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awhitehead17 · 4 years

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Whumptober 2020: Day 3 - My way or the highway

Prompt: Held at gunpoint

Summary: What had happened is nothing new. Tim’s been kidnapped and held at gunpoint many times before, however this time seems to be different because he’s certainly more shaken up by it.

Enjoy! :D

Tim was settled in his office at WE, happily putting the annual report together, when the door to his office slams open and a masked man wielding a gun storms into the room.

He stares wide eyed at the man in front of him not moving a muscle. He’s currently Tim Wayne, not the vigilante Red Robin. Tim Wayne doesn’t know 5 different ways on how to disarm weapon holders or several different martial arts that could take a person out in mere minutes.

Tim Wayne is useless.

Instinctively Tim goes to reach for the panic button that’s underneath his desk but a sharp demand makes him freeze.

“Put your hands where I can see them!”

Tim swallows thickly and does as he’s told.

The man is armed with a hand pistol, wearing a ski mask over his face and is wearing plain black clothes and gloves.

“Get up and walk away from the computer!” He yells at Tim, levelling the gun at him. Tim’s skin tingles, there was something familiar about his voice, he recognises it but can’t place where from.

Tim gets up from his chair with slow and controlled movements, making it clear on what he was doing. Tim’s not sure how trigger happy this guy is and he really rather not find out. Keeping his hands in the air, Tim makes his way around the desk and stands in front of it facing forwards.

The man snaps at him. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

Tim glares for a moment before doing what he was told. Once his back is turned Tim fights every instinct to not lash out and fight back, it becomes particularly hard when rough hands grab him, force his wrists into handcuffs and then force him to bend over his desk.

Tim grunts as he’s slightly winded when the edge of the desk digs into his stomach. Before he could work out anything else, he feels the barrel of a gun being prodded against his temple. The cold metal makes him freeze. He should have been expecting that move, it’s a power move, one to make him comply to whatever demands this asshole has.

“All of you rich snobs are the same,” the man sneers out in that voice that Tim recognises but can’t yet place, “You think you’re all untouchable, with your money and place of power above all of us working class peasants.”

As much as he wants to, Tim restrains himself from letting out a sigh. This was nothing new. Someone was always trying to kill him or his family because they have money or ‘think they’re better than everyone else’.

The man presses the gun harder against his temple. “I’m about to be evicted you asshole. I’ve already lost enough but now I’m going to lose my home too!”

Tim takes a deep breath to control himself. How that was his fault he wasn’t sure but he keeps his mouth shut.

“It’s because of you and your ridiculous airhead daddy.” The man was full of emotion and it sounded like he was on the verge of sobbing. “My wife died in that damn lab. The one Wayne Enterprises funded and developed! The one that exploded because of a faulty cannister.”

That gets Tim’s mind reeling. Three weeks ago there had been an explosion in one of the Wayne Enterprises research labs within Gotham. 11 people had lost their lives in that explosion. It had been an unexpected and tragic occurrence, one that happened and simply couldn’t have been predicted.

He and Bruce had been working to support the families who lost someone but they had yet get around to every single family, clearly they haven’t dealt with them in the right order.

“I’m sorry for your losses,” Tim says empathically, “but this isn’t way to go about dealing with it.”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!”

Actually Tim does, he’s watched numerous of his loved ones die (granted most came back but not the point) he does know what it’s like to lose someone.

The gun disappears from his temple but at the same time a handful of his hair was grabbed and yanked backwards, forcing his neck to arch. Without warning his head gets slammed down against the desk and Tim lets out a yelp as he hears a crunch. As well as pain coming from the centre of his face, the taste of blood filling his mouth is more than enough to tell him that his nose is broken.

The back of his shirt is suddenly grabbed and Tim is forced to stand up straight. The guy spins him around and stands behind him with the gun pressed against his back.

“Let’s go pay daddy a visit shall we?”

Not responding Tim leads the way to Bruce’s office, dreading for what’s going to happen. The journey is short as Bruce’s office was just the other end of the corridor from Tim’s. The man opens the door up and forces Tim to step through it.

As soon as he’s through the door Bruce looks up from his paperwork and Tim sees his eyes go wide. His father was about to voice his concern when he sees the gunman standing behind Tim. At his desk Bruce freezes, clearly trying to assess the situation. Unfortunately all Tim could do was stare at his father as blood pours over his chin, down his neck and then as it drenches the front of his shirt.

Bruce slowly stands up from the desk, his eyes darting between Tim and the armed man. He holds his hands out, like he was trying to calm a wild animal. “I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s calm down and talk this out.”

The masked man shoves Tim further into the room and instantly points the gun at Bruce.

“Don’t tell me to calm down! This is all your fault! If you had hired the proper staff to do their damned jobs, my wife would still be here! I wouldn’t be all alone and about to be evicted from my home, everything that’s happened to me is because of you.”

Having worked it out a lot quicker than Tim, Tim sees the moment it clicks for Bruce.

“Adam Wolsey, that’s who you are isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

Tim’s eyes widen in realisation. That’s why his voice seemed familiar. Adam was an employee of WE, if Tim can remember correctly he works in the HR department.

The man’s silence is all the confirmation they needed.

Despite the situation Bruce walks towards the man at a slow steady pace, keeping his hands in the air as he approaches.

“Adam, I’m sorry to hear that things have gotten bad for you recently, I’m sorry for your loss, but gun violence isn’t the answer.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Adam replies bluntly. “I’ve lost the most important thing in my life, you and your money bags don’t know what it’s like!”

“Please drop the gun. My son has nothing to do with this. We can talk this through, I can help you get the support you need. Just drop the gun.”

Tim holds his breath as Bruce approaches. His father doesn’t look at him, his focus purely on the man behind him. Tim doesn’t know what’s going to happen, he waits for anything; a cry of anger, a scream of pain, the sound of the gun going off. To his surprise none of those happen, instead he hears Bruce whispering a ‘thank you’ and then there was movement from behind him.

Tim stays standing in the centre of Bruce’s office, unable to move. It’s nothing new to what has happened, Tim’s been held at gunpoint many times before, he’s been kidnapped just as many too, but he stays there in the centre of the room, unmoving and not doing anything.

A hand landing on his shoulder makes him jump, however Tim quickly relaxes when he sees it’s Bruce. Bruce stares at him with a frown for a few moments before reaching up to cup his head. His father examines the damage done to his nose, but doesn’t offer any comments.

Tim doesn’t question the silence, not that he does a lot to break it anyway. What was there to say after something like that? He’s curious to find out what Bruce is going to do to the man, although at the moment he doesn’t have it in him in to ask.

Bruce soon gets him to turn around and unlocks the hand cuffs he had been trapped in. Once free, Tim’s dragged into a hug which he immediately returns. He tries his best to not get blood on the expensive suit Bruce was wearing, but it doesn’t seem to matter because Bruce pulls him in tight and gently forces Tim’s head to press against his shoulder.

They hug for several long moments and Tim feels Bruce kiss his temple. “I’m sorry you had to endure that Tim.”

“It’s fine Bruce.” Tim mumbles against the fabric of his suit. “It happens. I’m glad nothing drastic really happened.”

“Hooray for small miracles,” Bruce comments sarcastically. He hugs Tim tighter. “You’re going to be okay Tim.”

Tim tightens his own grip on Bruce. “Thanks Bruce.”

There’ll be plenty of time to work out all the details and to work through the trauma of what had just happened, however for now Tim is content enough to just hug Bruce, knowing his father had the situation handled.

#Whumptober2020 #day three #held at gunpoint #fanfiction #Tim Drake #bruce wayne #hurt and comfort #angst #hostage #good dad bruce #father and son #broken nose

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Joker - Quill’s Quickies (No Spoilers)

Joker is proving to be an extremely divisive film. Some think it’s the best thing since The Dark Knight. Proof that comic book movies can be art too. Others think it’s pretentious Oscar bait with nothing interesting to say.

And that’s not to mention the controversy surrounding the film as people wonder whether this will incite violence in white men (which I’m not going to touch with a barge pole, at least not here. I’ll do a separate Scribble for that sheer nonsense at some point). Needless to say everyone and their mums have an opinion on Joker... so I guess one more, won’t hurt.

Whether you like Joker or not I think depends on your tolerance for a) films that deliberately set out to make you feel uncomfortable and b) films that ask you to feel pity for the devil. (and I want you to remember that word ‘pity.’ It’ll be important later on). Personally, I loved Joker. I think it’s one of the most unique and groundbreaking comic book films I’ve ever seen. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. I can actually understand why to a certain extent. However don’t try to spin this as some ideological thing because that’s just disingenuous and stupid.

Lets start with the obvious. Joaquin Phoenix. Give this guy a fucking Oscar, for the love of God! His performance was truly mesmerising, particularly when he does finally don the full clown makeup. He is the Joker. The mannerisms, the attitude, the nihilism, it all just works. There’s even a monologue near the end of the film that could have been lifted straight out of the comics. This is a film that not only depicts the Joker perfectly, but also completely understands the character too.

The rest of the cast is exceptional too. Robert de Niro plays a chat show host who Joker looks up to and he does a good job. Deadpool 2′s Zazie Beetz plays a small but pivotal role as Sophie, Joker’s next door neighbour and ‘love interest’ and she’s excellent too despite having quite a small amount of screen time. Frances Conroy plays Joker’s mum Penny. Again a relatively small role, but a crucial one and she gives a memorable performance. Finally there’s Brett Cullen as a very different interpretation of Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne, which I think works extremely well in the context of this film and creates exciting possibilities for this world’s version of Batman, which we’ll probably never get to see because this is intended as a one off. Not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t want them to do a sequel. This works perfectly as a standalone piece.

As I said, the supporting cast actually play a minor role overall as the film follows Arthur Fleck exclusively. The man who would be Joker. It’s a bit hard to talk about why I think this film works without giving away spoilers, so I’ll focus on how it made me feel.

Joker is an extremely tense movie. Todd Phillips’ stellar direction puts you in the mindset of the character and Hildur Guonadottir’s incredible music really elevates the film’s more disturbing moments. In fact (and I suppose you could call this a trigger warning), I did actually suffer from an anxiety attack halfway through the film because you’re constantly on a knife edge. As Arthur’s life falls apart, we see him become more violent and erratic to the point where he becomes legitimately frightening. Fear is of course subjective. I’m sure most of you have more of a spine than I do. But if you do suffer from any kind of anxiety, I would recommend psyching yourself up before you watch this and maybe have a friend or relative on hand to comfort you if it starts to get a bit much.

Seriously, I’m not kidding. Joker is an extremely uncomfortable experience and it’s unrelenting in how grim and unsettling it is. It’s R rated, but it’s not necessarily gory. It’s not as violent as, say, Deadpool, but its more bloody moments often come rather suddenly and with a lot of tense buildup beforehand. While it does bear similarities to movies like Taxi Driver and The King Of Comedy, those films have the audience on the outside looking in. Joker on the other hand takes the audience and locks them inside the Clown Prince of Crime’s mind for two hours straight, and quelle surprise, it turns out the inside of Joker’s mind is fucking horrible. Viewer beware.

Okay, okay. I guess I can’t avoid it altogether. Do I think this film is dangerous? No. Do I think it insults those with mental health issues? No, in fact quite the opposite. I found the film to be quite sympathetic towards the mentally ill, presenting Arthur as being a dark outlier, not the norm. Do I think the film is making some sort of political statement. Again no. I honestly don’t think it’s saying anything about white people or toxic masculinity or gun violence or anything like that. In fact, if it is saying anything at all, it condemns those who seek to hijack a public figure for their own political agenda (which ironically is exactly what the press are doing with this very movie, but of course critics and journalists can’t see that because they have no self awareness what so bloody ever). The film is what it is. An extremely dark character study of arguably the most famous villain of all time.

Some have criticised the film as being too predictable, which I personally don’t think is a particularly valid critique. Like, yeah, of course it’s predictable. We all know what’s going to happen in the end. The fucking title kind of gives it away. It’s execution that counts, and Phillips and co have done a fantastic job in my opinion. As for those who complained that this film is cynical and nasty and made them feel numb afterwards... I mean... I honestly don’t know what you were expecting. Of course you’re feeling numb. That’s what the film wants you to feel. It’s cynical and nasty because the central character is cynical and nasty. That’s like criticising a comedy for being funny.

Honestly, if I had any complaints, it’s that I think they do paint the story with broad strokes, leaving very little room for subtlety. But having said that, this is based on a comic book about a billionaire who fights psychotic costumed criminals at night whist dressed as a bat. I don’t think subtlety has much of a place here.

Finally I just want to briefly touch on the concern that this film might make the character too sympathetic. First of all, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some villains can actually become scarier when we as an audience can empathise with them and understand their motives (see Killmonger in Black Panther). Second, and most importantly, Arthur Fleck/Joker is not a sympathetic character. Yes I did feel pity for him at times, but that’s not the same thing as sympathy. Like I said, this film completely understands the Joker. There are occasions where you do feel sad for the character and wish he could have got the right help, but most of the time (and the film emphasises this throughout) he’s presented as being a deeply disturbed and maladjusted individual and at no point is his behaviour ever justified. Instead it’s presented as being almost inevitable. That in a city as terrible as Gotham, what else could Arthur have become? Joker is a tragic character, but he’s not in anyway likeable.

I would definitely recommend you go and see this movie, especially if, like me, you’ve gotten sick of the slew of formulaic comic book movies and convoluted shared universes. If Joker is indeed going to be the first of an anthology series focusing on telling low budget, character driven, standalone, experimental films, then it’s a very strong start. Whether you liked Joker or not, the fact of the matter is the success of this movie can only mean good things for Warner Bros, DC, the comic book movie genre and the industry going forward, so please go and see this film.

#joker #joaquin phoenix #todd phillips #dc #dc black #warner bros #quill's quickies #no spoilers

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tvdversefanfiction · 4 years

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Canary Carnage

Fandoms: Arrowverse, DC Universe, TVDverse and The Originals

Chapter Twelve: A Far Cry from Earth X

Warnings: I don’t own any of the rights, content or characters belonging to any of the DC content I use within the story along with not owning any rights, content or characters within The Vampire Diaries, Originals or Legacies.

18 Rating: Moderate/Graphic displays of violence, sexual innuendos, sexually charged scenes, SMUT, mention of Nazi’s due to Earth X storyline, strong language and potentially triggering scenes.

Pairings: M/M, F/F, M/F.

Lucas Thomas Wayne may have been the Earth X doppelganger of Lucas Lance, but they were to very different people Lucas Lance was the Red Canary and Lucas Wayne was the Blue Canary.

Lucas Thomas Wayne was dumped on the doorstep of Earth X’s Batman after his biological mother Earth X’s Laurel Lance aka Siren X abandoned him to continue her ruthless crusade. He is the biological son of Earth X’s Bruce Wayne aka Batman and was raised by his father eventually joining him in his crusade to make Earth X a better place.

Earth X’s Lucas was resilient, strong and ready to save his world from the darkness that surrounded it under the guidance of his father Batman but having the same meta-human power as his mother leading to Batman himself naming him the Blue Canary.

Lucas Lance was the villain and Laurel Lance was the hero in that story whereas on Earth X Lucas Wayne was a hero and his mother Laurel was the villain on an earth with far too many villains so when the fate of the multiverse was at risk it was only a matter of time before Earth X would be no more.

Unbeknownst to him his father had planned a back up plan so that he could live after hearing rumors about Earth Blood from other earths he had visited in the past and eventually learning that somehow Earth Blood existed out of the multiverse meaning if all else failed he could at least save his son and all else did fail.

Lucas Thomas Wayne couldn’t be any more different than his doppelganger who died on Earth Blood but he was soon about to learn all about him as he found himself teleport-ed to Earth Blood via a fail-safe breaching device that his father had installed into his phone scheduled to teleport him after Earth X was wiped out by anti-matter.

A lot had changed on Earth Blood over the five years that went by following the death of the Red Canary: the entire vampire community now knew the Black Canary as Laurel Lance spent most of her time travelling the world and using her superhero alter ego and Sara Lance had taken over New Orleans Voyage Hotel renaming it the New Orleans Lance Hotel in honor of her family deciding to stay in New Orleans and adjusting to no longer being the White Canary and being a vampire.

The Mikaelson family were of course still the Mikaelson’s as immortal beings who lived for over a thousand years, five years wasn’t really much to them although they did have some momentous changes such as: Kol Mikaelson reuniting and marrying his true love Davina Claire, Hope Mikaelson being accepted to and now going to Columbia University in New York City, Rebekah getting her revenge on Marcel Gerard by trapping him for good and the tragic and shocking death of Hayley Marshall which left everyone devastated especially Elijah and Hope.

The last thing the Lance sisters or the Mikaelson family were prepared for was the return of Lucas, or rather their introduction to Earth X’s Lucas Wayne the heroic Blue Canary who was ready to cause all kinds of carnage to any wrong doers.

“Where am I?” Lucas Wayne wondered as he opened his eyes to find himself in a hospital room laying in a hospital bed with a nurse standing over him. “What’s going on?”

“You were found on the side of the road unconscious but we’re as of yet trying to find out why you were there.” The male nurse replied to him. “Do you know your name?”

“Last thing I remember is being at home with my dad…” Lucas began to say before he realized Earth X was no more before tearing off the cables connected to him, climbing off the bed and rising to his feet much to the nurse’s concern.

“I’m going to have to ask that you sit back down! You’re not in a state to be going anywhere.” The nurse advised him, as Lucas was too concerned looking at his hospital gown which revealed a little too much in the back.

“What earth are we on?” Lucas asked, knowing the chances of the nurse knowing anything about the multiverse were slim.

“Yeah I don’t know what you’re talking about…I’m going to need you to sit back down!” The nurse answered the Blue Canary, eager to get his patient back into his bed.

“I figured that was a long shot…well I’m going to need my clothes.” Lucas replied to the nurse before looking him up and down. “Your clothes will do if you can’t find mine.”

Lucas Wayne waited for a moment as the nurse stared him down making it clear he wasn’t going to let him go easily forcing Lucas to release a canary cry in his direction with just enough force to send the nurse flying into the corridors giving him just enough time to make an escape and try and figured out what the hell was going on.

Lucas knew that for him to be on this strange earth that his own earth must’ve been destroyed by the anti-matter waves and wherever he was now was going to have to be his new home but he had no idea of the people he lost or the people he was about to find.

It was the fifth year anniversary of Lucas Lance’s death and although he died on Lian Yu, Laurel decided to have him buried in Lafayette Cemetery within New Orleans where she would reunite with her sister Sara each year on Lucas’ anniversary to mourn him as they honored not what he became but who he once was.

It was a tradition that brought Laurel comfort and helped eased her guilt, regret and pain about losing a son and choosing not to return to Star City to stop him even being born knowing saving the world had to come before being a mother but that didn’t make her feel any less guilty.

At first she had no idea why her younger sister Sara Lance chose to stay in New Orleans despite the fact she was hated by the Mikaelson siblings for killing their beloved sister Freya Mikaelson but as the years went by their hate for Sara grew smaller as Rebekah Mikaelson surprised them all by forming a friendship with the White Canary, a strong friendship built on forgiveness, loss and honesty.

Laurel Lance knew there was good in Rebekah and Elijah from the start and following his marriage to Davina Claire she learned Kol had good in him too as she began blurring the lines between good and evil, learning that the world itself was not so black a white which was a lesson she wish she had learned five years ago.

“I had a feeling this is where you would me Miss Lance, it’s always a pleasure to be in your presence.” Elijah greeted Laurel as he sped into the cemetery to stand beside her, as Laurel stood in front of her son’s tombstone.

“I don’t even understand why I always come here each year I mean with the way the future changes he’s probably vanished by now just like Talia al Ghul did when he died.” Laurel admitted with a saddened sigh, freely opening to the noble original before turning to face him. “I enjoy your company too Elijah.”

“It’s soothing to have a place to grieve for what we’ve lost and also a place where we feel we can reconnect with them momentarily at least.” Elijah replied to the Black Canary. “I may not have been with you in your choices with your son, but I understood them, nonetheless. You can’t keep torturing yourself forever Laurel.”

“I could say the same to you over Hayley it’s not on you what happened to her and it’s not on you to keep your life on hold because she’s gone…you two weren’t even together in the end.” Laurel told him, trying to comfort the original why he tried to comfort her. “You two shared a great and epic love for each other but that doesn’t mean your life has to be over…you’ve lived on pause for a thousand years Elijah maybe it’s time to press play.”

“We are as bad as each other.” Elijah admitted with a sly laugh, smiling at Laurel. “Neither of us will take the other’s advice and yet we keep advising each other anyway.”

“Well that’s where your wrong as of today my days as the Black Canary are well and truly over I’m even considering joining Sara at the hotel I mean she wants it to remain somewhat of a family business…the irony being my son literally murdered his way into owning the hotel.” Laurel replied with a sly smirk.

“This world needs the Black Canary don’t let her go for some attempt at a normal life you were never meant to be normal Miss Lance.” Elijah advised Laurel, hoping she didn’t give up being the Black Canary, knowing how much it meant to her.

“How is your brother Klaus?” Laurel asked, instantly making Elijah chuckle, both knowing she didn’t care about Klaus, she just wanted to change the conversation.

The Lance sisters had grown closer to the Mikaelson over the last five years to the stage where both Laurel and Sara even tolerated Klaus which to them was quite the hard task but Laurel and Elijah wound up getting a little too close and that’s where their problems began.

From the moment they met they had buried feelings for each other feelings that they eventually acted upon which would have been perfect if their moment of passion didn’t happen the same time Hayley Marshall was killed making Elijah blame himself and his feelings for Laurel for not being there for his former love’s death.

Both Laurel Lance and Elijah Mikaelson were both filled with guilt over their past, but both wanted to help each other and so they were at a painful halt in their angst-ridden relationship with happiness for either seeming highly unlikely.

Klaus Mikaelson was king of New Orleans once again thanks to Rebekah’s revenge against Marcel and although he was particularly thrilled that a man he once loved like a son was wiped off the map or the fact Rebekah wouldn’t reveal his exact location he was more than thrilled to have New Orleans to himself.

Marcel Gerard was the only thing on that entire earth that could kill him and him being out of the equation made the original hybrid and his siblings truly immortal once again or so that’s what he had come to believe.

Klaus walked the streets of the French Quarter like he did many nights taking in the city he loved so much when he noticed Lucas Wayne for the first time stood next to a jazz band performing a musical ensemble in the middle of the street.

Immediately he believed that Lucas Lance either survived the day he died and deceived everyone including himself or that the Red Canary had somehow found a way back to the living, knowing the canary was capable of both.

“I didn’t take you as a lover of music, but you always were full of surprises.” Klaus said to Lucas after walking over to stand next to him, as the two of them continued to listen to the beautiful jazz music being performed live.

“You’ve clearly mistaken me for someone else or rather the same person but different earth.” Lucas replied to the original hybrid. “Tell me who am I to you in this strangely fascinating world?”

“Are you seriously expecting me to believe that you’re a doppelganger of Lucas Lance?” Klaus scoffed, believing Lucas was trying to trick him somehow, after all he was quite the master of manipulation in the past.

“Seriously? You know who I am in a world that’s already much better than my own and nobody has heard about breaching devices which allow you to jump portals?” Lucas quizzed the strange man he was highly suspicious of. “Clearly you either know about the multiverse and are lying boldly to my face or you are somebody completely useless to me…no offense meant unless you’re a liar that is.”

“Are you really not the same man who died at my sister’s hands five years ago?” Klaus wondered, struggling to know whether to trust Lucas’ words.

“This world really is fascinating!” Lucas said with excitement in his eyes as an innocent smile appeared across his face making Klaus realize this wasn��t Lucas Lance. “I’d love to hear the story of how this earth’s doppelganger met their demise seems like there’s a chance of a lesson being learned there…tell me stranger do you know Bruce Wayne?”

“I have no idea who he is, but your mother is in this very city in fact she’s only recently returned.” Klaus informed the Blue Canary, as he tried to work out what Lucas’ otherworldly doppelganger was doing in his world. “Sara Lance too.”

“Figures the man whose sister killed me works alongside Siren X makes sense that ruthless bitch would survive the literal end of the multiverse. I just need to find out if I’m on this supposed Earth Prime or this Earth Blood my father talked about.” Lucas revealed to the original hybrid just in time for the band to take a break. “You better tell your boss I’m coming for her and this canary isn’t so easy to kill.”

Before Klaus Mikaelson could even process the realization he had just met the doppelganger of a former flame Lucas Wayne sped his way out of sight clearly without a worry of being noticed for his powers which was a far cry from the other canaries arrival on Earth Blood.

Klaus had no idea what world this Lucas came from but he already knew this one was different to the Lucas Lance of his past despite their many similarities and he couldn’t help his urge to want to find out more like; was this Lucas also the Red Canary? How different was he to the Lucas he knew? What the bloody hell was Siren X? Was Laurel or Sara Siren X on this Lucas’ world? Was this Lucas a threat to his loved ones and beloved city?

Klaus knew one thing for and that was it was time to sit down with the two canaries in the city that he did know, knowing either Sara, Laurel or both Lance sisters would quickly solve the mystery of Lucas 2.0.

To find out the brother you grew up with was actually your son was a reveal very rare but it is a discovery Laurel Lance made before she went on a mission to kill that son for the greater good only to later on reconsider what was good and evil and whether her son truly deserved to die.

Laurel Lance was still traumatized from watching her son Lucas Lance die at the hands of Rebekah Mikaelson, so traumatized that when she learned of the news about a doppelganger of her son now being in New Orleans it had her reliving all the pain and regret once more as she began to fear what awful fate this version of her son would meet and whether she or her loved ones would be the ones to deliver it to him.

She wanted so badly to run away and continuing running so she never had to face another Lucas or her duties as the Black Canary ever again but deep down she knew that despite everything she was first and foremost a canary and she needed to make sure this Lucas wasn’t a danger to others or himself, hoping desperately this outcome would be better than the last time she had to put a world before her own child.

“I can’t believe that there’s another version of Lucas out there…although with all the parallel universes it makes sense that he’d be born in at least a few other worlds within the multiverse but what doesn’t make sense is why the hell he is here.” Laurel reluctantly confided in Klaus, as the Black Canary and the original hybrid sat on the edge of his bed within his room in the compound both nursing a glass of whisky each.

“He said something about the multiverse being dead that there was only Earth Prime and Earth Blood now which I found rather strange, but I don’t pretend to understand the multitude of worlds that you meta-humans come from.” Klaus replied while taking a sip from his drink. “He also mentioned Siren X he believes I work for this person I believe he’s referring to either you or your sister.”

“Me…or at least the Earth X evil doppelganger of me.” Laurel revealed to Klaus. “Figures some version of my son would be working alongside an evil version of me.”

“I don’t know he didn’t seem like a big fan of Siren X if anything I think he’s more than likely an enemy…he had a look of hate when mentioning her name and that particular look can’t be faked.” Klaus informed Laurel as he finished the whisky in his glass. “Maybe in this bizarre world he comes from the roles are turned around between you and him.”

“You mean in a world literally run by freaking Nazi’s my son is a hero?” Laurel laughed at Klaus before downing her drink. “Why tell me about this? You’re not one to tell me anything especially regarding my son.”

“I wanted to know if it was possible or if Lucas was just playing yet another game with us all.” Klaus admitted as he stood up from the edge of his bed. “I don’t particularly want to play in the past not when the future is mine!”

“It’s highly possible my Lucas is back but it’s also highly possible that this isn’t my Lucas.” Laurel replied to the original hybrid as she too stood up from Klaus’ bed. “I’ll meet with this Lucas but if he’s not my son then he’s your problem not mine.”

“In other words, if you don’t kill him I should.” Klaus answered with a sly smirk.

“You were the one trying to save him last time around so don’t start playing the big bad wolf to me Klaus!” Laurel snapped at him. “I said I’ll sort it and I will.”

“Yes, well Lucas Lance amused me and that’s rare for anyone to do but if this isn’t him then he’s merely some cheap copy from some maddened world that I don’t intend on getting to know.” Klaus replied, making it clear to Laurel he was ready to kill if he needed to.

The mere idea of Klaus Mikaelson killing her son infuriated her and not because his sister Rebekah had already murdered one version of him before but because it seemed so easy for him, which served to strengthen her dislike for the original hybrid as she continued to believe he was more monster than man.

Laurel Lance doubted any chance of any version of Lucas being a hero having dealt with the Red Canary’s crimes first hand but this wasn’t the Red Canary and this wasn’t the son from her future or even her world and if she was to take him out then she would in fact be the villain this time around.

Lucas Wayne grew up in a cruel world a world in which the Nazi’s had won but that didn’t stop his father Bruce Wayne from donning the cape and suit and becoming Batman if anything it drove Batman to be the hero not only Gotham City needed but the world itself as he worked alongside a group of freedom fighters eventually enlisting his own son Lucas into the group under his heroic alter ego Blue Canary.

Earth X’s Batman had traveled to many different worlds most far better and some far worst but he never gave up on the hope of one day saving his own earth that was until he heard tales of the death of the multiverse and everything changed for him and his son.

The Blue Canary had turned down many of his father’s pleas to go to either Earth Prime or Earth Blood with a device that not only allowed him to breach to another world but also transport him to another time but Lucas Wayne was very much like his father and wanted to save his earth, the problem was Bruce was never going to allow anything to happen to his son meaning Lucas Wayne was now in a different world in a different time completely and utterly alone.

Lucas wanted nothing more than to return to his awful world just to be reunited with his father but he knew Earth X was gone now and if he was going to honor his father’s sacrifice he had to continue being a hero no matter what world he was in.

“You know you were always pretty morbid but visiting your own grave is a whole other level even for yourself Lucas.” Sara told Lucas after vamp speeding into Lafayette Cemetery to stand beside him, finding Lucas stood in front of his own grave, or what she believed was his own grave.

“I don’t know why I was drawn here but I was…it was like his spirit was calling out to me somehow.” Lucas replied as he continued to look at Lucas Lance’s tomb, looking haunted by his own doppelganger’s grave.

“I heard your playing the doppelganger card, but I’ve got to admit you’re really committing to the role little brother.” Sara said completely disregarding the theory that this wasn’t the man who she was raised with.

“Brother?” Lucas stated as he turned to face the White Canary. “In my world I’m an only child well I was the only surviving child…yet you know me as brother and I’m not aware of any siblings looking like you which only means you’re her daughter.”

“What the hell are you talking about Luci?” Sara questioned him, not sure whether to be more confused or more suspicious by Lucas’ words.

“My name is Lucas Wayne…I’m guessing yours is Sara Lance which means you are my half-sister I won’t blame you for your mother considering she’s mine too or at least she is on my now extinct world.” Lucas replied to the woman he believed was this earth’s Laurel Lance’s daughter.

“Wayne…shut up!” Sara said in shock, realizing this version of Lucas wasn’t her Lucas. “You’re the freaking son of Batman!”

“I guess identities are just as badly hidden in this world.” Lucas scoffed. “Yes, I am but, on my Earth, they tend to call me the Blue Canary…tell me are you evil like our mother or is this a world where she’s a canary instead of a siren?”

“Firstly, Laurel Lance isn’t my mother she’s my sister, secondly I’m the White Canary and I’m not your sister I’m your aunt.” Sara informed the Blue Canary, while trying to get her head around his revelations. “Also, this isn’t my earth or Laurel’s but we’re both the good guys here…this world isn’t like the others.”

“Well I gathered that on the whole fact that there’s only two worlds in existence now within two entirely different multi-verses which I know is as confusing as it sounds so I’ll just ask is this Earth Prime or Earth X?” Lucas replied with more questions for the White Canary.

“Earth Blood…What do you mean the other worlds are gone?” Sara quizzed her nephew’s doppelganger, desperate to find out more about the supposed death of the multiverse.

“Do you always answer questions with more questions?” Lucas retorted with a smile on his face.

“I could say the same for you…my sister says you come from Earth X or at least that’s what she suspects considering the Siren X name drop you gave to Klaus.” Sara stated to him. “Are you as batshit evil as my Lucas was or did Batman become a good influence on this version?”

“I do come from Earth X yes but I’m not part of the evil that world is run by your sister is however, I worked alongside my father until…” Lucas began to explain before taking a painful pause, as he was reminded of the death of his father, his friends, his loved ones and the only world he had known as home.

“Until the death of the multiverse…you’re the only survivor from your earth, aren’t you?” Sara asked sympathetically, knowing the answer by the pure look of devastation of Lucas Wayne’s face and the tears forming in his eyes.

“All the worlds from our multiverse are gone…completely wiped out except for the newly reborn Earth Prime…in time there will be more reborn, but our worlds are gone forever!” Lucas cried. “I knew it would one day come to this, but I thought I’d be gone too.”

“We should probably go somewhere to talk about all this something tells me we’re both going to need one hell of a drink.” Sara suggested to Earth X’s version of her Lucas, wanting to stop his cries, distraught to see a soft side to any version of her brother.

“My father said not to trust anyone…but he was highly paranoid, and you are a fellow canary after all.” Lucas replied while drying his tears. “Let’s just keep your sister out of this one!”

Sara Lance had sought out Lucas fully expected to find the man she loved like a brother to be fooling them all but instead she found a good hearted and vulnerable Lucas Wayne, one not too dissimilar to the Lucas Lance she once knew before becoming the Red Canary.

She knew she could trust the Blue Canary as she recognized the pain in his eyes, the loss he must of felt and the loneliness he was now suffering from following the death of his entire world but just because she was willing to trust Lucas Wayne and he was willing to trust her didn’t mean it would be so easy for everyone else.

Sara Lance had been convinced that the man she found in Lafayette Cemetery was in fact the Earth X’s Lucas Wayne, the Blue Canary and the son of batman and decided to take him back to her own Lance Hotel within the French Quarter of New Orleans going as far to take him up to her own private bedroom within the hotel so they could have some privacy.

Sara ordered some much needed beers for them both via room service before they both walked out to Sara’s private balcony, both holding bottles of beers as they looked down on the city of New Orleans taking in the beautiful view that the city had to offer.

Lucas Wayne was taught to never trust anyone but he wasn’t anywhere near as distrusting as his father in fact he liked to believe he was a great judge of character and his judgement for Sara Lance was that he could trust her, a gut instinct which he wasn’t wrong about as she willing divulged information about his doppelganger Lucas Lance.

“I don’t mean to be cruel but I can’t help but see irony that the Laurel you know was determined to stop your Lucas’ evil ways considering I’ve spent most of my life cleaning up after a mother who abandoned me and the evil acts she committed on my earth.” Lucas scoffed at Sara while taking a sip of his beer. “Although I guess your Lucas was also abandoned by his Laurel in a way luckily, I had my father to raise me honestly and not under a cloud of deceit.”

“It wasn’t exactly like that it was a future version of Laurel in our world and she was trying to protect you.” Sara defended her sister while still feeling sympathy for this version of her nephew. “I know you’ve lost a lot and I know Siren X was a wicked bitch but my Laurel’s not like that she’s a hero…just like you.”

“It must’ve been difficult being part of a mission to kill a loved one for the great good I’d like to believe I’d be that honorable if I were ever in that situation.” Lucas replied with sincerity, making it known to Sara he didn’t hold her or Laurel responsible for his Earth X fate. “My whole life has been a never-ending battle fighting side by side with my father with the quest for freedom and now the war has ended…everyone lost…and all I want to do is find another battle to fight.”

“I get that for many years I was an assassin with the league of assassin’s my life was far less honorable but it was a never ending battle nonetheless and upon leaving the league I had to fight someone I called a brother.” Sara comforted Lucas before they both took drinks from their bottles of beer. “My war ended about five years ago and it was hard at first…don’t get me wrong things are never quiet around here, but this life really is an improvement to my previous even if I am a vampire.”

“You’re a vampire!” Lucas said in shock before laughing at the White Canary. “I think I can safely assume that this is Earth Blood then.”

“Lucas…” Laurel spoke with a sense of shock and heartbreak in both her voice and on her face, as she walked into Sara’s hotel room forcing both Lucas and Sara to walk back in from the balcony to greet the Black Canary.

“Judging by you looking not much older than I am that I’m also in the past instead of the present of Earth Blood.” Lucas stated, correctly assuming where and when he was, while Laurel continued to look at her son with tears forming in her eyes.

“He’s not our Lucas, he’s really not but he needs us Laurel.” Sara revealed to her older sister. “I think we need him too…I think you need him too.”

“So, you’re really from Earth X then?” Laurel managed to say as she held back her tears. “You must hate me even more than my Lucas did.”

“Well as long as you don’t try to kill me on numerous occasions, I’m fairly sure you and I will get along in some shape or form.” Lucas replied to the good doppelganger of his evil mother. “You’re not her I can’t hate for actions someone else made.”

“Wow you really aren’t my Lucas!” Laurel both cried and laughed, unsure if she was happy or not by the discovery of the good doppelganger of her evil son.

It was hard for Sara Lance not to see the little brother she grew up alongside when she looked at Lucas Wayne knowing that despite him looking exactly like Lucas Lance he wasn’t that man but he did share many similarities with who her adoptive brother Lucas was before becoming the Red Canary before Lucas Lance gave into evil.

Laurel Lance was resistant at first to get to know this doppelganger of her son but she knew he was innocent and as long as any version of her son needed her help she was going to be there for him even if it caused potential carnage between her and her bonds with the Mikaelson family, knowing Klaus would definitely have something to say about another Lucas being in New Orleans.

Nyssa al Ghul had decided to stay on Earth Blood five years previous creating a league of assassins of her own and claimed the island of Lian Yu for herself and her assassin army using her chance to break free from her father once and for all and both Sara and Laurel had been living on Earth Blood for quite some time too but they were far from alone.

Upon the death of the multiverse Lucas Wayne wasn’t the only one to find a way of escaping erasure by the anti-matter wave and Bruce Wayne wasn’t the only one to learn about the strange world of Earth Blood and the Blue Canary wasn’t the only one who used this world as an escape from their own deaths although he was the only one anyone would be happy to see.

In fact quite a few people from multiple worlds managed to find some way of escaping the death of the multiverse bringing them all to Earth Blood which may not have been a huge concern for the Mikaelson’s but it was certainly about to put the lives of all the canaries in definite danger.

“Well Puddin you don’t quite look like my Mr J but you sure as handsome!” Harley Quinn stated as she walked up to the gates of Lafayette Cemetery to find a different version of The Joker stood there waiting for her, knowing by the look of him he was just as sinister as The Joker she knew.

“Well you look exactly like the Harley Quinn I’m used to.” The Joker replied as he walked slowly towards a doppelganger of his sinister lover. “Now don’t tell me you’ve disappointed me and came alone now.”

“Don’t be silly now I’m a very smart broad and I know if we’re going to take this city by storm then we’re going to need accomplishes…although alone time with you is definitely on my schedule right after some chaos and carnage.” Harley answered with a menacing look in her eyes as Poison Ivy, Ra’s al Ghul and Killer Frost appeared from out of the shadows, each of the three looking just as sinister as delighted with themselves as the others.

The Joker simply replied with a manic and continuous laugh clearly beyond ecstatic to have escaped death once more, eager to rid this world of any good that resided within it knowing his twisted team were more than prepared to take out anyone that got in their way even if Batman himself somehow managed to follow them.

Now truly was the time for some true carnage and The Joker was more than ready to inflict it on everyone that got in his way.

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demigodofhoolemere · 5 years

Text

Oh boy. Here we go. Gonna try to get my Endgame thoughts out. Usually I give spoiler-free versions as well, but... you really can’t say a word about this movie that isn’t a spoiler, so everything goes under the cut.

~~~

Shortest summary: the things that were good were really good, but the things that were bad were just as bad (aka disappointing), and there are gray areas in between that I have complicated feelings for.

I’ll start with the bad so I can end with the good.

Complaints

- Anyone who knows how I feel about Ragnarok knows that the first and most frustration-filled complaint has to be about Thor. I try not to speak too openly about my feelings for that movie, because a) I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun by saying how much I hate the thing they love, no one wants to hear that, and b) I don’t want to be eaten alive for it anyway. But given that we’re under the cut now: I really hate that movie. And there’s a plethora of things I could get into about that which I won’t, the important point here is that I can’t stand Thor’s characterization. They stripped him of everything that made him who he was, to the point of such unrecognizability that I only call him by name in quotation marks or refer to him as Fake Thor. I know how many people consider the overhaul an improvement, but I genuinely loved who he once was, and they turned my boy into the exact kind of character that I hate ten out of ten times. Infinity War, while still very much trying to keep with who he’d become, seemed like it was attempting to course-correct and let him actually be serious again, he definitely had some moments that I liked where I could see him as the Thor I know peeking out again. Foolishly I assumed Endgame would follow suit, especially since this is supposed to be the biggest, darkest movie ever. Instead I’m subjected to a “Thor” who is SOMEHOW even further removed from recognition and manages to even be an insult to Ragnarok Thor, who in the very least refused to give up on his goals and knew that hiding and drinking wasn’t the answer to problems. This yet newer version is drinking himself into oblivion and not trying even a bit to actually be any kind of leader for his people, and it’s all played for laughs. This genuinely tragic and miserable state they put him in is all played for laughs. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d have Thor respond to his trauma and depression, foolishly thinking that his characterization might be slowly headed to a better place and it might be something like how we used to see Thor deal with his pain (quietly, soldiering on, but clearly without his heart completely in it, he tries to be okay and he hides it and he smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes, and he hurts and he grieves but he never gives up because surrender is not in his nature) — but it turns out the man can’t even be depressed without it being a joke. It honestly pained me to watch and I wanted to throw up, because it feels like a stranger walking around in Thor’s corpse, and because it was all just one long joke about him being sad and fat (like that’s okay to make fun of?), and all of this during the hugest movie event ever. The culmination of a decade of stories, and this is what we get. A disgrace in every way. It’s terrible but when Thanos was digging the weapon into his chest, I was actually hoping he’d die. I can’t take it anymore. The only reason I have left for caring whether he lives is purely for Loki’s sake at this point, because he shouldn’t have to lose his brother, but then again, I really don’t even feel like his brother is home anymore. The lights are on but it’s someone else in the house and I don’t know who he is, all I know is I never want to have to see him again. (When Frigga says he’s not the Thor she knows... I know she meant it differently but that was a mood).

- Also, he never talks about Loki for a second, not a single namedrop, he’s not even alluded to in the present day outside of the audience simply knowing that it’s part of the reason Thor hates Thanos, but it’s vague at best. He outright walks past Loki in his cell without a moment of reaction. Their entire history and bond is treated as nonexistent. Thanks.

- While they were at it the movie also refused to acknowledge anything that Thanos did to Loki pre-New York, which I really didn’t expect but it would have been nice. Best we have is two seconds in IW of Bruce saying that he “sent” him, which really doesn’t do justice to the truth of it. And the thing is... I don’t know that I can even expect the Loki series to address it, either. It’s not present day Loki, which I’m peeved about because I wanted him back, and now we lose all post-Avengers character development, and I lose hope of seeing the one thing I’ve wanted for this character in the 7 years I’ve known and loved him: healing. I’ve only ever wanted to see him get help, figure out his mind, figure out who he wants to be, make progress and get better. Goodness knows that’s all Tom ever talks about wanting for him, too. I doubt that will happen now, given that a) they had Loki peace out with the Tesseract and b) the synopsis was something about him traveling through Earth history and influencing events, both of which tell me we could easily be going down the ‘haha I love stealing the Tesseract and stabbing people at random’ road that I so don’t want to go down, with an added ‘I want to screw up time just because’ for good measure. He’s a trickster, yes, but he didn’t used to be like this, and if this is all they’ll let him be then I lose hope of seeing him allowed to be emotional, or having any of his trauma acknowledged, or being shown to have actual personal motivations and desires outside of mischief, and the hope that he would have a moral code and display a capacity for goodness (yes, Loki has those things) is likely a pipe dream. Tom is my only hope, and knowing how he is with the character, his hands are extremely safe ones to be in and I know that no matter what’s written he’ll do all he can to bring as much truth to Loki as possible, but it still depends on who’s in charge, and unless by miracle it ends up being Kenneth Branagh, I have trust issues. I’m happy he’s alive at all but I’m worried about my boy. I just want him back from the present day, revived from having to be brutally murdered by his torturer, and out of the hands of anyone who’s not going to take care of his character.

- By the way, is “the sun will shine on us again” really just false hope after all that? He was the only optimistic person in the movie and had a suspicious 3+ minute absence where he could have been doing anything, and nothing comes of that? I mean, I’m grateful for the true sacrifice, and I’m glad the Russos know that he would do that (my issue with the scene not being that he uses a dagger, but only that we’re not shown him trying anything else first; I believe he’d do what he did if it was the last possible thing he could attempt, I just wish we’d been shown that that was definitively the case), and that it didn’t lean into the ‘oh he just loves faking his death’ misunderstanding, but I was kinda hoping for a reversal, you know? It wouldn’t change the impact, he still made his choice and it’s still massive for the character, it just... wouldn’t have to be permanent... please I miss my son so much.

- PROFFESOR HULK. I was afraid they’d go down this route, and it seemed more or less confirmed by the time the movie was about to come out. I’m highly uncomfortable with the whole concept, I’ve never liked it in any medium. Bruce was already OOC as well at times, particularly his first scene in the diner, but having him do this pretty much equates to him murdering Hulk. It’s Bruce’s consciousness in Hulk’s body, which kind of kicks out Hulk. Is his mind trapped inside or is he just gone? Either way, there’s clearly no intention of ever reversing this, which ends up still effectively killing Hulk no matter how you go about it. The arc Bruce has been on was supposed to be about him accepting Hulk, and the two of them learning to work together better. Having Bruce decide that he only wants the body is NOT conflict resolution. They acted like it was the best of both worlds, as if Hulk was only ever a secondary body and not an actual separate living personality, which drives me crazy. He was unceremoniously taken out, offscreen, by the same man who gave him life. He deserved better than that, he deserved to live. Now we’ll never see him again. Not a fun day to be a Hulk fan.

- Over-the-top humor where there shouldn’t have been. I love good humor, I’m grateful for relief from angst, and there were some very good funny moments, but there comes a point where it shouldn’t be done, if you can’t do it well and in a way that is not inappropriate for the tone (hint: fat jokes are inappropriate for the tone). Humor abuse is frustratingly growing more and more common, in Marvel and in general.

- Angst for the sake of angst regardless of whether it could have been avoided. I know that much of fiction works like this but still. Stephen could have used the Time Stone on Tony’s injuries to bring him to the moment before it happened, so that he could be saved without undoing the victory. He saved Wong that way, Thanos used the stone on Vision without changing anything else around him, we know it’s possible. Same could have been done for Nat, too. And my sister pointed out that they should have just time traveled to somewhere in that 22-day timespan to get the stones from Thanos before he destroyed them, because they were all together and it would have saved them the time heist and the massive battle. I know the movie would have been over quickly, but seriously, they went to a lot of trouble that they didn’t need to. I like having reasons for why things have to be done or not done a certain way, rather than asking me to ignore the obvious ways out.

- The time travel logic REALLY needed to be explained better. They made a point of contradicting the traditionally accepted time travel rules, and made a minor attempt at explaining how they were choosing to do it, but didn’t make it clear enough to follow. I can’t figure out for the life of me what’s supposed to become of Gamora, or why Nebula killing herself in the past doesn’t kill her in the present, or what in the world happens to personal timelines that have been tampered with (Loki not experiencing TDW and onward, Peggy not having her family, etc), among many other questions. Nothing makes any sense and they left a total mess in their wake. It felt like they were just giving themselves a pass to do whatever they wanted rather than follow any logic.

- On that note: Gamora. As much as I refuse to give up hope for her, it seems to me that they’re not planning on fixing that. The only reason I hadn’t been as panicked for her wellbeing as I could have been was because I figured they couldn’t just leave things that way. I remembered James Gunn once said that Vol 3 could be watched without having seen IW and Endgame, which implied to me that there would be no Guardians deaths that wouldn’t get undone, but now I’m wondering if it’s set before IW or I just misremembered what he said entirely - either way it’s feeling like we’re really just starting over with 2014 Gamora, which is all kinds of messed up to 2018 Gamora. What kind of ending is that? Killed by her abusive kidnapper “father”, and trying to make the audience sympathetic to his pain? That scene was beautifully done, in a sick and twisted way, but it needs to be fixed. I want her back in one piece. She deserved to see the end of Thanos, in her own normal timeline and not in her new one, and move on with her life and her sister and her family. Justice for Gamora.

- Rocket calling Mantis “the chick with the antennae”, as if he wasn’t friends with her for four years. I’m pretending that he was just getting too emotional saying all of their names and decided to distance himself from it, because that’s the only thing that makes sense, unless he’s legitimately having a memory problem in his older age. Rocket is gruff but his team is his family and that includes Mantis.

- Five years later. Why. Please don’t make my kids go through this for five years. You only did this for the Morgan pain, you sadists. You know that’s the only reason you did this, it didn’t need to be five years, why do you like to hurt me—

- In general it just felt like it didn’t live up to the promises Infinity War made? It feels like a completely different event.

- No Dum-E and U at the funeral. Unrealistic, Tony wouldn’t stand to have his bots left out. I know this isn’t important, but it’s important.

Conflicting Feelings

- Less worried about Vision since I know he and Wanda have a show coming and Feige said that the Disney+ shows are post-Endgame, but we don’t know in what capacity he’ll appear. He could be emotionless White Vision, or Wanda could be going House-of-M style and hallucinating him or trying to change reality to keep him, or who knows what else. Hopefully it’s all good. Cautiously optimistic?

- Not sure about Clint becoming a killer. I can buy a mourning family man having that anger in him, and I know Ronin is a comics thing and that historically he can have a bit of a temper at times, but at the same time... it’s Clint. I can’t figure out how I feel about it.

- What Tony did was amazing and everything, but Nebula still should have been the one to kill Thanos.

- Making it five years later makes things very awkward for setting things right. If you were to undo everything, you erase important things that happened in the time since, especially children born (and when they introduced Morgan I knew what path they were taking). It makes sense to bring people back without turning the time back. But the snapped people also miss five years of world developments, five years of their loved ones’ lives, and will now forever be younger than people that they used to be older than. Worse, it won’t undo the damage that was done outside of the snap. People who died in crashes because their drivers or pilots disappeared, people who died on operating tables because their surgeons disappeared, people who committed suicide because they couldn’t live with what happened. Those people are never coming back, unless we pretend that Tony took them into account when he fixed things. It’s just... no matter what way you go about fixing things, it’s uncomfortable for somebody.

- Nat’s death. Conflicted purely because I love her and I want her back. The death was incredibly well done and emotionally impactful and believable for the character and the journey she’s been on all these years. Can’t say enough for how much I loved she and Clint stopping each other back and forth, and how flipping proud I am of her and who she is. I would bring her back in a heartbeat and I’m completely devastated, but I’m so proud. However, where was her funeral?

- Tony... I sooo prepped myself for the wrong Avenger. I’ve been expecting Steve to die for years now, so that’s what I went in thinking would happen, and while I did have my concerns and occasional doubts, I had become like 90% convinced that Tony would be okay because I didn’t think they could actually do it, especially with him having so much to live for. It’s utterly heartbreaking, because we’ve gone through YEARS with him, he’s suffered so much and he’s earned his happy ending a thousand times over, it was owed to him, and to watch him die when happiness was within his grasp... that’s not entertainment anymore, you know? It’s just twisted and sadistic. I can see how it ties things together and wraps up his story, but not in a satisfying way. I wanted nothing more than for him to get to live with his family. If he had to die, the way they did it was amazing, it was beautiful and epic and it meant something, the reactions of Pepper and the others were completely heartbreaking in every horrible way, they used so many callbacks to his previous movies and especially the first one (I am NOT even getting into all of them, holy crap, they murdered me so many times over), it hit in all the right ways and it was all the right kinds of angst, it’s exactly the kind of thing I’d have done if I had to write that... but I didn’t want this. I’m devastated beyond description. I had to watch my sweet boy die with my own two eyes. He built the MCU from the ground up and this is his sendoff. It’s certainly one befitting his character, but that doesn’t mean it’s what he deserved. I want to erase this from my memories. Nothing happened, it’s fine.

- This one is going to sound cruel, but... as much as I don’t want Steve to die, I would have been less dissatisfied if it had been him. He had less to lose, I felt. He never truly felt like he belonged in the 21st century, he always struggled to figure himself and his place in life out, never seemed very comfortable in his own skin. It would have made sense for him to be the one to make the sacrifice. I could have accepted him achieving his personal peace in reuniting with the loved ones he’s lost, he’d get so much of his life back even if it had to be in the next one.

- On the Steve note, I love him and Peggy as much as the next person, truly truly truly, but... she had a family, she had an entire life. The Russos claim that the family still exists, but because none of this timeline stuff was made clear, it just feels like Steve erased her whole history so he could be with her and it honestly came across as uncharacteristically selfish of him. Yes, he deserves happiness as much as any of the Avengers, and believe me, I was sobbing watching them finally get their dance. Part of me is happy and satisfied. But... it doesn’t feel right. Not him messing with her life, not him going through all of those decades knowing what was happening to Bucky and doing nothing, not any of it. Obviously I know he struggled to move on, I mentioned that above, but he DID create a family and he had friends and people he loved, and he just left them. It doesn’t sit well. It gets worse when you factor Sharon into it, because for one thing, she’d now be his grand-niece and he’d have to live with the knowledge that he’s kissed her, and for another, talk about one last kick to the dead horse that was any hope of Sharon being allowed an ounce of good treatment from the MCU. There was a draft of IW where she and Steve were trying to live in an apartment together, that kind of seals the deal that they were attempting a relationship, and yet... not one bit of consideration for her. I’ve never even shipped the two together, but I care about Sharon and she has been done SO dirty, I feel so bad. I wish I could be happy about Steve and Peggy’s happy ending without so many things hanging uncomfortably overhead.

Good

- Got to watch Thanos die twice.

- Got to watch Tony and Nebula play table football.

- Clint has finally returned to me!!!

- So many good character interactions with emotional depth and people truly being friends. Eating sandwiches and laying around brainstorming. Steve and Natasha is always a favorite. Nat and Clint absolutely destroyed me, I love how they are as close as is humanly possible without crossing the romantic threshold (pretty similar to her with Steve, come to think of it). I loved Tony and Nebula’s relationship, and her scenes with Rhodey were meaningful. She and Rocket holding hands, my heart. Some good Rhodey and Carol content in there. Very nice to see Scott interact with people more properly than he got to in CW, and to see the Guardian survivors dealing with their Earth friends (I am never getting over Nat receiving emails from Rocket). That Clint and Wanda moment got me. Also just... so nice to see Clint even exist to interact with anyone at all, frankly. And I finally started to believe Steve and Tony as friends in this canon. A little.

- Generally just emotional about all of my babies.

- MARRIED PEPPERONY. WITH A CHILD. PRECIOUS FATHER TONY STARK. ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE. I CAN’T EVEN BEGIN. I CAN’T GET INTO THIS. IT’S TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART. I HAVE TO LEAVE IT AT THAT.

- Gamora and Nebula being sisters!

- Harley! This wasn’t how I wanted to see him again, but Harley!

- A few seconds of light of my life Janet van Dyne!

- And Hank! Present day AND amazing 70s flashback hair with that beautiful classic Ant-Man helmet that would have been completely impractical function-wise but that I love and appreciate seeing!

- Scott and Cassie killed me. Anything Ant-Man related killed me. I have so many questions about what happened to people. What was Cassie’s living situation like? Are Maggie and Paxton okay? Luis? Kurt and Dave? I hope Ava did get snapped, actually, for her own sake considering she needed the particles to live and she wouldn’t have been getting them, and I don’t want Bill to be without her so hopefully they went together and can come back together.

- Carol. Just Carol.

- Rocket is always a delight.

- Again with the Budapest baiting! I want to know!

- Loved seeing the Ancient One! A breath of fresh air in a rollercoaster of breathlessness.

- The bit with Peter Quill on Morag made me smile so big. Loved the bonus shot of him singing along badly when we can’t hear the song. I needed that bit of happiness. Plus, GotG is one of the only ones I never ended up seeing when it was still in theaters, so it was great to be able to experience at least that part on the big screen.

- Man, going back to 2012 made me miss those days so hard.

- Appreciated the Winter Soldier references and appearances.

- Steve knowing he could disarm himself just by mentioning Bucky, my heart!

- Edwin Jarvis, my love! I can’t believe they incorporated one of the shows into one of the movies!

- Tony with Howard was so emotional. I know a lot of people hate Howard, and I get why, but I’ve always enjoyed seeing him, and I’m grateful that Tony has been able to really get closure in regards to his relationship with his father. It doesn’t change the negligence, but it’s important that Tony be able to be in a good place, I’m happy he’s healing. He made my heart turn mush during that sequence.

- WHEN STEVE WAS STANDING ON HIS OWN AGAINST THANOS AND HIS ENTIRE ARMY. POWERFUL.

- AND SUDDENLY YOU HEAR SAM’S VOICE AND “ON YOUR LEFT” AND YOU CRY.

- AND SUDDENLY YOU SEE A PORTAL OPENING AND YOU SCREAM BECAUSE LIGHT OF YOUR LIFE STEPHEN VINCENT STRANGE IS ALIVE.

- AND SUDDENLY YOUR WAKANDAN BABIES ARE BACK AND YOUR CHEST SWELLS.

- AND SUDDENLY EVERYONE YOU’VE EVER LOVED IS ALL THERE AND IT’S A BEAUTIFUL POWERFUL ENSEMBLE AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEEDED.

- AND AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. FINALLY.

- AND PEPPER COMES IN THE RESCUE ARMOR THAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE 2013 AND SHE AND TONY ARE A BACK-TO-BACK POWER COUPLE.

- AND TONY AND PETER REUNITE AND ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

- AND STEPHEN IS MOSES AND IT’S AMAZING.

- AND WANDA IS READY TO FLIPPING OBLITERATE THANOS AND START UNLEASHING SOME CHAOS MAGIC AND YOU’VE NEVER FELT SO ALIVE.

- AND CAROL IS WRECKING THANOS’S SHIPS AND YOU’RE LAUGHING WITH GLEE.

- AND ALL OF THE WOMEN GATHER PROTECTIVELY AROUND PETER AND YOU’VE NEVER RELATED TO ANY OF THEM MORE AND YOU DON’T EVEN CARE THAT IT’S CONTRIVED THAT IT’S CONVENIENTLY ALL OF THE WOMEN BECAUSE THIS IS WAY TOO AWESOME OF A SHOT TO NITPICK.

- AND SCOTT AND HOPE ARE ADORABLE AND PERFECT.

- AND GAMORA DOESN’T KNOW PETER AND YOU CRY.

- AND STEVE IS WIELDING MJOLNIR AND YOU’RE SCREAMING BECAUSE YOU KNEW IT, WORTHY WORTHY WORTHY WORTHY WORTHY!!!!!

- AND YOU KEEP SCREAMING THROUGH THE ENTIRE BATTLE BECAUSE IT’S INCREDIBLE!!!

- I’M STILL LIVING ON THAT HIGH IN CASE YOU COULDN’T TELL!!!

- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- And then just. Stephen lifts a finger. And you know.

- “I. Am. Iron Man.”

- Honestly thought he was going to say ‘invincible’ as a shout-out to his comic adjective but the full circle is way better and I’m a wreck. All hail Anthony Edward Stark.

- Watching Thanos turn to dust is very, very satisfying.

- For all of the years they teased Bucky!Cap, you’d think I’d be a bit put out that we’re not getting it, but honestly? Sam!Cap is a better fit, I think. Bucky needs rest, he deserves to not have to fight anymore. Sam has the skills and personality of a good leader, setting a moral example you want to follow, he embodies what it means and what it takes to be Captain America. He’s gonna be awesome at it.

- Peter and Ned reuniting at school! Babies!

- Happy’s general presence just made me weepy, I love him and we owe Jon Favreau everything.

- Erik Selvig on a screen! Why he was listed as deceased when there’s a (supposedly?) canon tie-in book that features him very much alive, I have no idea, but seeing him made me smile nonetheless.

- Seeing 2012 Thor again made me SO happy you have NO idea holy crap.

- Just seeing Loki again at all. Mimicking Steve, being snarky, waving goodbye to Hulk in the elevator. I’m happy to accept that little bit as canon, because it was actually good. It was what I needed to soothe my soul. I miss you, my beautiful sassmaster child. Come back to me.

- And Loki in the cell. That was always one of my favorite shots anyway, but just... such a breath of air. To see Loki on the big screen again, and not just that, but to specifically get a Dark World clip? I feel alive.

- The fact that Dark World is even being acknowledged as having existed is greatly pleasing to me, let alone being treated to seeing some of it again. Those were the freaking days, man.

- SEEING ASGARD AGAIN MADE ME SOB. MY TEARS WERE NOT PRETTY, BUT ASGARD SURE WAS. I MISS YOU, ASGARD.

- JANE FREAKING FOSTER. MY GIRL. I HOPED SHE’D SHOW BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO EXPECT ANYTHING BUT OH MY WORD DID I CRY. I CRIED SO HARD. I FINALLY GOT TO SEE HER AGAIN AFTER SO LONG. IT’S BEEN SO FLIPPING LONG BUT MY GIRL IS FINALLY REMEMBERED. HER DELETED SCENE WAKING UP IN THE ROOM ACTUALLY GOT USAGE YEARS LATER. AND JUST. NEW JANE. NEW JANE MATERIAL. ALL SHE DID WAS ASK FOR PANTS BUT I’LL TAKE IT. EVERY SECOND WAS A TREASURE. I MISSED YOU JANE I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. COME BACK TO ME. WRITERS PLEASE BRING HER BACK. I NEED TO SEE HER GET TO USE HER SMARTS AGAIN. I MISS MY GENIUS BABY GIRL.

- FRIGGA. WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL APPLE OF MY EYE ALLMOTHER FRIGGA. I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW GOOD IT WAS TO SEE HER. AFTER ALL THIS TIME, IN ALL HER AMAZING FRIGGA GLORY. MY QUEEN. I MISSED HER SO FLIPPING MUCH. I CANNOT BELIEVE I HAVE NEW FRIGGA CONTENT. SHE WAS SO PERFECTLY HERSELF. I CHERISHED EVERY MOMENT. TALKING ABOUT SENDING LOKI SOME SOUP AND SOME BOOKS BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE WOULD. SEEING RIGHT THROUGH FUTURE THOR BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE WOULD. I’M SO GLAD SHE WAS SHOWN TO BE IMPORTANT TO THOR BECAUSE THEY WERE ALWAYS THE LEAST DEVELOPED DYNAMIC OF THE FAMILY AND ALL OF THEIR SCENES ARE CUT. SHE WAS RAISED BY WITCHES AND NOW I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THAT. ALWAYS SO GENTLE AND CARING TOWARDS HER SONS. ALWAYS SO PERCEPTIVE. HER BEAUTIFUL AMAZING FRIGGA SMILE. WAVING AT ROCKET. THE WAY SHE TALKS. THE WAY SHE SAVED THE SCENE AND MY SANITY. IT WAS PERFECT. SHE’S PERFECT. I NEED HER BACK ALREADY. SHE CAN NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN. SHE MADE THIS TORTURE BEARABLE AND I MISS HER AGAIN ALREADY.

- ALL THE THINGS RELATED TO GETTING MY OLD THOR WORLD BACK ARE VERY OBVIOUSLY MY FAVORITE PARTS THAT MADE ME HAPPIER THAN I COULD POSSIBLY BEGIN TO DESCRIBE AND I AM GOING TO BE LIVING OFF OF THIS VICTORY FOREVER.

Conclusion

The things I don’t like aren’t canon and everyone is totally fine and nothing is wrong at all. I’m taking the good stuff and running away with it and doing whatever I want with it to turn it all into the best possible version in my head. The end.

#i think i covered most of it but if i remember something i may add later #marvel #avengers 4 #endgame #a4 post #review #spoilers #marvel spoilers #avengers 4 spoilers #endgame spoilers #endgame critical #ragnarok critical #marvel critical #thor critical

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Why Batman Still Matters: DC on 80 Years of the Dark Knight

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Detective Comics hits #1000 as Batman turns 80. We talked to Kevin Conroy, Bruce Timm, Scott Snyder, and more about the hero's legacy!

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John Saavedra

Batman

Mar 27, 2019

DC Entertainment

Scott Snyder

Kevin Conroy

Bruce Timm

This Batman article contains spoilers for Detective Comics #1000.

It all began with two shots in the dark, pearls spilling onto the blood-soaked cement. No, it all started when the bat crashed through the window. Actually, it was when the boy fell into the cave. Maybe it was that hostile takeover at Apex Chemicals? Dozens of stories have shaped the legend of the Batman over his 80-year history, tales that have made the Caped Crusader arguably the most iconic character in comic book history, rivaled only by Superman.

When Bill Finger and Bob Kane put pen and pencils to paper for 1939's Detective Comics #27, they had no way of knowing that they were creating a new American myth that would captivate readers and movie audiences for decades to come. They certainly didn't expect their first Batman adventure, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," to spawn 973 more issues of Detective Comics, let alone become a blockbuster franchise of movies, TV series, video games, and McDonald's Happy Meals.

But here we are: this week sees the release of Detective Comics #1000, written and drawn by some of the best creators in the business. The giant-sized, 96-page issue features stories by legends such as Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Steve Epting, Christopher Priest, Jim Lee, Kelley Jones, Paul Dini, Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, and Geoff Johns as well as the current custodians of the Bat-mythos -- Tom King, Tony S. Daniel, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Joelle Jones, Scott Snyder, and Greg Capullo. And that's not even including the excellent covers by Jim Steranko, Bernie Wrightson, Bruce Timm, Frank Miller, Jock, Tim Sale, and more.

Batman is only the second DC A-list superhero to reach such a massive milestone, the other being the Man of Steel, who celebrated his own 80th last year with the release of Action Comics #1000, and the company is celebrating every era of the character in this Bat-themed anniversary issue, from one of his very first (and longest) cases as a young vigilante to his very last on the eve of a lonely birthday.

In one story, we see Bruce struggling with a fateful decision that will change his young ward Dick Grayson's life forever, while in another, Batman's extended family of heroes gets together for a hilarious reunion on a rooftop. There's also Bruce getting some much-needed guidance from Leslie Thompkins as well as a story about the worst henchmen in Batman's rogues gallery that perfectly recreates the tone of Batman: The Animated Series. The issue's most poignant tale is about Bruce's search for the gun that killed his mother and father in a ghastly scene that's been retold through every generation of the character. All of these excellent stories are meant to explore both Batman's growth, from pulpy masked vigilante to modern symbol of hope (Zack Snyder movies notwithstanding), as well as the nature of the legend itself.

What is it about this story of a boy who suffers a terrible tragedy and grows up to avenge the death of his parents night after night that has kept it at the forefront of our pop culture? Batman has been able to outlive or overshadow many of the characters that inspired his own creation -- Zorro, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom Detective, Dracula, among others -- but what makes him so special?

I was fortunate enough to speak to Batman writers Scott Snyder and Peter J. Tomasi, artists Bruce Timm and Jock, and the Caped Crusader himself, Batman: The Animated Series' Kevin Conroy, about why Batman still matters after all this time. Their answers showcase different aspects of the Dark Knight, from his flexibility as a character to just how damn good he looks in that costume.

But according to Conroy, who I spoke to at New York Comic Con in 2017 and 2018, Batman's continued popularity goes back to something way more primal than form and function. To the classically-trained actor who was immortalized as THE voice of Batman in the '90s cartoon, the Caped Crusader is a modern retelling of myths and stories humans have been passing down for thousands of years.

"He's such a theatrical character," Conroy says, speaking of his initial hesitance to audition for the role. At the time, he was a theater actor who'd never done an animated role. But when he began reading the script, the character clicked. Conroy recognized this story. "They were absolutely right to cast a theater actor, especially one with a classical background, because this is Shakespeare. They're doing high drama. Batman is Achilles. He's Orestes. He's Hamlet."

The tragic Greek character Orestes is particularly on Conroy's mind when playing Batman. He's performed several plays as Orestes, a son who avenges his father's murder and goes mad because of it. By the end of the story cycle, Orestes has gone through hell and back because of his thirst for vengeance. Naturally, Conroy brought that familiarity with Orestes to his portrayal of Batman.

"He's a Homeric hero," Conroy says of the Caped Crusader. "I think of it often when I'm doing Batman because Orestes is haunted by the Furies. He descends into hell. He comes back. He's resurrected at the end. And I think so often, this is a very Orestial-like journey that Bruce Wayne goes on. His Furies are the memory of his parents' murder. It haunts him through his life. It's transformed him."

Conroy calls Batman a "classic character." Like Orestes before him, Batman has become the protagonist of our very own mythology, according to the actor.

"He's come out of such a fire and instead of letting life crush him, he turns that metamorphosis into something even greater than himself. He overcomes the tragedy that is his childhood to help heal the world...They've been telling that story for thousands of years, in different cultures and this is our culture's way of telling those stories, and I think they're just as valid."

"I think what makes him deeply enduring is that it's a really primal folk tale," Snyder, who's been writing Batman stories since 2011, says on the phone. "It's a story about a boy who loses everything and turns that loss into fuel to make sure that what happened to him never happens to anybody else."

While most of us aren't billionaire playboys with the resources to fight crime on a global (and sometimes cosmic) level, we understand pain, both emotional and physical, and a need to rise above it, even if we can't always do that. And we sympathize with Bruce's biggest regret -- if only he hadn't made his parents take him to see that Zorro movie, if only he hadn't been scared at the opera, if only he'd been braver and faster as the thug pulled the trigger, things might have been different. For Bruce, his crusade to stop evildoers comes down to replaying that single fateful moment over and over again. If only he'd done something...

Yet, Batman perseveres despite all of this pain, which is why people flock to the character, according to Snyder.

"It's a story of triumph over your worst fears, worst tragedy, and about taking your loss and turning it into a win," the writer says. "There's just this kind of power to him that speaks to our own potential, the human potential, even when we're challenged by things that seem insurmountably horrible."

Snyder has spent the better part of a decade showcasing Batman as a symbol of hope for the citizens of Gotham, putting him through the ringer, reopening old wounds while also making new ones -- the writer even killed the hero off at one point -- just so that he can pick himself up again and keep fighting.

But the character isn't all tragedy, death, and knightmares. Who could hang with a downer like that for 80 years?

"There are the fun elements, of course, that are similar to James Bond, like the gadgets, and the cars, and the planes, and just the cool factor of his costume."

Timm, who co-created Batman: The Animated Series and designed the show's iconic Art Deco aesthetic, is unsurprisingly most taken by Batman's look.

"I just think Batman looks great," Timm says during our chat at NYCC in 2018. "He's got the best costume motif in comics. Nothing comes close. He's dark and sexy and broody. It's really intoxicating and compelling in a way that almost no other in comics can come close to it."

He also admires the durability of the character through the different eras of comics, from the Golden Age, to the sillier '50s and '60s stories of the Comics Code era, to the darker takes we're more accustomed to today.

"It is amazing to me how flexible he is as a character. That you could have something as silly as the Adam West show or the old '50s comics, and then you have stuff like Neal Adams and Frank Miller and what we did. And you know, even more extreme, [Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's graphic novel] Arkham Asylum and things like that. And yet their all kind of the same character. It's like that character can encompass all of those different things. He can do space aliens and serial killers, you know? Yet, it kind of works."

This flexibility has allowed plenty of writers and artists to experiment with the Dark Knight, creating different versions of the character over the years. There really isn't a definitive take on Batman. Undoubtedly, one of the big reasons he's still so popular and speaks to so many people is that there's a Bat story for everybody. You can love the Batusi, Bat-Mite, or Mr. Freeze's cool party and still be right on the money about the Caped Crusader. You'd be remiss to call the character stale. The guy has done it all.

"It's almost like he's a force of nature, in which stories can happen around him, and there's something primordial, maybe, about the character and the way he looks, as well," veteran Batman artist Jock, who is currently working on a six-part miniseries with Snyder called The Batman Who Laughs, says on the phone. "You could put Batman in a new pose, and he'd still flourish, and I think those kinds of characters are very rare."

Tomasi, who has the huge responsibility of ushering in Detective Comics #1000 as the current writer on the series, puts it best in our email exchange:

"He's a character who can work across all genres. Somehow, someway, he can simply fit into every story, be it a war story, a western, a love story, a comedic angle, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, you name it, and of course any detective story you can possibly imagine."

Detective Comics #1000 closes with a prologue to Tomasi's next arc on the series, which will be drawn by Brad Walker (The Demon: Hell Is Earth) and introduce the Arkham Knight character from the recent Batman video game to DC continuity. While Tomasi can't say much about the story, especially when it comes to who is underneath the imposing Arkham Knight armor, he did share that the villain "looks at Batman as a curse on Gotham City and will do whatever it takes to destroy Batman and bring light to a city drowning in darkness."

Tomasi previously wrote the Batman: Arkham Knight tie-in series that acted as a prequel to the game, so he knows this rogue better than anyone. It's very fitting that he's using a new villain to begin Detective's run to another 1000 issues and a new era of Batman.

Will we still be talking about Batman in another 80 years? Sure, superhero stories are enjoying a second golden age, but tastes change and trends eventually end. Superheroes won't always be at the top of our pop culture food chain. It's inevitable that many of the characters we love today will fade with future generations, just as the Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Scarlet Pimpernel did. We may eventually embrace new forms of familiar myths, becoming obsessed with new idols. But only a fool would bet against a character who's survived as long as Batman has. Remember, the Batman always wins.

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.

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wondertrevcentral · 6 years

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I see a lot of well-intentioned fans of Wonder Woman worrying that Steve Trevor’s return somehow negates what he did for Diana. I would like to change this conversation, for Wonder Woman, and for many movies where the impossible is part of the appeal.

At the end of Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor flies a plane full of poison into the sky and detonates it, sacrificing himself, after telling Diana that he loves her and he wishes they had more time to be together. The anguish of watching Steve’s plane explode, and the inspiration of his love, helps to propel Diana into wielding her awesome powers in full. She handily beats the bad guy, her uncle Ares.

Steve’s goodbye to Diana and death are well-staged and effectively wrought. It’s emotional and wrenching, and losing the first man that she loved a hundred years ago has followed Diana into the present day. “Thank you for bringing him back to me,” she writes in a candid e-mail to Bruce Wayne, who had sent her the WWI picture of Diana, Steve, and their trusty companions that kicked off Wonder Woman‘s flashback. The watch that Steve gave her, and that Diana has clearly kept as a treasured memento, rests nearby.

Ever since Wonder Woman‘s sequel was confirmed last year and Chris Pine rumored to be involved in some capacity, we’ve talked here about how they’ll bring the beloved character back: is he but a dream within a dream? A clone? A hallucination? Did Steve’s plane somehow get frozen, preserving him as a young man, as superheroic Steves are wont to do? Godly resurrection? Illusions? Aliens?

Whatever it is that brings back some version of Steve Trevor, it’s likely going to be one of the bigger reveals of Wonder Woman 1984, and I’m guessing our guesses will be off. What it does not do is somehow devalue or change what Steve did out of love for Diana and to help save the world in 1917.

Here’s the thing about death as fictional a plot device: it’s the oldest trope in the book. It’s far older than books—death, and heroes trying to defy it and return a loved one from that state, are among the first stories that humans told each other. Onscreen, in big action movies, death is often used cheaply. We’re so used to it happening we don’t blink when a trenchful of people take heavy fire in a movie like Wonder Woman. A narratively well-earned death like Steve Trevor’s makes more of an emotional impact, sure, and it can make for a more resonant movie-going experience. But the idea that Steve should have to stay statically dead in a fantastical film where anything is possible in order to somehow elevate his actions and what they did to Diana is mind-boggling to me.

Here’s the thing about death: in real life, it is one of the worst things that the people left behind will ever experience. Death is cruel, merciless, and it can leave you feeling like there’s an expanding black hole lodged in your chest for many years. For the rest of your life.

Here’s the thing about death if we could reverse it here like we can in fiction: not a goddamn person on planet Earth would lament lost heroism or sacrifice or any other grandiose romantic bullshit we lay on death to try to make sense of it. Your loved one died to save you but now they’re back again? Sorry, Steve, I’m just not feeling it anymore because of all of that squandered heroism, no one would say ever.

The fact of the matter where Wonder Woman is concerned is that Steve Trevor did what he did in 1917 and it was surely one of the worst things that Diana went through. Having Steve return in some capacity 67 years later does not alter that past. Steve’s death also did not make Wonder Woman a hero. Diana was already a hero, and the loss of him served as a catalyst at a dire moment. That’s what losing someone does: it changes you like a chemical reaction. But it does not create or define you.

We go to see movies like Wonder Woman, Avengers, and Star Wars in order to escape into fictional realities where people get to do the impossible and have abilities that we can only dream about. So often, our heroes rise to the occasion because of a poignant loss, because this is an instinct that we can all understand. Iron Man with Yinsen. Batman and his parents. Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Captain America with Dr. Erskine and later Bucky Barnes. Spider-Man and his Uncle Ben.

But giving death the slip and coming back from it is also a huge appeal of comic books and their film incarnations. Incredible powers like the use of the Force and the capacity to appear as a Force ghost are part and parcel of what makes Star Wars tick. We want to witness worlds where death can’t quite hold us.

It used to be a longstanding fan and creator expectation in Marvel Comics that nobody had to “stay” dead except for Uncle Ben and Bucky Barnes. Those deaths were seen as being so essential to the narratives of Peter Parker and Steve Rogers that they could not be retconned or revived.

Then in 2005, comics writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting brought Bucky back onto the scene as the brainwashed assassin The Winter Soldier. It turned out that Bucky had not died in World War II after all, but was taken by the Russians, given a bionic arm, and reprogrammed to do their bidding for decades.

Bucky’s return from “the dead” is a perfect example of how such an important character’s revival does not negate the impact that his life and loss created in the first place. In fact, if anything, Brubaker created in The Winter Soldier arc the most tragic and brilliant foil possible for Captain America.

What is more difficult than having to face your best friend turned into your enemy? The film version of Winter Soldier is particularly excellent for the same reason. Cap’s agony at having to fight his old friend, and his unrelenting conflict about it and steadfast belief that Bucky was still Bucky beneath the brainwashing, helped make Winter Soldier into one of the most exciting and moving of the Marvel movies. Their continued melodrama and connection have carried through Civil War and Infinity War, and Bucky is a huge fan favorite. It’s hard to imagine where the MCU would have gone without the Winter Soldier storyline as a part of it.

Yet Marvel has also begun to overplay its hand where these tropes are concerned. They’ve been placing all of their chips on grief as the one failsafe to motivate a hero for too long. It worked so effectively for them before as a critical plot device that Infinity War can be read as a culminating series of attempts at impactful permadeaths in order to galvanize our heroes.

As the Russo brothers and Marvel Studios co-president Kevin Feige gleefully tease that some of the characters lost in Infinity War will really stay dead, they’re missing the point of why we love these films. We don’t need characters that we adore to remain dead for their lives to matter, but we’d like it if their deaths meant something when they happen instead of merely serving as a momentary plot beat.

It’s this kind of cheapened take on death-as-heroic-motivation that makes the Russos open Avengers: Infinity War with the horrific genocide of the Asgardians and the brutal deaths of Loki and Heimdall, just so that Thor is feeling sad and mad enough to go on a reckless quest. Do they know Thor at all? He would have done that anyway.

Will Loki or Heimdall ever return? I’d love that. Loki has also come back from death, not once, but twice, because he still had great things to contribute to the MCU narrative. Good characters in fantastical films don’t need to stay dead, but they do need good plotlines. The problem here doesn’t hinge on whether these characters should come back, but whether they should have died so wastefully in the first place. I don’t go into Avengers for gritty genocidal realism. I want to see them do the impossible.

Does Bucky Barnes’ return to the world cancel out who he was before or the value of how he seemingly died fighting alongside Steve Rogers, Steve’s shield in his hand? Hardly. It heightened the emotional impact of both characters in the modern day because of what they shared in the past. Thus it would likely be with a reunited Diana Prince and Steve Trevor.

We cannot know the circumstances of how they will come together again, but their history, and Diana having felt Steve’s loss, makes the relationship all the richer and all the more compelling. Their experiences are something that we will never experience, but we can have the chance to cheat death and live vicariously through them.

Source.

#wonder woman #wonder woman 1984 #ww1984 #steve trevor #diana prince #wondertrev

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sazorak · 7 years

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My Hero Academia’s hero and villain are not very good

My Hero Academia, Kohei Horikoshi’s shounen manga take on Western super hero comics, has been running nearly three years now. I am something of a binge-reader when it comes to media; I don’t care for the drawn-out schedule that comes from following serialized releases. But My Hero Academia (alongside One Piece, Berserk, and One Punch Man) is one of the few that I actively follow. Lately though, I’ve been wondering why.

It’s not that the comic has taken a particularly egregious downturn in quality or pacing – it’s been fairly consistent all in all. The current arc about the class becoming intern sidekicks has been interesting, and it’s been moving at a rather brisk pace. The issue I’m struggling with is more fundamental. It’s a problem My Hero Academia has had since the beginning, and it’s done little to ameliorate over time.

The main protagonist and antagonist of My Hero Academia are just not very good.

The lead of My Hero Academia, Izuku Midoriya, isn’t a bad character per se. The angle of an ordinary kid born into a society of supermen finding himself entrusted with power by his world’s urhero is a pretty good one. It’s an underdog story with tons of good karma built in as Midoriya is forced to struggle to surpass those who had mocked his lack of abilities. It’s also good for hitting those power-fantasy notes that are so crucial to making the shounen genre work. He’s earnest and likeable. It’s easy to root for Midoriya and put yourself in his shoes as he is manages to pull himself to the front of the pack by sheer heart and willpower alone. These are all good attributes for a protagonist in a heroic work!

But as time has gone on and as his powers have developed, he has ceased to be the underdog. Where he was once only keeping up with his classmates’ inborn genius by hard work and determination, now he’s not only the most driven but also the most talented. Midoriya’s climbed what should have been the first foothill on his journey to the top, and we’ve found that there is actually nothing else on the horizon— the foothill was the mountain. Midoriya’s journey of growth being essentially complete is dire, because it’s all Midoriya actually has: It turns out he’s REALLY boring.

Midoriya’s character revolves entirely around his desire to become a hero and imitate the super hero paragon, All Might. That’s it. This is literally all there is to him. He has no other interests. No particular ambitions beyond the dream to be The Best Hero. The only real struggles remaining for him are narrative happenstance and the gradual power-ups that are practically prescribed at this point. There’s nothing else to his story.

Here’s an example: In order to convince All Might’s former side kick to give him an internship, Midoriya has to make him laugh. This isn’t going to be easy; the sidekick is a straight-laced nerd, AND he has the ability to see the future. This concept has a lot of good goof-potential. You could conceive Midoriya in all his earnestness constructing an elaborate comedic scenario that, while perhaps falling on its face, would at least show off his good qualities. Maybe he’d screw up and it’d result in the kind of unplanned comedic pratfall that would be easy for the sidekick to laugh at.

Instead, what does Midoriya actually do? He does a bad impression of All Might of course, because “I want to be like All Might!” is his entire character! It pisses off the sidekick so much that the whole laughing angle is completely abandoned, and instead a scenario is contrived where Midoriya has to steal the approval stamp from the future-seeing sidekicks hand. Ultimately? He gets the internship because he didn’t damage any of the All Might memorabilia in the room. Midoriya’s All Might-mania would be a funny gag if it wasn’t the crux of who he is.

The only other aspects to Midoriya’s character beyond his hero-crush is his very typical shounen budding romance with Ochako Uraraka (that has not and will not ever be developed until the very end of the story, as is the staid shounen manga way), his willingness to occasionally break the rules in order to save lives (and then let McGruff the Crime Dog unironically say that he should have let his friend be murdered in front of him), and a mostly one-sided rivalry with his childhood bully Katsuki Bakugo. Only the rivalry actually feels that impactful to the story, and that has more to do with Katsuki’s personal arc than Midoriya’s.

The issue isn’t that Midoriya doesn’t have any major flaws necessarily – though that certainly doesn’t help – it’s more that there’s not much else to his personal story at this point beyond the narrative events unfolding before him. He fundamentally lacks agency and meaningful personal struggles. Things happen, and he reacts to them; his arc is essentially complete. It’s a foregone conclusion. His single-mindedness makes the story flat in a way that it really need not be.

Narratives revolving around villains doing nefarious things tend to lead to reactionary heroes, but the best heroes are ones who are more than just the mask—they’re also people. Peter Parker has a day job, has to deal with people trying to constantly hunt him down and kill him, and has to fight to balance his romantic dalliances with the responsibilities of being Spider-Man. Bruce Banner may fight the occasional radiation monster, but the Hulk’s story is more about his struggle with his own inner demons than him punching real ones. Hell even Superman, the poster Generic Nice Boy, tries to have a personal life beyond the cape and liven up his Fortress of Solitude.

There’s more to good stories than Good Man Beats Up Bad Guy. While personal struggles can be completely ancillary to the action at hand, they can also be far more challenging for the hero to surmount and far more engaging. Even if the are trivial, that doesn’t make them unimportant. Diversions may not matter much to the ongoing “plot” always, but they give the characters character. Something as inconsequential as the heroes going out to get Italian food can be huge as far as characterization goes; it speaks volumes to the interests of the characters, it humanizes them, and makes their situation more relatable.

The tragic thing is that there are major characters in My Hero Academia who would make for far better protagonist material than the actual lead if the story had been built differently. The frog-girl Tsuyu Asui is a good example. She’s been raising her siblings on her own while going to hero school due to her parents being constantly away at work. Her powers seemingly have low potential (she does whatever a frog can do), but she rises to the top by being smart with them. She wants to become a hero to help people— but seemingly doesn’t have too much of an interest in getting into the bad-guy fighting side of things. Throughout the story, she’s also wrestled with the whole legality / morality of saving people without a license, which frankly the most under explored aspect of the narrative by far given how weird and complicated the subject matter is. These are all interesting angles that easily have been built out to create a different, more engaging My Hero Academia.

Not having an engaging protagonist for your narrative puts a greater onus of the villain being interesting. For My Hero Academia, this is a BIG problem. If the hero Izuku Midoriya is uninteresting, the main villain Tomura Shigaraki is outright lame.

As is the super hero convention, Shigaraki is dark mirror of Midoriya— where Midoriya is a child who looks up to heroes and wants to grow up to be like All Might, Shigaraki is a man child who never grew up, doesn’t like heroes, and wants to murder All Might. And just like Midoriya that’s literally all there is to him. He has some kind of tragic past due to heroes not saving him when his parents died, but even that’s paper thin. Ultimately, he’s just a petulant kid who never grew up; he occasionally sends mutants his spooky adopted dad made for him to punch trucks. Because that’ll show ‘em.

The narrative openly acknowledges the fact that he doesn’t have any particular beliefs beyond disliking heroes. Other villains with actual raisons d’etre confront him about it, and he no joke throws a tantrum over the fact that they have views. Like Midoriya, the single-note nature of the character comes across as borderline comical. (Also: his character design looks stupid.)

Villains, like protagonists, need motivations to be compelling. That motivation can be as small as being a crazy mofo or just plain greedy, but it should at least be understandable. Shigaraki isn’t a revolutionary— he’s a child with a gun. An inordinate amount of power has been thrust into his hands for no particular reason. That doesn’t actually make him feel like that great of a threat to society as a whole; it just makes him a deadly nuisance if anything. Earthquakes are unpredictable and can hurt a lot of people but that doesn’t make them particularly compelling villains.

Villains need to be likeable. Not necessarily as a people— far from it in most cases, really. But they need to have some trait that is inherently admirable to make them work as the foil for the protagonist. In X-Men, Magneto is a fantastic villain because he’s ultimately a flawed idealist; his charisma and the fact that his views sometimes seem attractive is what makes him so compelling. He’s complex. Single-mindedness too can be admirable if it’s portrayed well. Kira Yoshikage, despite being an outright serial killer still has admirable traits in just how ruthlessly efficient he is at maintaining his “ordinary life”. That doesn’t make him less reprehensible— if anything those traits are what makes him so potent a threat, far more than his murderous tendencies.

Totally uncharismatic antagonists can work as small-bit villains – but there’s a limited lifetime for which their existence is tolerable. Past that point, their continued position as a central part of the narrative just becomes annoying, if not totally implausible. How are we the audience supposed to believe that Shigaraki can amass followers and inspire loyalty in them when we cannot muster the slightest bit of admiration for him ourselves? He’s not even shitty enough for it to be played up for comical effect!

This situation is all the more crazy when you remember that My Hero Academia serializes alongside One Piece. One Piece’s Oda Eiichiro has writing good bad guys down to a science. His bad guys range across the whole spectrum, from the immeasurably bad at their job to the point where you’re actively rooting for them (who the hell doesn’t like Buggy the Clown?) to the dark-mirror of the lead that you just love to hate (Blackbeard you monstrous son of a bitch), to a whole heap of over-zealous enforcers of law and order (go to hell Akainu). Oda’s a master at manipulating the audience’s feelings and creating characters that work in both short and large doses. Characters with short-lived appeal are dealt with appropriately, while those more sweeping interest and unexplored complexities are kept around for years. Oda will occasionally even turn past arc’s main-villains into bit-players in ongoing ones. Knowing when and how to subvert expectations like this speaks a lot to Oda’s abilities at constructing characters and narratives.

The sad thing is that I just can’t see Kohei pivoting with My Hero Academia. The trajectory My Hero Academia is on looks to be the one it’ll stick to for the future. The foregone conclusion of Midoriya’s journey is in plain sight; while I’m sure the ongoing story will take some amount of twists and turns, there’s not a lot of mystery left in how Midoriya fits into it. Shigaraki taking his place as the main villain is outright uninteresting and unappealing at this point. While the actual writing of characters and the flow of the chapters is good, the broader sweep of the work viewed from a weekly-perspective now leaves something to be desired.

I suppose there’s nothing left for me to do at this point than to let it fall to the wayside and just read at my own pace when more of the material is built up. Actively following a work as it releases requires considerably more personal investment, and I’m not sure I can muster that for this story anymore.

Oh well!

#think piece #nonfiction #writing #my hero academia #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #super heroes #manga #anime #media

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33whynot77 · 7 years

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~() The Sound of Emotions()~ Jason Todd

A/N This is another one shot/imagine thing based off of the previous headcannons I did involving music and the batboys. This one is for Jason Todd. Once again, Please keep in mind that these are my own opinions based on the limited knowledge I have of each of these characters. All criticism should be constructive please. I’m still just trying this out and getting used to these characters and such. Also it’s just kind of cruel to get to mad at an author for not getting certain things right when they’re just trying their best. Without further ado here’s one of said one shots.

Description: Based off of the batboys headcannons just like Heartbeat (the Dick Grayson one) except you know with Jason Todd aka the Red Hood. The headcannons are here and here. Takes place both before and after his death.

Genre:

Warnings:

Word count:

Not my artwork btw, but I can’t remember who did it, so credit goes to the original artist. I just think it’s super cute and couldn’t help but put it here. So, yeah, credit to the artist I just love it a lot.

You’d learned a long time ago that you couldn’t just go through life screaming whenever you felt like you needed to. You also figured out pretty soon after that there was a solution for times like those. For you it was music. Whenever you felt the urge to just scream out loud and let it all go you plugged in your earphones turned the music up loud and let it scream for you. Music for you became your own kind of language, one you thought was unique to you. However, one day you came to realize that there was one other who spoke this language.

His name was Jason Todd and if anyone asked you how long you’d known him for you always answered centuries. Of course there was no way you’d both been alive for centuries but it certainly felt like you two had known each other as long as the world had revolved around the sun, especially once you both realized just how much you were alike, just how much you spoke the same language. You and him were tied by fate and strings tied too tight to ever break and it seemed like the whole world knew it, everyone saw it. Looking back you realized it was probably what made you two the “it” couple back in high school when you’d started dating.

Neither of you had been particularly popular, besides maybe Jason who had a god like status thanks to his adoption by Bruce Wayne and his general bad boy persona. You, however, you lived in the shadows of the school you both attended. You were invisible to just about everyone except for him, your best friend and you were the two most cliche people to ever exist. You had both gone from rags to riches, living on the streets together to both being adopted by super rich families of Gotham, you were childhood best friends who became high school sweethearts, the bad boy falls for the good girl, good girl isn’t the total angel he thought she was and bad boy isn’t the total devil everyone thought he was. The thing is that there was one more tragic cliche that the two of you fell into. You just hadn’t known it when you’d fallen desperately in love with each other. You just knew you felt loved and you felt that someone finally understood each other and that you had someone in a way that was simply your own. Only you and him understood it when the other put down their phone playing a song and then walked away.

You were eternally thankful for this language when the tragic cliche was over, the tragic cliche of the death of one of you. In this case, him. You had of course known about his nightly activities and so it wasn’t entirely a surprise when Batman and Nightwing showed up on the balcony outside your room. What was a shock was the news that Jason had been taken. Even more of a shock was the news that he had died. At the time you had been convinced that you and him would live forever with each other and life would never really truly end, but right then and there you found yourself just as dead as he was. You could still remember the exact moment when it all became dreadfully real.

It hadn’t been real when Batman and Nightwing, Bruce and Dick, were there in front of you their heads hung saying sadly that they were sorry and he was gone. You hadn’t even truly believed when you climbed into the batmobile and was whisked away to the batcave. It wasn’t until you got there and saw his dead body laying there that it became real. You remember the tears suddenly springing from your eyes and pouring down your cheeks. You remember the feeling of all air and oxygen and life leaving your body, your hand flying to your mouth. You remember everything suddenly become so unclear and unreasonable. You remember moving forward without any thought, just surging towards him completely and utterly sobbing because there he was laying unmoving never to get up again. How could you ever forget this moment and in the end you never truly did. You never forgot the day when his heart stopped beating and yours went on. The love of your life, your soulmate, your heart and soul, your everything was never going to sit up again. He would never smile and caress your cheek. You’d never have his protective, warm, and caring arms around you ever again. You had lost everything and so you surged forward with such pain and agony that a river of tears came with and flowed behind you.

You found yourself diving onto his cold body and cradling him sobbing and wishing for him to come back because how could you lose him. How could you deal with this? You cradled him in your arms and whispered through the tears and sobs all the things you’d always wanted to say to him, your future plans, all the love you held for him, and you pleaded, beg, and then cried out for him to come back to you even though you knew and remember knowing that he never could. Dick and Bruce and Alfred had to pull you kicking, screaming, and sobbing from him because you weren’t ready to let go and you knew you probably never would be. Your heart had died that day. Every night after that for quite some time you laid awake while the world remained in peaceful slumber. You would get up and walk about your apartment or wherever you were staying that night or sometimes you’d even just lay there in your bed but either way the memories tormented you just as they did every waking hour and every hour at sleep. Remembering him was incredibly easy, but the pain and the heartache that came with it, missing him that was what destroyed you. You found that losing someone, losing him, it didn’t just happen that night. It happened every night since and every morning and every day. It happened when you were stressed and remembered how his hugs made everything seem to disappear. It happened when you picked up or looked at anything that was important to him. His favorite mug, his favorite jacket, his favorite shirt, your reflection in the mirror. It happened all the time and it killed you. You very often found yourself listening to Still Here by Digital Daggers as your attempt of calling out to Jason now that he was gone.

The most surprising of all however, was when he came back. When he arose from the dead to appear in your apartment. You remember being angry with him at first, that he’d come back to life and not come straight to you and not immediately remember the girl who’s heart had been shattered that night when he died. It hadn’t taken too long though for you to forgive him because you needed him and loved him far too much to let something petty and small like that get in the way and so from there you moved in together. You spent day and night together and suddenly everything was better for you just because he was there, but he found himself struggling.

He was struggling so much, he had so many things to say to you and not enough words or ability or anything to say them to you and he’s floundering for words because he needs you to know just how much you mean to him. He needs you to understand so that you don’t give up on him when he’s difficult. So he did the one thing he could think of. He made a playlist and for a while it was just there on his phone reminding him of what he needed to say and then he remembered that you two spoke the same language and so he recreated the playlist on your phone and gave it your nickname and when you saw it you knew so you spent the next few days listening to every song and falling so much more in love with him as sappy romantic and meaningful songs filled your ears every moment your earphones were in. Shortly after that playlists became your major way of communicating with one another, especially since the both of you had taken up the nightly routine and went on patrol and had different day jobs and didn’t always see each other until very late at night or not long enough to say everything that needed to be said and so you communicated it through song.

People got so confused and were always asking about the state of your relationship because you hadn’t said I love you the whole night or in the entire three weeks they’ve been around you but that didn’t matter because you understood each other and what was happening. Jason ran into trouble with this concept twice around the time of when he proposed to you. The first time was much smaller. You and Jason had gotten into a fight a few days before and Tim, Jason, Dick, and Roy were all gathered together to try and figure out how to fix this between you and him.

“So what exactly happened?” Dick questioned looking intently at Jason. Everyone in the group had become fiercely protective of you and all cared deeply for you so the idea that Jason had pushed you away or done something to hurt you in any way was not a welcome one to any of them.

“Well, Y/N thinks I’m cheating.” Jason answered and quickly added “But I promise you I’m not. I would never, Y/N means the world to me.” He was not keen on all present teaming up on him.

“Oh, so this is the proposals fault then.” Tim replied and when he was met by blank stares continued. “Well, obviously Y/N realized that Jason was keeping a secret/hiding something so when they confronted him and he didn’t give up what was happening, Y/N assumed cheating when really its that Jason is or at least was going to propose.” They’d gone on and on talking about that until everyone but Jason and Dick had left.

“I just, I don’t know what to do...” Jason said trailing off before suddenly starting to play a song from his phone (Btw the song he plays is Evermore by Dan Stevens from the new Beauty and the Beast) Dick got really confused and Jason had realized that not everyone understood.

“Sorry, I forget that Y/N is the only one who really understands that...” Jason had said trailing off and then he’d quickly explained that the song basically described how he felt in the moment about possibly loosing you.

Shortly thereafter the two of you had figured it out and the second time occurred this one far larger. This one occurred during the actual proposal. Jason knew there was no way he’d get a full speech out without stumbling or loosing to his emotions and nerves and instead played a quick like three song playlist all of which at least mentioned the question or phrase marry me. You and Jason had been the only ones who’d realized what was even happening until you started squealing out yeses.

Now as you stood here in the doorway watching your children argue by playing certain angry sounding songs and the occasional yelling voice and as you scrolled through the music library and added a song to the shared playlist you and Jason now had you were eternally grateful that the two of you and your children could communicate this way.

A/N Sorry if this is terrible and I’m sorry this took so long. Believe it or not I have a very busy life.

#Jason Todd #Jason Peter Todd #jason todd imagine #batfamily #BatFam #Batfamily Headcanon #batfamily headcannons #red hood #red hood imagine #jason todd oneshot #red hood oneshot #imagine #oneshot #headcannon #red hood headcannon #jason todd headcannon #music #love #proposal

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smkkbert · 7 years

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Time for a story - Made for loving you

As soon as Mr. Dennis turned away, Felicity released a breath of relief and reached out a hand for the tray with the glasses of orange juice next to her. Leaning her head against Oliver’s shoulder, she took a sip and closed her eyes for just a moment. After years of leading the company talking to some of the people on the board still made her so terribly nervous at times though she knew that she had no reason to. She was doing a great job being CEO if you considered that they had been in the black for quite some time and it didn’t look like that would change, actually with the first successful transplantation of the bio-transplant the company would hit a new high.

When Oliver started rubbing his warm hand over the small of her back, Felicity opened her eyes and angled her head back to look at him. He put both of his hands to her hips, pulling her from his side until she was standing in top of his, her chest pressing against his. Felicity smiled happily at the amazed expression in his eyes. She knew that she was the only person he would ever look at like that and it made her stomach flutter in the best way possible.

“What?” she asked and leaned almost her entire weight against him.

Oliver’s arms tightened around her lower back as he smiled at her for a moment longer. He ducked his head slowly and brushed his lips against hers teasingly. When Felicity chased his lips, trying to get him to really kiss her, Oliver kept out of her reach all the time, still teasing her. Felicity chuckled and went with it for a moment longer before she held his face between the palms of her hands to make him hold still and pressed her lips to his.

When she broke the kiss, still very aware of all the people around them, she licked her lips to enjoy the last of his taste on her lips. Pressing her chest closer to him, she angled her head back even more to look into Oliver’s face. There was still this look of amazement and love in his eyes, and again it took her breath away.

“Did I tell you how proud I am of you?” Oliver asked. He kissed the tip of her nose before he added, “Because I am really proud of you.”

Felicity smiled, her heart skipping a beat. She knew what she was doing at Queen Incorporated especially with the bio-transplant QI and Wayne Enterprise had worked out together mattered and actually made a change in the world. It was why this very party took place. A young man of only twenty-four years had made his first steps after being in a wheelchair for the last months after a tragic car accident. He still needed a lot of therapy to regain the strength in the muscle to keep upright for more than a few seconds, but the first step had been made to allow him to reclaim more mobility. She had been part of the reason that had become possible and it was still unbelievable.

Anyway, the fact that she knew that she was part of this unbelievably great progression didn’t mean that she didn’t like hearing Oliver acknowledging to it. She knew how much he loved and supported what she was doing with the company that his parents had helped shape. She knew how amazed he was by what she had achieved and yet she was still happy and even speechless at times whenever she actually heard him say it.

“You are giving people a new perspective. You make Queen Incorporated the beacon of hope that it failed to be for a long time,” Oliver told her. “You are doing a much better job at leading this company than my parents ever did or as I could have ever done.”

“Thank you,” Felicity whispered.

“Thank you redeeming the name of the company by making QI into what it is today,” Oliver told her. He kissed her forehead. “I love you all the more for it.”

Felicity smiled. “I know and I love you too, especially since I know that I couldn’t do any of this without you.”

“Yes, you could,” Oliver told her.

“Maybe,” Felicity admitted, “but it wouldn’t be as much fun and it probably wouldn’t be as gratifying.”

When Oliver ducked his head to lean closer to her this time, Felicity put her arms around his neck. She closed the last bit of distance between them, brushing her lips against his. They kissed gently, their lips moving in perfect synch. Felicity could feel Oliver’s heartbeat against her own chest and his uneven breathing ghosting over her face. One of the millions of reasons she loved Oliver so much definitely included that he was a great kisser. She could get lost in the taste of his lips and tongue so easily. Like-

“Well, well, if this isn’t Starling City’s favorite couple.”

At the sound of the familiar voice Felicity broke the kiss with Oliver. He tightened his arm around her waist immediately, keeping her from taking a step away and bringing some appropriate distance between them when she turned around to where the voice had coming from. Felicity smiled at the man that was approaching them slowly, an unreadable smile playing on his lips.

“Bruce,” she said, her own smile widened. She stepped out of Oliver’s arms for a moment to welcome her friend and partner with a kiss to his cheek. “I am so happy you could make it after all.”

“You look incredible, Felicity.”

“Thank you, Bruce.”

As soon as her lips pulled away from Bruce’s cheek, Oliver put his hand back to her hipbone and pulled Felicity back to his side. His hand stayed on her hip possessively, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on top of the fabric. One short look in his direction and Felicity knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy talk. The forced smile that was plastered to Oliver’s face gave away how uncomfortable he was with this meeting though his body didn’t tense as much as she would have expected.

“Oliver,” Bruce finally said, his eyes focusing on the man at Felicity’s side. He looked him up and down shortly before his gentle smile turned into a grin.

Felicity didn’t miss how Oliver clenched his jaws when Bruce held out a hand for him. He took in a deep breath before he shook the other man’s hand, probably using a lot more force than necessary. She looked from one man to the other, waiting for one of them to show the slightest sign that the handshake wasn’t as friendly as it should be, but neither of them even flinched.

“Bruce,” Oliver said eventually, pulling his hand back. “I thought you had some appointments that couldn’t be delayed and that you couldn’t make it.”

“Well, let’s just say that Batman got in my way,” Bruce replied. “It turned out the people I thought were my partners were actually working against me. The appointments were cut short and I could come here. I am glad I could make it though the reasons are definitely not good ones.”

Felicity pulled her lips into her mouth, shooting Oliver a short glance. She knew that he hadn’t been too happy when he had heard that her friend and business partner actually had his own secret identity that he used to fight crime in his city, especially since Batman was a lot bloodier than the Arrow was these days. Oliver had been particularly bothered by Bruce’s question if Felicity didn’t want to join him on his crusade. As a husband Oliver wasn’t as jealous as he used to be, but as the Arrow… Since Bruce seemed to challenge both sides of him – not that Bruce really had a sexual or even emotional interest in Felicity, but he liked to pretend he did for some meaningless flirting to happen between them – Oliver felt at unease.

“What a shame indeed,” Oliver responded, his smile still frozen in place.

“I am surprised to see you here, though,” Bruce stated. “Shouldn’t you be home watching the kids? I think Felicity mentioned that you have become the male version of a house maid. What’s the word for that?”

“I guess in my case it’s called being a father.”

Felicity quickly took some sips of her orange juice, cursing the fact that she was breastfeeding and couldn’t drink because being a little tipsy would definitely help right now. She looked from one man to the other. She knew that Oliver and Bruce had met before. Since both of them came from rich families, they had met from time to time over the years. Bruce’s parents had died very early, though, which had led the two of them on very different paths. It was weird how their lives had taken such different turns early in their lives, but had taken them closer again now. Bruce might be leading a multibillion dollar cooperation, while Oliver was a stay-at-home dad, but they were both trying to protect their cities by using secret identities. It didn’t seem to make the two of them like each other anymore, though.

“Do you want to see photos of our children?” Oliver asked, already reaching his hand into the pocket of his pants to pull out of his phone.

It seemed like he decided on the passive-aggressive way to handle this situation, Felicity realized. Showing photos of their happy family around was usually her way of dealing when one of Oliver’s ex-girlfriends came back into the picture. She wasn’t exactly surprised that he suggested this now, though. He had witnessed how well that tactic worked after all.

“Thanks, but I think we are not here to celebrate the achievements of your family, but the achievements of Felicity’s company and my company, aren’t we?”

“As far as I am informed Felicity did most of the work, didn’t she?” Oliver asked, cocking his head. “It doesn’t seem fair that you are trying to carry off the bays only because your company invested some money and staff into the project.”

Felicity smiled to herself. She would have bet that Oliver would have emphasized that it was both of their company which was true. The company just like everything else they owed was both of theirs. The fact that he decided to defend her role in the project instead meant a lot to her. It was the little things that meant the most to her, always had.

Bruce’s unimpressed smile widened. “Oh, I absolutely agree with that.”

“So you are not trying to adorn yourself with borrowed plumes?”

“I wouldn’t dare to,” Bruce replied.

Felicity took a short look around, trying to figure out how to end this conversation as quickly and as elegantly as possible. She was sure if Bruce and Oliver would continue talking in this tense and passive-aggressive tone, they might actually decide to go to the bathroom and check who of them had the longer-

“You know, Felicity never told me how the two of you two met,” Bruce stated after a moment, smiling at her honestly before directing his gaze back to Oliver. “Nothing against you but-“

“Bruce,” Felicity said warningly, shooting her friend a look to make him know that she knew exactly that his ‘but’ would take away of what he had said before.

As much as she didn’t want to get involved into this conversation between former friends or enemies or whatever he and Oliver were to each other, Felicity wouldn’t let Bruce offend Oliver. She didn’t want to pick a side, especially since she didn’t know exactly what was going on between these two and she mostly just wanted to roll with her eyes about them, but she knew that if she had to pick a side, it would always be Oliver’s. If they needed this passive aggression, fine, she wouldn’t get engaged into that, but she wouldn’t allow her friend to offend her husband, especially not in a way that would suggest that he didn’t deserve her or anything like that.

Bruce looked at her for a moment before he directed his gaze back towards Oliver. “So Richie-Rich-boy Oliver Queen and the smartest girl under the sun…” Bruce shrugged his shoulders, cocking his head slightly. “How did that happen?”

“I needed a computer expert and was told that she was the right person to go see,” Oliver said. His fingers curled into her hip with the slightest of possessiveness and he kissed her temple. “Turned out it wasn’t the only thing she was the right person for.”

“Oh, I did experience how great Felicity is in a lot of ways,” Bruce replied, looking he up and down, his eyes staying for the beat of a second longer where the dress hugged the curve of her hips and where the low neckline allowed to see the top of her breasts.

Now Felicity really rolled her eyes. As much as she didn’t want to get engaged into this, obviously the two men didn’t care. She knew that Oliver knew that there had never anything happened between her and Bruce. Doubts about their faithfulness to each other were no part of their marriage. She also knew that one word of her was enough to make him take it all back because as much as Bruce liked to pretend he was an arrogant sexist, he really wasn’t and he would never want her to feel like that. He did take her serious as a partner.

“Trust me, no matter how many ways you experienced it, I experienced it in some more.”

When Oliver’s hand sank a little lower on her hip, a small part of his hand resting against the curve of her ass actually, Felicity rolled her eyes once more. She should probably be proud that at the age of 33 she was still treated like… well what exactly was she treated like? A piece of meat? A reward? Neither of it sounded like something she wanted to be.

“It’s great you seem to have at least one quality Felicity could appreciate.”

“Speaking of qualities, I heard that crime rate in Gotham City still didn’t drop much,” Oliver replied, cocking his head. “I guess Batman doesn’t really help making the city a safer place. Starling City has the lowest crime rate since… ever probably.”

“I think it doesn’t exactly make sense to compare these two cities since the crimes committed there are very much different, aren’t they?”

“Oh, I don’t know if I would say that,” Oliver replied, shaking his head. “Italian, Russian and Chinese mafia organizations fighting over territory, drug dealers, killers… How much difference could there be?”

“Okay, then let’s compare these guardian angels as the media like to call them. Given that the Arrow needs all this help around him, I guess Batman can still do a lot more. He might not be as efficient as the team around the Arrow yet, but he is alone on his mission, so I guess if we set their achievements in relation to the size of their teams, we’d see that Batman is a lot more effective. Besides, he probably has the lower rate of relapse, doesn’t he?”

“I am sure he also has the higher rate of killing innocents,” Oliver replied.

“I am too old for this kindergarten,” Felicity mumbled to herself. When Oliver looked at her in question, probably wondering what her mutter had supposed to say, she quickly put on a smile and emptied the rest of the orange juice.

“Besides, how threatening can Robin Hood be?”

“Probably more threatening than a guy in a cape and a bat mask,” Oliver replied. “I think I even read that a lot of women are into Robin Hood fantasies.” Felicity turned her head to look at him, perking up an eyebrow. “Not that I would be interested in that,” he added quickly and shot her another short glance.

“I’d say Catwoman would disagree with that.”

“Batman, Catwoman,… One could think you are building a zoo in Gotham.”

Bruce chuckled, his eyes not showing any sign of amusement. “Undressing a sexy woman in black leather, which guy wouldn’t approve to that?”

“For me it’s not about the black leather and much more about the woman I am undressing,” Olive replied and pulled Felicity a little bit closer to his side. “Besides, always black leather is probably quite tiring. I am happy to be able to say that I am allowed to undress Felicity from-“

“Okay, I am really not drunk enough for this,” Felicity interrupted, straightened up onto the tip of her toes to check where the next waiter was.

“You are not even drinking,” Oliver replied and though she wasn’t looking at him, she knew that he was frowning at her. “You are still breastfeeding.”

“Please no mental pictures of that again,” Bruce said, making a face. “I am all in for women to be allowed to breastfeed everywhere, really, but not Felicity. It destroys the image of my superhot business partner if I have to see that again. The only way I want to imagine her nipples are-”

“You do know that you are still talking about my wife, yes?”

“Yeah, I will quit breastfeeding for a few days. I am not making it through the evening without alcohol. You two have fun and when you are finished here, I will be somewhere in the room, ready to talk like adults.”

She patted Oliver’s chest with her hand, shot Bruce a short look and turned around on her heels, making her way through the crowd towards the bar. She was almost there when a hand wrapped around her wrist, another one taking the empty glass from her hand and putting it aside.

“Dance with me?” Oliver asked.

He didn’t give her a chance to reply. Instead of that he just pulled her onto the small dance floor. He put an arm around her waist, pulling her close against his chest and laced the fingers of his other hand through hers. Felicity rested her free fingers on his chest, right over his heart, while they started swinging in time with the slow music.

“I’m sorry,” Oliver said quietly and kissed her temple. “I didn’t mean to ruin this evening for you. I know how important this is and-“

“Hey, I am not mad,” Felicity replied, chuckling lowly and shaking her head. “It wasn’t like it was too serious or otherwise I would have found a way to make the two of you stop. I know you and Bruce are… well, what are you exactly?”

“Too different to be friends, too similar to be enemies and too… I don’t know… to be anything else but… I don’t know?”

Felicity chuckled. “Well, you two will have to adjust to each other because I am sure this is not the last time you will meet.”

“I am going to nice if he is,” Oliver promised.

“I am going to flay him alive if he isn’t.”

“And spank me if I’m not?” Oliver asked, grinning smugly and wiggling with his eyebrows lewdly.

Felicity huffed a breathy laugh. “I know that if I tell you I am going to spank you, you will go right over and punch him.”

“Yes, I will.”

Felicity chuckled, shaking her head. “You are terrible.”

“And yet you love me.”

“And yet I love you,” Felicity agreed, smiling at him.

“And that is all I need,” Oliver replied and kissed her. When their lips parted, he smiled at her for a moment longer before he lowered his voice to a whisper and asked her, “But back to Bruce. Dressing up as a bat? Really?”

I realized I am going back and forth between calling the company Queen Incorporated at some times and Queen Industries at others. :D

I am trying to go with Queen Incorporated from now on, but I can’t promise I will manage to all the time.

@just-arrow @secretglimpses @promiseyoullbepatientwithme @bytemegeekette @felicity-said--yes @phanseptiic @mariel-olandag @orangeisorange @aguscha333 @whentheheavenfades @aussieforgood @emmaamelia95 @smoakingskye @seaolicity @ourwritinginvein @lightwoodhook @1022bridgetp @felicityqueenforever @leagueofolicity17 @yryssss @myhauntedblacksoul @somewhatinvisible @sherlock44 @sinceriouslybea @arrowsalways @olivyflavescentdeer @olicitys-castle @ofnothingcharming @boo-ritz-radley @vaelisamaza @smoakedandcharmed @alexisa1206 @mysaudadespt2 @florence-bubbles @addictiontelly @queens-of-arrows @memcjo @hysterical-for-joshifer @oswinelevenforever @olicitylovemaking @bandanab310 @mymusiclove101 @lynslogic @scarletqueen23 @olicityshipper19 @alex-wesley @arrows-4ever @unabashedlynerdypatrol @louehmysoul @ligiapimenta @chattyyana @charlie-leau @coal000 @samcrowleys @sherrynoconan @ishippolivia @julianegomesqueen @malafle @miriam1779 @charlinert @melaux @ontheolicityship @hiddenchamb3r @myshipperlife @wrightainsley @lexi9515 @ladygreenwood @multi-fandom-crazy-fangirl @morinamel @mje-thomas @kebarr @canadianheartgirl @nannett2307 @almondblossomme @paarti12 @kathrynelizabeth89 @imdfabulous @cutearrowgirl @mrt2501 @insecureneuroticcontrolfreakk @mecha1330 @arsipaci14 @o-li-ci-ty @mzminx @chellemanalastas @salasvia @brandis91 @cainc3 @clarkesoverwatch @morganmiguess @pr0fessi0nal-fangurl @iamisalima @nessafra @sammaldonado9 @jonhdiggle @niki-is-amazing @universed-posts @hopeful-warrior @senoritaswiftie @bellemmie @stygian-omada-fan @iheartarrow @olicityovereverything @oliverfel4 @navyaarsha @fandoms-breathe-life @simone4mcswarek @olicity-in-the-heart @fullychippedcreation @geemarie @eternal-olicity @everything-but-normal-cat @tookurmatches @myarroworld @tjmartinez @pleasantfanandstudent @itsmagnoliagirl @j69confessional @scentedcolorpirate @icanica74 @felollie @javinancupil @tjmartinez98 @certainmentalityface @tatianadamaceno @ryelew @wildwillowzepplin @kath4703 @missafairy @letsplaymurde-r @lipizette @positivepiper @nuttymilkshakehologram @laksagirl @ccdimples88 @mcmret04 @turnupthemusicandscream (If you want to be tagged or untagged, just let me know. :))

#arrow #olicity #olicity fic #olicity fanfic #time for a story

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graveyard-of-art · 7 years

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This Is Not Worth Your Time: A Memoir

If you are reading this, it is because either a). You are my girlfriend, for whom this is written, or b). You are as masochistic as myself and found a crumpled up copy of this publication at the very bottom of a pile of garbage in the back of a particularly discomforting alley beneath the cold lifeless bodies of poor recently orphaned Bruce Wayne’s tragically deceased parents inside the house belonging to the creepy old man your mother warned you about surrounded by hundreds of CD’s that can only play Castle of Glass by LINKIN PARK on repeat that all happened to be in a container of long-expired ham in the back of your refrigerator. If the former applies, then know that I love you very much and am truly sorry you are being forced to read this boring bundle of misused metaphors and annoying alliteration by your fleeting hope that something of even vague quality or satisfaction will someday come from my half of our relationship, and if the latter applies you really should clean out your refrigerator more often. In either case you are in fact here and if I cannot convince you to return to your regularly scheduled life of mundanity and boredom, I suppose I have to provide you with what the title of this literary application of chaos theory has promised you poor naïve souls: a memoir. Put the gun down, these words will have the same effect and supply far larger quantities of sweet sweet pain before death claims your already soulless body. Approximately 604,852.3 seconds prior to the birth of this travesty, my lovely family and I had decided that it was time to fill our fragile, fearful bodies with the carcasses of perished beings in the hopes that it would add a few more meaningless hours to our respective lives until we too perish and are consumed by the earth, filling the ground with wood and bones until there is no more room below and the skeletons begin to spill into the societies of the living, flooding cities and towns with limbs and skulls as a forceful reminder that there is no escape from the past. On this particular bleak afternoon my older brother and I had been informed that the day was too pleasant for us to remain inside, so our painfully uninteresting story of a white semi-rural family’s culinary exploits begins much like the Holocaust, with an unsettling amount of smoke in the air and a few rebels complaining loudly enough to seem upset but softly enough to ensure their superiors remain unaware. If you would prefer I refrain from capitalizing upon the unnecessary and incomprehensibly horrific deaths of millions by casually mentioning tragedy and genocide purely for the shock factor, I would like to remind you that I tried to turn you away and much like the Knights of the Crusades, you pushed on for no justifiable reason. It is not too late to turn back now, as much like the Crusades for the Knights Templar, the act of reading the rest of this paper will end exactly as it began: with pain, disappointment, and a serious questioning of the reasoning behind your most recent endeavors. With chemicals in the air and chemicals in our cups, my familial trinity of mother and sons began our meal. Much like this publication, the event was both uninteresting and unnecessary. We nibbled on the carcasses we had prepared and attempted to rest our conscience by telling ourselves that we are the superior beings, and the slaves who were raised for slaughter were glad to know that their lives were sacrificed for the betterment of the world, for the good of all who matter. We told ourselves this as we chewed silently on someone’s father, on someone’s child. Statements were made about the current weather, inquiries were made about the future weather. More chewing. Eventually my brother decided that the sound of hopes and dreams being dipped in acid and disintegrated was unpleasing and desired another topic to think about, so he asked me about a video game I had been playing to keep my mind off of my inherent uselessness and lack of purpose. I won’t include the title or plot of the aforementioned game in an effort to hasten the process of your excruciatingly painful reading experience, but know that the game focuses on a variety of subjects including but not limited to: murder, suicide, excessive bullying, drug abuse, alcoholism, rape, what color flowers are the prettiest, abuse of authority within the police force and the enticing idea that everyone you have ever cared about will be dead within the week and you will have the physical power to prevent it but will panic and fail and live the rest of your life with their screams in your ears and their blood on your hands until you die of loneliness to be met with their screams of horror and damnation for all eternity. I told my brother of my progress and he listened intently, nodding politely at the exposition and wincing involuntarily at the climax. We discussed this fictional world for a short while before the empty silence of the real one reclaimed our table. The silence was neither sad nor melancholy; partially reflective and wholly necessary seemed to be descriptors that better suited the atmosphere. That is, until my mother broke our tranquility with the unexpected and seemingly unprompted suggestion that the three of us begin naming as many different flavors of ice cream as we could to “exercise our brains.” After a brief shared look of uncertainty and a few moments spent questioning intentions to no avail the table’s two younger residents realized that our elder counterpart was completely serious and decided we may as well play along. Strawberry. Chocolate. Vanilla. The Blood Of A Young Interloper Who Was Beaten And Murdered For Sport. Mint Chocolate Chip. We continued this until we stopped and then we carried our utensils inside and returned to our dull meaningless lives. Nothing changed, nothing was learned. I remained as useless as I have always been. This memoir has no purpose, no discernable reason to exist. There is no greater connection that I have given you. No point about society: about how our fear of talking about unsettling topics keeps us from understanding them, about how we give complex problems simple solutions to create the illusion of progress, about how we use material objects and simple feelings to create a sense of false security. No discussion about my family: about how our single familial unit is fractured by individual viewpoints and beliefs, about how we place happiness over true peace of mind, about how we want so desperately to feel as if our world is stable that we will ignore the blatant cracks in the walls and creaking of the floor if it'll make us feel more comfortable in our glass castle. No confession about myself: about how I surround myself with artificial darkness so that I don't have to think about the shadows around me that are real, about how my mind contorts the real world into a twisted parody of itself to give me a war to fight in because I can't know who I am if I'm not fighting against something, about how I sneak a self-deprecating joke in nearly every sentence because I refuse to accept that I may be an important part of someone's life and that the actions I make have real consequences that affect anyone beyond myself. Any one of those things could have given this publication true life, could have proven its author as someone of intelligence. Any one of those things could have saved me from this black abyss I’ve locked myself in, could have given me something to latch onto, to cradle in my arms as a joyous symbol of worth, as proof that I have amounted to something. None of those things are here. I didn't promise you a symbol of worth, I promised you disappointment. I promised you meaningless chaos. I lost my soul, but at least now you have what you came for. If you are reading this, it is because either a). You are my girlfriend, for whom this is written, or b). You are as masochistic as myself and found a crumpled up copy of this publication at the very bottom of a pile of garbage in the back of a particularly discomforting alley beneath the cold lifeless bodies of poor recently orphaned Bruce Wayne’s lovely and tragically deceased parents inside the house belonging to the creepy old man your mother warned you about surrounded by CD’s that can only play Castle of Glass by LINKIN PARK on repeat that all happened to be in a container of long-expired ham in the back of your refrigerator. If the former applies, then know that I love you very much and am truly sorry you were forced to read this boring bundle of misused metaphors and annoying alliteration by your fleeting hope that something of even vague quality or satisfaction will someday come from my half of our relationship, and if the latter applies, you really should have just left this to rot behind the milk. In either case you are in fact here and since I could not convince you to return to your regularly scheduled life of mundanity and boredom, I would like to formally apologize for this literary application of chaos theory. Put the gun down, if the mediocrity of these words haven't killed you, a proofreading session or two will.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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How Wynonna Earp is Busting the Moonlighting Curse

https://ift.tt/34Sx2cQ

The following contains spoilers for Wynonna Earp season 4.

While we wait for Wynonna Earp to return from its COVID-instigated midseason hiatus, it seems like the perfect time to dig into one of the show’s most complicated and rich topics: The layered relationship between Wynonna Earp and Doc Holliday, and the ways in which the show has committed to telling a love story that goes beyond whether a particular pairing will get together in the end.

Far too many TV series – genre or otherwise – waste far too much screen time delaying the organic progression of their two leads’ romantic relationship. As a result, from pilot to series finale, the redundant “will they/won’t they” relationship question dominates a significant portion of the plot, as marquee couples are inevitably pulled together and pushed apart by circumstance, and the story spins its wheels, afraid to let the would-be couple take “the next step,” usually right up until the series’ final set of episodes.

This happens so often that there’s even a name for it – it’s known as the Moonlighting Curse. The name references the (honestly, incredibly incorrect) assumption that the 1980s comedy-drama Moonlighting suddenly became both boring and bad because it finally paired off its will they/won’t they leads, played by Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd after years of mining the sexual tension between the pair.

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Though the true culprit was actually bad writing, the show’s subsequent collapse in terms of both ratings and quality was ultimately blamed by many network higher-ups on the decision to finally pay off the series’ love story well before the end of the show (the characters consummated their relationship at the end of Season 3, and the series ran for two more seasons). And in the many years since, something of a cottage industry of shows has sprung up that seem to exist solely to string along the fans who invest in romance, creating an endless stream of obstacles for their marquee pairings centered around the questions of whether they will “get together” yet afraid to fully confront the idea of what writing a real, complicated relationship might look like.

Thankfully, Wynonna Earp has never been the sort of show that’s afraid of anything.

When Will Wynonna Earp Season 4 Return?

By Kayti Burt

Wynonna Earp Season 4 Belongs to Nicole Haught

By Delia Harrington

In the world of this series, the question of whether Wynonna and Doc love one another isn’t really even worth asking anymore. It’s just a simple fact. Through fights and betrayals, trips to hell, the Garden of Eden, and back again, one of the only true constants of Wynonna Earp has been that, no matter what, Doc and Wynonna are in love.

Even when one – or both – of them was romantically involved (or at least sleeping with) other people for whatever reason, their epic attachment was always bubbling in the background. Everyone in Purgatory knows what this pair means to one another, even when both have done their best to avoid the reality. Granted, neither of them is a particularly easy person to be in a relationship with, which is perhaps why they keep failing to truly get together in a lasting, healthy way despite the complete obviousness of their feelings for one another. And man is it fun to watch, proof that the “will they/won’t they” narrative structure isn’t the only or even best way to tell a love story.

Yes, the two often appear chronically incapable of even really admitting – let alone realistically talking about – their feelings for one another. But Wynonna Earp smartly doesn’t pretend those emotions don’t exist, or that they’re not driving the behavior of both characters. Instead, the show allows their relationship to become a primary driving force of the plot. The fact of their love for one another is not only taken as read, it’s used as a tool by which to further explore who they both are as individuals, in a way that will ultimately allow them to be better both for and with one another.

Both Wynonna and Doc are deeply broken people, who’ve suffered unimaginable loss and pain in their lives. Mutually riddled with trust issues, neither seems to believe they will ever find anything as normal as peace, or that they’re worthy of those they care about most. This low-key self-loathing leads both to make selfish decisions and bad choices, the kind that generally end up hurting themselves more often than they end up helping anyone else.

Because of this, Wynonna tries to drive Doc away, convinced that she doesn’t deserve real love. For his part, Doc behaves recklessly, attempting to prove he’s the monster he’s always feared becoming. (Even allowing himself to be turned into a literal monster at one point.) They argue, they make choices the other doesn’t agree with, they purposefully hurt one another when they’re angry, and they push each other away.

Yet, at no point is any of this behavior meant to make viewers wonder about the reality of their feelings for one another or whether they’ll ultimately be together or not. (No television show is ever going to abandon a couple with this kind of sexual chemistry, and we all know it.) Instead, the issues in their romance are meant to illuminate the things that Wynonna and Doc struggle with individually, and every step they each take toward figuring themselves out is also presented as a step (back) toward one another.

If that’s not incredibly romantic, I’m not sure what is.

Often, the duo have what once again feels like cosmically unfortunate timing – we’re talking like John-and-Aeryn-on-Farscape levels of bad – in which neither of them can seem to get on the same page at the same time. Season 4 is the most heartrending example of this, as their fragile reconnection is shattered when Wynonna decides to shoot Holt Clanton in the back rather than trust the tenuous peace Doc negotiates between their families.

But – again, also like the central love story of Farscape – Wynonna Earp doesn’t act as though these issues are insurmountable, or a potential death knell for the pair fans love. In fact, despite the difficulties the two are sure to face next season, it feels equally obvious that they’ll still find their way back together and work things out in the end. But only once they deal with some of their own issues first. Because I mean, let’s be real, if Doc literally becoming a vampire didn’t faze these two for longer than a handful of episodes, this isn’t likely to do so either.

Yet, the latest rift between the two still makes for supremely compelling television – not because it overtly threatens their love, but because it stems from interior character issues that have nothing to do with their relationship and that can’t be healed by a romance. Whether these two want to be together isn’t the issue here – they clearly do – it’s whether they can be right now in light of the choices they’ve both made that have nothing to do with their feelings for each other.

Wynonna’s reasons for deciding to kill Holt are understandable – if perhaps decidedly unheroic – as is Doc’s conviction that her choice is not only cowardly but will surely escalate the same blood feud that he himself now regrets starting back in Tombstone. But despite the fact that the midseason finale ends with both characters moving away from one another, physically and emotionally speaking, both are still on similar narrative journeys, questioning who they are if their previously established identities as the Earp heir and the fastest gunslinger in the West no longer apply.

Wynonna and Doc’s relationship has taken something of a backseat in Season 4 thus far, allowing Wynonna Earp to center WayHaught’s story and explore Nicole’s lingering trauma from the eighteen months in which she had to survive in Purgatory on her own. But the pairing still feels as necessary and relevant to the story the show is telling as they ever have been. And, despite their current situation, it seems more obvious than ever that their paths will ultimately not only lead back to one another but to better versions of them both. This isn’t a will they/won’t they question so much as a matter of how and when.

Wyndoc is the grand and (thus far) tragic love story of the Ghost River Triangle, a star-crossed pair who share a child, a complicated family entanglement going back hundreds of years, and a love of continual self-sacrifice in the name of others. (And also, they hunt demons!) But Wynonna Earp isn’t content to simply throw up unnecessary narrative obstacles in their path for the sake of dragging out a happily ever after. Instead, the show acknowledges Doc and Wynonna’s obvious feelings, while simultaneously asking why they can apparently do anything together but figure out how to love one another the way they both deserve.

This sort of romantic introspection – and acknowledgment that love really doesn’t instantly conquer all – is an important and often ignored part of a couple’s story, and can be just as compelling as the will they/won’t they dance that many other pairings before Wyndoc have been forced to engage in. It takes work – on yourself and on your relationship – to build something that really lasts, and Wynonna Earp’s decision to show us that that can be something really ugly and uncomfortable is as important as the happily ever after part we fantasize about. Wynonna and Doc will absolutely find their way back together again – but this time they’ll be stronger for it when they do.

The post How Wynonna Earp is Busting the Moonlighting Curse appeared first on Den of Geek.

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