You're Dick Grayson, and you love your family more than anything. You love them so much you bleed for them and you die for them, but people look at you with all those siblings and wonder when you'll have children of your own. You never want children. You never wanted siblings. You never wanted anyone else to walk in the streets wearing the name your mother gave you, but you won't ever make the same mistakes again. You can't ever take back that you were the first. You were the first and every dead kid sidekick is you, is your brother, is your sister, is your friends you were too young and stupid to understand were going to get hurt. You love your siblings, because you don't know how not to. You love and you love and you keep trying because that's love. When you were just a kid you wanted to get married and now people wonder why you're alone. And you can't say it wasn't ever about marriage- marriage is your parents dying broken, still holding hands. You don't want a ring. You don't want a wife. You want hands that will hold you and be yours more than anything else. You hold it all together, but you're getting older. You're always getting older and you don't know who you'll be when you can't fly. Your family just keeps getting bigger and they're the best, brightest thing in your life. A bunch of kids, out in the dark. Your family is a secret, for the night, and you don't know anymore who gets to see you and know you in the daylight but them.

You're Dick Grayson, and in the end, you're always alone.

carver is one of my favourite characters but him dying in birdy's worldstate is so narratively incredible tbh

updated blorbo catalog :)

info, tags, and more under the cut!

relationship map:

David “V” Lozano: my canon V, a born-and-bred Heywood brawler who never really cared about being famous but god Jackie made it sound so good. He doesn’t think he can make a difference and he doesn’t really try to. It’s all about survival, and corps can wipe you out in the blink of an eye. He would’ve minded his damn business after the heist if it hadn’t been for Johnny.

Viggo “Gogo” Day: a Static of the Kessler clan along with their three brothers and a sister. They’re David’s best friend, a bright and cheerful foil to his taciturn toughness. The city hasn’t beaten the optimism out of them yet, and they have a lot of friends in surprising places who’d like to keep it that way.

Sanctuary Zelenko: Medtech washout, ex-Scav, currently a ripperdoc in Northside. They’re eccentric, they’re enigmatic, they’re downright creepy sometimes. Their friends tell people they’re harmless, but no one knows for sure. Best not to find out.

Brother Calloway: a statuesque netrunner that’s earned herself a spot in the Afterlife’s back booths. She’s highly focused and more than a little intimidating when she’s working, but in her personal life she tends to be quite demure in contrast.

Omen: a hard-boiled techie from Pacifica. He generally prefers machines to people, but his patience can be bought with salty snacks, and rumor has it that he's got a soft spot for ex-gang members and new techies.

Harvey Vignaud: London-born and never figured he’d do anything else but work for Arasaka like his parents. And he did, for a while, netrunning his way up the corpo ladder and earning himself a reputation as someone you never want to meet out there in the net. Then he quit and became a BD editor instead. There’s not much more to it - he’s fickle, and he’s got the skills to do whatever he wants and not be bothered about it. He’s got the air of someone standing comfortably on that thin line between enigmatic and completely detached from reality.

Heiress Sharp: Seasoned merc and 6th Street royalty - her grandfather was Santo Domingo’s premier fixer in the 2020s and her mother was a founding member of the Street. She used to be a high school teacher, but she got sick of corpos headhunting her students. Now she takes young and dumb mercs under her wing and teaches them a thing or two about survival before the city can eat them alive.

Joey Armas: Scav who grew up homeless in Pacifica. His brother was killed by some trust fund kid testing out their new combat-grade implants--that’s probably what set him down the path that led to the cyberware and organ black market.

Hunter Ward: the eldest daughter of Gogo and River. She’s a rainbow baby and her parents are protective of her, and she’s fine with that. Probably why she tends to be shy and doesn’t go out much without her family. Put her on a motorcycle, though, and she lights up like Christmas.

the St. Martin family: four siblings from the Kessler nomad clan who settled on the outskirts of Night City so that Augie could attend his mandatory therapy after the Unification War drove him to cyberpsychosis. They own and operate a rest stop just outside the city.

Auguste (Augie) & Noel are identical twins and the eldest of the four. They served in the Unification War: Noel in communications, Augie as a panzerboy. Augie is registered as a cyberpsycho in Night City, and doing well in therapy, but remains shy and reclusive. Noel is highly protective of him, and almost as distrustful of any cyberware.

Léonide (Leo) is the middle child, occasionally referred to as Gogo's twin because they were born only a few months apart and Leo's mother nursed Gogo after their mother died in childbirth. Leo suffers from the classic middle child syndrome and was a little too eager to break away from the family when they settled in Night City. Like Gogo, he loves the lights and excitement of Night City, but unlike Gogo, he gravitates to the darker side - and his abrasive personality doesn't earn him many favors. His dream is to be a rocker, but in the meantime he takes grunt jobs as a merc and makes a lot of people mad.

Marceline (Molly) is the youngest St. Martin. She feels torn between Night City and her family - she wants to live it up as a rocker in the glitz and glamour of the city, but she also feels a responsibility to stay with Noel and Augie on the outskirts because she knows Noel is resentful of Leo and Gogo for choosing to live in the city.

thoughts on the Harrison-Boyd-Clapton live triangle???

Oh god I have SO many thoughts lol. I was actually just talking to my best friend about this, but to put it simply I see the whole situation as an example of two people who truly love each other not belonging together because the particular ways in which they're broken go together too well.

But, to put it less simply:

I tend to think about it from Pattie's perspective, and I've always thought of her as having pretty severe eldest daughter syndrome, i.e. she was taught to value her worth by what she could provide to others. Her parents weren't super involved and she took on a lot more responsibility than most kids her age, especially when it came to her younger siblings. This quote in particular stood out to me when I was obsessing over Pattie a few months ago:

(Not sure where that's originally from btw, I've had the screenshot forever but based on formatting I think it might be brainy quote).

It's often a red flag when people say they felt older than their years, and doubly so when they were in some way parentified. We often reenact the role we played in our childhood family system in our adult relationships, and in Pattie I think this lead her to be extremely giving and self sacrificing. To the point where I'm not sure she was even aware that she HAD emotional needs, much less knew how to assert them.

To that end, although I obviously like George quite a bit, there's no denying that -- especially as a young man -- he was an incredibly needy person. (I actually think all the beatles were sort of black holes of emotional need tbh, at least in their youth. Partly because of childhood trauma but also because they were living a life that's larger and more extreme than any human being was meant to live.)

Pattie's tendency to sacrifice excessively dovetailed perfectly with George's tendency to need excessively, and as a result he totally eclipsed her entire self, until she felt utterly lost. That's neither of their fault, btw. Neither of them was emotionally mature or self aware enough to realize what was happening.

(Not to mention George was cheating like a dog and Pattie was taking it on the chin even though she knew deep down she deserved better. But former parentified children often put up with a lot of shit as adults because they believe it's their responsibility to do so.)

Then Eric comes along and literally tells her it's her fault he's addicted to heroin and if she doesn't leave George he'll die and it'll be all her fault. Aside from the fact that this is literally emotional abuse, it's also an even darker and more powerful black hole of neediness than George. And as someone whose sense of self has been eclipsed and who only knows she matters when she's of service to others, it was basically impossible not to fall into that black hole.

For his part, I think Eric was far more concerned with taking something from George than being with Pattie. I don't know enough about him to know why he'd feel the need to do that and I also really dislike him so I doubt I'll ever find out. Pattie said he got bored of her pretty much as soon as he "had" her, and tbh that doesn't surprise me.

It was honestly such a tragic thing for Pattie to be driven/dragged away from George -- personally I believe they always loved each other (she referred to him as her soulmate in her autobiography, and George made sure she knew as long as he was alive she'd have a financial parachute) -- but I also genuinely think they had to lose each other in order to find themselves.

Pattie couldn't stay in a relationship where she was fulfilling the same self sacrificing role she played as a child, and although it was a long and painful road she seems to have really found herself and found peace. She's never explicitly said this, but often people without a strong sense of self need to be on their own in order to learn how to value themselves, and she did spend a long time unmarried after Eric.

And, although George was gutted by the breakup, he was no more capable of expressing love in a healthy way than Pattie was. If they had stayed together I doubt he'd have grown into the wise and self possessed person that he ultimately became, because he simply wouldn't have had to. (Plus he never would have found Liv and I love her just as much as I love Pattie.)

In the end their relationship is fascinating and tragic to me because the things that drew them to one another so deeply were also what ultimately doomed them, and yet in the shadow of that loss they became the people they were meant to be and found their happy endings.

Thanks for the ask, and sorry for the novel 😁

RANDOM DEVIL'S NIGHT THOUGHTS

~NUMBER 60~

Many of the anons i have received asked what are my thoughts on Willemmy not ending up together. And if that happens how do i think that will happen.

•• MY THOUGHTS ••

As for me WILLEMMY will always end up together. They are Endgame. The way Will was never able to move on from her, how in all those years apart Emmy never let herself be happy. That night of the homecoming was IT for them both. They both are actually happy and their true self when they are with each other only. They both love to piss each other off. And they are the only person in their life who lift each other and make then be better. As Will said himself Emmy is the only one who made him feel more and when she was in his arms he felt he can take on the world. And as Emmy said she was only happy when she was with Will. They are movie partners. They are it for each other. How in the moment of danger their first instinct is to see the other one to k ow if they are safe or not. Yes there were problems but it was because others were not good to them and they got caught in that. But Willemmy are always Endgame. ALWAYS.

@uneednotknow 'S THOUGHTS

Tbh even thinking about them not ending up together hurts, and they are fictional 💀. Anyways, I'm not saying this because they are my favourite couple amongst all of the DN series but really even if they weren't my favourite it would hurt. They only have each other. Sure, Damon is there for Will, Damon will die for Will just to see him smile, no doubt but Damon didn't see past Will's enthusiasm, didn't past Will being his 'sunshine'.And Emmy, my gosh, this girl really had no one at the end of the day. She was her own pillar, her own shelter. She, to me, represents the eldest daughter in the family. She took care of everyone and everything and at the end of the day, she had no one but herself, for so long. Sure, Will was there for her even when she didn't know but, currently I'm talking about the loneliness she must have felt. To this day in my mind, Banks and Em are best friends.I wonder why PD never saw the need to write about those two, even if it were just a paragraph, but oh well. Anyways what I want to say is, only Will and Emory saw past each other, they were there for each other. Especially, Will, my heart hurts to think that he had to pretend to be what he was not- the party animal, the druggie, the alcoholic. I hate to say this, but Horsemen are to be blamed partly for his spiraling.And Alex was supposed to be his supportive girl bestfirend, but she was an enabler. I'll die on this hill. And to think that WillEmmy are not the endgame? No, that's just incomplete. PD stored the angstiest, the most bitter-sweet, the almost most realistic couple for the end but really the ( fan demands ) ruined the entire plot. The two of them had no one but themselves and each other for the longest time.I just know Will would have died very soon- if not for alcohol and drugs, then because of his broken heart syndrome. He stayed alive so long, because like he said he always reached out for Emory, in his mind. So in a way, that satiated the loneliness, the pain and the heartache. PD could write the happiest story for Will and any other girl, but at the end of the book, at the end of the epilogue Will would have died because he couldn't deal with all the pressure anymore.He had inferiority complex, thinks he isnt good enough, that no one would choose him. But Emory did, she always believed in him. So did he. Emmy is a strong and independent woman but if she and Will didn't end up together, she would simply die alone or marry someone like a marriage of convenience.

°° But, What if they don't? °°

Now lets see how and what will happen if they actually don't end up together. How will things progress? What will the end moment when they realize to move apart forever? What is the last nail? Did other characters have a hand in this aswell?

Some people want Emmy to leave Will and some want Will to leave Emmy.

So let's discuss how they will move apart. And write it.

I am not a writer so i don't have many plotlines for it but some, so if anyone have any thoughts (any and whatever) share it here and we will write that or try to write that. Really any thoughts are appreciated. Feel free to share them whenever you want there is no date restrictions.

. ✧ . * . ⌜ laura harrier, twenty-five, cis female, she/her / mastermind by taylor swift + the rush of wind on your face as you soar higher, higher still ; laughter that cuts through a crowd, sudden and swift and uncontrollable ; a determined carelessness that has been calculated to the second ⌟ hey, have you met ALICIA SPINNET yet? the MUGGLEBORN is a SEVENTH YEAR at hogwarts and are a GRYFFINDOR. makes sense given they tend to be a bit OUTSPOKEN and RUTHLESS. it seems the death of the boy who lived has placed them on the LIGHT side of the looming war. let’s just hope they make it out alive.

tldr: she's only cryptic and machiavellian 'cause she cares!! competitive, loud, passionate, arrogant, manipulative, selfish, and so deeply deeply afraid that someone might see the truth in her that she would rather spend her whole life pretending to be perfect than admit that sometimes, occasionally, she just wants to have a really long nap.

━━ STATS

name: alicia lynn spinnet nickname(s): lish age & year: twenty five, seventh year birthday: may 21st house: gryffindor sexuality: bisexual blood status: muggleborn wand: hawthorne, dragon heart-string, 10 inch, firm star sign: gemini alignment: lawful good allegiance: light / potter's army / order of the phoenix (future)

━━ FAMILY HISTORY

parents: andrew spinnet, history teacher. linda spinnet nee barnard, homemaker. both eminently ordinary, sensible people, who keep a tidy house and tidy minds - but there is a strong streak of independence and humour in both, and they never had any hesitation in doing what they thought was best for their strangest daughter. siblings: nicole christine, lish's elder by three years, now a soliciter still based two streets from their parents. malcolm zachery, lish's younger brother by a year, living at home being a pain. other family: lish's paternal grandparents moved to the uk from jamaica in the late 60s and settled in lewisham; they have determinedly not moved from their home, despite the manifold changes that have occurred in the streets around them. lish spent most of her childhood with her grandma while her parents worked, and it is one of her greatest pains that she can't share the reality of her life with her. her mother's family are polish immigrants and much more distant, always seeming cold and frightening to lish when she was young. birthplace: lewisham, london, uk relationships: extremely close with her paternal grandparents, who partly raised her. closer to her younger brother malc than to her older sister nicole, who suffers from major eldest daughter syndrome. extremely proud of her parents and their work ethic, and feels fiercely protective of them and their successes, which means she has always despised any expression of magical superiority. feeling disconnected from some parts of her family is inevitable, and secretly lish has always found the transition from the muggle world of the summer holidays to hogwarts in september difficult to take. schooling: lish went to regular secondary school, inner london, fairly rough; she loved it. though quidditch is the sport she found she could really excel at, she was on the girls football team and forced her dad to take her to every damn match, rain or shine. though her parents wanted her to go on to uni, hogwarts intervened - something that lish will always be glad of, no matter the consequences. growing up so deeply different from her peers, with magic she struggled to control, left its mark; she is so used to hiding a part of herself that she isn't sure who the real her even is anymore.

━━ APPEARANCE

height & build: tall, 5' 10", and athletic, rangy and graceful rather than curvy. hair: dark and 3c textured, generally worn braided or relaxed - struggling to be proud of her natural hair is unfortunately not helped by how easy magic makes it to style straight :( eyes: dark brown notable features: easily noticable in a crowd because of her height and confidence, lish carries herself like...well, like a jock. she is confident and exuberant, if sometimes too loud for some people, and she is difficult to forget, even for those who dislike her. style: above all comfortable and casual, when not in uniform lish prefers sporty styles. she's giving sporty spice!! she's giving keira in bend it like beckham! gryffindor colours, cargos, joggers, the occasional cropped sports top. she wouldn't choose a dress or skirt for every day wear, but if she goes out she isn't opposed to femininity. if you've got it, flaunt it, obvs.

  ━━ PERSONALITY

positives: kind, optimistic, confident, humourous, determined, fierce, appreciative confident and optimistic, it's extremely rare to find lish in a gloomy mood. she prefers to share her smiles and laughter and can always be pulled from any grump with a well-timed joke or a simple hug. she has a strong internal moral compass and a fierce sense of justice; she is perfect for gryffindor house because she would never stand by and allow someone to be attacked or bullied. she is very intelligent - often surprisingly so, given that she is generally categorised more as a quidditch player than an academic - but, given that she wants to present an image of ease above all things, she never shows just how hard she has to work to achieve her nearly perfect grades. she is socially calculating, with an extremely good grasp of personal relationships and undercurrents, and likes to situate herself at the centre of any growing conflict...whether to help or to hinder depending on who's involved. negatives: selfish, manipulative, controlling, arrogant, short-tempered, dismissive boisterous and loud, lish can come across as selfish and short-sighted; she struggles to tone down her personality to match the situation and has to be told to just shut up, though she just laughs this off. her anxiety surrounding her image overwhelms her regularly, and her need to control what others think of her can lead her to disassociate from her true feelings, seeing her friendships and relationships as tools to be twisted and manipulated into shape; though she would never do anything to hurt those she loves (or so she thinks) she often prioritises looking calm and collected over truly engaging with issues. she cannot bear it when she fails to seem perfect, and she reacts badly to people who disrupt her plans - the unpredictable, the competitive, or the sullen. her need for control can lead to her restricting her own behaviours in a way that is deeply unhealthy, whether that is in regards to food, pleasure, or simply allowing herself to let go in the moment. she almost never asks for help, and struggles to accept it even when it is genuinely offered. for lish, it is her way or the high way, and if you prove her wrong in public...you're going to face some major repercussions. fears: being out of control, being exposed (though what exactly she is ashamed of, even she isn't sure), losing in public, being laughed at rather than with, harm coming to those she loves, fading into obscurity, dying without achieving anything, being called a failure talents: making others laugh, an excellent chaser for the gryffindor team, a true, warm-hearted friend, a brilliant cook, and a good judge of character. excells in charms, whether they be medical or domestic, with an inherent knack for twisting a spell to her uses. weaknesses: appalling at potions, which effectively closed off her original plans to become a healer. a poor dueller, whose attacking spells lack strength. cannot sing and refuses to try. a poor judge of her own feelings, cannot bear to be proven wrong, so competitive it's obnoxious. hogwarts: lish is at somewhat of a crossroads - something professor mcgonagall reminds her of regularly. she is a good student, though she has to work extremely hard to achieve her high marks; because she refuses to let anyone see her struggle, she exhausts herself with her late nights at the library. she is a talented quidditch player and loves the camraderie of the game, but she is too much of a realist to think she could make a career out of it. her plate is overflowing, and mcgonagall, who believes lish should be focusing on her newts and that she could have an excellent career in experimental charms, came close to banning her from the team this year. lish managed to dissuade her, but the pressure has mounted so high that she now refuses to talk about the future with anybody, prefering instead to pretend that this is simply another school year.

  ━━ PLOT HOOKS

quidditch team. pls give lish her quidditch pals!! they have been her family at hogwarts since her second year and, though lish loves a good row, she has always been soooo close to the whole team. she just loves these guys. harry's death would've devastated her, because to her the whole team were hers - plus the sheer injustice of it means her temper is even closer to the surface these days! she loves people who are warm and enthusiastic and like to drink and party! gimme the gryffindor jocks

library & charms nerd. lish hides most of this away from everyone except her closest friends, but mcgonagall is pushing her to apply for ministry positions once she finishes her newts. she studies mostly in secret so i would love for her to have some secret study buddies who know how hard she works to make everything seem effortless!

exes. i see lish as someone who loves the early chemistry of flirtation but is extremely poor at maintaining any romantic relationship; once she realises that dating has to be more than being mean to someone as a love language she closes up totally. i'd love for her to have a couple of exes, some where things ended amicably, some where they uh...didn't. i also headcanon that lish seriously struggles to be faithful so uhhhhhhh there's that! she's never had anything serious though because. well. i want to give her frenemies to lovers so watch this space!

enemies. lish is massively outspoken about blood purity, a muggleborn who will never stay quiet and has very visible talents that can't be explained away, and has an extremely short temper. slytherins are going to hate her and disparage her and i would love for her to have some fights, pls.

Despite being the baby, Jimmy has eldest daughter syndrome.

I feel like a lot of it is over-correction? He's obviously always wanted Chuck's approval and when he can't get it he thinks he might as well be the biggest shit alive, but I imagine later on that he feels guilt for running off, being the Problem Child, he gets upset about not being believed by Kim so everything about the shop is weighing on him, and if he's the best daughter ever then maybe that makes up for all of it.

Dick :D

Okay because I can never decide on one of anything, here's a tiny playlist for you :)

This fits the Teen Titans/Fab Five when they were starting out as well as the early Nightwing era. It sort of plays into that desperate, fun, young energy I think that they/Dick had.

These two give eldest daughter syndrome/first to "get out" vibes and I think it fits him. Surface Pressure is more straightforward. I picked Breathe because of the whole idea of Dick being the "first sidekick" but not only the first sidekick, the first sidekick to carve his own identity and the pressures that came with that.

This song!!!! I imagine this sung from Dick to Bruce: you and I are friends of empty graves, black air and black, black lungs/am I the only thing keeping you safe when the light is gone? and I'll sing you songs until the darkness does recede... because it plays to this whole idea that Dick is the only thing keeping Bruce from going somewhere bad.

I imagine this being sung from Bruce to Dick: This crooked posture is all you've ever known/It is the consequence of living in between/The weight of family and the pull of gravity

Just the "weight of family and pull of gravity" being two things that Dick struggles with. His family can be rough and he's always skybound. Gravity is pulling him down.

AND THEN THIS LINE???

You are so much more than your father's son/You are so much more than what I've become

Like Bruce admitting that Dick is more than just "Batman's sidekick" and that he doesn't live in Batman's shadow anymore. And more than that, Bruce admitting that Dick is better than himself. Dick is the only thing he's done right. Dick is what he could've become if he was just braver.

Shut me up before I talk about this more, but trust me on this, this is a Bruce and Dick song.

(the acoustic version of this song isn't on Spotify but know that's what I'm talking about)

I think this one just fits Dick's depression/mildly suicidal vibes during Devin Grayson's run, especially after the whole shenanigan with Catalina and Blockbuster and Blüdhaven exploding... like that was a lot.

I've been fighting for my sanctuary/How do I stay alive if I don't wanna be?

Because everyone clowns on Dick for probably liking ABBA, this is out of obligation but also consider.... Donna & Dick vibes (you can choose who is singing to who. it fits both ways).

I don't have a good explanation for this but I just think he'd vibe so hard to this. It's got such good energy; I think he'd love it.

im finally doing another batfam fic rec lets see what we have today

by @dizarys

Dick sank down on the stairs and ran both hands over his face. Maybe giving up and moving on was easier. But all of that wasn’t nothing. They were threads of hope that Dick knew he would cling to until his last breath.

If he could keep his brothers alive.

---

When a mysterious villain targets the Robins, forcing them together, Dick is bound and determined to keep his brothers safe no matter the cost. Unfortunately for him, so are they.

dick grayson is a self sacrificing idiot. what else is new

by @frownyalfred

Bruce takes the batkids out for some extra training.

in which bruce wayne shoots his kids. no, really

by @tarvek-sturmvoraus

"Birds are animals, Jay."

"What the fuck? No. Aren't they basically reptiles?" Jason demands.

"First of all, no, you're thinking of dinosaurs, which is what they actually are in the Flintstones. Second of all, reptiles are animals."

"Bullshit."

"Okay, I..." Tim pinches his nose. "Okay. I think I see the problem here."

"Yes, Todd sustained a traumatic brain injury the other night and didn't see fit to inform anyone before we left on this inane trip."

absolutely nobody has a braincell in this family. none

by @ididloveyou

‘Anyone ever tell you that you’re pretty?’ Fingertips dug into Jason’s chin, tilting his head side to side, surveying him, ‘all that bravado doesn’t suit a face like yours.’

Jason snarled and pulled at his restraints.

‘Ah, ah, ah,’ the leader chastised, voice light, ‘you’ve got the wrong idea. Pretty is a good thing. Pretty is useful.’

Or: Jason probably shouldn’t have tried to take down an entire gang without his armor. Fortunately, Nightwing is in the area. No one hurts Dick’s family and gets away with it.

rip pavlov, you would've loved dick grayson.

by @bleusarcelle

“You’re not being practical,” Damian snarls at him.

“And you’re not being rational.” Tim throws back. “Please do me the favor of looking down, Demon, and tell me exactly how letting you fall into the dark abyss below you is the practical choice here?”

Damian scoffs at him. “It’s hardly an abyss, I can see the building's rumble below and some of the broken infrastructure at the bottom -”

“Wow, you’re so not helping your case.”

(Or the one where their patrol night goes to shit and Tim has a really stubborn little brother that apparently wants to die again just because he's stubborn as fuck. Sucks for Damian, though, because Tim is used to doing the exact opposite of what Damian wants just to spite him. Like a good big brother.)

big brother tim??? and its not even my birthday

by @biromantic-nerd

His alarm woke him far too soon. Well, actually, no it didn't. It woke him exactly when it was supposed to. But it just felt like it was too soon, was the thing. The warmth of his blankets was like a siren call and he - the foolish smitten sailor - leaned into the allure and burrowed deeper. Five minutes, he swore. Just five.

(Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt 3: "Worked Themselves To Exhaustion" + "Dick Grayson")

if you or anyone you know if experiencing eldest daughter syndrome you may be entitled to financial compensation

by @goatsghost

At a gala, Cass notices someone slipping something in her drink, but she’s not able to decline without bringing unwanted attention to herself. Here we go, she thinks, and tips the drink back, downing it in one go.

cass has a really bad time at a gala, but don't worry, her brothers are here for her. tw for racism and attempted SA

by @smilebackwards

Batman needs a Robin and Batman has a Robin. Tim is just extraneous now, vestigial. He’s a bandage over a healed wound. He doesn’t know what he’s hanging on to.

Or: Tim didn’t expect his exit strategy from the Batfamily to involve quite so much bonding time with Damian over Wayne Enterprises bureaucracy.

um. ow. also criminally underrated, what the fuck?

by @jaded-jewels

Kyle lives in New York. Well, when he’s not living on Oa. He’s also kinda sorta dating Jason Todd and the batkids want to see what he’s all about. Kyle just thinks he’s lucky Batman himself hasn’t climbed through his window.

jaykyle on main? way more likely than you think.

by @eggmacguffin

When he ends up ditched in Atlanta after a fight with his dad, Tim decides to do the only sensible thing: Tell no one and make the 800 mile journey back to Gotham on his own.

Because the "call Batman when you're in trouble" rule only applies when he's Robin, right?

not underrated... per say. but still required reading

Title: I Get Tim a Cat Because It’s What He Deserves (oh and i guess a group chat 🙄)

a batfam/wayne family groupchat would literally never happen in canon but it would be so fucking funny you all don’t even know, so i will do it anyways.

the chat just kinda... starts. no one know where it came from. who added them. who??? none of their emotionally stunted asses would be caught dead making making a family chat tf? why can’t any of them leave? they smash their phones and then on their laptop a notification pops up like “you’ve joined ‘x’ group” and they’re stuck there. might as well use it ig, but for what???

“everyone who is alive type ‘i’” no one responds so bruce spends hours trying to find out where their bodies are until he finds out everyone just had the chat on mute

“why isn’t alfred on here” “huh. alfred isn’t on here and no one knows who made the chat?” “so whoever made it just left immediately?” “...” “lol anyways”

tim was trying to send a snap to the core four gc but accidentally sent it to the family chat and gets super embarrassed (of course this happens when everyone’s online why wouldn’t they if it makes tim’s life more difficult) and everyone makes fun of him. duke printed out copies and plastered them all over tim’s apartment while tim was out for something and tim nearly murders duke. after that no one puts the chat on mute because this was too funny.

no one actually, like, texts on a regular basis because they’re not like other families 🙄 they only text if it’s really important or someone’s dying.

that’s being said, “dick where is dog” “send doggy” “dog?” “send doggy” “dick when did you get a dog?” “SEND DOGGY” “i demand you send the dog this instant” “dog now.”

damian breaks into dick’s apartment to take a selfie with him and haley (or bitewing, haley is just shorter to type) captioned “she is mine this is a warning to all of you. i will not hesitate if any of you low lives come near her.” and dick is like “??? this is my dog i can’t have anything these days, siblings take everything, man—” oh ya, everyone reacts to the haley photo with a heart. also dick only lets this shit slide with damian, if jason the problem child pulled this shit it would be on sight lmfaooo

- tim: the dog is cute but, but in photography i learned you have to crop out everything unimportant, like this *crops out damian from the photo*

- in other news, tim joined the dead bats club and now only bruce and duke are left 😃🔪

bruce: check in if you are alive. *everyone’s status is online*

u don’t know about y’all, but my bruce wayne is a responsible father who keeps an eye on his kids, or at least does his best, “has anyone seen duke? he has school and i can’t find him” “i will find him... if you give me $50.” “i will give you the money jason just tell me where he is” jason sends a photo of himself and duke laying down on the floor eating pop tarts.

-“literally why do you all keep coming into my apartment” “our apartment, dick” “i pay for this apartment it’s mine, i keep living in blüdhaven for a reason, god, siblings always steal everything that’s your’s—” it’s ok guys dick simultaneously has eldest daughter’s syndrome and absent sibling syndrome, who is doing it like him? legend behavior. anyways, duke and jason left crumbs on the floor and dick beat them up lmao.

“can i have money” “dad” (theyre sent by same person just different text) “yes cass i will sent you as much as you need, $2,000 is enough for shipping with friends?” “dad can i have money too” “dad can i too” “may i have some too dad” “dad” “dad” fhdjdjsks they only call him dad when they’re dying, want something, or are tattling on each other, someone save him 😩

“@everyone the interviewer in the last segment asked me if we have a family chat and i have a feeling they will try to pry into my texts to see what we are texting, please actually send something so they don’t get even more nosy from our lack of communicating” *someone sends the bee movie script*

ok but like, as time goes on they get more comfy texting each other and acting like a normal(ish) family unit that texts a little more. like tattling.

“someone broke the vase in the hallway and if they don’t want me to tell pennyworth who did it they will buy alfred the cat a new scratching post by nightfall” damian is so funny i love him

“HELPPVHRNXKAK” “what’s up with jason?” “cass is sitting on him” “lol” “i think she’s gonna break his arm fhdjdksk” “ANDBSJ I HAT E YO U A LL” “when did you all come to the manor???”

“😂” bruce vs “lol” dick and cass vs “agdhsjak” tim and duke vs “hA” jason vs “i don’t find any of you funny” damian

“damian i am putting your lemon cake pop thingies in the last bottom shelf on the right, i put the code and everything in the safe” “how often does damian even come to your apartment, dick?” “whenever you’re being an asshole bruce” “he’s always an asshole dickhead 🙄” “exactly 🥰”

“dad guess what” “TIM NOOO” “remember when” “TIM TIM TIM” “you told duke to take the day shift” “I WILL NEVER POST YOUR SNAP PHOTOS TO A GROUPCHAT WITH THE ENTIRE SUPERHERO COMMUNITY AGAIN!!!” “and he agreed to if he did his school work first?” “MERCY, MERCY” “what did he do, tim” “fjdjxkskkz duke goes on school zoom meetings during patrol and pretends he doesn’t have a mic and camera and i was watching his helmet footage and it was so funny, the teachers just believe him when he pretends to have really bad network and can barely type in the chat” “my teachers never trusted me that much” “that’s because you made a kid cry once jason stfu” “wait how did u know that cass—“

“AHDBSNZKAJHF” “stfu duke” “what’s wrong with him where is he?” “cain came to visit” “ohhhh” “FHDJFJDJ HELLPPPXSND” “i know you’re taking a video, you little shit, send it” “no todd come here and take one yourself—or don’t, your presence is unwanted” “fucking brat”

“DAD DICK HIT ME” “DAD JASON’S LYING” *bruce wayne online* (he doesn’t fucking respond fhsjskla) (is it because he’s exasperated with them or crying because they called him dad even though it’s a manipulation tactic or both we’ll never know)

“everyone who is alive, type in chat” *everyone is online* then bruce edits the message to say ‘everyone who wants alfred’s cinnamon rolls, type in chat’ “i guess NO ONE wants alfred’s cinnamon rolls, how sad” and the entire chat goes wild lmfao

ok uhhh let’s do on a scale of 1-10 texts most vs is online the most

bruce: 6-texting, 5.9-online because he always makes an effort to text his kids to check up on them and when his kids are texting he will text as well here and there in the convo to interact with them because he never sees and interacts with them normally and he wants to do better 🥲. he get’s minus 0.1 because of that one time jason and dick were fighting and he logged off agdhsjnz

dick: 3-texting, 3.5-online because he’s the only one in this hellhole of a family that has an actual job (in this house we uphold gymnastics teacher grayson 🙏) and sometimes he won’t have energy to text. so. but he does make an effort when he can. he’s online more than he texts because he’s able to sneak looks at the fights when he has downtime during his job and wants to see the drama lmfaooo. also everything goes on in his fucking apartment for some reason, so now he gotta break up a (one sided) fight between cass and tim because someone has to be a responsible adult.

cass: 2-texting, 10-online because she watches more than she texts? she’s more content to watch what’s going on than to join in. also 8/10 she’s usually the one causing the drama that everyone’s texting about, like beating up the others, so she can’t text while beating them up. i mean she could, but she wants to put more energy in beating them up (lovingly) (cass is basically violence (loving)) and watching what everyone’s saying about her fights. she’s always online to catch a glimpse at the drama. also most of her texts are to dick to see bitewing. and ask for money.

jason: texting-8, online-4 because if cass is the one causing drama offline, jason’s causing drama online. jason wants to be chat cryptic but texts the most lmfaoooo. he’s antagonizing his siblings whenever he sees them and whenever he can’t, king shit. he’s online less because he deadass doesn’t care that much, he’ll read the texts later if he really wants to, otherwise either duke or tim will fill him in on the drama. (“jason ur in the chat too—“ “shut up, tim, now tell me how cass beat damian’s ass)

tim: texting-6.44444, online-10, see tim texts a lot just not to the family group chat lmfao, he has REAL FRIENDS 😤 uhh ya, that’s why he’s online all the time, cuz he’s either texting his friends or on his phone doing some shit. broke: tim stays up late working on cases, woke: tim stays up late texting his friends and playing video games over chat. tim just. interacts with his family, gets bullied by them, ya. that’s the life. also he and duke keep throwing hands because it’s the family curse to beat up tim and in this essay i will discuss how dick is the superior sibling because he never tried to kill tim—wait he probably pushed him down the stairs once nvm but it was totally justified, king

duke: texting-4, online-4 because he has, like, school. and daytime patrol. and is like a junior in high school and therefore has a fuck ton of homework. my boy has no time for family and he doesn’t want it because they’re annoying, obviously 🙄. if he wants drama he’ll go into damian’s room and get the drama. diy icon. he’s online as much as he texts but is so fast of a reader he’ll know the drama in time for the next episode of wayne family shit. most of his time online is picking fights with tim and roasting his siblings to a crisp. he’s so mean, guys, legend has it that one time duke told jason that his helmet looked like a shriveled up dildo and that it could never be the gay statement he wanted it to be jason went offline for that entire day in order to cry himself to sleep. at least he got sleep (allegedly) ayyy duke the problem solver.

damian: texting-1.5, online 2 because the only time he’s texting is to ask dick for photos of bitewing and to send photos of his pets back as proper payment. a negotiator ugghhh father like son. damian honestly doesn’t care about the drama he just wants to sketch bitewing (using the photos dick sent as reference) into the Family Portrait Sketch™️ of the rest of the Animal Family™️. it is an honor for damian to create such a piece, picasso the women hater quakes in his grave as such art that blows his dog shit “art” FAR out of the water is developing. anyways, he goes online for that and to throw random barbs at his siblings. like no one is online and damian just throws a “drake is stupid” in chat and just dips. he’s online more to text the other teen titans and jon because they’re better than his dumbass family (and he texts grayson on messenger so fhdjdjsks) true chat cryptic, jason envies him

alfred: 0-texting, 10-online. huh who said that

“duke take down the tik toks, tim is crying”

“who has my sweatshirt??? i will kill you all” “i have it jason” “nvm cass that’s your sweatshirt now i’m sorry for being presumptuous don’t aTTACK ME” fhdjdjsks

“guys i have the day off do you want to hear when delilah said to jonathon it’s so funny” “are those the kids in your gymnastics class?” “ya” “tell us everything”

the bats just... love hearing drama about those kids because they’re so dramatic. apparently alex threw a rubber ball at maya and she tackled them. wild.

time for a round of: WHO SAID IT?!?!

“how do i make my text bold like the rest of you?” —bruce, dick, cass, and jason at some point.

“how do i change my screen name? please change it back to before” -cass when tim changed her name to “hal jordon #1 stan” (“what is a stan” —bruce), (“i don’t like it either change it back” —bruce after finding out what a stan is)

“what the fuck is a pog” —jason

“fucking ‘tik tok’. we used to use vine when i was a teen. i was a front line soldier of great disasters” —dick on one hand lmfao dick is so old but on the other hand holy shit you used vine??? tell us more about the battles fought

“what is a dilf?” —bruce after scrolling through twitter

ok that’s all, my brain is gone.

“cass dick is turning purple get off him” “no. make him give me my scarf back.” “oh dad that’s terrible can you send a video as evidence?”

“GUYS I FOUND A CAT AND IT SCRATCHED ME AND IM GOING TO THE HOSPITAL BUT GUYS!!! CAT!!!” “drake send a photo of the cat immediately” lmfao bruce zooms to the hospital after that text

“GUYS THE CAT HAS AN OWNER I CANT KEEP THE CAT 🥲” “the one time you could prove to be of use and you fail, drake.” “wow tim, find a cat to steal without an owner next time” “timmy, timmy, timmy, i can’t believe you’ve messed up in finding a cat again” “again?” “again?” “again?” “when i adopt a cat i’m not showing any of you, i hate you all” (lmao hard version of guess who is who i’ll give you a hint dick cass and bruce are the confused ones. )ok it’s not hard anymore.

“dad please get me a cat 😳🐱 haha jk 🤣😩 unless 👀😏😃🙏🥰” anyways tim named the cat starry because of her fur-hair-thingy

“they just so you all know steph just crashed in my apartment and i have work in the morning” “i will pick her up in the morning” “you mean tim will, you don’t have a license, cass. anyways”

“dick do you need help moving?” “no, bruce, i think i can handle it, donna and wally are helping me anyways, but thank you” “mOVING???” “OUT OF YOUR APARTMENT???” “DICK THAT SAME APARTMENT ON 666 HELLHOLE AVENUE???” “...ya?” “NOOOOO” anyways they all break into dick’s new apartment when he moves in, walk around it, and then leave. they just... ya... damn, these bats...

anyways that’s all. see ya.

it wasn’t power i coveted; it was acceptance.

Titans 3.06

y’know, i was just thinking the other day that 1.06/1.07 and 2.06/2.07 were the best episodes of their respective seasons, so i have great hopes going in to this one. fingers crossed!

as always, typing this up as i see the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. oh! um... that was a Cold Open, all right. *nudges* get it? cold? because it’s snowing? and two people got murdered in cold blood? eh?

... oh, i’ve just started.

1.5. i wonder if “i want to be sipping pina coladas on a beach with you” is the new “i’m just one day away from retiring.” i was so on edge after that--i kept expecting that car to explode. even so, the way they died wasn’t an anticlimax: brutal, and quick. 

1.75. so i’m assuming that’s the titular lady vic! this show better bring up why this doll was important or why these two cops needed to be killed, and not leave it to the ether like jericho’s little mindscape jaunt in 2.08 (i’m still dying to know what that was about???)

2.

i love how deliberately unappealing wayne manor is. 

(sorry for the pic quality. i don’t have hbo max! ssshhh.)

2.3. i love the many references to “home” and “our house” when they’ve been here for less than a week and saw one of their friends get blown into pieces. i mean, i unironically love it: home is where family is, after all!

2.5. i’d like to say that kom is playing some sort of long game here, especially given the build-up we had last season and some of the more niggling details this season: why did kom choose now to use her bond to lure kory when she’s been on earth for months? why did justin call kory now, just around the time that she started getting kom’s visions? and what about kom’s ability to exactly imitate other people? hmmm.

2.75. the reason i wrote i’d like to say is that i’ve made the mistake of assuming plot complexity where there is none; i was so invested in the jason todd orchestrated his own death theory for instance, when it turns out that oops! ra’s al ghul just happened to leave a little lazarus puddle in gotham, and oh yeah! scarecrow just happens to have a network of henchmen working for him on the outside and a fully functional laboratory and a weapons cache fit for a new supervillain in the basement of the high security psychiatric unit/prison that he’s in! 

(no i’m not bitter, why do you ask)

2.8. iiiii don’t know what to say about the implications of sex slavery being a thing on tamaran, so i’m not going to say anything at all. for now.

3. gotham, six years ago... wasn’t it five years before s2 that jericho died and the titans disbanded? and when was the flashback from 1.06 where dick let zucco die? i think it was after the events of 2.08: jericho? i can’t seem to find any transcripts or reliable information online, so i’m going to have to rewatch 1.06 at some point. 

(i love the old-fashioned batman music in this heist scene)

3.5. “security is a joke... it’s my way of keeping my dad on his toes”. what you’re an ethical thief now, like an ethical hacker? i don’t think that excuse is going to sell, barbara, on the day you do encounter a decent security system and your father is forced to arrest you.

(then again, gotham’s security is piss-poor. did you know that you could just walk into arkham asylum without any official clearance, ply one of its most dangerous inhabitants with contraband, and said inmate could get away with having an entire laboratory and weapons cache--NO I’M NOT GOING TO LET THIS GO)

3.8 so that flashback between dick and barbara was really cute! and also illuminating:

a) dick sounds so light, so... um. look. i have some apologies to tender to mr thwaites, because while i’ve always thought he does a fine job as dick grayson, i’ve never been terribly fond of his cadence as he delivers dialogue. it’s often monotonous, i thought, but then again, he’s usually delivering exposition or dealing with one soul-crushing crisis or the other. so i was pleasantly surprised to hear dick sound so carefree and alive in his conversation with barbara, laughing frequently, his emotions so bare and bubbling to the surface. it’s really a fantastic contrast to the traumatised and world-weary dick grayson that we see now, even more so than the costume department just bunging a backwards-baseball cap on mr thwaites’ head and hoping that will convince us of his relative youth. 

b) and god, when he wakes up from that memory, all alone in his bed, bleeding from bullet holes in his shoulder (bullet holes that are--in a somewhat convoluted way--barbara’s fault)? yikes. it’s great. you have my apologies, mr thwaites!

c) can you imagine dick just... crawling back to wayne manor, trying not to be seen by anybody, shedding his suit and just... collapsing onto his bed without even tending to his wound? the sheer emotional and physical exhaustion of it? 

d) it’s so interesting to see how barbara and dick approach the idea of legacy--a big theme on the show!--in this flashback. barbara is the one bucking the idea that she should follow in her father’s footsteps, while dick seems pretty content with the batman-and-robin setup, and even tries to get barbara to join their team (robin-girl. pfffft). obviously after this several traumatic things happen wherein dick ends up questioning and then resenting his role as robin, his relationship with batman or even returning as a vigilante at all. and barbara... ends up replacing her father as commissioner. it’s tragic, really. 

e) the dynamic between dick and barbara in the flashback reminds me of how it was between dick and donna in 1.08 and even between kory and dick in early s1. it’s like having an older, strong-willed woman by his side means he gives over the steering wheel for a while and lets himself... unspool, a little bit. it’s kinda endearing.

also:

*pinches his cheeks*

3. you know, we talk about dick and Eldest Daughter Syndrome, and that’s definitely valid, but here gar seems to me the embodiment of it, with all the emotional gardening and firefighting that he’s expected to do. he’s kind of the guy expected to keep his shit together and take care of everyone else while they are falling completely to pieces, unable to carve out time to process his own trauma. he’s also picked up dick’s and kory’s tendencies to bottle up their struggles and shun appearing vulnerable, and he’s struggling in the shadow of both dick and kory undergoing acute crises, his best friend (and frequent confidante) on the other side of the world, and seeing hank die, utterly helpless to stop it. 

i’m glad that he got a chance to tell dick even a smidgeon of what he really feels, and i hope this is at least a semblance of a wake up call for dick to actually sit down and work with the people he repeatedly calls family.

3.5. it’s heartening to see that dick immediately makes it his priority to go talk to gar. but don’t blow off kory in the process, man!

4. i’m really loving this dynamic between kom and conner--i get the idea that both of them consider each other as Unknowns, alien two times over. but conner’s only ever known the titans, who embrace being different, and kom’s only ever known... well. 

anyway, kory is Really Stressed, and honestly? #relatable. 

when you’re forced to bring an estranged family member to hang out with your friends...

4.5. i love that the titans are spending so much time in the kitchen. a real family!

5. jonathan crane is a creep and i absolutely cannot stand him.

5.25. how did he get a whole lab setup (in the basement of a hospital...?) with a bunch of whitecoats to work for him? how did he just waltz into the viewing room of an operation theatre when he’s one of the most wanted men in gotham right now? why is jason wandering around maskless when--presumably--as the adopted son of the most famous person in gotham he’d be a tad more recognisable than your average joe?

why do i expect this show to answer anything anymore?

5.5. that’s not necessarily a criticism, mind; i’ve said since season 1 that titans is very comics-like in this aspect, all about the Aesthetic and the splash-page splendour rather than the niggling unimportant details of how or when the characters got to said location. like. the camera gliding over the operation being set-up, lady vic bursting in and doing her murder dance (imagine the luck of the poor intern who chose this day and this surgery to assist) and jason, shocked and slack-jawed, framed by blood.

5.75. it’s a sobering reminder for jason that, though he chose this path in order to gain control over a world that seemed like it was rapidly spinning out of his grip, he’s only succeeded in handing over even more control to a man with an agenda that is very clearly not aligned with his own. he’s in too far to stop now, though.

5.9. i have a lot more thoughts about jason! saving it up for the end of this recap, though.

6. more kitchen time! i better see dick do some cooking soon...

(”our kitchen”! it still delights me! kitchens are So Important)

6.25. so much of dick’s issues have revolved around his relationship with bruce, so it’s completely understandable that in the wake of a huge crisis where bruce literally asks dick to replace him and be a “better” him, dick would default to all the worst things he learned from the man. and i’m glad kory’s having none of it, but come on, guys. the woman’s literally fetched her fratricidal sister out of a hole in the ground with no idea what said sister is going to do next and experiencing a burgeoning sense of guilt far, far beyond her history with the titans, and dick’s too far into his autocolonoscopy that he can’t see that she needs help.

6.5. “he services your urges”--well, as far as we know, kory is the last person he had sex with...

7. “i hope [gar] isn’t angry with me...” SIR! i thought you’d already spoken to him! smh, as the kids say. kory wouldn’t be needing to reassure you if you just took the effort to build two way emotional relationships with the rest of the team. @superohclair​ was taking about dick’s relatively low emotional intelligence? i agree.

7.5. “i got my own problems [...] you and barbara? fix it.” YOU TELL HIM, KORY

8. man i really like this weird, sad tension between dick and barbara--this sense that both of them are approaching the other based on how they remember them and are ultimately disappointed by the truth. barbara thought she could trust dick to... well, be a better batman, but dick has not only failed at that in her eyes, but repeatedly undermined her while exploiting the authority that she gave him. in dick’s eyes, this is nothing like the barbara that he knew, rebellious and ready to do whatever it takes to find something. 

like. this show sometimes really hits me in the chest about the ways it shows kids grow into adults and into caretakers, and the way it’s stop-start, the ways nothing can happen at all for a long time and then it’s Crisis Central all at once and there’s no space to breathe. the weird sort of sadness that comes with nostalgia. 

8.5. oracle name drop! i agree with barbara, any system that can just randomly tap into gotham phonelines is a monster.

8.7. (i don’t know if it’s my imagination, but is dick holding himself... differently in this episode? like that wound is definitely bothering him, and he’s running on fumes)

9. man, that was a really sweet scene between kom and conner. “feeling alien in your own world”... “not quite here nor there”

honestly this team runs on conner and gar’s faith in their value as a family, and it’s a sign of conner’s generous heart that he extends that opportunity to blackfire. this arc of maturation for him, where he’s now able to consciously choose which parts of himself he can use to do the thing he wants to so--save people--has been so fulfilling to recognise. this baby’s grown with the titans! and what he’s learnt is that people can get fucked up, but the titans is a place where they can be fucked up, and grow.

MY MAN CONNER

10. oh man i’m drinking in the gar-dick interaction in this episode like i’m three days into the desert and it’s the only source of water for miles around!

a) gar is absolutely not dealing with dick’s bullshit this episode and I LOVE IT. it’s such a far cry from the man who was idolising dick/robin back in s1 and expecting him to solve all their problems. dick is fallible, dick is fucked up, but he Tries His Best and that’s ok.

b) dick, huffing and puffing through that vent, unable to put any pressure on his left shoulder, trying to have a heart to heart with gar... fuck i love this asshole. 

c) bruce took in a kid who was suffering... “and made him into a weapon”. well. i absolutely agree with dick that it was bruce who put these kids into these horrible situations with him and they came away with a bucketload of trauma to add to the one that they already had. but we know that bruce was really trying with jason, and at the end of s2, dick was coming to acknowledge that bruce had offered him something that wasn’t just darkness. jason’s death and bruce’s reaction to that shattered that fragile progress.

d) “gotham got to me too.” i feel more sympathetic towards dick running off on his own than most, and it’s not just because i’m an unapologetic stan.  we’ve seen before that dick... devolves when overwhelmed, and he lashes out and makes ill thought out decisions and just Does Not Deal. it happened after hearing the news that deathstroke had returned in s2, and it didn’t help that everyone around him was reeling at the news, either. this time, however, he has his salvation in his family, and despite some stupid decisions like running off and kidnapping supervillains without telling his team, he’s been really on the ball this season. thinking clearly and logically, holding it together and working on a plan, thinking two steps ahead of the villains... yes.

e) gar needing to believe that jason isn’t beyond redemption... there’s a lot of blood on his hands, too, from when he was manipulated by cadmus last season. it makes sense why he’d relate to jason’s predicament, and i hope dick picked up on that.

f) my head just added a plaintive ow after dick jumped feet first into the storage room

i need, crave gifs of this scene!

11. *sits on hands* i’m going to talk more about red hood, i promise!

12. more gar and dick! is it my birthday??!!

(actually, according to the tamil calendar, it is my birthday! my “star” birthday)

12.5. excellent. dick using some implausible training that bruce taught him to solve a mystery? passing some of that knowledge onto gar? that proud smile when he sees gar perfectly execute moves that he taught him? MY HEART IS EXPLODING

13. aw, i love flashback!dick and barbara, they’re so cute <3

13.25. why does it not surprise me that the way he proposes a relationship to barbara is by saying “we make sense”? this guy can deduce exactly who was present where and what weapon they were holding from a garbled audio recording but other times he’s utterly clueless, and that’s a consistent character beat right from s1

13.5. so.... that’s why lady vic has it out for... barbara....? i don’t get it. it’s flimsy. but hey! the fun thing about titans is that i don’t have to get it. the payoff has nothing to do with the plot.

14. i can’t believe that barbara fell for that, but at least that wheelchair fight looked awesome, so.

15. oh yeah, i forgot that red hood bullied the mob into helping him and scarecrow... at least that explains the whitecoats and the elaborate set-up.

15.5. honestly i love how this dynamic between kory and kom is developing, though i wish more of the team would pay attention to it. time to call justin, i think!

16. i wonder what happened after that second flashback where barbara got hurt during that heist. did she give up on doing any more (maybe jim caught her)? was it because dick was called away by bruce and then the titans and got caught up in his own issues? maybe barbara froze him out because she wasn’t looking for the relationship that he was looking for? maybe the idea of doing that with someone turning into batman-lite was just... unappealing? scary?

whatever it is, it doesn’t look like dick ever processed the end of that relationship. it’s very intriguing to see where their dynamic goes next.

17. so.... what, did vic deliver some fear toxin to barbara? i... what?

17.5. and i TOLD YOU that they would never explain that doll or why vic attacked those two cops at the beginning! oh, titans. never change. 

18. did jason just randomly have tim’s restaurant burgled? god, i’m feeling a bit nauseous... are they going to kill tim’s father?

18.25. i feel like the rest of the season is going to wrestle with jason’s culpability in the horrible stuff he’s doing and i’m already seeing that prospect divide fans. on one hand, his story is taking a lot of oxygen away from other equally interesting story arcs, and he’s done some truly awful things, like indiscriminate murder, threatening to kill children, blowing up hank, and potentially killing tim’s parents. 

there’s something to be said for the kind of hold that crane has over him, and the so-called ‘anti-fear’ drug that he keeps plying jason with--he’s alone, drugged almost constantly (to the level of dependence), fresh from the trauma of being bludgeoned to death. he hasn’t conquered fear; he’s ruled by it. on the other hand, given that he’s the one character on the show given an obvious and identifiable ‘mental illness’ arc (maaaaybe dick too), one can argue that it’s irresponsible to show this progress into such violence: jason was vulnerable because he was struggling, and that left him vulnerable, but it took only a push before he became a fucking serial killer.

but that could mean we underestimate the degree of that vulnerability, and the mechanics of this universe where he fell into the clutches of the one supervillain perfectly designed to exploit that vulnerability. that helpless spiral into further and further self-destruction is all too real. it’s valuable to know that someone who has sunk that low can still seek help--actual help--and get it. 

18.5. i don’t know. it’s not a question i’m going to resolve at the end of an overlong recap at 1 in the morning. i don’t believe it’s even a question that titans can resolve. but i am interested in where they’re going next with jason.

19. this episode was genuinely great! i’m pumped for the rest of the season!

HUGE SHOUTOUT TO THE PERSON WHO LEFT AN ESSAY ON BELAJO IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF MY UQUIZ. anyways please click readmore if you want to read something that almost brought me to tears. This person is astounding I'm blown away they’re galaxy braining.

anyway so belajo is something that is actually so special to me because we all saw that weird romance plot the writers tried to force on jo and dean right??? we all saw that and felt icky about it??? moving on, we also know bela was a dean mirror. SO okay the reason dean and jo felt so forced and icky and weird I think (besides the actors having NO romantic chemistry) is because jo is a lesbian. LMAO no but fr fr dean always kinda treated jo like a little sister because he had a little brother and it’s the Eldest Daughter Burden Syndrome in him to do so I think. where dean and bela differ is that bela only raised herself, whereas dean helped raise sam, so bela is used to being dangerous and independent etc. without it affecting anyone but herself MEANING where dean tried to baby jo (because she was a girl ((gotta love early spn))? because she was ellen’s kid? because she was new in the hunting world? idk but he felt responsible for her one way or another) bela wouldn’t. SO BASICALLY belajo would be everything deanjo tried to be. both people rough around the edges, self destructive, but where one has too much freedom and a level of confidence that only looks deep from the surface, the other hardly has ANY freedom (or so she thinks because ellen is protective) and confidence that is honestly kind of unfounded for how new she seemed to be at hunting. jo would obviously be game for all of bela’s ridiculous plans and bela wouldn’t patronize jo, rather give her important roles in the plans she makes. my guess is that jo would run into bela on a hunt and they’d butt heads a little bit because O K they’re both stubborn and snarky but they’d end up having to work together and they’d surprise themselves with how good of a team they were making (they wouldn’t say anything at first about it). at the end of the hunt or whatever jo would be the one to give bela her cell number (“incase you find yourself in deep shit again”) and they’d go on with their lives. bela holds onto the number but doesn’t put it in her phone. she doesn’t call either. the next time they see each other it’s another situation where they just happen to be in the same place at the same time. jo is working on a cursed item hunt or something IDFK and bela wants the item to sell or whatever. they’re at some fancy dinner party and bela’s like “you again? can’t get enough, huh?” or something idk sorry I’m literally typing an essay. ANYWAY they work the case exchanging snarky one liners except this one gets intense and it’s one of those Saved At The Last Minute deals. it’s probably bela that goes “guess we make a pretty good team, huh?” and this time they don’t part ways. they get a hotel room together (“I saved your life TWICE! damn right it’s your treat”) and sleep in separate beds it’s all very normal and whatnot because I am a slut for slow burn and it’s ME who is holding YOU captive and making you read my belajo essay so it goes how I say it goes. anyway when they part ways in the morning bela is all blushy and this time it’s Jo with the snarky flirty remarks. bela finally calls jo one day about three weeks later or something (she still doesn’t make jo a contact, and in fact makes a point of fishing her number out of her purse and typing it in her phone every time she needs to call after that) and they work another case together. they work more and more cases together until they literally are just sharing a car looking at each other and going “what’s next?” bela doesn’t tell jo about her demon deal. she almost forgot about it herself, what with the craze of the cases and adrenaline that having a partner in crime comes with. but she doesn’t forget. and she doesn’t say anything either. jo has fully warmed up to bela at this point, all her snarky remarks now tinged with something of adoration. bela’s even met ellen (who took her in immediately, much to jo’s surprise) and ash (who takes a little longer to warm up to her because bela is bela lmao)! jo’s never felt so alive. and it’s not just the adrenaline—it’s bela, who makes her feel like she’s worth something, who she watched shoot out the tires of some guy’s car because she didn’t like the way he was talking to jo (which normally jo would find possessive but something about the way bela did it made her feel safe), who tells jo one night after celebratory drinks that she’s beautiful, and jo’s stomach flips. because when she talks to bela, bela LISTENS. and bela is funny. and smart—UGH SO SMART. and surprisingly handy with a knife. and maybe just a little bit beautiful too. amazing, jo thinks. bela is amazing. and she says so, too, one evening. they’re planning their next move. it’s sticky and convoluted and seemingly impossible until they make a breakthrough. it’s bela that connects the final piece, and she gets that look on her face that says she’s equal parts bewildered and ecstatic. jo says it then—“you’re amazing—“ and it’s the way she says it that makes bela stop in her tracks. the smile melts off her face and she starts shaking her head. she tells jo about the deal then. she has only what like three months left at this point. jo is PISSED. P I S S E D. she leaves bela crying on the bed in the motel room to go for a walk and cool down. it’s pretty intense lmao. she realizes then that she loves her and that’s a terrible terrible terrible feeling. bela is asleep when she gets back to the room. oh god I’ve gotten to the part where it’s only half rendered in my mind but basically blah blah blah jo has ellen and ash and every other hunter she knows looking high and low for ways to save bela. as her time gets shorter and shorter bela gets more and more impulsive and dangerous (“why not? I’m going to hell anyway! I won’t even be around for the consequences :)”) and jo gets more and more frustrated. they have another fight where jo confesses that she can’t lose bela and bela says something along the lines of “you never had me! I was using you the whole time” or something, you know, like a LIAR, and jo tells bela to fuck off, bonus points for an “I hate you,” you know, liKe a LiAr, and she leaves. little does jo know that that would be the last conversation she has with bela before she’s dragged to hell. and of course, it’s jo that finds her in ribbons, a red and white tapestry of blood against the expensive hotel carpet, underneath the chandelier, eyes blown open and limbs splayed out beside her. she was on her way back from the bar, where she walked to with plans to go home with someone else, drink her worries away, etc I guess lmao but she was too nauseous to even go in so she just circled the block a few times before heading back to their room. she opens the door with shaky hands, blinking away the last of her tears, and fully intending to apologize, take it all back, tell her she loved her. instead, well. you know. anyway so OBVIOUSLY bela comes back. idk how but she does she HAS to because I need a happy or bittersweet ending or whatever but yeah I haven’t even placed the next pieces yet. they change each other for the better obviously too. bela allows herself to be vulnerable and heals through some of her trauma and jo grows as a hunter and strategist, and understands more of what it’s like to be protective over someone. even ellen grows to trust jo more on her own especially with bela, who ellen (who is definitely is NOT someone to dote but) grows more and more fond of. it’s found family. it’s hesitant allies to hesitant friends to best friends to widow to awkward I-can’t-believe-you’re-back-I-don’t-know-what’s-allowed to best friends again to LOVERS awwwwwwwwwww

✨ character study #21 — keqing & culture clash .

TL;DR: Despite being portrayed as a character motivated by self-interest and pride (which she is, don’t get me wrong), Keqing’s character is very ironic in that it also contains key characteristics present in a typical eldest Asian / only Asian daughter (self-sacrifice, overstaying commitments).

Keqing is most prominently defined by “active” personality traits: her defiance, her resilience, and her initiative. She is ambitious and a go-getter through and through — the epitome of a gxrlboss, the patron saint of going after what you want and refusing to settle for less than that. 

I feel that it can be a lot more than just this, though, especially if we extrapolate this information and use to go above and beyond. Once again, Keqing is, in her heart of hearts, an independent individual who pursues her interests of her own accord ... but what exactly are these “interests”? What are her core “wants”? To dismantle what she perceives are antiquated beliefs? Partly, but dig deeper. To cultivate a strength and tenacity that humanity has lost due to complacency / an over-reliance on religious factors? Also partly, but dig even deeper. To ensure that Liyue is able to prosper in the present, the short-term future, and the long-term future as an autonomous entity? Yes. Basically, the “interests” / “wants” that exist as “layers” above this conclusive statement are just that: layers. They only reveal the details supporting what is ultimately the main point.

If we further unpack this core “want” — ensuring Liyue’s success and longevity — we are able to discern a few things:

The fine details, or “layers”, involved in this “want” are very self-driven. They were birthed from ego. They are inspired by Keqing’s ideals and, in essence, best represent the “active” personality traits she is reputed for.

The core “want” itself is less internalized. It’s more concerned with a collective “schema”, as opposed to the point above, which caters toward the ego. In other words, the very essence of what it is that Keqing wants comes from a “big picture” sort of concept ... one that goes far beyond her, one that embodies a compassion not for the self, but for Liyue as a whole, and alongside that ... sacrifice.

Keqing’s workaholic tendencies are also majorly inspired by her “core” want. Based on her canon voicelines and story tidbits (which I’ll post examples of when I’m less lazy, lmfaooooo), her reason for working constantly isn’t something hasty or something done for the sake of doing. She devotes so much of her time and energy into her work because she believes that is what will allow Liyue to become successful for generations to come ... and so, maybe you’re thinking: so what? She’s dutiful and committed and works too much ... what about it? But do you know what, or rather who, else easily embodies those traits, as well?

If you’re like me, you’re already nodding your head in understanding ... only daughter/eldest daughter syndrome.

Think about it ... the core “want” that Keqing has been striving for for all of these years isn’t even one that will immediately or directly benefit her. It takes into account too wide of a scope and too immeasurable an amount of time to factor in self-interests. The interests being reflected in this core “want” have to do with Liyue as a collective whole, even when she’s no longer alive to be a part of it. And once again, she’s committed to this ideal — made it her duty to see this through to the point where she overworks herself, doing other people’s jobs and working extra hours and going the extra mile to make ends meet. This is not something that benefits her directly, either ... nor is it healthy for her. Keqing isn’t overworking herself for herself; she is overworking for the sake of Liyue and its people and ultimately putting their priorities and needs over hers. This can be supported tremendously by her lifestyle (once again, I will post examples from canon when I’m not lazy). Keqing lives with the “barest of luxuries” at her disposal, not wishing to flaunt her wealth or her status. She went undercover as a laborer for a few months to have a better understanding of the working class. She willingly throws herself into dangerous ventures that other people do not want to undertake in a way that is humble (dressing up in very ordinary clothing, only bringing her hairpin and a sword). There’s no cry for attention or brownie points in any of these actions. It is, instead, another example of how the concept of sacrifice manifests in her character.

So ... this is basically my long-winded way of saying that Keqing is ironically a lot more subservient / “typical Asian daughter” than what can be seen on the surface. It IS very significant that she relishes in this mindset of “choosing your own path”, “defying what does not suit you”, and “being able to rely on yourself and your immediate community as opposed to being complacent” ... but ultimately, the “core” of her want and how she goes about in achieving it best mirror the self-sacrifice, stubborn dutifulness, and over-commitment found within many eldest / only Asian daughters. Even if she herself is attempting to combat conservatism, there are still key parts of Keqing tied to these long-standing, “collectivist” ideas of gender, such as prioritizing quite literally everything and everyone else before herself and engaging in activities that don’t serve her well for the sake of sacrifice.

Tfw you want to be an independent. stubborn as catgxrlboss, but a lot more of your motives reek of “Daughter Who Is Expected To Be Everyone’s Tool” syndrome than you think.

Duke Reviews: Mortal Kombat 2021

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where Today I'm Looking At The 2021 Mortal Kombat Movie...

Now, I Bet You're Asking Me, Andrew, Why Are You Reviewing This And Not The Original Mortal Kombat Movie And It's Sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation? Because I Don't Need A Frying Pan To Hit Me Over The Head To Know For A Fact That Both Of Those Films Are Horrible...

Where This Film Knows How To Handle The Game It's Taking On, Of Course, Some People Will Disagree With Me On This But Intend To Prove Those Haters Wrong Today...

So, With That Said, Let's Dive Into Mortal Kombat 2021...

Expect Spoilers From Here On Out...

The Movie Starts At The Home Of Hanzo Hasashi In Japan In The Year 1617, Where Hanzo Goes To Get 2 Buckets Of Water For His Wife, But Before He Goes, He Tells Her That He Loves Her Very Much...

However As Hanzo Gets Water, His Family Is Visited By Hanzo's Nemisis, Bi-Han, Whose Group Known As The Lin Kuei (Who Controls The Power Of Ice) Is Out To Annihilate Every Member Of Hanzo's Group, The Shirai Ryu From Existence And With Hanzo Being The Last One...He Makes Himself A Good Target...

So, Yeah, Bi-Han Kills Hanzo's Wife And Eldest Son By Freezing Them To Death, Which Leads Hanzo To Create A Makeshift Weapon (Out Of A Blade His Wife Used For Gardening And Some Rope) So He Can Fight The Warriors Of The Lin Kuei Before Fighting Bi-Han Himself Only To Get Killed During The Fight...

But Before Hanzo Dies, He Hears The Cries Of His Baby Daughter But In Attempting To Go To The Baby He Dies...

But That Doesn't Stop A God Named Raiden From Showing Up And Taking The Baby Himself To Find The Kid A New Home, Which Not Only Leads To A Title Card And Brief Star Wars Like Intro Revealing That There Is A Tournament That Decides The Fate Of Earth And Earth Has Lost 9 Of Them And Should It Lose One More, Then Earth Will Be Invaded By A Realm Called Outworld...

However, An Ancient Prophecy Has Revealed That A New Group Of Champions Led By Hanzo's Ancestor Will Tip The Balance For Earth...

Which Leads Up To Now, Where Hanzo's 21st Century Relative Who Now Goes By Cole Young Is Boxing For Money For His Family...

Now, Very Briefly, Let's Talk About Cole Who Is A New Character For This Movie And Is Not In The Video Game...

This Has Fans Debating That The Main Focus Should Have Been A Character From The Game, Namely Johnny Cage Instead Of A New Character To Which I Unfortunately Disagree With As Going With A New Character Works Better In The Movie's Favor...

Think About It, If They Had Made A Character From The Game The Main Focus It Would Come With Expectations That The Fanbase Expects For Characters Of This Game Adding To The Other Expectations For The Other Characters That Are From The Game That Are In This Movie...

Where A New Character Not Only Gives Us A Fresh Set Of Eyes To Look At This World, But A Way To Put Us Not Only Into The Movie But Into This World...

Unfortunately, Cole Loses The Fight But It's Enough To Impress A Guy Named Jax (Played By Jimmy Olsen From Supergirl) Who A Tattoo On Cole Only For His Daughter To Reveal That It's Not A Tattoo But A Birthmark Which He's Had Since He Was Born...

Meanwhile In Outworld, The Ruler Of This Realm, Shang Tsung...

Yes, That Guy,..

Tells Bi-Han Who Has Now Become...

Sub-Zero...

That The Prophecy Is Upon Them And He Wants Him To Go To Earth To Eliminate The Champions, Which Leads Sub-Zero To Attack Cole And His Family While They're Getting Dinner At A Restaurant...

Luckily Though, They Are Saved By Jax Who Reveals He Has A Tattoo Like Cole Does And That He's Been Chosen To Fight But Before Jax Can Tell Him Anymore They're Confronted By Sub-Zero Who Attacks Their Car, But Before Jax Goes To Fight Sub-Zero He Tells Cole To Go To Gary, Indiana...

This An Action Movie, Not A Musical!

Anyway, He Tells Cole To Go There And Find Sonya Blade Who Will Have More Information About Everything...

So, With Cole Taking His Family To Safety, Jax Goes To Fight Sub-Zero Only For Sub-Zero To Freeze Jax's Arms And Rip Them The Hell Off...

Jax Falls To The Ground Which Leads Sub-Zero To Believe Jax Is Dead But We'll See Jax Later...

After Dropping His Family Off, Cole Goes To See Sonya Blade Who Not Only Reveals That People With Markings Like The Ones Cole And Jax Have Have Been Chosen To Fight For Earth In A Tournament Known As Mortal Kombat, But Also That She Has A Mercenary Named Kano Who Killed A Champion That Sonya Was After Only To Get The Marking Himself...

But Before Sonya Can Give More Information, They're Attacked By Reptile, A Minion Of Shang Tsung But He Defeated By Kano Who Breaks Free During The Fight...

Before He Leaves, Kano Mentions Raiden's Temple, (A Place Where Champions Have Gone To Train For The Tournament) So Sonya Makes A Deal With Kano To Take Them There For 3 Million Dollars (Despite Not Having It) And He Does...

Travelling To The Middle Of The Desert, We Get A Small Fight Between Kano And Sonya, Before They Run Into Liu Kang (Played By The Black Ranger From The Power Rangers Reboot) Who Takes Them To Raiden's Temple To See Raiden Himself Who's Not Exactly Pleased With What He Has To Work With...

But Beggars Can't Be Choosers As Outworld Comes To Them Forcing Liu Kang And His Cousin, Kung Lao To Deal With The Intruders But Raiden Interpheres As Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero And Another Minion, Mileena Arrive...

However Despite Ordering His Minions To Kill The Champions, Raiden Creates An Electric Force Field Preventing Them From Entering...

Yeah, Go Cry To Your Mama, Shang Tsung...

So, As Both Kano And Cole Begin Training For Their Arcana (Which Is Their Inner Power), Sonya Discovers That Jax Is Alive And That As Sub-Zero Froze His Arms He Also Cauterised Jax's Wounds And All It's Going To Take Now Is Time...

Which I Think Is Liu Kang's Way Of Saying "We Can Rebuild Him, We Have The Technology"...

And So, Jax Becomes The Six Million Dollar Jax...

Well, I Guess Six Million Dollars Doesn't Buy What It Used To Buy...

With Very Little Success Of Getting Their Arcana On Their First Day, Everyone Has Dinner Only For Kung Lao To Start Insulting Kano Which Leads to Him Getting His Arcana Of Shooting A Laser From His Eye...

But Unlike Kano, Cole Is Having A Hard Time Getting His Arcana And With Time Running Out He Needs To Get It....Fast....

This Leads Raiden To Send Cole Home Despite Telling Him The Truth About Hanzo And How He Was He Was Hoping That The Power Of His Bloodline Would Be Strong Enough For Cole To Get His Arcana...

Meanwhile In Outworld, Shang Tsung Prepares His Minions, Millena, Nitara, Kabal And General Reiko For An Attack On Raiden's Temple...

But How Will They Lower Raiden's Force Field?

Well, Unfortunately, Kabal Knows Kano And Goes Off To Convince Him To Join Shang Tsung's Team And Guess What? He Accepts.,,

So, Yeah, Kano Brings Down The Shield Allowing Shang Tsung And His Minions To Attack The Temple While Cole Is Attempting To Protect His Family From Freaking Goro!

And Holy Shit, Did They Give Goro An Update!

But As The Fights Happen We Get Lines From The Game Including "Finish Him!" And "Flawless Victory" Kung Lao Kills Nitara Only For Shang Tsung To Kill Kung Lao, Jax's Arms Finally Look Like They're Worth Six Million Dollars And Transform Into Badass Robotic Arms Intead Of Wimpy Ones

And Cole Gains His Arcana (Of Transforming Into Kinetic Armor And Weapon Creation) To Save His Family From Goro Which Leads To The Most Gruesome Death In This Movie...

But Despite Cole Returning To The Temple To Help, Raiden Gets The Team Out By Taking Them To The Void, Which Is A Space Between Earthrealm And OutWorld To Come Up With A Plan

And Their Plan Is Very Simple...

Jax Fights Reiko ( Reiko Gets His Head Smashed In By Jax), Sonya Fights Kano (Kano Has An Ironic Death And Sonya Gains His Mark, Becoming A Champion) And Liu And Cole Fight Both Mileena And Kabal (Kabal Dies By Liu's Fire Dragon Ability And Mileena Gets Blasted By Sonya When She Shows Up)

They Had Intended Taking Sub-Zero Together But When He Shows Cole A Bracelet That Belonged To Cole's Daughter, He's Like "I Have Your Family, Come Get Me Bitch!"

So, Cole Enters A Portal To Face Sub-Zero Alone, Well...Not Really...

Using A Blade That Belonged To Hanzo During The Fight, Cole Summons The Spirit Of Hanzo To Fight With Him...,

But He's Not Hanzo Anymore, Oh, No....He's...

Scorpion!

And He's Like...

So, Yeah, Scorpion Kills Sub-Zero By Burning The Bastard With Fire Breath Before Returning To Help And Cole Saves His Family....

But As Raiden And His Team Arrive, Shang Tsung Also Arrives Saying That Death Is Just Another Portal And Next Time, He Will Come With Armies Before Leaving

However, Though They Won This Battle, The Fight Is Not Over By Any Means As Raiden Assembles A New List Of Champions For The Team To Recruit...

Packing Up His Locker At The Wrestling Ring, Cole Tells His Agent That He's Going To Hollywood As We Look At A Poster That Tells Us Johnny Cage Will Be In The Sequel...

This Movie Was...Pretty Damn Epic!

How This Isn't One Of The Best Video Game Movie Adaptations Ever I Will Never Know, I Guess It Just Comes Down To People Are Idiots And Don't Know What The Hell They're Talking About...

"The Story Is Confusing" If The Story Is Confusing Then You Don't Belong Reviewing Movies Cause You Have No Idea What A Good Movie Is!, "The Movie Has Horrible Writing" Have You Even Seen The Original Mortal Kombat Movie? That And Annihilation Have Worse Writing Than This Movie! "We Should Have Had Johnny Cage Instead Of Cole" We're Getting Him In The Sequel, Give The Writers A Freaking Break And Stop Being Critical Pricks!

So, Yeah, It's Obvious That This Has Become My Favorite Video Game Movie And I Say Don't Listen To People Like Angry Joe Or Hack The Movies Who Don't Know What They're Talking About And Go See This Movie

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off

💀  * [ jessica alexander  + cis-female  + she/her/hers ] —— have you met emery brandi morganroth? they are a twenty-two year old junior currently studying Computer Science. they live in farrow house, and word around campus is that this capricorn is benevolent + integrous, as well as authoritarian + wet blanket. i wonder if they’ll make it out alive. manicured nails typing briskly on a keyboard, casual corporate whistle blowing from the campus cafe, silent tears hidden behind oversized gucci frames.

fast fax 📠 —

name: emery morganroth

nicknames: em

age: twenty-2

sexuality: bisexual

tattoos: this tiger in red ink ( right thigh )

born/raised: fairfield, ct / fairfield, ct & geneva, ch

personality 🧍‍♂️—

suffers severely from ‘eldest daughter’ syndrome. And whenever her parents tell the story of their kids it always starts with “ well we’ve always wanted a little boy— ”

emery had a very rich girl upbringing— equestrian training, skiing, boating and whatever else it is rich kids do. For the longest time she thought nothing of it, they were just kids having fun. Then she got older and wiser and had to step back from herself for a minute.

in high school when they switched to an international school in Geneva, Emery got really quiet and quite anti-social. Most chalked it up to her thinking she was too good for everyone else when in all reality, she had to look after her younger brother in the absence of her parents, grapple with the knowledge of her mother’s secret love affair back in the US, and the illegal nature of her father’s work.

She dropped all her hobbies and became an interim mother, property manager, and pr manager. Thus was the time where she really doubled down on her new found love in computing. Not only could she automate their entire home, but she could keep tabs on her mother and encrypt the vulnerable systems of her dad’s company.

But all the hiding and lying did no good for her mental state. The desire to detach herself entirely from her privilege grew stronger everyday, though knowing her entire family could crash and burn in a matter of days without her left her with no choice but to stick around. To circumvent going utterly insane she masqueraded around like a modern day robin hood, using her ever expanding programming knowledge to give back to those who needed it most. 

Now old enough to own a home herself, she still contemplates tearing her parents’ life apart., for the shells of people they were. Ultimately she could never do it to soup; for some reason he holds his parents to be martyrs, and even though she’s tried to get him to see otherwise a countless times she wouldn’t want to rip away whatever sense of comfort he has from him.

Don’t let the above fool you, most people don’t even think they’re related. She has a great disdain for him and all his friends. The big rich boy house party play is so overrated anyways. She turns her nose up to the whole scene much preferring being as far away as possible from her brother on nights like those.

// her wc tag & stats page — to updated.

Radu’s Story

Note: This is the “Hollywood” version of the story including many popular myths about Radu cel Frumos. How true some of these myths are will be further explored in later posts on this blog.

Do you want to hear a story?

It’s about Dracula.

No, not that Dracula, the real one.

No, not Vlad “the Impaler” Dracula. The other one. Radu “the Beautiful” Dracula.

There’s two Draculas! you say.

Well, actually there were three, (not including all the illegitimate Draculas) but I’m here to tell you about the youngest; Radu III cel Frumos.

A quick google search will tell you lots about this obscure Romanian noble – he was the Sultan’s “homosexual obsession”, “the man who killed Dracula”, the man who actually inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a Muslim, a Christian, a weak-pushover and a strong military leader. In fact it will tell you so many things that you may ended up knowing nothing about him. In any case, let me try to give you an overview of the Hollywood highlights of the other Dracula’s life.

The 15th century Balkans

Radu was born sometime between 1437-1439, the third legitimate son of Vlad II Dracul. His father was Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia – barely. Despite being declared Voivode of Wallachia in 1431 Vlad Dracul hadn’t actually obtained the throne until 1436 because 15th century Balkan politics were a messTM.

Now, Vlad Dracul hadn’t been born with the name Dracul but had taken it after being indicted into the Order of the Dragon (Dracul=Dragon in Romanian). The Order of the Dragon was a Holy order of nobles founded to fight the enemies of Christendom - particularly the Ottoman Empire - and by taking the name Dracul Vlad proudly proclaimed himself as a member of this order. His sons, Radu and his two older brothers Vlad (later to be remembered as Vlad the Impaler) and Mircea, were consequently called Dracula meaning ‘Son of the Dragon’.

So, Radu’s early years were spent as a young Christian prince of a rather volatile country. However, Radu did not spend long in his Romanian homeland as by 1444 he, and his older brother Vlad, had been sent to the Ottoman court of Sultan Murad II as hostages.

The ruins of the Fortress of Eğrigöz in north-western Anatolia where Radu and Vlad spent their first few years as hostages before being relocated to the Ottoman capital at Edirne.

As hostages, the brothers were meant to ensure the loyalty of their father to the Ottoman Sultan and stop him from teaming up with Hungary in anti-Ottoman crusades under the threat that Sultan Murad would execute the boys. However, this did not stop Dracul from quickly betraying the Ottomans and assuming his sons dead (after all he still had his eldest son, Mircea, so Vlad and Radu weren’t that important).[1]

But luckily for Vlad and Radu, Murad had other reasons for keeping the boys alive. Through education and indoctrination he planned to raise the boys as good, loyal - and legitimate - future rulers of Wallachia.[2]

As a result the boys were well treated and educated by the finest tutors available, in logic, the Qu’ran, languages, horse riding, battle – all the necessary skills for great future rulers.

How Radu experienced these years in the Ottoman court is unclear. The general consensus is that whilst Vlad was just straight up not having a good time (often being whipped or beaten for being a bad student), Radu was more adaptive - but the consensus stops there. Depending on who you ask you might be told that he “was a compromiser, consumed by the pleasures of the palace” [3], a victim of Stockholm syndrome and “a weakling and a voluptuary, famous for his beauty” [4]. But others will say that he was an intelligent young man with both military and political promise.

However, a key part of his story that is often repeated, is that he was very good looking hence his nickname “cel Frumos” meaning “the beautiful” in Romanian. He attracted many admirers both male and female. Among them was Murad’s son, the future Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Although they had a rough start (their first kiss involved Radu stabbing Mehmed and then hiding up a tree) the two became very close and thanks to this relationship Radu gained much power at the court.[5]

Meanwhile, his relationship with his brother deteriorated and the two developed an intense hatred.[6]

At the end of 1447 the news reached the brothers that their father, Dracul, had been killed and their older brother, Mircea, had been buried alive by the Hungarians.[7] It was now time for Vlad, as the eldest, to take the Wallachian throne under the support of the Ottoman Sultan.

As Vlad left the palace of Edirne for Wallachia it would be more than a decade before he saw his younger brother again. And then it would be on the battlefield…

During this time Murad died and Mehmed took the Ottoman throne in 1451. Radu became a prominent figure in the Ottoman court, converted to Islam and played an important role in Mehmed’s conquest of Constantinople (maybe).[8]

However, his life at the Ottoman court ended in 1461 when Vlad (now Voivode of Wallachia) began actively rebelling against the Ottomans. Mehmed, who was busy trying to become the next Alexander the Great, did not have time for this. What he did have, was a perfect replacement for Vlad in the loyal Radu.

So, in Summer 1462 Radu and Mehmed crossed the Danube with 35,000 Ottoman soldiers against Vlad’s meagre 7-8,000.[9] Despite Vlad’s vicious scorched earth tactics and daring night attacks he stood no chance against the superior Ottoman forces and was forced to flee north. When Radu and Mehmed reached the Wallachian capital of Tărgovişte Vlad was long gone but had left a grisly gift that would earn him his nickname Ţepeş – the Impaler. Along the road to Tărgovişte he had planted a forest of impaled Ottoman soldiers that stretched for kilometres…[10]

A Saxon woodcut (c.1499) of Vlad enjoying a meal with some new garden ornaments. Despite the fact he definitely did impale people it’s worth remembering that a lot of the Saxon publications about him were essentially propaganda so take the image with a grain of salt. 

Despite this horror, Radu took his place on the throne as Voivode Radu III. He ruled Wallachia for eleven years and by 15th century Balkans standards it was almost peaceful.  Although he was supported by the Ottomans he managed to win the respect of the local Wallachian boyars (nobles) and maintain peace with Hungary (the other big regional power). However, his real trouble was with the third Romanian state – Moldavia - where Stephen the Great had come to the throne and was wanting to assert his dominance over the region. Stephen did not like Radu, mostly because of his pro-Turkish stance. In 1465 Stephen took control of the previously Wallachian port city of Chilia. There was a period of relative peace but then from 1470 onwards Radu and Stephen became engaged in a serious of border wars that ended with Stephen defeating Radu on November 18-20th 1473. Stephen marched into the Wallachia capital ready to place his own guy, Basarab Laoită, on the throne and Radu, like his brother before him (minus the forest of impaled people), was forced to flee the city leaving all his treasure, effects, clothing, wife and daughter behind.

Three weeks later Radu returned with Ottoman reinforcements and retook his throne (also his wife and daughter). Over the next year the throne continued to alternate between Basarab backed by Stepehn and Radu backed by the Ottomans until January 1475 when Radu was dethroned for the final time, presumably dying sometime soon after.[11]

The details are unknown but there are three main theories as to what caused his death and sudden absence from the historical record:

a)       He was executed by Stephen the Great who was sick of having to dethrone him.[12]

b)      He died of syphilis, “unloved and unmourned”[13]

c)       He became a vampire[14]

My bets are on c)

-

The story of Radu is a good one. However, it’s also built on a lot of assumptions and blatant falsities that have been spread by academic and popular writers alike. Finding “The Truth” of Radu’s life necessitates a return to primary sources. But, how much of person can we really construct from a smattering of 15th century writings? And how much will we never know?

For answers to these questions and more keep an eye on this page...

 References

[1] Davin Nicolle, Cross & Crescent in the Balkans: The Ottoman Conquest of Southeastern Europe. (Great Britain: Pen & Sword Military, 2010), 153.

[2] M. J. Trow, Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula. (United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2003), 140.

[3] Romano, Will. ‘Vlad Dracula’s War on the Turks’. Military History; Herndon, October 2003.

[4] Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978), 207.

[5] Ibid.; Will Romano, “Vlad Dracula’s War on the Turks,” Military History, October 2003.; James Waterson, Dracula’s Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals. (Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2016) 111.; Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. (Boston, United States: Little, Brown and Company, 1989), 56.; Masson, Gemma Masson, “Dracula and the Ottomans,” Womenareboring, 15 March 2018. https://womenareboring.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/4286/.; Shibli Zaman, “How the Muslims killed Dracula.” Worldbulletin, 31 July 2013, https://www.worldbulletin.net/historical-events/how-the-muslims-killed-dracula-h114250.html.

[6] Dion Overtoun, “Radu Cel Frumos: The Queer Brother Nobody Cares Dracula Had,” Frightful/Filthy: The Writing of Dion Overtoun, 28 June 2017, https://dionovertoun.com/2017/06/28/radu-the-queer-brother-nobody-cares-dracula-had/.; Zaman, “How the Muslims killed Dracula.”; Florescu and McNally, Dracula: Prince of Many Faces, 59.

[7] Waterson, Dracula’s Wars, 111.; Florescu and McNally, Dracula: Prince of Many Faces, 56. ; Zaman, “How the Muslims killed Dracula.”; “Radu Cel Frumos,” Project Gutenberg, Acessed 30 September 2019, http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Radu_cel_Frumos.

[8] Matei Cazacu, Dracula. (Boston: Brill, 2011), 51.

[9] Kent, Jasper. The Last Rite: (The Danilov Quintet 5). Random House, 2014.; Zaman, “How the Muslims killed Dracula.”; Masson, “Dracula and the Ottomans.”; Trow, Vlad the Impaler, 139.; “Radu Cel Frumos,” Wikipedia, Accessed 8 October 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radu_cel_Frumos&oldid=920222947. ; Philippe Lemaire, “Recherches sur le vampire,” Site de Philippe Lemaire, auteur de fantastique, Accessed 30 September 2019, https://sites.google.com/site/philip63lemaire/recherches-sur-le-vampire.; “Radu Cel Frumos.”  ; Elest Ali, “Is “Dracula Untold” An Islamophobic Movie?” The New Republic, 25 October 2014, https://newrepublic.com/article/119991/dracula-untold-islamophobic.; Beyaz Arif Akbas, “Kim Bu Güzel Radu?” Milliyet Blog, Accessed 9 October 2019, http://blog.milliyet.com.tr/kim-bu-guzel-radu-/Blog/?BlogNo=402166.

[10] For a detailed explanation of the numbers involved in this campaign see - Adrian Gheorghe, “Understanding the Ottoman Campaign in Wallachia in the Summer of 1462. Numbers, Limits, Manoeuvres and Meanings,” in Vlad Der Pfähler – Dracula Tyrann Oder Volkstribun?, ed. Thomas Bohn (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017), 11.

[11] Ibid, 30.;

[12] Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978), 339.; Tasin Gemil, Romanians and Ottomans in the XIVth to the XVIth Centuries, (Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedicã, 2009), 203.; Jonathan Eagles, “The Reign, Culture and Legacy of Ştefan Cel Mare, Voivode of Moldova: A Case Study of Ethnosymbolism in the Romanian Societies,” (University College London, 2011), 13.; Liviu Pilat and Ovidiu Cristea, The Ottoman Threat and Crusading on the Eastern Border of Christendom During the 15th Century. (Boston, United States: Brill, 2017), 143 – 145.

[13] Kurt W. Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, (Oxford: The Center for Romanian Studies, 2000), 159.

[14] Trow, Vlad the Impaler, 208.; Waterson Dracula’s Wars, 184.

[15] Lemaire, “Recherches sur le Vampire.”