i finished 2003 teen titans, those kids really go through some shit

There is a new villain in DC and he is fucking dangerous.

His name is Insomnia and he has the ability to manipulate and cause nightmares. He gained his powers when a volcano in the Lazarus Island exploded (he wasn't the only one who gained powers, a lot of people including Jon Kent gained powers during this arc).

Another important thing to note is that, Insomnia knows everyones secrets and superhero identities. And he is torturing everyone using them. Like Batman with his parents being murdered.

Let me show you how traumatising his powers can be:

Insomnia tortures Tim with the death of his father over and over. As mentioned above, Tim tries and fails to save his father more than 52 times. Which causes him to stop trying to save his dad and instead have a mental breakdown in his 'bedroom'.

And this isn't like fear gas. It can't be cured or surpressed. There is a person behind all this who makes sure everything is moving along perfectly and verbally abuses the victim.

There is also the fact that multiple people can be present in a person's nightmare, as a contrast to the fear gas who works individually inside a person's head.

For example in this issue, Insomnia brings Jason and Tim together inside the nightmare world.

Although they get seperated into their own nightmares, it could be possible for them to go through a nightmare together. Which I suppose would be way more traumatic than going in alone, as another person can view your deepest fears and shames.

Currently a lot of heroes and villains are in this arc. But amongst the Batfam; Jason, Tim, Bruce and Damian are going through the nightmare realm right now. I think Dick will also have a story too, but we'll see.

I just think that we should start including Insomnia in our fandom more, as he can play big roles in the 'fanon'.

This 1984 Teen Titans comic was the exciting conclusion to a multi-part story where they were battling something called H.I.V.E. This was a cult of people in purple druid robes who led an international network of mercenaries and assassins, who lived in an underwater dome and were all named numbers. I realize that sounds cool, but it absolutely isn't.

They were started / led by some guy, but then he married a 22-year-old blonde woman who murdered him and declared herself the leader. And the rest of them - this band of amoral assassins - just let this happen, even as she declared "none of you matters but me," and killed them every time they "failed" her.

This is in the past tense, because as soon as Nightwing and Wonder Girl go down there to punch these idiots, the blonde woman electrocuted all of her remaining people, then committed suicide. She also built a giant red missile and shot it at Atlantis, but Aqualad grabbed onto it and turned it off.

The H.I.V.E. master plan was to 1) poison all the world's oceans, 2) ???, 3) PROFIT, so it seemed like maybe that plan was going to thwart itself, really. They only seemed to have robot guns and tentacles exclusively inside their base, and also an army of loyal commandos in purple gimp outfits. But none of these could operate or breathe underwater. And all of their assassins had already failed to kill the Teen Titans. Which, no offense, but probably should haven been their first indication that they really weren't ready for primetime.

I don't know for sure who was on the Titan team at this exact point, but I DO know that Cyborg and Beast Boy (aka Changeling at this point, because ugh) don't even go on this mission. They stay back at wherever-it-is-they-live so Beast Boy can have an emotional break-down over his ex-girlfriend (Terra, some girl with floating-rock powers and a bad costume) turning evil, while Cyborg yells at him. Then a woman with pink hair wanders in.

She tells Beast Boy he's hot, and this makes Gar feel better enough to agree to not turn into a green tiger and murder people. Which was his actual plan before she showed up.

Starfire goes on the mission. This happens to her:

...Aren't they all supposed to be like 16 or 17? What are we doing here, gentlemen?

There is also a guy on the team named Jericho, who has muttonchops, dresses like every "cool" bard in every DnD campaign ever, can't talk, and can do whatever arbitrary psychic thing the plot suddenly demands of him. I had to look him up because so does everyone else.

He is apparently the son of Deathstroke, who became mute when someone after Deathstroke slashed his voicebox. His psychic powers are a result of it doesn't matter. No they don't explain why he looks like THIS in 1984:

Aqualad is also here. With his girlfriend Tula, who is Aquagirl. Who is an Atlantean cave-woman, or something...? She doesn't do much besides yell his name, and her presence in no way stops him from talking about how hot but insane Starfire is. To Nightwing. Who seems fine with this.

Dick and Wonder Girl are both here to punch and yell exposition, and they are immediately out of punches! Dick spends a quarter of the comic in a tube trying to turn off robots, which he fails to do? Or then kind of does? I've read it twice now and I'm not sure even Marv Wolfman knew what he had going on here.

Raven turns into a black void to save the Titans from drowning at the beginning of the comic. After they get out to safety, she says she's used too much power to help anymore and Poochie's on out of there.

I mean, they DO have Wonder Girl, kicking people and talking about her upcoming marriage. Who needs the incredibly powerful witch? It's fine. And easier to draw!

The art is George Perez, so it looks great, even if all these teenagers look like sexy 30-year-old adults, and half of them spend most of the comic not doing anything. The costumes are technically awful but in that 80s way that is just wonderful now. But as a conclusion to some kind of story arc, this is as mid as mid gets. There is exactly one cool splash-page battle, and it means exactly nothing.

This comic might be worth $3.50 now. It was 75 cents when it came out.

...This implies we in 2024 value this slightly more than anyone did in 1984.

I don't think that's true.

my biggest problem with ted lasso s3 is that it flinches too early, too often.

to me, that's a cardinal sin. I can forgive a lot when I'm fond of characters - imperfect pacing, lackluster plot, unanswered questions - as long as I believe there's something real there, that there's a willingness to bite into the meat of the story before setting the plates for dessert.

you can't flinch from your own story.

what do I mean by flinching?

let's take nate. s2 takes him on a believable arc. he went from a (bullied) kitman to a coaching position, a job beyond his wildest imagination, but on the inside, he stays insecure. actually, he gets even more insecure. because the thing about nate in s2, right, is that he's oversensitive to the slightest hints of disapproval - like his father's apathy - in a way that makes him desperate for constant approval. and yet even when he gets that approval, it doesn't satisfy him, not completely.

he needs more, wants more, there's an gulf inside that cannot be filled by success. it makes him swing wildly back and forth between "i'm garbage, i'm a piece of shit" and "i'm the best, why the hell does no one appreciate what a genius i am?", makes him externalize his dissatisfaction with himself into cruelty towards will and colin and ted, makes him kiss keeley and then be offended that roy wasn't angry with him.

s3 seems to posit that what nate needed was success and validation. that he could fix that bottomless gulf by being a good coach, and getting a girlfriend, and having his dad tell him that he's smart. and all of that would make him realize he doesn't want to be like cheating rupert and then he's no longer dickhead s2 nate.

except. except none of that makes any sense.

the end of s2 sets us up with nate as west ham's head coach. we've watched multiple seasons of a show that's told us how much power the head coach has in setting the tone for a team, and were given an indication of the type of culture george cartrick encouraged before he was fired.

that season's finale makes you want to ask, geez, how cruel is nate this high on his own supply going to be? and then....s3 basically does not care. s3e1 gives us a token depiction of nate being a dick to his players and his coworkers, and then we never see that behavior from him again.

and I think I could have ultimately been okay with that, even if nate falling into worse behavior before climbing out of the pit would've been more satisfying to me. they could have had me buy that nate as head coach is so high up enough and so distracted by rupert and guilt that he has less outbursts than s2 nate.

but only if s3 didn't have such a warped idea of what it meant to show an improvement in nate. remember: a fundamental part of nate's shit is that for him, his timidity and self-centeredness are two sides of the same dang coin, a hyperobsession of how he's perceived.

you know that whole quote about how if you want to see how a person's like, look at how they treat their inferiors, not their superiors? let me give you a nate shelley version: if you want to tell me he's a much better guy than the one we saw in s2, you have to show me he reacts reasonably to rejection, not just acceptance and praise.

nate in s3 gets what he wants so consistently - he chooses to leave west ham instead of getting sacked, he gets the frickin players asking after him at the restaurant, he gets his dad calling him a genius (??) - that I have no idea if he has improved in that regard. I really don't know. (I also have no idea if he's any less weird about women, between that keeley kiss and defaulting to calling rebecca a shrew)

for contrasting examples in the same show, look at rebecca and jamie, who each made some pretty asshole moves without the show flinching away from it. rebecca's forced to directly confront how she hurt keeley with the paparazzi move, jamie has to prove himself to sam and the rest of the team - they had sympathetic reasons for their assholishness, but that didn't give them a pass.

and I understand the doylist context here. the writers did not anticipate the degree of rage many viewers had towards nate's end-of-s2 actions. maybe that's what led to the flinching away from how messy nate as head coach could really have gotten.

but regardless of the why, they still flinched, and it made nate's story so much the worse for it.

ok I have another complaint about flinching as it pertains to colin's arc this season, but I'll put that under the cut

unlike with nate, I actually enjoyed most of colin's story this season. how he navigates being closeted, tying it in to his visit with dr sharon last season, the night he has with trent in amsterdam, all of that was fairly well done, I thought.

but man, the episode where he comes out to the team? tore my suspension of disbelief to shreds. not the team's overall reaction, bought that, genuinely loved ted's bonkers football fan analogy and that colin feels free enough after to play excellently. the issue is what prompted his coming out.

you see, I watch ted lasso like I watch sports anime. I am not expecting a realistic depiction of male professional athletes and definitely not male professional athletes within a locker room. I don't question all of them crying at you've got mail, or all but one engaging in a pillow fight instead of hooking up in clubs, some of them cheating on wives. that's not the type of show this is, any more than haikyuu being that type of show, for instance. that's chill.

and colin's story arc coming out could very easily co-exist with that.

yet when it's prompted by a fan shouting homophobic slurs, as happens many a time in the actual EPL, and they show the team's reaction to that, they utterly break the illusion. because, to be frank, if this is a world where that's said by fans, just as it is ours, it feels ridiculous to watch an EPL team be horrified by the word. (and to be good about not saying it themselves!)

and also that occurrence implies that isaac and sam and other players (and probably nate, come to think of it) are also getting called all kinds of slurs from the stands, something the episode avoids ever addressing.

like look, I'm not asking to hear "faggot" or "paki" or any other number of slurs on a sitcom, of all things, but it's the show who decided to make this the plot point for that episode. it stands out that when isaac overreacts to the slur because of what he knows about colin, and then he and colin talk, there is an absence of any mention of the (targeted) shit isaac likely hears, especially after taking over as captain. it would've only made the episode stronger, given their friendship, and that colin was clearly frustrated with isaac's reaction during the match after he'd spent so long being ignored and yelled by him.

or, y'know, if they were gonna flinch this hard they could have had colin come out literally any other way lol.

ok i have some other qualms about the season (now that we know rebecca's endgame re: the club i mourn for what a consistent arc towards that could've looked like, and also jamie's dad can fuck off), but those were my two big wtfs this season. where i went, "bro, you're the one who brought this up, why are you running away from it?"

Gay People vs. Webcomics: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

This will be a different kind of article thingy. It is Pride Month, so naturally, I feel like I should talk about gay people in webcomics. Yes, I identify as a homosexual (former bisexual) myself, and also gay people have appeared most frequently in these webcomics.

The Good:

There’s a reason I wanted to save this article for late June, it’s because of Burke. While I sadly doubt we’ll ever see followup on his and Sulfur’s relationship, the little amounts we’ve gotten is somehow better than most of the shit in the mainstream. Burke and Sulfur weren’t in an abusive relationship, but their relationship wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. They disagreed with eachother’s philosophies which is why it didn’t work out, but neither of them carry ill will to this day. I liked Burke before but this whole scene turned him into one of my favourite characters in this comic. Burke starts off as rather generic gay guy, he has a crush on Matt and they never openly admit he’s gay, but overtime he not only becomes the most competent member of Matt’s group, he’s also excellent at calling out other people for their shit, like he did with Carson. It’s sad that someone as out of touch with reality as Albert could write a better gay character than any Hollywood writer ever combined.

Thankfully Burke is not the token gay of Albertverse, on the Kit n Kay Boodle side of things we have Squinx and Snowicet. Although they’re the only true gay couple we see in Yiffburg, they’re much more mature than rest of Yiffburg’s manchild population. They do get their own arc where they help Dee Muir to overcome her fear of boinkberries. Rereading that arc, they do both have unique personalities, unfortunately it’s ruined by Squinx putting his dick inside Dee Muir at one point but still, these two are way better than rest of the comic, and the only lesbian couples we see in Yiffburg are Bill Blaine’s rats and even then they’re bisexuals and do nothing besides licking each other’s pussies.

Speaking of lesbians, it’s time to discuss the bad stuff.

The Bad:

When it comes to LGBTQ+ rep, Lesbians are overused, not just in the mainstream but also in webcomics, and there’s a reason I’ve been calling them a webcomic cliche since this blog first started. I’m sure there are well-written lesbian characters but I haven’t run into one yet.

Arguably the most prominent gay couple in this blog are Spinnerette and Mecha Maid, I’ve explained about a hundred times why this couple sucks. Mecha Maid is more of an object for Spinny than a source of affection and it seems Mecha Maid lost all of her personality and ability to criticise Heather after they hooked up permanently. Outside of the times this comic introduces a homophobic villain, this relationship is no big deal. Honestly this couple is the biggest wasted opportunity in this blog’s history, since if Kraw wasn’t a hack we would’ve gotten a really tragic couple whose story we could’ve been invested in. But no, MORE PORN COMICS FEFEFEFEH

Marilyn here is not the only girl after Spinny’s clit, there’s also Sarah Nicole, after being indoctrinated into the homophobic church, we learn she is secretly a repressing lesbian, and in fact she becomes somewhat of a stalker for Heather. This angle of Sarah Nicole servers nothing besides making her another porn comic fodder character. It really is a shame because Heather’s chemistry is Sarah Nicole is way better than her chemistry with Mecha Maid, it’s one of the ONLY times she was actually likable!

But moving on from Spinnerette, it’s time to go into another superhero comic. Tsuki is labeled as a lesbian despite being fucking bisexual, and that shows you how much of a moron Dumok is. She treats Kriti as her “girlfriend” but they’re always fighting and arguing, they only bond because of Llew spanking Tsuki or something. There is some attempt at drama as the villain Bittersweet hates lesbians, but her only response to Tsuki being a lesbian is NOOOOOOOO and then she disappears. While Tsuki is one of the worst characters ever, the fetishist treatment of her lesbianity is expected. What I’m saying is, she could be WAY worse, how worse?

The Ugly:

For a comic that tries to be Mookie’s justice serving Banksy protest piece about the evils of government, sports players, paying customers and Orc Haters, the way it treats the comic’s token gay, Szark, is something right out of homophobe’s playbook. Szark starts as a depraved bisexual, but after his wife who tried to kill him dies, he develops a crush on Deegan. He somehow becomes a ridiculously exaggerated gay guy which is a real shame because his character is otherwise decent. He imagines Luna as a temptress and iirc, he has lewd fantasies about Dominic. But once Dominic pukes, pisses and shits his pants he realizes he no longer loves Dominic. It remains to be seen if he will be improved and become a decent character again, but I doubt it.

At least Szark’s love was never implied to be non-consensual, that is not the case with Bowser from Roommates, whose first action is harassing the hideous creature that is VeERGHmon and then he finds him masturbating in his room, and rapes him. And that’s how they fall in love. Yeah, even if VeERGHmon is a sleep paralysis demon he doesn’t deserve to get raped. This whole comic feels super homophobic in general, even the homophobes are homophobic! Wait...I mean, the treatment of homophobes is based on homophobic assumptions that every person who hates gay people must be secretly gay, look no further than Olly and Mondo. We see Olly in the main comic as a guy who brings a little bit of bigotry into the world where no women seem to exist, after an intense Rapist vs. Bigot fight the duo leaves, but Mondo has a pretty decent apology scene after the whole incident, which paints the duo as troubled individuals...and then an Addendum arrives which reveals Olly and Mondo were gay all along. I can’t remember why these two became homophobes to begin with but I’m sure the reason didn’t match any semblance of reality and psychology that exists. And the worst thing is these characters were actually written by gay people. I don’t think Spelunker Sal and Dreamous are “internalized homophobes” or whatever that stupid buzzword is, I just think they’re out of touch with reality.

And yet, YET, YET, these aren’t the bottom of the barrel when it comes to gay characters. For that we must go outside the radius of this blog, and into the horrible world of SuperSaiyanCrash. Yes, Cora Bandicoot should stand out as an example on how to not do a gay character. Cora is a nudist and a molester, she harasses every single woman she comes across, and there was even a cut scene where she gropes a character without the creator’s consent. She claims to be lesbi-err, lesbain, but she also ends up getting impregnated by Goku (Richie’s selfinsert) and thus raises two children, who also end up becoming lesbians. I don’t go “yikes sweetie this is homophobic” that easily, but I feel this character is so offensive the only way she could be more offensive is if she wore a blackface. Cora’s creator is a homophobe who only hated male gay people but liked lesbians because “they were hot”, which perfectly describes the mindset behind most of these characters. They’re stereotypical and presented as overly sexual characters, which has done lasting damage to gay community.

Thankfully I haven’t run into any “zoomer gay” characters, but that might change in the coming years.

The opinion of an observer

I’m always an observer on this fandom for long long time. Today I’ve decided to express myself after reading the fanfiction of Musingsofme on AO3. Lol.

I like Tsukuyo character so much. I personally think that this is probably the best character development of Sorachi. This character is deep and complex.

Well she is rebel. And the best way to show how rebel she is in the place that is full of sex like Yoshiwara is to be virgin. The whole plot about Hosen arc is also to show how brave and rebel she is.

The most interesting story to me is the whole thing about Jiraia. Actually Tsukuyo was very lonely. She was sold to Yoshiwara when she was young, then rebelled so strongly, ending up being trained to be a special force of Yoshiwara. This was where she met Jiraia.

Tsukuyo knew no love. Even if the relationship between her and Jiraia was so abusive, she embraced it anyway because this was the only kind of care and love she experienced. And with all of the responsibilities and expectations she was put on, in the end she removed the fun out of her life.

Then one day she met Gintoki who actually gave her new perspective in life. The thing is that this guy is the first one in her life that said to her “Hey! You know what? You don’t deserve this shit at all. You deserve something better. Life doesn’t have to be pure and clean. It can be dirty, but beautiful at the same time”.

So for Tsukuyo, she respects Gintoki because he has freedom that she hasn’t. She would like to be like him and she knows that she can’t.

The time has gone by the respect somehow turned into something more than that. The more she knows him, the more she falls for him slowly.

For Gintoki’s side, I know Sorachi didn’t confirm but he gave many clues. The well-played arc to me is love potion. There are many layers in this arc.

Well let’s have a look how the incense works. So at the beginning Sorachi has started introduce it by Hinowa. What she understands is that… ok! You will fall for the first one you lay your eyes on after you smelled it. This is just what people ‘believe’ how it works. But right after this, Sorachi also showed how the incense actually works.

What happened to Kagura and Shipachi is the first event to proof Hinowa wrong. Then Sorachi also tried to confirm with what happened to Kyuubei, Otae and Kondo. The incense made them realize their true feelings and be honest.

Now Hinowa is completely wrong.

Same thing as Tsukuyo. First she saw his dick, but actually she likes him as a person.

These are what happened to many characters who smelled the incense. What about Gintoki? Well actually for me the same thing happened to him.

Many might have said he smelled it too much that he got crazy. Well the fight between the ideology he believes (the same issue as Tsukuyo – he doesn’t want to rely on anyone or everyone is equal) and the effect of the incense kept happening inside him so strongly that it just showed up like he’s gone crazy. For Gintoki, he said something so cheesy at the same time being so serious, then said something crazy again like he’s drunk. It’s up and down like he’s been fighting inside with the drug so hard. (Also he always came back to her.)

He talked about his believe that everyone is equal again. And then…being so damn cheesy and serious again.

They stick together again. He even said “Sorry! I don’t know why I did that.”

In the end, he spent time with her without Shinpachi or Kagura.

Also he’s here in Yoshiwara alone again even if it’s so far from where he lives. And why on earth he was on the rooftop that night. Was he looking for her knowing that she’s working?

And actually this is not the first time he’s here alone.

He’s in Yoshiwara alone again and didn’t expect to work. Literally just came to see her them.

In the red spider arc, he’s not here alone. But it’s clear that he didn’t come here for work.

And yep! Gin-san likes looser women.

So saying that Gintoki NEVER likes Tsukuyo is kinda wrong to me.

There is also the whole thing about their backgrounds. Like Gintoki who were the one who executed Shouyou, Tsukuyo also executed Jiraia to save Gintoki. And he was very shocked.

Now they have very similar path.

For Tsukuyo like she said at the end of love potion, Gintoki is everyone’s man. She accepts that she loves him but she doesn’t believe that she deserves him. Same shit as Gintoki, he believes he deserves to be alone. He is haunted by his sins in the past. He’s a no-good man.

During the fight with Jiraia, Gintoki kept talking about how coward Jiraia is and comparing himself to Jiraia.

“Tsukuyo’s already stronger than you. Cowards should settle for fighting cowards. And if you need an opponent, I am more than enough!”

This is somehow he talks to himself as he compared himself to Jiraia. He is a pitiful creature who will never reach the sky.

Well they are both tsundere. Both of them believe that they don’t deserve each other. But they do!

Sorachi said sorry about the fact that Gintoki character was barely developed. To me, he did try with Tsukuyo and the events in Yoshiwara. What he said to Jiraia or Tsukuyo is the thing that reflects himself.

Well I like this ship so much. I’ve never ever thought that I still have fanfiction to follow after it ended, but the truth is that I have. Lol

Thank you everyone who contributes fanfiction to this community until now.

Jensen Saturday Afternoon JIB12 Solo Panel

At the beginning of the panel there was a problem with his mic so it was changed and to test the new mic he made a reference to Lionel Richie's Hello, and said he got to hear him sing that song in person a few months ago. Cool.

He also complains about his hair, says he’s not a fan of how it currently is and that he misses the Dean hair. Briefly mentions his Soldier Boy beard and that maintaining it took more product than the rest of his body which was a new frontier for him. But he just doesn't know what his current hair is, it's up, it's down it's floppy. Jensen baby you need a nap.

Starting the questions: If he could have a Diabolical ep about Soldier Boy what would it be about? 

Real quick for those that don't know Diabolical is an anthology animated spinoff of The Boys with each story set within that universe.

If he had his wish about the story of Soldier Boy, it would be a story back in time when Soldier Boy was in like his Homelander prime which would be around the 50's or 40's. That's something he would like to see (so would I Jensen, so would I) and thinks would be really interesting.

Before he was asked the question the fan congratulated him on his Saturn award nomination, and Jensen said that Antony Starr, who plays Homelander, texted him congratulating him on his nomination like 20mins after Jensen found out about it and Jensen's reply was 'thanks, man! that's great'. Antony is also nominated so Jensen felt like a dick because he didn't congratulate him till the next day 😆

Is he considering directing an episode on The Boys or Big Sky? Or maybe another episode of Walker?

Answers that while he loves to direct, and it’s a treat when he gets to do it there’s a lot of work in front of the camera that he’s doing right now which doesn’t allow him to have the time.

Directing take a lot of time, it’s not just the six, eight, ten, fifteen days it takes to shoot an episode of xyz show. Becasue for example The Boys one ep is roughly 15 to 20 days of filming (wow 🤯). SPN was 8 days. He shot his Walker ep in 6 ½ days. Big Sky is 9 to 10 days. So it varies from project to project.

He would love to direct a Big Sky ep but he doesn’t think that’s gonna happen that’s not in the cards right now he’s also hoping to direct an episode in the new year of The Winchesters. That one is probably on the list of directing things to do first that is if they get picked up for a full season. He says networks don’t like to order whole seasons until the show has proven itself so if that happens then he'd be looking to direct in the latter half of the season and he's looking forward to it if it comes to pass. x

For him what is the most significant part overall of Dean’s entire character arc? He’s not sure there's a specific season or story that can be pinpointed when it comes to this but the progress he enjoyed the most was Dean becoming the man he needed to be and not the one his father wanted him to be.

Obviously, he was heavily influenced by his father but, John’s shortcomings aside, Dean idolized and looked up to his dad even though it may not have been the best parent-kid relationship on the planet it’s what he knew.

Here he goes on a bit of a sidetrack and says he himself deals with that in his real life that people will ask him how his kids deal with him being away so much or how his wife deals with him working away so much, and it’s because it’s what they know. It’s their normal it’s all they’ve ever known and to say that’s wrong or that it’s not right or it doesn’t fit inside what society says a family should be he thinks is obtuse. Ooookay then.

Getting back on track he thinks everyone has their normal that is unique to them, and Dean’s normal was having his dad leave him in a motel room with his younger brother saying ‘listen I’m gonna go kill some sons of bitches I need you to look after your litte brother’ and he'd (Dean) say 'yes sir' and was a soldier from the get-go and he grew up to be a soldier but then, and this is the story that Jensen loves about Dean, he went from being a soldier to a general. x

This question was originally meant for him and Jared: after 15yrs of SPN which aspect of Sam and Dean’s personality was hardest to act? 

He buffers for an answer, because at this point he is in the buffering zone of being tired, then admits he doesn't know so he's gonna go with his first impulse reaction which is Dean’s insensitivity.

He thinks Dean was very insensitive in a lot of situations and that’s not something he tends to be, he's a little more sensitive. He wouldn’t say it was necessarily hard to act but that it was against the grain to act. He’s sure there were many things like dealing with a father the way he did or dealing with his mother having the conversation with Mary when he really confronted her that’s not something he’s ever had to deal with so it was probably more situational than it was character aspect.

He tries to answer on Jared's behalf and says he would probably have a lot of things to say then jokingly says probably dealing with an older brother shorter than him.

Which makes him mention Jeff, who is Jared's actual older brother, and is taller than Jared which makes according to Jensen makes him a giraffe; and he is a doctor so he walks in and is like 'all right what seems to be the problem today?' and one goes 'not you. you are not the problem you handsome tall son of a bitch' This is both adorable and funny 😂

He also mentions that now going on all these new sets he’s the tall guy. They’re all ‘I didn’t expect you to be so tall’ and he's all 'oh, you haven’t met sasquatch.' x

Does he have any personal projects he wants to do? Projects specifically for him that he wants to accomplish?

He wants to sit down like really sit down but when he does he’s like nope. 

He answers that he has had time to internalize and think about what it is he’s doing because he has been spending a lot of time on the move and doing a lot of different projects, and his time is spent spread out quite a bit, and he does have moments of reflection where he doesn't go ‘i wish i didn't have to do this’ or ‘i wish i had more time to do this’ or 'i wish i could comparmentalize a b and c' instead he sits back and goes 'man, I really love this. i really love doing what i do'.

He does wish he could clone himself and be in multiple places but obviously that's not the case so he has to be really smart about where he puts his energy and time, and he has to make sure it fulfills his obligations, and supports his family, and fulfills him. So, no there's nothing on the horizon where he's like 'if I could just get to do a road show or a sailing trip'. He's looking at right here, right now at what's in front of him says that he's more of a roll with the punches, take it day by day kind of person but that he does steer way from what he doesn't enjoy and what he's steering into is things like cons, and work, and that while he facetime's his kids constantly that he's either in their face or with them, and he got to spend a lot of good time with them during covid now he’s like we got that reprieve we got to spend that time with each other but now daddy’s gotta go to work because that’s for him. And much like Dean he is a soldier and a general who needs to be working, he keeps his head down and he works, and that fulfills him it truly does he loves it.

Mentions that there was a covid nurse, who was actually in the crowd of this panel, who told him earlier in that day that like him she kept her head down and kept working no matter how hard it was, and that meant something to him. That she said that because he feels like if anything that’s the hardest thing to do; to not look up and be distracted or look up and be like 'what about me? give me accolades pat me on the back I want an award I want recognition' and sure that’s needed as a human but he’s someone who likes keeping his head down, keep driving, keep moving forward. x

Any funny stories that he has experienced during his travels?

The fan who asked this question was almost not able to attend the con because her dog chewed up her passport which makes Jensen crack up. You know when you're so tired that the smallest thing can make you laugh? Yeah, he's reaching that point.

Anyways to answer the question he shares a story that just happened on the way to JIB. He was in New Mexico shooting before his flight, got home at around 2am, hadn’t packed anything, got to bed at around 3, woke up a few hours later to find somebody had messed up the car service so he hopped into his car and drove to the airport in NM. And as he’s cruising down the highway at around 9am which means it’s pretty busy a car comes in the wrong direction in his lane! He’s cruising at 75mph, going pretty fast in a four-lane highway and there’s this car coming right at him but luckily he was able to quickly change lanes and as he gets closer to the other car he lays on the horn and as he looks he sees it's just an old man gripping the steering wheel going the wrong way. At that point he wondered what to do so he called 911 to let them know, they tell him they know that they’d gotten a bunch of calls and instinctually he wanted to do a 180 and go chase the old man down and jump out of the window and grab the steering wheel. In his mind, that’s what he wanted to do, and he has no idea what happened he had kept an eye on the news to see if anything was said but he hadn't seen anything and he hopes nothing happened and the man made it to his destination safe.

I'm so thankful he was able to switch lanes safely and quickly or he could have found himself in a very bad accident.

He also mentions that when he was in Toronto for a con he had to get a work visa because he was going from Toronto to Van to shoot the movie so he was sitting in the customs hall there, and it took like 2hrs and in those 2hrs he took photos with half a dozen customs officials and kept asking them if they knew who was dealing with his paperwork. x

And that was the last question, or at least it was for me there was a slight crossover between the end of his panel and the beginning of MC's so this is when I checked out.

Jensen's Saturday Afternoon Panel

OKAY okay… since everyone went for 69… how about your top 3 songs! :3c

1. The Town Inside Me by AISHA and Arc System Works (Guilty Gear Strive OST)

Okay, so this is a weird one, I know. To explain it, I'm afraid that I'm going to need to get a bit personal:

Bridget was released in August of this year as a DLC character for Guilty Gear Strive. In her story mode, Bridget accepts the fact that she's a transgender woman. This doesn't come easy, however- she worries that by being openly herself, she might cause her family shame or that they will reject her, and she's convinced that it's better to just keep it hidden, and feel depressed and anxious.

August was also the month were I was starting my autism spectrum diagnosis. I was coming to terms with who I am, and that some of my behaviors or feelings are normal and should be respected, instead of me having to "unlearn" them. Sometimes it felt like my mind was being broken and forcefully domesticated, because I wanted to better "fit in" with the neurotypical society around me. It was unplesant and hard for me, but I thought that it has to be done, and that I will never be able to live a fuller life than I do now because people will never accept me for who I am.

Bridget as a character, and this song in paticular, have really helped me with accepting who I am. Our struggles aren't identical, but I believe that you don't have to be perfectly aligned with who the character is if you find comfort in their arc or personality or whatever else. Town Inside Me is a musical way of showing Bridget's arc- from someone who has to hide and stifle who they are, and it's bearable, sure, but it feels awful, like your body is empty and your brain is almost split in half, where the real you is somewhere outside of you, in the back, while the pruned version walks around and talks with others, behaving how people around them would want them to. Then, there's the realization, that you can't keep living like this, and you think that it's impossible at first, but something finally snaps in you and you're considering that first step. You jump into that deep, dark water, and you never want to push that "real" you in the back ever again, you want to embrace them and apologise for being ashamed of them and promise that you will never leave them again. Your life instantly gets incredibly vibrant, and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or what chamges around you, you have yourself with you always, and that's the most powerful ally you can have.

So yeah, sorry again for being so personal, but this song and Bridget the character have really came into my life at a perfect moment, and, as weird as it might sound, her story and character song have given me a lot of comfort and budding confidence. If they'll ever make Bridget figurines, I'm the first one in line.

2. Ram it Down by Dorian Electra

And now, it's time for something completely different.

Dorian Electra and I have a fascination with one very specific subject: homoeroticism. This one mixes the common homophobic expression of "(stop) ramming (your agenda or whatever) down my throat", mixing it with with aggressive oral sex (which is a logical connection when it comes to associations). The beat is just as forceful, combined with shouting vocals, it really gives off the air of someone (rightfully) venting out their frustrations. It twists the narrative around; The homophobe is the side that's "giving" in oral sex, begging the subject to "ram it down" their throat (harder, farther and deeper), one who secretly yearns to suck dick behind their homophobic veneer. It gives the "power", metaphorically, to the gay person subjected to this kind of "silk-gloves-on" homophobia, through the metaphor of oral sex, where they are the "recieving" half, who controls the one who is more submissive.

I actually found out about this song thanks to Lil Mariko, who's featured near the end, since I'm a big fan. Her screaming vocals really add a perfect finish.

3. Liquid Nights And Disco Lights by Miracle of Sound

I was about my number 3 before, so I'll keep it short- perfectly captures the melancholy, wonder, hope, but also the foreboding nature Harry goes through as he hopes to regain (or build a new) identity. A must-listen for any Disco Elysium fan, imo.

Things that did NOT Spark Joy-4x02

While I might have had fun WATCHING the episode (which you can read about here), the storylines are...a bit of a mess as always. So lets talk about the things that DON’T spark joy.

That opening monologue sure was...something. Like this show can be overdramatic at the best of times but that was...A Lot.

We literally already did the “oh no I can’t tell my significant other about being an alien” story with Isobel when she was with Noah and I am...so tired of this already, especially having her say she loves Anatsa and then mind whammy her?! I feel like if Isobel had grown as much as we’re supposed to believe she has and as much as we have SEEN leading up to this season, and if she REALLY loves her, why wouldn’t she do the unselfish thing and break up with Anatsa rather than mess with her mind? Why wouldn’t she bare a little suffering herself to keep someone she cared about safe? I love Isobel and I enjoy her and Anatsa together when they’re just being themselves but putting her with someone who had slept with Max was already SUCH a weird choice and now dragging this out instead of leaning into all the real and valid reasons Isobel might not want to be with/have an alien soulmate in Kyle? Allowing them to have a big buildup into an epic love story of their own like Echo and Malex would be so much more satisfying instead of regressing her to keep this relationship around and then cram her and Kyle together at the end of the series. 

Speaking of Anatsa, I want to like her I do but whooo boy is the “intrepid reporter” thing getting old already. Please, Kyle does NOT need this on top of everything else. Just let the man dissect a body for a few hours in peace! (But also why hasn’t it been done in the past 6 months? Probably because they realized they killed Jones too soon and it’s a little hard to bring him back AFTER the dissection.)

Also speaking of Anatsa, what was that run in with Max?! I want to like Max and when he’s being soft and sweet with Liz he’s at his best but good god do the writers want him to be this “macho tough guy” leading man full of anger and that ALWAYS puts him at his worst. Do better. But also the show refusing to acknowledge at all that they had her and Max sleep together and then putting her in an at least 6 month long relationship with Max’s sister is just...weird. Like it’s weird that it was never talked about and now it’s just been going on for so long and no one has talked about it and it’s WEIRD. This show makes the dumbest choices and then just refuses to address them and it’s endlessly frustrating. 

I am....very tired of the cyclical argument that Echo always seem to be having about basically the same thing and especially now that it seems to be leading to them settling down in Roswell. That arc should absolutely end with them buying a travel trailer and living on the road with Max writing his books and Liz doing her science and them seeing the whole earth together because that’s what they’ve BOTH always wanted. At least Max wasn’t a dick about her needing more time but also like, it’s been SO long, and we are all so tired. 

As much fun as Science Bros is, did anyone else find it weird that the locust had wings that literally shimmered like the alien glass and NO ONE MENTIONED IT?! Liz literally said she just did tests and there was nothing alien in the rain but like, how she saw that and didn’t go “oh shit, these bitches look like alien glass!” is beyond me, but neither her or Michael saying anything at all, OR Alex not calling Michael when he saw them with their glowing wings and glowing insides splatting on his window makes zero sense. Also 10/10 more suspenseful if Alex gets taken while on the phone with Michael, giving him an actual reason to get it with the other aliens like he’s supposed to do.  

WHY ARE WE CALLING ALEX “MANES”ALL OF A SUDDEN AND HOW TO WE MAKE IT STOP FOREVER?!?! *aggressively shakes hairbrush*

Also this show for REAL needs to use their other sets instead of always having everyone hang out in the Pony to discuss important alien business in public, or I guess hang out when it’s closed? Like, you all are adults with your own houses! There are like, 5 bunkers amongst the group! Apparently everyone is driving up the the mountains to get to Deep Sky multiple times a day in zero time flat, and them not knowing about aliens hasn’t stopped the whole group from keeping all their research there, so why not have meetings there too? 

Anyone else think Malex have a weird distance between them, physically? Like, what is with the foot of space between their bodies at all times and not being allowed to do anything but touch shoulders and forearms and having to give little pecks while keeping their bodies separated? Remember that grab and whispering in each others ears at the reunion and That Reunion Kiss? Remember 1x02 and that burning passion and 1x03 and that infinitely gentle tenderness? Vlamburn are giving it their all but the staging for their scenes has a weird vibe. Just let them be horny on main for each other like they used to be! Especially now that they get to be soft and in love!

Anyone else not really care about the new aliens? Like, the show is almost over, IDGAF, where is ROSA, where is ALEX, why am I not seeing more of our actual main characters? And there’s 3 of them, plus the new billionaire lady and her wife that I expect we’ll be seeing soon (I did not write down names and I’m not going to look it up now because this post is...so late), plus Anatsa and now Kyle’s new fling, like good god! You couldn’t even handle the characters you ALREADY had and we haven’t even SEEN Rosa yet and no mention of Heath, barely a word about Greg, no Flint, we’ll probably never meet the rest of Alex’s family, like whyyy?

Also, I’m sooo sick of Clyde and his self-righteous “we’re better than everyone on earth” condemnation. Like, this might work if it was NY or something but NM is one of the poorest states and Chavez County is ranked like, 21st out of 33 counties for income. You’re not making the point you think you are about “extreme excess”, especially not in a tourist town struggling to survive. 

I have a lot to bitch about with regards to Alex and what’s going on so buckle up!

The weather balloons he’s tracking were literally giving them weather data based on location. So they HAD to have GPS tracking on them, right? Even if that was fried by the electrical storm, they would have their last known locations. 

Deep Sky supposedly doesn’t know about aliens which is weird since they’re all doing and KEEPING all their alien research there including Jones’ body, instead of one of their 75 personal bunkers they have in all of their homes and across town, HOWEVER Deep Sky DOES know about the weather balloon project because they don’t have to tell them specifically about alien related stuff they are doing with the research coming out of that project. All this to say, couldn’t some DS interns go round up the downed balloons? Or at least have a couple go with Alex to make it take less time? Even though they should know where they all are? Make it make sense!

We already DID a kidnapped Alex plot with the dumbest circumstances and the dumbest ending so like, I’m hoping this will be better but I’m not holding my breath, and also why do the other one if you were going to do it again and better later? Why have the same set up of Alex “going away” and no one noticing he’s missing AGAIN so the writers can ignore him for a few weeks instead of actually putting in the work to write about people knowing and caring about Alex when he’s not standing in front of them, doing something for them? Imagine how tired we all are. Imagine. 

QUICKSAND. Really, that’s what we’re going with? I can’t. Hopefully they have him in a pod and HE can get some alien powers out of this mess and maybe catch up on some sleep. 

Overall I had fun watching this episode but as always there are far more questions and questions about choices being made, than there are answers. Plus knowing Alex will likely be MIA for the next 2 episodes and we have a week without an episode so it will be a month before we see him again, and knowing who episodes 3 and 4 will likely focus on, I’m trying to find as much joy in this episode to tide me over what is to come. 

Link to previous episode posts: 4x01

Hallow-Watch: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) Watched:  10/02/2023 Format:  Criterion Viewing:  Second Director:  Ernest Dickerson I didn't have HBO during most of the years when Tales From the Crypt was on television, so I was aware of the show, but didn't catch it very often.  In general, I wasn't really wired for it at the time (I wasn't into horror), but in 1995, I was sort of going to see everything that came out.   My memory of the movie is that it's... fine.  It seems like maybe it could have been better, and a 90 minute run-time, even with Crypt Keeper book-ends, was still maybe a bit much and at some point, you feel like you get it, and this could have been 75 or 80 minutes.  The show was usually 30+ minutes, so you're essentially doing tight stories built on ironic twists, the hand of fate, etc...  the kind of stuff you may be familiar with from any number of anthology shows that preceded it. Here, they needed to tell a longer story, and so we get a bit of an actioner on top of the horror, and a larger cast.  And what a cast!  How weird. I only really remembered Billy Zane, but we also have a very young Jada Pinkett (pre-Smith), Thomas Haden Church, CCH Pounder, William Sadler, Dick Miller, Charles Fleischer, Brenda Bakke and Traci Bingham is in there somewhere as a "Party Babe".  It seems like the studio was like "hey, we're doing a Tales from the Crypt movie, and-" and everyone said "yes!". The basic set-up is that William Sadler plays a guy on the run from an hilarious Billy Zane, who is a sort of Demon-guy.  Sadler is protecting "the key" which will turn Earth back to a pre-"let there be light" state and release demons and darkness onto the world.  He's trapped in a hotel (they keep calling a motel) built out of an old church along with the employees and residents of the motel, as well as some cops. You've seen similar before as the cast bickers and fights and has their own little arcs and desires, which are exploited by Zane who uses their inner-most desires to get inside their heads and physically into the motel.  And he's funny and charming as he does so. The movie takes place in just a few locations over a single night, which helps wrangle the story, characters and budget.  And makes for good horror-stuff. There's a sort of post-80's/ we've-seen-Evil Dead 2 approach to some of it, and it's a pleasure to see so much done with puppets, creature design and practical FX.  The demons running around are given animal-like legs I can't believe the actors could walk on, but they even climb stairs.  There's some gore, but it's not, like, endless.  It's more of a punchline and tone setting. All-in-all, it's a fun movie.  I'm not sure the format of Tales from the Crypt begs for a movie-length treatment, but it did make me think - there's no reason Max couldn't revive this show.  Horror does great, in general, and it would be terrific to see stuff that relies on the sorts of plot twists and ghoulish morality tales that made TV horror and sci-fi work for decades.  I don't know how much more I can get from another zombie-based TV show taking place in a world where they've never seen a zombie TV show before. And, of course, it's kinda nice to have the Crypt Keeper making fun of the proceedings and the horrible fates of the characters instead of insisting this should all be taken very seriously, indeed.  I'm a firm believer in the horror-host, from Elvira to Crypt Keeper to Count Floyd.   https://ift.tt/OG3LR4f via The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/D2JW9IH October 03, 2023 at 09:49AM

I know its probably not your wheelhouse but do you have any big Takes on Batman's villains (perhaps in terms of how they relate to the Batfam)?

I usually don't tend to think about the villains as much and the ones I do think about are generally in relationship to Dick. A lot of them hate him a lot. My other opinions are pretty generic tbh. I've read a lot of comics and for the most part the batkids generally don't interact with them a ton, like there's crossovers for sure, but they have more personal vendettas with their own villains/villains that were repurposed for their books (aka: Dick and Blockbuster/Slade, Duke and Karma, Tim had a villain of the week thing going on in Robin 1993, Cass and Shiva - I would argue Shiva was repurposed for her book and was not really appearing as a "batman" villain here). Generally it's like shorter arcs, and granted I read more modern era preboot stuff so that informs most of my opinions. So while fandom tends to have "the villains love Robin and go easy on him :D" headcanons, I tend to not really share those views. At all.

In terms of general villains sometimes I think about these panels:

[Image ID: Batman handcuffs a man on the ground while Dick as Robin takes a wallet off another man. Riddler lies defeated in the background. Narrator: “...he made the cannon fodder suffer the physical and emotional trauma of being defeated by a child.” The next panel shows Dick opening the wallet. Narrator: “An incredibly annoying child...” Dick: “Let’s see who we have here... Henry McNulty. Age thirty-six. If we run your name will we find any priors...” End ID]

Batman (1940) #713

In terms of main villains, Dick and Jason figured out Harvey's gimmicks when they were both pretty young and get the patterns quicker than Bruce sometimes.

[Image ID: Bruce pulls the Batman top over his chest as Alfred stands behind him holding a cape. Jason dressed in a martial arts uniform holds up a hand while walking away. Bruce: “A lot of times I didn’t see the pattern right away-- but Robin could always pick up on it.” Jason: “Yeah, sure-- look... you, uh, hit the showers if you like-- I’m gonna work out on the bars.” End ID]

Batman (1940) #410

Dick and Harvey in particular have a nasty bit of history (Harvey nearly beat him to death with a baseball bat when he was 12). Harvey knows that Robin is Nightwing and was the first to figure out the man behind the Batman cowl had changed (though later he was convinced otherwise by Dick and Alfred). To me it feels like Harvey's ultimate betrayal of Batman was what happened with Dick, as he made Bruce watch the whole thing happen. Harvey doesn't have a personal grudge against Dick, but rather Dick was a casualty of his vendetta against Bruce. So while Dick takes fights between with him and Harvey personally, Harvey doesn't.

[Image ID: A comic books spread shows Dick as Batman and Tim as Robin leaping off a roof, then swinging and running across a rooftop. Tim (thinking): “It’s tearing him apart inside. I can hear it in his voice. Dick’s running it through his mind over and over. His first time alone against Two-Face. An error in judgment that almost got Bruce killed. It almost got Dick killed. And now all of Gotham is in his care.” End ID]

Robin (1993) #11

This is a part of Batman: Prodigal in which Dick dons the cape for a short time and personally I really liked the story (it's also a must read if you're interested in Dick and Tim's relationship). The retelling of Dick's first time facing off against Two-Face is also in Robin: Year One, and I think about this panel a lot.

[Image ID: Joker yells, smiling from behind the bars of a door labeled “Name: Unknown” and “Patient must wear restraints outside of room”. Joker: “I heard what Harv did to your little birdie, Bats! Whatta gut-buster! When you catch ol’ double-trouble remind him of something, will ya?” He looks serious on the next panel. Joker: “I called first dibs.” End ID]

Robin: Year One #4

Which shows Joker being absolutely pissed about what Harvey did because he knows killing Robin will cement him as Batman's most hated enemy. And post this chronologically he did try to kill Dick via the infamous shot in the shoulder scene:

[Image ID: Bruce as Batman holds Dick as Robin in his arms. Dick is unconscious and bleeding from a bullet in the right shoulder. Bruce is frowning at Dick and it is raining. In the next panel, Bruce leaps, catching a rope with his free hand and hauling Dick over his shoulder. End ID]

Batman (1940) #408

Something interesting about this story is that Dick wasn't immediately down for the count when he was shot, he was hanging onto a rope, dangling over a narrow ledge. Dick told Bruce to go after the Joker rather than try and save him and Bruce did, Dick couldn't hold on and fell a good height to the ledge

[Image ID: Bruce looks over the side of a building at Dick, who’s lying on a very narrow ledge unconscious. Rain falls and the street is very far below. End ID]

And I think that adds an interesting bit to that story - that Dick was injured after the shot but he was put in more danger because Bruce decided to listen to what he said and pursue the Joker. Dick surviving here was literally just a stroke of luck, if there'd been a gust of wind, he would have missed the ledge and died. Anyways I'm getting off topic, but back to Dick and the Joker, there's a ton of mutual hate their, and it's not like Joker's weird love/hate thing for Bruce, it's just genuine hate.

Dick's humiliated the Joker, beating him in a laughing contest on one account. He understands the Joker on a level that Bruce doesn't seem to, being able to impersonate him incredibly convincingly

[Image ID: Dick follows behind Bruce, both are wearing suits and are in silhouette. They walk through the cave, approaching a door. Dick: “For what it’s worth, how’d I do as him?” Bruce: “Are you asking me if you were convincing as a homicidal maniac, Dick?” Dick: “I suppose I am.” Bruce: “Then yes, as a matter of fact, you were.” End ID]

Batman (2011) #1

He's also been able to fool Joker as well via impersonating Bruce which, has got to be particularly devastating to the modern incarnation Batman obsessed Joker

[Image ID: Dick looks up at the Joker, his eyes are unfocused and there’s sweat on his forehead. Green smoke surrounds them. Joker is biting a purple tablet in his mouth. Joker: “...of Bruce w-w-hat the--” Joker looks down, there’s a picture of a hole on the tablet. Joker: “You’re... you’re--” Dick’s eyelids droop and he smiles. Dick: “I think the word you’re looking for *cough* ...is Dick.” Joker drops Dick, who is wearing the batsuit into the smoke. Joker: “Graysssson?! It can’t be...” End ID]

Batman (2011) #40

Especially because he made a dick joke during the whole thing. Like afkdlsk utterly destroyed (just before this Joker did the classic villain monologue and gave Bruce, who was listening, all the information he needed to save the day, while wasting a bunch of time). Dick gets the Joker, he understands the "game" better than Bruce, as does Barbara imo. But just because you know the rules of the game doesn't mean you always win; Last Laugh being a case where Dick lost his temper (for very valid reasons, like I personally would have lost my sooner tbh) and it led to the Joker "winning" under the rules they play by.

[Image ID: Dick frowns and says “I lost all control. I let anger carry me. He was dead and I was... I was happy about it. He won.” End ID]

Last Laugh #6

The Joker wins when he manipulates your actions and that's something that Dick has always been acutely aware of and why he considers this a failure even though from the outside perspective, it looks like he won.

Moving on from Joker and Harvey and onto Scarecrow. I don’t really believe all the recent stuff where the Scarecrow hates Dick because he’s like immune to fear or something. My personal headcanon is that the Scarecrow hates him because he can’t figure out what Dick is afraid of, plus the fact that Dick has been gassed so many times Scarecrow’s toxin is less effective (in preboot Dick has been inoculated to older strains by the time he’s an adult, but newer and potent varieties still effect him heavily, and in newer comics it was recently confirmed Dick shrugs off the effects quicker due to repeated exposure as a child). As for not figuring out what he’s afraid of, as a child Dick has been shown to be afraid of a couple things while under fear gas. 

[Image ID: Two Batmans fight each other as Dick stands in the background holding his arms up, unsure of what to do. Sound effects say “Crackk” as one batman punches the other. Dick: “...B-Batman... I...” One Batman kicks the other in the face with a “Smaaassshhh” Dick: “...Batman... which?” One Batman holds the other in a headlock. Batman 1: “...could *urk* use some help here *urk*” Batman 2: “Don’t listen to him, Robin!” Dick’s face is shown in cool blue tones. Dick: “...I...I...” End ID]

Batman/Scarecrow: Year One #2

While Bruce takes this as Dick being afraid of him, I personally read it as Dick’s greatest fear at the moment being watching Bruce destroy himself (which fits thematically with the comic itself). Other times Dick sees himself as a failure to Bruce. In his Nightwing run he sees a whole slew of things, but frustrates Crane because he doesn’t tell him what it was.

[Image ID: A series of comic panels. Scarecrow stands over Dick who has his head in his hands. Scarecrow: “Come on, baby-- tell the Scarecrow what gets under the skin of big bad Nightwing. What do you see?” Dick: “I-- I--” Dick looks up, scowling. Dick: “I see you, Crane.” Scarecrow looks back down. Dick: “--in a tiny, tiny cell in Arkham for the rest of your life.” Scarecrow: “Oh dear...” End ID]

Nightwing (1996) #10

But yeah, I think Dick has a whole slew of fears, he just won’t give Crane what he wants because he keeps his mouth shut too well/doesn’t have one central all encompassing fear which is what Crane expects. 

Another bat villain that Dick has a personal vendetta against is Firefly, who burned down Haley’s circus.

[Image ID: Dick hangs upside down thinking “Firefly! I haven’t seen him since before No Man’s Land, and he was in pretty bad shape at the time! Why in the world would he be here, now? Unless-- oh, no.” Firefly starts torching the circus tent with a flame thrower and the supports on the tent creak. End ID]

Nightwing (1996) #88

Needless to say, Dick took this very personally. Other than this off the top of my head, during Dick’s run as Batman in the Batman comics (not the Detective Comics) he worked with the Riddler for a short time. He figured out Hugo Strange’s game in the Night of the Monster Men crossover in Rebirth. He also has some connections with Black Mask shown in Batman comics as well (and iirc he was tortured in Arkham under Black Mask’s orders). I guess my headcanon is that being outside of the mind games that Bruce and his villains play with one another gives Dick an edge against a lot of them, however that edge doesn’t necessarily mean he will win.

the wolf should’ve been afraid of me.

Titans 3.04

just under the wire! ... i hope.

like with the previous review, i’m typing this up as i see the episode. here we go!

spoilers ahead.

1. ... well. that was an interesting cold open.

1.25. i don’t know whether to admire this show’s restraint when it comes to gotham and its excesses, particularly arkham asylum. it’d be easy to go hammer and tongs, like suicide squad (2016) did, or any number of bat media did, at a tropey, colourful~~insanity~~ that can be quite damaging, casting mental illness in strangeness and criminality. it definitely shows gotham as... separate from the rest of the country, its own ecosystem of heroes and villains, a sort of rogue state. 

but that ecosystem is still human, with its heroes needing to clip parts of themselves away just to survive, growing old and needing to be recycled, its villains languishing in the same kinds of systems that fail everybody else who needs to be helped. it’s a quieter, tenser sort of wrongness: not strange enough that you can dissociate, but not close enough that you can completely empathise. gotham is its own creature.

1.5. i know that the reasoning behind this is more doylist than anything, but i’m so glad that joker was killed off with little fanfare right at the start of the season. he is the one man in the batverse that’s transcended its confines as this sort of ethereal boogeyman/eternal edgelord and to justify his presence in the series would mean giving him this tired, overblown importance and too much of a stab at colourful, tropey “madness” in this otherwise-subdued series. i wish all batmedia would follow suit and get rid of this fucker.

1.75. so jason is bucking scarecrow’s control! or reminding him of who exactly holds all the cards right now. circling back to what i talked about in the last review, it’s remarkable just how little time it’s been since jason’s “death” and he’s already got ‘minions’ and elaborately set up plans to track, break and kill the titans. just how long has he been planning this? when did he first look at WE weapons prototypes and think that’s something i can use to blow somebody up? and the most unsettling question: did he plan his own death at the hands of the joker just so that he could break batman?

at this point it’s obvious that the scarecrow at least started jason down this path, but it’s frightening just how far he’s travelled already.

1.8. aaagh, less than one minute in! i’ll shut up. 

2. conner washing his hands at the sink reminds me that he was directly in the line of explosion when hank got blown up and he’s probably got atomised hank-bits all over his skin that he’s desperately trying to wash off.

... you’re welcome.

2.25. conner, don’t you speak to gar fucking logan like that, sir, no!

2.3. if anything it’s the lex part of him that gave him the knowhow to recognise the weapon and build a de-activator for it. 

anyway, for that ‘half-breed’ and ‘talking tiger’ comment?

(i wish, tho, that we actually see conner more interested in the superman part of his legacy, like maybe listening to stories from gar, or even better, dick, so we get a better idea of the pressure he’s feeling to live up to that part of him and not the part that’s lex.)

((i talked about conner’s stages of moral development in his introductory episode last season, but i wonder if the next stage of his self-actualisation would be to further integrate the parts of himself and realise that they are only parts and he, conner, is an entirely different person unto himself that can make decisions on how to use what he has and what he knows. his superman abilities can be used to destroy. his lex knowledge can be used to save.))

3. oh dawn :((

3.25. is this the last we see of dawn and hank? i mean, we know donna is coming back; would it be a stretch to think they’ll try to have a go at resurrecting hank as well?

3.5. “deathstroke didn’t make us into killers.” good, because deathstroke didn’t make jason a killer either. there’s a missing step there you need to be looking for, dick. 

3.75. dick did try to break the cycle, step away from gotham, run from the possibility that he could turn into batman. it didn’t help; he couldn’t fully withdraw from his vigilante persona the same time he loathed it, and batman literally haunted him both asleep and awake. but maybe gotham doesn’t have to turn anybody into anything. maybe gotham has nothing to do with it at all. it’s about taking responsibility, realising some sacrifices are pure bullshit, and building an actual family instead of merely a team.

anyway: hugs!

(oh, also? mr “i hate flying”? i mean, there’s perfectly valid reasons to hate flying that’s not related to childhood trauma, but then again, this guy was literally a ‘flying grayson’ once. also also, remember that he also gets sea-sick. must’ve a lot of fun stories to tell.)

4. ooh that gar/kory confrontation was brief but cool!

listen, i have never seen a psychiatrist with that extravagant an office and SIR I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW--

4.5. kory’s so unused to reaching out for help and it’s breaking my heart that HPG likely is some kind of impostor that’s maybe causing her symptoms in the first place. 

kory and dick have mostly been apart this season but it’s remarkable how their journeys have paralleled each other; kory processes her grief, isolation and existential dread into a determination to take care of this new family she has, no matter what it takes; dick does much the same, forging ahead with plans and solutions until he has no fuel left in him and spirals into a massive breakdown.

4.25. listen titans this really is a TERRIBLE continuity error. we aren’t goldfish; we can clearly remember that two minutes ago it was gar’s upper arm that was burned, not his forearm. COME ON.

“sensory deprivation tank” *SNORT*

anyway, gar is the BEST

4.5. i wonder where these visions of experimentation took place. was it on tamaran, or on earth, after she came to hunt down rachel/trigon and before she lost all her memories? is HPG a part of the scientist group that experimented on her? ... god, i hope not. i mean, i think he is, but it would be cool to have some positive therapist representation in media. 

5. you’d think the van transporting a dangerous supervillain that only batman could catch would be more secure but... i’m also not entirely surprised. 

5.15. i love dick gives ZERO shits about hiding himself or even ensuring scarecrow is adequately contained. just turns away after kidnapping him in BROAD DAYLIGHT and says ‘let’s go’. I LOVE THIS DUMBASS

6. lmao gar is having a really really shitty day SOMEONE GIVE THIS MAN A BREAK or just a goddamn story arc of his own

6.5. i’m really confused about the timeline here. so... sometime ago, kory came down to earth to hunt down trigon, yeah? at some further point down the line she and her sister were kidnapped and experimented on. THEN she somehow escapes but... loses her memory? a few months pass and then we see blackfire alive and well and free; she kills faddei, can impersonate other people, and is clearly seeking out kory. but now she’s still in the experiment facility...? what’s going on?

i’m not entirely surprised about the facility being mostly deserted. either the biggest investors in this project gave up on it and it was left to the most fanatic to carry on, or they were deliberately trying to lure kory and get her to free blackfire--expand the environs of the experiment, so to speak.

7. hopefully barbara is going to get something to do other than listen to various men give her Attitude

8. how do you terrorise a terrorist? well:

i love when dick is a scary-competent motherfucker.

8.25. ooooh, the attack on crane at arkham a ploy to get crane to blackgate? nice one dick, i didn’t even think of that. but why though? to protect crane from the titans? to intercept the van to blackgate and “rescue” him? seems likely--red hood was there, except dick got to crane quicker.

9. still reeeallly unclear about the komand’r situation. was komand’r captured after s2? is this all A TRAP?? if so, why are you stepping into the only thing that can contain you, kory????

9.25. so... definite parallels between dick/jason and kory/kom here. i’m just. i’m still. really confused. i’ll shut up now.

10. this may be my favourite dick look yet:

woodsman!dick in a beanie.

10.5. i unironically love how titans has made this bizarrely-devoted-to-his-moniker, toxin-spewing supervillain into a tamer version of hannibal, psychoanalysing his victims into submission. it’s of a piece with how inward looking titans is, the way all of its villains are obsessed with how our protagonists’ minds work, to the point where they would actually spend time inside of them. 

there are no big plots to end the world. no apocalypses or endgames here. these villains collect the titans’ insecurities like infinity stones. the way the titans defeat them is by achieving character growth--literally winning by the power of love. literally “the real superpower is the friends we made along the way”!

10.7. anyway, i’m betting dick is used to this bullshit from crane and is humouring him in the service of getting more information. the story about the wolf? an implicit threat, not to mention dick getting to control what crane knows about him and what methods he would use to manipulate him.

am i giving dick too much credit here? i don’t think so. he’s really impressed me so far this season.

10.75. like. there’s a real unreliable narrator vibe coming off with every person that talks about bruce (much like how the various members of the titans talked about jason’s motivations) and to buy into crane’s talk about bruce being a psychopath is to fall for the same manipulation that jason fell for. dick is the only person who hasn’t really psychoanalysed bruce this season, and i think some part of his detective brain is piecing things together into a bigger picture.

11. i’m glad kory rescued kom but did she have to kill the scientist?

(i mean, yeah, probably - the less people know that kom escaped the less likely they’re going to have the fucking govt on their doorstep, but still.)

11.5. dick’s gonna come back to wayne manor, stare straight at komand’r and go, well which room would you like? because the team might as well adopt ANOTHER person, yeah?

12. oh MAN that red hood/nightwing fight was AMAZING! and he did the thing! the boomerang escrima thing! i’m so delighted!

12.5. the anger and disbelief in dick’s voice when he says you told crane EVERYTHING?! tells me that he knew exactly what he was telling crane himself.

12.75. “everything you are is because of him” - oh that reminds me of halluci!bruce from last season. i hope we see halluci!bruce again--he is so vicious but so entertaining... so much more effective at tearing dick down than crane or jason combined. goes to show that dick’s biggest enemy is own fucking head.

12.8. oh no! dick’s shot! crane is in the wind with red hood! blackfire is now with the titans! i love it!

honestly this season’s pacing is such a big step up from the last couple. gold star, show.

Jason Todd: Where to Start

***Long Post***

Getting in to comics can feel daunting and intimidating, and it's hard to find good places to start. I've made two other comic rec list; one for Batman and one for DC events. Now I present to you another, focusing on Post-Crisis/New52/Rebirth Jason Todd

Like with the other list this is one that I plan on collecting in whole eventually and put at lot of thought and research into.

Batman: Second Chances TPB (Batman Vol 1 #402-#403, #408-#416; Batman Annual #11)

Post-Crisis Batman began in Batman Vol 1 #401, rebooting Jason's origins. This takes place in issue #408, with the rest being issue that feature Jason as Robin

Batman: The Diplomats Son (Batman Vol 1 #424)

This single issue storyline is one of the most iconic Robin! Jason Todd stories, that deals with his morality and aggression. Has be collected in the Robin 75th Anniversary Trade.

Batman: The Cult

A 4 issue mini series that revolves around Batman getting kidnapped by a cult, leaving Robin!Jason to go rescue him. One of the only Robin!Jason storyline written by Jim Starlin that casted Jason in a more positive, heroic light, as Starlin didn't like kid sidekicks.

Batman: A Death in the Family (Batman Vol 1 #426-429)

This is a 4 issue story arc that focuses on Jason discovering things about his past and the fallout of that, which leads to his death.

Red Hood: The Lost Days

A 6 issue limited series that shows Jason's return from the dead. This story really shows how much Jason has changed since his Robin days, and his abandon for Batman's black and white morality.

Batman: Under the Red Hood (Batman Vol 1 #635-641, #645-650, Annual #25)

This story arc shows Jason's return to Gotham and his plan of vengeance against Batman and the Joker. The most iconic Jason Todd story to date.

Nightwing: Brothers in Blood (Nightwing Vol 2 #118-124)

While this 6 issue story arc definitely has some mixed reviews, it's set the tone for Jason's relationship with Dick Grayson after his return.

Green Arrow: Seeing Red (Green Arrow Vol 3 #69-72)

A 4 issue story that has Reh Hood kidnapping Green Arrows sidekick, Speedy. Through the story we get an idea of inside Jason's head and his view on things, through his dialogue with Speedy.

Countdown Presents: The Search For Ray Palmer

Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer is one of the series leading up to Final Crisis and is made up of 6 one-shots, that features the Red Hood, along with Troia and Green Lantern searching for The Atom throughout the multiverse. This is Red Hood's first team up with hero's since his resurrection and shows how the other's view him.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl

A 3 issue miniseries that focuses on the aftermath of Final Crisis and the apparent death of Batman. It features Jason Todd, in a bastardized version of the batsuit as the main antagonist. While this story also has mixed reviews, it does show the state of Jason's mental health both in his actions over the loss of his father figure, Bruce Wayne and in Batman's final message to the different members of the batfamily.

Red Hood and the Outlaws Volume 1

This series ran from 2011-2015, with 40 issues, along with a #0 and 2 annuals. Features the Outlaws, consisting of Red Hood, Arsenal and Starfire on various adventures.

Batman: Death of the Family (Batman vol 2 #13-17; Batgirl vol 4 #13-16; Batman and Robin vol 2 #15-16; Catwoman Vol 4 #13-14; Detective Comics vol 2 #15-16; Nightwing Vol 3 #15-16; Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol 1 #14-15; Suicide Squad vol 4 #14-15; Teen Titans Vol 4 #15-16)

A crossover even where the Joker terrorizes the entire batfamily. Jason Todd is a major play in this story but he has some good moments with the family.

Red Hood and Arsenal

This is a 13 issues teamup series, in which Red Hood and Arsenal start a short lived hero for hire business, amongst other things.

Batman Eternal

A 52 issue limited series that focuses on the batfamily. Has a lot of interaction between Jason Todd and the rest of the bat family

Batman and Robin Eternal

A 26 issue limited series that servers as a follow up to Batman Eternal.

Robin War (Robin War #1-2; We are Robin #1-7; Grayson #15; Detective Comics Vol 2 #47; Robin: Son of Batman #7; Red Hood/Arsenal #7; Teen Titans Vol 4 #15)

A crossover event in which teens of Gotham decide to form their own Robin gang and start to fight crime on their own. The former Robins step in to stop them.

Red Hood and the Outlaws Volume 2 (ongoing)

An ongoing title that features Red Hood, Artemis, and Bizzaro as the Outlaws. Recently became just Red Hood after the departure of Artemis and Bizzaro.

Batman: Three Jokers

A 3 issue mini series that plays with the idea of multiple jokers and Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood tracking them down and stopping their plan to create another joker.

Constantine TV Series Episode 4 “A Feast of Friends”

Aight, I feel the need to express some feelings about this episode. I’m not sure this is going to be terribly articulate, but I’ll do my best. Let’s do this.

First off, it’s obvious to anyone who has read Hellblazer that this episode is based off of the first two issues of the comic book series. As I wrote in my post about my experience reading it, these issues were the perfect way to start off the series. It’s like “BOOM! This is how it is! Get ready for some serious shit! This is your only warning; this is what you’re in for.” Even though they did change the story for the episode, I still absolutely loved it. The storyline from the comics is a favorite of mine, but even with the changes made in order to adapt it for TV, this was an awesome episode. In fact, it’s my favorite episode of the TV series. Here’s why!  

   Why is it episode 4?

  Unlike the comics this story was adapted to be episode 4, meaning it doesn’t start the TV series. So, why wouldn’t it start the TV series? I think that you have to look at it from a few different perspectives.

  Let’s start with the comic: Issues 1 and 2, titled Hunger and A Feast of Friends respectively, make up the first arc of the Hellblazer series. Most fans know, however, that Hellblazer is not John’s first appearance in comics; he got his own series after appearing throughout the American Gothic story arc of Swamp Thing. Consequently, many people came into Hellblazer at the time having some familiarity with the character. While this chapter does expand on John’s character some, this doesn’t serve as a major introduction to him. They just drop the reader into one of his nightmare-inducing everyday situations with little to no preparation. Those who are familiar with his role in Swamp Thing will, odds are, not find these issues to be terribly weird or particularly jarring considering it’s in a series about John; they have a good idea what they are in for.

   Here is a quick run-down: John returns to his apartment in Paddington after dealing with the horror show that is the Brujeria in the Swamp Thing comics. Exhausted, he comes back to an unwelcome guest; Gary Lester. Gary is one of the friends who was involved in the Newcastle incident (which is fully explained in issue #11), which left each of them scarred in their own way. Gary dealt with the aftermath via drugs, which have left him wide open for other issues. After foolishly releasing a demon from a sacrificial victim, Gary runs to John for help dealing with the destruction said demon is causing. In this case it’s a hunger demon that causes people to feast upon whatever they greatly desire; food, a crucifix, and even an athlete committing autocannibalism. With help from club owner and Voodoo practitioner Papa Midnight, John betrays his vulnerable and trusting friend in order to stop the demon by instead making him the new sacrifice. Trapping the demon inside of Gary, the literal and figurative ghosts of John’s past haunt and torment him mentally as his friend dies slowly and in agony, ending this arc with a melancholy feeling. John stopped a demon, but at the cost of a friend who truly trusted and cared for him.

Using this story to begin the TV series as is, however, would have been more than a little strange. In the minds of most people outside of the comic book world, John Constantine was first introduced to them via the horrifyingly inaccurate Keanu Reeves film. (I love Keanu, I really do, but that film give me agita). Or, if they were introduced to the show after it had already aired, they are introduced via Matt Ryan’s masterful work portraying him in Legends of Tomorrow. While he does an incredible job in both Constantine and Legends (to the point where I find that I may simply be unable to accept anyone else taking on the role in live action) it depresses me terribly that Legends toned down John’s character so much with all the goofiness. It did not suit John at all! If anything, I find myself feeling sorry for Matt Ryan, who tried so hard to do John’s character justice. Uhg.

   Anyway…Already, a lot of the audience is going to be more than a little taken aback by the Constantine series’ portrayal of the character, however comic book accurate he may be. This show is tailored to as wide of an audience as possible, meaning they expect that pretty much no one has read Hellblazer or Swamp Thing before. Consequently, having the series start by just dropping the audience into his crazy world, especially with this particular story arc, might not be the best idea. I’m not saying that his introduction is done super well with the first episode (it’s not a total wreak, but there are issues) but it would have been much harder to start with A Feast of Friends.

     Characterization

    Now, let’s look at it from another angle: characterization. As the 4th episode this was, odds are, done assuming that there would be a lot more episodes after this (oh, the painful reality), but really the viewers are still just getting to know John. So, these early episodes are supposed to establish his character. They see him as knowledgeable and ready to handle the weird and scary in the first episode, and in 2 and 3 you see that he is serious about his work, a loner, weirdly well prepared, and how he interacts with others. While in some situations he does come off like a douche, his douche-ness is on full display in this episode. Honestly, this is accurate to how he is in the comics; he’s a nasty piece of work, after all. A world class bastard. He gives Gary shit for his drug addiction pretty much the entire episode as well as his choice to mess with a demon and the chaos it made that he now has to fix. He, like in the comics, tricks Gary into helping him and it results in a slow, painful death for the man. Gary really did trust John, and not only did John betray him, but he was callous about it. Now, that’s not to say that the situation and Gary’s death doesn’t bother him, and this is also seen in both the episode and the comic, but John solders through a lot of it with his mask of stoic indifference; he blatantly a deliberately betrays his friend without much hesitation.

    John’s characterization in the show is really important. While fans of Hellblazer know what they are in for (John being a dick, betraying people, sacrificing friends, etc) the wide audience the show was meant to appeal to might not respond well to that. How is the audience supposed to relate to a character whose major personality trait in this arc is to basically be a douche (even if it is justified in a way)? Generally speaking, TV shows try to have a lot of characters with redeeming traits and very basic bitch personalities so that as much of the audience as possible can relate to them in some capacity. They can describe the main character as “cool, quirky, sweet, loving, etc” because that is what network television strives for. The point is for the audience to relate to and find a lot of reasons to like the character, especially the main character. The audience is supposed to be able to see the qualities of the character in themselves. An example of a douchy character being changed for network television is the titular character in TV series Lucifer. He can be an asshat at times, but his redeeming qualities shine through in pretty much every episode; he’s helpful, has a strong sense of justice, and cares about Chloe. He often goes out of his way to understand others, although he often misses the mark, and tries to fix problems and issues that he accidentally creates in order to keep relationships with others. These are things people can relate to, and although he can be rather uncouth, it’s played for laughs, and he has more redeeming qualities than not. If the Constantine series started off with John coldly betraying a friend after giving him shit for his addiction the entire episode with not a lot of his positive traits coming through, from the perspective of most people, this might not be a good way to try and connect with the audience. I’m not saying there are people who don’t/won’t, but again, this is network television and they tend to play on the safe side.

    Comic book -> TV

    Ok so let’s move onto the meat of this; the changes made to the story. People always complain when something isn’t totally accurate to the book down to every last detail (Harry Potter *cough cough*) and making story and character changes to adaptions of comic books is nothing new. However, to be fair, there are some legitimately good reasons for this. Time, money, limits technology wise, and pacing are good examples. The most important thing to consider, in my opinion, is that we are going from a comic book to television. Literally, that is the most important thing. Essentially, what the writers had to do when adapting this story for the show was carry over the plot from one medium to another, which is tricky.

    What’s a medium? A medium is a platform that allows a message to be shared or presented. So, using the medium of a comic book is how Jamie Delano was able to share his message; the story of John Constantine. The writers of the television series then had to adapt the story from comics, a visual and written medium, into a different kind of visual medium with different features to it; stage craft, voice, music, etc.

    Comic books have features for story telling; the size and placement of the panels, the writing, word bubbles, narration bubbles, colors, art style, etc. The pro’s to this are that you don’t get paragraph after paragraph describing a place or a person; they literally show them to you and the art presents those details. They also allow for the art to take in the reader emotionally through what the images convey; messy art, sudden loss of color, or even a sudden blank page after a tragic event are simple yet effective ways to convey emotion that are, at times, difficult or downright impossible to put into words. And sometimes the writer wants to leave things to interpretation or allude to something without saying it outright. While this can be done in writing, it can be done through the art as well, and depending on how skilled the artist or creative a set up can be just as effective if not more.

     In television storytelling can be done with another wide array of features. Close-ups on the actors, the actors and their performance in general, music, background narration, changes in location, lighting, ect. This allows for emotions to come across in different ways; the quality of the acting can make or break the effectiveness of the scene, and music and lighting can alter the message or feel of scene in order to change or heighten the point, pacing, the use of CGI or practical effects, etc. So, keeping this in mind, there are many features that are exclusive to film that are not in comic books, and vice versa. So, as you can imagine, adapting the stories or message from one medium to another is nowhere near as straightforward as people like to think it is. In other words, I tend to give the writers/actors/etc a break when it comes to adaption because, honestly, there is a lot that goes into it and it’s not like I could do better, honestly. I mean, there are piss poor adaptions, I’m not gunna lie, but there are a lot of them that I think don’t get enough credit simply because it’s “different” in some ways.

     Aight, let’s first refer back to what I said earlier concerning the comic; these issues aren’t so much an intro to John as they are literally following him from the end of the American Gothic arc in Swamp Thing and to his apartment where he gets involved with more shit (no rest for the wicked, amirite?). So, again, not a good way to start the TV series. In the TV show, they also have to tie in the changes they set up in the previous episodes. Continuity, my friends.

    So, what is different? Here are a few things: John having a safe house, being in the US, Chaz being American and also not involved, Zed being involved and being Latina, the new angel character Manny, and the absence of Papa Midnight really change a lot about the story. The heart of it is John’s relationship with Gary and the defeat of the demon, which thankfully remains unchanged at it’s core. This is the central idea that drives this story and I think that idea was actually done a bit better in the film medium than in the comic.

   Keeping all of these factors and all of these changes that needed in order to keep things consistent with the TV show’s changes, let’s get into why I think that this episode is good even with the changes, but why I love it.

I love It

      After taking some time to consider things, I realize that what really makes this episode great is the actors; specifically, Matt Ryan and Jonjo O'Neill. The chemistry between them is undeniable. The way they look at each other and how they talk to each other really makes you feel like, at one time at least, they were friends. The scene where Gary swipes the ID badge and says “I learned from the best” is a great example of this. The look on his face and John’s; I don’t have a real eloquent way to say it. I just sort of feel it.

The retcon of Gary’s character really helps with this. Being that Gary is introduced and then killed off in two issues, you don’t really get to know his character in the comics. He’s only in one episode of the TV series, yet he feels more fleshed out. Soul was added to the character. Showing his struggles with addiction, as well as what I suspect to be depression and PTSD, really humanized him. In the episode, he was more than just a desperate, annoying junky; he was a flawed and relatable human being. Who hasn’t made a mistake? How many people have made BIG mistakes with consequences difficult to handle? How many people are haunted by their actions from the past? Addiction and the effects is has on people is devastating. I’m glad that they kept the ending true to the comics, but the way he was portrayed in the episode really made me feel for Gary in this case. It almost made me hope that maybe he really would get better, and have the chance at redemption that he was trying so desperately to find. But it wouldn’t be a John Constantine series without an ending like this one; John loses a friend and slowly digs himself deeper into hell.

Of course, it’s the ending of the episode that people really remember best. It’s the scenes that solidified, at least for me, Matt Ryan as John Constantine. It’s what really helped me have faith in the series. Watching it now, and seeing what really could have been, makes the episode somewhat bitter sweet for me. I felt like this is when the series really found it’s footing; the acting, storytelling, and how well arcs from Hellblazer could be adapted. This is where I think Matt Ryan hit his stride and we could see what he was really capable of as an actor if they let him spread his wings. In the earlier episodes I was honestly unsure. He looked the part, but the soul of the character had not really had a chance to shine through.

How John treats Gary at the end really made a difference, too. Holding him while he was in pain, and sitting with him as he died in agony; these simple yet effective changes really drove home John’s humanity in the face of evil and the tough decisions he has to make. The look he gives many at the very end, the anger and sorrow he seems to be struggling to hold back, is haunting.

In this episode, Matt Ryan’s love and dedication to John’s character shine. Seeing the story in live action gave this story a stronger impact. Even without a lot of the social commentary that was present in the comic, the live action element is what really helps drive the story home. I think it’s because it’s real people showing these very real emotions that can be hard to translate into art. Not to say that John Ridgway did a bad job, but it’s different in live action.

I hope I was able to get these thoughts across. I wasn’t sure if I should share this or not, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I know this is sort of jumbled, but hopefully it’s not a total mess to read.

Do you think that Daenerys will burn kings landing in the books? She did it on the show and she has to show the strength of her dragons in Westeros like in Essos.

For the answer to this question, I would direct you to Dany blogs that dissect her story arc using the books. You could read their theories and speculations based on the books and come to your own conclusion on this.

As for my speculations on this,

1. Dany has done nothing so far in the last 5 books that leads towards her going on a random rampage in KL. She has shown a lot of concern and care towards the civilians and common folk of Essos. More than the likes of Robb Stark for example.

2. Dany burning down KL would turn her into her father. This goes against what I think is GRRM’s message in the series -  that the younger generation can rise above their birth and the societal biases against them.

3. That said, I do think that the author means for us to question and speculate, along with Daenerys, if she would turn into her father. This is an internal conflict that the character is struggling with and a part of her story. More on this below the cut.*

4. I think there will be a second dance of dragons between Young Griff/Aegon and Daenerys in KL. Going back to the original outline, the second book of the original trilogy - titled the Dance of Dragons -  was supposed to be about Dany’s conquest of Westeros. There will be casualties in this war. GRRM has been explicit about the consequences of war on the small folk due to the WOT5K.  Robb Stark may have had a just cause but innocent people suffered and died due to his war for independence. Even with Stannis’ march to Winterfell, we see a 14 year old soldier being burned to death as punishment for cannibalizing a corpse because he was so hungry and there’s no food. War is brutal.

5. Dany can win KL without massacring thousands. The Lannisters did it in the books when they sacked KL and no one - not even the honorable Ned Stark - complained about it. She could have done it on the show and won - except, suddenly pacifist Tyrion kept advising against it. In fact if the dragons act as a nuclear deterrent, there will be less casualties. Aegon the conqueror won the North without a single casualty.

5. Westeros is already in a bad way and winter has come to KL by the end of the fifth book. Dany will end up in charge of a war torn Westeros down south. By which time, the North is overrun, Winterfell is lost and the survivors head south. IMO, the Others will not be defeated at Winterfell in 30 minutes like on the show. They are the central antagonists and the last book will mostly be about the rest of Westeros uniting against them. Dany will acknowledge the central premise of the series - ‘ When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?’  and joins Jon, Bran, Arya and others to defeat the army of the dead.

6. I have no idea how her story will end in the books. Considering she dies on the show and if it’s the same in the books, I would think that if she goes out she will go out a hero and not a villain. There’s a lot of prophecies associated with her and I would speculate that her character is instrumental in defeating the Others. Fire and Ice and all that.

7. And speculate is all we can do, considering we will never get the last book and a conclusion to GRRM’s version of the story.

* Now to expand a little bit on the point number 3 above.

I would like to comment on a line of thought/discourse regarding Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Targaryen madness.

I have seen a few posts from time to time making the assertion that if one speculates on mad queen Dany, but does not do the same for Jon Snow, then this is sexism. I disagree.

Now, if one is making that argument that by genetics, Daenerys Targaryen is designed to go mad and she will go mad, burn down KL and die while Jon goes on to be King or goes into exile etc. then yes, this argument would indeed be sexist, IMO. If we are going to speculate based on Targaryen genetics, then, not much is different between Jon and Dany. They are both Targaryens. Dany is not fire proof and neither is Jon. While Dany has some strongly prophetic dragon dreams, there are indications that Jon’s dreams are prophetic as well.

“Sleep came at last, and with it nightmares. He dreamed of burning castles and dead men rising unquiet from their graves”

He has dreamed of Winterfell burning, of Ned being executed, of being told that he is not a Stark by the old kings of winter in the crypts where his mother is buried and of Bran as a weirwood.

Jon’s dream here is very similar to what Dany dreams of:

“Snow,” an eagle cried, as foemen scuttled up the ice like spiders. Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. As the dead men reached the top of the Wall he sent them down to die again. - Jon Snow

That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent.- Daenerys Targaryen

We know zombie ice spiders are going to be a thing. And the armor of black ice that Jon references here could be Euron Greyjoy’s black valyrian steel armor.

So if Dany is going to go mad because of genetics, then there is every chance that Jon will as well.

But from a narrative point of view, the author wants us to question if Dany will go the same way as her father. The mad king Aerys III is a part of Dany’s story. She questions if she is going to become her father. Other characters – allies and enemies – do the same. It’s a conflict that Dany wrestles with as she comes to terms with her Targaryen identity. It’s an obstacle she faces as she takes on both enemies and friends.

"Freedom to starve?" asked Dany sharply. "Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?" Am I mad? Do I have the taint? (ASOS, Daenerys VI)

A shadow. A memory. No one. She was the blood of the dragon, but Ser Barristan had warned her that in that blood there was a taint. Could I be going mad? They had called her father mad, once. (ADWD, Daenerys II)

The old knight did not blink. "Your father is called 'the Mad King' in Westeros. Has no one ever told you?"

"Viserys did." The Mad King. "The Usurper called him that, the Usurper and his dogs." The Mad King. "It was a lie."

"Why ask for truth," Ser Barristan said softly, "if you close your ears to it?" He hesitated, then continued. "I told you before that I used a false name so the Lannisters would not know that I'd joined you. That was less than half of it, Your Grace. The truth is, I wanted to watch you for a time before pledging you my sword. To make certain that you were not . . ."

". . . my father's daughter?" If she was not her father's daughter, who was she?

". . . mad," he finished. "But I see no taint in you."

And then there is the discourse that her enemies start about her being mad. The propaganda that she is just like her father. Propaganda that will no doubt be also used in Westeros.

The clever Volantene swordsman who always seemed to have his nose poked in some crumbly scroll, thought the dragon queen both murderous and mad. "Her khal killed her brother to make her queen. Then she killed her khal to make herself khaleesi. She practices blood sacrifice, lies as easily as she breathes, turns against her own on a whim. She's broken truces, tortured envoys … her father was mad too. It runs in the blood." (ADWD, The Windblown)

Madness and the mad king is nowhere in Jon’s story arcs or narrative themes. GRRM still thinks that R+L=J is some big secret and was so impressed that Benioff and Weiss figured it out he gave them the show. The author does not question whether Jon is going to become a mad Targaryen with a fascination for burning people to death.

Jon’s internal conflicts and the problems he has to surmount are different in nature. He is a bastard born of ‘lust and deceit’. If we want a connection here to the Targaryens that explores Jon’s narrative arc, then there is the Blackfyre rebellion. Daemon Blackfyre’s attempt to usurp the throne is used as an example in Westeros to be wary of all bastards, noble or base born.

So if the speculation is that Dany is going to turn into her father and become the mad queen, then the narrative equivalent for Jon would be that he would be a deceitful usurper who takes Winterfell from his trueborn siblings.

And this is something that is explored in Jon’s story.

When Stannis offers Winterfell to Jon, the only reason he does not accept is because of his oaths as a NW brother and his reluctance to burn down the heart trees in Winterfell. But in his heart, he wants it.

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger … he could feel it. — Jon Snow, ASOS

Just as Dany wrestles with whether she will turn into her father, Jon wrestles with his feelings of wanting Winterfell and feeling ashamed of those feelings.

His dreams in regards to this are interesting:

The world dissolved into a red mist. Jon stabbed and slashed and cut. He hacked down Donal Noye and gutted Deaf Dick Follard. Qhorin Halfhand stumbled to his knees, trying in vain to staunch the flow of blood from his neck. "I am the Lord of Winterfell," Jon screamed. It was Robb before him now, his hair wet with melting snow. Longclaw took his head off. Then a gnarled hand seized Jon roughly by the shoulder. He whirled …- Jon XII, ADWD

Jon literally beheads Robb in his dreams.

There is a lot of speculation here that after he comes back from the dead,  we are going to get a darker Jon Snow who is going to go after Winterfell and not care much about the trueborn siblings ahead of him in the queue. We could see conflict between Jon and Rickon or Jon and Sansa. The original outline hinted that Jon and Bran would not get along.

And just like Dany faces the ‘Mad Queen’ propaganda because of Aerys III, Jon too faces the biased prejudice against bastards because of the actions of Daemon Blackfyre.  While prejudice against bastards existed before then, the Blackfyres are often used as an example to caution against them.

Catelyn’s hatred for Jon Snow is based on the fear that someday he would usurp and take away Winterfell from her children.

“Not unless he’s legitimized by a royal decree,” said Robb. “There is more precedent for that than for releasing a Sworn Brother from his oath.”

“Precedent,” she said bitterly. “Yes, Aegon the Fourth legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed. And how much pain, grief, war, and murder grew from that? I know you trust Jon. But can you trust his sons? Or their sons? The Blackfyre pretenders troubled the Targaryens for five generations, until Barristan the Bold slew the last of them on the Stepstones. If you make Jon legitimate, there is no way to turn him bastard again. Should he wed and breed, any sons you may have by Jeyne will never be safe.” - Catelyn, ASoS

Similarly the Blackfish – having not even met Jon Snow – distrusts him.

"I will permit you to take the black. Ned Stark's bastard is the Lord Commander on the Wall."

The Blackfish narrowed his eyes. "Did your father arrange for that as well? Catelyn never trusted the boy, as I recall, no more than she ever trusted Theon Greyjoy. It would seem she was right about them both..." - Jaime Lannister, AFfC

The existing prejudices against bastards in Westeros is strong.

"Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness." - Jon Snow

Orys Baratheon was a baseborn half brother to Lord Aegon, it was whispered, and the Storm King would not dishonor his daughter by giving her hand to a bastard. The very suggestion enraged him.

Go away, I wanted only Freys up here, the King in the North has no interest in base stock.— Walder Frey to little Walda Rivers

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father he could as good a true son as Robb Stark -  Jon Snow

So both Jon and Dany face internal conflicts and the author wishes to interrogate if Dany can overcome her own self doubts with respect to her father and society’s opinions of her and if Jon can overcome his desires and personal ambition for Winterfell and society’s opinions of bastards as untrustworthy and deceitful.

If a reader is therefore making the argument that Dany will become the mad queen like her father and burn down everyone – they should also rightfully be arguing for Jon turning against his family for a selfish power grab and essentially turning into Daemon Blackfyre.

Remember how Daemon took the Targaryen sigil with colors reversed – a black dragon on red giving him the nickname ‘The Black Dragon’

Jon was referred to as the ‘White Wolf’ on the show and as per the books, two bastards have reversed the sigils. Jon’s direwolf Ghost is white and he would therefore have a white wolf on a grey background as opposed to the Stark grey direwolf on a white background.

The sexism arises when Dany is singled out for turning into exactly what her enemies expect her to be, while the Starks overcome societal prejudices and expectations and end up the heroes. That, while Dany turns into her father, Jon Snow continues to love his Stark family (i.e Sansa Stark) so much and would sacrifice everything for them.

The show’s thesis and final message for these Targaryens is that they cannot rise above their birth and are exactly what society makes of them. That their final destiny is decided from birth and that they cannot change it no matter how much they tried. Daenerys turned into her father, randomly burned down KL for no reason and massacred thousands. Jon Snow pretends to support her, gets close to her, deceives her and kills her. He becomes a kinslayer, a queenslayer, a traitor – deceitful and untrustworthy and is exiled. It was an utterly nihilistic ending for house Targaryen.

I strongly believe that GRRM is not heading in this direction for these characters. It would be very disappointing if this is what he intends for them. It would indeed be sexist if GRRM wrote Dany as turning into her father, while Jon remains good and faithful to his family. From my reading and interpretation of these books, the story is about these underdogs triumphing over their internal conflicts. The conclusion of this tale would be Dany not turning into the mad queen, Jon not turning into a deceitful traitor, Arya not fleeing Westeros because she does not belong, Bran becoming king despite being a cripple.

But that is the final answer. In the meantime, GRRM means to explore these characters and their narrative themes and conflicts. In that context, it’s valid to question and theorize whether a possible direction for Dany’s story is her becoming her father. Five books in there is nothing to support this theory, but it is a theme that GRRM is interested in examining for the character of Daenerys Targaryen.

4x02: Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester

Then:

Dean Winchester is saved

Now:

Olivia, a hunter, wakes to cold air and flickering lights. She runs for her shotgun just as Bobby leaves a message on her answering machine. 

Her EMF is going nuts as she patrols her house. Suddenly ghosts that she recognizes give her the one two punch and she’s a goner.

At Bobby’s, Dean is vehemently denying that he was “groped by an angel.” Bobby’s got lots of lore on angels, though. It seems they’re the only thing that could pull a human soul from Hell. 

Sam thinks it’s a good thing that Dean was saved “by one of the good guys.” And Dean wonders if there is a God. BABIES. Dean’s having a hard time believing there’s a god out there that personally believes in him. Oh, buddy, he cares just a little too much, I’d say. Dean’s self-loathing is off the charts though. And this is getting way ahead of myself here, but even though Chuck cares in the sense that Dean is a fun little puppet for him, it’s Cas that really cared all along. He believed in Dean so much, he gave up everything for this man. BIG SIGH. 

Dean demands pie before digging into the angel lore.

Sam runs off to forget get the pie, when he sees Ruby lurking. She wants to know if the angel stuff is real. Ruby’s scared for her demon life and takes off.

Sam gets back to Bobby’s in time for all three of them to take off to investigate why Olivia isn’t answering Bobby’s calls. Also, he forgot the pie.

They find Olivia disemboweled on her bedroom floor. And Bobby can’t get a hold of any nearby hunters. They check them out to find everyone dead. 

They need to get back to Bobby’s to regroup.

Sam’s getting gas for the Impala while Dean sleeps. He makes a pitstop in the gas station restroom. The room suddenly gets cold and Victor Henrickson appears!

He blames Sam for his death. He starts to attack Sam but Dean comes in with a save and a shotgun.

Bobby meanwhile is haunted by a couple giggling raggedy twin girls. Fun! 

Sam and Dean race back to Bobby’s. They can’t get a hold of him so they enter his house with shotguns ready. The boys separate and while Dean checks out the upstairs, Sam heads outside. 

Dean runs into the ghost of the woman who was once Meg Masters. 

She blames Dean for her possession...and Dean hates himself enough to actually believe it all. It wasn’t your fault, dude. Also, as much as they’ve learned about demon possession and all, if they would have met Meg at any point in the future, they would have just stabbed her with Ruby’s knife and she’d be dead anyway. Idk, saving people is good in theory, but hard in practice for these guys. I also know this is a manipulation. “Do you know what it’s like to be ridden for a month by pure evil?” HE DOES! Leave him alone! 

Meanwhile, Sam’s trying to find Bobby outside. He’s currently being held down by a couple scary ghost twins. 

Ghost of Meg continues to taunt Dean, and pins her sister’s suicide on him as well. MEG. NO.

Outside, Sam finds Bobby trapped in an old scrap car. He helps break him out and together they swing iron through the ghost girls. 

Dean drags himself away from Meg, and aims his gun at the iron chandelier up above. DAMN BOBBY that’s some fancy light fixture work! The chandelier smokes Meg out...for now. 

Back in Bobby’s living room, they realize that all the ghosts had a brand on their hands. Bobby hauls out the lore and leads the Winchesters down to...dun dun DUN...his safe room. 

We get the grand tour because this is the FIRST TIME WE’VE SEEN IT. This safe room has everything! Iron! Salt! Devil’s traps! Lore! Racy posters! Booze! Weapons! The vanished hopes and dreams of Dean Winchester! A cot complete with restraints! The Winchesters are impressed. 

Later, Dean breaks into a theological monologue while making salt bullets. My sweet sunshine! How dare you speak my love language! “If [God] doesn't exist...fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason - just random, horrible, evil. I get it, okay? I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?” (Because, sweetie, freedom is a length of rope and God LITERALLY wants you to hang yourself with it.)

Bobby finds the brand - it’s the “mark of the witness.” They’re ghosts forced to rise and destroy people. In fact, the Rising of the Witnesses is part of an ancient prophecy. A prophecy of...DOOM. It’s a sign of the apocalypse. Dean suggests coping with a series of wish-fulfillment trips including: Grand Canyon, Star Trek Experience, and the Bunny Ranch. Somebody please write me that fic. Instead of Dean’s plan, Bobby suggests running an ancient ritual to shut down the witnesses. To do so, they first have to race out of the panic room to gather ingredients before the ghosts have a chance to yank their insides outside. 

Ronald from the bank heist greets them at the stairs. Bobby blasts away Dean’s guilt ghost for him, and we cut to a montage of spell preparation. The three of them split up to fetch supplies. Ghosts appear to torment them. 

Meg appears to Sam, only she KNOWS more than she should. She knows about Sam’s fraternization with Ruby. 

In the kitchen, Victor appears to Dean. He reveals that after the Winchesters left, Lilith gruesomely tortured those left in the station for almost an hour before blowing up the place. While Dean absorbs this fun fact, Victor makes his move, plunging his hand into Dean’s chest.

Sam saves Dean just in time with a well-aimed salt round. They start the ritual, Bobby’s living room teeming with ghosts. Bobby chants while the Winchesters play shotgun whack-a-mole with the ghosts. Meg jabs a hand into Bobby’s chest. Bobby drops the bowl and Dean dives for it like it’s a football, then tosses the spell into the fire to finish the job. 

That night, Dean wakes from his slumber.

Castiel stands waiting for him (watching him sleep??) in the kitchen. He congratulates Dean on their triumph over the witnesses, and announces that he has already started doodling Mister Castiel Winchester in his notebooks! 

Dean feels a little raw about nearly dying (again) and wonders why angels are total dicks. “Read the bible,” Cas advises. “Angels are warriors of God.” Oh, and also? He’s not here to PERCH ON DEAN’S SHOULDER. Oh honey sweetie baby. 

Dean tries to read Cas the riot act and rails against God’s shitty parenting. 

Cas: The lord works…

Dean: If you say "mysterious ways" so help me, I will kick your ass

Cas warns Dean that big...no, cosmic things are afoot.

The Rising of the Witnesses is one of sixty-six seals that Lilith is busily unlocking. Each seal is a lock holding Lucifer in his cage. Dean has trouble believing that Lucifer is even REAL. Sassy Cas smiles. “Three days ago you thought there was no such thing as me.” 

Cas tells Dean that Heaven isn’t infinite. Angels have died in the battle so far, and more may be at risk. (Excuse me while I weep for the next twelve seasons. There have been 0 days since the last angel mishap.)

“You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around?” Cas asks, telegraphing his series story arc. “You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in.” Cas flaps out.

Dean wakes up for realsies. WAS IT ALL A DREAM? He asks Sam if he believes in the Devil…

You Should Show Me Some Quotes:

All I know is I was not groped by an angel

If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?

When have I ever forgotten the pie?

Where’s the pie?

I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos -- you know, Michael Landon. Not dicks

 Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!