Alfred and enjoys to have the chance to go back to school and learn new things. Also, i think it's important to note that before he died, and Jay was in the warehouse with his mother, he got up after being beaten bloody by the Joker and put his body between his mom and the bomb in order to protect her... this poor boy was ready to die if it meant that he could give a little bit of a chance to his mom to survive, even if she betrayed his trust.. like, i can't ..this boy deserves so much better. And to add to it, Jay, after he returns from the dead, says that he doesn't blame his mother for his death and that he still loves her despite everything... (and this in comics where the writers remember that Sheila exists/existed or don't outright erase her...).

Gotta add that the writers putting the blame on Jason and his choices for his death is so wrong and horrible.. like ya he did some stupid and, in the moment, bad choices, but he was a 15-year-old that lost his parents and that had hope to meet his biological mom, for crying out loud!! How can you act like he deserved this fate just because he is "reckless and angry"?! Also, how in any capacity was anger involved in A Death in the Family when Jason went looking for his mom... like tf? Like ya, he was angry but only when he heard Bruce and Alfred discussing to bench him, and then he just left to get some fresh air to calm down instead of arguing, so ya... And the writing should stop "acting" as if it's not like every single adult that was supposed to help and look out for him failed him in some way.. you know... i mean ya, he was a teenager capable of making his own choices and of recognizing his mistakes, but it still doesn't change that at this point he was in a pretty vulnerable situation and to be honest Bruce wasn't really helping for the most part.

And going a little back to Bruce and Alfred discussing “if it was a good idea to make Jason Robin”, i have seen some discussions in fandom, where because of this and what happened to Jason in A Death in the Family and after he was resurrected, that Jason should have never be made or allowed to continue to be Robin, and that if he was benched and Bruce “left” him only as his son that things would have been better and he would have had “his happy ending with his new family”. But the thing is,, the problem here is not Jason being Robin or being a “bad Robin” to begin with… like ya, there is a rather dumb insistence on the writers on painting Jason in a worse light as Robin, especially when they were doing so as a comparison factor between Jason and Tim, once the latter took on the title. But, Jason was a good Robin! HE WAS A GOOD ROBIN!!! AND HE LOVED BEING ROBIN!! He did is duties, he helped people, he was happy being Robin. He listened to Bruce,, and the only times “he went on his own” was in “good faith to do the right thing and impress Bruce” (like when he captured Scarecrow on his own and brought him to the Batcave), and when he went after his mother, but on this last one, it relates to a more personal and emotional situation, so it’s understandable. And, like i pointed out before, the ONLY ONE talking about “USING ANGER AND HURT AND CHANNELING THEM TOWARDS VIGILANTISISM” WAS BRUCE,,, BRUCE STARTED THIS BECAUSE HE COULDN’T UNDERSTAND THAT HIS BOYS NEEDED DIFFERENT WAYS TO DEAL WITH THEIR GRIEF AND MOVE ON!! Because this man, as we will see as well later and we, generally, already know,, is very hard to move when it comes to his own convictions. This is why, i also think it’s wrong or horrible to call Jason “Bruce’s biggest mistake/failure”, because, while Bruce did fail his son in many ways, the way this phrase frames Jason as “Bruce’s mistake” is quite reductive and goes back to the “Bruce only took Jason in so he wouldn’t become a criminal” and, again, that somehow Jason always had “something wrong” with him that doesn’t “allow” him to be Robin without failure,, and because Bruce was so focused on this idea about Jason, he basically forgot that this boy needed more than vengeance, just like he did with Dick. But Dick had the luck of having had for a long time close friends to help him move on without Bruce, Jason on the other hand mostly had only Bruce as his closest one,,, so my point here is: Bruce failed at realizing that his son needed other ways to deal with his emotions, and more specifically his grief, he needed other perspectives from different people, he needed closer friends of his age and, perhaps, of similar background, he needed other support systems,, and Bruce didn’t allow him to have them in a sense with his “never changing view on and dedication to justice”,,, like it’s even confirmed in one story from Batman Annual, about Jay going to school, and the kids there thinking he is very weird because, usually, after school he immediately left for home and never joined any clubs,, they thought he was the weird kid that spent time alone in his huge manor with his old butler, because he went home immediately after classes ended because of his Robin duties,, and Jason did express in the same story that he would have enjoyed being able to join a club after a teacher told him he needed to join one, more specifically he wanted to do and participate in a theatre play, but he never did…. So ya, you would think that Bruce and Alfred would have realized that Jason needed other connections and other things to explore and do other than Robin stuff in order to become better and heal. He was a kid!!! He needed this type of things in his life!!

Now that i got the basics of Robin Jason, let's move on to Red Hood:

Lost Days and Under the Red Hood - the Winick era (i guess i can call it that, lol): when it comes to these stories, i have a very dislike/hate-like/love (or just overall complicated, lmao) relationship with it (and i think most people do, i guess... or at least the people from the circles i have been in). And that is because... well, despite being Jason's revival story and having some awesome moments, such as Talia helping Jay, Jay saving the lives of some college students and from being framed as bombers, freeing kids from traffickers, exploring his desire for revenge against Bruce and Joker, and how he thinks about "how can Bruce let Joker get away when he is taking away/breaking so many families", as examples. But.....you probably already know what's coming *sigh*... the writing is also awful because Talia, after putting Jay in the Pit, is portrayed in a very disgusting way, imo, in some panels. And while i sympathise with her for how her father manipulated her through the feelings she has towards Bruce, and just how he generally treats her honestly, i hated seeing her getting involved with Jay that way (aka sleeping with him)... when i saw those panels i wanted to gouge my eyes out (though thank everything it was retconned later), but i gotta say (and i apologize for the aggressiveness): Winick you fucking suck for what you did to Talia!! (sorry i know this doesn't do anything, but i needed to let it out.. and ya, i know Morrison did her way way worse, but while Winick wrote her better, that type of relationship between Talia and Jay felt so unnecessary, like she is supposed to be more of a protector, mentor and mother figure, or that was what i remember thinking when i first read Lost Days, until those panels appeared. Though, it is also possible to interpret that Talia got involved with Jay that way because of her own traumatic event that she went through in Batman: Death and the Maidens, that being that she was tortured and brainwashed by her sister Nyssa (which was horrifying) and made to fight the most important people to her, aka Bruce and Ra's, against her will... also, she slept with Jason because she blames Bruce for how her father has killed in that story,, so it can be seen as both Jason and Talia getting involved that way because of their shared hatred and disappointment towards Bruce, also because they are both messed-up and traumatized people,, but, ya know, it’s still weird and disgusting as fuck, especially if you were like me and took their relationship as mother-son since the beginning of the story.. so, RIP to those of us who did that; also, this comic was written in the late 2000s, of course healthy and “legal” relationships weren’t a priority, the priority was sexy times because sexy times… and I hate it!!*more about this particular subject later).

But ignoring how Winick ruined Talia with those specific actions, i am glad that most part of the fandom seem to choose to discuss more about Talia as a mentor and protector of Jay during that time, even if she failed at some things (such as making Jay desire revenge against Bruce in "her way" many times, and not in the murderous way Jay was at first thinking, and actually helping him with his situation and feelings) and even if, at first, her motivations were more selfish and related more to her feelings and relationship with Bruce. I mean, if she hadn’t stuck with Jay, trained him, protected him from Ra's and put him in the Pit, Jay would have been (most probably) dead again and for good this time, considering that Ra's wanted to get rid of him in order to avoid "starting a war with the Bat". Plus, she put him in the Pit because while she interacted with catatonic Jason she saw that he still had capacity for empathy/emotions, while her father dismissed him as an emotionless machine and mindless puppet, and was running out of patience with "Talia's little experiment" (as Ra's also called Jay)... just to make it clear that Talia shouldn't be as demonized as she is when it comes to her relationship with Jason, and that she was the only one that didn’t give up on him.

Though, i still think it's important to realize the ways Talia manipulated Jay, such as Talia telling Jay "You remain unavenged!" when he was very confused after being “brought back” by the pit, giving Jay information about the new Robin and about Joker still being alive, but she never once mentioned, or really no one says to Jay, that Bruce did go after Joker with a vengeance after his death and that Superman had to be there to ground Bruce to not do the unthinkable for himself (aka kill Joker), and the many times she tries to make Jay change his way of revenge on Bruce by stalling him with her missions and teachings when she realized that Jay was "going a little too far" for her taste, and she finally, literally at the end of the story, repeatedly encouraged him "to become the new Batman Gotham City needs". Also, i want to point out that the "Jason is angry because he was replaced so quickly" is only a big deal/important in Lost Days, because later, and mainly, that turns to just another reminder that nothing changed after his death, and that Bruce was no problem keeping a Robin around while Joker is still alive and going about his usual routine. Like, he doesn't even care about getting Robin back, which is something he says to Tim in the Titans Tower Fight (that i will talk about more in the topic about it, lol). And there is an argument to be made of either or not Jay would have been better if Joker was killed, maybe to an extent but definitely not fully, especially with his problems related to Bruce.

*Going a little back about Talia and Jason’s intimate relationship in Lost Days: This relationship (because of those intimate moments that i mentioned before) became very controversial in fandom, being that some people see it in pure disgust and others think it’s okay… the people on the first category (myself included) feel this way because we took the relationship between them since the beginning as mother and son, which is also supported by the fact that Talia is depicted both in a Lost Days cover and in Rebirth as holding Jay in the Lazarus Pit in the position of the sculpture “La Pietà” by Michelangelo of Virgin Mary cradling her dead son after his crucifixion, and all of the endearing moments Talia and Jason have when he is catatonic seemed more like platonic love between an adult and a child/teen. While on the other side people believe that it is acceptable because they never saw the relationship that way, because she was never a mother figure to Jason to begin with, and that when the intimacy happened Jason was already of age, and also, because of the time period that they were mostly apart while Jay was training, it means that Jason is way over 18 when they are shown sleeping together and that the relationship between them couldn’t have developed in the way the first group sees it… and also because we are talking about a character, aka Talia, that comes from a different culture and was a different way of life, status and relationships, to what we do here in the west. And like, on the contrary of what some seem to believe or usually focus on about in this controversial topic, there is no problem with Talia sleeping with other men while she still has feelings for Bruce, like it is implied she does in Lost Days with that assassin that works for her, because well, Bruce and Talia aren’t actually together anymore in this story, but also that Talia wouldn’t be the first dc character to have multiple romantic and/or intimate relationships,, so there “being a problem with her sleeping with others because of Bruce” is a stupid argument and such a big double standard that shouldn’t even be brought up at this point… like who tf said that Talia needs to be fucking devoted to Bruce only and for forever?? That is just a sexist view, especially considering that male heroes tend to sleep around with a lot of women, either in a “playboy, maintaining their identity way” or “because they feel like it and/or actually have feelings for the women they are sleeping with”. So, NO, the argument here shouldn’t even bring up Bruce or Talia’s feelings for Bruce as what is or feels wrong when we see Talia and Jason sleep together, at least not in the way previously described. Plus, even Winick himself says that the audience is supposed to feel uncomfortable with seeing them together like that, even if it is for different reasons than the ones i mentioned above:

For those playing at home, Jason Todd, at the end of Red Hood: Lost Days, and Talia slept together. I did that because it was really disturbing and to shine a light on the fact that these are not really well people. A lot of people didn’t like that, which was correct. You weren’t supposed to like that. That was supposed to be, ‘oh God, stop that, what are you doing?’ It really was. That was grudge sex all the way around. As well as, for Talia, her reasons, being that Bruce had wound up inadvertently killing her father and she was ragingly angry with him and went from love to pure hate and still loving him at the same time. And Jason, given the opportunity to have sex with just about the only woman who Bruce has had sex with or really cares about, 'Yeah, I’ll go there.

(after the interviewer says: He’s like, 'yeah, cause I hate that guy.’)

Yeah! 'I hate that guy!’ And I think that Jason probably had the hots for Talia. She’s hot, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of relationships going on – It’s not a good thing for either of them. These are two people who murder people, two people who are screwed up, screwed up emotionally. There’s this question that why would he do that and Talia only loves Bruce. She might only love Bruce, but she does have sex with other people because that’s just sex. And we’re all grown-ups here. I think those who shake their fist and get angry at this kind of thing might be some of our older readers. I’m an older reader, but I acknowledge the fact that people aren’t that chaste and grow up: people have sex. That’s why I ended it like that; It was messed up. – Judd Winick in the Comicvine podcast

And there it is, from the guy that wrote the comic. It’s supposed to be something wrong and it is… we are allowed to say it is wrong and to hate it/feel uncomfortable because of it, either being for the difference in age and relationship interpretation and/or just the context of the moment with the reasons that Winick brought up in the interview. But we also need to move on from it, because we (me included) tend to fixate on this part too much when talking about Lost Days, also this was written 13 years ago!! Like damn… but anyway,, i think it’s time to move on… plus, Jay staying so much with Talia, or at least Talia and Jay sleeping together, was retconned when, in the New-52, dc made Talia guide Jason to the All Caste to train.

Jason and the “Pit Madness”

I gotta say that, personally, i am not a big fan of the, dubbed by the fanon, "Pit Madness". Like, it is obvious, and it is pointed out by some characters in the story, that Jay became "cold and a psycho" after emerging from the Pit. So ya, i guess we can agree that the Pit can change a person's perspective and emotions to a more "dark turn" (i guess i can call it that), but it obviously doesn't cause/originate "bad thoughts and actions" or make the person a "uncontrollable monster that kills" and that can "snap out of it and become good again", as i interpret that what the Pit does, is make the person more focused/influenced by their dark corners with their worse experiences and feelings (though this might just be my interpretation, but i did see other people that see it this way as well)... anyway the point i am trying to make is that "Pit Madness", or at least what fanon thinks it is, doesn't exist, especially because if it did, it would just take away any agency Jason and any other character have over their actions after emerging from the Pit. So ya... also, even if Jay has a colder demeanour, he keeps saving people while on Talia's missions (even if he refuses to admit that he is “following his Robin roots” with these actions) and even has a moment where he spares the life of a criminal because he only worked as a driver for mercenaries, so it is clear that Jason is not just “blindly killing any criminal he comes across” in these missions, as he understands that not all of them are “that horrible and just need to survive in one way or another”. He also keeps reflecting on his emotions and thoughts towards Bruce and Joker (and heck, he even has moments where he directly compares himself to his past Robin-self and Bruce's ideals and teachings... how can some people put all of this under "influence of a green magic pit" when this is all Jason and Jason's being and thoughts..), so he being "cold and a psycho" and being that because of the pit and being "evil" because of Talia and her manipulation just gets disproven. Or least, it proves that these aren't the main factors that make Jason "evil" or start killing or have the desire for revenge against Bruce and Joker. Also, Talia manipulating him and having more selfish motivations while at the same time genuinely growing to care about Jason is plausible, which is what happened in this story, because she is a multidimensional character that walks a grey line, just like Jay. And well, she is a character that is constantly tied to love and so she is very caring and physical with her affections, and very dedicated to her loved ones,, unless you are a dumb writer that wants to make her Ra’s al Ghul 2.0 and a horrible mother and ex-lover *cough* Morrison *cough*.

Going to UTRH, i think that the story is pretty good and i like the conflict between Jason and Bruce,, especially the final confrontation (though the crisis event at end took me out of it). BUT, i think that what needs to be understood better about this story is the following things:

1. Just because Jason has trauma, that doesn't justify all the lives he takes, especially when those lives are just random crooks that most probably (or at least a part of them) are one in the first place, because they felt forced to be in order to survive in Gotham City (also a lot of them might have families to take care of). And so, the writing and Jason's attitude towards them is quite dismissive of the fact that these are people and that not all of them might be in this situation by choice (also, it is obvious that Jay doesn't kill any big villain, like Joker or Black Mask, because dc cannot kill their iconic villains, but like... idk man, the crook killing was too much in this story...). Also, this kinda goes against on how Jason was going about killing criminals in Lost Days, though this might be because in UTRH he was more focused on taking down Black Mask and controlling the drug trade, which, besides recruiting already existing drug dealers and their crooks, also included taking out the ones working for the opposition… so, even if it is a big jump from how Jason “usually does things”, like usual, Jason always was a reason why he kills certain criminals, he doesn’t kill randomly. Though, that doesn’t invalidate the position made at the beginning of this point 

2. Though, i also feel like the writer is also kinda dismissive towards Jason's trauma and his need for his father to "save him and show his love to him", which i think is what leads a lot of people to see it as "Jason is throwing a tantrum or over exaggerating or just wrong because he is too emotional, blá blá blá"

3. I believe that there is no "right answer" to the conflict between Red Hood and Batman. Like, both bring up both good and bad points to their situation and beliefs; also there are more ways to look at this confrontation than just the morality one, such as the more emotional conflict between father and son, and how it is more about their love for each other than the Joker or morality; though, i have to bring up Bruce choosing to uphold his beliefs by stopping Jay from killing Joker, instead of choosing to truly help his son, just like before in A Death in the Family.. and it's kinda ironic how he ends up (probably) killing Jason at the end. Also, when it comes to the never ending debate of either or not Bruce should have killed Joker for Jason, i like to point out this gem of a post that puts it well when saying that Bruce should not be forced to do something he doesn't want to do and that he knows is something that is gonna ruin him for the rest of his life. Also, that Bruce knows (when the writers want to admit) that he can make mistakes, including when going to beat up someone when he thinks they are guilty (also pointing to this other gem), and that Bruce not killing is also a great contrast to Gotham’s corruption of the “powers of Gotham City that were supposed to protect people, but they are corrupt and kill for “no good reason”,  and people dying by it is seen as “normal”/or just another day in this city” (bringing up this as well). And i know that it seems like i am on Bruce's side here, but i am not,, i am trying to be understanding towards both parties in this conflict.. also, to go back to Jason, this is not just about his revenge or his relationship with Bruce as it is (like i pointed out in the Lost Days part) about Bruce letting this cycle of murder and pain continue by "keeping Joker alive", it's about all the victims of the Joker (which includes Jason), it's the "How many more need to die and suffer for something to change?!". For not saying that Jason sees "Bruce killing Joker because he took him away from Bruce" as a way to show/prove his love for Jay......... (also, i saw somewhere that some people claim that Jason "forced Bruce in a position where he has to Kill Joker", and like.. how?? i mean, ya Jay did orchestrate all of this crazy plan to bring him, Joker and Bruce together, but he didn't force him, what Jay did was to make Bruce a question,, aka, “does he choose Jason or his morals? And is he important enough to Bruce?” Plus, i think it’s not even that sure what even Jason himself expected out of this,, like him knowing how Bruce is about his code, was he really sure he would have his desired outcome here?? i mean, i think Jay probably knew that Bruce would have never killed, but still went with this plan most probably guided by his feelings and his need to feel like he belongs and has people that care about him, idk.. there are many things and perspectives that can be put on Jason’s plan and desires here, so ya)... The point is that people should stop looking at this confrontation as if there is only "one right answer" and without considering the two characters' different points of view overall and how they can reflect into this situation specifically. Because both Jason and Bruce are simultaneously right and wrong about a lot of things here, either be it in an emotional or in a moral perspective or both together (i am gonna "shut up" about this now, because this confrontation has so many complexities in it and so many other people have talked about it way better than i can and this post is already getting long enough..... so, moving on to the next point)

4. Jason doesn't have caring about innocents (or women and children) as a priority in this story. Honestly, i think he showed more care towards random people in Lost Days than in UTRH. Though, i want to emphasize that just because i say this, it doesn't mean that i am trying to downplay Jason's love and care for innocent people and his desire for love and family for himself, i am just pointing out the impression the writing gives me in UTRH when it comes to what Jay prioritizes throughout most of the story, even if one of his demands is "don't deal to children or near schools" when taking over drug trades (also, when it comes to this, some questions: why doesn't he demand to not deal to others as well, and specifically to addicts? Aren't they like the most at-risk group when it comes to these trades? And isn't it a little bit fucked up that with Jay's background (his mom dying because of taking drugs) that he became a drug dealer? Like, okay, fine... i guess it might be justified by his philosophy of "i am fighting crime by controlling it", but i mean.. i just think people should talk more about Jason's flaws when it comes to his "main mission" (or one of) that he claims to have in UTRH, because some things don't seem to add up, ya know? Also, he kills his own dealers way too many times..). But ya, protecting kids (or other groups of people) isn't his main mission in this story, his main mission is to get under Bruce's skin and show that his methods work better than his, alongside the fact that Jay is just a hurt and emotional teenager that is thinking more about his own desires and needs than others and how those others can be pulled into his “war on crime”

5. I know that the last point can come off as me downgrading Jason’s achievements in this story, but that is not my intention, because yes, what Jason did and the plans he put into action and at such a very young age are very impressive, especially how he managed to get at Batman with them, but i put more emphasis on his flaws here because people don’t seem to talk about them much

6. This should be obvious at this point, but while UTRH is one of Jason's essential stories for being his return to Gotham and Bruce and in how he brought up an interesting perspective against Batman and his code, this story alone should not be seen as the "definitive characterization" for Jason, or the only "right way" or wtv. Like, i am not saying this to discourage people of talking about it or Jason's characterization here, i am saying this more in the sense that some people in fandom seem to be forever stuck on this era of Jason, and with some kinda limited and/or one-dimensional takes on this story and especially of the conflict between Jason and Bruce, when there is a lot more to him than these 2 stories (UTRH and Lost Days)

(obviously, Winick wrote more comics with Jason than these 2, but i put them in the "Winick era" section because they are his "most definitive" works for Jay, I mean they really are the main comics he was the main writer of, lol… just to clarify my "category system")

Also, i want to say that i might have come off as kinda "against" these stories or Winick's writing. But on contrary of what it might seem, i actually enjoyed reading these stories (as i mentioned at the beginning of each part for Lost Days and UTRH), even if they have their problems.. plus, my points here aren't so much of a critique of the writing as it is of general fanon interpretations that i have seen online and that imo don't seem right... and i actually think Winick did a pretty good job with Jason, especially in these 2 stories, as he paints Jason as more of an anti-hero with pretty reasonable points,, even if some ways that Jason was shown felt a little bit too much of “showing how he is repeating the cycle of violence” (like,, did he really need to kill all of those random crooks??).  

But then the next writers looked at UTRH and decided to turn him into an outright villain... because why not? (ufff)

Entering Jason's "full villain" era:

Titans Tower: a lot of fanon tends to make the Titans Tower fight between Tim and Jason this big traumatic event for Tim, even thou he literally didn't care much and was more pissed with it than anything (plus he had actual traumatic events that happened to him at that time that mattered more, such as his dad dying). Also, this fight is just another of "annoying villain is bothering me with psychological games and a beating when i have better shit to worry about" for Tim. Plus, Jason did it to test the new Robin to see what he is made of and what makes him better... and Jay ends up complimenting Tim for being good and having friends (also, Jay is jealous that Tim got what he didn’t get to have himself as Robin, after all he does make the speech of “you had a dad that looked after you, went to private school and slept on a bed, while i was trying to survive on the streets”)... so ya... thou, this attack, was obviously done by Jason as another way to get at Bruce for replacing him so quickly (like, i don't even think Jay was that much of a personal problem with Tim, it's always tied to Bruce), but more importantly because Jason believes that, after his horrible death, Bruce shouldn't have allowed for there to be a new Robin. And I think it is interesting how Jason also brings up the fact that the heroes didn’t bother to remember him properly as he was as an hero and as a person, being that he wasn’t even remembered as a Titan,,, i mean, he wasn’t with the Titans much during his Robin days, but the times he was with them he was very excited about it and did a pretty good job working with them, like the least they could have done after finding out Jay was dead was to make a memorial of him as Robin and as Dick’s brother, and also because people talked about him as a “cautionary tale”, like I think most people would be pissed that they weren’t remembered properly as they truly were after dying. Also, Jason does bring up some got points about the existence of Robin in Batman’s crusade.

But, if you put aside the possible personal reasons for why Jay did this, this hole fight is actually pretty ridiculous... like Jay looking like grown ass man and wearing the Robin suit, him ripping his clothes that were over the Robin suit and Tim not giving two shits... like, in insight i don't think this issue (because it happens in one single issue) should be taken as seriously as it is in fanon... just saying... though, i don't fault people for wishing to make this encounter and relationship more than "just a beating for the sake of it or to be cool" or wtv dc wanted with this issue.

Other stories: in the event One year later, like the title of the event suggests, there are some stories happening one year after the Infinite Crisis, when some of the heroes that went missing during the crisis return home, which includes Nightwing. So, in this story Jason first appears in New York dressed in a Nightwing suit and killing criminals. He wants to work with Dick, but for obvious reasons (such as that Jay is ruining his reputation as Nightwing) he refuses. Though it touches a little on Jason's desire to have someone to be at his side, even if he is very murderous with his proposal.. anyway, Jay wants to work with Dick on a case, Dick tries but Jason is too much, and Dick ends up having to save Jay, then the Tentatodd thing happens… Then he appears in Green Arrow on a team-up story with Batman where Jay is on criminal lord Red Hood business with a villain named Brick... also the first thing he does in this story is kill his own henchmen that he sent to do his business (again with Jay not giving a single fuck about killing crooks *sigh*). Then, he captures Speedy (Mia Dearden) and brings her to her school to "train her" and he tries to get to her and "recruit her" (i guess) to his side by comparing their lives, being that they both had parents that hurt them, had to survive by themselves on the streets and ended up being taken in by a billionaire vigilante, which messes up with Mia mentally, even if she wasn't that physically hurt. But like with Tim, Jay did this more as another way to get at Bruce and to show Bruce "the price of enlisting others" into his crusade, and in this case specifically asking for Green Arrow and Speedy's help to stop Jason's business in Star City,, and also the fact that in these stories, he is going against the idea and existence of child sidekicks. In the Outsiders, Jason calls Dick to talk because he has proof that Black Lighting is innocent (for context he was been framed to have killed someone), which shows again that Jay cares about innocent people and making the right people pay (i guess i can put it like that).

Note: as it can be seen in these stories, including the Titans Tower fight, Jason is not a main character, obviously, he is either an antagonist or a supporting character that sometimes "gives a hand to the good guys", but he is still pretty much a villain. And even if most of the messed-up things he does are directed at Bruce, there is really no good justification for Jason to choose to torment others just because they are associated with Bruce (like he did to Tim, Mia, Dick and Oliver).

Countdown: ok so.... when it comes to this event i won't go into many details because it has a lot, especially for Jason, and there also a characterization problem for all of the characters in this. But i gotta say that of the post-crisis stories with Jay after UTRH this one brings some pretty interesting things about Jason and his feelings about himself, his methods, Gotham City and Batman, and the establishment of a potentially interesting character development for him. In the sense that he gets to an Earth where he meets a Batman that killed the Joker to avenge his Jason's death and that since doing so he started eradicating crime in Gotham in the way Jason was doing as the Red Hood (or tried to do) which makes Jay realise how wrong it is, and that Bruce was right in not making himself kill because he knows that he wouldn't stop if he were to start doing it. And Jay also gets more trauma by watching this Batman die. Oh, and this where Jay gets his Red Robin suit that this Batman made for his Jason. Anyway, i am not good at explaining this event, but i will leave you with this post if you wanna learn more about Jay's development here. Though, the main interesting thing is that Jason ends up questioning vigilantism in a way, after going through all of that (thou, be aware that after Countdown, the next writers decided to completely ignore this development... so there is that... Classic DC being DC... ufff).

Battle of the Cowl: so, this story happens after Batman "dies" in Batman R.I.P., and Gotham City goes into complete chaos. Nightwing assembled a team to get Gotham back in control, and Jason adds to the problems by becoming the "Gun Batman". And when Dick and Damian confront him he shoots Damian... without any remorse... and then Tim puts a Bat suit on and goes to Jason's hideout and they fight. During this fight he compliments Tim's abilities and intelligence, and thinks that he would have been better if he gave up on Bruce's ideology. Then Jason asks Tim to be his Robin only to stab Tim with a Batarang... And when Nightwing shows Jason Bruce's final message to him that only manages to make it worse as Jason becomes even more enraged (also sidenote: this message is where Bruce talks about a secret from Jason's traumatic past, that some part of the fandom believes it to be evidence, alongside Jason saying he relates to Mia and the fact that he lets a molester fall of the balcony as Robin, that Jay might be a CSA survivor like Mia... though this is just speculation on fandom's part and i, personally, don't have any strong opinion about this, but considering Jason's past of surviving alone on the streets it can be a possibility... but while this is a possible interpretation of Jason's secret, it can also be any other horrible event that he went through or witnessed that marked him so deep that he represses it, explaining why he snaps after Bruce mentions it in his message... thou again, no writer follows on this bit in future stories).

But anyway, as can be seen here, the "Jay questioning vigilantism and perhaps letting go from it and moving forward to a different path" (that still included violence thou) was thrown out of the window...

And again, what Jay did to Tim and Damian here is inexcusable, like he shot Damian because he didn't want him involved and stabbed Tim just because he refused his partnership proposal.

At the end of this story Jason "dies" in a dramatic fall after a fight with Nightwing.

Also, i need to mention that, obviously, Jason did not die, and that he was actually caught by Batman Dick and put into Arkham after going on a killing spree, but, on contrary of what many people seem to believe in popular fanon, Jason being imprisoned there wasn't that bad, considering that during this time Dick made a lot of efforts to make Arkham better and safer for the prisoners and that Joker wasn't even in there during Jay's stay, so he didn't have to be in his presence or acknowledge that he and his murderer were in the same building, because that is not what happened. So, please stop villainizing Dick so much!! He did his best at the time where everything was a big mess, he had a lot of big responsibilities thrown on his back and Jason was doing nothing but causing more problems (plus in the many encounters Dick and Jay had over these stories Dick always tried to offer help to Jason, either be it understanding and wanting to listen or to let Jay deal with his issues through fighting with him... also, most of the times Jason ends up running away never to be found again until he wants to make himself seen again, and it usually involves a dramatic fight, *changing the tone to joking* because he is a drama queen, ok? we love our traumatized drama queen!). * serious again* And Jay escapes from the other prison he was later put in anyway... also he murdered like 97 people when he did so....so ya...

When it comes to these stories (aka from Titans Tower to after the Battle of the Cowl, aka more or less till the end of Post-crisis), imo, what Jay does is a big jump for someone that started killing horrible people that used, killed and trafficked kids or sold drugs to vulnerable people to just doing violence like this... i mean, i guess the writers want to justify it as "desperation" in a sense, after he was "let down by Bruce", but like...not like this, i mean, looking at Lost Days and UTRH, even if Jay's plans and actions weren't perfect and had their flaws, they made sense, they were about revenge and "doing what needed to be done" in his mind, and he only "lost it" when confronted with the 2 people related directly to his trauma, aka Bruce and Joker, like the only thing i can see "working" a little is with Jason "losing it" because of Bruce's message in BotC, which happened, but he started "going off the rails" way before that... but anyways, unfortunately, all of this mess still makes part of Jay's canon, ufff... And i fault these stories to contributing to the "insane Jason"/"Lazarus Pit Mad Jason" narrative/idea.

And so, even with all of this mess, i still think that it's important to understand and remember THIS: Jason in Lost Days and UTRH, and yes, including his “villain era”, was never insane!! Because Jason knew what he was doing, he obviously was his sense of reality intact, and more importantly having trauma and doing extreme things because of it does not equal being insane! Being traumatized/mentally anguished and being insane are very different!

And, i felt the need to bring up sources for this, so here they are:

Insanity: mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.

(Legal Dictionary - Law.com. (2019). Law.com Legal Dictionary. https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=979)

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Insanity is a term used by some people to describe behavior motivated by disrupted mental states that may interfere with functioning. Because the term is often used in a pejorative manner to describe those experiencing mental illness, the field of psychology has largely abandoned its use. However, insanity is still used within the legal system as a mitigating factor or defense against criminal allegations.

Because mainstream culture now recognizes mental illness is a health concern rather than a personal failing, the use of the term insanity has fallen out of favor. Many mental health advocacy organizations argue that “insane” and similar terms should never be used, pointing out the importance of referring to those who have mental illnesses as people first, rather than by their illness.

“Not guilty by reason of insanity” is used as a defense in fewer than 1% of felony cases in the United States. Of the defendants using this defense, only about a quarter are acquitted. Generally speaking, people who qualify as criminally insane experience a level of mental illness that prevents them from understanding either their actions or the consequences of their actions.

(Insanity. (2015, July 20). GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog. https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/insanity-definition)

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Mental anguish: mental suffering which includes fright, feelings of distress, anxiety, depression, grief and/or psychosomatic physical symptoms. It is distinguished from physical pain due to an injury, but it may be considered in awarding damages for physical injury due to a defendant's negligence or intentional infliction of harm.

(Legal Dictionary - Law.com. (2019). Law.com Legal Dictionary. https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1239) ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Psychological, or emotional trauma, is damage or injury to the psyche after living through an extremely frightening or distressing event and may result in challenges in functioning or coping normally after the event.

(Health, B. (2017, July 24). Symptoms, Signs & Effects of Psychological Trauma. Cascade; Cascade Behavioral Health Hospital. https://www.cascadebh.com/behavioral/trauma/signs-symptoms-effects/)

**also, i know it's kinda over the top to put these definitions in this post about comic books, but if we are gonna talk about the mental health of fictional characters with trauma, let's at least understand the basics of what we are talking about... because from what i have seen, with Jason and other dc characters, is that people don't understand, not even the DC writers, what being insane is, and just end up labelling almost every villain (especially the Batman ones) as insane and call it a day, when that is not the case for most of them. Actually, it seems like most of the rogues are suffering from trauma/mental anguish because of the way society or others let them down, and others are criminals because that's what they desire to do and because of more selfish desires, and, as I pointed before in the UTRH section, Gotham is also a place where the systems and most people simply don’t care about other people’s suffering because that is just like an everyday occurrence, so ya, like, for example, i wouldn't call Poison Ivy insane (like i am no mental health expert, but just by seeing the definition of insane, i can "see" the characters that fit and don't fit there). Also, if you want a more complete look into the dc rogues' mental illnesses and dc's mislabelling of them i leave you with this amazing post.

And i want to bring up how, in the previous linked post, op points out that Joker is not insane either because he does understand what he is doing, which also goes with the definitions presented above and with what Jason says to Joker after he captures him in UTRH:

"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." - Jason Todd to Joker in Batman (1940) #649

Also, to point out, that after Jay says that, Joker shuts up from continuously talking about how he killed Jason and other things he was saying to get under Jason's skin, which is interesting, as i guess that it can be seen as an admission on Joker’s part that, like Jay says, he is not as insane as he wants himself and others to believe he is.

Anyways, like the point of this insanity and mental anguish/illness "research" is to give people in fanon a new perspective that "makes more sense" (i guess i can say that) and you know, the more you learn the better... like, of course, i don't think that people need to necessarily do this type of research to post about fictional characters, but when it comes to such sensible topics perhaps it is better to look things up before making big claims, and especially analysis posts. Also,, this is a need that dc writers need more than anyone else in this "discussion", like we are in 2023, make better character guides/descriptions for your characters and their mental illnesses!!

End of the Post-crisis part.

🕛🕐🕑🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗🕙🕚🕛🕐🕑🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗

(Sorry New-52, but i rather pretend you don't exist, especially your RHATO... so time just passed until RHATO (2016), okay?) - also, the irony of me saying this in this post.. thought, I just wanna say that I do have some Jason moments and other comics from the New-52 that I liked, but those comics were more of the Green Lanterns,, I didn’t like the Bat-books that much, especially the main Jason one…

But moving on,

Rebirth Jason Todd

RHATO: During Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) (or at least the first part), Jason is making the effort to follow Bruce's rules so he can return to the Batfamily, and it really shows how much Jay desires to have a family to belong to, and to be loved and love, the poor boy even expresses how he feels bad about not going to Tim's funeral (which made me so emotional, like it's one fucking panel, but it hurts, okay? Also, as usual and obviously, Timmy was never dead and then he returned to this continuity,, but at first everyone thought he was dead, so..). And Jay also has wonderful relationships with Artemis and Bizarro, being that they are kindred spirits in many ways.

I mean ya, Artemis and Jay at first were enemies but that was because of a misunderstanding when they first crossed paths during their respective missions. But then they grow on each other to the point of romance, like they never get a proper relationship per say (the "it was like kissing my sister/brother" thing still annoys me so much..), but they had some sweet moments. Also, it was so sad when they had their first kiss and Artemis and Bizarro were transported somewhere else, and they were taken away right after Jay was beaten bloody by Bruce after Jay "killed Penguin" (he was never dead btw). Why do writers love to make Jay suffer so much... he was doing so well with his new-found family *crying*.

Note: Speaking of Jason and romantic relationships, in my humble opinion, i think that Jason is a character that doesn't need one in canon. I know it might come off as ironic coming from me, considering that i do like and share in my blog posts about some Jason ships (like Jaytemis and Jaykyle), but i like them more in a fanon context. In canon, Jason has way more important stuff the writers need to focus on than romance,, plus them shipping Jay with almost any other girl they find and can do so with them is stupid and wrong as hell (for e.g. Ravager - Rose Wilson, Barbara - which is disgusting; she is more like a sister figure to Jay, at least that’s how I and some other people see it,, plus why does dc keep "ping-ponging" her in romantic relationships with the male Bats - aka Dick (which was fine but now their relationship is meh), Jason, Tim and, oh god..fucking why.., Bruce (i wanna throw up and die) - leave Barbara alone, she doesn't need a romantic relationship, or if she has one it doesn't need to be with one of the Bats, for not saying that outside of her relationship with Dick, the others are actually so disgusting... DC PLEASE JUST STOP!!! Barbara deserves better than this shit!!!- also, apparently, they are trying to ship Jason and Yara Flor (or, well, i saw a post about it and i hated it, lol),, and i am like: bitch, what in the actual fuck... dc just stop,, these girls deserve way better than this, you are doing nothing but a disservice to all the parties involved). And i am not saying Jay cannot have a romantic relationship in canon, but like i said before, when dc does it they do it so bad, and Jay as a character currently needs development and work in other ways (sorry for the detour but it needed to be said).

Okay, now that i got over the more emotional stuff, i need to go back to some important and more serious moments (not that the emotional moments are somehow less important), such as Jay being disturbed by Black Mask killing his goons without even a flinch (yay evolution from not caring about goons to caring), Jason saving Ma Gunn and expressing his care and appreciation for her and the home he had (even if it was messed-up; like she was a criminal using children for her criminal empire... so ya, goes to show how little Jason had as a kid...) and how much he expresses that he cares about Artemis and Bizarro (like, he even said that he sees Bizarro as his brother,, he is so sweet!). Also, i have to mention the parallel the comic does between Jay helping Bizarro after he was first brought to life with Talia helping Jay when he was brought back to life and the possible religious subtext of it, which i think is pretty interesting and i have to bring up this post that explains the Religious imagery related to Jay so well (thou like reposter says it might be just us assuming and that in order to assume that we have to understand the potential subtext the writers intended, but i still think it is an interesting take). I think it works more as a way to cement right from the bat how much Jason relates to and cares about Bizarro since they first met. Like, seriously, Jay, Bizarro and Artemis were such a sweet trio, I miss them so much…

Anyways, after Jay loses everything and is left all alone again, Bruce actually comes to Jay to tell him Roy died and they reconcile. But at first the poor boy expected for Bruce to fight him.. (also, i am sympathising with Jay where because, well, Roy, one of his best friends, died and right after he lost Artemis and Bizarro, and he also got at Penguin because he was the one that "sent his dad to die in prison" when Willis worked for him, and well, and because,, more obviously,, the last time Jay and Bruce were together, Bruce beat him up really bad,, so ya.. also, another note of dc being dc, in Rebirth they retconned that Willis died while working for Penguin and not Two-Face, which has me a little confused on which one is it now considering that right now dc considers everything canon after their latest reboot, if someone knows to explain this better attached to this post, i would appreciate it).

But anyway, one thing that i really liked about this book, besides the relationship between the main trio, is that Jason and the Outlaws were left to operate in a grey line. Like ya, Jason was under Batman’s boot of “no killing”, but to the public they did things as if they were, you know, actual Outlaws, lol. Or like criminals/crime lords, but that were doing what they were doing to help people. And even Bruce said at first that “the world could use some Outlaws”…. but, of course, the moment Jay does something he doesn’t like, he ends everything.

Also, in Red Hood: Outlaw (which is the title the RHATO comic took up after Jason lost his teammates) Jason takes in and starts teaching some superpowered kids to be Outlaws (or wtv the kids wanna be) while also looking for his lost teammates sometimes, which was interesting. But the writing here, as most of Red Hood: Outlaw was meh. Why can’t this boy get a cool solo book already… i mean, i do like seeing Jason in a team with people that he can relate to and that understand and care about each other, but it is getting tiring that when he “returned” to the hero side Jay never got to have his own proper and good solo comic book series, when the rest of the Bats have quite a lot of solo series, and a lot that are actually good…

Sidenote: i want to point out some criticisms i have seen about Lobdell's writing in RHATO, both from the New-52 and Rebirth, that being that, well, besides being inconsistent with Jason's characterization, as most things with him are (lol), is that it has the problem of putting Jason into "big super events" instead of keeping him street level, as he should be. And i get where these criticisms are coming from and i do agree with them. Even if i am biased towards this book because this was my first Jason book and I really enjoyed the first arc of it, so ya.. but even if it has a "special place" for me, i can see its faults too. Such as not making an arc where they actually show better Jason's transition and to going to work with Bruce than just outright starting with Jay already working under Batman, Bruce and Jay's overall "bizarre" (i guess i can call it that) relationship, Jay kinda being made a "male power fantasy character" and losing his focus on taking down more intrinsic crime to Gotham such as drug trades (like there is nothing that says he should stop doing that just because he is "one of the good guys now", i mean of course he is not gonna kill, especially if he is trying to work with Batman, but there is no reason for Jay to lose almost all interest in keeping the streets safe.. i mean i am not saying he doesn't do it anymore in this book, but with Batman and the Outlaws, he and the story always tend to focus on the "bigger things", ya know. Red Hood Jason is supposed to be more of a street level vigilante, and Lobdell pretty much forgot that or ignored it). Also, the All Caste...like what was all of that even... why does Jay need to gain magic "soul swords" (that are pretty useless btw) and be made a protector of another realm or wtv it is, when he already is or/and wants to be a protector of his home, Gotham City... and Lobdell also mostly forgets about creating those and wasn't developed their powers in any way either... also, "they are summoned in the presence of true evil", tf does that even mean?! What really is the "metric measure" for that in the DC Universe?? And the swords are so lame that whenever Jason uses them it cannot be for long because they drain Jason’s soul, because why not… like, I think the concept is cool, but the execution and lack of exploration/evolution of them as weapons/powers is very lacking (aka non-existent). Like, Lobdell really has a problem of introducing cool concepts only to end up either rushing them and ending them abruptly and/or forgetting about them….

Though, i still think that the writing was better in Rebirth than the New-52, lol (but like i said before, i might just be more personally biased).

Nightwing (2016) #15: okay, to be honest, i just included this one to make a little bit of a parallel (alongside other comics next), with Jay and Dick’s relationship from Post-crisis (more or less… i am trying…). Also, there is nothing special to say here but it was nice to see Jason and Dick together on patrol and Dick going to him as “one of the people to talk about his new serious romantic relationship with a civilian”. Also, they bond a little over “there always being some anger involved in their vigilante lives”, which was neat.

Teen Titans (2016) Annual 1: here, Damian goes to fight with Jason because he thinks that he betrayed them by giving their plans to an enemy of the Teen Titans, considering that Jason was the one that knew and gave the mission to Robin and his Titans. And this fight is interesting because, aside from being a pretty balanced fight that gives the upper hand to the 2 parties involved, is also where Jason says to Damian that you would think that he be more understanding and trusting of Jason considering that when it comes to the Batfam and how they look at them, they are both kinda in the same boat, where they always “look out” for when Jay and Damian “let go of themselves and into their more violent murder-y urges”.

Event Leviathan (2019) #2-3: in this story Batman and company are investigating some mass killings happening around the world,, and to Jason’s surprise, considering that this happened after he was “kicked out” by Bruce in RHATO, Bruce asks for his help. Meanwhile, both Bruce and Damian keep insisting that Jason is one of the suspects for the murders (somehow??),, being that Damian just thinks he returned to killing willingly and Bruce thinks that, because he is grieving Roy’s death, that Jay is blacking out and killing out of grief or something,, which ya… Jay had nothing to do with them and just wanted to help. And then, after a fight, he obviously leaves. Way to go Batsy… Jason was ready to leave your issues and his grief aside to help you and ya do this!! At least, this comic portrayed Jason as being competent, especially when not doing so is a problem that is still present in the Rebirth comics.

Batman: Pennyworth RIP (2020): I just find it sad (but it’s also weirdly funny) how, because Bruce held a public funeral for Alfred he told Jason that he shouldn’t come… which ya… either way Jay put on a pair of dark glasses and snuck past security to be there… he loved Alfred!! Let him grieve properly!!! Anyway, they, aka Tim, Jason, Damian, Barbara, Ric/Dick and Bruce, go to a more private area to talk. And ya, it doesn’t go well… they start by doing tributes to Alfred by each member remembering him and what he did for each of them, starting with poor Damian that blames himself for what happened, i mean, they all blame themselves to an extent, but Damian was right there when Bane killed Alfred, while the others were away. Also, I like how each member of the Batfam there call Bruce out, i mean ya, he is grieving,, but that is the thing… his kids could already tell that he was “starting to consume himself” as usual,, but now they won’t deal with his bullshit anymore, in a way… like, Barbara even calls Bruce out for not going to comfort Damian after all of this,, and Jason (despite being kind of an ass, unfairly to Ric and to Damian) calls him out on the “why are you the one suffering the most here when all of us love Alfred as much as you” and what’s more, after Tim says that he could stay with Bruce in Gotham because, in true Tim fashion, “Bruce needs someone to keep him grounded”, Jason snaps that “Bruce was late again to save someone he loves, and that he should actually figure it out by himself how to fix his grief” (you know in the sense that Bruce shouldn’t need someone to pick up his pieces after he looses someone and that he should just pick himself up on his own…). And Barbara calls him out again, saying that the Batfamily needs Bruce and Batman too. So ya… look,, i know this comic comes off as a “let’s dunk on Bruce fest”,, but i will have to agree to what the kids bring up, even if the man is grieving and the kids are being a little too harsh (after all they are grieving too), you would think that as the adult and parent of the family he would do better by his family… so they could truly support each other during this hard time for everybody.

*a little note that i felt i needed to bring up: there is this weird thing of dc keeping Jay out of the family while at the same time “forcing him there”… like for example, in Pennyworth RIP, Jason wasn’t invited to Alfred’s service and there is a scene with the photo of the “main Batfam” (aka Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Barbara, Tim and Damian) in the Batcave, but as you already noticed, Jason is not there… and look, i know that despite working together from time to time, that they still have a rocky relationship, but you would think they would have at least a current photo with Jason included, also with Cass and Duke, WHY THE FUCK WERE THEY LEFT OUT?? They are part of the family too,,, i hate dc so much for this… like you either DO the Batfam thing and commit to it or you DON’T!!! STOP SHOVING IT EVERYWHERE ONLY TO LEAVE OUT THE CHARACTERS YOU SEEMLY DON’T CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT!!!

Batman: Urban Legends (2021) #1-6: in the story titled Cheer, there is a new drug in Gotham that holds people in a "happy memory hallucination/coma", which puts a lot of people in danger being that most of them just walk around the city without being aware of their surroundings. Both Batman and Red Hood are on the case without being aware the other is also dealing with this. And in this story is where Jay stumbles upon a kid named Tyler whose mom is in a coma because of the happy drug and whose dad is absent (being basically the same situation Jason lived as a child). Jay tracks down Tyler's dad, taking the kid with him (and Tyler even calls himself Blue Hood in order to feel safe when Jay goes to get his dad, it's so cute)... only for Jay to find out that Tyler's dad works as a crook and that he doesn't care at all about his wife and son, and intentionally tried to drug them to leave him alone because they "were annoying" (sheesh, like Jay's dad was shitty too, but at least he did care about his son and wife to an extent..). The important part here is that Jason feels guilty for probably making Tyler an orphan (thou his mom lives at the end of the story, and the kid is so precious when he says that Red Hood is his hero), and the parallels that are made between them and between the current situation and Bruce and Jason's relationship from when he was Robin, being that that last parallel is done when, even if Bruce and Jason start working together and Batman overlooks Jay killing Tyler's father (which was me a little "???" considering that before he made such a big of a deal to the point of "kicking" (i mean kinda simultaneously metaphorically, literally and physically... like damn 0_0) Jason out of the Batfamily for "killing" Penguin.. i am confusion. This is a case of dc writing being dc writing, isn't it? I mean, it is because Bruce can "see more clearly" Jason's personal reasons for it, but Bruce also just stops in the middle of punching Jason because Tyler appears and asks Batman to stop because he is good... but... Jay had personal reasons to get at Penguin too... so ya.. idk,,, for not saying that Bruce beat up Jason because of Penguin like really really bad... the boy couldn't even shot straight anymore after that beating). Anyways, they still argue and fall apart because of their different approaches to this case and they separate, leaving Jay to go alone after Freeze, which kinda mirrors Jay being left alone in A Death in the Family. But anyways, at the end, after Batman saves Red Hood and Red Hood returns the favour, they make up, and Bruce gives Jay back his previous Red Hood suit with the red bat symbol on, even if they still parted ways as usual. Also, this story shows the desire that both Jay and Bruce have for their family to be united and happy. Though, an issue that i and others have with this story is the way they portray Robin Jason as actually considering murder when going after some crook, which ya... (way to ruin a pretty good story),,, also, too much “Batfamily fluff” on this one,, like i want some of them to get along and stuff,, but why did they have to have Jay dress like Batman and have the Batfam appear just to save Bruce, like Jay could have done that on his own just fine,,, also his mask failed protecting him from the Cheer drug gas… like,, tf?? Like,, i am not saying it can’t happen, just that his mask was taken out too easily… also, Jason’s “perfect dream life/family” or whatever was weird because he apparently wanted for Bruce to “kill every criminal in Gotham and leave Batman behind for good”,, like,, dude,,, Jay only wanted Bruce to kill Joker… because ya know “just him, and doing it because… because he took me away from you…”. So ya… i liked the story, but maybe it would have been better if it focused more on Jason helping Tyler and the other Cheer drug victims on his own than making it “the Batfam fest with Jason’s daddy Bats issues” …

Task Force Z: so... Task Force Z is introduced in Detective Comics (2016), when Jason gets tricked and captured by the government to make part of a (well obviously...lol) task force that is literally called Task Force Zombie (very funny), that is composed of other criminals that also died and were brought back to life. Then the story continues in its own book Task Force Z (2021). So, turns out that a shady "governmental" organization is producing and experimenting a drug called the Lazarus Resin that they use to bring dead criminals back to life as zombies (which includes Bane, Man Bat, Arkham Knight and Deadshot) and they chose Jason to be the leader of this team (thou he is still alive and this organization intends to keep him as that, because they need someone in complete control of themselves to lead the team),, and Jay doesn't like it one bit for various reasons, such as: having to make sure they do not kill or eat anyone (and with Man Bat and Bane it is kinda hard to do so), having to "look out for Bane" when at this time Bane had killed Alfred (so ya... thought later it is revealed that that was not the real Bane), risking himself getting eaten by his teammates, and dealing with a very controlling new "boss". In this story, Jason reflects on the idea of "deserving a second chance to do good" when it comes to the criminals he is working with and about himself, and he is kinda more like a babysitter of the group than anything, lol. And then he manipulates Crispin (his boss that is actually revealed to be Two-Face) into thinking that they manipulated him into serving them and into working with the undead (i guess i can call them that) villains with a higher Lazarus Resin dose… only for Jay to use that to his advantage and takes revenge by pushing Bane of a building after he regained some of his “alive state” and memories. Then, some things happen and the Task Force pretty much goes to shit (sorry i am going to go into many details). But one important moment was that, well, even in this story, Jason and Bruce are working together, but Bruce doesn’t like that Jason is getting so involved with the criminals of the Task Force, and he tried to pull Jason out of the mission many times, but Jay refuses and wants to finish it, especially considering how deep he already is in this situation. Then, there comes a confrontation, that is pretty great, where Jason gets fed up with Batman’s mistrust in him and Jay tells him this:

J: You started this. And I’m seeing it through.

B: I’m sorry I sent you into this before, but I need you to think real hard about what you’re doing now. This isn’t what either of us wanted. You’re following really bad men down a very bad path.

J: My path to walk.

B: Not in my city, it isn’t.

J: It’s my city too. You always forget that. You aren’t the only person from here. You aren’t the only one who got hurt here. And you aren’t the only one who wants to save it. I’m not your responsibility anymore.

B: No, Jason. You’re my fault. I trained you. I gave you the tools to do this. And I let them be used this way.

J: Why can’t you say it?! I’m not something you built. I’m not a weapon. You raised me. You were a father to me. And you brought me into this world of yours and all I got was pain, and death, and the constant reminders that I will never measure up to you or to Dick. And I know that. I made mistakes because I was scared, and I was angry, and I was hurt. You know why? Because the man who raised me wasn’t there when I needed him. But I’m trying here. So now I’m trying to make right what I’ve on my own and I just need him to trust me. Can’t you just trust me here?

- Task Force Z (2021) #6

Now, some things about this exchange: well, as most dc fans know this is not the first or the best argument between Jason and Bruce, especially because this isn’t the main focus of this story. But i still think it is a pretty good summary of the issue (or one of) with the relationship between these two. Because like Jason says, Bruce is “selfish” (i guess i can put it like that) in the sense that he only sees his way as the only way to help Gotham City, or like he always says, “his city”, and never seems to consider that this is other people’s city too and that there are other people that care about it as much as him, despite following a different path or that follow his code/a similar code. Now, this also depends on the writer,, because it’s not like Bruce never accepted “others’ ways to do Justice in Gotham”, but, just like he did before to other characters and is now constantly doing it to Jason, he always has or expects, i guess, for the others that “do justice in his city” to still follow his code or what he considers right in a certain capacity. Another thing that Jason brings up and that he is very right about is Bruce looking at him as his mistake and as a weapon that Bruce created but then got “broken and out of his control” (i guess I can put it like that) so he needs to “get it back”, and honestly, the implication that Bruce looks at Jason (in this situation and in this never ending conflict between them, at least) as a “rogue weapon” is pretty fucked up,,, like that’s your son you are talking about… and you would think that after the Cheer story that things between them would have been “more chill” in a way but naw… (though, this obviously also relates to current writing’s problem of keeping characters into the same conflict, and with Jason and Bruce it’s getting pretty tiring to see the same argument over and over again… like ya, i did say that i liked seeing Jay tell Bruce off and move on with his mission no matter what Bruce thinks or wants, but they really need to get past this old and never ending, repetitive, argument…).

And look, i know that i took the previous argument seriously, but i failed to mention that this comic is more of a comedy (thou that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have serious moments, obviously), like the name of the Task, the characters’ dialog, etc,, and it’s pretty funny overall. Which includes an issue, that some people aka stans of other batkids, namely Tim, Dick and Cass, but mostly the Tim ones (lol; note: and i am also a Tim stan, though i don’t share this opinion), didn’t like because it wasn’t fair or realistic that Jason defeated them all “pretty easily”, i mean Jay even broke Tim’s nose with the crowbar and, after he was captured, he disappeared from under the noses of Tim and Cass… CASS… so ya, i get the sentiment, but where’s the thing:

1. This is far from the first or last time a comic favours a character winning a fight, especially when it comes to their title/main character, despite the other characters being as skilled if not more skilled than the main one… it’s Jason’s comic, so of course things will mostly go his way (plus they do this with Mr. Batsy all the damn time,, and power scaling in comics is weird anyway and also depends on who the writer wants to win, so i think it’s whatever..)

2. This fight, like mentioned before, is not that serious, AT ALL, because Jason was just stalling them and having his fun by “getting at them”, the other 3 Batkids were holding back, and Jay was too, even if he had some moments where he went a little too far, like when he broke Tim’s nose with the crowbar (also, it’s funny how when Tim says “you broke my nose!!”, Jay is like “what’s a little fight between brothers??”,, like he is so funny, lol… again to show that this fight is not that serious…)

3. I love how Jay was like “I can take on these 2” when Nightwing and Robin appeared, but the second Cass appeared he was like “well fuck i’m screwed”,, that panel is so funny!

4. Again, this fight is not that big of a deal, at all, it’s your standard “fun comic book fight” between characters that are allies, so ya

5. Plus, in the next issue Jason states, after Stephanie notes it, that he has a pretty ugly bruise on his face that was made by Cass during the fight… lol

Now, going back to the main story, Jason and Harvey work together to stop Mr. Bloom (that is a scientist and the main villain of this book). But they end up arguing because Harvey tricked Jason into believing that he was working with Bane so he could “motivate Jason to stay because of his desire for revenge”, but that wasn’t Bane, it was actually Gotham (Henry Clover Jr.), which Jason felt horrible for, obviously, after all he tried to kill an innocent man for Alfred’s death. Anyway, everything ends up blowing up, Gotham (the man) goes away with his sister, accepting his death, Jason goes away to look for Joker and Steph comes to talk to him at the airport before leaving. *note: apparently everyone knows that Jason Todd is Red Hood, because Mr. Bloom used another guy to pose as Red Hood to trick Harvey, and they find the body and learn that Jason Todd is Red Hood and it’s said on the fucking news…. Like that is so dumb,, but sure whatever,, Jason Todd is “dead to the world” anyway, lol.

But overall, this story was fun and it gave some good insight on Jason and how he is and feels, i like that Gotham and Harvey call him out on “being a man motivated by revenge”, and Jason always trying his best at doing good, even if most things don’t go in the “good route” for him.

Nightwing Annual (2021): so, this is the type of story that goes more to fluffy territory with Nightwing and Red Hood. The story starts with Red Hood being framed by Clayface (the one not working with Batman Inc.,, ya there are 2 Clayfaces, moving on..) so a drug dealer that Jason was looking for could escape. Dick, when he sees this, obviously, is worried that “Jason went back to killing people”, and goes to find Jason. He finds him and Nightwing tells Jay immediately that he believes him to be innocent, and then they go to catch Clayface together. Jason is very invested in catching this drug dealer because some years back he sold a drug that got a lot of people sick and/or killed, which included his mom, and Jay says that after she took that, it was the first time Jason had to call an ambulance for her. Obviously, Jason and Dick manage to catch the guy, before getting to fly away. And there is a cute flashback of Dick visiting Robin Jason when he was benched by Bruce, and of them going on patrol together, without Bruce knowing, while taking the Batmobile, which was funny. And that parallels current events where they take the Batmobile again to get after the drug dealer, and Jason drives the Batmobile into the plane to stop it from flying, lmao.

Okay… this is a funny issue to read, if you ignore the problems it was, as usual. First, i mean, i don’t mind and i like some fluffy moments between characters from the Batfam, and i like seeing Jay getting along with some of the Bats and having relationships with other Bat members besides Bruce. So here, i guess it’s more of a question of personal preference, which fine some people (like me) like/love it, some people don’t… though, there is still the feeling of “there is something missing so it makes sense that these characters got to a better relationship and understanding between each other”, so ya. Another issue, is there being a “big effort” on dc’s part now on painting Dick as a good brother to Jason, both as Robin and Red Hood, and like i am not saying Dick was a horrible brother to Robin Jason, but he was mostly a non-present one because he wanted to do his thing away from Bruce and because he and Bruce were still “at odds” with each other at that time. So, it’s a little too much of “trying to paint Dick as the perfect guy” sort of thing. And, like usual with Rebirth, Jay says that “it is more satisfying to see their freedom and rights being taken away” when they give the drug dealer to the police… which yikes… sorry, but Jason doesn’t trust the system,, or he isn’t supposed to, plus this is Gotham we are talking about, no matter how many “good changes” are made in it, crime and criminals are always “going to thrive”. So, it’s a little disappointing. Like, i get that Jay is supposed to be on the side of the Bats now/working with them,, but that doesn’t mean he was to agree with or trust the same system that fails it’s city pretty much everyday… like he doesn’t necessarily need to protest it or kill the guy, or whatever, because that’s not Jason’s main thing here either,, but you would think that the writers would stop with this “Jason prefers to bring criminals to justice now, even if that justice system still was a lot of big flaws”. Like, i am not saying Jason never had this mentality before, again as a reminder, he did this as Robin with Two Face (in Post-crisis),, but it still feels wrong when Red Hood Jason does it… idk, maybe it’s just me… Also,, Dick saying to Jason that he is proud of him for giving up his guns…which is something… i find it kinda dumb to be honest…

Okay, so, with that last bit “said”, let’s go “talk” about Jason’s weapons… I have seen people discuss about them, and especially discussing more once he started using crowbars after being “disowned” by Bruce in RHATO (2016). And here’s the thing… he was been using them since then throughout Red Hood: Outlaw and plenty of other stories, such as we saw previously in Nightwing 2021 annual and Task Force Z, and I don’t think it’s that bad, and I am not sure about the “Jason should have a repulsion/fear of crowbars because of his trauma, so it is awful of the writers having him use them” reasoning against them, as Jay’s trauma seems to be more tied to having people he trusts and depends on failing him than the bomb or crowbars,, but, of course, they are still tied to and are a representation of his trauma. Plus, he already wears a suit and name representative of his trauma, aka those of the previous moniker of his murderer. And what’s more, it is Jason himself that says that the crowbars are not what killed him, more specifically in Task Force Z, when Tim says that “it’s too morbid even for you to use the thing that killed you as a new weapon” and Jay replies with “the crowbar didn’t kill me, it was the explosion”,, which it’s right, lol (also to point out that Jason has used explosives before just fine).

Imo, Jay using crowbars is not the worst thing,, but it’s also pretty lame. And i am not the only one that thinks this… i even saw people saying that Jason swinging 2 crowbars around while he fights crime makes him look like a “discount Nightwing”, lmao. Also, him using those crowbars undermines his fighting style in a way, and makes the writers ignore the many talents Jason has and the many fighting techniques he knows… like when Jay got his new suit and ditched the guns, besides the crowbar, he also had a sword, which was actually pretty cool, but he didn’t use it much, and then after Cheer (me thinks) his sword just disappeared into thin air and Jay is left with 2 crowbars,, let Jason use swords and knifes more often… like why else does he have that expertise for… dc, why do you love wasting/ignoring good things… also, stop giving lame excuses for him to not have his guns back,, he used his guns non-lethally for years just fine (though he doesn’t necessarily need to have his guns back,, and there is also a discussion to be had of either or not they should still be “Jason’s signature weapon”, considering that he used them at first during his “worse time” and to get at Bruce, and that now he is trying to do good and/or become better, so most probably the guns need to go away, but it would work if dc actually made an arc tied to it,, but most probably we are never going to get that for Jason, so, moving on)… another thing,,, stuff like the one i mentioned in the previous topic, about Nightwing and other members of the batfam “being proud that Jay gave up on the guns”,, because somehow bashing someone’s skull in with a crowbar is better… like SuSPeNSIoN oF DiSbEliEf, anyone?? I mean, if in this Universe it is believable to have Nightwing hitting dudes (and mostly non-powered ones) anywhere with his escrima sticks without breaking bones and internal bleeding, or any beating given by the Bats is believable to “only give some small bruising” without the crooks dying, i can fucking believe that Jay can have some dumb magic bullets that don’t kill people and only put them to a short sleep or wtv… like i know they claim that Jay uses rubber bullets when working with the Bats, but if we apply real life logic to it (like most people tend to do whenever it comes to Jay for some reason..), people can die because of those too,,, sooo…. Again, if Nightwing and Batman can punch crooks in the head without them dying or going into a coma, then Hood can continue to shoot them without killing just fine!!! 

Also, the sword and knifes not being given to Jason thing might be because dc uses specific weapons to differentiate each Robin, and ya know, the “original sword Robin” is Damian… but then again: “DiScOuNT NiGHtwINg WiTH CroWBaRs”… like, dc does realize that they can have characters in the same “hero fam” with similar abilities and “trademark weapons” if it works for the character in question, right?? Or, at least they should… also, 2 batboys, in this case Jason and Damian, having similar fighting styles/techniques/weapons usage/mastery makes sense because they were both trained in the League of Assassins and there are many parallels between them, also, for obvious reasons, such as different training, the difference in age, different experience, expectations from others and even more obviously, their body sizes/flexibility/other physical attributes, their fighting techniques are very different, so there are obvious and easy ways to differentiate the 2, including but not limited to giving them different types of swords and sword fighting techniques that fit with their characters!!!! Also those UNDERUTILIZED and UNDERDEVOLPED All Caste Swords!! Way to waste a pretty good concept… (sorry about the sword rant… but dc is just so fucking tiring with dumb stuff like this… give my boy some proper weapons!!! Or at the very least give him his guns back if you aren’t gonna do anything interesting by taking them away). But then again, this is a big problem that modern dc has when it comes to Jason’s character, also Stephanie’s, where they make them “the dumb Bats” by ignoring the many abilities and knowledge they have, and that they used before plenty of times, not just in fighting, but also intellectually. (*cough* classism *cough*)

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Willis and Catherine Todd:

I am going to have to be honest, i wasn’t really sure where to fit this topic in this post, so I decided to leave it at the end of both parts so i can talk in a broader view about the Todds and their overall characterization, that btw, is also kinda vague throughout the different eras. So, let’s begin:

Since the very first issue Jason appears in, from Post-crisis, Jason makes it obvious that he does care about his mother and that his father is absent. He says to Bruce that his mother was sick and passed away, but avoids giving any details about his dad.

Then, more notably, in A Death in the Family it is stated that both Catherine and Willis loved Jason very much, and that Catherine died of a disease and Willis left his wife and son for crime in order to give his family a better life. Which is actually something that is supported in RHATO (2016) where they go into more detail about how Willis met Catherine when he was a drug dealer, they feel in love, Catherine was kicked out of her parents house for choosing Willis and how Willis tried “his best” when he learned he was gonna be a dad, and so he gave up on crime and got a proper job,, a low paying one, but a normal and save job. Only to have to return to crime in order to be able to pay Jason’s hospital bills when he got sick (also, not sure how Sheila fits into all of this, if at all,, but you know dc and their 10000… reboots and retcons..).

Now there come the “more controversial parts” (i suppose) about Catherine and Willis, that being Catherine being a drug addict and Willis being abusive to his family, being that it is seen in fandom as problematic for fitting into stereotypes associated with poor people (which is), and, because of how the different eras present them, there seems to be some confusion when it comes to Catherine and Willis. And that is because Jason said in his first appearances that his mom was sick, and some people took it as she having cancer (or another disease) and then there are panels and lines both from Post-crisis and Rebirth that outright state and show that she was sick because of taking drugs and no disease is mentioned, so, there is no wonder that some people seem confused about which it is (myself included, lol),,, and i also remember stumbling upon a post somewhere where it was stated that Catherine might have actually had a disease that was made worse when she started taking drugs (so ya…), though, generally, her drug dependency is the illness that she has throughout most canon (P.S. for those who don’t know in the medical field substance abuse/dependence is classified as a mental illness), though that still doesn’t take away that originally Catherine was probably supposed to just be sick, but then as time went on, the comics decided to just refer that she was a drug addict and not her being ill in another way at all. And when it comes to Willis and his abuse, i have seen people that, because of how A Death in the Family presented him, believe that perhaps Willis wasn’t actually abusive, or at least not in a physical way. But then in the New-52 and Rebirth there are some issues that imply or outright state and show through lines of dialog and drawn panels that Willis has physically abusive.

Now, after saying all of that, and sorry if it only helped make things more confusing, i think that a possible interpretation of Jason’s parents and how he feels about them can be the following:

The Todds where a family that clearly loved and cared about each other, but due to their difficult circumstances they ended up hurting their son and leaving him to fend on his own. Willis did everything we could to help his family, but he also failed to realize how badly him leaving his family behind would affect them, and especially his wife, that turned to substance abuse to deal with their situation and with feeling abandoned by Willis, which is in itself neglect on Willis’s part of his wife and son, that needed him to be more present. Obviously, because of this, Jason blamed Willis for his mother’s worsening condition and for being left to take care of her on his own as a child. There were instances,, as Jason says in Red Hood/Arsenal (2015) #11,, when his father would return home and beat his mother because she wasted money on cigarettes, and there are also some panels in RHATO (2016) where it is shown and said by Jason that when his dad was home his parents used to fight most of the time.

When it comes to how Jason views and feels about them, it is shown that Jay loves Catherine very much and she was a good mother to him until she got consumed by her addiction, after that Jason was very protective and even defensive of his mother, considering that after she died, Jason only talks positively about her, being that (perhaps) he says to Bruce that she was sick as a way to “protect and respect her image” to others when talking about her, or just that he didn’t want to give too many details about his mom to a stranger he just met (lol), and he is often shown to always keep a picture of Catherine with him. When it comes to Willis, Jason seems to have a “mixed bag of feelings” for obvious reasons,, as that there is no doubt that Jason blames Willis’s choices and actions towards his mother for how things turned out, but at the same time, Jason still has some love left for his messed-up absent and sometimes abusive dad, as he shows when he learns about Willis’s death in his Robin days and wants to revenge him by going after Two-Face, in the New-52, when he is tricked by the Joker to believe that he somehow brought back to life and captured his dad (alongside Tim’s), Jason, despite knowing it must be a trap, still doesn’t take the chance that he might let his (somehow possibly resurrected) dad die again, and finally, in Rebirth, Jason outright shoots Penguin in the face on live television, while working with Bruce, when he finds out that his dad used to work for him and that Penguin left him behind to be captured by the Police, put in prison and being left to die there.

Now, obviously, as i mentioned plenty of times before, this might be just one way to look at Willis and Catherine (aka being just my interpretation), though one thing that is clear is that Catherine was a good mom to Jason and that he loves her very much and that she died when he was left alone with her, and that Willis was indeed abusive, despite loving his family. Which are factors that make part of Jason’s trauma and that make him “act out” as Robin and Red Hood, especially when dealing with cases that are similar to his childhood situation, that being of men abusing women and/or children (this is also why i, personally, don’t see as being “out of character” that he killed Tyler’s dad in “the heat of the moment” in Urban Legends, as i saw some people criticize the story about this in the sense that “Jason is not that incompetent to just let himself do that”,, when in most instances where he kills, especially in Lost Days, he kills people that are actively warming children and women, which relates to his own traumatic experience and his empathy for the victims of these horrible people,, though at the same time i can see why this is a critique because it is another example of dc undermining Jason’s ability to “control himself” when emotional).

Though, when it comes to the Todds and what i added at the end of the previous paragraph has some problematic implications in terms of being classist. Because like i pointed out before, Willis started as a father that was absent because he had basically no other choice, in order to try to give a better life to his family, to being depicted as abusive in everything else (though, like i said before, neglect is also a form of abuse, but i am saying this more to refer that he is now portrayed as having been physically abusive, to Catherine at least, and in the New-52 there were even some indications that he might have also consumed alcohol when at home, but that seems to not be a constant throughout the rest besides the New-52 that makes some references to it through panels, so ya), Catherine is the “poor addict” stereotype and they mostly keep her as that, but later add her being abused by her husband (or at least that they used to fight a lot, and sometimes to the point it got physical) and completely ignore her being sick, and Jason started out as a sweet, kind and caring kid, despite all of his hardships, to then being painted as “the bad apple”, the one that is “destined to follow the cycle of violence he was born in”, and i am not just talking about Red Hood Jason, because they started doing that to Robin Jay before he died, and then made it even worse as they tried to explore Jason’s Robin years in recent comics.

Also, a little note: isn’t it weird how much dc disconnects Jason from other characters, like people that he knew from growing up in Crime Alley, maybe except Ma Gunn sometimes (which is something), not properly making part of the Titans or having his own friends and team as a kid, having both versions of the Outlaws being taken away from him and/or separate even after they reunite, and in not letting Jay develop a deeper relationship with his siblings/other members of the Batfam (or at least with one of them,, and without constantly being the “i am making sure you don’t kill anymore or i am just worrying about you now because you had an angry outburst” thing)… but Bruce is always the fucking constant for Jason everywhere!!! Let this boy have other relationships that are more important and that give more validity to his origins and how he is!! Like damn, we are in 2023 dc, how about you move on from this bullshit already!!! So ya,, this is why we cannot have nice things, but considering what this post is supposed to be i need to talk both about the good and the bad.

Also, and very important: Jason’s anger as Robin

As most people know,,, dc fans, or mostly Jason Todd fans,, are tired of criticising dc for depicting Jason as more violent and angry as Robin in Rebirth,, when originally Jason was depicted as a Robin that was generally very sweet, that completed his duties, and cared about people and justice,, but that still could be reckless and impulsive at times, but more in the sense of “i wanna save people as much and as quick as possible” than because of anger. And that when he was angry, or acting out in anger, it was in understandable situations (which weren’t that many anyway). But our dear writers of Rebirth, whenever they bring up Robin Jason, in dialogs, flashback scenes, etc.,, never miss a beat to NEVER “SHUT UP” ABOUT HOW ANGRY JASON ALWAYS WAS!!! AND IT’S SO ANNOYING…. Now, i get that this can just be put in the “dc is being classist again” towards Jason box, but aside from that, it is also that, well, the problem isn’t Rebirth making more “developed” depictions of Robin Jason or of his “angry moments”,, it is them just showing and focussing on those and only those most of the time… which gives the impression that Jay was nothing more than “anger 24/7, 7 days a week, every month of the year, for the rest of his short life in the green scaly shorts” and never bring up anything else about other Robin Jason’s attributes… which is very tiring at this point!!!  

End of the Rebirth part.

Jason Todd: Post-crisis, Rebirth and fandom (some more general final thoughts):

Now that i ended the part of presenting and discussing some of Jason's stories/moments, i want to make it clear (and this might be a little bit obvious in how i wrote my points in each section of Post-crisis and Rebirth) that i am mostly biased towards the Rebirth stories (or at least the concepts they bring up in some cases) and that i prefer Jason to be more of a "grey-area" hero or anti-hero than a villain (which also includes the stories of Lost Days and UTRH, even if in those 2 Jay might be seen as inclined more to the "villain side" by dc and Batman’s standards). And this is not me saying Rebirth's writing is perfect or necessarily better than Post-crisis, just that i prefer its direction over the other. Plus, both have their respective problems (some of which i pointed out previously), such as in Post-crisis the writers' disregard for Jason's pain to an extent, putting all the blame on him for dying and the classist and sexist tones present in the writing and later writers making him into a full villain and trying a half-assed attempt to redeem him after all of that, only for him to return as a villain again by the end of Post-crisis. And in Rebirth they continue the classist tone and have developed a problem of keeping characters learning the same lesson over and over again through similar situations, and in some stories, they seem to be focusing too much on fluff without properly addressing what should be addressed, especially with the relationship between Jason and Bruce,, and the constant one-sided and annoying take that “Jason was to learn a lesson in not being himself” while with the Batfam or something along those lines. And all of this shit because, to be real, Jason's writing is pretty inconsistent, like ya there is some consistency, such as with Jay's desire to have someone by his side both in Post-crisis and Rebirth, even if in the first one he is more “deranged” about it than the latter. But what matters is that Jay consistently wants someone to consider family that loves him and are there for him, and that he loves back.

And to add to the writing problems, in Post-crisis there were a lot of things that were ignored, that if followed up could've made for some awesome stories and character development for Jason... but naw, DC was like "let's have him as either a total villain or an anti-hero that sometimes gives a hand to the heroes", like we are riding in a roller coaster. And Rebirth is like: "let's make his backstory worse so we can justify his evil anger and killing urges" or some shit. Plus, this last one just ends up destroying the tragedy that comes from the contrast of Jay being a good and innocent kid to returning as such a broken and violent man after his death. But hey, at least Rebirth still tries to paint him as an anti-hero more than a villain. But i also think that in order for Jay to "become better" or have better stories in Rebirth, the writers need to let him get out of the Shadow of the Bat. Like, is it too much to ask to let Jason do his own thing without always being tied to Bruce, i mean ya, they can and should have their emotional and messy moments because they still love each other, but cannot look past their different ideologies and methods, and their past hurt. And i think that, if you don't want them to fight or be at odds all the time, then keep Jason away from the Batfam and let him build his own family with Artemis and Bizarro or/and Starfire and Arsenal, or whoever else... but not Bruce, with him things are always gonna be complicated (which also makes their relationship so interesting in the first place; also why does Jason's character have to be the one/the only one to significantly change for this relationship to work... like?? Dc your bias, like usual, is showing). Also, DC, please stop making all the other members of the Batfam (except Bruce), whenever they come across Jason or have to work with Jay, be this broken record of “I am proud of you Jason because you don’t have your guns anymore/don’t kill/whatever else…”, it’s just so weird… like, how about actually exploring and developing their relationships outside of “we are in this together because of our association with Bruce” and “I only work with you if you don’t kill” or even worse “I only work with you in order to keep an eye on you”. Like, it’s some more genuine relationships between the characters (either in a positive or negative light) between Jason and other Batfam members too much to ask for??

Going to the fandom side of things, i kinda agree with the sentiment that some DC fans have about missing when characters were “more allowed to be assholes to one another without immediately making up” because it could make some conflicts more interesting and actually funny in some cases (aka having more ongoing tensions and conflicts). Though, while the main appeal of the Batfam is how messy they are as individuals and as a dysfunctional family with all of their conflicts (because they are all assholes in their own special way,, also they all have trauma..), i also agree that some of them (especially Jason) should be allowed to form new close bonds with other members that are more positive than negative... also, just because they would start to get along that shouldn't or doesn't stop them of still being assholes to one another, only that in this new setting it is being an asshole in more a "endearing way" to your "new family member". But ya, overall i still agree that DC and fanon should stop trying to fit the Batfam and/or the Waynes into a more traditional family structure because it doesn't work and takes away one of the things that makes them more interesting as a family (whatever kind of family they are, lol). Plus, dc already has other families that fit the “fluffier and more wholesome” type, such as the Flashfamily and the Superfamily. Though, if you really want it with the Batfam, Wayne Family Adventures is right there on Webtoon (i enjoy it too, lol).

Also, i wanna say something that i observed about some of the headcanons that are popular in fandom, such as the "Lazarus Pit Madness", is that, well, not all of them come from fandom only... some of them, like the one mentioned previously, actually come from some ideas that writers put forward in dc comics and other canon material (such tv shows and animated movies/series), like for example, it is present in Arrow (and this show was the intro into DC to a lot of people) and the UTRH animated movie (that is the first encounter a lot of people had with Jason's character) makes allusions to it as well, with the line from Jason of “Oh, you got to talking with Ra's, huh? Does it make it easier for you to think that my dip in his fountain of youth turned me rabid? Or is this just the real me?”. For not saying that in comics, throughout the different eras,, what the Lazarus Pit does to people was often changed depending on what the writers or DC higher ups want to happen in a certain story, for example there are stories like Lost Days and UTRH that claim that it only restores the mind and heals wounds, and then you have other stories where the characters are brought back to life by it, like in Task Force Z... so ya. Why can't dc keep a minimum of consistency? Like, really? But wtv... dc being themselves as usual (or just generally comics being comics with all their long continuity and changes that come from personal desires of the writers and/or their superiors, either they make sense for the characters and their stories or, mostly, not).. So with all of this, i think the "knowing canon" side of the fandom also needs to cut some slack to the fans that experience the DC universe mostly through knowledge from other sources and headcanons, or that choose to look at things with one interpretation in mind (i do this too guys.. i mean, i just did it above when talking about the Lazarus Pit side effects in the Lost Days section, though, in that story, the effects of the pit aren't really "that big of a deal" when it comes to how it affects Jason's actions and choices, as i tried to explain before). Though, there is still a problem of some people in the "headcanons side" that have a tendency to flanderize the characters with one single trait, either it comes from character stereotypes or from a very limited sample of canon (such as basing the characters in some out of context panels circulating around the internet or out of context information such as when people only read/hear that "Dick put Jason in Arkham" or worse with the whole "who is the true angry Robin" thing, where people in some circles seem to only be talking about Dick's anger and that he is the angry Robin now instead of Jason and/or Damian, i am like: can't this cycle ever end?! these characters have more to them than being the "angry Robin" or "intelligent Robin" or "violent Robin", etc. going on for them, like seriously?? I mean, i think this also comes from some people having the need to put every character into a neat box that defines them, like they do when they try to put the Waynes in the traditional family, but, i am sorry to say that this just doesn't work, and i am tired of seeing it everywhere and now being forced in canon).

But the main point i want to make about headcanons and fanfic is: they are awesome! Like,, i know that all i did until now is complain about some of it, but for the most part what fanon creates can actually be pretty cool and sweet, and it’s an awesome way for people in fandom to interact through their favourite fictional media. And as i expressed before, my problem is not fanon as a whole, at all actually, my problem is with this tendency that can seem too much sometimes, of some fanon reducing the characters to only 1 trait… like you wanna write fluff with the mess that is the Batfam? Go for it!! i and any other person are not gonna stop you, lol (that would be ridiculous),, but i still think it would be cool if you took some parts of actual canon and incorporated into it,, like there isn’t even the need to read the source material if you don’t want to, there are plenty of posts online and videos that can give a better idea of the characters’ main traits and that you can fit into your story. The problem comes more when it becomes obvious that the way the characters are written comes too out of field with their base characterization, and as you saw that i complained about previously, this is not just a fanon problem, it is a canon problem as well… I mean, I am actually more pissed at dc’s writers not consulting the original material of the characters they are writing, like that should be an actual crime!!! (okay, i am joking on the last bit, but i still think it’s atrocious what some writers do or did to some characters in canon, and there are even some, when interviewed, that admit that they didn’t even touch the source/first material done by the characters’ creators or just previous stories, and that they only cared about writing the story they wanted, no matter what came before…. which is soooo annoying!! Also, keeping some fucking consistency!! Like, why is it so hard?? Can’t they do some character and intrinsic dc universe rules charts with the main stuff about them that needs to be kept consistent?? But, even if they actually have those, there is also the problem of the writers own personal biases when writing the stories,, so ya, i feel like this is just gonna be a never ending issue with comics, lol). Simply put,, i don’t blame fanon for their headcanons when professional writers do this and the canon seems very confusing, especially to a new reader/fan,,, also, you know, with favouritism on the part of the creators themselves, sometimes there can be some less than desirable interpretations of the characters, so like i pointed out in the Jason’s villain era section, sometimes writers just do shit for the sake of doing it, either it makes sense or not… like, i think that, besides the “villain era”, the biggest example of this with Jason is found in his Robin time where the first writers of Jason (like Max Collins and Jo Duffy for example) wrote Jason as a sweet, intelligent and skilled kid that loves to learn and help people, and then Jim Starlin came around and was like “i wanna get rid of this kid so i am gonna make him impatient and aggressive, and full of anger so i have a good reason to kill him”… so there is that… (thou, i gotta add that i don’t understand how some people “get into” the comics (either dc or marvel) fandom and don’t even bother to look up 1 single comic/character guide/other source material about their fave/the one that they claim to be their fave,,, like you either a fan or not?? – this type of people are so frustrating,, like you already have long time fans that did the work for you with 1000000…. character guides and reading recommendations lists by character and with links to buy or read freely online,, and these people choose to do this, like??? What’s the point then?? Really, what is the POINT?! – sorry got carried away..).

Anyways, about this whole discourse of canon VS fanon in Fandom, i think that there needs to be more of a balance where people obviously can have a preference for either one or the other, but at the same time there needs to be some accordance about what we are talking about,, because if there isn’t any intersection then are we really talking about the same characters? – So, headcanons need to have some canon basis, and the people that do what I described in the previous paragraph need to question themselves if they really like or care about the character/fandom in the first place… that’s basically one of the main points of all of this mess I just wrote…

And to finish, i am going for a point about Jason specifically (this post is mainly about him after all, lol) that i think kinda goes for both canon and fanon,, which is about Jason’s killing and how “it should be interpreted” in a way (again,, reminder that this might just be my interpretation, but it is one that i find more “logical” in this case, and i am not the only one that mentioned this, obviously): i believe that Jason shouldn’t be looked at through the lens of that “he supports the death penalty”, actually, aside from the “perhaps UTRH making part of the anti-drug propaganda” (more or less, I guess), Jason has no character ties to the justice system or the death penalty besides the “system failed me and is continuously falling others as well so i am taking matters into my own hands”, so it should be more “Jason doesn’t agree with and doesn’t trust the system in any way”. And also because, like i pointed out before, when Jason kills, he kills out of empathy for the people that suffered at the hands of criminals, that more often than not seem to always have a way to escape punishment and to continue to go out and torment others,, this is Jason’s “main thing”, it’s more grounded, more related directly to the people, on the small scale, on the streets. He is a man of immediate action, not of believing or waiting for things to “get better on it’s own or that every single horrible person can change for the better”, sometimes horrible people don’t change, cannot change, do not want to change, because they enjoy the chaos and the pain and harm they inflict on to others, so that is why his philosophy of “killing some criminals” is an emotional and rightful response to the injustice that the ordinary people on the streets face every day surrounded by criminals and ineffective, inequal and uncaring systems, which let them continue to live in constant fear and neglect, just like Jason was in that position as a poor kid on the streets taking care of himself and his sick mother on his own.

Also, one more thing about which perspectives people choose to look at Jason’s methods: something that i keep seeing is that people often discuss Jason’s methods either in comparison to Bruce’s, aka in universe “general hero morality”, (which is a Wastonian perspective), which often also ignores Jason’s good points in the situations presented, i mean it’s not a problem if you desire to discuss or support Bruce’s side more than Jason’s, but it often misses a balance, and there is also a discussion to be had about dc’s canon often giving more privilege to Bruce’s perspective than that of other characters, especially if those are from the Batfamily or operating in Gotham,, or people discussing them in comparison to their personal/real life ethics (which is a Doylist perspective), and i want to make it clear that, obviously, everyone is allowed to discuss Jason and his methods in any of these perspectives. The problem arrives when people do a mixture of both, usually in the detriment of Jason (or the character they are against),,, and what do i mean by this,, for example, like i said before, Jason is often criticized for his methods/philosophy based on real world ethics, aka it is wrong to take someone’s life, and without any jurisdiction, even if they are a horrible criminal, but at the same time this same people (thou it might not be always the case, but there are enough people still doing this…) will justify/support Bruce’s side because “he doesn’t kill people and works with the legal forces, aka GCPD (mostly Commissioner Gordon, though), and he was strong moral code”. But this, in insight, is a wrong way to look at it because this is looking at the characters from 2 different perspectives, because this argument is supporting Bruce’s side based on in-universe reasons, aka Bruce’s moral code and his alliances to other characters that are stated to be on the side of good in the text. But if we were to put a Doylist perspective on Batman’s methods, like we did previously with Jason, we have to say that everything he does is illegal and morally wrong, considering that he is breaking a lot of laws (which he does by committing the following crimes: physical assault, enacting justice without jurisdiction, possession of dangerous and illegal weapons, child endangerment, attempted murder, building the Batcave and his vehicles without permits, trespassing, breaking and entering, tampering with evidence, and etc. etc.) and also that in the real world if Batman were to fight people like he does in the comics most people would end up in the hospital or even dead, and Gordon would have been seen as complicit in Batman’s crimes for working with him, also most people would probably think “who tf does this guy think he is passing judgment on people like that” aka how is he morally above everyone else to think that what he is doing is “the right thing” for everyone in his city… Another example of this, is the over talked about Titans Tower fight where people see the horrible beating Jason gave Tim, but then, instead of knowing/recognising/saying in the same discussion that Tim obviously wasn’t that shaken by it in canon, they turn the other way around and portray Tim as being traumatized by this event or even that it was the worst thing that happened to him, when that is really not the case in the text and is just how people think he should feel based on their own real life perspective. So ya, just saying that some consistency in the perspective taken in this type of discussions is important.

And so, we move on to the END...Finally, after 34 pages!!!!

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Conclusion (i guess):

Jason Todd is a very complicated character, both for some good and for some outright awful reasons. He walks a grey line, and should be allowed to walk it without being constantly shadowed and undermined by dc’s (or Batman’s) overall morality. He deserves to be taken seriously, he deserves to make it on his own without Batman or the Batfam, and deserves to make his justice in his own way. And that dc should drop the classism already and let other characters besides mister Bat be right more often!!

When it comes to fandom, I wish that people would start looking more at Jay in the many facets he has as a character before making certain claims or look at their claims better before posting them (i also messed with this post, for example, lol), though part of the problem in this never ending discourse is also people, myself included, making the mistake of not specifying what phase of Jason's character we are talking about in our posts about him, because as we saw before, Jay is a very inconsistent character in canon, and that goes through a lot of drastic changes. But that still doesn't throw away the fact that he is more than the one-dimensional box a lot of people want to put him in (and this applies to any other dc character really). And i am afraid that the reality is that we cannot just ignore or outright erase or put under the category of "bad writing" everything from canon that we don't like, especially if we wanna have "serious discussions" about the characters. And yes, we can and should criticise the writing being inconsistent and call out the -isms mentioned in my introduction, but we cannot pretend that what makes part of the character's canon doesn't exist, that's just erasing a big chunk of the character (especially in Jason's case) and it just ends up making him into a totally different character than the one he truly is, either we try to erase his "bad days" or his recent "redemption/anti-hero days". Though again, having and making up headcanons is totally fine and valid, just make sure you are actually enjoying the “true character” to an extent and not a totally different one that can be found somewhere else. Look out for things you truly enjoy!!

Also, i have to point out this post to which i agree so much, like it's so weird that people to this day cannot have a "normal and civil" discussion about Jason and his methods. And I do love reading meta posts about his character, about his morals, his tragedy and his relationships, and headcanon posts where and there.. but i think that stuff like this shouldn't be this controversial in fandom. And ya know, liking Jay doesn't automatically mean you believe or have to believe and agree to all he does, sometimes you can just like and enjoy stories about a character that did messed-up things, and that is ok. Again,, i emphasize that, people's favourite media and, in this case, favourite character, don't define people's beliefs and morality, people can enjoy a "messed-up character" and their story without somehow being defined by it or agreeing to it, OKAY?? Like, this shouldn't be so hard to understand at this point. So, there is no need to "villainize" people because of their fave or for the people on the other side to "sanitize" their fave, this is not a morality defining thing, it's just having fun exploring a character that is more complex than "he is always a perfect angel that did no wrong" or "because of his wrongs he will always be evil", okay? Okay, because i dragged this part too much already, but oh boy, is it something that also doesn't go away and annoys me to the moon and back!

But anyways, i still think it is important to acknowledge his bad deeds as they are without always trying to excuse them all the time,, i mean, those are what makes his later development and redemption be so great and, you know, exist in the first place, lol (even if dc didn't actually make the effort to properly show Jason develop from one to the other, ufff), also, don't forget to specify which characterization of Jason you are talking about, because if not that always ends up in a "bad way". And while, obviously, it is okay to talk/write about his "bad/villain days", try not to forget that he moved on from that quite a long time ago and that there is more to Jason than his first years as the Red Hood, like a lot more, both coming from before and after those stories..

And that is that Jason Todd is a guy that cares and loves very much, and has a deep desire to have it for himself, especially through family. And that prefers to use more lethal methods sometimes, can also be an ass and he doesn't need to follow his dad's code in order to be a "good guy/hero/anti-hero". Or i guess it can be said that he is just a guy with a good heart accompanied by some lethal methods (though he doesn't need to use them or be defined by them all the time either and, also, his morals and beliefs shouldn’t always be seen through the lens of real life morality or other characters morality,, more notably Batman’s).

Though, i also feel that Jason’s main problem when it comes to his methods in nowadays’ canon is not if “he kills or not” or “should he kill or not” (even if i mostly only focussed in this throughout this post), as the problem is more Jay being forced into the “Batfam Box”, that seems to do nothing but a disservice to the character, and, imo, a more compelling direction to his character would have been if he was an anti-hero that “kept to the ground”, and that besides protecting people on the streets from criminals, either on his own or with the Outlaws (but NOT with the Batfam), that he should be some kind of “anti-superhero sidekick/children” advocate, considering how much he cares about children and how his time as a sidekick and child hero affected him,, which would make Jason an interesting antagonist to the Heroes in that way (also, a sidenote,,, people should really stop, both in canon and fanon, pushing the idea of Jason taking in children to train as heroes/anti-heroes/villains,, because i am pretty sure Jason shouldn’t want to drag more children into this dangerous mess,, like it only would work if the children were involved in it before hand, and there he would feel forced to make sure they have the needed training to survive and not kill anyone “not deserving” in the meantime, like with the children Jay trained in RHO,, but even then i am pretty sure Jason should be at least uncomfortable/“not feeling right with himself” doing it, just saying…).

Plus, to “toss a good crumb” (lol) out of all of this mess, we can always take what was written in canon and “make it better” by making “rewrites” in fanfic, but using the elements that make these characters be who they are. There needs to be some kind of balance, so we don’t end up talking about characters that aren’t actually them in the first place… (like i repeated this too many times in this post… but it needs to be somehow really kept in mind,,, i guess this can be called “one of my main thesis in here, lol).

But either way, what is important is that Jason Todd cares and wants to do good, and he should be allowed to do that with some love along the way.

So, now that all of that is over, i wanna thank all of you that went through my never-ending ramblings, because, oh boy, did this post get long! And don't forget that, like i said in the introduction, corrections and additions/other interpretations to this post are welcome!!

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Credits to the posts mentioned and linked in the text of this post:

(note to the creators: sorry for tagging you in my mess of a post but i need to give you guys proper credit, okay? Loved reading your posts!!!)

Post- crisis: Red Hood section

Judd Winick interview where he talks about Talia and Jason: Comicvine podcast: Judd Winick talks Jason Todd. It can be found on: https://fuckyeahjasontodd.tumblr.com/post/7214779500/comicvine-podcast-judd-winick-talks-jason-todd

Bruce doesn't have to kill: If someone doesn't want to kill, you can't ask, tell, or expect them to kill for you by @tate-lin

Vigilantes being judge, jury and executioner: The “vigilantes should not be judge jury and executioner” and “how do vigilantes know they’re guilty?” are two sides of the same story by @someoneimsure

Why the “Batman should just kill the Joker” argument is stupid. by @bi-honor

Jason´s development in Countdown by @yvtro / @boyfridged

DC Comics’ Portrayal of Mental Illness by @longitudinalwaveme

Rebirth section:

Jason Todd and Religious parallels by @littledead-ridinghood

Conclusion:

Fandom discussions about Jason and his methods by @adelinamoteru

Btw, the stories that i talked about in this post come from the following comics:

Pos-crisis:

Batman (1940) issues #408-429 (issues #426-429 -> Batman: A Death in the Family)

Detective Comics (1937) #568-#582

Batman (1940) Annuals #10-12

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010)

Batman (1940) issues #635-641 & #645-650 (Under the Red Hood)

Teen Titans (2003) issue #29

Nightwing (1996) issues #118-122 (Brothers in Blood)

Green Arrow (2001) issues #69-72

Outsiders (2003) issues #44-46

Countdown (2007)

Batman: Battle for the Cowl (2009)

Batman and Robin (2009) issues #3-6; #23

The few New-52 comics i mentioned in the Rebirth section:

Batman: Death of the Family (2012) -> RHATO (2011) #15 and Teen Titans (2011) #16

Red Hood/Arsenal (2015) #11

Rebirth:

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016)

Nightwing (2016) #15

Event Leviathan (2019) #2-3

Batman: Alfred RIP (2020) #1

Batman: Urban Legends (2021) issues #1-6

Detective Comics (2016) #1041-1043 -> Prelude to Task Force Z

Task Force Z (2021)

Nightwing Annual (2021)

NOTE FOR NEW READERS (if there are any new readers that went thorugh all of that shit i wrote, lol; but i did say you could skip it for recommendations): i want to mention that in order to get into comics that (like most people tend to start reading comics, i think), instead of reading things chronologically, i think it's good advice to start with a comic that has a character/s and plotline that interests you personally rather than starting right away with a full guide since the beginning. Like, for example, if you rather read newer comics because of the art style, the writing style or any other reason, then you might start with a comic from Rebirth or the New-52, and then if you want to read more of that character move on to reading the older ones. But also, that if you start reading you don't need to go through all the previous comics or storylines, really, just pick the one you like and if there is the need to fill in the gaps just go to other sources (such posts online and YouTube videos) and get info you are missing, you don't need to read every comic book related to the character/story that you are interested in (only if you want to, lol). Though, if you feel more comfortable following a complete guide since the character's first appearance go ahead (just trying to give a little bit of advice where you might start from).

If you want a complete list of all Jason's comics i recommend this guide: https://www.tumblr.com/dailyjasontodd/685618286798454784/daily-jason-todd?source=share

(Many people probably already know about this guide, and it is one of the most complete i found... plus i think it has very few notes for how well it is done)

And if you don't have access to comics i recommend this site to read them: readcomiconline.li

(thou be warned that the ads are super annoying.. and sorry for not having a better recommendation, this is the one i use to read comics, so..)

Hope i was somehow helpful! Have a fun reading!

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Boy, did this take quite a while to make.. i am tired, but i am happy that i got to do it. Also, just a fun fact: I put this post on word so I didn’t lose it while making it and it ended up with 38 pages with 24584 words with the font size 12. This is as big as a college paper, but with swear words and some incoherent ramblings in the mix.

Also,, i think i just did a classic dc fan “30 or more pages essay rambling about their fave, and complaining about both canon and fanon”,, because apparently we cannot live without doing this at least once, lmao.

Anyways, in case you haven’t noticed,, despite all of this mess, i love Jason Todd.

Sincerely,

Bamboozledtothemoon

#jason todd #robin #robin jason todd #red hood #red hood jason todd #dc post-crisis #dc rebirth #jason todd meta #dc meta #dc critical #dc fanon #dc canon #dc #reading recommendations #alexa talks here

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

The methods Augustus used to secure his grip on power (and avoid getting stabbed like Julius Caesar), according to Mary Beard:

Ensuring loyalty of the military. Augustus reworked the army's pay and pension system to align their interests with serving the emperor, rather than their field commander. He also avoided letting generals outside of his family hold commands for too long in the same area, to prevent them from building up a following like Caesar and Pompey had, and he phased out triumphs, so they wouldn't get as much public attention.

Strengthening the Senate...sort of. He made senatorial decrees law (rather than merely advisory), included roles for senators in the fledgling imperial bureaucracy, and made senatorial status hereditary. This last bit meant senatorial families no longer had to publicly campaign for office, which had become extremely expensive by Caesar's time, and they were very pleased not to have to pay for that anymore.

Art/public works/propaganda. With Augustus, they're all the same thing. Public infrastructure projects enabled him to portray himself as a servant of the people, rather than their master. Art was a medium of framing himself as pious and upholding tradition, rather than overturning it. These projects often did have genuine benefits for the public good, like fixing Rome's roads, sewers and wells, and this public benefit was part of how Augustus legitimized his regime: "See, the old system brought you civil war and hunger, but the princeps gets things done."

Lastly, military superiority. The Romans had always equated good generals with courage, honor and leadership ability. The ability to put down revolts and even extend the empire was critical not for keeping the Roman public cowed - Augustus kept very few troops in Italy itself - but to make people believe his government was capable and trustworthy. And even when Augustus wasn't personally leading the troops, he made sure everyone knew he was commander-in-chief, and thus ultimately deserved the credit (at least per Roman tradition).

Beard is right to point out each of these factors. But there's a few more I wish she'd mentioned:

Marcus Goddamn Agrippa. The best general of his generation (better than Caesar, in my opinion), fantastic administrator, public works manager, diplomat, orator and builder. Augustus simply could not have survived his first decade in politics without Agrippa's skills.

Maecenas, Livia, and other advisors. Augustus actively sought out smart people to compensate for areas he wasn't very good at (like military tactics). He was also good at finding people who were both competent, honest, and loyal.

People skills. I love the common characterization of Octavian as a cold, taciturn fish, but in real life he was actually very good at putting people at ease, making them feel valued, and cracked a lot of jokes (often making fun of himself). One of the reasons senators accepted his rule was that he still consulted them often behind the scenes, so they felt like they still had some input in the government. He appears to have been genuinely popular enough that people kept voting for him to be consul even when he wasn't running for office and told people to cut it out.

Rome had been devastated by twenty years of civil war. Innumerable senatorial families had been killed (including many by Augustus...), people had suffered multiple famines and plagues, and a whole generation had grown up without seeing what a functional republic looked like. A lot of the generational knowledge and senatorial cohesion necessary to run the government had been lost. And everyone, senators included, was traumatized and frightened of losing the apparent peace that Augustus had imposed. That's why people kept voting for him (and sometimes demanding he become dictator) even when he'd declined - they had lost faith in the Senate's ability to govern.

This isn't to excuse his erosion of the democratic process, of course. But I do think Robert Morstein-Marx is correct in attributing the death of the republic more to the twenty-year civil war after 49 BCE than to the actions of any specific individual.

#jlrrt reads #mary beard #spqr book #octavian #augustus caesar #ancient rome #jlrrt essays