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rubythecrimsonwriter · 2 years

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Flipping Legacies ch.6 pt. 1

Read the first five chapters here!

Natasha gets back to the apartment about an hour and a half after she left. She stopped by a Starbucks and got the frilliest frappe the menu offered because it was that kind of day.

When she gets back to the apartment, it’s silent. Now, Natasha’s not the best person to talk to about kids and their habits, or teenagers and their habits, but she’s heard enough to know that silence—in this one instance—is not her friend.

Silence spells one of two things: trouble, or mischief.

She closes the apartment door behind her and eyes the living room. There’s nothing obviously out of place or trapped there. Natasha sets the frappe down on the key table and pulls her watch out to become a Widow Bite.

Kitchen? Clear.

Hall closet? Clear.

Bathroom? Clear.

Bedroom? Clear.

Bedroom closet? Clear.

…

That’s the whole apartment.

Where the hell is everyone?

Natasha’s patience had been tested many times in the last two days. Ibn al Xu’ffasch alone had spent the entire plane ride to the States driving her absolutely batshit: attempting several getaways that probably would have ended in accidental suicide, refusing to speak anything but the League’s language, alternately attacking Clint or herself in his bid to escape.

Batman's entire existence, at the moment, was aggravating the hell out of her.

And now this shit.

She yanks her phone out of her pocket and tracks Clint's phone.

Well.

At least his phone is still in Gotham. Now to see if his phone is still with Clint.

"Natashenka," Drakov greets her, like he didn't vanish with zero warning or a note with her partner and two child assassins.

The place that they're in is quite clearly a safehouse, probably one of Hood's. It's pretty clear that some heavy duty TLC has been put into the place to make it as nice as it is. It's also clearly stocked to the rafters with weapons, and, with the security system fully engaged, not even Natasha could break into the place without blowing everything sky-high.

And also about two and a half times bigger than Natasha's apartment.

"Drakov," she says flatly. She grabs the knife that Ibn al Xu'ffasch just tried to stab her with and swiftly disarms him. "You. Stabbing does not solve everything, unfortunately. Especially if you are bad at stabbing things."

The kid puffs himself up like an owl being confronted with a banana. The look of indignation on his face is both sad and hilarious. "I have been trained since birth to succeed my grandfather as the head of the al Ghul empire."

"I was trained since I was a child to be a serial killer enslaved by the Soviet Union and conduct high stakes honeypots and assassinations," she said flatly. "Life gives you strange opportunities, kid."

He seems simultaneously mulish and incredibly skittish, so Natasha heaves a mental sigh and hands him back the knife, but keeps ahold of the blade so he doesn't just snatch it and run off. "The only times that stabbing solves something is if your issues cannot be talked around to seeing your way of things. Stabbing also only solves something if you can actually connect. If you have failed at stabbing something, and previously did not try and talk them around to your way of thinking, your issues are now just extremely mad at you. And now you have more issues. I am the exception, not the rule."

He yanks a little on the knife, and Natasha lets it go.

"How else must you test your reflexes?" he says from a safe distance of six feet away.

"That's what sparring is for," she says. "A fight, but either person can say they want to stop and both of them will stop, often with rules meant to limit the amount of damage one person can do to the other, but not always. Sometimes, friends will playfight or roughhouse, where it will look like they're fighting but very little damage is actually being done. For instance," Natasha says, and leans over and whacks Drakov on the back of the head, "I'm currently very displeased with Drakov, and to communicate that, I have hit him across the head lightly with my open hand. There's no damage done and it might have stung a bit but faded quickly. If I did it unexpectedly, it may have been startling as well."

Drakov glares at her.

Natasha gives him a flat look back. "You had an hour and a half that I was gone, and then I get back to an empty apartment, no texts, no notes, no clues, nothing."

"Your apartment is a little small for five people," Drakov says gently.

Natasha breathes. And hangs onto her sanity with both hands. Squirmy little fucker is not going anywhere.

He's completely missed the point. This is fine. Everything worked out okay this time. She will shake sense into him at a later time, without the stabby child nearby.

Actually. No.

"Hey, Damian," she says conversationally, "if something you were protective of suddenly up and disappeared, what would you think happened?"

"Grandfather disapproved of it and disposed of it as being unworthy of an al Ghul," he says promptly.

Natasha just looks at Drakov and waits for the light to dawn. Ah. There it is. "Thank you, Damian. Do you have a preferred dish?" She turns to look at the kid just in time to see the is this a trap? confusion slip across his face, swiftly replaced with haughtiness. Natasha reviews the question mentally. Oh boy. She could just see the answer of, a bowl, of course, it is the most multipurpose of the dishes available, or something to that effect. "Do you have a meal that you like specifically?" she rewords.

"Fattoush," he says. "I am vegetarian."

A salad, essentially. A very tasty salad, admittedly. Did Ra's suck so badly at accomodating his grandson that his favorite dish is a salad?

Natasha immediately wants to introduce him to stuffed bell peppers. Marinated and grilled vegetables and fruits on kebobs. Guacamole.

...Hmm. Never mind. A salad would be the hardest thing to easily poison. The dressing would be the easiest target, and if he's had it before, then he would be able to taste most differences in it, unless she managed to get something odorless and tasteless. Something deadly with those restrictions is hard to come by.

Fattoush it is for lunch, then. She'll see if Hood has a grill in this safehouse and she can introduce them to shishkebobbed grilled fruit for dessert.

"It's not going to taste exactly the same as it would back home for you," she warns.

The look on his face says that that's definitely not okay, but knows enough that saying so wouldn't change circumstances.

Hoo boy.

Rounding up Hood and Clint for a grocery run goes well. Somewhat. As well as can be expected.

Natasha has come up with the idea that hopefully, letting Damian pick out what's going on his fattoush will let him know that they don't intend on poisoning him just yet. (Not ever, really, but not poisoning him for now is all she can ask for at the moment.) Hood is helpful in this endeavour by being a known face to Damian, and he teaches Damian how to pick out fresh produce in an American market.

Hood's lecture on iceberg lettuce being only fit for something if you're looking for simultaneously limp and overly crunchy lettuce and it only being fit for inadvertent tooth floss was highly entertaining, to boot.

Tomatoes. Cucumbers. Onion. Garlic. Lemon. A mint plant that Damian cuddles for a minute.

Natasha carefully does not react to her seeing the cuddling as she puts it in the basket.

Before they leave the produce section, Natasha casually suggests the grilled fruit shishkebobs. Seeing Damian sniffing a canteloupe the size of his own head was unfortunately adorable with the scowl on his features.

Hood says that he already has olive oil at the safe house, so all they really need are the kebob sticks and the pita.

Damian scowls at the selection of pita like they have all insulted his mother, his legacy, and are not worthy to shine his shoes, much less be ingested. She elbows Clint hard when she feels him shaking with suppressed laughter and remains draped over the shopping basket handle like a bored teenager, scrolling through her phone automatically.

Hood catches her eye subtly and gives her a glance at Damian and an affectionate eye roll.

She shrugs in response.

Clint helpfully points at Natasha, then taps his watch twice, and then nods at Damian.

Hood's face is priceless.

Natasha's phone rings. It's Tony.

"Is there a reason why you're being a nosy little brat?" she answers the phone with, looking directly into the nearest security camera.

"Where did the kid come from?" Tony asks desperately.

"Well, when a man and a woman love each other--"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I--you know that's not what I meant," Tony shouts. "Do we have to keep an eye out for someone trying to sue us because you kidnapped their child, Natasha?"

Natasha sighs. "Well, short answer is no. Long answer is that I kidnapped him from his assassin mom and just got back from verbally bludgeoning his dad into submission because he needs to do better with the kids that he already has before I hand him another one."

"You are more trouble than you're worth," Tony tells her. "Because now I've got Steve on my ass to hand him the phone."

Oh. Whoops. She honestly forgot about that bit.

"Hey Drakov!" she calls, swings her arm wide and graceless to hand the phone to him. "Phone for you."

"Drakov?" the phone squawks.

"Phone for me?" Drakov says whilst eyeing the phone like it's a snake.

"Yes, take it," she declares as melodramatically as she can without it being overdone. It's probably still overdone. That's okay. There's only so much melodrama three words can hold. "It's your BFF that planes hate."

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Hood take a deep breath and hold it while chewing on his lip in an effort to not bust up laughing. Clint has his face buried in his hands. Damian is still scowling at the pita but is clearly listening to the drama.

There's a loud crackle and a clank from the phone, which means that Steve is definitely on the other side of the line now.

Drakov slowly takes the phone and holds it up to his ear. "Hello?"

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fightabear · 3 years

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so some time ago, someone asked me to do meta about a scene in Injustice and i wanted to revisit that scene with the scene from Year Zero in mind. and then i ended up getting deeply into injustice damian, his relationship with his two awful dads, and it’s kind of a mini character essay?

so! here’s a warning for: tyrannical totalitariam regimes, child abuse, abusive fathers, emotional manipulation, evil superman, character death & also random he-man. please note that this is entirely about injustice and its characters, which are not a reflection on their mainstream counterparts.

there’s tension between damian and bruce from the get-go in injustice, and we’re never really told why. if we take cues from the game (though that entire scene doesn’t make sense) then it’s because bruce didn’t save jason, which fits in with my reordered robin theory in which tim and jason were switched, and jason has only recently died.

now, we don’t know whether jason is running around as red hood right now or not. but i’m inclined to say he isn’t, as his injustice 2 ending makes a big deal of him becoming red hood. and damian is close with jason in injustice 2, close enough that jason listens when damian tells him that he’s a lot more than bruce thinks he is and drops the shitty batman costume. close enough that during the (extremely weird, extremely out of alignment with the comic) scene in injustice 2 where damian betrays bruce for clark, jason is the name damian throws at him with the most vehemence. regardless of the robin ordeer, bruce’s failure to save jason is seems to be an incredibly sore point between them.

so it’s interesting that bruce is already counting damian out before injustice even starts. he’s comparing damian to jason - someone who he apparently no longer considers part of his legacy.

the kicker is: damian in injustice is actually probably the most morally centered version of himself. he shows open compassion and care for other people more often than he does in most of the mainstream runs. damian’s sense of right and wrong is solid, but what he wants is to break the cycle that gotham is trapped in. which from his perspective, is something bruce doesn’t seem to want to do.

injustice’s version of bruce is someone who truly believes that the ends justify the means - which means he’s apt to do some heinous things to people until they see his side of things. he seems to view people questioning as an act of betrayal, so instead of ever explaining himself he resorts to things like installing viruses in cyborg, kidnapping hawkgirl and replacing her, beating allies within an inch of their life - all of it is fine to him so long as they’re not dead.

but it’s not fine to damian. damian is constantly horrified at the lengths bruce will go to.

damian is afraid of his father.

so, this is about a specific scene. let’s get to that scene. its just important to note the difference between them, and emphasize that he’s not going with any intent to fight. if he was going to do that, he wouldn’t be doing this:

or respond like this:

or this:

he’s there to make amends, or at least try to. he still loves his father and he wants to be forgiven, and this is something that will carry on ten years later in injustice 2. damian made the choice to oppose bruce’s controlling nature but damian didn’t choose to abandon him and the bat family permanently. that choice was made for him. damian wants to come home.

and he’s terrified of his father. i cannot stress that enough. bruce at this point has already shown that he knows how to hurt his closest friends if they oppose him.

damian is a highly trained fighter, but he’s also a thirteen year old boy who knows he can’t overpower a man twice his size and weight.

and bruce?

bruce’s entire argument really hinges on ‘you, my thirteen year old son, didn’t take my side in this argument’. because, i have to put this in bold, the league was not executing the criminals they were removing from arkham. they were just transferring them to a more secure facility. something which is actually sorely needed, especially given what has just happened to metropolis. arkham isn’t fit to house them. and as far as damian sees it, bruce doesn’t like it because it’s removing an element of his control.

now, bruce isn’t wrong about how things will escalate.

but damian’s not wrong about his motivation here. i think there’s a conversation to be had about how bruce’s methods in trying to stop the regime actually drove it to further and further extremes. bruce never tries to talk to clark - or anyone, really. he just starts playing mind games to make them do what he wants.

it harkens back to the conversation bruce and dick have in the batplane. that bruce doesn’t talk to people, he doesn’t explain himself. he’s either right or you’re wrong and he won’t explain his stance. there is never room for debate. he’ll just stop talking and leave until you agree. there is no option where he sits and listens to an open and honest dialogue, no scenario where he entertains that he might be in the wrong or maybe things aren’t black and white.

and that’s why injustice bruce is not a good guy.

even on prime earth, damian had to bend over backwards to prove to bruce that he wasn’t a monster. it was damian who spent months digging through the sewers for martha’s pearls. damian who had to prove he was capable of loving titus. damian who constantly had to show that he was capable of empathy and thinking of others - bruce did none of the heavy lifting in that father-son relationship, he made damian climb the entire hill and still continues to put little effort into it.

and injustice bruce is even less empathetic and expressive than prime bruce.

which is why you get a confrontation like this:

this goes beyond dick’s accident and ties back into what clark said about bruce not tending to his son’s who are grieving because they lost friends in metropolis. damian’s fed up with never meeting bruce’s expectations. but more than that, he’s fed up with his feelings coming second to bruce’s.

bruce has already made a judgement on who and what damian is. damian has the potential to be dangerous and requires work to fix, and so he’s not interested in getting to know him beyond that. he tells dick that he’s “worried about damian being seduced by darkness” but never talks to damian himself with him about it.

but clark has looked at damian and and decided that damian is good. damian has problems, clark can admit that and does, but damian is good. like bruce himself.

and ultimately why when dick dies, clark is the one that reaches out to him because he sees damian for what he is: grieving child who just made a terrible mistake. it was an accident. damian didn’t mean for this to happen. meanwhile, bruce feels as though he was proven right. damian was dangerous and now his real son is dead. bruce will later admit, once he stops trying to manipulate damian, that damian was dead to him the moment dick died.

going back to year zero for a minute, they subtly show that damian is doing his best to be like bruce. baby damian idolizes his father. so i imagine a lot of bruce’s own feelings towards damian stem from self-hatred. from bruce seeing himself in his son and not liking the reflection it forces him to confront. injustice bruce projects a great deal of his own insecurities and shortcomings onto his youngest. damian is his worst what-if.

even though damian doesn’t deal with his grief the way bruce does. there are similarities, he puts his feelings into his fists and hits. just like bruce. but unlike bruce, and most likely because of dick, he does try to communicate. come injustice 2 he even talks about his feelings.

that doesn’t justify any of the violent outbursts. and he has a lot of them. he has significant issues with controlling his anger and struggles with lashing out, verbally and physically. it both worsens and improves as he gets older.

damian knows that he’s more than his grief, his loss, his anger. he’s also compassionate and capable of incredible feats of kindness. we see that in the flashback chapter in injustice 2. people aren’t pawns for damian, they aren’t a means to assuage his own guilt and validate himself as a good person. he wants to be good for those people.

damian’s relationship with heroism isn’t built on an intrinsic need for control or power, nor is it a means of validating his self worth.

people just need him. they’re suffering. and he wants to be there for them.

but again, we’re not there yet.

so, alfred reaches out to touch damian. damian asks him repeatedly to let go. when alfred doesn’t, damian tries throwing him off, not realizing how much strength he now possesses.

damian has a thing about being touched when he’s wound up tightly. it almost always ends with him lashing out at someone. which, tying back into why he felt comfortable coming back here, probably goes into his expectation that he’s going to get the lights knocked out of him. because again, damian did not go to the cave to fight or hurt anyone. the pill is entirely for his own defense.

from what we know of damian’s childhood in both prime and injustice, violence is the expected retaliation for misbehavior. toeing out of line is grounds for getting the shit beaten out of you, and while things should be different here....

from how bruce reacts he’s not wrong to expect it. note that bruce dodesn’t run to alfred to see if he’s okay, he goes after damian for hurting him. it’s damian who runs to alfred after he’s thrown bruce away from him.

( granted, yes, he threw bruce into the penny and it almost crushes alfred )

damian apologizes and he means it. alfred’s first question is to ask for bruce.

“”hawkgirl”” intervenes to try to end this fight before it can escalate further.

damian deduces that this isn’t hawkgirl and blows some stuff up. bruce calls after him probably - not to have a serious heart to heart with him about what just happened, or what happened in arkham, but to try to manipulate him into taking bruce’s side or in the very least stop his ruse from being uncovered.

this is a theme moving forward. bruce will dangle forgiveness in front of damian, but only when it benefits him and can be used to control him. eventually he’ll stop and will use the guilt he knows damian feels to wound him.

and here’s the second theme it introduces: damian is scared shitless of his father. he’s not afraid of bruce’s violence, as after this he charges straight for him time and time again, but he is utterly terrified of the lengths bruce will go to get his way.

this is also where he takes dick’s suit. i think this was his way of telling bruce that he didn’t deserve to use dick’s memory the way he uses his parent’s death - as justification for what he does. this comes up in injustice 2 later down the road, damian will bring up that bruce uses his pain to justify how he brutalizes the people around him. damian does the same thing -- but we also see damian grappling with his conscience about it. he wants to be better. he doesn’t want to be all his violence and loss.

back to the topic at hand, damian doesn’t do anything with dick’s suit. unlike bruce, damian doesn’t wear his grief and guilt in plain sight. he puts it in a box and doesn’t look at it, he covers the wounds with anger and as he gets older, develops a death wish and basically begins seeking a noble death in order to make up for what he’s done. it isn’t until dick passes the mantle to him in an attempt to steer him back on the right path that he even looks at it again.

damian isn’t the one that ended his relationship with bruce. bruce did. damian is very willing to reconcile if bruce genuinely wants it, but bruce doesn’t bother with damian outside of combat or when he needs something. damian actually keeps up visits with alfred, he gets him birthday presents, they meet up often and despite their opposing viewpoints, they get along just fine. damian even listens to what alfred says. he still loves his family.

damian himself is a mess. this line resonates because damian, too, is afraid. afraid of bruce, afraid of being what bruce thinks he is. there’s only so far he can bury it under the anger.

by the next issue of year one, after the confrontation at the manor, damian’s discarded any notion that bruce is a good person or justified in anything he does. everything he says on this page is true.

he’s not wrong. he’s more than bruce has even given him credit for being. injustice bruce sorts people into boxes impossible to climb out. damian made his attempt at reconciliation and instead, found out that bruce has kidnapped and replaced one of his friends to spy on all the rest. in that split second when bruce came at at him, he saw the disgust and anger in his eyes. he’s seen how bruce sees him and wholeheartedly rejects it.

he doesn’t want to be bruce. he will not be bruce.

batman was supposed to be better than the league. it was supposed to be a new way. instead he just found a new, different means to brutalize and control, and a new way someone justifies causing harm. and he doesn’t want it.

this isn’t to say that damian is a saint. he’s a very flawed, very broken person. he went from one abusive parental situation, to another, to another, and has the damage to show for it. he’s got bad habits from all of them, many of which he isn’t aware of or doesn’t think are a problem.

but unlike his two dads, damian doesn’t close himself off to what he’s feeling completely, nor does he decide to rush towards external solutions for his pain. he’s, again, very aware that something is wrong. he doesn’t hold to his convictions the same way bruce or clark do, he questions. he’s deeply unhappy with who he is and what he’s doing.

but damian is seeking answers using a very limited toolset, and there’s a very limited pool of people he can ask that won’t give him a biased answer or try to manipulate him for their own means. one of the people he confides in does just that.

the other gives him the honest truth.

his relationship with selina is fraught and she’s often one of the very nastiest people towards him, but it’s because of that he ends up opening up to her. she isn’t going to bullshit him and just say what he wants to hear.

and this is what makes damian different from them. both of them.

because he stops, because he questions, he’s still connected to reality. to his own humanity.

injustice’s bruce is a bruce that has quietly let his humanity die. he’s completely given over to the cold logic of batman and the idea that whatever he does to the people around him, no matter how morally dubious, is justified so long as it means protecting lives. he might not kill, but he really stops just short of that. he just doubles down on his beliefs and takes anyone who doesn’t agree with him as a traitor. he will go out of his way to rationalize how a largely guilty person is innocent (harleen) and how a largely innocent person is guilty (damian). and so he uses damian’s “betrayal” - ie, damian standing with clark instead of him - as justification for icing him out. that way he can ignore all the people who have reminded him time and time again that it was an accident.

bruce also can’t stand that damian won’t do what he says. bruce will ignore damian unless it benefits him. bruce will go on to frequently weaponize how badly damian wants forgiveness against him. there are multiple instances where he says “just do as i say and i’ll forgive you, son.”

and then in the next breath, he’ll tell damian that he “can’t forgive the deaths”, all the while he has harleen as his new sidekick. it’s fine that harleen helped with the scheme to blow up metropolis, killed jimmy olsen, and countless others. it’s not fine that damian did something he did all the time to dick - something dick himself shrugged off, because the expectation for this behavior was that dick would catch the baton - and it ended in tragedy.

because harleen listens to him and damian doesn’t. bruce cuts damian neatly out of his life and only really cares about him again when he’s a corpse.

damian, meanwhile, never stops trying to earn bruce’s forgiveness. in the canonical bad end (or well a comic offshoot of the canon ending) damian essentially dies begging bruce to forgive him, admitting that he always cared. he launches an absolutely insane rescue mission to save his father from clark’s torture and it costs him his life.

( but it’s worth mentioning - it takes damian showing bruce an image of kara for bruce to acknowledge him. )

even before this, damian was looking out for bruce in other ways. he was the reason selina got involved with the regime. because he offered her the chance to join and save bruce. damian’s anger towards bruce is less that he wants him dead, and more that bruce won’t stop unless he’s killed.

and damian is willing to kill him if bruce poses a threat to his ‘new’ family. he’s not going to watch bruce hurt the people he loves.

but his new father sucks just as much as his old one.

talia and bruce were more obviously abusive parents. they were controlling and sometimes asserted that control and obedience using physical violence and intimidation. in obvious ways you can point to and see abuse.

damian doesn’t recognize clark is using him until he sees clark discard kara, who should be everything to clark and is someone important to damian. before that, he has inklings that they’ve gone too far, but clark has been such a paragon of good that when he tells damian not to worry about it, he doesn’t. he hides all his darkness behind that smile and tells damian he’s good and worthy of people loving him, that they’re saving people and they won’t let another metropolis happen. clark talks to him and still (seems to) accept him even when they disagree.

damian misses clark’s equally as abusive tendencies because they hidden under the guise of a fatherly concern.

clark is manipulating him into divulging more than he wants to. a boundary damian set is being broken without damian even realizing it. damian’s uneasy. his body language goes from very easy and relaxed to overtly uncomfortable and almost submissive. it’s also very subtle but clark actually rises higher off the ground to intimidate and loom over him.

damian, who has only known bruce’s stormy silences in moments of disagreement, doesn’t recognize this for what it is. clark doesn’t take the slight out on him. clark doesn’t stop talking to him because he dared to question.

instead, he loops an arm around damian and praises him, rewards him for being honest and makes it seem like this is an open dialogue and not an interrogation. which it is. i wouldn’t call it gaslighting, but i would call it lovebombing. damian doesn’t realize that there was anything off about the encounter, or if he does, he’ll tell himself he’s just being paranoid.

after all. this ended amicably, not with him standing alone wondering what he did wrong, or being thrown across the room. clark basically stops just shy of ruffling his hair and calling him sport.

he was rewarded for honesty. and so any discomfort he felt was imagined.

i think a thing that a lot of fans miss is that injustice’s damian is a forthright person. he doesn’t lie or deceive much, and later on it will bother him that he’s keeping secrets from kara for ‘the greater good’. he loathes that bruce does it and works hard to not fall into that trap. he wants to be honest. he’s glad when he’s rewarded for that honesty.

because injustice’s damian doesn’t want to be batman. he wants to be superman. he wants to be good.

but injustice’s superman is not a good man.

clark keep secrets, many terrible secrets, and often hurts people and justifies it to himself. he just hides it far better than bruce does. clark is even more controlling and cruel, but he leans harder into his humanity and emotions to hide it. it’s easier to see bruce being cold and calculating and miss the way clark subtly uses what you want to get what he wants out of you. and you never really see it coming when he lashes out. he’ll apologize for it, of course, and if you’re not dead you’ll forgive him, because it’s clark. he didn’t mean it. right?

bruce manipulates overtly and grandly using intimidation, clark manipulates subtly using emotion. damian only recognizes one of these things when they happen.

so clark gives damian what he wants - a parent who loves him, someone he can talk to and even show a little vulnerability with - and then uses that against him.

the worst thing - the very worst thing - is that bruce and clark love damian. he knows this. both seem to genuinely consider him their son. and he knows this.

in injustice vs motu, bruce snaps fully into awareness just as diana snaps damian’s neck. he’s awake just in time to watch his son die. and when clark is brought onto the scene, clark falls to his knees and mourns damian and laments his role in driving him to this.

but they weaponize this parent-child bond he wants against him and each other. frankly, neither of them were very interested in him for who he was. nor for helping him be better and master his anger. damian’s body isn’t even cold before bruce uses it against clark, failing to acknowledge his own part in damian’s all too early demise.

he’s another chess piece on their board. one clark can use to wound bruce. one bruce can use to wound clark.

the person damian is when away from both of their influence is a more complete damian. he’s the very best of both of them.

the damian here is still curt and sometimes rude, but he laughs and bonds with the people around him. he values people’s freedom and seems to strive for honesty and communication. meaning no one is in his war to reclaim the world doesn’t want to be, and he makes no move without everyone knowing.

when he recruits adam, he tells them their story and what they’ve gone through and gives adam the choice to join them or stay in eternia.

anyway, all of this is to say that even all these years later, i continue to be so sad about injustice damian wayne.

edit:

now, there’s actually one other thing i want to bring up because i totally forgot about it.

so. issue 8 of injustice 2.

if we’re going with the idea of the reordered robin theory, which is what makes the most sense to me considering jason’s age and the friction between bruce and damian, this before jason dies. and if i’m wrong and the robins don’t have a different order, then this is before some enormous event that broke the slowly building trust.

there’s none of the undercurrent of hostility and distrust that shows up in year 0, which is immediately before year 1. we’re not given a timeframe for when this occurs, either, it’s just happier times.

but what’s really hard to ignore is that the dynamic between bruce and damian is completely different here. maybe tom taylor’s just settled more into writing the two of them, but i don’t think so. year zero comes after this.

he even acknowledges damian’s anger earlier in the chapter. but it’s less of a condemnation of his character and more a concern that he might not be ready to be on his own. alfred is the one advocating for caution, asking if he’s ready, bruce is the one saying yes, he is.

it’s a complete reversal.

and his trust is rewarded with a night of damian abandoning the “”mission”” he was given (get home from the furthest point of gotham in three hours) to help everyone along the way. which was the real goal all along, it was a test to see if damian’s compassion would win out over his want to win. and it does. bruce is proud of him.

so... what happened between them? what caused that shift?

i’m kind of worried we’re never going to know. like, i’m so glad that tom taylor is dc’s new golden boy and they’re just letting him build a million different aus. i buy every book he writes.

but also i’m dying because IJ2 was clearly planned to go on a lot longer than it did and i have questions that i know netherrealm doesn’t care about answering.

#damian wayne #injustice #bruce wayne #dick grayson #alfred pennyworth #jason todd #clark kent

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batricide · 3 years

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i’ll drop this on my blog here too actually bc it’s Important to how i play damian and also let me yell about the fact that ij’s bruce is not a good person and the reason why so many people hate damian is because they somehow miss that.

so! here’s a warning for: tyrannical totalitarian regimes, child abuse, abusive fathers, emotional manipulation, evil superman, character death & also random he-man. please note that this is about injustice and its characters, which are not a reflection on their mainstream counterparts or how i view them.

so it’s interesting that bruce is already counting damian out before injustice even starts. he’s comparing damian to jason - someone who he apparently no longer considers part of his legacy.

but it’s not fine to damian. damian is constantly horrified at the lengths bruce will go to.

damian is afraid of his father.

or respond like this:

or this:

and he’s terrified of his father. i cannot stress that enough. bruce at this point has already shown that he knows how to hurt his closest friends if they oppose him.

damian is a highly trained fighter, but he’s also a thirteen year old boy who knows he can’t overpower a man twice his size and weight.

and bruce?

now, bruce isn’t wrong about how things will escalate.

and that’s why injustice bruce is not a good guy.

and injustice bruce is even less empathetic and expressive than prime bruce.

which is why you get a confrontation like this:

but clark has looked at damian and and decided that damian is good. damian has problems, clark can admit that and does, but damian is good. like bruce himself.

damian’s relationship with heroism isn’t built on an intrinsic need for control or power, nor is it a means of validating his self worth.

people just need him. they’re suffering. and he wants to be there for them.

but again, we’re not there yet.

so, alfred reaches out to touch damian. damian asks him repeatedly to let go. when alfred doesn’t, damian tries throwing him off, not realizing how much strength he now possesses.

( granted, yes, he threw bruce into the penny and it almost crushes alfred )

damian apologizes and he means it. alfred’s first question is to ask for bruce.

“”hawkgirl”” intervenes to try to end this fight before it can escalate further.

damian himself is a mess. this line resonates because damian, too, is afraid. afraid of bruce, afraid of being what bruce thinks he is. there’s only so far he can bury it under the anger.

he doesn’t want to be bruce. he will not be bruce.

the other gives him the honest truth.

and this is what makes damian different from them. both of them.

because he stops, because he questions, he’s still connected to reality. to his own humanity.

because harleen listens to him and damian doesn’t. bruce cuts damian neatly out of his life and only really cares about him again when he’s a corpse.

( but it’s worth mentioning - it takes damian showing bruce an image of kara for bruce to acknowledge him. )

and damian is willing to kill him if bruce poses a threat to his ‘new’ family. he’s not going to watch bruce hurt the people he loves.

but his new father sucks just as much as his old one.

damian misses clark’s equally as abusive tendencies because they hidden under the guise of a fatherly concern.

after all. this ended amicably, not with him standing alone wondering what he did wrong, or being thrown across the room. clark basically stops just shy of ruffling his hair and calling him sport.

he was rewarded for honesty. and so any discomfort he felt was imagined.

because injustice’s damian doesn’t want to be batman. he wants to be superman. he wants to be good.

but injustice’s superman is not a good man.

bruce manipulates overtly and grandly using intimidation, clark manipulates subtly using emotion. damian only recognizes one of these things when they happen.

so clark gives damian what he wants - a parent who loves him, someone he can talk to and even show a little vulnerability with - and then uses that against him.

the worst thing - the very worst thing - is that bruce and clark love damian. he knows this. both seem to genuinely consider him their son. and he knows this.

he’s another chess piece on their board. one clark can use to wound bruce. one bruce can use to wound clark.

the person damian is when away from both of their influence is a more complete damian. he’s the very best of both of them.

when he recruits adam, he tells them their story and what they’ve gone through and gives adam the choice to join them or stay in eternia.

anyway, all of this is to say that even all these years later, i continue to be so sad about injustice damian wayne.

edit:

now, there’s actually one other thing i want to bring up because i totally forgot about it.

so. issue 8 of injustice 2.

it’s a complete reversal.

so... what happened between them? what caused that shift?

but also i’m dying because IJ2 was clearly planned to go on a lot longer than it did and i have questions that i know netherrealm doesn’t care about answering.

#ooc.#tl;dr dick grayson raised a good boy who needed support at a critical time and instead was taken in by cruel god wearing a kind smile #and damian doesn't realize it until it's far too late and he's done so much he can't take back

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tempestaurora · 5 years

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endgame opinions

spoilers under the cut. i’ve opened my dms so feel free to come and scream/yell/cry/whatever with me. this turned out really long because i start speculating half way through as well as talking about opinions.

let’s start with harley keener, my son, who was literally only in the movie for a second, at the fucking funeral. are you kidding me. and a lot of people don’t know what ty simpkins looks like now?? so even my friend didn’t know who he was until i started physically vibrating in my seat

HOWEVER, he and peter are in the same location, which totally opens up a plausible reason for them to know each other, become best friends/brothers/roommates at MIT

it’s sad that it was just him standing alone though, like no one stood with him, like his mother or anyone. that’s sad.

i wrote a harley keener infinity war fic so like,, feel free to read that to get the harley keener endgame feelings we DESERVE

aNYWAY, good film

i enjoyed it a lot for the most part, like i have so few complaints its unreal

it’s a genuinely funny film that didn’t feel like it was shoehorning in comedic relief, but like the movie was SUPPOSED to be lighter and funnier and drama was happening in between

i didn’t care for the ending in the slightest fuck that

i’m pissed about being lied to by the directors about a canon gay character. they sat up there on their high horses, congratulating themselves for a job well done for diversity, when it was just a fucking extra with no name, referring to a male partner twice. that’s it. you’re fucking kidding me if you think that’s diversity, if the russos truly think that was worth getting our hopes up for.

you know who could’ve been confirmed lgbt? valkyrie. steve. bucky. tony. (and no, tony appreciating steve’s ass doesn’t confirm our bi father, son and holy spirit on screen, unfortunately.)

that’s a fucking joke, russos. i hope they’re fucking ashamed of that.

(i really was watching that final bucky/steve scene and hoping for some hint of, it was always you, you know and got fucking nothing. i barely even ship stucky and i know that it should’ve been them)

the clint/natasha fight on vormir was the best scene, hands down. there’s no competition here. it was the best moment of the film, and despite my annoyance at the russos seeing that the audience didn’t appreciate gamora dying to further a man’s arc, and then fucking doing it again, i really did like that scene

i figured nat was gonna die but i didn’t think i’d actually be sad about it

as soon as they said they were going to vormir i knew the fight would happen and it lived up to every expectation and some

the barton home cold open was fantastic

why the ever loving FUCK was carol danvers so forcefully advertised to us?????? why were we told over and over and over that carol was gonna kill thanos, that she was gonna save the day, that the avengers literally had zero chance without her????? she had four minutes of screentime what the fuck

i appreciate her and peter’s interaction though that was cute and he was wrecked

the peter/tony reunion was cute af, glad they finally got their hug

also, i always wanted peter to call him tony but like that???? nah

side note, don’t remember in the slightest what rhodey and peter said as tony died because i was sitting there going, he’s not actually gonna die, obviously, that’s not gonna happen, they’re gonna make us think he will and then he’ll come back so i missed both their goodbyes

i know it was a 3 hour film but there was space for... more. there should’ve been more. where was rocket and groot’s reunion? where was bucky and steve’s?

where did valkyrie get a fucking pegasus from

bruce and hulk’s new system is hilarious but the fact that he dabbed pains me

bruce wielding the gauntlet was so incredibly left field i loved it, like no one guessed that he’d be the one to bring everyone back. no one

scott did great

i’m not sure if i can settle myself with this five year time jump for a whole host of reasons

1. do we have, officially, a new cassie lang actress? is our iconic abby ryder fortson leaving us for an older actress???

2. far from home takes place, supposedly, a week after endgame. it was one of the reasons i believed tony wouldn’t die, because it seems like a wholly upbeat film - and y’all saw his face at the funeral, he was fucking gone - and it’s even been confirmed to be lighter and funnier, so there better be some fucking low blow that takes peter out on the tony front (but did the writers/directors even know tony had died when they made the film? will it be ignored altogether?) back to the main point:

2a. it’s around the year 2023 and as soon as the entire world comes back, there’s a two week field trip to europe that peter and all his classmates have somehow paid for, signed permission slips for, and arranged, despite the fact that they’ve all been dead for five years. and i mean all. literally the entire main cast of spiderman is still in peter’s class, they haven’t grown up and moved on. the entire fucking cast got dusted.

3. we didn’t really get to see tony and steve make up??? they kinda just brushed over everything

i almost cried seeing ned leeds and peter reunite

okay now the biggies:

i’m Not Okay with tony stark dying

i’m not

it’s not just that he’s my favourite character and i care about him above all others, it’s that his entire arc has been about first, accountability, and second, leaving the fight. yes, it’s also got a lot of heart motifs and mentions of sacrifice too. i understand that. but tony has been wrestling with his father’s legacy and the kind of father he’ll be since day one.

he deserved his happy ending.

not just five years. not just a daughter who will know OF him but not know him, who’ll forget the short time of memories she has in due course. he deserved to grow old with his daughter and his wife and the kid whose photo he placed on the shelf in the kitchen, where he could see it every day.

he does deserve rest. but he deserves the kind of rest where he’s alive.

i have said before that if tony stark dies, i stop watching the mcu, and tbh, might actually go through with it. i don’t know if i really want to watch the films, knowing he’s gone? (and that they could’ve used either the time stone, or, you know, their time travel machine, to go two weeks back, grab that tony and bring him into the present. say, hey, you died, but now you can keep living.)

and steve.

oh steve.

i love steve rogers, i do. i absolutely adore steve rogers. but i’m about the same level of angry about his ending as i am about tony’s.

and honestly? it’s only because it’s not him. it’s not the him we know. my friend said that cap went and settled down because he’d finally learnt the lesson tony had been teaching; that maybe there is a reason to set down the shield and live a quiet, good life. but i don’t like it. it opens time anomalies, inconsistencies. it doesn’t feel like him.

since cap came into the 21st century, his story line has had a motif of moving on. about getting with the times, learning new music, new references, finding old friends and having to decide whether he should hold onto them and risk what he has now, or let them go. he’s been staring at a photo of peggy carter since 2011, he made peace with her life when he visited her in hospital, he let her go when she died. he watched her, through her office window, be director of shield, knowing she was about to have a life that she loved. she has children, a family.

it doesn’t feel like the steve rogers i know to take that away from her

but at the same time, i understand that sometimes, he should get to be a little selfish. he was selfish when it came to protecting bucky over all else, and it ended with mixed results.

i loved the final scene, of he and peggy dancing and kissing, but i think i would’ve loved that scene just as much, if not more, if it had happened in the afterlife. with an about time from peggy.

on the same subject: bucky and sam.

i’m super happy with sam being the next captain america (does this mean we’ve been lied to about the whole falcon and winter soldier tv show? is it actually a captain america and winter soldier show?)

i think bucky knew what steve’s plans were, though it would’ve been nice to have some on-screen confirmation. i think that’s why he seemed relieved that steve was sitting on the bench; he knew what steve was going to do and was glad he’d lived long enough to pass the torch once and for all

HOWEVER, the time anomalies i mentioned:

peggy carter’s established timeline is broken

does sharon carter exist? if yes, does this timeline’s steve rogers still make out with her

if steve goes into the past, the steve that he already was and his whole existence in the 21st century will still happen. that means he’ll look for peggy. that means he’ll find her. with him. in the future/present. steve is therefore made aware of the future - would that then effect how he acts with civil war/infinity war etc? would that then erase the events that happened, limiting steve from going back?

does he tell anyone that hydra is in shield

does he get bucky the fuck out of hydra or does he let his best friend be tortured for 70 years

i think bucky should’ve been a part of the sam/captain america torch conversation. if only because steve’s narrative has focused around bucky since 2011 and it ends with a don’t do anything stupid while i’m gone / you’re taking all the stupid with you - that’s not a satisfactory ending lads

much of me thinks steve and tony’s outcomes should’ve been switched. tony wants a quiet life, steve has said many times that he can’t imagine giving up the fight, living as a civilian in obscurity. i think it’s a cruel way to end it.

plus steve is ALWAYS the one making speeches about sacrifice, but he’s never the one to actually make the sacrifice. it’s always tony.

i’m happy for steve, i am.

i think i’d just be happier if morgan could grow up with her father and if pepper wasn’t a single parent and peter didn’t have to navigate the rest of his life - super powered and not - alone

side note, far from home taking place a week after endgame: nick fury wasted no fucking time jumping on spiderman. like, tony absolutely protected him from fury before infinity war, and the dude’s barely buried and fury’s making his move on peter - not cool

anyway, i genuinely did enjoy the film. i find it incredibly difficult to believe this was shot immediately after infinity war because the tone is so different, and i was remembering all those photos we had from reshoots and realised none of those scenes made it in the final cut.

it was a good film. probably the most emotionally mature of the mcu. not my favourite. i’m angry about the ending. nebula should’ve killed thanos at least once. cool that gamora’s back. sad about nat. devastated about tony. happy for steve on the surface, until i spend 2 seconds looking deeper. loki’s probably alive because the timeline changed and they replaced the tesseract in 1970, not 2012, so officially, loki never goes to asgard jail anymore

but for real: how does steve replace the tesseract in the past when it’s now the space stone? how does he get that past anyone at all?

edit: I SOMEHOW forgot about rescue, the moment i’ve been waiting for for a decade

i love her, i love the suit, i love the pepper was incredibly badass with it with zero hesitation. i wish someone had said the name rescue like i wish someone had said captain marvel - but no dice. it’s such a rad suit and seeing her and tony fight side by side was so cool

edit 2 bc im a dumbass: CLINT MY ARROW BOY I LOVE YOU, YOU GOT ALL THE SCREENTIME U FUCKIN DESERVED

#endgame spoilers #avengers spoilers #avengers endgame #marvel #mcu #bethany talks

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buzzworddotie · 6 years

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RPDR S10E01 - “Tens, tens, tens across the board!”

Have you seen the first episode of Season 10 of Drag Race yet? It was so fucking good! We were served a great mix of queens, lots of Easter eggs and a couple of surprises too! And for, I think the first time, I was totally torn on the first elimination.

Right, so to kick things off you have the entrances starting with Eureka, who was super sweet and looked great in her feathery Phoenix look and I did like her during her brief spell on Season 9. So that’s the one queen we knew was there coming out the gate.

I’m going to do this recap from memory so i might butcher some of these names or forget some stuff (and some queens) but this is a “total rucall” of the episode based on my initial impressions.

Monet XChange, I had seen some activity with her on social media leading up to the season because she did some photoshoot with Bob. I heard a couple of interviews with Bob and Trixie as well commenting on how funny she is as well so my expectations are kind of high on this one.

And I soft of feel like I will end up loving her, she’s coming across pretty well so far. Also, that over-thought first look with the “cleaning story”, I mean she has to have a good sense of humour, right?!

Miz Cracker seems nuts in the best way imaginable. Plus, I don’t know why but out of drag boy-Cracker kind of reminds me of Tyler Joseph from 21 Pilots, tell me someone else sees it?!

I didn’t catch any footage of Cracker before the show but she’s Bob’s drag daughter, right? The hype I was seeing around her had me coming into this a bit skeptical but she is soooo likeable! And that back and forth with the judges, “cracking” Ru and the other judges up? I hope she makes Snatch Game that’s all I’m saying.

A lot of New Yorkers and I’m about to embarrass myself with names, the Chicago queen came in, I want to say The Vixen?, she came in ready to fight apparently! She had a lot to say in Untucked and is clearly hoping to rustle some feathers. We’ll see girl, I don’t see a long run but I could be off base.

My order is arseways but there was the one who is Cracker’s “rival” and totally unprompted announced Season 10 was her chance to call out her nemesis. Is her name Acquaris or Aquaria? I don’t know, people seem to think she’s the shit and there seems like a potential Heather vs Boogers 2018 edition brewing as sides are taken but I didn’t get the Charisma, she’s more of an NT to me. Interested to see if she blows my mind at all but Cracker wins on the Charisma bit so far.

Oh and then there was Mayhem Miller!! She seems so humble and grateful but also there to slay!

It was so sweet to see her become so emotional to get those positive critiques and then to win (oops, spoiler alert) and rightfully so with THAT LOOK!! Stunning. I get the feeling she will be an epic lip syncer as well. I know a bit about her because of an interview with Jasmine Masters who commented on how often she tried out, had to watch all her sisters get on and then nearly gave it all up only to land her spot now, she feels like a special one.

Fuck it, early prediction she makes it to Top 2.

So who else did we have... Asia O’Hara seemed fun during the show, not a massive stand out but she shone in Untucked and I feel like she will be a fan favourite. Also, just to note she is absolutely beautiful out of drag.

Dusty Ray Bottoms just popped into my mind, but I had totally forgotten about her when I was thinking back over the show! Sorry girl, you just get the sense when she first comes in that she is going to be mind blowing and she just didn’t seem to feature a whole lot. I thought her look for the challenge wasn’t too special either. But I am interested to see what more she brings, I have a feeling there is more there.

Yuhua Hamasaki (you can bet your ass I Googled that one) came in looking very quite with her seamstress skills. Another very chill, laid back personality so far but I am interested to see where she excels as I’m not 100% on this one yet.

Monique Heart, she didn’t make a huge impact either thought I did kind of love that plastic wig she wouldn’t stop harping on about! She’s got lots of fight in her, I think she will probably land in the middle a lot, get annoyed and go home mid way through. Prove me wrong!

I just realised one of the best things about this episode is that it seems like they have gotten a really great mix of personalities but no one appears to be too extra.

Yet.

Back to the show, Kalorie Kardashian Williams, is that one right? I really liked her, I thought she seemed really cute, fun and a bit feisty. Could she end up annoying me? Yes. But she did perform the hell out of that lip sync!

And it was versus Vanessa Vanji Mateo! Awwww, she is fucking adorable! I don’t mind that Kalorie stayed, I’m not mad at that. But it is genuinely one of the first times the Episode One bottom 2 were actually 2 Queens that I really liked and wasn’t ready to see go!

Am I missing some one? I feel like I am... Oh Cameron Michael? The one they all are obsessed with out of Drag! Her didn’t really make any noticeable impact for me. I did get a chance to really see her face in Untucked and with that make up she was stunning but I don’t know if she’s going to be one of the exciting ones!

I was delighted to see the design challenge for the first episode, such a great crafty throw back. The hour long episode was great and I hope they run it for the entire season because I think that was a major part of the issue with the production of AS3... But that’s an entirely different story.

Some great looks in the challenge, some not so great. Oh I’ve just realised a queen I missed! Blair St.Clair! Fresh off the boat, she came in a little meek and I had kind of written her off for the first quarter of the show.

I thought she was going to be a bit blah, a bit niche “broadway/old Hollywood” - kind of seen it before but done better - kind of girl. But then she hit the runway in that dark wig and with a decent look and she made me sit up. You always got to watch the quiet ones! I’m thinking she is a potential Top 4, just don’t quote me on that yet! She could be the black horse of the competition.

I was a bit confused when the safe girls had to stand at the back of the room for the critiques and then I was duped by RuPaul. Look, I’m not proud of falling for it but I had totally forgotten that Xtina was supposed to be a judge OK?!

Love Christina, I have zero shame in still crying to Beautiful and having Fighter and Dirrty on more than one Spotify playlist. That woman has serious pipes. I loved how gagged the girls seemed it was so sweet and Xtina seemed like a really great sport.

All in all, Episode 1 of Season 10 was a fun way to kick off the show and a true celebration of the legacy of RPDR. Even the production didn’t seem mind-numbing or too forced. I think you just can’t capture all the magic of this show in 30-40 mins. You have to give them all a real chance to shine!

When Mayhem was in the top with Cracker, I had forgotten we were Lip Syncing for their life instead of legacy, but there you have it. Kalorie did slay the performance though, when she made it rain it was just a clever move. Also, after a lot of lack luster lip syncs in Season 9 I am excited and hopeful that this first one is an indication of whats to come.

So Season 10 Episode 1 gets Tens, Tens, Tens across the board from me! Fierce Queens, a ton of talent and lots of self referential throw backs, it felt like a real celebration and all the cameos from the past faves - It felt fun again!

I’m bracing myself for a great season - what do you think? Who are you seeing as a potential winner? Who stood out to you? Please don’t spill any actual rumoured T to me, I am not here for it.

#rupaul's drag race #rupaulsdragraceseason10 #rupaul #RDPR #review #recall #drag #vh1 #mayhem miller #mizcracker #episodeone

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dariarblac · 7 years

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For the Culture: The New Edition Story

Jay-Z once said something along the lines of not being able to fully review an album after one listen. The same applies to movies so I watched this one 4 times.

The first time I heard about the New Edition biopic was when I caught Bryshere Gray aka Boyfriend on set via SnapChat last summer. I didn't realize what he was filming until a few weeks later when the first trailer appeared during the BET Awards. I was skeptical but also excited. I am the ultimate boyband fan so I was eager to check it out. So eager that when I realized with wasn't coming out until this year I was a tad bit angry but it was so worth the wait.

The New Edition Story was a three night experience which broke down the rise, the fall, and rise again of R&Bs bad boys. Starting with Bobby's failed talent show ending with an emotional reunion.

The casting was absolutely phenomenal and each actor completely embodied the members in which they were playing down to their mannerisms and accents. You could tell all 11 boys did their homework. It was almost too good. I did some research and found out that New Edition had a heavy hand in the production, the story, and the training. This is what made all the difference. This seems to be the difference between a terrible bio and an excellent one. Truthfully, I've never seen an "okay" biopic; they're either really bad (Aaliyah) or really good (TLC).

Either way I commend NE for their raw, gritty honesty. Everything from Ralph's cockiness, Mike's greed, to Ricky and Bobby's drug issues were mapped out for the world to see.

Night one we are introduced to what I call, Baby Edition. Ricky, Bobby, and Mike who are clearly playground buddies agree that they want to enter a talent show. As they're practicing, Ricky's sister suggests they get a manger and that's when the seed is planted. They zero in on the infamous Brooke Payne while he's trying to get some ass and they manage to impress him. Wanting to model them after the legendary Jackson 5, Payne adds his nephew Ronnie into the mix. The chemistry is undeniable, thus New Edition was born.

After cutting their first single, these young, vulnerable boys get a taste of how ugly the industry is early. The boys, with the permission of their mothers, signed an unread contract with the promise of $500 and some Trident Layers. The young boys slaved while keeping their grades up only to be left with nothing. A story we've heard time and time again; biopic after biopic (seriously, why do y'all keep signing record deals?).

youtube

As a film nerd, I can't help but geek over the brilliance of the age progression. During a performance of Is This the End, Baby Edition morphs into a group of horny ass teenagers who are, unfortunately, still broke.

After a vote amongst Mom Edition, we end up firing Ronnie's uncle for a suit by the name of Gary Evans which was the worse possible thing they could have done. At this point they sign a new deal that they still did not read.

This is where the drama comes in.

Night two starts off lit. The Bobby and Mike come to blows (and spit) as Mike is clearly tired of everyone's shit. But they make up quickly, per usual and kept the show going even with their new snakey manager trying to boot Mike out.

This is also where we're introduced to Bobby Brown's promiscuity, arrogance, and substance abuse (which is funny because I could have sworn "Whitney introduce him to coke" but I digress). He shows his ass in the middle of the concert with unnecessary black church lady vocals and a speech about leaving NE, neither of which anyone asked for. After he announced he was leaving, the rest of the boys voted him out. I was left a little confused about this and clearly so was Bob, as he was oddly bitter about it (similar to how Camila said she was leaving 5h and when the group said "hey Camila's leaving", she got upset).

After that disaster of a concert Mike becomes curious about the business side of the industry aka where all the sneaky stuff happens. It's then he discovers that Gary The Scammer had been lying to them.

At this point there are many bugs in the boys ears trying to sway them off task and unfortunately, it sort of works, creating even more tension between the remaining four. But all is well when Mike introduces Johnny Gill into the group. This was one of the out standing points of the series for everyone. The moment the opening drums to "Can You Stand The Rain" began, I could feel the melodies of my ancestors and all of black twitter capture my spirit and for 4 minutes and 12 seconds… we were all one.

I absolutely have to mention that when we got to the point where Mike (Boyfriend) said "come on baby. lets go get wet" I said "yes sir". Like, out loud.

Night three is a complete mess. Truly. However, this is when my jam comes in. Whereas CYSTR was everyone else's defining moment, mine was "If It Isn't Love".

I cried actual tears.

I was moved for many reasons. First reason being Algee (Ralph), Boyfriend (Mike), Keith (Ron), Luke (Johnny) and Elijah (Ricky) DID THAT. Second being that it's simply one of my favorite songs in the world. Lastly, I just love watching talented black boys be great. Everything from the flamboyance of the routine to the random Asian woman pressing the play button was on point. And I have to give a special shout out to Keith Powers (Ronnie) who was the last person casted, had the least amount of rehearsal time, struggled with the dancing, and STILL pulled through.

My only beef with this whole piece was the fact that they didn't get Quincy Brown to play his father. The actor they got to play Al B Sure favored him well but Al clearly spit Q out and it would have been more iconic than it already was.

Part three brought fourth everyone's solo/trio endeavors. (Here's where I learned something new. Before this film I had no idea who/what BBD was. I thought Poison, Do Me, ect was by NE). This is where you really see how fantastic the casting was.

However their success apart was short lived, so much that they almost had to reunite so they could eat. But inflated egos got in the way of the art and money, proving that it's not just girl groups who are super messy and emotional. And once again everyone is forced to do their own thing.

I won't give away the ending just know I cried again.

Over all this was not only one of the best bio's I've ever seen, but one of the best movies I've ever seen. If you know me, you know I can't really sit still for movies but I truly did not want this one to end. It was one of those things that brought black people together, like a common denominator, that for once wasn't in tragedy. BET honestly did that (take notes Lifetime) and I can't see what other projects they have under their belt.

A big thank you to these boys for squeezing a 30 year legacy into 3 weeks and giving us this.

♡

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benrleeusa · 5 years

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[Ilya Somin] Trump's Syria Withdrawal Does Nothing to Restore Constitutional Limits on Presidential War Powers

While the Syria intervention lacked proper congressional authorization, constitutional considerations had nothing to do with Trump's withdrawal decision. Indeed, his administration has doubled down on Obama-era arguments asserting broad presidential authority to initiate military interventions.

Donald Trump's recent decision to withdraw US forces from Syria has drawn praise in some quarters - including Reason's Robby Soave - for supposedly helping to restore "the rule of law." Such praise is undeserved. Trump's decision does little, if anything, to curb presidential power to initiate war without congressional authorization. Far from respecting constitutional limits on presidential warmaking, the administration has in fact doubled down on Obama-era arguments justifying broad presidential power to initiate new conflicts.

Under both Obama (e.g. here and here) and Trump, I was among those who argued that the US war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is unconstitutional, because President Obama initiated it without the required congressional authorization, and neither he nor Trump ever got such authorization even retrospectively, during what has now been over four years of fighting. The various legal rationales that the Obama administration put forward to justify the war range from the bad to the laughable, and all would set dangerous precedents if they become generally accepted. The same goes for outside experts' efforts to prove that the war is legal, such as those of controversial legal scholar and former George W. Bush administration official John Yoo.

If Trump had acknowledged that the war is illegal and justified his decision to withdraw on that basis, he might have struck a useful blow for constitutional limits on executive power. But there is zero evidence that constitutional considerations played any role in his decision, or that this administration has any desire to shore up Congress' position as the only branch of government with the power to to authorize the initiation of war.

To the contrary, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to emphasize that they believe the president has broad power to initiate a wide range of conflicts. In April 2018, Trump's Office of Legal Counsel put out a memo defending exactly that view. As Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith (a former Bush administration OLC head, and leading war powers expert) puts it, the memo builds on "Obama-era legal opinions" and "articulate[s] an extraordinarily broad conception of the president's authority to use military force abroad through air strikes without congressional authorization." Goldsmith also writes (correctly, in my view) that the Trump OLC opinion is "in no way surprising" - at least not to anyone familiar with the Obama administration's positions on this issue. But it should give pause to anyone who thinks Trump is somehow intent on reining in presidential war powers.

The administration's very broad interpretation of presidential power is also evident in Trump's notorious statements threatening to initiate wars with North Korea and Iran, neither of which includes even the slightest suggestion that congressional authorization might be necessary. No such recognition was evident in any follow-up statements by Trump and other administration officials, either. Finally, it's worth noting that Trump has continued the Obama-initiated intervention in Iraq and Syria for over two years (and still counting), without making any meaningful effort to secure congressional authorization for it. Indeed, he has made even less effort to get it than Obama did.

In sum, everything the administration has said and done on the subject of war powers is consistent with the view that the president has the right to start a wide range of conflicts without congressional authorization. He can also, if he wants, end them (as Trump now hopes to do with the intervention in Syria). But it's all up to him.

In this respect, Trump is continuing Obama's troubling legacy (and to some extent that of previous presidents), rather than making major innovations of his own. But we should not fool ourselves into thinking that he's making the situation any better.

The constitutional requirement that Congress must authorize the initation of war is more than just a technical legal formality. It helps ensure that no one man has the authority to take the nation to war, and increases the likelihood that any wars we do initiate will be backed by a broad political consensus, which in turn helps increase the odds of a successful outcome. The Founders wanted to deny the president the power to start wars on his own, and their reasons for doing so are, if anything, even more valid under modern conditions than they were in the eighteenth century.

If we are going to restore congressional control over war initiation, Congress itself needs to act. I suggested some possible ways to do so here, and Yale Law School Prof. Bruce Ackerman has outlined some others.

In the meantime, those who support withdrawing from Syria on policy grounds may have reason to cheer. For the reasons summarized by David French (who also recognizes the conflict is unconstitutional) here and here, I think withdrawing at this time is likely a mistake, and may well create a situation where a larger intervention will be needed in the future. Like French, I think it would have been better to secure congressional authorization for continued, but limited intervention. But whether or not Trump's Syria withdrawal is strategically wise, it does nothing to bolster constitutional limitations on presidential war powers. To the contrary, Trump and his administration have made their disrespect for such constraints abundantly clear.

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