#this format could work with any of Bruce’s kids

[ellemfaoh]

Pinball, Hair, and Detention Pt. 1 | Vance Hopper x Reader

Part 1 (here) | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Word Count: 2.9k

Categories: Enemies to Lovers (eventually lol), Rivalry, Angst, Fluff, mentions of past Bruce X Reader

Content Warnings: Swearing, Bullying, Mentions of Blood, Fighting, Female Reader implied

Summary: Reader and Vance have some sort of ongoing rivalry. You accidentally spilled your drink on his hair and he in turn gave you a “fresh cut.” You both end up getting detention together due to fighting. On the walk home one day— where you both live merely a block away, he barely misses your abduction and watches as you helplessly get carried away in a black van.

A/N: let’s pretend the grabber decided to start grabbing like a year or two later or smth cuz high schooler Vance and Bruce seems more plausible to me personally

A/N 2.0: Please excuse weird formatting like spaces behind paragraphs n shit. I wrote this on docs because my personal laptop is broken and my school laptops block tumblr—so all this uploading is done from my phone lol

——————————————

You never figured that walking into the Grab ‘N Go on a hot Denver summer day would have catalyzed as big a domino effect on your life as it did—and yet it did.

It was the middle of a Denver summer in 1977, the year before high school; and everyone was dealing with a week hotter than satan’s armpit. Most kids were either in their houses with the AC on full blast, in stores and the local theater, or away to go to the beach with their family. It explains why the town was just a little more empty this week. Both of your parents worked full-time jobs down in the city around an hour away, so you were confined to either your house or local entertainment attractions—the same ones you had been using since you could open your eyes. It was kind of old by the time you were twelve and stuck in your small town for yet another summer.

You were currently situated on your bed, reading last week’s edition of the Teen Beat magazine, flipping through the pages of celebrity interviews, dating tips, and latest fashion trends—which eventually got old, especially considering this was last week’s magazine. You checked the time. 12:53 PM. Probably the hottest part of the day. You only lived three blocks from the Grab N’ Go though, so if you biked or just walked quickly you probably wouldn’t get heatstroke just from being outside.

“Ugh.” You groaned, peeling yourself from the comforts of your bed. You had to change. “All of this for a magazine and some cola.” You muttered to yourself, sliding on the nearest (and hopefully clean) pair of jean shorts and exchanging your spaghetti strap pajama top for a plain white tee.

Getting out of your room and down the hall, you picked up the shoes you kicked off in the hallway yesterday and slipped them on, grabbing the $5 bill your parents left on the counter for you to order lunch with—which you were deciding to use for snacks. Maybe you’d pick up a small lunch thing on the way home. The money’s use was ‘to be determined,’ you decided.

Leaving your house and out into the Denver summer air, any amount of chill you felt on yourself before was wiped away completely. You needed to make this trip quick. What was a little jog compared to the instant relief of the too-cold Grab N’ Go?

Walking into the small convenience store was instant relief. Not too many people were around—and those that were wouldn’t bother you, the lady at the counter looked less bothered too, which was surprising since Vance Hopper was stationed at the pinball machine as per usual. Maybe it was because no one who would piss him off was there. Then again, anyone who bothers Vance must have a death wish.

Grabbing a soda and the new edition of Teen Beat, you walked over to the counter and slid the money over, opening the drink and quenching your thirst for a cold drink. Taking the return cash the lady gave you, you walked over to the exit, flipping through some pages absentmindedly. It was this exact moment where life seemed to have changed forever. An excited kid—probably an elementary schooler if you had to guess, ran into your arm, causing your soda to splash out of the bottle. You definitely had a death wish now, because your soda got all over Vance Hopper; the sugary drink now in his hair and on his back.

When the losing chime of the pinball sounded around the store and the blonde went still, the air in the mart tensed. Everyone was waiting. Watching. You didn’t bother to wait either, quickly speeding out of the store. Maybe he wouldn’t remember your face. You had never really talked with him before, the most you had done was look at him a few times in classes you had previously shared.

You had drank a little more soda and tossed it in the nearest trash. Sure you were running away from what was probably certain death, but you already bought the soda. Might as well finish what’s left before running away. You rolled up your magazine and tucked it into a pocket before moving into a slight jog to go back home. Or maybe you should go get something from a restaurant. Usually when you commit an unsaid crime hiding in unexpected places could benefit. You barely made it a block away before you heard Vance shout at you, his footsteps getting increasingly louder.

“Hey dumb shit! You just got your soda shit all over me!”

You sped up, breaking into a run and not responding to him. If you made it home in time then maybe he’d leave you alone. But what about school? You’d have to change your name and face and move across the country.

“I’m going to kill you!” Now he was running after you. He wasn’t unused to running after kids who fucked with him, so he was pretty used to this kinda thing. And he was fast at it too. “Gotcha!”

You yelped when you were grabbed and thrown down onto the grass next to the sidewalk. At least you were next to a park. Maybe God would be a little more merciful today, considering you could’ve been thrown onto the pavement. You really hoped that the next thing that would happen would be you getting saved right before he starts beating your head into the ground. You really didn’t feel like going to the ER today, and your mom would be pissed about how you knew you shouldn’t start shit with ‘Vance fucking Hopper.’ Your dad would probably beat you for a second time over the medical bills.

“I swear it wasn’t on purpose!” You pleaded, choosing to explain yourself as he straddled your waist, keeping you in place between his legs as he grabbed at your shirt collar. Maybe he’d punch you softer? “Some kid ran into my arm! I promise I’d never bother you ever, Hopper!”

Vance just started down at you, fist by his side, assessing your words. “Huh.” He said, letting your shirt go as your upper body fell to the ground. Now you were winded. Better than the alternative. “Guess I’ll just get a similar payback then.”

You watched in horror as he pulled out a pocket knife. What was he gonna do? Carve his name into you? Cut up your face? Oh god, he was gonna murder you. With a not-so-gentle hand, the blonde boy pulled your hair, hands threaded firmly in your locks. “What…?”

Vance cut off a good length of your hair, and you watched in horror (as best you could) at the hack job. What previously used to be your clean-cut hair was now resting on the floor or cut in the most uneven way possible. Maybe a bright side would be the fact you had the layers all of your hairstylists could never give you. After he was finished, he stood up and looked at the hair in his fist while you sat there crying. “Now we’re even.” He said, tossing the rest of your hair into the grass next to you.

That was the start of your burning hatred for Vance Hopper.

——————————————

High School had finally started a few weeks after your and Vance’s incident. At least your hair could grow into its new form for a little bit. To say your mom was angry when she came home that night to find your hair hacked up was an understatement. She was livid—ranting about, ‘how could you let this happen?!’ And, ‘We need to schedule you an appointment with Shelly immediately.’ You had to hand it to your mom and Shelly though; cuz they got your hair not looking as horrible as it did. Hell, they even kept the layers, which was actually really nice. As you walked through the halls, you could tell there were a few people talking about your hair. It made sense though, considering you ended school with longer hair.

You walked up to your friend, Bruce Yamada, leaning against his neighboring locker as you let out a quiet groan of exhaustion and annoyance. He just chuckled and closed his locker, slinging his bag over his shoulder and gave you a light punch in the shoulder. “Spur of the moment decision, or did you get caught in something?”

“Does Vance Hopper count?”

“Yikes.”

You quickly socked him in the shoulder, lips turned into a frown as you looked at him. Bruce just gave a light chuckle and apologized for the remark while rubbing his shoulder. You weren’t by any means a crazily strong badass, but you can pack quite a mean punch. Just not against Vance Hopper, or Robin Arellano. Though, after your run-in with Vance this summer, you did practice your swings and basic attacks—just in case, you thought,

“Whatever, let’s just go to class.” You sighed, grabbing Bruce by his backpack strap and pulling on him. You two were lucky to have three out of your six of your classes together, and they were in every other class period, so it wouldn’t be horrible.

Rolling into your first period, which was Biology, you were relieved to not see a certain blonde-headed dickhead anywhere around. Bruce chuckled at you when you let out a sigh of relief and dragged you to the last available seats that were next to each other. You both would be damned if you didn’t sit next to each other. Bruce wanted someone to help keep his ‘crazy fans,’ as you dubbed it, away from him. You? You just didn’t really wanna sit next to someone you didn’t know well. You really hated the awkward silence when the teacher asked you guys to do the ‘get to know your classmate’ activities.

“Class one cleared.” He whispered to you, getting a giggle out of you. That was the nice part of being friends with Bruce, is that he always knew how to keep the mood light. Previously, a few summers ago, you both dated. It wasn’t anything big, and it just felt like being friends. You both decided to just keep up with the friends thing, considering there was no romantic chemistry there. Now you were both the other’s special person. Bruce’s break-ups, your family issues, no secret was kept between you two.

——————

After Biology ended and you started heading toward English, your stomach lurched up your throat. Vance Hopper was right in front of you. Luckily he was walking forward so he didn’t see you, but you almost bumped into him for a second time. You didn’t need to be re-acquainted with his pocket knife again. You saw a small space in the hallway clear out and give you a direct ‘in’ into your English classroom, so you quickly ducked your head and hurried into the classroom, finding a seat in the back of the class next to the windows. Thank god this spot was still open.

You set your bag down on your desk and laid your head on top of it, listening to the buzz of kids talking with their friends as they entered the classroom. What was a short 5-minute power nap gonna do? Just before you could relax fully though, the buzz turned into a quiet hum suddenly. It was weird. Did the teacher walk in? Was it Mr. Manning? He was the worst teacher to have. You lifted your head up to see what the quietness was about, expecting to see a balding middle aged man at the front of the class, but you were met with Vance Hopper.

“Fuck.” You mumbled, watching him walk up to you.

“Hey dipshit, you’re in my seat.”

The kids in the classroom visibly tensed as he spoke to you, watching as you gave him a tired look. You knew the easy path would be to relinquish your seat and move, but you were particularly pissed at him. You didn’t want to give him the right to walk all over you. It was the middle of a school day—what was he gonna do?

“No I’m not. I’m in my seat.”

Vance gave you an angry look, standing right next to you. “Do I need to cut off your tongue next? I’m telling you to–”

“Everyone sit down and be quiet. I’m taking attendance.” Your teacher walked in, and what did you know? Mr. Manning. “Also, these are your seats for the rest of the school year, so enjoy.” Everyone looked up at him, waiting for him to finish with whatever paper he had in his hands. Please look up. Please notice Vance. “Hopper! I know about you. Sit your ass down.” He said, pointing at the seat next to you. Fuck. That wasn’t occupied?

Vance gave you one more angry glare before dropping his stuff and sitting down begrudgingly in the uncomfortable plastic chair. Well, at least Vance wouldn’t be able to torment you too much here. When you looked up though, he slid his finger across his throat. A warning.

You’re dead.

——————

“I’m telling you Bruce, he kept kicking my legs during class! It hurt like a bitch too. Have you seen his boots? I’m gonna die.” You finish telling Bruce, sitting at your table and chewing angrily on your sandwich. It was Friday, the last day of the first week of school, and you were just hours from 48 hours of freedom from Vance Hopper. “And I have to deal with him in history next.” Yes, you had Vance Hopper in two of your classes

“Wow. Good luck.” He says, trading you his apple for your peach. “I mean, good luck with getting through high school. With Vance in your classes and all.”

“Your support speaks volumes.” You say flatly, laughing along with Bruce. You couldn’t ask for a better friend—he just always made things feel so much better.

That was until you felt a cold substance coat your head entirely, slowly dripping in your hair to your clothes. Vance fucking Hopper just poured his milk all over you. Bruce just stared at you for a second, standing up instantly as you took a moment to process what happened and wipe the milk off of your face.

“What’s your problem with (Y/N), man?!” Bruce shouted at Vance, the blonde walking away with a cocky smirk.

“I mistook her for a trash can, my bad.” He chuckled, kids turning to look at the commotion building. “Maybe you shouldn’t hang around her so much, you wouldn’t want me to have to—“

Vance was met with a right hook to the face, not expecting you to fight back ever. The first time you had cried over a simple accident, but now you were swinging at him? Oh were you getting bold. He blinked in shock for a moment, pressing a hand to his face and looking at you. Maybe now would be a good time to back down and accept what you had coming, but you were feeling really stupid today.

He seized you by your collar, holding you close as he growled out, “You’ll regret that when you’re six feet under, you bitch.”

You spat in his face, kicking at his knee to get him to let go—which he did, and you fell back to the ground with all your body weight, watching him wipe the spit from his face as he wound back and gave you a good kick to your legs, a yelp caught in your throat. Now the entire cafeteria had eyes on you both, kids watching in horror, shock, and excitement. You’d love to see these kids go toe-to-toe with Vance Hopper the way you were now.

After a short while of fighting, you and Vance were on the floor. Scratches, bites, punches, hair pulling. Blood, and bruises, and welts. Vance’s arms were for sure fucked to hell and back, but he did a large number to your torso. You would totally believe it if you were told you broke a rib. It wasn’t long before Bruce had run back in with security and staff, watching the two of you get pulled apart.

Vance had a bruise already taking place on his cheek and his arms were visibly harmed—hell, you even got a hold of some of his hair. The previously fluffy but somewhat tamed mop on his head was now a mess of tangles and abuse. You meanwhile had a bloody nose, and you were holding an arm around your stomach, knees wobbly. While you managed to get back at Vance in your own way, you definitely took the brunt of the beating, and not to mention the milk in your hair was still there.

Vance fought against the grip on his arms like an angry restrained dog, while you stared at the floor, walking to the office with the teacher who was next to you. Looking over at Bruce, he mouthed a ‘sorry’ and you just gave him a small smile, shaking your head. You could always count on Bruce to somehow end up a hero in a sense. With a last look back at Vance, he also walked in defeat to the office, refusing to look at you. What a fucking asshole.

#the black phone x you #the black phone x reader #the grabber #the black phone #vance hopper x you #vance hopper #vance hopper x reader #vance the black phone #pinball vance #bruce yamada #bruce yamada x reader #robin arellano #finney blake #robin arellano x reader #finney blake x reader #brady hepner #mason thames #miguel cazarez mora #tristan pravong #blumhouse #fanfic #x reader fic #requests open #asks open #enemies to friends to lovers #fanfiction #ethan hawke

[boygirltreehouse]

batgirl 2000 reread bcs I'm crazyy...IM NUTS!!!

her and that damned rose..what does it all MEAN!!! it makes a reappearance l8r...also I missed this dynamic so so bad. me when I'm in a seeing my kids as an extension of myself competition and my opponent is Bruce Wayne

I always forget how fucking potent and tension filled the first arc of this comic is man. it's like, bcs cass can't speak or even have thought bubbles everything's communicated via her actions or the words of the ppl around her. every panel she's in has to be chock-full of emotion and every time she interacted with someone the implications and the ffUCKKKKK‼️

the atmosphere in this damn comic man

I dunno man not to "back in my day!" when it wasn't even my day. but comics these days don't trust the audience even a little. there's always gotta be paragraphs of text having a character explicitly state every detail of their motivation and like not that old comics didn't also do that but at least the words they wrote were pretty like fuck man who are they hiring to write this shit anymorw

this transition is straight out of a movie. I know we say this with literally everything but if ANY comic in the world should get an animated show it has to be this one. top contender. it's formulated like one already, it's episodic w perfect overall themes and bigger plots. even the vibe is perfect, the grainy mtv cartoon thing it has going. every day I pray for a batgirl 2000 cartoon it'd go so crazy jsut adapt the shit straight

batgirl 2000 just keeps hitting you and doesn't let up bcs in the same episode SORRY issue..where cass meets lady Shiva for the first time is also the same issue where babs first begins to address her as Cassandra

^^WHICH IS CRAZY bcs we have to keep in mind that up to this point cass is nameless, she's only been referred to as batgirl. this is one of the first times she goes out as not batgirl too tho, bcs Bruce benched her. it's GAHHHHH that whole thing where vigilantes angst and drama abt titles and legacies and their individual identities is exacerbated so so bad for cass bcs batgirl is the first name she's ever given. like it's all she ever knew and ever was. Cassandra came after and THIS

THIS PANEL RUGHT HERE ohhh my god it makes me crazy. she's only batgirl. she doesn't even have the words to explain it yet. she's only a reflection of the city she's sworn to protect its all she is and at first its lowkey all Bruce let's her be. not to mention. her relationship w babs, I'll speak on them l8r can't do it now I'll explode

a 1:1 animated series man. it's all I can think about so so many iconic moments. I don't kill but I don't lose either is already as cold as cold gets. the way the comic is formatted already fully visualizes as animated in my brain and it's so so fun to watch

LIKE LOOK AT THIS!! cinematic as he'll and it's not even moving..

both cass and Bruce hit the bullseye like....

Cass's perfectionism is such an underrated character trait of hers (in like the greater batfam fandom and more modern comics not here, never here) bcs she literally sacrifices her life about it. she's so self detrimental about how not perfect she is anymore and Bruce's nonsense doesn't help either. man sees himself reflected in a teenage girl once and looses all his damn sense. I'm just, yea we know "mediocre for a life time or perfect for a year" < god that goes hard, but the true tragedy that is cass's inability to see how unnatural and upsetting it is that her mind works the way it does at all, that she can run into bullets head on but complains that she could do it with more skill when she was 6 or whatever like girl...never evr letting myself become desensitized to her trauma, David cain when I get you...

AND ANOTHER THING AND ANOTHER THING!!! KKKKKKKKK!! the sideplots and b plots and background characters in this comic..each of them are offered so much empathy by the narrative and are written purposefully to reflect or foil whatever cass's current conflic is all while feeling like fully fleshed characters even if they only appear for one issue

^^ I have feeling abt these panels but my lawyers are advising me not to speak atvthis ttime

THFUCKINH THE ROSE!!AGAIN!!! so sure this is old news but my running theory is that it definitely ties into cass's sense of self and identity outside of her living weapon status. this whole issue is prime babs v. bruce custody battle material bcs babs wants cass to be able to have a normal life, to be someone outside of batgirl bcs where she is now isn't healthy even a little bit but bruce argues that cass doesn’t need that, all she needs is her devotion to the mission < now we don't have time to unpack all that but in this moment we see her make the choice, dropping the rose. in the very first panel of the whole comic cass does the very same thing, she drops the puzzle (representing her childhood) in favor of violence bcs at the time its all she knows THE PARALLELS HELP HELP MEEE

AND AND THIS NEXT WHOLE PANEL is so evocative of the first few issues where cass couldnt yet put her emotions into words. just atmosphere and silence. BECAUSE she's confused!!! bruce says justice is what she needs that it will make her feel better, feel normal but it doesn't!! she looks over the city and still feels..feeling!!!! she picks the rose back up and extends a hand out to barbara bcs she was right, she not Bruce, she can't sit in a cave all alone all day and feel better (<which arguably doesn't even work for him either)

in the next few issues she meets steph and tim which is soo fun bcs letting cass have friends her age opens up so much for potential dynamics. especially her relationship w steph, not just in a stephcass way but in a narrative foil way, to me at least

next post I'll probably talk abt cass's guilt, self hatred, and need for atonement but we move‼️

#and thats the first 20 issues!! #posting now so it doesn't get too long but im still going #thought bubbles #batgirl #cassandra cain #dc comics #batgirl 2000 #bonus silly moments r joker singing oops i did it again by brittany spears and catwoman putting prerecorded scooby doo marathon on the tv #2000 posting

[fresamilkwrites]

LIGHTHOUSE RELATED HEADCANONS ━ Bruce Wayne [The Batman]

author's note. Many of you have been asking me for a continuation to my lighthouse fic, and while no particular idea has come to mind, I did mention before that I had a whole plot of Bruce and reader's life... so I decided to tell you some more about it in the head canons format! Anyways, if you have any prompts or want to know anything particular about their relationship, don't be afraid to leave it in my fic requests!

They're low-key together simply because she has a savior complex.

The Wayne Enterprises investors wanted Bruce out of the company because they thought he didn't give a good impression. It was then that under Alfred's influence, Bruce decided to take his public life and image more seriously.

He goes to a charity dinner and keeps to himself the whole time, he does not know how to interact actually.

But she's there.

She was the typical social butterfly, the people's delight and very kind regardless of the fact that she'd grown in wealth.

She realized Bruce was alone and that everyone seemed to be nitpicking everything about what he did or how he looked. That made her decide to take some action.

She approached him and started a conversation that surprisingly flowed naturally. They simply got along, which was a rare occasion in Bruce's life.

After that, they always found each other at events and social functions. They stuck together and slowly but surely became closer. Things naturally flowed that way.

Her family didn't like him, they also thought of him as a social reject and didn't want their only daughter close to him. It was bad reputation, they said.

But she didn't care, she was falling for him.

And she always thought it was unrequited. He never showed how he felt and that was misleading when it came to this matter.

"He just likes hanging out with me. As friends." She'd go around saying.

But Bruce also had feelings for her.

Feelings that he also didn't quite understand. But he did know that being with her felt right and always worked as a way for him to escape what tormented him. At least for some time.

So that to him translates into a marriage proposal, somehow?

And he does propose.

Randomly over dinner.

He struggled to and stumbled over his words trying to explain the proposal he had, of course he didn't just ask the usual "will you marry me?" Bruce made it sound like a business agreement to a point.

She was confused to say the least.

But also extremely happy to know that after all, her love was reciprocated. And then she accepted.

She understood Bruce was a man with broken pieces, but she was set on the fact that with all the love and patience she had for him, things for him would eventually get better.

When she broke the news to her family, they weren't happy and tried to convince her to give the ring back. She wasn't willing to do that, ever in a million years.

"You simply don't get him like I do," she'd tell her mother.

After the wedding and moving in together, she thought she could see improvement in him and their dynamic. He was still pretty warded when it came to his emotions, but he seemed to put an effort and everything went well.

He never verbally told her that he loved her, but she knew he did. She learned he didn't smile at anyone, but he did at her. He made jokes. He asked her to cook special foods for him like a kid. And at night when they slept, Bruce held her so close that it felt as if he were afraid she'd leave.

And she was happy that way, that was enough.

Even if sometimes she felt like his behavior was neglectful towards her emotional needs, she never focused on that because she understood it was never intentional, and knew that he was always trying his best. Besides, seeing him "happy" (it's not like he really projected much happiness when they weren't in private but that was besides the point) was all she cared about.

#kore's fics #kore's writing #bruce wayne #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne x fem!reader #bruce wayne x you #bruce wayne x oc #battinson #headcanon #Robert pattinson #Bruce Wayne x y/n #fanfic

[mocharaycookie]

How the Cogs of Toontown Online Are An Anti Capitalist Metaphor

autism be upon ye

foreword: this was written as a "fuck it, we ball, pick whatever topic you so desire" research paper for a creative writing class, with a pre-determined format to follow. as a result, my writing style may seem off here. hope you enjoy.

READ ON MY WEBSITE HERE

What I Knew and What I Want to Know

While I was both too young and didn’t have the money to fully play the game while it was still under a subscription service, Toontown Online has always been one of my more intense interests, mostly due to the charity that is several private servers that keep the game running, sticking to the original, or branching out into a modernized experience, but for now, sticking to the original game. Toontown Online was a kids’ aimed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) started by Disney in 2003 and shutting down a decade later, with a pretty lively presence in the genre during this time. The plot was basically that you played as, well, a cartoon anthropomorphic animal, and kept the world cheery and fun against the ongoing invasion of “Cogs”, which are these businessmen robots, heavy emphasis on businessmen, with all the boredom and drab that comes with such. You fight against them using stereotyped cartoon gags, because, well, Cogs can’t take a joke. Rinse and repeat this basic basis with variations of the fighting format all throughout the game as you progress, as well as other stuff to do (grinding gets boring, and Toontown Online was notorious for grinding), and you have what remained successful until it was pushed off to the side for Club Penguin.

I’ve always been much more interested in the Cogs than the toons when it came to this game. Their origins, which elaborated on with a simple flash animation within older installers for the game, are mostly unexplained. And, of course, the unified designs of just average, uncanny office workers with little variation except for head design and suit color dependent on department, are a specific, stylized sort of cool. There’s also probably something to say about my own personal experiences with work and neurodivergency and the want to be one, but that’s not the point.

The point now will turn political – despite the game being aimed at kids who could afford ten dollars a month to play, there are some specifics parts that addle to my now an adult brain, that make it think of the further lore implications, and what it means in the greater scheme of things. What do the Cogs represent? What does the war between the Toons and them mean? Of course, it’s also very easy to compare such a thing to the workforce in our own daily lives, and how big corporations play a role, reaching in, making evil decisions, and yet, giving us no choice but to consume their product. And what would I use any of this information for, to look into the implications of Cogs as a symbolism for real-life capitalism and its evils? Probably just rewording this entire paper into an essay to be posted on my website, but also, for my own fan-writings for the game, because, well, making fan content is fun.

My Search Process

The main treasure chest of information when it comes to Toontown Online nowadays is the Toontown Preservation Project, a website hosting game design documents, concept art, and much more, donated from the developers of Toontown Online while it was still active, such as Bruce Woodside. There’s also, of course, the many still-standing videos and posts on old forums about Toontown Online, as well as the gameplay that remains in private servers (mostly relevant to Toontown Rewritten, which is actually the group that runs the Toontown Preservation Project as well). The documentation is vast, encompassing things never implemented into the game, removed early or in beta testing, but for almost all of the conception, there is no use of the word Cogs to describe the Cogs. Instead, they are called Suits, and no discussion into the robotics parts, either.

However, these are not decisions that made it into the final game, and thus, could mean nothing at all in the long run. What was in the game, however, was Unites, a reward for completing a certain boss that replenished either your gags or your Laff (the toon equivilent of health), which were considered the most useful of boss rewards for obvious reasons. When a Unite was used, your Toon also shouts “Toons of the World,” and then a slightly varied prose based on the type of Unite. In addition, if you went a little bit out of your way, you could get a Speedchat (pre-picked) phrase of just “Toons of the world, Unite!”.

While if you had any clue of the book or the man behind it, you probably could’ve seen this coming, but there is something to be said of Toontown Online’s central themes and including a rip from “Workers of the world, unite” (Marx), which is straight from The Communist Manifesto. While it has never been confirmed, nor probably ever will, if the recycling from such a fundamental source of socialist theory was on purpose or merely a coincidence, it sure does work for my point here.

In addition, take into account the setting of the game, and how Toontown’s economy seems to hinge upon a plethora of small businesses, there is the obvious comparison one could make to themes of anti-monopolization. Toontown is defending itself against what the fate of plenty of smaller towns has become, which is depending on one or two companies to carry the entire area in terms of business, and while the Toon’s shops all serve all sorts of purposes (but being boiled down in gameplay to just throwing quests at you), the Cogs only have one overbearing one, so at least there’s one major reason to keep them out of sticking their stick into the ground.

What I Have Learned

What I can gather from all of this is actually pretty interesting into the accidental symbolism the Cogs have become over the years, as, in my own eyes, the unavoidable evils of a society that hinges on capitalism and the selfishness of product become more obvious. They are a stereotype, sure, but also a stripped-down truth to the place of most workers in the eyes of company – in the truest form of the word – just another cog in the machine. The robotism of Cogs can also be taken as a symbol of automation, as more of the bottom-line, repetitive work becomes shelved out by machinery and AI to replace humans, at the cost of jobs for those who do not have a specialization in anything at all, or who’s specialization has become the menial labor needed for these, such as factory work.

There’s little variation compared to the colorful forms of toonery you play as, having to fit into these molds, and perhaps, business stereotypes as the Cog types are most often named after. There is no deviation. You serve a purpose, serve it well, and that’s all there is to it. That’s your life purpose. Have fun doing that until you die.

I’m also not the only one who’s attempted to co-relate their own life to the satire situation of Cogs. During the research part, I was stumbling over some less than reliable sources of social media, and plenty of older Toontown Online players had ended up in office positions themselves, and mentioned how, in a way, they had become what they once fought against. Sometimes, this was more obviously aligned with the office positions shown in-game, with one user stating “When I was having an early 20s life crisis when the song Suit and Jacket by Judah and the Lion came out and I have a vivid memory of standing in the shower hating working at a bank and being pushed to ‘sell’ checking accounts and that’s when I had the sleeper memory of toontown cogs awaken in me” (goddessbotanic). In the system of modern life, where one has to almost kill themselves, emotionally or otherwise, just to be able to keep up with the frivalities of modern life, to keep a roof on their head, the best you can do is try and keep your tooniness alive, though only at the side.

What This Means to Me, and How I’ll Use It

I’ve always cared about little silly niche topics to try and explore like this. Though there is probably no true intention to any of the evidence brought upon the table except for really in-line coincidences, it all seems to add up to a more mature way of seeing a game I’ve cared about since my first years using a computer. I’m all too big on nostalgia – most of my best memories of technology were with the early 2010s net, which encompasses the later years of Toontown Online, as well as the earlier years of some of my other favorite games, as well as an era of content that wasn’t as dopamine-trapping and headache-causing as the modern internet feeds. Something like this is a bright, fresh light, and makes it all too easy to keep caring about Toontown Online.

Fortunately, I am not trying to embrace a grave. The spirit of Toontown Online still lives on in the form of private servers that keep the game running and available to play, and, in both spite of what made Toontown Online shut down in the first place and to avoid copyright troubles, entirely for free. The two most popular are Toontown Rewritten, which keeps to the base game for the most part for nostalgia reasons, and Toontown Corporate Clash, which adds new content and quality of life changes to change Toontown and modernize it into an all-new, exciting experience. I’ve invested a lot more hours than I would like to admit on a few renditions of these servers, but time having fun is not time wasted, despite what the Cogs think.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. The Communist Manifesto. London ; Chicago, Ill. :Pluto Press, 1996.

“r/Toontown - Ever Realise We Grew up to Be the Cogs?” Reddit, Dec. 2022, https://www.reddit.com/r/Toontown/comments/zmwjtm/ever_realise_we_grew_up_to_be_the_cogs/.

Luthin, Stefanie. “The Unique Anti-Capitalist Journey of Toontown Online.” VGA Gallery, VGA Gallery, 24 Mar. 2022, https://vgagallery.org/vga-zine/toontown-anti-capitalism.

Woodside, Bruce. “Toontown Preservation Project.” Finalized Suit Turnaround -- Toontown Preservation Project, Toontown Rewritten, 28 Aug. 2022, https://toontown.online/Finalized- Suit-Turnaround-4393ef3db89341638e8a55242b79ee0a

Toontown Preservation Project, Toontown Rewritten, https://toontown.online/

#toontown #toontown online #i have no idea how tumblr will take this but. hope you guys like big ol textposts at 8 in the fucking morning bc i have to go get ready #for class after posting this ^_^ #nephro.txt #nephro.pdf

[lazaruspiss]

your ship, character and fandom opinions are so based. i'm also a poly robin shipper so it's nice to see there are more of us here. anyway, i'd love to hear what are your all time favorite dc ships and why, and if you have any headcanons (sfw and nsfw) about them. or you can just ramble about any fic ideas you have, the ones you've mentioned already are very interesting.

thank u for the compliments and also the many things to talk about!! <3 mwah! (readmore added bc of length)

picking a favorite ship is so hard, because im a multishipper and real big on leaving my options open so that i have the most opportunity in any given story!! like, brudick and sladick are both ones i love for dark stories, but they each give such different angles and paths that you can take. all combinations of robins are dear to me for different reasons. and even within the context of one ship, i can usually come up with a lot of different directions that they can go it!!

i can't even say "X is my favorite for Y types of stories" because with a good pairing theres so much you can do with a variety of types of stories!! so. def cant pick a favorite, but i can list some that i like! they mostly involve Dick, bc my biases are quite obivious, lol.

Dick ships: Bruce, Slade, Talia, Slade/Talia, Tim, Jason, Steph, Damian (but it depends a lot on context, i see Dick as being very careful about not taking advantage), any poly robins combo, Slade/Rose, Tara

other ships: Slade/Rose, Slade/Talia, any robins together, Bruce/Talia (but only if Talia is having daddy issues about it), Nyssa/Talia (Nyssa repeatedly kills and revives her to make her understand her anger at Ra's. the rituals. they're intricate i swear-)(but also in arkham knight Nyssa compares her love for Talia to Bruce's explicitly romantic love for Talia and i've never been normal about that), any combo of the Al Ghuls tbh they're so mentally ill about each other

so uhhhhhh. really you could pitch any Dick ship at me and get me talking. if anyone wants to ask about that list ur welcome to lol

fic ideas!!! i have some shorter ones, like a Blackfire/Robin non-con based on that one scene from tt03, but i kinda wanna take this chance to ramble about my longer ideas!

u may have seen some of these, but i have a series called "days without incident" which is a bunch of shorter than usual fics stringing together random semi canon compliant scenes of Dick being in dangerous sexual situations, which are eventually going to end in a rlly angsty fic of Dick being assaulted and just accepting it. it sounds dark, and it is, but due to the length and format they really just serve as quick writing warm-ups more than anything.

DIDick AU. a friend of mine has been on the receiving end of so many DMs of me fleshing out these alter OCs, to the point that it would feel weird if I didn't write anything for it. the problem is that when I think about it, it all revolves around characters and there's no real plot line to use for it. I could just rant about it, bc figuring out what I want to do for a story about them is really tricky. it's also tough bc it's a teeny bit more personal than I usually go for. do /I/ have DID? unclear. I probably wouldn't tell you either way. anyways, it's an idea i want to more with but it's just more complicated to work on than most others.

suicide fic. "Where The Dead Stay Dead", title in reference to this being in a "Jason Stays Dead AU". i want to take a sort of dark comedy direction, but i have trouble controlling how the tone ends up when I write. Dick tries to kill himself post Jason's death + many other bad times but Slade just happens to pop in to try and bother him that day, and is uh. he doesn't know how to feel about it, the kid dying in front of him, but he drags Dick to a safe house and does some made-up comic book science fuckery to give Dick his healing factor. Dick is not very happy about this when he wakes up. the rest of the story follows an arrangement where Dick searches for a way to perma die and is generally a depressed grumpy bitch about everything, and Slade secretly tries to get him to stop doing that while trying to figure out a way to revive Jason. whichever ends up being easier. a lot of it would probably just be about Slade feeling lost with this "new" version of Dick, as well as the two of them swapping stories about dead loved ones and learning how to mourn.

timcel fic. that was the placeholder title, before i settled on "Nature's Order (As Told From Alpha To Beta)", but i still call it the timcel fic for short <3 the alpha in that title is Ra's, and the beta is Tim. the kick off for the story is that Ra's kidnaps omega Dick to use as a human incubator bc he and Talia had a spat that's left him heir-less, and he kidnaps Tim to make Dick more compliant. it's a really extreme take on "right wing alpha male pipeline, but omegaverse". it's gonna be a lot of bad times for Dick <3 i've talked about it so much with my friend that one time they mentioned basing smth partially off of Nature's Order Tim, and I think that's a good sign that I should really be writing this properly at this point. I have started chapter one! but bc it's gonna be a long one I want to get three chapters done before I start posting, bc having a few extra chapters written will help with my nerves a bit.

#asks #anon #uhhh that was a lot lol #feel free to ask follow up questions...?

[solena2]

Saw a post about which books the batfam would read that was Wrong so I’m throwing my hat into the ring

So first, Bruce. Bruce has No Life aside from the whole “pretending to be an entirely different person in public” thing, and as such he reads precisely three things. 1: shitty romance novels. He says it’s because they’re the kind of thing his persona would read so he needs to be able to talk about them if asked but he secretly likes them. 2: anything nonfiction. Put literally any nonfiction book in front of him and he will have finished it within an hour, regardless of length. 3: Agatha Christie. He’s read all of her books multiple times and got all of his kids into her work as well.

Next is Dick. Dick doesn’t read much, because this man has absolutely no free time ever. Like, day job as a cop, night job as a vigilante, and a social life? He doesn’t sleep and he definitely doesn’t have hobbies. He does really like comics though. He owns pretty much every Calvin and Hobbes collection ever published, along with a respectable amount of Foxtrot and some Dilbert stuff he regretted buying after doing some research into the author. He also has a semi-secret pulp fiction addiction, especially the weird horror thinkpiece ones that you always regret reading when you try to sleep.

Jason, unlike Dick, reads constantly. He loves books, he is a massive literature nerd. Since he lives on his own, he gets a lot more alone time than the others, and he spends most of it reading. Jane Austen is his favorite, but he also likes other romance novels of that era more than he’ll readily admit. He also loves Frankenstein, partially because he projects on the monster and partially because he finds the fact that Mary Shelley started writing it in order to avoid having to talk to Oscar Wilde hilarious. He mostly reads classics, but he’s got a soft spot for more recent coming of age stories. He read The Girl Who Could Fly when he was like 12 and it’s stuck with him since.

Barbara really likes sci-fi/fantasy novels with heavy worldbuilding and intricate plotlines. Any time she hears about a series that’s five books in and still hasn’t fully revealed the main plot, her eyes go wide because she knows what she’s doing until 3 AM that night. Because of this, she’s also recently gotten into plot heavy isekai series, though she slightly regrets it due to how exhausting all the harem bullshit can get in a lot of them. She can’t read any book with hacking in it because the inaccuracies kill her inside. She also loved The Martian, but like, who in the batfam wouldn’t, honestly.

Tim, being a heathen, Doesn’t Read. He’ll pick up a book on something if it’s the only way to get the information, but he mostly engages with media by watching video essays and/or reading the sparknotes. He just doesn’t focus well on books. If Jason every successfully bullies him into giving audiobooks a chance, though, he’ll probably get into them a lot more, since it’s just the format he has trouble with.

Steph is one of those people who specifically seeks out terribly written stories because she thinks they’re hilarious. The worse a book is, the more she loves it. She mostly goes for bad YA dystopia novels, since they’re easy to find, but anything that manages to be so bad it’s good is up her alley. She also reads vigilante rpf, mostly because of the faces people make when she forces them to read fanfiction of themselves. Wattpad is her favorite site in the whole world.

Cass has trouble with reading, on account of her whole Thing, so when she wants to read something she’ll bully someone else into reading it to her. She likes fantasy novels, with a noticeable trend toward anything remotely similar in vibe to The Last Unicorn. Jason introduced her to The Chronicles of Narnia and she loved it.

Damian reads horse girl books. He pretends it’s because he’s mocking the “infantile characters” and “plebeian obsession with friendship” but everyone knows the real reason is that he’s pissed he didn’t grow up in a time when riding a horse everywhere was practical. He’s also read just about everything by Tamora Pierce or Anne Mccaffrey, though he won’t admit to it because he’s ashamed of genuinely enjoying stories with predominate messages of love, hope, and caring for each other. Recently he’s gotten into Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series and he’s completely addicted.

Alfred, if asked, will profess that he’s read every butler’s handbook every created. This is probably true, but his real interest lies in bodice rippers. No one knows this except for Bruce, who found one of his stashes on accident when he was 9 and almost ending up reading some extremely steamy porn before Alfred caught him and moved his secret cache off the property.

#I’m definitely exposing myself with some of these #original post #batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #barbara gordon #tim drake #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #damian wayne #alfred pennyworth #would have done duke but I don’t know enough about him sadge #sol speaks #<— changing my original post tag becuase tumblr’s search should play better with this one #edit: I’m kinda regretting just popping this one out without thinking too hard about it now #forgot that Cass very much does read #in my defense I was thinking of early cass right after she met bruce because of a fic #but like that’s not an excuse #shoulda done research before posting whoop #also got oscar wilde and lord byron flipped in my brain somehow no clue how that happened

[unseededtoast]

Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Part 12/37 | Part Eleven, Part Thirteen

Summary: I've lived every day for the past five years looking over my shoulder. I knew they'd come for me, it was inevitable. I was foolish to think I could outrun my past. It's followed me everywhere I go, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Never would I have anticipated that the shadows would lead me to the light.

Bucky Barnes x OC

Series Warnings: Discussion of human trafficking, alcohol consumption, graphic depictions of violence, sexual content, discussion of suicidal thoughts.

a/n: Hi everyone, thank you for checking this out, I appreciate any and all support! This series is also posted on Ao3 and Wattpad if you prefer those formats/platforms! This is a completed series, and it's going to take some time for me to transfer it to Tumblr, so please bear with me!

The bed feels a lot colder without him by my side.

The sound startles the two of us and we jump back from one another. I get out of the bed and straighten my clothes out, feeling confused and flustered. Bucky opens the door to see who's there and I follow him out. Steve is standing by the couch and looks between the two of us, a quizzical look on his face. I hope he doesn't assume anything intimate happened, I don't want there to be any issues between any of us, and especially not between Steve and Bucky. Steve blinks a few times and clears his throat.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something, I'm here to pick you two up." He says with an authoritative tone. He definitely isn't happy with what he just saw.

Steve walks back up the bunker stairs without another word and I look to Bucky, who shrugs. I grab the red book off the bookcase and we put our shoes on before following Steve up the stairs quietly, a heavy tension between all of us. Outside of the bunker is a Shield jet and I allow Bucky to sit next to Steve, I take the seat in the back. I don't know where we're headed but I hope it's a short trip.

We fly in a tense silence, and I want to break the silence by asking Steve what all happened but I can't muster up the confidence to do so. In a way I feel like Steve is an angry parent, Bucky and I the kids. I'm not even sure what happened between Bucky and I. Sure, we've grown closer and he's made me blush a few times but nothing serious happened. However, I know Bucky was leaning in for a kiss before Steve got there, and I know I would've let it happen.

I'm working for Shield in order to help Bucky recover his memories, provide support, and remove the programming from his mind, not kiss him and complicate things. I feel a twinge of sadness as I realize that no matter how much I wanted to kiss him back, I can't. I have to put the mission and his well-being above my own feelings. I just hope we can continue like nothing happened. I lean my head back against the seat and suppress my confusion and sadness about the situation, trying to get my head back in the game like it's day one.

Steve lands the jet on top of a building and gets out. Thankfully, he waits for the two of us and leads us in where I see Tony standing behind a wet bar. I look around the place and notice it looks similar to a Shield compound, but Tony's name is on a lot of things so I'm willing to bet this is one of his properties. I avoid Bucky's gaze and continue looking around the huge building.

"Where are the others?" Steve asks Tony.

"Bruce is still off the radar, Fury is trying to track him down. Natasha said she has some loose ends to tie up but should be here any minute now." Tony sets a glass down on the counter top and focuses on me.

"Isn't it just so weird how all of these Hydra spies come out of the woodwork once you show up?" I stand frozen in place. I take a few moments to process my thoughts before speaking. I need my words to be meaningful, I know Tony is the type of person that likes to get a reaction, so I won't give him the one he's looking for. 

"I've tolerated you accusing me of being a Hydra operative for over a month now, it's time to give it up. It's not a coincidence that they were there, you found some before I even came along. They were after him, I was just an added bonus. If I were with Hydra I would have activated the Winter Soldier during the alarms and taken him back to Russia for a great reward. You have no right to accuse me of being a spy when I've proved I am no such thing. It's insulting and I won't stand for it anymore." I fight back the urge to yell, knowing that would only invite him to argue with me. I keep my tone calm and collected, my accent becoming more prominent because I'm worked up. I wish I could yell at Tony and punch him across the face. Everyone stays silent, and I turn to walk outside before I start saying things I'll likely regret later. This entire day so far has been one big train wreck.

I walk around the building and sit on the concrete trying to collect myself. Tony hates me, Steve is mad at me, and I know things with Bucky are likely to get tense after what happened this morning. A small part of me wishes I wouldn't have taken this position, but I know if I hadn't I would probably be dead by now and Bucky might never get the programming reversed.

I'm starting to feel like everyone is turning against me. Maybe I can write out instructions as to how I would begin reversing the programming and leave it for Tony and Bruce. They're brilliant and I know they'd be able to do it. I can destroy the book so that there is never a Winter Soldier threat again, and then vanish. Sure, I'll likely still be hunted by Hydra every day of my life, but perhaps that's my destiny. In a way I took Bucky's free will and life, so isn't it fair that I give mine up in return?

Footsteps on the concrete path interrupt my stress-induced escape plan and I see Natasha walking towards me. We've never spoken to each other, and I've really only seen her the one time when I first arrived at Shield. I watch as she takes a seat next to me, not sure what to expect.

"Men are stupid." She says, and I'm not sure what exactly she's referring to but I agree with her nonetheless.

"Most of them are." I say and she cracks a small smile.

"We all know you're not a Hydra operative, even Tony knows deep down that he's wrong. I've been in your position before, I know how it feels." She says, her voice is soft and empathetic. I quickly make eye contact with her before looking out at the property.

"Everything has happened so quickly. It feels like just yesterday I was teaching and now I'm here, wherever here is. My life has completely changed in such a short amount of time, it still doesn't feel real." I say, motioning to the building. Natasha stays silent for a moment,

"Hey well at least you get out of grading all those papers." I let out a small laugh, grateful she's lightening the mood a little.

"The school probably thinks I'm some sort of deranged murderer, or that I was kidnapped. I'm sure most of my students are happy they get out of the class for the rest of the semester." I think back to my students. I miss seeing a few of them, like Sarah, and I hope she continues to learn regardless if I'm there or not.

"When Steve dropped Bucky and I off at the bunker he said that the mess needed to be cleaned up. What happened?" I ask her, knowing Steve probably doesn't want to talk to me at the moment.

"Well, we were able to take out a good number of the spies, though some of them got away. I went after a few of them and made sure they can't be a threat again. We weren't able to catch them all though." She says. I wonder if Pierce was one of the ones who escaped. I nod my head and sigh, this is all one big mess.

"They must have been planning something for years, there were so many of them." I say, remembering the number of Hydra spies there were as we escaped the compound. There's no way they could have quickly infiltrated Shield without being detected.

"That's what we're thinking too. But for now it's as taken care of as it can be. Come on inside, I'll show you where your room is." She offers and I follow her back into the building.

Steve and Bucky are in the room we first walk into, the two of them silent. Tony is nowhere to be seen. I avoid making eye contact with Steve and Bucky and continue following Natasha. She leads me to an elevator and we go up a floor. Once we reach the second floor she takes me down the hall on the left and to the second door on the right. She opens the handle and we walk in.

The room is sleek with modern furniture and technology everywhere. It's unlike anything I've seen, Hydra's technology was never this high quality and widespread and Shield's rooms were outdated. Natasha leaves me to explore my new room and I walk around to investigate everything. The sheets are black silk, and the tv mounted on the wall is huge. There's even a mini bar and a couch in here. Across from the couch is a massive window, stretching from floor to ceiling. I look to the ceiling and notice that there are small lights embedded in it, creating a starry night illusion.

A soft knock on the door startles me out of admiring the room. Steve walks in and shuts the door behind him. I don't really want to have this conversation with him, but I guess it'll be good to get out of the way. Steve stands across from me and I wait for him to say something first.

"What happened at the bunker?" He bluntly asks.

"Nothing happened, Steve. He offered to share the bed that one night because the couch started giving me back problems. Nothing more and nothing less happened." I say leaving out the more intimate details because it's really none of Steve's business.

"You have to understand what it looked like though, right?" Steve asks and I nod my head.

"I know exactly what it looked like but I promise you it was nothing more than a friendly offer. I'm here to help him, not get involved like that." I say, feeling sadness as the words leave my mouth. Steve nods, satisfied with my answer.

"Good. I know how Bucky is, he's a flirt and it can be easy to fall into his charm. Just ask my old dance dates." I smile, remembering when Bucky told me he used to "borrow" Steve's dates.

"He told me about that." I smile, feeling that there was no more tension between the two of us. I know I lied to Steve but I can't afford for us to have issues. Steve is the one person besides Bucky I've grown close to.

"Of course he did, but I bet he forgot to mention that after the serum I was the one stealing the dates." I raise my eyebrows,

"Oh is that right? Yeah, I guess he didn't remember that part." I joke with Steve, happy that we're no longer at odds with each other.

Night rolls around and I walk back to my room from having dinner with Steve and Natasha. Bucky didn't want to join us and I didn't insist that he did, maybe he needs space to think things over as well. However, I made a plate for him and put it in the fridge for whenever he does get hungry. 

As I walk to the hall, I notice that Steve left his door open slightly. As it turns out, Steve has the first room on the right in the same hall I did, Bucky has the last room on the right. I'm sandwiched between them in a way. I'm not sure who designated the rooms but I would've preferred to not be in the middle.

I close the door behind me and go to stand in front of the big window, looking out at the night sky. The stars remind me of last night when Bucky and I went out. Though we haven't spoken to each other since this morning, I miss him. We've spent almost every hour together for the past month and it feels weird not having him around. I want to hear his voice, I want to see his bright blue eyes. I wonder if he misses me too. I wish I hadn't taken his offer to share the bed, then things would be okay and he would be here with me right now.

With sadness in my heart I walk to the big bed and get underneath the covers. Just last night Bucky and I were close to one another, his presence was comforting to me just as it always is. I remember the way it felt when he held me close to his chest, his soft lips on my forehead and it hurts because I know it can never happen again. The bed feels a lot colder without him by my side.

#bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky fanfic #james bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #bucky #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes angst #steve rogers #natasha romanoff #hydra #marvel

[unusedarbiter]

Here’s apparently a wild hot take, maybe stop trying to make, dark gritty adult version of kids concepts? I think everyone can agree that there’s an over saturated of remake, spin offs, and sequels in the film and television industry right now right? And that a lot of it even if it had good aspect should just have been it’s own thing, don’t get me wrong Wednesday was good but the fact that it was an adams family spin off really really hurt it in my eyes, it should have just be its own original show. Another example in the opposite direction would be the new Velma show. I can’t think of a single good thing about it but still I feel like even though it seems universally hated, (rightfully so) it could have skirted the lines and gotten away with being a semi likable show to an average audience of people if it wasn’t a Scooby-Doo spin off. Would it have been good? No probably not but it would have atleast not been hated, connecting it to Scooby-Doo did nothing but injure the show by bringing around Scooby-Doo fans who can clearly see that it isn’t a Scooby-Doo show.

So with the part everyone can agree with out of the way let’s move to the next part. Don’t make stuff “adult” if it wasn’t in the first place, it doesn’t work, you either make a ridiculous mess that people can’t take seriously or you take away some of the most beloved aspects of that thing. For me this is most apparent in the super hero genre, I’ve always loved DC growing up but now a days there’s barely anything I like that comes out from them in any format other than games, because they try to appeal to much to their original audience that’s now grown up the the age groups they were targeting when they got those fans, and it just feels emotionless and vapid. Superheroes are inherently silly and goofy, Wonder Woman has an invisible jet and a lasso of truth, Spider-Man gets a bug bite and now he shoots webs, Bruce Wayne is the richest man in the world and spends his money making every gadget and vehicle you could possibly imagine and making all of it bat themed, let’s not forget his arch nemesis is literally a clown! It’s hard to try and be a gritty adult oriented franchise when you do that, sorry but I can’t take anything seriously when the hero of the story is a ten year old who can turn into a superhero because a wizard told him the magic word. They’re silly and goofy and that’s what I love about them, hell yeah kid shot Shazam so you can go fight the ancient Egyptian with powers he also got from a wizard! I wanna see a man in a latex bat costume beat up a scarecrow! I’m not saying they have to be Adam west Batman all the time but like stick around your age range and maybe stretching a little to one side or the other. I can’t name a single comic from the past few years I’ve enjoyed, but the two newest Spider-Man games were some of the best games I’ve ever played, the Batman Arkham games are a bit too serious at times (city was impacted very hard by everyone being so needlessly and incredibly horny all the time, really ruined my enjoyment of an otherwise solid game), but I think they represent a good maximum ceiling. And I think the reason a lot of these issues exist is because people get the green light to be adult with a franchise and immediately lose all creativity and just cram as much sex, violence, and swearing as they can in there. The big reason horror for kids such as goosebumps will always be leagues ahead of adult horror when man in mask cuts people up and it’s so bloody and gory and guy say “Oh fucking god dam shit, this crazy bastard is going to fucking kill us and shit!” Not to say those things can’t be used well, (I’d say the only adult version of comics I like is the Harley Quinn show, but even then the gore feels overly gratuitous and the show definitely has it high peaks and low low valleys, but if they stayed hard into the sort over the top, ridiculous high schooler/college student nonsense humor it could have been the best comedy show ever.) you can be taken seriously while not having an adult rating, look at the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies or Scooby-Doo incorporated those were both amazing and some of the best in their franchise without having to break the ratings ceilings

In conclusion to the -5 Hollywood executives reading this, make more original stuff instead of trying to twist existing franchises into the original show you made, stop adultifying stuff, and rethink what you definition of media for adults is, I’m sick of drowning in content for all my favorite franchises only for there to be little to none of that content being even remotely good.

#vent #hbo velma #dc #movies

[meanwhileinstasiville]

Don't understand social media, because

I'm not from any of the self promoter classes; not a journalist, or a photographer, or advertiser, not a model agency associated person, *certainly not the sex trade*.

Solitary, I tend to be solitary. Some years ago, after Alameda had passed though I was watching telemundo at what remained of my mom's neighborhood. All the local stations were jammed up with politicians decreeing "I'm XYZ, and fire is scary" for a few months after that. Social media is for direct self promotion. This was television though and as though it was a long time ago when television could reasonably be expected to get you elected.

So I went to telemundo for a little bit, to watch a kung fu panda short (could be a movie; could've been legends of awesomeness) and the plot point of the thing is that there's a threat to po. And in the form of an ox or something, and the *only way for the legendary warrior* to overcome his green-is-evil cartoony villain, is all the people of "chinaland" we'll call it, to pray to him; like he's going to throw a genki dama or something. So *who* po is, becomes important with these things; as this is in Spanish language. Is the legendary panda kung fu guy...his Spanish voiceover? Is he Jack Black who is built like a Mexican, who quickly recovered from having his arm shot off by Bruce Willis in the forgettable Jackal?

Is he a white Chinese? Is he Mexican because pandas are built like them? When po speaks Spanish *are they* white? Or Chinese?

It's like being a comedian, any social media user. And I don't get it. Not from Twitter or livejournal (which I've been flirting with what tumblr calls "nightblogging" which are really livejournal posts showing their age, stylistically) or Facebook which really continues the myspace format with more information.

And I think this is all very interesting, because what was considered among the "whitest communities in America" has been nearly mexicanized without anyone really noticing. Classrooms full of kids started working as collectives back in the 80s. Hate groups are here and *they act like Mexicans*. White and affluent Americans with all that same baggage and yet, functioning an awful lot like latinos.

They're not integrated, a lot of latino self segregated communities. Around Ashland, Spanish is not the thing. Notice all the rotting fences around town that rich people regularly replace; because there's no paint or stain, ever.

Too many choices to form a top down consensus, which is what it would take to get them painted and stained or water resistance treated in an inclusive latino community. Affluent white people. Around the region, I've been followed around by cars by make and model (they vary but the precise location and near term time of day never do, consistent with where I'm walking) and even people upstream downstream like any ant colony. As though I'm going to talk to randos (see; not understanding social media) about my specific interests, and while I'm out walking around. (There's an international drug production hub down the road). And it approximates a self training neural network, the latino social organization. So and, white people *gained the tools* to network like Mexicans already had been for thousands of years, just a few decades ago. Po becomes like an aztec priestking when he speaks Spanish among latinos.

And so social media culture and comics by webcomic people and all that, tend toward an "everyone is ugly/poor/objectionable/concerning/villainous/neurotic" because it's emotionally "leveling the playing field" whether or not they realize that. Which is fine, but it takes the softness out of people and replaces it with abrasiveness and sarcasm, and a degree of callousness about the human condition that *we* (meaning most other people on earth), reserve for war veterans and such. Also, we tend to associate that exclusively with men.

(So I feel like my drawing breath is supposed to benefit *whoever the local mano duro is*, someone in or from the drug trade and their descendants I'm guessing)

Takes all the conspiratorial stuff and contrivance right out of that end, on the basis of the interest it serves.

All those "fag hags", ma beagle types, and/or women who can't seem to stop getting pregnant; those are the new one eyed people in the land of the blind. Social media influencer this and that, but they have countless children say and are pooling their resources as a family.

[shatteredfears-arch]

things abt harvey bc jessies starter reminded me and ima be at work all day so even tho i have the reply written i cant format or add an icon until tuesday;;; (CWs for the obvious if you know any of his various versions: parent death, abuse, forced institutionalization of the mother, manipulation, etc)

His coin is an american half dollar, misprinted so both halves have a face, and he’a had it since he was a kid. It’s sort of become his stabilizer, in any event you can catch his hand in his pocket fidgeting with it, and when he’s speaking for political events you can see him rubbing it between his right thumb and forefinger.

He’s left handed, but due to his interest in dualism, did learn to be ambidextrous while ‘testing the differences’.

His mother is guatamalan and cuban. Her grandparents immigrated.

In the comics, he has a brother named Murray. But as he’s too young to be the series Murray’s brother, i altered it a bit.

Thus, his birth father is M/urray F/ranklin, whom he knew. They were never married, and Harvey inherited his mother’s name: Dent.

Murray kept Harvey a secret, and would claim his mother was just ‘a helping hand’ or ‘old friend’. When she started talking, he belittled her mental state to get her institutionalized. Something he clearly intended to do with Harvey as well, using his declining mental health as an excuse— Harvey’s intense desire for justice stems entirely from the treatment he received from his father, and the mistreatment given to his mother. The way law enforcement agreed to help Murray just due to his fame (and, lbr, the fact he’s white) led to Harvey’s intense distrust of police as well, and his desire to ‘clean house’ on them when he was older. His political desires stem entirely from being mistreated his entire life, and wanting better for others.

He was at the studio when Murray died, and he smiled when he saw it. He’d tell the police he didn’t see anything.

When he was 17, he filed and became fully emancipated.

He got various odd jobs here and there so he could afford law school, and never inherited anything from his father. He has, however, kept every piece of documentation he had to prove Murray was his father, and what he did to him. Fully intent to one day destroy his already tattered image once Harvey made his own. He does not believe the dead should continue to be glorified if they did something wrong.

he became a lawyer at the age of 26, and became district attorney at 30. he’s currently almost 32. and he is older than bruce.

His survival skills taught him how to be manipulative. While part of him does consider Bruce a friend, he’s mostly friends with Bruce for Bruce’s money, and the knowledge of what that money can do for a campaign. plus the fact bruce also seems to distrust most of gcpd.

he’s mentioned before that the same day the waynes were murdered, so was his father, and he hasn’t been allowed to see his mother in years. it’s part of how he got bruce to be his friend.

he has an ex wife, and a daughter. his disappointment that they only had one child and not twins led to a level of resentment which is what broke apart their marriage (and.. the fact they got married and had a child at 18 years of age) and he ignored Duella most of her early life. When he finally went to therapy (outside gotham, he travels to metropolis) and started medications, he found it easier to show her love and affection.. but by then it was a bit too late.

Present day, Duella is 13, and Harvey and her mother share 50/50 custody. in both houses, Duella has an ‘alter’ to ‘criminals’ she idolizes. He did not mind when she had the ‘alter’ to J/oker. He does mind now that she has one for R/iddler.

His medication is kept under lock and key now due to Duella, during the R/iddler streams, flushing all his medication down the toilet and trying to take and destroy his precious coin. Causing the back to be completely defaced. His ex refused to also sign off on therapy, since she’d need to keep up the visits to metropolis when duella was with him, so he sent duella back to her mother during the rest of the r/iddler streams. he does not take her to events. He will occasionally mention her, however, and does not try to keep her a secret. He does tell people she’s troubled, though, and has used asking for advice as a front for empathy towards him and his career.

#⫸ the duality of a man ⫷ HEADCANONS #canonically he’s Bip/olar but dc did the execution so fucking offensively #and chose to completely ignore his traits of OCD too inf avor of ri/ddlers ocd #while often forgetting Harvey never wanted to be a villain. the acid and the way people treated him afterwards was absolutely a tipping #point and he essentially became the anti b/atman by deciding killing people who did bad #was better than stopping people who did bad #which is whaybhe tried to do for years #honestly i give telltale flack a LOT but they did get that right #and how this turn would happen whether or not he was assaulted bc HIS FACE SHOULD NOT BE THE DECIDING FACTOR IN ‘EVIL’ #which it honestly wouldnt have been evil if he didnt go too far #it was the wanting to murder innocents who crossed him that took it too far #they also treated bp like mpd which. its not #like a little bit of research dudes #you coulda avoided offending. ao. many. people. #his personality shouldnt make a complete fucking 180 bc of his face and instantly be cured when his face is fixed #thats of f e n s i v e #me forever fighting dc over everything #k i gotta get ready for work now #abuse cw #parent death cw #forced institutionalization cw #or reference ig #idk anymore #HARVEYS NOT EVIL HES JUST SELF CENTERED ON OCCASION #fhats the MAIN thing is a lot of bruces rogues ARE NOT EVIL. THEY WENT TOO FAR. AND ARE A CONSTANT REMINDER TO HIM OF WHAT HE NEEDS TO AVOID #WHICH IS WHY HE T R I E S T O H E L P T H E M #anyways

[magentagalaxies]

📺😈👬

📺Favorite Kids in the Hall season?

Answered this a little while back and said 3 but i think i'm currently more inclined towards season 4. tbh i can find a reason to love every season bc they had such a consistent run in terms of quality and each era had something to offer but 3 & 4 are the sweet spot for me, 3 has the highest number of episodes with favorite sketches and really showcases each cast member's talents in an equally great way, but something about season 4 just feels so radically queer in a way that's present throughout the entire show but becomes a lot more specific in that era. like there's a criticism of respectability politics that works its way into a lot of these sketches which i found very empowering watching in 2022. also long hair scott is very gender lmao

someday i'm gonna do a video essay series analyzing season by season for the evolution of the show but for now here's a nice thing about each season:

season 1: so many classics, great way to introduce people to the show, oh my god these are just kids messing around making a comedy show they have no idea what they're doing (affectionate)

season 2: oh damn they've got a bit more money and a bit more experience but they're still just as chaotic as ever so now we get some bigger sketches. also a lot of recurring characters i could've sworn were introduced in season 1 but nope this is their source

season 3: could throw on any episode from this era and still laugh my ass off. the bruce women renaissance (tho i might be mixing that up with season 4). recurring characters start getting a weird amount of lore/backstory/character development and i am living for it.

season 4: queer as in fuck you. long hair scott era. starting to get a bit more experimental with sketch format. also opening title sequence is a vibe.

season 5: experimental as hell (even if i don't laugh at some of these sketches i still respect them for the audacity lmao). since they knew it was the last season they somehow give less of a fuck and have more fun. the finale makes me cry.

season 6: i feel like i'll need a bit more distance from season 6 (and hopefully another revival season to contrast it against) to truly pick out more specifics but tbh i just love that the kids are still just as funny decades later and they had a great balance of old characters with new sketches.

Anyway sorry for writing a whole essay lmao

😈Simon & Hecubus or Sizzler & Sizzler?

Sizzler & Sizzler!! (actually wasn't a huge fan of Sizzler & Sizzler at first but then I saw the "treatment" sketch and was like hold up they have backstory??? and depth??? dave foley's range??? why is dave's jerry sizzler gender???? so now i'm like i could write a whole essay on them too)

👬How many Daves do you know?

At least 6

send me emojis for kids in the hall opinions

[jasontoddsguns]

Bruce: (cradling Jason in his arms) it’s my baby.

Commissioner Gordon: He’s like 6’7 and 200 lbs, Not to mention a crime lord-

Bruce: baby.

#dc #jason todd #batfam #red hood #jim gordon #bruce wayne #Batman #Jason: (from Bruce’s arms) you see your honor...I couldn’t have killed this man because I’m a baby #man... #if only #all my besties hate cannon #this format could work with any of Bruce’s kids

[thecruellestmonth]

"I used to dream I'd see the Batman someday. Drifting across the moon. Dark against the night sky."

—Stephanie Brown remembering her childhood, Secret Origins 80-Page Giant (1998)

"Everything doesn't have to be about fear. There's room in our line of work for hope too."

—Stephanie Brown, Batgirl (2009) #5

"I don't want to save the world, Lonnie. Just Gotham. My city. My people. That's plenty big enough as far as crusades go."

—Stephanie Brown, Detective Comics (2016) #964

"Hold up! If you're Batman, you need what Batman has always needed, so he isn't reduced to a muscled bag of repressed feelings in kevlar... You need a Robin."

—Stephanie "Robin" Brown to Damian "Batman" Wayne, DCeased: Hope at World's End #5

"Vengeance won’t change the past. Mine or anyone else's. People need hope."

—Bruce Wayne, The Batman (2022)

Some reasons why Stephanie Brown would be the best Robin for Battinson in the Reevesverse:

1] Hope - Steph is a character who deeply values hope—holding on to hope for herself, and also bringing hope to others. More than any other Robin, Stephanie grew up idolizing Batman as a symbol of hope and resistance, not fear and vengeance.

2] Connection to the lower class and crime-vulnerable population of Gotham

"Bruce Wayne in my mind came from privilege and I think that's why he's more dour and angry. He's self-made as far as his becoming all of these cool things we like him for... Dick Grayson didn't come from that. Dick Grayson came from a circus family. Essentially people who aren't rich and they are self-made. They're entertainers. They're gymnasts. They're people who live hand-to-mouth and that's something that informs him and his attitude..."

—Chris McKay, director of The Lego Batman Movie, on the podcast Shanlian On Batman Episode 83

While McKay is talking about Dick's dynamic with Bruce in The Lego Batman Movie, the class disparity also applies to Steph's dynamic with Bruce, and even more so. Steph was born and raised in Gotham as a lower class kid, and she was directly and personally affected by local crime throughout her upbringing.

Rather than introducing a kid into the world of crime, Batman meets a kid who already lives there. Rather than just swooping in from above to save the masses down below, Batman empowers someone to save her own people.

3] Giving Steph the spotlight - Lately, DC has been cashing in on Stephanie representing a Girl Wonder (Robin 80th Anniversary Spectacular, Robins, Wayne Family Adventures, etc) among a herd of weirdly identical teen boys. While it's nice to see Steph getting recognized, her actual 10-week stint as Robin was basically a mean-spirited stunt instead of a proper run. It'd be nice for Steph to legitimately get a major spotlight as Robin.

4] Foil - While some want to see Bruce help Dick overcome his darkness, as a parallel to Bruce's own journey, that might feel like retreading the first movie, so Dick's story might be better suited to a serialized format instead of a Batman movie. In contrast to Bruce, Steph is motivated to protect her still-living mother. Steph has plenty of anger and vengefulness of her own, but her story doesn't recycle the same beats.

5] Balance - Frankly, a girl could be a good next addition to Team Batman. A girl Robin could balance out Batman, Alfred, and Gordon being an all-male team.

#Stephanie Brown #Reevesverse #The Batman 2022 #Battinson #Robin 2021 #DC Robin #Stephposting #Also Steph deserves a Batman who would not be a major abusive jerk to her. #thecruellestmonth

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Through the Woods

Author: Emily Carroll.

Publication Date: 2014.

Genre: Fantasy/horror in graphic short story collection form.

Premise: This collection includes five unsettling, fairy-tale-adjacent short stories, all beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

Thoughts: I read tons of scary short stories as a kid, and they tended to fall into three categories:

More or less 100% original stories that followed a pretty conventional short-story structure (your Jane Yolens and Bruce Covilles and Ray Bradburys);

Creepy folktales and urban legends, written in a less detailed, more dramatic "storytelling" format (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Short and Shivery, etc.);

Semi-journalistic accounts of creepy phenomena happening in real, specific places (usually titled something straightforward like Ghosts of the Carolinas or Haunted New England).

I liked each kind of story for different reasons; the semi-journalistic accounts were scary because it seemed like they'd really happened, the original short stories were more psychologically sophisticated and could get under my skin in weird ways, and the folktales/urban legends were a fun compromise that were easy to enjoy with others. Carroll's stories are interesting because most of them feel more like folklore/urban legends than literary short stories; "A Lady's Hands Are Cold," for example, has kind of a Golden Arm/Tailypo thing going on. The illustrations are not merely lovely, but absolutely essential to these stories. Carroll can definitely work in other modes, though; the most conventionally literary short story, "The Nesting Place," is excellent.

I also like how she dresses her characters in the costumes of different historical periods for each story (rustic late Victorian, eighteenth-century rococo, a version of Brittany folk dress, Regency, and 1920s). It's very Over the Garden Wall.

Hot Goodreads Take: "If your child does find it amazing you may want to look into if they are mentally okay," says one parent, who was dismayed to find it in the middle school library. Yet there's nothing in this collection scarier than a parent who won't let their kid explore any negative emotions or disturbing concepts, even by reading fiction that's not much creepier than Grimm's Fairy Tales (and frankly doesn't have a patch on the Bible, the most unsettling text of my youth).

#little book review #through the woods #emily carroll

[ectonurites]

hey! how knowledgeable are you on stephanie brown? because i got in a bit of an argument with a dc fan on reddit who claims she's all these awful things, but im still relatively new to steph and i want to see what was true and what wasn't. link to screenie right here: https://ibb.co/vh6CYCJ

these may be matters of opinion, but even then, i'd like to know your take. i haven't read her firsthand often enough and i trust your judgement over this random redditor who seems to have some sort of blonde-woman related trauma left untapped.

I'm not necessarily the most knowledgable on her in the world, but I do know a decent amount because she's one of my absolute faves and I love her

But ohhhh boy that screenshot is a lot.

I will say that several of the things this person brings up are based in canon but are taken in the worst faith and framed in the way that makes her look as bad as possible, if that makes sense? It’s ripping things away from any context, because there's a very clear bias against her here.

I'll go through it point by point under the cut

First of all though before digging into this, I want to make it clear she was a 15 year old for the majority of the things this person is talking about. Like just pause for a second and remember she’s a 15 year old victim of abuse. That is something that I think factors into a lot of her behavior! Anyways, I kinda while doing this got into a ranty 'talking at you' format in response to the person who wrote all that, so don't take any of this as me yelling at you who asked the question/you anyone reading this.

"She always acted entitled" - Saying Steph is entitled is absolutely ridiculous to me. Stephanie grew up with a very unstable childhood due to her dad frequently being in prison and her mom dealing with a drug addiction, living in a lower class part of the city. Tim is entitled. I don’t mean that as like a bad thing about him, but he is based on his living situation, she is not. She has wanted life to be better for herself and her mom, and is determined about that, but she is not and does not act entitled.

(Secret Origins 80 Page Giant)

"and stubborn" - I will give you stubborn though, that one is true. She’s stubborn as hell! I don’t really see that as a bad thing though, pretty much every bat is stubborn?

"demanding that Batman and Robin accept her untrained ass" - Steph may have been untrained in fighting but she's shown to have exceptional gymnastics skills from the start, and at one point Bruce even says that with the right training she could be as good if not better than Tim (in Robin #88)! So like... her realizing she enjoys trying to be a hero after she tried it out to deal with her personal business, so she looks to the local experts… and is determined about it… how is that a bad thing? It’s also not like she walked up to them and said ‘im perfect as i am let me in’ what she wanted was a chance to be a hero. But she also wasn't even really looking for approval, either, not having Batman's blessing was never going to stop her. ("So excuse me if I don't jump when you bark, Batman." in Robin #16) Later when Bruce does bring her in to train (and she also gets to train with the BoP) she's excited! She’s stubborn about wanting to be in the hero business, but it’s not like she’s unwilling to work for it.

"advocating leaving criminals to die because they 'deserve it'" - She’s a 15 year old who grew up knowing firsthand how dangerous Gotham criminals can be because of her dad, of course off the bat when they’re in a dangerous situation where any of them could die (because that’s the context here, this is in Robin #35 where they’re trapped in some super dangerous snow) she thinks they shouldn’t go back for another criminal who just tried to kill them and should instead save themselves. But she also literally WITHIN THAT SAME ISSUE then says she realized she learned something after listening to Tim and trying to save the guy! In the same issue! Characters in a story aren’t supposed to be perfect from the start… they learn things along the way???

(Robin #35)

"trying to steal from the shops they just stopped from being burglarized" - She’s 15 and doesn’t have a ton of money. She was gonna take two sodas, and when Tim said not to do it she paid with very little fuss. They stopped people who were robbing the place at gunpoint for prescription drugs. If you can’t understand the difference in severity between those things like… I do not even know where to start. (this situation is in Robin #56 btw)

"forcing physical affection onto Tim despite his visible discomfort and repeated objections (not even stopping when he told her he had a girlfriend)" - This one I will give you because she did cross boundaries with all that! But I do also want to clarify that she didn't start coming onto him until after Tim kissed her first (in Robin #5) while not telling her he had a girlfriend. That doesn’t excuse her later actions but for the first issue that she’s coming onto him from her perspective he expressed interest and she was just returning it! She even specifically says 'Maybe I should pay you back for saving my life the same way you paid me' (in Robin #16) before kissing him. That first time she kissed him unprompted was under essentially the same circumstances he kissed her unprompted, and she literally did not know about Ariana until after the fact. From that point once she knew about Ari she definitely should have backed off and she didn’t, that’s a very fair thing to criticize about her as a character. But Tim lead her on first, and I feel a lot of people like to casually forget that when talking about this situation. The way this is phrased of ‘not even stopping when he told her-‘ implies she was repeatedly doing the bad behavior before he told her, which is not the case. She still did bad things here but don’t misrepresent the situation.

"And lashing out at Tim, her mother, and her classmates in violent fits of anger" - Every comic book character lashes out at other people for the sake of drama like, I dare you to come up with a well-known superhero character who hasn’t done shit like that to a partner/family/friends in a moment of high tension/stress?

"She treated the girls around her like they were stupid bitches" - frankly this ones a little too vague like, I'm not sure off the top of my head exactly what they're talking about? in that era right around her pregnancy and stuff I really don't recall her being mean with other girls? I could be forgetting something I guess but the closest I can think of is a bit after this period of time when she has the confrontation with Greta in Young Justice but that was Greta attacking her first, not the other way around.

"got insanely jealous if Tim so much as expressed concern about another girl" - Steph getting jealous and thinking Tim was cheating isn’t that crazy when STEPHANIE BASICALLY WAS THE OTHER GIRL DURING TIM’S LAST RELATIONSHIP? Tim has cheated a little bit before! Tim cheated on Ari with both Jubilee from Marvel (during a crossover thing where he even mentions Ari specifically so it’s not like this was out of continuity/a setting she wasn't an issue or something) and also with Steph. While most of the kissing between them was Steph coming onto Tim which I wouldn’t count as cheating on his end, he did still kiss her which I would count. Not to mention that the jealousy thing (I imagine they’re talking about the instance with Star, the girl who taught Tim to skateboard, this arc of stuff starts in Robin #80 and continues for a few issues) is happening during the time she’s dating him while she still doesn’t even know his real name. He literally has a whole other life she doesn’t know about, and is someone who has initiated romantic moments with other girls while in a relationship multiple times before! With that in mind I don’t think a 16 (she's def 16 by this point) year old girl being kinda paranoid about how he interacts with girls he might know in his civilian life is that unreasonable? The later big instance with jealousy is the Darla situation- where Steph sees Darla kiss him and gets mad about it (and doesn’t talk to him about it) and thats what prompts her to become Robin. The important thing to remember about Steph in this time frame is that DC decided she had to die and they wanted to make her Robin first to drum up more attention for that death. They were doing ooc things with her to set those pieces in motion, and that needs to be taken into account. I think her getting upset about seeing something like that isn’t even ooc, but her using it as motivation to become Robin and not even saying anything to him about it is. In the earlier instance where she’s upset/jealous about Star, she does communicate to him what’s going on at least a little bit on the rooftop after they’d saved her. She makes it clear the thing she was upset about is that she feels like she can’t trust him because she doesn’t really know him while he knows everything about her, and that’s why she thinks he’s cheating. Her reaction to the Darla thing is not in line with how earlier in canon Steph would have handled the same situation, because they wanted her to die and needed a way to explain her becoming Robin.

"and expressed that jealousy by accusing him of cheating and throwing things at him" - I just addressed the cheating stuff but the throwing things was fucking slapstick oh my god this is a comic book for kids/teens like. ah yes this is horrible abuse in this little funny montage of how Steph wants him to leave her alone because she’s mad at him and he refuses to give her space

(Robin #82)

I don’t think anyone at DC or even in fandom would/should try to argue she’s perfect, because she’s not! And I don’t want her to be because perfect characters are boring. Steph is flawed, Steph has been compared in canon to Robin-era Jason by Cass & Bruce

(Detective Comics #790)

And I think these highlight some of her very real flaws that are an interesting part of her character. These plus her stubbornness and determination are part of what makes her her.

And for fuck's sake the world was mean to her, and to act like it wasn’t is just blatantly ignoring a lot. A criminal father who made her life really difficult (‘when my dad was mad at me he’d lock me in the closet!’), that time she got kidnapped for two weeks and her mom had left her (a 15 year old) alone at home so long she didn't even find out it happened (in text Steph says Crystal was visiting friends, a lot of people interpret that as her mom possibly being in rehab for her addictions again), that whole thing about how one of her dad’s friends tried to sexually assault her as a child, also just how due to her dad's work sometimes criminals would be living in their house (Literally the fucking Riddler at one point!), the fact that we as an audience watched her get tortured for several days because a plan she tried to enact to prove herself backfired since Batman didn’t trust her with important information (something Selina even calls him out on in her internal narration), like… sorry but in what way is all that not the world being mean to her?

She was Robin, she dated Robin, she likes Eggplant (because purple would've looked stupid), and makes jokes. She’s also impulsive, headstrong and determined, and wants to prove to herself and others that she can be more than just the daughter of a shitty criminal, that she can actually be a force to do good in the world.

She’s a complex character, and nobody is required to like her, but to act like she doesn’t have a single redeeming trait is ridiculous. You could write a paragraph like that with the worst moments of basically any character and make them look like shit if that's what you were setting out to do.

[yes-i-am-happyaspie]

Do you happen to have any fics to help restore ones love for the irondad fandom? I'm suddenly afraid of loosing interest. Perhaps I haven't read a good fic in a while.

Oh, there is so much variety in the Irondad fandom that I guess it depends on what you enjoy.  Here are a few of my favorites from across the board.  

Whump with Feelings:

Of Flying and Falling by @polaroid15

Peter hums as if in deep thought. The blood on his face is bright and unrelenting in the glow of the fire, like some permanent reminder of Tony's failures. “Did you know my parents died in a plane crash?”

Tony jolts, the response hitting him like a freight train. He rubs Peter’s arm as his throat tightens. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

“They must’ve been really scared.”

“Are you scared Peter?”

---

Or, on their way home from a fancy conference on the coast of Vancouver, Tony and Peter's helicopter crashes, ending what should have been a perfect weekend filled with maple ice cream and sea water in a desperate battle for survival.

A Mermaid AU:

Petey and the Hermit by eccentric_artist_221b

Three years after losing his wife and child to a fatal car accident, Tony Stark courts his darkest thoughts at the top of an old, abandoned lighthouse. Preserved at the last second by the supposed screams of a drowning victim, Tony leaps into action. Finding an injured merboy trapped in trawler lines between the crevice of a rock, he can only assume this is part of a whiskey induced dream. As he brings the creature home to nurse its wounds, he soon discovers this is more than he signed up for when it begins to form a bond with him.

Age Regression:

close to my heart, never to part by @parkrstark

During patrol one night, Peter comes across something that leaves him and Ned dumbfounded. The next morning, Ned is dropping off a now two-year-old Peter at Tony’s. Not only does he have to figure out how to turn him back, but he must watch him. Tony wonders what he’s supposed to do with the now toddler-Peter for the next two weeks…until he slowly starts to wonder what he will do without this boy after the two weeks are over.

Amnesia Victim Peter Parker:

Do You Know Who You Are? by loubuttons 

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For forgetting. I’m sure I didn’t want to forget you.”

Amnesia Victim- Tony Stark:

Identity [REDACTED] by @obsessionoftheday

Dissociative fugue is one or more episodes of amnesia in which an individual cannot recall some or all of his or her past. Either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity may occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home.

OR

When Tony goes missing, Peter and Rhodey team up to find him.

Migraine and Injury two for one:

Keeping Company by @whumphoarder and @xxx-cat-xxx

While attempting to look after his migraine-riddled mentor, Peter manages to injure himself badly enough to need Tony’s help.

Lots of Fluff:

t-shirts by KiwisAndTea  @kiwisandtea

A collection of one-shots centered around Peter Parker's favorite shirts. They serve only two purposes:

1. to embarrass Peter

2. to make Tony Feel™ Things

Humor:

Sole Heir by GotMyInkPen  @gotmyinkpen

Tony Stark has officially decided that Peter Parker is his sole heir and will one day inherit Stark Industries. Here's how Peter prepares for that day.

Kid Peter Parker- Hydra :

darkness will be rewritten by @marveal

"Richard Parker was studying Cross-Species Genetics, but struggled with the ethics of it, because it required he use human DNA, which no ethics board would agree with. So he used his own. His work was successful based off of his own DNA, and every human has a unique DNA,” Bruce explains. “So, naturally, when HYDRA wanted his research, they knew they would never get his support, so they took the next best thing they could to his own DNA. His son."

Or, Tony finds a tortured and experimented-on Peter Parker in a HYDRA base and decides to help him because who else will?

Adoption AU:

I told you I had issues by Bergen 

Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and right now, a little exasperated. Because some guy is swinging around New York, shooting webs and making trouble, Fury is breathing down his neck, and his latest intern took off with his coupon for a free coffee.

Thank god for Pepper Potts.

--

...or, a Spider-Man AU where a set of bad circumstances begin to push Peter Parker down a wrong path, and where Tony is probably not the best person to deal with it, but he does anyway.

Kid Peter Meets Tony :

i promise you, kid, you'll be home soon by bstarship

If there was one good thing to come out of Tony's ultimate death at the end of the week, it was the ability to forget for a short period of time. He spent his time surrounded by strangers who idolized him and friends who sometimes gave less of a damn. But it was a kid who grounded him—who made him wish he had more time because he reminded him that there were good things to live for. One kid did all that.

Truly, Tony didn’t know how to make sense of it. A part of him told him to be unabashedly humble. Another part said to leave the kid and drive to Miami with the top down until his eyes fell out of their sockets.

A kid who had a shopping bag tied around his wrist with the Stark Expo logo on the side. A kid who was silent for a while until he finally said, “I have to use the bathroom.”

It was just a kid. A kid.

or

Peter is eight-years-old and loves everything about Iron Man. Tony is dying and helps a lost kid find his aunt and uncle.

Sickfic:

Sick and Lost by @kittybellestark

Peter’s sick and took the wrong bus. He meant to go to New Jersey but ends up in not New Jersey and calls Tony for help. He isn't having a great time but at least he has Tony on his side.

Okay, I could go on ALL DAY so I think I’ll stop here.  If you find something you enjoy and want more things like it, let me know!

#asked and answered #marvel fic rec #awesome reads! #don't forget to kudos and comment #tony stark #peter parker #irondad and spiderson #marvel #iron man #spider man #mcu #marvel fanfiction #irondad fandom