#I hope the dc fans don't kill me
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Tim Wright & Brian Thomas in my AU
[ I know about Marble Hornets and both Tim and Brian are not proxies but in my AU + DR they are!! ]
Tim Wright!!
He owns a red truck that he stole from one of his victims when he first became a proxie
Him and Brian are dating and have been together for a few years
Tim has a strong accent when he gets angry and a lot of people can't take him seriously because of it
He has a CD collection from all different types of music but mainly what I would class as divorced dad music so; Linkin Park, Nickleback, AC/DC, Foo fighters Etc..
He can play a banjo and guitar and was in a band in college with a few of his old friends
Still has gaps in his memory from Marble Hornets and watching it is banned in the mansion, Both Brian and Tim are not allowed to access it
His room is the closest to “The Slendermans” office since he has been in contact with Slenderman for the longest out of anyone in the mansion.
Has a massive obsession with lip balm and has a stash inside one of his draws in his room
Was an Emo in his teen years and still sometimes endulges in some of the songs but not the fashion since he says ‘he's too old to dress like that’
Still has to take meds and regular mental check ups with EJ which made them have a close bond which not a lot of people know about
Brian Thomas!!
Is actually the head proxie, not Tim like a lot of people would think. He's more strategic with how he does thing such as stalking and killing victims.
Also wanted to be in a band in college so he learned how to play guitar aswell and can sing decently
Rides a motorbike and has a van that he both stole. He won't let anyone touch his motorbike and only Tim or a responsible Creep can use the van [ so not Jeff at all ].
Was the first person to be made a proxie, but has had a shorter connection with slenderman than Tim. He was made a proxie first because he was more compliant.
His music taste consists of metal and lots of it, like any genere of metal. [ I'm not much if a metal fan but you can say in the comments any specifics if you want ]
His bedroom is the cleanest in the house because he doesn't like mess in his room and many people come into his room for favours and doesn't want to seem like a messy, unkempt person. [ He cares about people view him ]
He has many scars on his face from old piercings he had in his youth, the only open piercings he has is his Lobe piercings, which he occasionally wears ear rings in.
Alot of people in the mansion look up to him and his leadership skills. He is very good at what he does and due to his reputation he always has to be better than everyone, it gave him an ego.
He loves cooking food and usually will be in the kitchen baking or cooking stress away, he never could because he was always on the move but now he found a love for it.
He was a pot head in his college days and occasionally still smokes it but usually late at night when everyone is asleep, he climbs up to the roof and looks at the stars while smoking.
MASKY & HOODIE
I don't know enough information to represent DID realistically, and I still think after doing research I would still get it wrong and I don't want to upset anyone!!
So I decided Masky & Hoodie are parts of the operator, the mark [ ⦻ ] given to a proxie makes it easier for Slenderman to use your body for his biding, like a possession. He hates getting his hands dirty so he does it through his proxies bodies. However that's a last resort since it has very bad side effects for humans.
They use the names, Hoodie & Masky when doing missions because they want to separate themselves for what they are doing. So usually it's just Tim and Brian doing the missions but if they refuse, slenderman WILL make you do it.
[ Hope this all makes sense and you enjoyed reading them!! Don't forget to ask for the discord server link and Ask for me to write something!! ]
#creepypasta#creepypasta x reader#slenderman#hoodie#brian thomas#brian thomas x reader#masky marble hornets#tim masky#masky#marble hornets#tim wright
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Do you think there's a disconnect between older and newer members of the fandom? I'm a newer fan and most of my mutuals are also new fans and sometimes it feels like fans that have been around for a while don't really want to interact with new blogs.
You know what? I love this question. I'm glad you asked. Yeah, there is a disconnect and I can tell you why it exists (at least from my perspective).
So, before Eddie got shot, this fandom was relatively small. I joined this fandom in January 2021 and... okay, so, one of my litmus tests to determine the size of a fandom is seeing how easy it is to secure a canon or "elite" url. If it's a big fandom, say, DC or Marvel, you'd have to practically kill a man to save a steverogers or brucewayne url, or even a variation of that (i.e stcverogers / brvcewayne). But if it's a medium-sized fandom, for example, you might get away with being able to save an "off-brand" canon url (i.e. canonstucky / batfam). So when I joined up, the fact that I was able to save the canonbuddie url the same day I joined was, like, "whoa. Holy shit. Not a lot going on around here!" Especially since, by this time, Buddie had already been a "ship" for a year or so.
And you know what? It was perfect!
Honestly, in those pre-shooting days, this fandom was very chill. Sure, there was the Ryan/Chrysti n-word drama, and sure, I got absolutely slaughtered every time I so much as mentioned his name in a positive way, and sure, there was your casual in-fighting here and there among some people, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Everything was pretty alright.
But then Eddie got shot... and this fandom blew. the fuck. up.
Gay firefighter trended on twitter and suddenly, this fandom wasn't just a medium-sized hang out anymore. People joined in droves. People started paying attention to us, which was weird. And as with most things in these dark, long-forgotten corners of the internet, with the growth of the fandom inevitably came the Supernatural fans.
As you (probably? possibly?) know, Supernatural ended (Nov. 2020) only a couple months before Eddie got shot (May 2021). When Eddie got shot and Buddie shippers were so absolutely very convinced that this was The Moment and Season 5 was going to be their season, jilted ex-Destiel stans came sniffing around to see what we were up to. This would have been fine, but unfortunately, most of them were horribly unkind (calling us stupid and dumb and mocking us "to our faces" for believing Buddie would ever go canon) or just annoying as fuck (calling Buddie "D/estiel 2.0" and stuff like that).
It got... bad. Seriously. Me and some of the other "big" bloggers around here were constantly inundated with hatemail and mean comments attached to our posts to the point where I know a lot of us just started blocking D/estiel shippers on sight.
Most people in the fandom "closed ranks" after that, so to speak. If you weren't a trusted mutual, or a mutual-in-law, you basically had a 0% chance of punching your way through the fold. Which was ultimately to our detriment. In closing the ranks, more cliques formed, which of course, naturally, created a whole new set of problems to contend with, and all of these events eventually led us to where we are now.
It's not perfect, but it is what it is.
It should be noted that I'm not a fandom expert, and I don't claim to speak on everyone's behalf, but I remember this time, and my conversations with people during this time, with crystal-clear clarity and the D/estiel takeover seems to be the inciting event.
So. Yeah. It's not pleasant news, but I hope this helps?
#I really loved that you asked this question#I know I already said it but I can't imagine joining the fandom right now and I've never really thought about what it must be like#so. that's a dose of perspective huh?#Good luck! Have fun! Hope you find your tribe :)#jack answers mail
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For the ask game, #3 for Jason Todd??
3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?
now i do want to preface this by saying my least favourite canon thing about jason isn't entirely jason's fault, and can be better explained of writers just doing whatever the fuck they want or using him as a device to extrapolate a very simplified view of another character (usually bruce) (more on that later). unfortunately however, since it's a character trend that has been repeated so many times, and the question is specifically about canon, it is a big part of his character.
and so my least favourite canon thing about jason is that... he's still around. what i mean by that is: time and time again, the story sets up a problem, a conflict, one that puts jason at odds with batman and/or gotham (two things that are connected whether you like it not) — and then a massive fight. a huge fallout. hurtful words are exchanged, a couple fists, maybe an exploding building or two.
you think woah, that was harsh and unhealthy, surely we won't see them hanging out with each other anytime soon.
then, it happens again.
next story, next conflict, next fight. jason usually gets the short end of the stick, because a batman who loses to his "greatest failure" is not a batman editorial want to sell, and also because in a lineup of characters were the worth of their existence is based on the moral conjugation with other characters, its very easy and usually not a emotional problem to kick the odd one out. red hood is cool enough to fight batman and really mean it, but not cool enough to win the actual battle.
it's come to the point where just the leak of jason in a new bat story makes me roll my eyes. even today, with the leaks of batman #145, all i could think was well, here we go again i guess.
so the most irritating thing is that jason still kicks around with the batfam. if you ask me, this unfixable break between him and bruce should have been established in Under the Red Hood (i have a really long essay post about that... somewhere tumblr tags will not allow me to find). if not then, then Battle for The Cowl (as horrendous of a story that it was) should have solidified the conflict between him and the others. it's because jason is still a character with (alleged) bonds to batman and nightwing etc, that dc gives us repetitive moments like the ones in Rhato, Batman and Robin (2011), Gotham War etc.
his character has remained annoyingly stagnant for this reason. he can't ever be a character cool enough to win the battle if he's always used as the Batman Your No Kill Rule Sucks also You Made Me This Way and I Do What You Can't (proceeds to not do anything all that different) conversational piece.
i don't say all this without some irrational hope that one say someone who actually likes Jason Todd enough to think about his character in any emotional capacity takes over. i do however say this with the acceptance that the one tweet that said "Nothing fans say about Jason Todd was actually ever written on a piece of paper published by Dc comics" was very correct.
to end happily, Red Hood: The Hill is his solo series away from the others! so! here's to hoping!
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the unofficial rules of reading comic books (in my completely unqualified opinion)
1. do not start by reading Alan Moore comics (speaking from experience,, they're good but I would recommend getting used to the medium and understanding the social context of them first)
2. adapt to any new information given and accept that you will likely never fully understand everything
3. you will eventually find that comic writer that you hate with a burning passion (everyone has one) (and if you don't, you will)
4. new 52 fucking sucks (there are a few exceptions)
5. sometimes they will set up a storyline and then drop it
6. you do not need to understand the context of everything you read
7. you do not have to read everything in order
8. most comics have arcs of about 5-6 issues, these will likely come out at trade paperbacks or graphic novels later
9. YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY HAS GRAPHIC NOVELS!!!
10. try not to get stuck, I know it's easy to just read batman or just read marvel comics but please try to branch out or try something new,,,, reading only X-Men is fun and all but sometimes you gotta read some Blue Beetle too
11. other comic fans have different opinions to you, that's fine
12. every single comic has a biggest fan and a biggest hater (this is okay)
13. support your local comic shop/comic fairs
14. comics can be very dumb
15. the biggest difference between Marvel and DC is the name of the publisher
16. most DC writers/artists have written/drawn Marvel comics and most Marvel writers/artists have written/drawn DC comics
17. You should check out other comic publishers like IDW, Archie, Dark Horse or Image,, or even check out local comic makers in your area
18. canon is the things that stay the same when a different person writes a character
19. at some point every comic fan will read these comics, House of M, Watchmen, One of DC's many Crisis Events, a Marvel comic where The Phoenix Ruins Everything, the Comic you Hate Most in the World, Probably Something Written By Stan Lee and The Sandman
20. no one stays dead except Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben
21. the nineties in comics were the nineties in comics
22. you must read comics that don't have batman in it (please I'm begging you)
23. your favourite cartoon was likely inspired by comics (or written by) a comic writer
24. someone else has a completely different interpretation of your favourite character (and both interpretations can co-exist) (it is the nature of a medium that has so many creators telling stories about the same characters for details to contradict sometimes)
25. comics are artforms, they tell stories, they can be beautiful and thought provoking and gut wrenching and heart breaking and hopeful (or they can be none of these things)
26. questioning character choices, small details and information given in the comics you read is the first step to analysing and engaging with the material (so you think batman should kill??? now think about why he doesn't.) (you believe magneto is right??? now tell me why he's considered a villain)
27. sometimes it's deeper than you think
28. sometimes it isn't
29. remember the names of the writers and artists you love, too often comic creators are under appreciated
30. Jeff is people too
(feel free to add more)
#might add more later#comics#marvel#dc comics#batman#x-men#the avengers#jeff the land shark#long post
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Why do you not like Jason as a crime lord? I don't think I've met any fans who don't. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to. Thanks.
Thanks. Loaded question but who reads DC comics and doesn’t love to rant once in a while?
People who want Jason to be a crime lord are a mixed bag, anon. From my experience, some are nostalgic of when Jason was a villain; they want this to be the hill on which Jason fights Bruce & co (and dies on). Some are just severely naive fans. Some are fans who want Jason to stars in gangster stories, etc... Nothing that interest me.
1. I'm okay with Jason killing traffickers and dealers, but not him becoming one. That’s an actual deal-breaker for me.
2. I don't want to see Jason becomes what he hates for no reasons.
Beating dealers and crime lords, making them afraid to deal drug to kids... Jason achieves nothing as a glorified drug dealer that he can't accomplish as a vigilant. Affiliating RH to organized crime is more of a dead weight and a moral liability to his character than anything else.
Also, anyone who think Jason is an actual crime lord in UTRH is basically telling me they don’t have enough reading comprehension to read/watch UTRH or a dictionary at this point. (More about that below the cut if you care.)
3. Jason being turned into a crime lord is not going to magically solve how DC portray him.
DC will never let a crime lord be the solution to crime their heroes can’t be, or imply that what Gotham need is a "good crime lord", or that such concept even exists... That shit is irl harmful. Such direction can only validate DC when they'll portray him as a scumbag or a cautionary tale; "he who fights monsters become the monster" and "Batman was right about Jason being a bad apple all along".
I hope this delayed answer clear things, anon.
*
A crime lord is someone who run and lead a criminal organization for profits. It’s the literal definition. Aside when Jason shortly takes over Penguin’s club during Rebirth RHATO, calling him a crime lord is a misconception or simply an informed attribute. UTRH never refers to Jason as being a crime lord. The flanderization happens after UTRH and my best guess is that DC went there to mark a distinction for their readers. So, they do not confuse RH (a vigilant but also a full-fledged villain for the rest of post-crisis continuity) and the ideal(ized) vigilantes Batman & co, whom readers should root for.
So, yeah... Jason isn't a crime lord in UTRH.
The only thing Jason leads there is his own operation, much like any vigilant. He blackmails actual kingpins into paying him so they stop working for BM. A "subscribe to my protection and policy or die" sort of deal. Then he kills and arsons underlines and stocks of the traffickers he didn't rope in. The goal is to weaken Black Mask’s empire, N°1 crime lord in Gotham and it's not to overtakes him.
RH has no hands in the drugs operations or business. He never touches that. He has no plans for some expansion or unification too. The actual crime lords in the story regards him as a madman, a big bully and a thug. He would have let that kingpin he roped in by force get burned alive by BM’s men if he didn’t have to pretends and keep BM’s manpower divided.
I can't remember or care to check if the whole "regulate the drug market to control it” is fanon or also a direction that pop-up later in post-crisis. But UTRH!Jason isn’t leading a criminal organization. He’s leading a scorched-earth policy. There's no regulation of anything aside the "no child rule", and RH never claims such. He’s stirring shits in Gotham’s underworld, pocking at a hornet's nest, to get Batman's attention. UTRH is the story of a ghost coming back to haunt Bruce/Gotham.
If you go with the movie version, Jason also stirs things so BM pulls Joker out of prison and get his hands on the clown. Potentially, this is why Jason use the moniker of RH. If BM goes to Joker for help, it’s because he thinks Joker may know who RH is, or is behind all this, since the clown once used that alias himself.
RH has no regard for any criminals involved, while actual crime lord Jason entails that Jason employs and works with a bunch of people who makes a living of smuggling and selling drugs. That he makes a profit over addictions and trafficking and he feeds that industry on some level. Regardless of how you justify this choice or not, he becomes an active wench in poisoning society and not just the underworld.
That's a BIG side-step from what RH does in UTRH, and worse, in complete contradiction with his character or motives prior to his death.
Drugs, thugs, dealers destroyed his childhood, his mother's life and jeopardized his by proxy. Jason doesn't idealize criminals or heroes. He doesn’t see anything moral about being a vigilant and thus don’t see a point in Bats’ “being better than them” mantra. Moral =/ Justice. His whole schism with Bruce steams from that.
So no, I’m not enthusiast about seeing Jason work with people he loathes, or turn into something he hates. For no real gain, again because he can do the same as a vigilant not affiliated to the drug business.To be clear, DC will never let him solve crime, obviously, but if turning Jason into a "he who fights monsters become the monster" villain so the moral can be "Bruce was right all along" isn't the point, going back to UTRH or crime lord Jason is not a viable direction.
That's about cover my thoughts on the subject. :p
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Harley Quinn adjusts to the status quo while still maintaining most of its charm - REVIEW Season 4 Ep 1-3
*Spoilers for all of the Harley Quinn show*
Harley Quinn is a show that continues to impress me with its swings and devotion to beloved characters. I would say this is one of if not my favorite DC Universe. You can have fun portrayals of classic characters that feel authentic, and you can have the Joker become the Mayor.
Going into season 4, I was a bit skeptical about the idea of Harley joining the Bat-Family. The concept itself is fun, but the Bat Family, particularly Barbara and Nightwing, have not been my favorite interpretations of the characters.
Don't get me wrong, I love Harvey Guillén, but this Nightwing is too uptight. And Batgirl remains too fangirly for my taste. Nonetheless, having Harley trying to figure out Batting and having a day out with Alfred was probably my favorite episode.
"I wish a bitch would try" from Alfred likely got the biggest laugh from me. It is rather unfortunate to me that Alfred will not be a part of that story any longer, as he get imprisoned at the end of episode 2.
So far the Bat Fam/Harley parts of each episode has been the main draw for me. Harley trying to figure out the superhero game while likely making fun of superheroes has comedic potential.
I really like that the central struggle of the season is Harley & Ivy needing to figure out the new work life balance. I think a lesser show would've had them break up for Harley even considering being a hero, or have both of them become heroes.
Now we have two coinciding stories that will eventually have to come to a head: The Bat Family vs The Legion of Doom.
While many of the Ivy jokes in the workplace were funny, I do think Ivy needed more characters to bounce off of. I think pairing Ivy with Nora Fries is an excellent choice. While it took me a while, I have taken a liking to Nora. The idea of Mr. Freeze's beloved wife being a real asshole and incredibly obnoxious gets funnier and funnier to me by the season.
Bringing in King Shark in IT and doing more with Bane to flesh out her entourage seems like a winning strategy. I'm sure in time the Ivy storyline will draw me in more.
Also introduced in these episodes is Talia Al Ghul, who I assume will be the big bad of the season. I like her having a foot in both Ivy and Harley's world, manipulating both the Bat Family and Ivy for her own ends.
Also just the bit of her not knowing how old her son is or how to raise a child kills me.
While some fan favorites are missed for me, like Batman and Joker, what I really miss is the group dynamic. King Shark is off having kids, Clayface is now working in Vegas, and with Harley and Ivy both working their new jobs, the show feels very split.
I fell in love with the show due to these unlikeable secondary characters becoming a villainous crew. I hope the all join forces once again somehow. But narratively, I understand why there's a split.
Overall, I think this season has a lot of potential and had a solid start. While I wasn't as drawn in as I have been before, I think there's definitely a lot of room for this to wow me. And if there's anything I've learned from three seasons and a Valentine's Day special of Harley Quinn, it's trust the writers, sit back and relax. The show is in good hands.
Thank you for reading! If you'd like to support me, you can:
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#harley quinn#poison ivy#gotham#batfamily#nightwing#batgirl#alfred pennyworth#robin#damian wayne#batman#king shark#clayface#harley quinn show#dc#dc comics#hbo max#max#dc universe#review#talia al ghul#nora fries#mr freeze#harvey guillen#kaley cuoco#joker
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THE TRUTH ABOUT SONIC'S EYES!!!! - Part 02: It all went wrong
This issue is so great it has 2 Parts!!
Check out Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/cosmicsponge2004/737460712226553856/
Now that you've seen it, We back gang. Here's one of the few pics where Sonic displays a non-neutral/happy/angry expression and it's actually drawn correctly. Here's another (Season 1)
Let's get back on topic.
First off, SONIC ADVENTURE (1998, DC)
Sonic's eyes were actually done right
The issue comes with KNUCKLES & AMY
Amy is the most consistent & persistent issue
SA2 (only her)
Heroes (only her)
The worst one imo... SONIC X
Yes, while the beginning got Sonic right, that was not to last. And Amy once again was always an issue. Knuckles was inconsistent
Amy's problem is in THE MODEL SHEETS
More recently another issue has emerged. Not just Sonic Channel but the IDW COMICS
Among other issues with IDW's art, the art staff also seems to take the X influence in their misunderstanding of conjoined eyes. Maybe that just happens to people who aren't rubberhose fans? Idk. Here's the pics
This kills me. Here's more
I just about exceeded Tumblr's image limit and made by point clear so here's one more. From THE MURDER OF SONIC THE HEDGHOG
This game generally looks nice but the eyes are off, again. To an annoying degree!!!
All this upsets me and it's ALMOST always ugly. I can't really campaign for change cause 1. That stuff don't work, and 2. Even if it did work, I'm on TUMBLR. I'm lucky if 200 random basement dwellers see this.
I just wanted to make this issue known and hope one day it goes away. And also why is it ALWAYS AMY!?
One more eye issue, and it's FRICKIN' AMY AGAIN!! this one was explained by a twitter. I know people don't like him and he believes in the whole hyperstrict SEGA comic mandate conspiracy but he makes good points here and shows off something I thought I was just imagining. Maybe we're not crazy in this silly little fanbase
Ciao, Yall!! ✌️
Get it because ciao means goodbye but it also sounds like Chao. Like the tiny Sonic creatures, cause this is a Sonic post. I like Sonic Adventure 2 for the SEGA Dreamcast, can ya tell??
#SEGA#Sonic#sonic the hedgehog#Sonic 2023#Sonic Adventure#Sonic X#Sanic#sonic team#chaos emeralds#sth#Character design#Art#ソニック#ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ#SegaSonic#Classic Sonic#Genesis#Rubberhose#Clearing Up Sonic Information#Clearing Up Sonic Info#CUSI#IDW Sonic#IDW Comics#Sonic IDW#Archie has this issue too but Archie has so many art problems it could qualify for it's own tumblr post#art critique#Amy Rose#Knuckles the Echidna#Mickey Mouse#Eyes
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Hey, I saw your post on what the skybound comics did to Jetfire and I feel you. The comics already made it clear it wasn't for me when they killed Bumblebee, but I THOUGHT they would keep Jetfire around after that but no! I didn't read it, cause a friend was kind enough to spoil Bee's death for me but NONE of the Decepticons died in that issue after killing Jetfire?!
That is bull. That is literally bull. And I'm hearing people throwing heeps of praises to this comic series and wishing that this becomes a show. I DON'T. Let comics stay comics and let shows be its own thing for Transformers. Marvel has shown how badly one can mess up a good series when they try mixing that mess together! It ruins the characters AND the plot in the worse way imaginable! No one wins! No one! I know there will be people out there saying differently but this era of shows prove that it will be a high chance of it failing compared to the past!
Hello, anonym! I think you're a fan of Bumblebee, so I sympathize with you, it's very sad when your favorite character is killed in the first issue :(
In fact, the comic series is not so bad, it is clear that it was handled by a person with an idea and inspiration, and he brought a lot of interesting moments. But I don't like the fact that two Autobots were killed in the first issue at once, and the Decepticons are doing well. Once again, the Autobots are at the very bottom and must overcome. Yes, this is the way of the «good guys», but there must be some kind of balance! I think this is because the Decepticons have more fans, and they won't like having one of their favorite characters killed. And so, how many fans does Skyfire have? Not so many, and there are more Bumblebee haters now than fans, there are also few voices of indignation. But maybe the authors themselves love the Decepticons a little more, at least Skywarp is definitely the author's favorite character.
It's interesting with Bumblebee in general, because Hasbro's representatives themselves asked to put this character in the background, because there are a lot of him, and, apparently, approved of his killing. This impression is created from the words of the author, who spoke about this request to shift the focus from Bumblebee to someone else, and about the fact that he was asked to change the number of Ark engines for the final version. It means that there is some degree of control there and all this has been approved.
As for the show, I agree, fandom and Hasbro want it, without understanding the consequences. As if the "Rise of the Beasts" was not an example of this strategy being a failure. Let's hope that comics will not be affected by this trend.
Well, right now I'm just foolishly hoping that Skyfire will be fixed somehow, because it's not fair to just kill him.
By the way, here is the author's channel, he sometimes broadcasts and tells interesting things about the process of creating a comic book, I highly recommend watching it.
#Transformers#transformers comics#Image Comics#skybound#skybound transformers#skybound tf#energon universe#answered ask
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has anyone asked abt batjokes for the ship game
you're the first anon! And DAMN YES
I ship it!
What made you ship it?
Reading The Killing Joke at the ripe old age of eight. My mother thought comics were for kids and bought me a big ass "essential Batman stories" book, which started out with The Killing Joke and it rewired my brain I guess (my Batman experience up to that point had been random episodes of Batman Beyond).
What are your favorite things about the ship?
I reckon I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. Sorry Anon I don't suppose this was the answer you were hoping for, but I am unable to contain myself :>
So being that this is my first DC ship (and it might even be my first ship PERIOD), I'm more of a "I nostalgically ship it from afar" than an active, fanfiction-reader/writer kind of fan, but surely my enjoyment has always been rooted in the fact that it's a villain/hero situation where they're two sides of the same coin, at the point where they can't exist without one another.
I ship Batman with 50% of his rogue gallery tbh, and unless it's just 'cause it looks hot, it tends to be about how Bruce tries to see the human side of these people (sometimes because he's known them since before they were rogues), how he extends a helping hand when he can, how he refuses to kill them because there has to be a way to rehabilitate them (and sometimes there is, and it's just the tragic nature of these stories which prevents the "rogues" from getting their own form of happy ending).
This happens with the Joker too, and the most memorable occasion in which this happens is after Joker tortured and crippled Barbara (someone Bruce is supposed to love and care for), beside what he also does to Jim Gordon (also someone Bruce is supposed to be friends with). Joker himself tells Batman more or less "I hurt a defenseless girl, I terrorized an old man, what are you waiting for just beat the shit out of me" to which BRUCE SAYS NO. He says no because "you're just like me except you had one bad day too many, and I know you can get better, and I want to help you".
We all know how The Killing Joke ends, with the proverbial joke and them laughing like maniacs about it (I have the panels always around so yall can experience them with me)
And the image of them laughing together is forever seared into my brain, especially because even if this guy did whatever the hell he did (and will keep doing it), Bruce replied with empathy and compassion.
A monster, the irredeemable one who's never going to stop before anything because he's not even human, at this point he's the embodiment of everything wrong there can be in a person - he just got smothered with compassion and it almost worked. The "joke" (two madmen escape the loony bin, etc) is Joker's way to say "I'm sorry I really want to take your hand but I can't, I just can't do it", and Bruce understands this and for a brief moment of six panels it's just two friends laughing together. And that part of me which will always see itself in the ugly, irredeemable, rejected monster was and will always be so profoundly fulfilled by this.
Of course I am also not immune to the whole "you need me, you love me and you can't live without me" thing to which Batman reacts by kicking and screaming that it's not true, but which is indeed true and in every story in which Joker actually dies, Bruce cannot for the love of him cope one single day without him. This post puts it briefly but beautifully, go give it a look if you're rabid a fan of the dynamic such as I am.
Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?
Liking this ship (and Joker in general) is unpopular in and of itself lol, but I guess I can say that my unpopular preference is that as much as I ship them, I don't see sex involved in any part of their relationship which is more based off of beating the shit out of each other (or laughing about a dumbass joke in a stormy night in an abandoned amusement park), and being unable to let the other go when the chance presents itself. I see sex as essentially unnecessary in their dynamic, but it's also true that I don't really peruse Batjokes content beside the occasional fanart, so the sex part might have just not clicked with me yet.
#thank you so much anon#seems like I had a lot to say about those two and I wasn't even aware#my asks#ask game#batjokes
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Disappointed in Gaiman, but I hope the studios' vile treatment of the very people that make them rich backfires in the most spectacular way. The boycott must start now!
The revolution will not be televised, because the people making it have Cancelled Television.
I admit, the "kill all contracts" move came a few weeks, maybe a month earlier than I and others projected their escalation to, but the force majeure threats et al were expected enough the WGA got copies of it from lawyers before ever determining to strike.
These, like many details, are things fandoms simply don't think about between the lines that these unions and their members, especially their leadership, have to navigate; just like not understanding how Bad Of A Place the unions would need to be in to Officially Announce It. (Short v: legal fuckery, interwebbing media corps, "secondary damages", lawsuits, all momentum lost; suicide bomb level last stand declaration when consumers have been too addicted to do it themselves and enable the strike to go on indefinitely, as Sarah Silverman says)
It should not be a matter of kicking water uphill by fans justifying utter horse shit with "WELL TECHNICALLY" and "NO ADULTS ARE EXPLAINING TO ME HOW TO BE AN ETHICAL CONSUMER, SO I HAVE PERMISSION". Like. I never wanna hear a single woke line about consumerism from any of those blogs complicit in this horse shit ever again. You're de-progressived. Get out until you grow your own morals and ability to act.
No, union efforts do not work on Well Technicallies. They fucking do not, children. Finding loopholes to Well Technically through is just a way to avoid penalty from the union or avoid being ejected for outright violation, but if you're going against the flow and the group's self interest, you're still a scab, I do not care about your fucking Well Technicallies. The witcher author got it. Other fandoms get it. Only Gomens and a subsection of SPN fandom that saw parallel is going LALALALALA. One trekkie blog posts about it and people who haven't dicked over their own morals in self justification send that shit viral with only like 2 morons whining in the notes. Fandom needs to figure out that we see through your horse shit, and you are not going to impress us with Well Technically or someone's seventeenth bad attempt to nonlogic about leverage they imagine paying them while they fire their authors gives. Fuckin shit.
I'm not just disappointed in Gaiman. I'm disappointed in my own fandom, and even in myself because I majorly contributed to the AC/DC shit, had channels in server for it, made pushes; I made excuses for him about other things, trying to read him in good faith. Even with this, I read his initial statements going rogue from the silent agreements in good faith, but the longer he banged on the more blatantly vile it became. My server was a huge reason he got the AC/DC boost to begin with, so he can sit there smug thinking he can use tumblr brainwashees as his golden egg, but he is losing himself a lifetime of free advertising by the hundredsfold, and turning them into opposition, and that's his Personal Choice(TM).
Gaiman went from "no I will not promote during the strike" to a relentless assault of WATCH MY SHIT and posting flattering asks while dodging simple ones like "Do you support the WGA/SAG strike?" Like. We've fucking tested it. Neutrally phrased, simple yes, obviously duh would do. No responses. But he'll post the ones saying they watched the whole thing, or how gay it is because he knows the local marketing game, or ones asking how to put him ahead of the renewal pack, no problem. He's a fucking scab even consciously exploiting the search for representation as marketing, that crawled out of the anti-union comic book industry hole. I hate realizing it and admitting it to myself but I will not be a fucking enabler just because he made some of my favorite fictional characters. I care about the real people he's trying to outpace before the market collapse.
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ETA: I posted this before the show came out. It has now and I've added a few edits. ETA2: Added better pics
So, I've been sitting on this for a while, because I don't particularity like saying negative things about stuff I don't like (like Marvel's Exiles comics, which I'm not at all a fan of #foreshadowing) but I've seen a few things that make me want to talk about this. (Also, I started writing this a while back but wasn't sure if I wanted to post it. But saw stuff more recently that I definitely had to speak about. There's a bit of a shift in tone towards the end as a result).
I decided to post this mostly because certain statements about X-Men '97 (a sequel the 90's X-Men the Animated Series) have gotten bigots up in arms, which can understandably lead to people side-eyeing anyone shitting on the show, but I think their may be legitimate problems that justify some complaints.
Essentially, I think it may an issue similar to that of the Captain Marvel movie. There was huge, fully unjustifiable misogynistic backlash to the movie. But, there were also some quite legitimate critiques of the militaristic messaging in the film. While shutting down the sexist nonsense being hurled at the film was good, there still needed to be space to discuss the actual, real problems the movie had.
And, from what I've seen, there are some real criticisms to be made of X-Men '97. Both about plot stuff and about some ways a bit of intended representation may not be as good as could be hoped.
So, here's the thing. I was obsessed with X-Men the Animated Series as a kid and especially with a (sort-of) show original character named Morph. He was very much my first Blorbo. I know way too much about the character.
And now said character is at the center of some drama, due to the upcoming sequel, and I want to address it.
So, a note on Morph's pronouns. All non-97 versions of Morph go by he/him pronouns. In an older interview, the term "non-binary" was originally used for the X-Men '97 version without further clarification. But there's a more recent interview with the show's creators (which I will discuss more at the end of this post) that implies the character is more specifically gender-fluid (rather than agender or having a non-binary gender identity) and said creator used he/him pronouns to talk about the character, not they/them or any neo-pronouns. So that's what I'm going to go with for now.
ETA: Except the show does seem to be using exclusively they/them so IDK what the fuck that article was.
A bit of backstory on the character.
Back in the 60's X-Men comics they fought a villainous mutant shapeshifter named Changeling. Changeling later reformed after discovering that he was terminally ill. He replaced Xavier, who needed to go into hiding for plot reasons and ultimately died in Xavier's place.
A few months before the Animated Series began in 1992 an issue of She-Hulk saw the villain Black Talon resurrect several deceased characters as zombies (called the X-Humed). Changeling was one of them.
Originally, the X-Men TAS writers wanted to kill off a character in the second episode and were thinking of using the character of John Proudstar aka Thunderbird. Thunderbird had been a member of the second X-Men team appearing for the first time in Giant Sized X-Men #1. He would later die in #95, the first time an X-man died.
They eventually realized that giving the show Native rep only to kill him off in ep. 2 was a terrible idea and started looking for a disposable white guy. They eventually found the Changeling character, though at the time the character now known as Beast Boy was going by "Changeling", meaning DC had the rights to the name. And so, "Morph" was born.
Despite being a throw-away character he was surprisingly popular with fans and the network was also not real happy with the whole killing-of-an-x-man-thing. So a decision was made to reveal he survived the events of the pilot. When he returned in season two he initially had a slightly zombie-like appearance (probably a reference to the She-hulk thing).
So, the show starts with him as part of the team. He is "killed" by giant robots called Sentinels. He is later revealed to have been saved by a villain known as Mister Sinister. Sinister attempts to brainwash him into being a loyal slave that hates the X-Men. This only partially works. His mind shifts between his true self and the artificial evil slave personality Sinister implanted (because this was the 90's and mental health education was bad, this psudo-DID was sometime referred to as him being "schizophrenic"). He is eventually rescued and sent for treatment at on Muir Island (which is in Scotland). A side from a few half-assed cameos and weird omissions his main appearance after that is in an episode where he tries to return to the X-Men but the Sentinels are back and his PTSD is too severe. He comes through in the end but acknowledges he's not ready yet. He does properly return in the finale referencing his comic origins by briefly imitating Xavier. The show ends with the implication he's on the team for good.
TAS may have inspired the Age of Apocalypse comics run. The AoA comics introduced a (very different looking) shapeshifter named Morph (who claimed that he had previously called himself "Changeling"). The relevant TAS episodes include both OG Morph and an unnamed character that looks like what the Age of Apocalypse comics Morph would look like.
Finally, Marvel would start a comic line called Exiles in which a bunch of characters from the Marvel multiverse would get pulled from their timelines to fight inter-dimensional threats. A Morph would be a main character. That Morph would look identical to the Age of Apocalypse one but have a different backstory (obviously).
X-Men '97 is retconing the show to replace their OG Morph with a take on Exiles Morph. And it has to be a retcon. It's generally held that shapeshifters can't hold alternate forms while unconscious or dead. And we see both! He is knocked out multiple times and flat-lines while Sinister is working on him.
So this can't have just been a form he always had but was hiding. Also, I don't know if the new show will use it, but Exiles Morph has no scent and thus cannot be tracked, something that is explicitly untrue of 90's Morph. Anyway...
I fucking hate Exiles Morph and always have!
Exiles Morph is an annoying horndog who creeps on women and arguably crosses the line to sex pest at times. Morph in the original show never once, in any episode that he appears, flirts with, leers at, or shows any romantic or sexual interest of any kind in any female character present. You could arguably HC the original character as Ace. Though he did have a lot of...tension with Wolverine, so gay is also a possibility. The aggressively heterosexual reimagining of Exiles has always been boring and annoying to me. I don't know that any of this is going to make it into the new show (I hope none of it) but I hate the idea that it could.
Additionally, while the original Morph was playful and lighthearted, he was hardy incapable of being serious when need be. Exiles Morph is often described as hardly ever serious. And creator comments say that is part of why they're using this Morph in the new show. (Apparently his PTSD was too much of a downer.)
Also, I know it's an extremely toxic fan thing to complain that an adaptation doesn't conform to your personal headcanons, but I always liked imagining the character as more of a light skinned POC, rather than just the white guy they intended. (My usual go-to was that he was Japanese American, possibly with a white parent. This was because he's super close with Wolverine, who lived in Japan for decades. So, like, I would imagine that Morph grew up bilingual and Wolverine was, of course, fluent so they'd chat in Japanese and whatnot. Maybe Morph would go to Japan sometimes to visit family and Wolverine would sometimes come too.)
This could have been done in even a more faithful sequel. Yes, the character was very specifically white in his original conception, but that's only because he was going to die right away. Since he doesn't anymore that no longer applies. And, to be frank, Morph spends 90% of the original show off-model anyway. A new version could effortless have massaged his base-form appearance to have more non-white features.
ETA:
Oh you could abso-fucking-lutely pass this character design off as a half-white POC.
Couldn't they still do this in '97? Technically yes. But now he's a snow-white blob with no hair or facial features. You can still say he's POC, but I can see that generating even more discourse.
As for the enby thing.
First off, there's been a lot of (justifiable) discourse about a tendency to hold "diverse" media to excessively high standards and I don't disagree. Even when criticisms aren't unwarranted, I think there's a definite tendency among some to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But also, genuinely harmful representation does exist (things like the "trans serial killer" thing that is so damaging that no trans rep would arguably have been better).
Ultimately, I think there's a difference between *harmful* representation and representation that's just bad. And there's a also difference between bad representation and representation that's merely flawed. And flawed representation is still representation. It's still a step in the right direction and it's extremely possible for people to still feel seen by less-than-perfect depictions of their thing.
That said good representation is better than flawed representation. And I don't think we get from flawed to good without giving constructive feedback (not vitriol) on the more flawed attempts. We don't have to trash flawed attempts or flame people that like them. Just point out, what worked and what could be improved upon.
So what might be a problem here? Well, because of the (really, really unnecessary!) Exiles thing:
Yeah.
I just...feel like that could have been thought out better. Especially because, while it's not the same (as mutants are explicitly human), it approaches the "Non-binary Alien" trope. Which is not great.
Basically, everyone else in the main cast except for Beast looks like a normal human and all of them retain their "normal" binary genders from the OG show/comics. Morph and Morph only is simultaneously being changed from being a normal looking dude to a freaky alien-looking thing and is also changed from being a "normal" binary man to having an "unusual" gender. And I don't like it.
I don't think it was intentional, but it would be so much better to have normal-ass humans as NB rep. Since, you know, actual IRL enbies are, in fact, normal fucking human people. (Granted, they could be doing that too, but for now it seems like it's only the character they changed to be all weird looking that is going to serve as the only enby rep.)
Now, it's entirely possible that there are people this won't bother and that's certainly OK. And I don't think doing it like this bad rep, just flawed, which is still better than nothing! But it's quite valid, I think, for enbies/allies to have good faith qualms with how this comes off due to the combination of the two changes.
That said, there is also the problematic™ Non-binary Shapeshifter trope to consider.
So, while some trans/non-binary people may like the idea of shapeshifting powers (for obvious reasons) and thus may strongly identify with/project onto shapeshifter characters there has also been some discourse about it.
In brief, a shapeshifter is essentially genital-fluid, which can make people side-eye the idea of playing with gender when a shapeshifter is involved, as it can imply the idea of a connection between genitals and gender identity. Which isn't a thing that exists. Basically, to use X-Men as an example:
Gambit was born with a penis and, baring surgery or magical transformation, will only ever have a penis. This character is a man and this is never questioned.
Morph was also, presumably, born with a penis (it's possible Exiles!Morph had no genitals at birth). But he/they can change this at will; at any time he/they wants, he/they can have a penis, or a vagina, or both, or neither. But that should have fuck-all to do with gender identity.
But a lot of people have the very cis-normative view that the ability to change physical sex equates to changing gender. And will jump to making shapeshifting characters non-binary, gender-fluid especially. And this is a source of understandable discourse among trans/NB/GNC people. (As a result, you may see bigots reacting to this change with "Ugh they made the shapeshifter non-binary!", but you may also see enbies/allies going "Ugh they made the shapeshifter non-binary!". And that's very different.)
Now, because non-binary gender identities are real, it's certainly possible for a character to just happen to be both NB and a shapeshifter. But it can still rub people the wrong way......especially if there are creator comments that do indicate a mental genital/gender connection is informing the choice.
Which brings us to the trainwreck of an interview I mentioned earlier.
"For me, the word 'nonbinary' is the same as the word 'shapeshifter,'" director Larry Houston told Variety. "Every character that can change from one gender to another, or from human to animal, that’s just another word for 'shapeshifter' for me."
What. And I cannot stress this enough. The fuck?????????
Ok, so. In 2x3 of the original show Wolverine is trying to capture brainwashed, evil Morph and bring him home. Wolverine finds and successfully restrains him, so Morph uses his powers to mess with his head in order to escape. (By which I mean he turns into Wolverine's one-sided love interest and mocks him over how much she loves only Cyclops.)
In the interview this is described like this:
"He attacks Wolverine, his closest friend, in the most dramatic way by turning into Jean Grey and putting his hand on Wolverine’s neck and leaning in for a kiss," Lewald explained. "That’s as nonbinary as you can get. It’s Morph turning into a woman and coming onto Wolverine to freak him out."
How the fuck is it non-binary?! Is it the genitals? I'm really concerned it's the genitals.
At best it's maybe queer, but "non-binary"? I just...
Problematic tropes aside, I'm now worried like hell that the these people don't know what the fuck non-binary people actually are and the rep is going to be garbage as a result.
Like, he really seems to think that when Morph shapeshifts into Jean Grey in that scene, he isn't just disguising himself as a woman, but that he's literally becoming a woman gender-wise. And presumably becoming a man when he changes back. And that is what he means when he uses the word "non-binary" to refer to the character.
So yeah, opinions may be mixed on "non-binary" Morph, for reasons that are not bigotry related. And maybe don't get your hopes up for good enby rep in the show, because I'm now very skeptical that this is something we're going to get.
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The Sandman - Quickfire Thoughts
So after a series of sporadic binges between Netflix tussles I've finished The Sandman. Having gone into the adaptation of Gaiman's comic fairly blind I had barely any expectations, but here's what I thought of it
Spoilers for the show of course, you were warned
As much as I don't want to invoke the wrath of Gaiman - who also frequents the tumblr - negative points for not fitting Enter Sandman in the entire show.
A strange observation but, is it me but ever since Game of Thrones Charles Dance seems to only do small or low-screentime roles now; Godzilla King of the Monsters, Dracula Untold and now Sandman, he's great but because he's great it's curious that he doesn't do many long-term roles
Dream's casting was great, and props to Tom Sturridge for carrying an aura of menace and power in the first episode while butt naked
One of the very few things I knew of The Sandman comics was ol' toothy eyes, The Corinthian, and boy howdy was Boyd Holbrook fantastic, he's one of the five characters, including Sturridge as Dream, I feel dominates every scene they're in, he's a great charismatic but manipulative villain
The Gregory stuff made me sad, the show did have a fair amount of moments where it's meant to be sad and uncomfortable, but at the same time I don't want to be that sad or that uncomfortable
Liked the river scene, it's super artsy and dark. I wish we had more of that from this series, stuff like in this gif where Dream is as chilling as any nightmare he created, would've liked to see more of the Fates too
I do love some Jenna Coleman, been a fan all the way back since she debuted on Emmerdale, but, it didn't feel like her role in her episode was enough to necessitate the Constantine nod. Jenna could've been a regular sorcerer, or even an immortal Johanna. I dunno I think I just kinda hoped to see Matt Ryan reprise as John, especially since DC is killing the Arrowverse. Maybe DC didn't wanna play ball or Neil has S2 plans for her, but we needed more of Jenna to establish Johanna.
Speaking of potential Season 2, Hell. The Hell Episode was great, mainly because of standout no.3: Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. Tom Ellis' Lucifer series wasn't something I quite got into, I heard rumblings of it ending dumbly, but Christie's Lucifer is amazingly sinister but in a quiet way, they know who they are so they don't need to threaten, but there is that twinge of sadness and longing that Dream exploits in their Oldest Game
Though 'anti-life' felt like a cheat, I did like the Oldest Game. The wink nudge of Lucifer picking a direwolf but then, by my interpretation, Morpheus choosing hope to corner Lucifer into submitting rather than become something that would diminish their own hope. Matthew the raven gets props as well for giving Morpheus the inspirational pep talk
24/7 was one of those cases where it was a great episode but one I was greatly uncomfortable with, sometimes my own fault like forgetting that Bette's son is in college. But this does explore why John Dee's views on a perfect world is twisted and the Ruby is not safe in his hands, I did feel especially bad for Bette
Oh, John Dee is no.4, David Thewlis man. As much as Dee was unnerving, apathetic, and calculating, Thewlis did a great job in showing the childlike innocence that had been contorted by his sheltered life and manipulation, there is poetic irony that he wants a world of honesty but consistently deceives himself.
Episode 6 was perhaps my favourite, among my comic knowledge was the presentation of Death in Gaiman's story as a joyful punk rock girl who is full of life, Kirby Howell-Baptiste did a great job. I did of course feel extra sad when she approached the cradle, instant thoughts of 'no, not the baby!' in my mind, I don't know enough of her character to wonder if she still feels burdened by the abruptness of some people dying but there can be time for that later
What made it my favourite though was the Hob storyline, it was just nice and wholesome really and it explored more of Morpheus' ever-shrinking distance from humanity
The Vortex storyline I wasn't as sold on as the 'Morpheus reclaims his powers' storyline, it was still good but it did sit in the real world more than the fantasy
I enjoyed the whole house of people and Lyta, and how they all supported Rose in her search for her brother, plus the connection with Unity to merge the storylines together
Probably what made me not so connected to the Vortex storyline in spite of it having the Corinthian be the main villain is the nature of the Vortex, we're told very little about its nature and the 'I don't know' answer does feel weak, she is powerful just because
Morpheus also seems to take two steps back on his character development too, to go from Death telling him that they are not better than humans, should learn to take people's help and him accepting that he and Hob are friends to 'I will use this Vortex, a threat to the dreaming and waking world entirely just to bait some rogue nightmares' and also dismiss Gault's suggestion that even nightmares can change and want did feel like he was undoing his own work
Didn't quite like the Rumpelstiltskin vibe he was giving out with saying he'd come for Lyta's baby too, there could've been at least a bit more compassion or explanation, instead it served as a 'misunderstanding' trope to distance Rose from Morpheus
The ending was solid, albeit one which could've used a bit more explanation. Desire was a character we saw so little of - much like Cain and Abel, whose dynamic reminded me of Hilda and Zelda in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - and even though we have them outright tell Despair that they are the mastermind of Morpheus' imprisonment and the Vortex arc, we don't actually see any of their actions, just an off-comment by Unity that clocks Morpheus in on the deception.
I feel like, while Gaiman may've intended to keep the audience out of loop, it may've served better to see Desire perform at least one action that guided the plot around, even if it was just to twirl a fake mustache, and explain how they intended to use the Vortex to be Morpheus' undoing, since there seems to be rules for not killing an endless' kin not established in the series (that I recall anyway) was the plan, but since I don't understand what that would lead to it's hard to understand the threat.
Overall I liked it, going in mainly blind I do have my questions but we had a great cast all doing really well, and I want to see more of it, so it laid some strong groundwork we can hopefully build towards.
#the sandman#sandman netflix#the sandman netflix#netflix#neil gaiman#morpheus#dream of the endless#tom sturridge#the corinthian#boyd holbrook#john dee#david thewlis#lucifer morningstar#gwendoline christie#jenna coleman#kirby howell-baptiste#hob gadling#death the endless#desire the endless#unity kincaid#rose walker#patton oswalt#matthew the raven
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SO I don't really keep up all that much with the DCEU so I was taken aback when watching a video essay about why the sequel films are bad when the essayist said that... the whole DCEU was ending with Aquaman 2. Like I know this 'verse has never done, like, amazingly well, and I know some of the sequels were pretty naff but...actually scrapping it? And I'm wondering why - is it really that it's flopped or is it that they wanted an MCU without being willing to put in any of the work and instead expecting Instant Billions or whatever (or is it tax reasons, like they did with Batgirl?)
Oooh, send me a link to the essay? I'll have to check that out.
So I admit I haven't paid all that much attention to the DCEU either. I gave up on following everything for that one a lot faster than I did the MCU, so I really only tune in to one of the DC movies if I hear enough about it being good after it's been out a while. It was definitely mismanaged compared to how the MCU was handled - which is funny because the Arrow-verse interconnected shows was well done and they could have leveraged the multi-verse aspect of the comics to their advantage, though it's probably for the best they didn't. The shows had their own problems with seasonal rot and using them to prop up the movies would likely have not been pulled off with any finesse or skill. (I mean, they did finally tie in the movies in the Crisis on Infinite Earths with the DCEU!Barry cameo, but that was too little too late and barely counts.)
I hadn't heard the DCEU was coming to a close, but I'm not surprised. Though the news articles I just kinda flipped through before responding here were mixed on whether the DCEU is actually ending or if there is gonna be one more Aquaman movie since the second movie apparently ends with a setup for one? (wouldn't be the first setup for another movie that never followed through though) And it may not so much be ending as it is soft rebooting. Which... since I doubt the WB execs learned anything about why the DCEU failed to achieve what the MCU managed, I can't say I have high hopes for DCEU 2.0.
Their tax games definitely contributed to the DCEU loosing fans and thus money in the long run. The Batgirl movie had a lot of interest in it from fans and, if I'm remembering correctly, it had finished filming and just had post-production left to do. So tanking it for tax reasons pissed off a lot of people and killed off a lot of goodwill towards WB's handling of the DC movies. The fact that WB/HBO are continuing to play tax games with the Road Runner cartoons continues to erode trust in the company and continuing to play those games are likely to continue destroying their fan base as more and more people lose trust in them. Until these kinds of tax shell games are made illegal, I don't really see the company admitting that these kind of short term tax benefits are hurting their long term profitability with every person who stops caring about new movies or shows announced because, well, it'll probably get canceled for tax BS anyway, right?
Their strict control of characters being allowed to appear in DCEU vs the various tv shows was ultimately harmful too. By refusing to allow a live action Batman show, we got a version of Arrow that was at times good but was still pretty clearly Bruce Wayne-lite with Oliver Queen slapped on top. And who basically became a cop in the final season; comics Ollie would be ranting in all fucks about that if he knew. (Dinah probably wondering if he'd forgotten other words exist...) Declaring Deadshot off limits too meant putting an end to the use of the suicide squad episodes, which I have no doubt backfired by making fans of the show interpretation less interested in seeing the movie version.
While I'm glad that bringing Barry Allen as the Flash into the movies didn't end up killing the show - it was already popular by the time the Justice League was announced so I suspect they at least realized killing that show would definitely be shooting themselves in the foot, a rare good decision for the DCEU - but the way interviews about the Ezra Miller version of the character are given tells me that they just... don't care about the success of the show compared to movies. And that alienated fans of the Flash show, especially down the road when a standalone Flash movie entered development and the movie related hype got louder. "Oh how wonderful Ezra is at playing Barry Allen, none could do it better." Except Grant for nine years. Ten if you count the intro episodes he had on the Arrow before the Flash started. Talking about the movies as if the show didn't exist, or matter, definitely shot them in the foot with show fans. And it didn't help that the movies were retreading stories with that version of Barry that the show had already done - Eobard murdering Nora, Flashpoint, an evil version of Barry too??? not totally clear on that one - and did so badly if the clips I've seen of the Flash movie are any indication. At the very least had the interviews regarding the movie had been respectful of the show's success, they could have drawn in a lot more viewers than the Flash movie ended up with.
Those are not the only places where the movies have caused characters to be barred from the various tv shows or where the movie PR has treated the shows (and not just arrow verse shows) like they don't exist. But they're the ones that come to mind for me first. And it generates bad feelings with fans every time it happens.
Then there's the fact that the DCEU movies were just literally difficult to watch. The MCU movies get dark, but wow. Do DCEU filmmakers know what lighting is? Do they know that lighting is important in order to see what is happening on the screen? Do they know that people watching movies like to be able to see what's happening on the screen?
The MCU has a lot of planned continuity between entries. The plots for the movies may be kinda shallow, but the fact that a lot of the movies can stand on their own despite being interconnected was a major strength for building up the fan base it has today. They don't account for every plot hole or contradiction, and it's kinda hilarious what continuity errors some of the later retcons have introduced, but ultimately there is a cohesiveness of story being told across the various movies and shows. And the shows have been very good at diving into the fallout of plot points that are left shallow in the movies. What happened to the agents burned during the Winter Solder - Agents of SHIELD handles that question really well, though being so tightly tied to the movies was as much a weakness for the show in it's early seasons as it was a strength. Daredevil and the other Defenders shows explored the fallout of the Battle of New York. And the Disney shows continue that trend of diving more in depth into various questions the movies have left us with.
The DCEU doesn't really have that. There's no real unified vision. There's a lot of big ideas but not a whole lot of follow through. The characters don't really seem to exist between movies - the Flash movie was supposed to be a few years post the Justice League movie, but Barry had done basically nothing as the Flash between the two. Diana is still mourning Steve as the love of her life in the second WW movie. Though Diana has grown more comfortable in the regular world, she hasn't really grown any as a person between the first and second movies despite the decades in between. And then sometimes the characters are more stereotypes than actual characters - Batman vs Superman was less Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent clashing over misunderstanding each other and more the concept of Batman vs Superman as argued by out of touch fanboys who don't actually like the source material. (You can tell where I stopped keeping up with the DCEU now right?) And even the extended version of Justice League has at best superficial readings of the characters because it's trying to do too much at once. While sometimes the characters do learn and grow and better themselves, if it survives to the next movie is hit or miss. Which, admittedly, is one movie sin the MCU does have in common with the DCEU.
(The things that could be said about how wildly unevenly Clint Barton was written to be... I swear he's basically a different character every time he shows up at this point, despite having the same name and actor every time.)
And the DCEU hasn't really handled it's scandals well. When actors or directors or whoever is called out on bad behavior, the company will cover for them. So while the people running the shows seemed to have learned from the #MeToo movement and ditched problematic people even when it meant changing direction with ongoing plots (Supergirl season 3) or writing out one of the main characters of a show (Hartley Sawyer being let go between seasons over uncovered past bad behavior and the subsequent decision to write out Ralph Dibny instead of recasting), but those in charge of the DCEU have routinely protected people called out for racist, misogynist, and other prejudiced behaviors. (the post Justice League racism debacle, pretty much everything to do with Ezra Miller pre-Flash movie release...)
Honestly, the TLDR here would be that the DCEU was just mismanaged every which way it turned. And while we still got gems like Aquaman, the first Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey... those were never going to be enough to save the DCEU from either getting shelved or rebooted eventually. And if we are getting a DC movie-verse reboot? Unless the problems that tanked this iteration are addressed, it's still going to fail in comparison to the MCU's ongoing successes. Because ultimately, yes, I think they wanted MCU level success without being willing to do the work to achieve it. And I don't think they'll be any more willing to do that work with a rebooted DCEU either.
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Ideally, how would you change Jason's story? I completely agree with what you're saying and love Jason but I don't really know how you could really fix that without completely changing his character?
Maybe instead of retconning his behavior have him instead realize he was in the wrong and grow from it that way it doesn't change his past comics?
yes!! but also no. i talked a bit about it here, but let me elaborate.
there's plenty of potential in post-resurrection jay material, as shitty as it is. i love stories about haunting and about trying to escape from the narrative and about regaining autonomy, and i love reconstruction. which is why i think the best thing to do here is primarly to do what you said: for jason to realise he was in the wrong and grow from it.
i think here a new narrative (new-old, because it's something that some writers have been trying to imply but never succeeded) could be given shape, one more compliant with his 80s characterisation: that he gave in to a moral defeat mostly because of the tension between how it was initially his sensitivity and devotion to protecting others that pushed him into extreme methods as a vigilante & the fact that he tried to detach himself from these feelings at the same time. (of course it is much more complicated, because there's plenty things coming into play regarding his red hood persona, including bruce, his personal trauma etc., but let's set it aside for another time). in other words, he turned to extreme methods because he cared too much and didn't know how to handle it, so ended up repressing it and committing to violence in order to avoid vulnerability. we could move towards this interpretation of his story in two ways:
–– by jason failing completely and hitting the very rock bottom. i'm thinking about him, for example, killing the wrong person by accident and being confronted with the consequences of his action. or maybe failing to protect someone because of his methods. this would be a wake up call for him. it's an easy, fun and fast vision, this one. altern
–– by a gradual process of jason opening up back to his community and seeing that his actions do not help them in the ways he hoped, and that him committing to more positive and grassroot work makes a much bigger difference.
i'm a fan of the first option because there's so much space for pathos there, and the second scenario can naturally follow from there. i'd like to see bruce in this kind of story, also; i want jason breaking down and asking "if my ways don't work, and your ways don't work, then what will work? are we doomed to live like that? i want these people safe. for them to feel safe" "jay. do you not feel safe?"
what then though? well, jason has to learn how to live. i talked about if before, but i think one of the biggest sources of jay's misery is that he doesn't really have any civilian identity. i want to see jason unburying himself and for dc to actually address this issue instead of hinting at the fact that he's no longer legally dead (not even talking about lobdell's storyline where jason reveals that, i'd rather forget.) i want to see jason retiring for at least some time and living among people instead of working on the peripheries of the society with no connection to anyone.
and then, if he takes up the mask again... controversial, but i would love to see him as batman at some point, even if just for a while or as a substitute for bruce when b is not around. i think one part of batman's philosophy that is completely overlooked by many jason fans, and that would be so valuable for jason's storyline, is that bruce is completely aware both of all the evil in the world and the long term futility of vigilantism. the thing is that he is also able to own the success of helping even just one person. and it's something that jay, on the other hand, can't seem to be able to focus on; he is so preoccupied with both suffering of the others and his own pain, that he is not able to appreciate small "wins."
not to quote this again but jason really needs to realise that "one measure of maturity might be attaining an awareness that there can be no genuine devotion to fighting the forces that unworldly the world without genuine devotion to the littlest manifestation of beauty that make this planet a world and this existence a life.” he needs to embrace hope the way bruce did, because there's no other way of living for self-sacirificial bastards like them (and they are so similar in so many ways that are completely overlooked by writers, although i guess it's also hard to see it with how chronically mischaracterised bruce has been in recent years).
of course i don't mean that jason should be moulded into a copy of bruce. he should actually become better than bruce, and that's not that hard to achieve given that jason has infinitely more connection to the people. he has a community where his dedication comes from, and he is needed there, among them, as opposed to above them.
having said that, this story couldn't really happen with some changes to the canon, by which i don't really mean retconning anything, but rather underwriting certain reboots, to name a few:
–– the story has to get jason's origin as a robin and his inherent kindness right. it has to denounce lots of flashbacks in which jay was potrayed as aggressive and angry. this should come with the narrative addressing victim-blaming, but this is a complicated matter, because jason being victim-blamed was not only shitty for his character, but also sometimes rather out of character for the others. and i'm personally not necessarily interested in mindless whump at expanse of the narrative as a whole. so it's tricky, but we need to see victim-blaming being acknowledged without jason being victimised further for no good reason.
–– willis and catherine should be shown to be as loving as they were originally. willis being abusive doesn't add anything to jason's story rather than trauma porn and classist undertones. it's not necessary here.
–– honestly, let's just ignore half of rhato. bruce beating up jason for example was a crazy fantasy that didn't bring in anything to the narrative.
with these aspects corrected, the story can be reframed as a reconstruction of tragedy, where jason realises that there's no fate (and definitely no fate adjacent to classist rhetorics) that he needs to fight by commiting to the tragic irony of assuming his murderer's past persona. all he needs to do is to go back to his roots and find a way to live with all that happened to him, and still have hope and love for the people he seeks to protect.
so, tldr: yes to development from the point where we are at, but also yes to underwriting and reconstruction of past events in a less invasive way to push the storyline in the right direction. of course what i described above is also a very specific scenario, but you asked how i would ideally do it, so i delivered.
#thank you for opportunity to talk about that <3#as you can see i thought about it. a lot. dc where's my job offer#answered#jason todd#jay meta#dc comics
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I was wondering how do you think Meghan Fitzmartin feels about Stephanie?
The preface to any thoughts I have on Fitzmartin and Steph is this: I have a policy that every comic creative is allowed to like one (1) objectively awful book, because no one can have universally good taste and sometimes it just scratches an itch you have. But reading an interview with Meghan where she mentioned that one of her favorite Bat comics was War Games absolutely threw me for a loop, and it makes me really nervous about how she might write Steph moving forward (ONE FEAR and everything).
Short explanation of War Games for those unaware of why liking this particular event sends up red flags: Bruce fires Steph as Robin because she refuses to listen to him, so to prove herself she steals info Bruce has gathered on a bunch of gangs and tries to control them all. She miscalculates because she didn't know that Bruce and 'Matches Malone' were the same person, and it ultimately kickstarts a gang war and gets Steph captured, brutally tortured, and killed by Black Mask as a consequence. This event also features Tim's school friend Darla being unceremoniously shot for shock value in front of Tim's school and dying his arms plus Dick NOT dealing with the fallout from Blockbuster's death+his rape by Tarantula because he had to go deal with the gang war instead. It's an incredibly cruel and misogynistic comic to Steph and easily one of the Top 5 worst Batfam events ever written.
..........yeah. You can see why Meghan name-dropping it as a favorite comic is cause for concern among Steph fans. Generally, I appreciate that she seems to have a good grasp on Tim's character and the best of intentions for every character she works with (and what their fans want for them), but I don't have particularly high hopes for her Steph. She's said before that she really loves both Tim and Steph:
I’ve [also] always really liked Tim, I think in part because he was in Batman: The Animated Series. But the more I was getting into Tim even for [Robin Eternal], the more I was like, “This poor child.” I recognized this desire to do good, especially with his relationship with Stephanie. Tim and Stephanie are so interesting to me as a dynamic. Stephanie is so unapologetically herself, and a mess, and living her best life, which is also a mess. Tim is, I think, drawn to that aspect of her and it’s so cool. Even growing up, I was like, this is so cool to see the struggle of these two characters. I think Stephanie was who I wanted to be, and Tim was sort of who I felt that I was. -Fiztmartin in an interview for The Geekiary [x]
So that's technically the answer she's given about how she feels about Steph. But her treatment of Steph thus far hasn't impressed me; between breaking Tim and Steph up off-panel and not addressing it for a full year and her treatment of their relationship in YJ Dark Crisis, she's given Steph little to no agency or voice in this entire mess she's made, and thus far has written Steph as little more than a supportive-but-somewhat pushy background character. So ultimately, I think Fitzmartin likes the idea of Stephanie. I'm not necessarily as sure what she likes about Stephanie in practice.
Of course, I don't really expect Steph's POV to be centered in a Tim-centric story because that's unfair to both of them; Steph should have gotten her own POV story dedicated to dealing with the breakup from her perspective, and it's not Meghan's fault the Batgirls co-writers were uninterested in exploring that and no one else at DC is willing to let a Steph solo story happen right now. But her handling of Steph is still concerning given Dark Crisis and I'm not really sure where we go from here.
Nearly anything is going to be better than Tynion (who kind of actively disliked her), Bendis (who had no clue what to do with her), and Cloonan/Conrad (who write her like she's 14 rather than the 20/21-year-old she's supposed to be)...but Tim's solo is inevitably going to have Steph in it and I'm not super excited about it given Fitzmartin's handling of her so far. I guess we'll see, though. Maybe she'll surprise me.
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I know this is going to sound completely stupid, but please forgive as I'm a newbie to the Batman fandom. I'm a little confused over the posts that Jason died twice--not confused over the content, I get that Bruce actually killed Jason twice (I did not know about the second death, so good info, thank you.) So is Jason still alive in canon, or is he dead? Most of the stuff I've read so far seems to indicate that he's still alive, at least in some portion of the Batman universe, but it could be that I was reading fanon instead of canon.
This isn't a dumb question. DC is a mess and terrible to keep up with. These are the cliff notes:
Jason dies in "death in the family" as Robin. The joker beat him and then blew up the building he was in
Jason then returns in "Under the Red Hood" (utrh) as a foil to Bruce. Bruce eventually kills him to save the joker. Jason was originally supposed to die and stay dead, but his return was greeted with so much fanfare, DC now glosses over that
It was retconned that Jason was actually alive during "Hush" and then "Lost Days" is published showing how Jason went from being dead to the Red Hood
Jason is still canonically alive and his second death at the hands of Bruce is treated as a hushed secret, so much so that a lot of Jason fans don't realize he died again.
He was never shown to be revived from the second death, again, DC just pretends it never happened
So that is the short version. As it stands, Jason is currently in Task Force Z (which takes place in main continuity) leading a suicude squad of Zombies. He is the only member who is actually living. If you are interested in Jason though and his story, I definitely recommend reading "Death in the Family" and "Under the Red Hood". They are worth the time investment for sure
I hope this helps. Hit me up anytime you have more questions! 😘
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