#to be honest if tim had involvement the story would. not be good

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Ooh! A wonderful interview with Rich Keeble who played Mr. Arnold (the one with the Doctor Who Annual :)) in S2! :)❤

Q: In Good Omens 2 you play Mr. Arnold, who runs the music shop on Whickber Street. Were you a fan of Good Omens before joining the cast, and is it challenging to take on such an iconic story which is already loved by a huge fanbase?

A: “There’s always pressure if you’re working on something with an existing fanbase and people might have an idea already as to how you should be approaching something. To be honest I was aware of the show but I hadn’t actually seen it before I was asked to get involved. I knew it was something special though! I remember talking to Tim Downie [Mr. Brown] about how when you tape for certain things you know if something’s a “good one”. Of course by the time I was on set I’d watched Season 1 and read the book. 

I had an interesting route into the show actually: I was asked at the last minute to read the stage directions at the tableread on Zoom, and Douglas [Mackinnon] the director called me up to discuss pronunciations of the character names etc. To prepare further I quickly watched the first episode on Prime Video, and I was very quickly drawn into it. A couple of hours later I was on a Zoom call with David [Tennant], Michael [Sheen] (with his bleached hair), Neil [Gaiman], Douglas and the whole team, including Suzanne [Smith] and Glenda [Mariani] in casting. After that readthrough I asked my agent to try and see if she could shoehorn me in and she came back with a tape for Mr. Arnold saying “you play the piano don’t you…?” They wanted me to demonstrate my musical playing ability, so I rented a rehearsal studio room in Brixton for an hour and filmed myself playing piano (and drums just in case), then I did my scenes a couple of different ways and I guess it wasn’t too terrible!”

Q: During episode five you mimed to music written by series composer David Arnold alongside a real string quartet – this must have been very immersive! How did it feel to work with David, and bring the ball to life?

A: “I actually didn’t meet David Arnold sadly, but I did work with Catherine Grimes, the music supervisor who is lovely. David was at the London screening but I missed an opportunity to go and say hello to him which I kicked myself about. 

I remember before I was in Scotland there was a bit of uncertainty as to whether I would need to play anything for real or not, so I practised every day playing loads of Bach and other music I thought was era-appropriate just in case they asked me to do anything on the fly. So yes, it was very immersive as you say! They sent me three pieces of music to learn which I practised in my Edinburgh apartment on a portable folding keyboard thing I bought. They introduced me to the string quartet (John, Sarah, Alison and Stephanie) and I tried to hang out with them when I could. On the day we all had earpieces to mime to. I had to mime while listening out for a cue from Nina [Sosanya] from across the room, then deliver my dialogue and carry on playing, which was tricky! The quartet and I helped each other out actually: Douglas would say something like “let’s go from a minute into the second piece of music”, I’d look at the sheet music and whisper “where the hell is that?” and one of the quartet would say “we think that’s bar 90” or something. Here’s a little bit of trivia: the shooting overran and the string quartet couldn’t make the last day, so they found some incredible lookalikes to replace them for the scene when we get lead out of the bookshop through all the demons, although I think they also kept them deliberately off camera.” 

Q: What did you think of your music shop when you first saw the set? Did you have a favourite poster or prop?

A: “I thought it was incredible! It could’ve been an actual music shop with all the instruments hanging up with the “Arnold’s” price tags on. The attention to detail was incredible, well IS incredible as I understand it’s all still there. It’s hard to pick a favourite to be honest. I did a little video walkaround on my phone at the time so maybe I’ll post that if I won’t get in trouble. Interestingly the shop interior itself was elsewhere on the set to the shop entrance you see from the street. You walk out of Aziraphale’s shop, over the road, through the door of the music shop and… there’s nothing.” 

Q: Mr. Arnold is tempted into the ball by a Doctor Who Annual and is playing the theme in the music shop scene – are you a fan of Doctor Who in real life? And what was it like making those jokes and references in front of the Tenth Doctor David Tennant?

A: “I’ve always dipped in and out of Doctor Who over the years since Sylvestor McCoy, who was doing it when I first became aware of it when I was growing up. Even if you’re not a fan it’s one of those shows you can’t really get away from, so doing that particular scene in front of David was really fun, and of course Douglas had directed Doctor Who as well. Apart from the amusing situation of two supposed Doctor Who fans talking about Doctor Who without realising they’re in the company of a Doctor Who, I also seem to remember Michael being the one to suggest that he would deliver his “due to problems at the BBC” line directly to David.

Oh, and I think it was actually my idea to grab the annual off the harpsichord before joining the queue behind Crowley at the end of the ballroom scene (which we’d shot weeks earlier at this point). When we were blocking it out and rehearsing I knew I had to leave my position and get to the front for my “surrender the angle” line, and then later it just felt like I wouldn’t leave without the annual so I ran back through everyone to grab it. Nobody seemed to have a problem with me doing that so I just carried on doing it when we shot it! I do remember it being a fun set with Douglas and the team being very open to suggestions.”

Q: How did you balance filming both Good Omens and BBC Ghosts at the same time?

A: “Luckily both shows were a joy to work on, and everyone seems to know about both of them. We were shooting them in early 2022 and I also had a little part in an ITV drama called ‘Stonehouse’, starring Matthew Macfadyen. I usually never know when I’m working next so to have three great TV jobs at once was very unusual. There was all this date juggling and I actually almost had to turn down Ghosts due to clashes. Luckily both shows had to move some dates so it worked out. But yes, I spent two weeks up in Scotland shooting all that Good Omens ballroom stuff, then I came back down to London to do Ghosts, knowing I’d be back up to shoot my scenes in the music shop in a couple of weeks. Now, when I found out who was playing my wife in Ghosts I couldn’t believe it: Caroline Sheen – Michael Sheen’s cousin! She was amazing and that was another great set in general. I say “set”, but it’s all filmed in that house which surprised me. I’d worked with Kiell [Smith-Bynoe] and Jim [Howick] before, and Charlotte [Ritchie] was in the Good Omens radio play a few years ago and a big fan of the book. Charlotte’s very musical of course and we got talking about my folding keyboard I had for practising my Good Omens stuff, and she ended up setting it up in the house for us to have a play on!

Now, when we’d shot all our internal scenes there was this big storm forecast, and our external scenes were scheduled for the day of the storm, so that had to be moved into the next week. It meant I ended up shooting those scenes outside the house, then going straight back up to Scotland to shoot the Good Omens music shop scene the next day! When I mentioned to Michael I’d just worked with Caroline he said “ooh she’s in Ghosts is she!” and revealed that she’d texted him about me which was rather surreal. Then later after the Ghosts wrap party Kiell gave me a part in his Channel 4 Blap, so at the time I felt like I was killing it career wise, but the industry quietened a bit after that and my workload eased off over the year so I was in my overdraft by November.”

Q: What are your plans for the future – can we expect to see you in something else soon?

A: “This year, after a bit of a quiet start, I was very fortunate to work on a Disney+ show called Rivals which stars… David Tennant! I think I’m allowed to say my character is called Brian, and I shot five episodes so that was another really amazing job, and great to work with David again (I told him he must be my good luck charm, although I hope he’s not sick of me). That should be out at some point in late 2024. Other than that I’ve filmed a few other bits I presume will be out next year, one of which is called Truelove on Channel 4 which actually looks really good. That starts early January. Of course now Season 3 of Good Omens has been greenlit, I would love Neil and the gang to have me back on that… but I can only keep my fingers crossed!”

#good omens #gos2 #season 2 #swirlywords #rich keeble #mr arnold #2ep5 #2i5i4 #2i5i15 #bts #photos #bts photos #interview #rich keeble interview #rivals #skittles #eric #disposable demon #paul adeyefa #ann louise ross #demon skittles #donna preston #mrs sandwich #tim downie #mr brown #magic shop #fun fact #s2 interview

[bothoutsiders]

Jason had seen it happen multiple times in the past. He would see how people pretended to be friends with Tim, telling him how funny he was, or flattering him some way or another, only for them to later stay quiet, pull away and ‘turn’ into him.

It was almost at a cosmic level. It didn’t matter where they were, or who he was pretending to be. It would happen.

It wasn’t that Jason was always watching, but … it was pretty obvious to him.

This time it wasn’t any different. Although, if he were to be honest, it was kind of a funny scene.

Tim had been working on a case for a while at Gotham’s hospital and Caroline Hill had been back for months now. Working hard to help around, and collecting valuable information while playing the role perfectly. She even got some weird, flirty comments from male nurses and doctors.

Of course Caroline had made new friends. Connections are a must when they are working undercover. Pretending to be another pawn, to not know what is going on and go to a new friend for some gossip. A very common and normal behavior between humans. Between those people who have nothing to do with the event, but want to know what is going on anyway.

Between those new friendships though, Caroline had met a particular person. They got along immediately and seemed to have the same taste in video games. While Tim was conscious that their friendship was fake and it applied only to Caroline, it was still nice. It made the role more believable and easy to play.

Jason had heard everything about it. It made Tim wonder if he could keep the friendship after the case. Yes, it meant he would have to hang out with them as Caroline, but he was down for dressing in different clothes other than the blue scrubs with the white nurse coat. Because of Tim’s consideration of this new friendship, his boyfriend had even offered himself to go buy clothes together for that occasion. 

And after Tim had already decided to keep the friendship– it began to happen.

That said friend suddenly stopped talking to Caroline. They didn’t eat together, they didn’t share gossip or spoke about video games anymore. Everything was gone as soon as it had come.

Even if Caroline tried to start the conversation, it wasn’t working. There was a moment where Tim wondered if he had done something wrong.

But tonight, everything made sense, and Jason couldn’t help but snort when he saw it.

The hospital charity ball wasn’t that big, and he already knew the face of Caroline’s friend. And they were there, with the same hair color as Caronline, a very similar tone of voice.

“If you were to buy any of these pieces, which one would you get?” Jason– Elias asked.

“Mmm… I would go with this one.” Caroline’s friend pointed at one particular painting. “The back story is rich and the colors are nice. The artist knows how to utilise shading interestingly, too.”

Elias nodded. That was definitely Caroline’s tone of voice. And some nerdy comments, too.

“I like it. You definitely have good taste.”

“Thank you,” the friend smiled.

Elias looked back at the painting. While this was only Tim’s mission, he also knew about the case. He knew the real name of the staff in the hospital, the target and anyone involved.

“What’s your name? If you don’t mind me asking. I would like to know the name of the only person here who has good taste– other than me, of course.” 

“Madeline.” 

Elias couldn’t help but grin. 

Of course it was Madeline.

--

based on some stuff i've seen in fandoms i follow. including this fandom. people getting close to others and then stealing their personality blatantly. wow wow wow.

#JayTim #Caroline Hill #JayxCaroline #Jason/Caroline #w: story

[sneakyparsnipslicer]

Master Of Disguise

[Part 1 of a 2 Part story I've had an idea for. Enjoy folks!]

Conrad Phelps, 37. Convicted felon. Arrested on the charge of Homicide. Serving life imprisonment, or so it should have been intended.

To say Conrad was scum would be an understatement, murderer of 7 men, 5 women and 3 children following a mass shooting he conducted at a supermarket of which he showed no remorse, it was a miracle he hadn't faced the electric chair. Maybe it was down to UK laws not using such means to end a person's life. Maybe it was down to his lawyer managing to convince the judge and jury to sentence him to life imprisonment, either way Conrad knew it was only a matter of time before the relatives of his victims would be out for his blood.

Life in prison was rough, no matter what you did, inmates soon discover the crimes you commit. Naturally many had come to give Conrad what they deemed fair, be it punches or kicks, he soon learned to watch his back around the fraudulents, rapists and other murderers he saw day to day. He tried to keep a low profile, but it was very rare he got left alone, always quizzed by those more self-righteous than him, though in his eyes they were all the same. The scum of society. Despite his charge, he was granted privileges just as any other and he spent time in the Library reading. Again, many of the others found that grounds to jest at his condition, but after a few months they got tired of him and moved onto other targets, leaving him to his reading.

As time went on, Conrad read enough to begin getting ideas. Formulating plans of escape in his mind, and more importantly how to avoid recapture by the Police. Granted security was tight, there were opportunities he came to identify. The yard for instance, with a well-timed distraction as someone unlocks the gate it could be possible to slip out. Maybe knocking out a Policeman on duty and stealing their uniform could work, but it might be tough to get through Security on the way out. One thing was certain, he had no intentions of dying there.

Plans took a turn during a visit one day. Conrad received a call a few days before from his own brother Tim. He was surprised to hear his voice and was sure that, like the rest of his family, he'd turned his back on him. They'd always been close growing up, and became estranged after Conrad's homicide. Conrad sat in his booth patiently as the guests began to fill into the room. Sure enough the seat opposite was filled by Tim. He looked searchingly at Conrad for a short while.

'Hey Conrad, how have you been?' asked Tim.

'I'm alright Tim, bit surprised to see you honestly. How are the family?' replied Conrad.

'They were relocated due to the protection programme, they moved me and my kids elsewhere too. It's been tough readjusting but we're all managing' smiled Tim. Conrad nodded.

'Sorry to hear that. I imagine it's been challenging' said Conrad. Tim sighed.

'Yeah, you really fucked everything up. Because of you I can't be too honest, every person I speak to might secretly know I'm your brother and want revenge for those you killed' said Tim, looking to the ground and shaking his head. Conrad did feel a twinge of regret hearing this.

'Why did you come here today Tim?' asked Conrad. Tim paused and looked him dead in the eyes.

'I want this all to be over, for us all to be able to get the life back we had' Tim whispered, not blinking. Conrad stared back too, unblinking. It was strange, something felt off.

'I've been doing research since you can't exactly get books on occult magic here and I've got a good way to get you out of here' said Tim quietly.

'How?' asked Conrad quietly.

'It's going to involve faking your death, and possession of someone else' Tim explained, Conrad shuddered, but nodded in agreement.

'How do I do it?' Conrad asked, intrigued. Tim, unmoving, smiled as his eyes began to faintly glow purple. It was then that Conrad felt something twist in his mind, an inhuman knowledge that no amount of reading and studying could have prepared him for. Tim's eyes began to dim and he snapped out of his trance, shaking his head.

'You understand what you have to do?' asked Tim. Conrad nodded.

'Yes, I do' replied Conrad. Tim smiled and nodded.

'Wait, how do I find you?' asked Conrad, at which Tim shook his head.

'Oh I don't intend to see you again Conrad, call it selfish but I'm doing this more for the rest of us. This way we get left alone and you get to begin again' Tim said. Conrad took a moment to think about it, but nodded.

'That's fair enough, and I understand. Thanks for coming to see me one last time' Conrad smiled.

'Just don't mess it up for yourself' warned Tim. Shortly after, the bell rang, time was up. Tim left his seat, not looking back at Conrad. He saw his brother leave through the door and turn the corner down the hallway, certain that was the last he'd ever see of his younger brother.

The rest of the day went about as usual, Conrad quietly counting down the hours to lock up. When the time came, he stood by his bed as inspection was carried out. In came PC Withers, a middle-aged policeman pushing 50. He looked at Conrad and sighed.

'Well I want no trouble Phelps, let's make this a quick one' he said, shuffling over to investigate the toilet behind the door.

'Naturally Officer, I wouldn't want to cause any trouble' said Conrad, smiling. Withers looked to him and gave a dry chuckle.

'Trouble? Didn't think of that when you killed those poor kids!' replied PC Withers, moving to examine the chest of drawers, pulling out clothing.

'No I suppose not' said Conrad vacantly, looking to the door. Having found nothing unusual in the drawers, he began to move to Conrad's bed.

'Get that cleared up Phelps' ordered Withers snapping his fingers and pointing to the mess of clothes on the floor. Conrad nodded, making his way over. As soon as he'd passed by the Officer, he turned and delivered a heavy punch to the back of his head, knocking him onto Conrad's bed. Conrad turned to face him, hesitating in case Withers got back up. He made his way over and turned him to face the ceiling, he was out cold. Conrad pulled PC Withers' eyelids open, revealing his vacant-looking eyes and stared intently into them. A few seconds passed and Conrad's eyes began to glow purple, lifting Withers up into a sitting position, Conrad moved to lock lips with him. Conrad's entire body glew purple as his soul passed from his own body to PC Withers'. Eventually Conrad stopped glowing and his body fell limp onto the bed as Withers began to stir.

He opened his eyes and looked at his old body slumped over him. Conrad sat up, feeling his more built figure and correcting his glasses. He'd done it. He moved his old body off him and tucked him into bed, proceeding to stuff the clothes back into the drawer. He took one last look at his old body.

'Right, that'll be all Phelps' he said aloud, tipping his hat to him. He opened the cell door and proceeded to lock it. As much as Conrad wanted to just leave right then and there, he knew he had to finish PC Withers' checks in order not to arouse suspicion. And so he proceeded to investigate a few more cells. Eventually the team of Officers had completed their checks and proceeded to hand over the shift to the night staff. Thankfully, Conrad had access to PC Withers' mind, so he knew his locker code.

'Ey up Baz, how did the shift go?' asked a voice. Conrad looked and saw another of the Officers, PC Dickens move to his locker. Dickens was a lot younger and fresh-faced, easily in his mid 20s. Conrad wished for a moment he'd been able to take over Dickens rather than Withers.

'Evening Grant, yeah the inmates weren't too bad, few fights but then what's new' he asked, chuckling. Dickens was changing his shirt and Conrad was transfixed on the guy's back. Taking over him would be way too much of a risky move. But it gave him an idea of what type of body he'd like to settle for. Conrad hurried up and changed too, putting on Withers' baggy t-shirt and shorts.

'Oh, you've got a holiday coming up haven't you Baz?' Dickens asked. Conrad searched Withers' thoughts.

'Oh yeah, me and the missus are going camping over the weekend, almost forgot!' chuckled Conrad. Thinking about it, it'd be a perfect opportunity to shed himself of old Barry Withers and find a more permanent body for himself.

'Well don't you go having too much fun, say hi to Teresa for me!' said Dickens cheekily, closing his locker and waving as he left the locker room. Conrad looked at his reflection in the locker mirror, that old face looking back at him. He thought about his old body laying motionless in his cell. This was the start of a new life, and a chance to make life easier for his family.

#male tf #transformation #possession

[wiihtigo]

youre doing gods work w the boostle list i stg. once that drops its OVER for me. eithet that or ill just hyperfix rlly hard for a week then forget ab it. well see. is there any other dc shit youd rec or whatever while were at it.

MARTY my friend marty is doing gods work theyre helping me a lot rn remembering which specific issues of other comics they show up in before we get to the big big stuff like countdown

as for other dc stuff id rec....Well i recently finishing reading the 80s (and 60s) doom patrol comic and enjoyed it very much! im also watching the tv show and its good but the episodes are like an hour long so its like a Task to sit down and focus on. Im only like a handful of episodes in

I did not fucking care for like the first 20 issues of doom patrol 1987 and almost dropped it until i reached the grant morrison run and it was instantly so good i couldnt stop reading. Ive said this to my friends before but i would say its comparable to the works of stephen king in both the good and the bad ways. It was a good comic in the same way "It" was a good book

The 60s one is fine and i enjoyed it (it has rita! but so does the tv show so if you want to see her but dont want to read a 60s comic you can watch her there) but if youre in it for the surreal really weird storylines you mightve heard rumors of from dp the 80s run is where it all begins. honest to god id say just skip the issues until grant morrison takes over theyre so BORINGGGGG. IN MY OPINION

hm what else have i been reading OH. YOUNG JUSTICE 1998! i recently finished this one as well i dont know why it took me so long it was only 55 issues but it was SOOOOOO GOOD. i do not fucking like the young justice cartoon this comic is the superior yj media i mean just compare yj 98s kon (cool leather jacket. gay earring. undercut. tiny shades. TWO belts) to the tv shows kon (just a t shirt and jeans. ugly haircut. lame. stupid. ugly. die. Straight)

K*N -> THE COOLER KON EL

cant rec this comic enough mostly out of spite for the fact that when most people think of young justice they think of the swagless cartoon and not this beautiful team of teens. For one, the kids actually act like teens in the comic and not young adults having stupid relationship drama. Theyre sweet and stupid and care about eachother and the storylines are really thoughtful and opinionated. a lot of what im saying is regurgitated from things my much more eloquent friend monty has said about yj but since reading it for myself and now knowing firsthand i cant agree more. There was a really awesome story involving arrowette (cissie king jones) about a school shooting and gun violence. a lot of modern comics take the (pussy) centrist route when dealing with big controversies like this but they literally look to the camera and say GUN CONTROL **PLEASE!!!!!!!!**. in an ealier issue theres this funny moment where bart (impulse) zips away to stop some hunters from killing a deer and kon (superboy) is like did you really violate their AMERICAN right to shoot guns? AWESOME!!!!!!!!

also its just earnestly really really really funny. it has that sam and max style of humor which is why i think i loved it so much.

cant sing enough praises for this comic. Also in the yj show they had dick grayson as the robin for the first season? and wally? why do you hate tim drake and bart allen that much. tim kon and bart are a package deal dont separate them you bitch!

umm well that was only 2 comics i ended up recomending but i talked a lot about yj sooooo. there you go

#asks

[lovecolibri]

The bigger problems with that anon's statement about Tim are he did interview for Season 4 finale, Season 5 premiere, credited for the Season 5 premiere episode as one of the writers, said something about Chimney and Maddie being unseparable to the point the show can't write something on his own, and if T is accurate (I believe her) also promoted Lucy. I'm not sure where the hell that anon got that part from if that's even true, but he was still quite prominently involved until midway Season 5.

This is....so old, but I didn't get to it and then it got buried and I forgot about it, but I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you! I am going to be honest though and tell you I do not read his or any of the interviews beyond what other people post about. I could not tell you a single thing about what he's said about the show since s4 beyond other people saying he turned the show over to KR sometime in s4 and stuck around through the finale but is mostly focusing on LS. I'm sure he still comments on the show because he is technically the showrunner, but KR is calling the day-to-day shots and the show is markedly different from what it used to be so it's not hard to see he's stepped back and allowed her to do as she pleases. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm not overly invested in Tim as being the "savior" for the show from a Buddie standpoint, and lord knows LS has some of the same pacing issues OG is having now. I simply recall that s1-3 when he was in charge had some tight story telling and good storyline flow with multiple acrs always in progress and only 1 maaaybe 2 episodes I would consider skipping. Even if I didn't like every arc or choice, overall the episodes were strong and well paced and had a depth that's lacking now, and that KR is the one giving the interviews, and from what I recall, Tim's comments stem from other interviews not necessarily JUST bout OG, but again, I don't read them so 🤷🏻‍♀️

#my sweet nonnie friends #911 #911 spoilers #clearing out my inbox #don't judge me some of these are going to be so old...

[totowlff]

I would also like to give you some feedback. First of all, I love your fanfiction! 💗

When you mentioned that we as the readers are going to hate someone, I thought his ex wife makes an appearance and tries to get the kids involved in a bad way. I wouldn't have thought of the mother in law at all 😅 Do we get to meet Miss Laudas' mother and how she feels about Toto? (Surely she likes him and puts up with the two of them, contrary to Matthias or Niki).

About the last chapter: I was a bit baffled that Aurelie met both the children and his mother. As a serious girlfriend, I would have been really sad/mad about that and would show it to Toto. Because Miss Lauda has had problems from the beginning to allow the relationship because of her father and seems to have her own problems somehow... The mother's reaction shocked me and I'm curious why she was so mean to her. To be honest, thinking that your future daughter-in-law uses your son for money and won’t even let her finish sentences, and trying to get to know her, isn’t a good reason to write her off. Furthermore if Joanna is now trying to be nice to her because she knows Miss Lauda comes from a rich family and earns her own money, I would be pissed and would speak up.. because then Totos‘ mother is superficial AF, which she could be cause her son is richie rich and provides for her. But that should not be a decisive criterion to determine whether a gf would be good enough for her son or not. I‘m curious of what his sister thinks about her and above all, if Miss Lauda will feel comfortable in their presence. I kind of feel like we‘ll get a lot of drama from them and I hope he sticks to his girlfriends‘ side 🌻

first of all, thanks for reading my works. it means the world for me!

now, to the answers!

I thought his ex wife makes an appearance and tries to get the kids involved in a bad way.

i take a lot from the real life to build the star-crossed world, and something i was sure i wanted it to have was toto's (and miss lauda's) relationship with stephanie (toto's ex-wife). he always praised her for her efforts to make their family work after the divorce and, in this story, wouldnt be different. if i can say something about it, is that miss lauda respect her a lot and is very careful to not overstep in her role with the kids. she loves ben and rosa, but she knows her place.

Do we get to meet Miss Laudas' mother and how she feels about Toto?

miss lauda's mom is marlene, she already has appeared in a bunch of occasions, so, she is not unknown to you all. as you could see in barbarazweige, she is quite anxious to see her daughter settled and, in under the spotlight, she was hanging out with toto, so, our dear austrian is not a stranger to her. but, if the couple will please marlene? only time will tell.

As a serious girlfriend, I would have been really sad/mad about that and would show it to Toto.

the first thing toto did was to acknowledge his mistake in presenting aurélie to the kids and to his mom. but, this was, in a sort of way, his way to convince himself about that relationship and, at the same time, to leave miss lauda behind. as we could see, he failed.

The mother's reaction shocked me and I'm curious why she was so mean to her.

here i go in defense of my own characters. it sounds kinda cliché to a mother-in-law to dislike her daughter-in-law, but the point here is that joanna, after her divorce from sven, toto's father, had to focus totally in her job and in provide to her family. this made her distant from her children, but this doesnt means she doesnt love toto and lili, in any way. however, it means she is not exactly familiar with her childrens struggles, efforts and opinions. so, her hesitation to accept miss lauda comes, first of all, from her lack of knowledge about her own son and his struggles in order to stay with her. toto, in her vision, is a very resolute man who knows what he wants and, when he presents aurélie to her, is because shes the one, because the last time he presented a woman to her, it was stephanie and he married her. but, a year later, here he is, presenting another girl to her. shes is very confused.

Furthermore if Joanna is now trying to be nice to her because she knows Miss Lauda comes from a rich family and earns her own money, I would be pissed and would speak up.. because then Totos‘ mother is superficial AF, which she could be cause her son is richie rich and provides for her.

she saw (from distance, but saw) her son struggle and battle to build what he has. she knows how hard toto worked and, most of all, there is her love for her grandchildren, who benefit from all of it. and she goes to a restaurant and her son present her a pretty young woman, dressed elegantly and with a huge ring in her finger as his girlfriend. she asks about her job and she doesnt answer. there is a miscommunication of both parts in that point and she concludes the obvious: a gold-digger. however, miss lauda manages to speak and show her credentials. she is a businesswoman, she is graduated, she is independent and all she has wasnt bought for her, but by her (minus the ring, that was a gift from toto and the kids). there is a surprise from joannas side too, because she doesnt expect that. but there is some relief too, despite she could have deducted only for the fact toto wouldnt be a kind of guy to let be used. and we go back to the answer above: joanna is not familiar with her childrens opinions.

I‘m curious of what his sister thinks about her and above all

im also curious. any guesses?

#wlffanswers

[donotscratchyoureyes]

The Elton John Feel Good Factor

There is a quote attributed to Eric Cantona that goes: "You can change your wife, change your politics, change your religion. But never, never can you change your favourite football team. 

If you were lucky enough to be at the Vicarage Road concerts a few days ago, you are unlikely to forget the impassioned speeches that Sir Elton John gave about his deep love of Watford FC.

His word’s on the first night of his concerts were: 

“I first came to Vicarage Road when I was six years old in 1953 and it was a pitiful sight. And when I became chairman it was still a pitiful sight, but now we have a beautiful stadium and I’m so proud in what I see. I can’t believe it. It’s like a dream come true, and we’ve come so far.“Yes, we had a horrendous year last year, but we’ve got to put that behind us. We’ve got to back the new coach, we’ve got to back the team and they’ve got to play with a lot more f***ing passion than they did last year.

You have no idea how much this club is embedded in my soul. I love this club so much, it’s part of my life. It’s been a huge part of my life, not just coming here as a child and then getting involved in the club itself, but I loved the people within the club that I had when I became chairman, the board, all the supporters, I loved every single moment. It saved my life, this club.

I can’t wait to finish the tour next year so that I can spend more time here with you and watch the games. But you’ve been brilliant supporters. You’ve stayed there through thick and thin – and, god, it was thin last year. But we will improve, we will get there and we have to believe.”

“I love you Watford Football Club. I love you so, so much.

“I wish you love, happiness and health. Be kind to each other and I’ll see you when I can.”

If that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, you don’t have a heart, you have a swinging brick. 

When a global superstar reflects your fandom, passionately and in a public forum, it not only re-affirms your love for your team it doubles it down. Underneath the glitz and the glamour of being one of the most famous faces on the planet today, Elton John is a Watford fan like the rest of us. He celebrates the wins and feels frustration at the losses. Like us, he misses the reassuringly warm presence of Graham Taylor around The Vic. 

If you haven’t read Elton’s autobiography, you probably won’t know the stories about how as his fame started to grow being around Vicarage Road kept his feet on the ground. Fans would regularly tell him that his new record was terrible or that his clothes were too much. He loved this honest feedback as it came from one of his own. 

Nigel Gibbs tells a good story about Elton wanting to join in with a five-a-side match on a trip to China. The players were told by the club physio to “take it easy” on SEJ. Tim Sherwood, however, decided to take him out straight away with a sliding tackle. Instead of throwing a hissy fit about being fouled in this way, Elton thought it was hilarious and loved it as he was being treated as one of the lads and not shown any preferential treatment. 

Make no mistake. Not many clubs can boast having such a high ranking ambassador. Certainly not one that has been a fan since the 1950s, been an integral part of it’s growth, staying fully committed to the cause throughout. It’s actually impossible to think of a single comparison. How lucky are we as Watford fans? 

He loves our club and we love him. It’s that simple. 

Fans of Watford FC did something almost forgotten on Sunday and Monday night. Elton John sent them out left Vicarage Road feeling good and with a smile on their faces. It’s over to the board, the management and the players now to ensure this continues. 

COYH!

#elton john #watford fc #watford

[promiseiwillwrite]

INTERVIEW # 2

Daemeon: Good morning Critters and Creatures! Happy Christmas from under the rock! Are you eating cookies and wearing those new socks so the Yule Cat won't eat you?

Daemeon: Good Job! Today we are pleased to welcome Derrik, Our headmate that has shown some marked developments since I showed up. From the stories I've heard it is very strange and tragic, but this is a happy continuing of a story that started out badly.

Derrik: ::chuckles:: Thank you for having me?

Daemeon: ::giggles:: Tell us where you're from.

Derrik: Originally from Southern Russia, I spent a life in the early Scandinavian kingdoms, but I have since had lives in Italy and Spain.

Daemeon: Fascinating! So I feel compelled to describe you and your mode of dress for our Audience. Derrik is seated across from me in a costume that looks like a cabaret drag version of the phantom of the opera and Doctor Frankenfurter, with dashes of Luchador and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, mainly in the form of those six inch heeled ruby slippers. What inspires this level of presentation? I know you used to be more, um, let's say monochromatic.

Derrik: I Blame Kalok.

Daemeon: ::nods:: They are a perpetually bad influence.

Derrik: but seriously, the whole Goth Viking thing no longer fit when I returned from my prolonged absence. I spent quite a lot of time bemoaning what I thought was unrequited love instead of becoming my own person. I had dwelt too much in the past, and did not place enough importance on my own potential. Blah blah blah. But I spent several months merged with Kalok and they are such a wild thing. They broke me out of whatever existential funk I had been in. I looked at the Phantom of the opera, and I wanted that maximalist aesthetic for myself. The gold and black and velvet, and music. But I also decided that Tim Curry was a National Treasure, and decided that the outfit needed a corset and fishnets. I also never could sit right with the opera ghost mask, but the Luchador mask seemed whimsical and I could adapt it to a Gimp Style to imply other entertainments. The Ruby Pumps just round out the Ensemble.

Daemeon: you seem much happier.

Derrik: I really am. I never knew that there could be this much comfort and joy in being so audacious. But it is Delicious.

Daemeon: So, what about the Draconian Fursona?

Derrik: ::Streteches out a black dragon wing:: That was rather a surprise to me too. But it just sort of happened as a part of the progression of becoming. I had figured I would be some kind of demon or vampire, and I never imagined that what would come out would be the Dragon instead. But it makes all the gold and rubies make a bit more sense.

Daemeon: So you started out with a lot of difficulty in the early stages of the establishment of the plural framework for the psyche. How did you overcome that?

Derrik: To be flatly honest, I didn't. I was essentially eaten, stripped of my sapience and autonomy, and merged into Rath for years. I'm my own reincarnation, essentially 20 odd years down the road. Amy has since gotten a better modus operandi for handling things that frighten them. But it took a while to fight my way back and integrate into the group, even after I returned. Imagine being still scared of the big spooky guy that you ATE and salvaged for parts.

Daemeon: So are there hard feelings?

Derrik: Yes, of course. But that is how relationships are. They are not all roses and golden stars. They involve history and conflict. They involve fucking up irreparably and then dealing with it anyway. All involved parties have to individually decide that they still want relationships and then they have to act like it. Being in continuous relationship is an ongoing choice. It is an expression of choosing to make a relationship a priority in one's life, even when that relationship has flaws.

Daemeon: Do you ever worry about whether or not that plays into toxic or co-dependant behavior?

Derrik: of course. But I think there is a line where ideals and actual practice factor in hugely. I think the Idea a lot of people have about Healthy Relationships and what those supposedly look like is very toxic. It includes a huge amount of unnecessary confusion and miscommunication and conflict about the stupidest shit. And yet the idea of relying on one another emotionally is the flag people see as potentially dangerous. If you are not questioning every once in a while whether or not your relationship could use some adjustments, perhaps a little tidy up, a little TLC, a little back to basics re-visit of basic tenets, then you may be off track. Relationships have to grow and flex as people grow and change. Anything else is unsustainable in the long term. And Yes, it Does mean you have to love people when they are not at their best, and that Sometime that is going to look and feel and be Shitty. But as long as you are aware that another person's problems are not your problems, it should be enough to let you know when it's time to call the whole thing off. There does come a point where a relationship is harmful to you, and that is when you just leave.

Daemeon: Wow, Derrik, I never knew you were like, actually this wise. I thought you were all emotional and weird about stuff, but maybe you have grown both inwardly and outwardly.

Derrik: ::smiles:: thank you dear. But I blame Kalok there, too.

Daemeon: And what IS your relationship with this monstrous wonder?

Derrik: ::cocks an eyebrow:: wouldn't you like to know!? I am sure it is every bit as skeevy and wicked as you're imagining. We started out as Hunting partners, and it ::coughs:: got very BrokeBack from there.

Daemeon: I see. Well. To change the subject entirely, What is your dream dinner?

Derrik: Hmm... ::sits back in the chair:: an Italian Mansion dining hall with a long fire and a six course meal, pheasant under glass, a perfectly paired wine, followed by a brisk night ride in summer, and extracurricular activities in the vineyards.

Daemeon: ::blushes:: well folks, I think on that rather warming Note, we will leave it there. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good Romance novel!

#INTERVIEW

[badtnbcideas]

Idea of the worst timeline: Tim Burton actually had involvement with the film

#Nightmare Before Christmas #Tim Burton #irritatedcarapace #*cracks my knuckles* #to be honest if tim had involvement the story would. not be good #i mean has anyone read the poem #jack is just so villain-esque and like #i doubt jack would've fixed his mistakes too or redeemed himself

[sohotthateveryonedied]

question about the post discussing dick saying tim needed therapy; i haven't read the whole RR run, from my fandom-osmosis i thought he specifically said he should go to Arkham? Bc i'm totally for recommending therapy but recommending Arkham seems like a whole different ball game

Nope! The Arkham stuff is all fanon, and I'll explain why:

In Red Robin #4, Dick confronts Tim right before Tim leaves Gotham City on his goose chase for proof of Bruce being alive. Dick thinks that Tim has gone crazy with grief (which is sorta true) and needs professional help (also true, considering they buried a literal corpse and yet Tim is still insisting that Bruce is out there).

Red Robin #4

It's misconstrued in the fandom that Dick came to drag Tim to Arkham Asylum, mainly because of fanfics that exaggerate the situation for Drama™ by making Dick the bad guy. In actuality, Dick just wanted Tim to start seeing a therapist and talk out his grief:

Red Robin #4

Dick is just a guy who's trying to keep his family intact after the biggest loss any of them have had to endure. And now his little brother is spouting crazy theories and trying to take off on his own to travel the world in search of a ghost. You can't blame Dick for being concerned.

The problem is that people tend to paint either Tim or Dick as the "Bad Guy" in this situation when really, neither of them is? Both of them have a point, and that's why this is such a good story arc because it's all about the miscommunication. Dick is trying to keep the family together, and be a parental figure/mentor to Damian, and fill Bruce's enormous shoes as Batman.

Meanwhile, Tim just lost one of the few loved ones he had left and is highkey in the middle of a really long mental breakdown. Even if Tim explained the full situation to Dick about the painting and all, I still don't think Dick would have believed him because let's be honest, Tim is acting pretty unhinged right now. He's erratic and pushing people away and now he's going on a globe-trotting adventure to find a dead man. You can't blame Dick for assuming Tim has lost his mind, and you can blame him even less for just wanting to help.

I feel like I share some of the blame for the whole "wahhh dick is an asshole and thought tim was crazy" thing, mostly because of how many fics I've written that involve this conflict. And it's true, I do tend to portray Dick as an antagonist. But that's only because, at this point in time, Tim is an unreliable narrator. He even acknowledges this himself, repeatedly:

Red Robin #1

As far as Tim knows during this time, Dick is the bad guy. So is Stephanie. So is Cassie. Pretty much anyone who tries to help Tim during this time gets pushed away because he believes they're all plotting against him and trying to keep him from his search.

So, yeah. Dick never tried to throw Tim into Arkham, he just tried to convince him to get some much-needed therapy :)

#i can't remember the last time i did a post like this #it's been way too long #blame the energy drink i just had lmao #lay it on me papa bob #soho reads comics #tim drake #red robin #robin #idiot duckboy #dick grayson #nightwing #batman #batfamily #batfam #dc comics #batbros #bruce wayne

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The S&L crisis perfected finance crime

When the Great Financial Crisis hit, suddenly there was a lot of talk about the Savings & Loan crises of the 1980s and 90s. I was barely a larvum then, and all I knew about S&Ls I learned from half-understood dialog in comics like Dykes to Watch Out For and Bloom County.

As the GFC shattered the lives of millions, I turned to books like Michael W. Hudson’s THE MONSTER to understand what was going on, and learned that the very same criminals who masterminded the S&L crisis were behind the GFC gigafraud:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/07/the-monster-the-fraud-and-depraved-indifference-that-caused-the-subprime-meltdown/

Hudson’s work forever changed my views of Orange County, CA, a region I knew primarily through Kim Stanley Robinson’s magesterial utopian novel PACIFIC EDGE, not as the white-hot center of the global financial crime pandemic.

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/01/15/pacific-edge-the-most-uplifting-novel-in-my-library/

That realization resurfaced today as I read the transcript of UMKC Law and Econ prof Bill Black’s interview with Paul Jay on The Analysis, when Black says, “Orange County is the financial fraud capital of the world, not America, the world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFH5-5D5_Lc

Black is well-poised to tell the tale of the S&L crisis. He served as a bank regulator during the crisis, and his notes on the “Keating 5” meeting were the turning point for public and Congressional attention to the crime:

https://theanalysis.news/economy/the-best-way-to-rob-a-bank-is-to-own-one-bill-black-pt-1/

In 1998, he finished a criminology doctorate at UC Irvine (in Orange County!) on the S&L frauds, entitled “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One,” a title he used for his 2005 book (updated in 2013) on the scandal:

https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/blab2p

The S&L crisis shares a lot in common with today’s financial crimes, but it had one key difference: ultimately (with Black’s help), more than 30,000 criminal referrals were made against the bankers involved in the crisis, and more than 1,000 were convicted of felonies.

The story of the S&L crisis is both a roadmap for holding finance criminals to account (a roadmap we threw away and forgot about) and a roadmap for committing gross acts of financial crime with impunity (which the finance sector studied carefully and keeps close its heart).

Black calls finance a “crimogenic environment,” in where deregulated institutions become pathogenic, “like a cesspool that produces lots of bacteria and viruses and such and causes lots of infections.”

The S&L crisis began with the Carter-Ronald deregulatory blitz. Both presidents assumed that because S&Ls (a kind of bank) in California and Texas were doing really well after deregulation, that meant CA and TX had nailed it and their example could be expanded nationwide.

In reality, the rosiness of the California and Texas S&Ls’ books was the result of “control fraud,” when a person who controls the bank is stealing from it.

Black likens this to a homeowner who commits insurance fraud — an ultimate insider, who knows the code to de-activate the alarm system and also knows just where the most valuable items are kept.

The major control fraudster of the S&L crisis was Charles Keating, a “top 100 granter” who was among the 100 highest donors to Reagan and Bush I. Keating has stolen a vast fortune from Lincoln Savings, and he was able to trade some of that loot for political cover.

Keating hired Alan Greenspan (!) to lobby for him, and Greenspan suborned five senators (the “Keating Five”) who threatened regulators with dire consequences if they didn’t stop digging into S&Ls.

This was also a priority for Reagan, whose plan for vast tax-cuts for the wealthy might stumble if it the public found out that the US government needed billions to bail out these walking-dead fraud zombies.

Reagan turned to Ed Gray, a PR guy, to run the S&L operation. Gray was hand-picked by the S&L’s trade association, and they told him flat out that he was there to make S&Ls look good — not to blow them up by investigating their balance-sheets.

The problem is that Gray — who was a hardcore Reaganite partisan and deregulation true believer — was honest, and the fraud was so obvious. The Texas S&Ls were originating fraudulent loans to build housing tracts that didn’t exist.

When Gray went out to look at these building sites, he just found endless rows of desolate concrete pads — he called them “Martian landing pads” — and abandoned ruins. These were the collateral on billions in loans!

Gray is a believer in sound finance, and this is undeniable evidence that deregulation has led to catastrophically unsound practices, so he starts imposing regulation on the S&L sector.

Keating pulls strings to sideline Gray, but Gray keeps pushing. Keating gets the leadership of both parties in the House to sponsor legislation ordering him to stop. He keeps going.

Donald Regan — an ex-Marine who went from CEO of Merrill Lynch to Reagan’s Chief of Staff — leans hard on Gray, but Gray won’t stop.

The Office of Management and Budget swears out a criminal complaint against Black for closing too many S&Ls. He won’t stop.

They go after Gray’s guy in Texas, Joe Selby, a former acting Comptroller of the Currency with impeccable credentials, demanding that Gray fire Selby. Democratic Speaker Jim Wright says Selby should be fired because he’s gay. Gray won’t budge.

Homophobia turns out to be a powerful weapon for criminal impunity. Keating sued Black and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, claiming the bank’s gay employees had conspired against Keating because Keating was an evangelical Christian.

Gray took finance crime seriously. He had two priorities: one, eject anyone committing fraud from working at any financial institution, and; two, criminally and civilly charge those former execs and take back all the money they stole and ruin them financially.

Black and colleagues took this to heart, making thousands of criminal referrals. When law enforcement refused to act on these, they started publishing their referrals, and newspapers published stories about how none of these criminal referrals were leading to prosecutions.

Gray eventually gets sidelined by a “team player,” the disgraceful Danny Wall, who studiously ignores all the crime that has been uncovered. But then Bush I replaces him with Tim Ryan, whose marching orders are to root out finance crime.

Ryan ultimately made over 30,000 criminal referrals over the S&L scandal, and brought prosecutions against elite criminals, including Neil Bush, the son of the President of the United States of America.

Black: “Tim Ryan sacrificed his career for the public knowingly…he’s been unemployable since.”

And as for Bush I, his first major legislative priority became the removal of financial crime from the jurisdiction of independent watchdogs, so this would never happen again.

This is as far as the interview gets (it’s part one of nine!), but it’s already answering some of the most important questions the Great Financial Crisis raised, like, “Why didn’t any of the bankers who stole trillions from the world go to jail?”

Image: Dykes to Watch Out For strip #90 (1990), “The Solution,” Alison Bechdel https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3908728&userid=99998&perpage=40&pagenumber=10

#pluralistic

[forestlingincorporated]

When Superboy Died For Nightwing

When reading Infinite Crisis and it’s build up, you may notice that Nightwing seems to have a target on his back. The reason for that is fairly simple... Nightwing was supposed to die. 

The decision came from Dan Didio, who admitted to not really liking Dick all that much, but always claimed the decision was a rational one: Dick Grayson had touched the most heroes lives, his death would effect the most people, and bring the most people together. Didio felt Dick’s death would be a hero’s send off for a character that had lived through his coming of age arc and had no where to go. 

Didio: We were looking for the big death in Infinite Crisis – the big moment. We were looking for something that would have equal import and merit and weight in this story. One of the things I’ve been proven wrong about is that I had felt that Dick Grayson was a redundant character – Tim Drake had filled his role as Robin, he would never be Batman, so where could he go? My big fear was that Nightwing would get older than Batman.

As Didio states, he was wrong. Dick had plenty of storylines to be told, and even had his own run as Batman, which was wildly loved. Stories we got because the other people on staff disagreed that killing Dick was the right move - not that it wouldn’t be impactful, but that is was just not a good idea. 

Phil Jimenez: Though I can’t think of a character who would have a greater impact than Nightwing dying.

Geoff Johns: True, but it’s Dick Grayson. My mom knows who he is. Nightwing would’ve been a mistake.

Geoff Johns, who ended up writing Infinite Crisis #6, in particular went to bat for Dick. He thought the idea of killing Nightwing was so bad, he offered up a character, who he’d not only been writing for but was one of his favorites, in his place - Conner. 

Geoff: Superboy was the best choice.

Phil: Just in terms of links to other characters, though. Dick has so many connections to other characters. In many ways, even more than Superman or Batman, Nightwing is the soul, the linchpin, of the DCU. He’s well respected by everyone, known to the JLA, the Titans, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey – everyone looks to him for advice, for friendship, for his skills. He’s the natural leader of the DCU. His loss would devastate everyone and create ripples through the DCU. If it wasn’t him, it had to be a hero that really impacted so many.

Geoff: Well, what other character? Not Wonder Girl. Enough women have died in the DCU. Superboy was my favorite Titan. And I literally had to offer him as a sacrificial lamb.

Interviewer: You killed your favorite Titan? That must have been hard to write.

Jeanine Schaefer: I literally had tears in my eyes when the pages came in.

Geoff: I really fought to have Conner in TEEN TITANS. He gave the title a dynamic the book never had before.

Jeanine: It’s one of the reasons [his death] worked so well and became such a powerful scene. I remember talking to Geoff when the decision was made, and he was, correctly, really adamant that it matter.

Geoff: And Phil did such a great job with facial expressions there, depicting everyone’s sorrow.

Eddie Berganaza: We were hoping to save both Nightwing AND Superboy. But at the end of the day, if we were going to do something really impactful, we really had to go all the way. It just worked for the whole story.

Notably, DC has had off-and-on legal disputes over the Superboy IP with the Siegel family for years (if you’re wondering why they never called Clark ‘Superboy’ in Smallville... yeah) and were actively Going Through It with the Siegels around this time. So, yeah, if two writers were presenting DC with two characters asking the corporate execs to pick which one to kill off, and one of them was Extremely Profitable Fandom Darling Nightwing and the other had their hero name wrapped up in a messy legal battle... I can’t prove that was a factor, I don’t have a quote saying it is, but I know which one I would pick from a cold, business-oriented standpoint. 

All of that to bring me to a rather interesting comic given it’s time frame, writer, and characters involved... Teen Titans #33, by Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman, published one month before Superboy dies in Infinite Crisis #6. It makes a note at the beginning to read Infinite Crisis #5 before reading Teen Titans #33.

This is a team-up comic between Conner and Dick, who have really not had much interaction, especially not one-on-one. We get a good look inside both of their heads and really see into the emotions of both characters. 

There are several panels that use their mental dialog to parallel the two characters. Dick is doing his best to be a mentor figure, and Conner is trying his hardest to appear put together, which puts them at odds where Dick is hoping Conner will be vulnerable with him and admit when he’s worn out or needs help, and Conner doesn’t want to show weakness in front of Nightwing because he doesn’t want him to think he’s a fuck up. 

It’s really sweet, actually, Dick is a fantastic mentor, even if Dick personally feels out of his depth sometimes doing it. 

And they are given just enough time to really bond for a minute...

Just in time for Conner to die in Dick’s place. 

It’s a really interesting comic from that standpoint, designed to put Conner in harms way for Crisis #6, wrap up a lot of Conner’s emotional drama and self-worth issues with the help of a mentor figure (note that Conner’s sacrifice ends up being about Conner coming to terms with himself, and not about motivating other characters as Nightwing’s would have been), and masks a Superboy send off as a Nightwing send off. 

I’m not even completely sure if they made their decision on who to kill when Teen Titans #33 was written, but it’s clearly on their minds, and I find it a very interesting read with the behind the scenes background in mind. It’s an easy comic to overlook if you don’t know what was being discussed, but it’s very much a sweet gesture to give these two room to bond and have Conner literally sacrifice himself for Dick on the page. 

It REALLY turns into a real bait and switch right there at the end, they very much lean into the idea that it’s going to be Dick right up until it’s not. When the decision to kill of Conner instead was made, they leaned into it hard as a surprise, and I gotta be honest... I feel like it works very well. 

#Conner Kent #Superboy #Nightwing #Dick Grayson #infinite crisis #Teen Titans

[anotherhawk]

Mechtober day 8 - movie night

The planet behind them was nothing more than a smoking cinder and for once they hadn't been even indirectly involved. There had been stories there, ones worth telling maybe, but they had all reached a premature conclusion when the power plant at the planet's core unexpectedly exploded. Maybe there might've been a story there too, but now no one knew it, and the tale Jonny had been watching unfold, a doomed love story between the heirs of the Montague and Capulet private armies, had ended in unforseen mass tragedy, rather than the tragedy he had very much forseen. And as if that wasn't depressing enough, in their rush to get off planet he'd left behind the new coat he'd got himself, which had been the perfect weight to swoosh dramatically.

"Stop sulking," Nastya told him, throwing a wrench at him. It only glanced off his shoulder so evidently she wasn't too annoyed with him yet.

Nevertheless,  he glared at her. "I'm not sulking, I'm contemplating the futility of human tragedy."

"You are a human tragedy," Tim said cheerfully, walking by with his arms full of the guns he'd purloined from the Montague armoury. Because apparently Raphaella had warned some people in plenty of time for them to grab their stuff before they bugged out. 

He couldn't even be bothered to shoot him.

"Right," Ashes voice echoed from some distant part of the ship. "First night back on board. You all know what that means - movie night! Nastya, Ivy, try and actually show up this time. Tim, no more Buster Keaton, I swear to god. Toy Soldier - "

" - I Will Make Popped Corn!" it interjected, somehow coming up behind Jonny even though he had been slouching against the back wall.

"Fuck, I thought we'd lost you."

"Fortunately You Had Not."

"Jonny, quit sulking."

"Right," Marius agreed, advancing towards him, arms outstretched. "Because nothings going to cheer our Jonny up like movie night in the bosom of his dearest - "

Nastya hit him over the head with a wrench before Jonny could shoot him. "It is polite to seek permission before hugging."

Marius blinked up at them from the floor. "So murder is fine without consent, but not hugging?!"

Jonny and Nastya looked at each other. 

"Yeah."

"Yes."

*

Movie night on the Aurora was always held in the rec room on level 3. It didn't have the largest screen, but it did have the longest, comfiest sofa, on which Raphaella, Tim, Ivy and Ashes were seated, with Marius lying lengthways along them, his head resting comfortably in Ivy's lap. Brian, who was weird and liked a straight back seat,  had dragged a dining room chair into the room but brought it close enough to the sofa that Ashes could throw their feet in his lap, and he could paint their toenails, while Tim did their fingernails. Jonny, physically incapable of just sitting and watching a movie, was slouched sideways in a beanbag chair, a pile of mending in his lap. The Toy Soldier, wanting to be useful, was sitting confusingly beside him, holding spare needles and thread, its head on his ankle  its feet twisted round Brian's. Above them, Nastya was lying down on her front, leaning out of the vent, one hand clasped around one of Aurora's terminal screens, the other reaching down and playing with Jonny's hair. 

"I managed to pick up a fair representation of Verona's cinema before its untimely destruction," Ivy said, holding up a datapad. "I've highlighted a few that I calculated would appeal to the greatest number of us while causing the least number of fights." 

Marius grabbed the pad out of her hand. "'Andronicus the Butcher'...uh oh, it's recent and based on a true story. Jonny? Tim? Ashes? Anyone want to own up to this?"

"Um, actually that one was me," Brian said awkwardly.

They all looked at him. 

He rubbed at the back of his neck. "There was a really good reason?"

Tim grinned. "Okay, now I want to see it."

So did Jonny, to be honest, but still. "What happened to the old rule?" he objected. "Stupidest death gets to choose the movie."

Ivy sighed. "When we do it that way, ninety-three percent of the time the victor is either you or Tim, with Raphaella accounting for most of what remains."  

"She makes a good point," Ashes said. "Not all of us are stupid enough to die stupidly."

"Though I did die while trying sword swallowing this time out, so I'm willing to throw my hat in the ring," Marius said cheerfully, rolling onto his back and immediately getting into an elbow battle with Tim. 

"I choked to death on the frog I was dissecting," Raphaella offered.

"I lost a bet and had to eat a tree."

"I Did Not Die But I Had To Saw My Leg Off In Order To Make A Raft."

"Wait...you're made of wood, don't you float?"

"Yes?"

"...nevermind."

"Well, I was killed by a swan."

Once again everyone looked at Brian.

"Is that going to be in the film?" Jonny asked, wavering.

Brian looked resigned. "Probably."

"Alright then. 'Brian the Butcher' it is."

#mechtober the unofficial #mechtober 2021 #mechtober #my writing #jonny d'ville #ashes o’reilly #nastya rasputina #gunpowder tim #marius von raum #ivy alexandria #raphaella la cognizi #toy soldier #drumbot brian #the mechanisms #the mechs

[meerkoetjes]

"Sorry, you want us to do what?"

It was Dick who asked this, eyebrows raised high. And with good reason, if you asked Stephanie. Bruce just sighed longsuffering.

"Look, I know this is out of your usual line of work, but we really need some people on the inside. This drug ring has been going undetected for far too long, especially because the drug's effects are so unpredictable. It took us already long enough to figure out they are operating from the new theme park, but we still don't know the how and why. And because they seem to be mainly targeting couples, we need an undercover couple there."

"Yeah ok I got that, but why do I have to pretend to be a couple with Dick of all people? He's like, twice my age." Dick stuck his tongue out at her.

"Stephanie, I already went over this. Tim is busy with Young Justice, Duke is not inexperienced enough with undercover work yet, and Jason is too conspicuous." And, before she could interrupt him, "Cass wasn't interested."

Cowabummer.

Okay, if she was being honest she didn't even mind that much, she was just arguing with Bruce to annoy him. Sure, she and Dick hadn't originally started on the best terms, but they had grown over that a long time ago already. After all, they hadn't had much of a choice while Bruce was lost in time. They had suddenly had to rely on each other a whole lot more, and that did create a bond. Also, they had to deal with the fact that they had gotten shoved into big legacies, which neither of them had actually gotten on their own account. And maybe they hadn't been like, the gold Batman and Batgirl—and Robin—team, but they had definitely been a silver team. Or somewhere around that. But hey, Gotham was still here, right?

But actually, speaking of... She quickly glanced at Dick and when he looked back they quickly communicated about the current situation, until they reached the same wavelength. They had gotten pretty good at that. Steph grinned, as did Dick.

"We have come to a decision," Dick announced. "We will take you up on your deal, on one unnegotiable condition."

Bruce looked wary. "And what would that condition be?"

"Damian gets to come," they both announced at the same time. They knew from the stats that the drug dealers didn't care about the presence of kids and it would in fact help with their cover, so they knew Bruce would not really be able to object. That would be the cover story at least. The truth was that, along with Dick and Steph growing closer, the both of them had also grown close with Damian, even if the brat would never admit it. That was okay though, they would get there someday. Or not. Either way, the boy deserved to have some normal fun every once in a while, and an amusement park would be a great chance for him to have just that, while they lured him in with the promise of a mission. Basically, it was a win-win for everyone involved.

Bruce probably also knew this. Steph couldn't have him going all sappy and gross around her though (or his version of, that was), so as she left the cave she threw out one last gleeful comment. To keep him on his toes of course.

"But hey, if you're feeling jealous, I'm sure the role of decrepit grandpa is still open!"

#stephanie brown #dick grayson #damian wayne #bruce wayne #batgirl #robin #nightwing #batman #batfam #ficlet #delphi's drabbles #tw drugs

[chamomileteainabuttercup]

beboots

How about Jangobi, with 4, 16, 36, 37?

Thanks for playing!  This one is a little bit of a challenge because, as I noted before, this is a ship I don’t really think about unless a particular gifset reappears on my dash and then I think about it for like fifteen minutes.  Getting it to work requires changing the plot quite a lot, of course, and I prefer to get the changes going from the very start of their interaction. 

4.  First impression of each other? Was it love at first sight?

Temuera Morrison has noted that at the beginning of the scene, his “hospitable Māori” impulse was to offer Obi-Wan a cup of tea, but since he wasn’t sure they have cups of tea in space he decided to just stick to the script.  

So in my version, he does offer him a cup of tea and Obi-Wan accepts and so they sit down with their tea and it’s all rather disarming.  Obi-Wan is still highly suspicious of Jango (which is only sensible) and Jango is still playing everything very close to the chest, but the mood is slightly softened by the sharing of tea - and if they’re feeling lavish, biscuits too.  Obi-Wan’s head is full of questions, like “What sort of man is this?  Ruthless bastard, or perhaps not totally ruthless, given the little boy?  Was he involved in an assassination attempt on a rather good friend of mine?  What can I find out about all this cloning business from him without letting him know how little I knew in the first place?” while Jango has two main questions, “How much does he know?” and “Am I going to have to do something about him?”  And he’d rather not have to do something about him, because he likes the look of him and this kind of cagey verbal game-playing is his idea of a bit of light fun.  Then again, he is a Jedi and they generally spell trouble - but there’s no reason not to enjoy being around him while the opportunity lasts. 

Oh, and while this conversation is going on, Boba is sitting on the floor nearby playing with his space Lego and every time Obi-Wan glances that way he’s looking daggers of suspicion at him.  Obi-Wan actually finds it rather amusing to be glared at like that by a cute little kid (he’s like an angry kitten) so he just smiles back and twinkles his eyes at him (Boba looks disgusted), and asks Jango how old his son is, and they agree that eleven’s a very nice age, before all the teen angst begins. 

Jango says calmly, “I’m not expecting to have much trouble with Boba,” and Obi-Wan replies, “Ha!  I wasn’t expecting to have this much trouble with Anakin,” so that gets them onto the difficulties and rewards of bringing up a bright and adventurous boy, whether as his dad or as a sort of older brother figure, and sharing stories about things Boba and Anakin have said and done, and before Obi-Wan knows it they’ve been chatting for an hour and he’s got completely side-tracked from finding out about clone skulduggery and has slipped into flirting with Jango fairly shamelessly.  Which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, Obi-Wan will flirt with more or less anything that can talk back, but he’s realising that there’s an awful lot of charisma about Jango and he’s beginning to feel fascinated. 

So no love at first sight, but in later years (because they do have later years together, Jango doesn’t lose his head) Obi-Wan likes to say, “You had me at ‘cuppa tea?’”

(but he really sealed the deal when he offered him a Tim Tam)

16.  Do they keep secrets? Lie? Cheat?

To start out, Jango is keeping all sorts of secrets and lies freely whenever he considers it necessary, or just convenient.  It’s only gradually, as he grows to like Obi-Wan personally more and more, that he begins to want to be honest with him.  For a while they have one of those “frenemies who encounter one another occasionally and engage in flirtatious banter and/or homoerotic combat” type relationships, but over the course of the Clone Wars as they meet again and again they get into situations where they need to trust and help each other, and Jango has cut ties with the Separatists because he prefers to be a free agent, and Obi-Wan begins to hope that if he had a strong enough personal reason, Jango might want to lay off the shady business and... and there he runs up against the fact that he shouldn’t be thinking in these terms, he can’t have that sort of relationship with Jango any more than he could with Satine, he just really really wants to.  And at least Jango doesn’t have a philosophical or ethical problem with violence. 

Obi-Wan isn’t actually celibate, he squares it with himself that his flirtations and anonymous hook-ups aren’t deep attachments or possessive relationships and therefore they are within the letter if not entirely the spirit of the rules, and the first few times it happens with Jango that justification works, but it starts to wear thin when he realises how much he misses him after he leaves.  When Jango, thinking he’ll surprise Obi-Wan when he unexpectedly sees him in a bar, walks in on one such hook-up, he’s angry and upset and Obi-Wan is rather shocked and thrilled to realise Jango considers this cheating, that he cares  enough to have hurt feelings about it.  He’d been thinking of himself as emotionally compromised without quite realising Jango couldn’t just take or leave him.  That’s really the “Oh” moment for Obi-Wan. 

So after a while they’re not keeping secrets from each other, but Obi-Wan is working very hard to keep the relationship a secret from the other Jedi, including his closest friends, and telling a lot of lies in the process (there is at least one comedy episode wherein Obi-Wan is trying to sneak away to see Jango and Anakin is trying to sneak away to see Padmé and each keeps getting in the other’s way without ever realising there is sneakiness on the other side). 

Not to mention keeping it a secret from all the clones.  Boy, is that a weird situation. 

36.  What’s their greatest strength as a couple? Their weakness?

They have excellent chemistry and both love sparking off each other, verbally and/or more physically.  They always find each other exciting and interesting.  Not so much a weakness as an obstacle is the fact that Boba still really doesn’t like Obi-Wan and doesn’t need a stepdad and thinks he has stupid hair (that part really stings).  He’s always been the apple of his father’s eye and never had to share his attention with anyone else he really cared about, so his dad actually falling in love with someone makes him feel insecure and jealous and grumpy.  Obi-Wan’s attempts to win him over are complicated by the fact that he can’t actually explain to anyone else why he’s trying so hard to be nice to snotty teen bounty hunting prodigy Boba Fett.  Boba really enjoys holding this over his head - but will never actually drop the blade because, as little as he likes his dad’s boyfriend, he is just grown-up enough to realise it would really hurt his dad if he spoiled things for them, and he doesn’t want to go that far.

37.  How much would they be willing to sacrifice for the other? Any lines they refuse to cross?

That’s the big problem, isn’t it?  Crossing lines.  Obi-Wan has a very strong moral, religious and cultural code, and he can’t sacrifice that without undoing his whole sense of identity.  He can be dangerously complacent about the rightness of the Jedi Order and the Republic it defends and persists in believing that if Jango only understood more about the Jedi he would accept that rightness.  From his perspective it often appears as if Jango doesn’t have a moral code at all. 

From Jango’s point of view, yes he does, but it’s very pragmatic and based more on principles of loyalty and personal integrity than on adherence to any laws or rules.  If he’s true to himself and to the small circle of people he cares about, that’s all that matters.  He cannot and will not compromise on his duty to Boba as a father, and that comes before even all those complicated issues of Mandalorian politics - but those issues will inevitably cause problems for them too, particularly given that even if he’s been able to get over his romantic feelings for Satine as his feelings for Jango grew, she’s still one of Obi-Wan’s oldest and dearest friends and he doesn’t want her to be overthrown.  And of course Jango is far from the only person who might want to overthrow her. 

Somehow all this is going to eventually involve a lightsaber/Darksaber duel between Maul and Jango in the Mandalorian throne room.  Holy shit that would be cool.  Fuck yeah!

uhhhh I don’t know whether or how any of this gets resolved but there’ll be ANGST and STURM UND DRANG and other German words for heavy shit.

#ask box meme #jangobi #meanwhile Anakin is fucking up his life elsewhere I'm not concerned with making that fit #Maul: KENOBIIIIIIIII #Jango: does this guy know you or something #long post (apologetic)

[stxleslyds]

ROBIN #5 BUT IT’S JUST ME TALKING ABOUT JASON.

Hey, how are you guys doing? I wasn’t going to review this issue and I won’t because this isn’t really a review, this is just me talking about Jason’s involvement in this story.

I mentioned in a previous reblog (as well as in a old post) that I am not a fan of Joshua Williamson’s way of writing Jason. I think that he, like Lobdell, thinks of Jason in a way that doesn’t really match Jason’s origin (UtRH, Lost Days) or his current stories (RHatO, RHO, and other brief appearances), I think that Williamson is writing this sort of mesh between fanon Jason and a self-indulgent Jason that results in a very... bland and kinda repetitive version of Jason.

I have also talked about my dislike of his writing from a “romance” perspective. I absolutely didn’t like how he wrote the supposed “relationship” that Jason had with Rose in Future State: Red Hood. It honestly left a very nasty taste in my mouth after I read those issues and I just didn’t see their chemistry, to be honest, while I was reading those issues I felt like Williamson was writing an “unrequited love” thing between both of them (Jason being in love and Rose not at all).

That is of course my opinion. I know that many people like this relationship and I respect that but just as a heads up, I am not a fan of Jason being involved in any sort of romantic relationship with anyone. It’s just something that I would rather not see in a Red Hood story and that’s just the way I see it (once again, you are welcome to think otherwise).

Now, after I have said all that (which I believe is necessary because I like to tell you guys my general stances on Jason related stuff), I can begin my “review” of Jason’s appearances in this issue. 

Let’s begin!

Rose calling Jason to tell him about Damian.

Yeah, I find this weird. Since when are Jason and Rose talking? Here is where I am lost because I think that I am missing some information. 

This Jason right here is supposed to be the Jason that was at the end of Urban Legends #6, right? The last time that I remember Jason interaction with Rose was back in RHatO vol.1 #40, I know that Rose had a “relationship” with Jason in DCeased and in Future State (Red Hood and Gotham) but here is the thing, DCeased is a story that doesn’t belong to this or any continuities so it doesn’t count and Future State is set in the future, and a future that might never happen at that. So, where is this “Jason and Rose being in contact” thing coming from? If anyone knows, please let me know. 

Anyway, I just think that Rose contacting Dick would have made more sense but I guess I am missing some context here but hey, I am here to also learn.

The other thing I would like to talk about these panels is Jason not wanting Damian to be involved in a dangerous “death tournament”. Oh, well colour me not surprised at all by that fact, than you so much. 

Who would have thought that Jason would have a problem with a child being involved in a dangerous situation (me, that’s who), I guess that this is confirmation of DC not reading their own material because in one book Jason’s helping a kid “kill” the Joker and here Jason is like “WHY DID YOU JOIN A DEATH TOURNAMENT DAMIAN!?” (did ya put your name in the goblet of fire?!?! said Dumbledore calmly). I guess this Omniverse thing that DC has going on is helpful when you want to blame inconsistencies on something other than poor management on DC’s part. 

I just think that it’s funny. And also right on the line of OOC and in character for Jason, because I can actually see Jason being worried if a kid is joining that sort of thing, but I also don’t see Jason caring much about what Damian does or doesn’t. 

“If I can come home, so can you”

Good lord, I am not having a good time. I hate this. If this is your first time coming across one of my post, Hi! My name is Tati and I absolutely hate the fact that the fanon concept of “Batfamily” is being integrated in actual comics canon. 

This is so bad, what the hell is Jason saying? This man knows nothing about Damian’s situation, why would Jason not think that Damian has his own reasons not to go back “home”??? 

And what the HELL is Jason calling “home”, is he calling Batman or the Batfamily “home”??? Child, are you on crack? Honest question, because Bruce has done nothing for you, he has done awful things to you and he really doesn’t like you. 

Let’s be honest for a second, Bruce hates what Jason has become ever since he came back from the dead, Bruce hates the fact that Jason has a different way of seeing things. He only tolerates Jason when he can molde him the way that he wants. 

I mean, what the hell is this, why would Jason, after the events of Batman and Robin (2011) #20, RHatO (2016) #25 and even Urban Legends #6, want to go back to Bruce or any of his bullshit? Why? How many times does DC have to prove itself that Jason and Bruce don’t work well together anymore? How long until they realise that Jason doesn’t fit in their Bat-narrative? 

I am so tired of this, I swear, when will this end?

Jason and Damian have a chat.

I don’t mean to be repetitive but, what the hell is this? 

First of all, here we are again with writers wanting to encapsulate every Robin’s whole being in one word, don’t they get tired of being this basic? Dick is experienced, Tim is smart... how dull do you have to be? I this was your attempt at having Damian waste time then you could have had him say something more creative. 

“You are the most emotional”, what does that mean? I mean, i guess it’s true but how is that relevant here, or why would that catch Jason off guard? Is it because fanon Jason is the epitome of “bad boy with a heart of gold” or...?

Also, Jason returning the hug after such a wild conversation has me wondering what the hell is going on, weren’t these two fighting the last time they saw each other? Why didn’t Jason realise that Damian hugging him is off?

Jason is a dumbass.  

Well, he isn’t, Jason Nation knows that but he has been written as if he were a dumbass. How did Jason not see that Damian had ulterior motives when he “hugged” him? Jason, my love, you guys fought the last time you saw each other and because the Omniverse is a thing, you also tried to kill Damian...

Why wouldn’t you think that Damian going for a hug was actually a trap? Are you being written as an unintelligent human being again to make another character look good when you are easily defeated? Is that it? 

Yeah, that’s it. 

I don’t know what else I can say about this panel, like come on, give Jason a little credit, we swear he is smart DC! 

Don’t try to play games with Dick, Jason. 

Dick was having none of it! What was he thinking? Jason got his ass tasered and now he is like “Dick why would you let Damian play games with you?”. Why do people write Jason this way? Why is he the dumbass/comic relief nowadays? Is this why he was dragged back to the Bat? So he can be the dumb one with snarky remarks? 

How boring.

-

Listen, I think that this issue was good when it came to Dick and Damian’s moments, they are the ones that have more history together, they respect and love each other enormously. Their interaction were really good, very enjoyable. My problem with this issue was obviously Jason’s presence and the part that they let him play. After reading this, I know that I was right when I thought that Jason shouldn’t have been put here. It doesn’t make sense and it does nothing for Jason’s characterization. 

So yeah, those are my thoughts on this, as always, you are welcome to think differently! 

#jason todd #dick grayson #damian wayne #red hood #nightwing #robin #robin 5 #tuesday spoilers #dc comics