When reading Teen Titans (2016) issue 19, it came to me that the idea of Damian having an underground bunker their foes are imprisoned and tortured could work. Hear me out on this one! It isn’t the idea that places Damian OOC, but the execution of the idea.

What if instead of Damian having this underground bunker he is keeping from the Teen Titans, if instead he shows the Teen Titans this hidden bunker and EVERYONE decides together to use it for the purpose of imprisoning their foes? This would be the consequence of Damian choosing members that are former foes wishing to redeem themselves. By surrounding himself with Titans who are all former villains, he is choosing members with weak morals. As a result, Damian’s own morals begin to deteriorate, being his team are not condemning any inner conflicts he struggles with.

As a result, over time Damian gets to a point where he justifies brainwashing his prisoners and even killing Brother Blood. Not to cover his tracks but to protect his team. Also, it isn’t just Damian alone. His team is also involved with the brainwashing and torture, including the plan and action to kill Brother Blood (in other words, Damian wasn’t alone and some of this wasn’t his idea. He and some others also begin questioning their actions, especially Wallace who freaks out over killing Brother Blood).

Afterward, Batman, Green Arrow and Flash decide to dismantle the Teen Titans, realizing that the kids are deteriorating Robin, Red Arrow and Kid Flash (once again, it isn’t just Damian and nobody blames him alone or any particular person. In fact, since Damian and Wallace are the youngest, they assume they are gaining bad influence from the older members, including Red Arrow). However, Jon pleads with them to let him speak with the Titans. Batman gives Jon 24 hours.

Jon speaks with Damian in private and there is a fight (verbal), but Damian realizes after that he and the Teen Titans have gone too far as soon as Jon mentions the brainwashing and killing Brother Blood. Jon tells Damian that he knows he’s not a bad person, but as a friend is concerned that he’s going to do something he and his team will regret if someone doesn’t speak up. Damian admits he didn’t feel right about the brainwashing or killing Brother Blood. While he was alright with locking their foes up, containing the villains became harder than he thought and thinks now this was a bad idea from the start.

He speaks with his team and decides to turn the prisoners they’ve kept to the police and blow it up. Damian tells his team they are going too far and should not be in the position of deciding law and order or life and death. Until they are in those positions, they need to round up villains and let the police handle them, even if their methods aren’t perfect. Damian even offers the option to send these villains to the League of Shadows, JLA or Outlaws to handle them.

This creates a split between those in support of Damian’s idea and those against it. Kid Flash, Red Arrow and Jinn support Damian’s idea and agree they’ve gone too far and never felt right in their actions, while the rest think doing so will only lead to their escape. Jon stands between them to prevent a fight among the team and Damian makes the hard decision to send their imprisoned foes and the opposing team members to the Outlaws.

Red Hood agrees to take in the new recruits and complimenting Damian’s bravery in letting some team members go, knowing how hard it is to say goodbye to the team you’ve grown with. This would reference Red Hood’s old team. It’s a sad moment, but this results in Damian introducing two new members: Superboy (Jon) and Nobody (Maya). Damian chooses them since Jon had saved Damian from making the biggest mistake of his life and Maya because she insists to look after her little brother. Even though the Teen Titans have blood on their hands, Damian encourages his new team to never forget what they did and learn from it. It ends with the bunker blowing up and Batman, Green Arrow and Flash telling their partners that they’re proud of them and glad to see them back on the right track.

Instead of destroying Damian’s character, it would explore more of it by tackling how easy it can be to fall into past sins through peer pressure. This changes from Damian choosing to be a little psychopath to a kid that can be easily influenced by the wrong people if he believes they are good. It also would be the two Teen Titans that left in the end that had come up with the ideas of using the underground bunker as a prison, torturing the prisoners and killing Brother Blood with the brainwashing technique being the only thing that was Damian’s idea to protect his team. Damian can even still be the one to make the final kill on Brother Blood so the rest of his team wouldn’t have blood on their hands while giving comfort to Wallace and perhaps have a deep conversation with Red Arrow or Jinn questioning if what they’re doing is right.

I realized I made some notes on how different characters fight in mob psycho, and I never posted them. here you guys go, for any reference needs

Mob: mostly simple attacks, not very showy, just waves his hand and uses telekinesis/exorcizes something, doesn’t move around much. As ???%, much more destructive, psychic force seems to just emanate off of him and destroy everything

Teru: VERY mobile, throws himself around with telekinesis, puts his whole body into the attacks and tends to use moves from normal fights (punches, slaps, kicks, etc). Utilizes a variety of psychic techniques with flexibility, very creative. Piss stance, necktie sword. Much more flashy than Mob

Ritsu: uses powers to throw people/things around. While Mob and Teru attack with just psychic blasts, Ritsu tends to use his powers to grab other things as an attack (grabbing the delinquents and throwing them against each other, throwing the Claw guards against the wall, picking up cars to sandwich Shimazaki between them). Uses his environment creatively (fire extinguisher smoke screen against Shimazaki). More flashy than Mob, but not as mobile as Teru. Hand gestures for Drama

Shou: sneaky + speed + bomb!! Tries to be as evasive as possible using invisibility/speed (probably telekinetically enhanced?) to hit from behind, using either telekinetic force (his stomp in his introduction, the shockwave hit on ???%) or his charge bomb attack. Potentially uses speed/evasive moves as defense instead of the barriers we see most everyone else use

Serizawa: likes to channel his powers into an object (umbrella, business cards). Uses that object as a shield, sword, or something to blast psychic powers out of. Not very mobile in season two, moves around much more in the yokai fight. Not particularly flashy, but looks cool regardless

Reigen: deception/surprise!!! Either tricks people into thinking he’s going to do something else and then attacking, or just outright taking them by surprise and attacking before they know what’s going on. Usually doesn’t have a follow-up move, just does the one attack and hopes for the best. Prefers to bluff his way through a situation

tbh I find posts that describe Laois' influence on Falin's life as a 'burden' or something she was forced into pretty patronizing of Falin and ignorant of her own motivations and growth as a character. And it also comes across as blaming Laios for the way she grew up, when I don't think either of them had that much agency in their lives and it also suggests an intentionality that we can be pretty sure was not there.

Look, I might not be a fan of Tigerheartstar but considering RiverClan's crisis literally led to the death of his kid I think he has every reason to want to intervene.

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I don’t know if this has been asked before, but what was the relationships between the apprentices when they were kits?

White, Puddle, and Hawk were raised side-by-side from birth, and have a sort of pseudo-sibling relationship because of that! Hawk and Puddle are a bit older than White, and they were both very annoying about this fact. When Mudkit was introduced to the nursery, Whitekit was relieved to no longer be the baby of the group.

Mudkit was introduced to the nursery when he was only a little over a month old, with the rest of the kits a smidge older by a few weeks. At this point, the others are old enough to understand "stranger?? in MY nursery??" and they pick up on the fact that the adults around this newcomer are... uncomfortable.

They start off as a mix of curious and cautious around Mudkit, and are gently discouraged from interacting too closely with him (which was a mix of discomfort with their kits around a outsider kit, and a worry for their health; in the beginning, Mudkit was fighting off a bout of weakness/sickness from traveling through the snow)

In the end, Whitekit, Puddlekit, and Hawkkit pick up on the behavior of the surrounding adults and take cues from them; they end up largely ignoring Mudkit, not out of any malice or discomfort of their own, but because it's what the adults around them are doing.

i just know this hurt Eunyung more than we're led to believe. he was absolutely convinced he was right seeing how quickly he agreed to the bet. him being wrong about a person's true intentions/ulterior motives must've stung bc 1) he's typically good at reading people so this is him basically failing at one of the 'few good skills' he has and 2) bc Haejoon's uncle being a decent upstanding person proves that good people do exist, Eunyung just never had the privilege of meeting them.

Lore Dump: Current State of Affairs

Note: The following is a discussion on this blog's main verse and what one could expect when doing crossover threads. As the original SR series is effectively dead in the ground, and as someone who wasn't the biggest fan of how it ended, I am basing this entirely off of my own ideas regarding canon, and my revised version of the third game. Please note that at this point in time, I do not have a post that details just what exactly I've done to rework the events of the third game. So until such a post is made, feel free to send me questions regarding just about anything; from plot points, characters, the setting, and so on. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy what's spoken about here.

Something that I've always been fascinated by were the long-lasting consequences of what the Saints had done during the gang war in Steelport. Because let's be real here; the fact that a street gang was able to completely wipe out a large scale criminal organization, whose power and connections were on a global scale, and win against a paramilitary task force that was under the control and supervision of the US government, which was more than likely really fucking embarrassing for them, is monumental.

And when I say monumental, I mean do you know how fucking insane that is? Like, do you know how that's going to affect the world? I would not put it past any kind of governing body to get a wee bit paranoid over this shit. "Well, if the Saints were able to hold their own against the fucking US military, what does that tell every other criminal organization across the globe?". That's horrifying for people in high positions of power! It sets an example. Plants an idea.

So, I can see them trying to deal with this in a number of ways; either they start dumping all their money into law enforcement in order to counteract organized crime, stay vigilant and play by ear, hire outside forces (I like to consider the Masako and STAG as the catalyst for PMC's becoming much more prevalent in this world). Or, special bonus crime answer, you work with OTHER criminal organizations in order to take out what you consider a huge threat. No matter what choice is made, the end result is all of them coming off as if they're panicking like crazy.

Something to consider as well is the public's perception towards what transpired in Steelport, and the way everything was handled. While the Saints' general popularity may have waned somewhat, there's definitely people out there coming to their defense. Or, at the very least, arguing in their favor. They could be seen as arguably better than a lot of the gangs they've gone up against (something that is hinted at in NPC dialogue during the second game), and they did prevent an entire city from being demolished because the US left a dude in charge who would do absolutely anything in his power to get the job done. So, like, hmm, maybe funny purple gang is a necessary evil?

But on the contrary we have the obvious. "How can you defend a bunch of criminals? Maybe things wouldn't have escalated this badly if they weren't around. These people are scumbags! Worst of the worst! And their leader is a godforsaken psychopath (sociopath, maniac, nutcase, whatever you feel like blurting out that day)". None of it is particularly surprising. Most folk don't really like the idea of letting a gang exist, no matter what sort of perceived "good" they might have done for the community. These are also the same kind of people who may even support whatever kind of law or program may be used in order to strike back against organized crime, regardless of how it may impede upon their life or the lives of other people.

"And what about the criminal underworld? Wouldn't this affect them too? Oh, please tell me more, Andre! You're very smart and creative." Ha ha! Why thank you, Hypothetical Person. But, yes, the criminal underworld will absolutely be affected. I mean, put yourself in the position of a gang leader; how would you personally feel seeing the Saints accomplish such an incredible feat? Either you're gonna try gunning for their leader's head, find yourself inspired enough to try and be just a little bit bolder, recognize the potential threat they are to your empire, or be a real stupid motherfucker and continue to underestimate them. It's highly dependent on the gang itself and the kind of person leading them.

The Saints are in a very interesting position currently. They have cemented themselves as a criminal organization to keep an eye on. A gang that has the potential to put themselves in the history books depending on what choices they make. And knowing how ruthlessly ambitious The Boss happens to be, it is almost guaranteed that the Saints will be doing whatever possible in order to expand this empire of theirs, no matter who might stand in their way.

It is the dawn of a new era within this world, and the 3rd Street Saints are carving their path to greatness.

I’m going to lose my mind oh my god I am so scared for this quincenera wtf

do you think dirks apartment would be bare or cluttered

This ask reminds me of the tags on this post specifically because... so true. not enough people are brave enough to make him as weird and gross as he is.

I mean, looking at his actual room is like...

it's not "that bad". right. this is a teenager's room. but it's noticably a little messy? and of course a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that he wasn't raised by anybody and is therefore very pragmatic about his environment (e.g., why would I make the bed if I'm just going to mess it back up later?) (IMO a lot of this could be said for Roxy as well, like... her room is equally as cluttered...these kids have no PARENTS to come in and tell them to clean up after themselves).

Overall I think he would be a clean person & very meticulous in, like, only certain respects... he's the type to have a very high tolerance to very certain types of messes. his "organized chaos" except it's even weirder than the generally understood concept of that. certain types of actual garbage do not phase him while others he needs to get rid of immediately and it doesn't make sense to anybody but him. I'd imagine it's largely a sensory experience for him, or at least that would be his basis for what bothers him and what doesn't.. it isn't like he's lazy or idle or anything liek that, he's just got a specific vision of what his environment does and doesn't benefit from.

I imagine he categorizes taking care of himself like this too but with the added concern of like...if for some reason he might be seen or otherwise encountered by someone meaningful to him, that would be a concern. i think any iteration of him has this feeling of pretending to be human in one way or another, somehow in my mind that is very linked to the physical practices of personal grooming and presentation.

Yall ever look back at posts you made over 5 years ago and cringe and shrivel up like a raisin

((All signs point to Kariom being a lot like Serban in his youth. Was he a stern kid? Yes. Grumpy? Yes. But he also had fun and was mischievous. He made pinwheels, he wanted to fly kites, he drew and colored in one of Flynn's gardening books (he drew constellations ofc but no doubt other things too) he ate so many cattails by the lake he almost choked to death, he ran around and got into trouble, he tried to make friends, and so on.

It's important to remember that he was a kid and he wasn't always so obsessively driven by his duty---and I mean driven to the point of where he, as an adult, considers all of that stuff as stupid, inconsequential, etc, and prefers not to think on it, driven to the point of self degradation (whether he acknowledges it or not and let's face it; he doesn't), etc, etc---such a severe reaction has to have a cause. Something changed him, something shifted his focus and it was definitely something huge. I imagine it's in part due to whatever happened to the Solomonari and his involvement on top of a variety of other things that built up over time until he could hold nothing else.))

staff is really proving they’re no different than the Supreme Court justices who acted like their hands were tied when people were protesting the recent rulings regarding abortion rights, but the moment people brought the protests to their homes they passed a ruling to protect themselves faster than they ever acted like was possible. It’s the same situation here. People have been calling for staff to handle harassment and horrible bigotry both within their staff and on their site for YEARS, but staff has played at being incompetent and acted like their hands were tied, up until the moment someone rightfully calls out a tumblr staff member for supporting racist antisemitic nationalists and racist antisemitic terfs, and pointing out some VERY suspect actions and art they made PUBLIC to be reacted to, and they shut down the blog and the post faster than they’ve ever responded to reports of death threats and racism. And suddenly they care about harassment, and frantically scrub away any evidence people could have to point out their bigotry. They KNOW it’s bad too, considering how quickly they’ve tried to wipe out their shit stains to prevent people from seeing their dirty asses exposed. It is truly so very disgusting and pathetic. They’re behaving like a high school discord clique complete with the bias towards banning for anyone who isn’t tolerant of the “mods” (in this case the tumblr staff) or those they are working with, instead of acting like goddamn mature adults in a professional setting.

do you think Falin's chimerism would affect her lifespan and behaviors? or just her body? maybe she can make more animalistic noises or has vague dragon-like instincts?

that’s a really good question! I think we could probably figure this out by taking a look at what we know about Falin, what we know about red dragons, whether these things would apply to Falin, and go from there.

The obvious external changes Falin has are: her eyes, her teeth, and her feathers.

It’s hard to pin down what Falin is like! Throughout the duration of the manga, she wasn’t really a character so much as a plot device. We have almost nothing told from her point of view, and the majority of her unbiased (as in, we’re seeing her through a neutral lens and not another character’s perception of her) characterization is from the post-canon omake.

Even Falin believes that her wanderlust might come from her dragon side, but she's not sure. Personally, I think it’d make a lot of sense if it kind of does, in the sense that she has 20/20 vision now, haha! For most of her life, she could probably only see clearly within a relatively small sphere surrounding her, and now she can see everything. She can look up and around freely in a way she couldn’t before. Fuck man, if I had magic lasik I’d probably go out more too.

Some other quirks that are really unclear whether it’s typical for Falin or chimera-influenced:

she enters rooms through windows, sometimes. And given the leaves in her hair, I think it’s reasonable to assume this is not the first floor 💀 But who knows! Maybe that’s not new for Falin.

She points out that Laios’s scent could deter monsters. Maybe she has enhanced smell. But again, it isn’t unreasonable to think this is something she would have said before. (I think even Chilchuck and Izutsumi, whose senses of smell are enhanced, can’t identify scents well. Kuro, however, can.)

VIOLENCE! But again, we’ve seen her beat shit with her staff before, and she also used to wield a flail. It IS a trait for red dragons to fight any large threat, so if anything, she’s got even better monster fighting instincts than before. I don't think this would carry over to people. Falin has always been better with people, and I'm personally not a fan of seeing her depicted as territorial or possessive. Marcille is already the possessive one, and didn't need dragon blood to be like that.

Ultimately, I don't think her dragon traits extend much farther beyond this. Especially when you consider How Little the dragon is represented as in her conscience.

it's not like it's a 50/50 split. She's like a person with a dragon ratatouille. I don't think she'd be able to make dragon noises. I don't think her body is built for that. I know there's like, a set list of tropey characteristics that are given to almost every non-human character in fiction. and sure that's FINE but they tend not to be especially personalized to the character, and tend to just be an excuse to write them OOC. Like, sure, dragons may have instincts regarding sleep habits, hunting, courting, raising young, etc etc, but so do humans! And we don't compulsively act on every instinctual whim we have. I don't see why it'd be any harder for her new dragon instincts.

If anything, I think she'd feel more affected by the fact that she has part of the demon in her.

I don't think Falin's in any sort of trouble. All the demon was was a way to communicate with people. Here, it's representing Falin's tether to the infinite realm, to mana itself. The winged lion no longer has the desire to consume anymore because, yknow, Laios has that now. This is very likely why she no longer needs to chant to cast magic.

But what else does this mean for her? She already had unusually high reserves of mana + an innate connection with spirits, but is her mana essentially limitless now? How would that affect her lifespan? I'm leaning towards, it wouldn't really?? But is she immune to mana sickness now? Is it more like her magic is just sort of amplified like it would be in a dungeon?

We can infer that having more mana doesn't increase your lifespan, because-- while elves and gnomes have both naturally high levels of mana and longer lifespans-- dwarves live longer but have lowest levels of mana of all.

So to answer your question! Maybe a little bit?? But I don't think she'd change a whole lot.

Echo || wood elf, way of shadow monk, lawful neutral (not that you'd know it from meeting them)

Ok so I watched the interview with Stephen Rooney, Astarion's writer, and here are some highlights. (I'm an aspiring writer and current game design student who wants to write for games so I'm sorry if some of these insights aren't as interesting to you as they are to me <3)

He calls Astarion his "horrible little vampire boy"

He loves seeing the fandom around Astarion<3

He did write other characters in the game, but mostly NPCs surrounding Astarion or his storyline, so it mostly revolved around Astarion

Astarion is not as connected to other companions/Origins as, for example, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, or Wyll and Karlach are to each other, but he is still reactive to their stories, even if it's just to stand off to the side and laugh when something terrible happens

He had a clear sense of where Astarion's story would start and end, but it got "muddy in the middle", but those are also moments where the best ideas come from

They write from the general idea that every character has one "good" and one "evil" ending, in order to give the player choice. RIP Ascendant apologists :(

According to Stephen, two of the most important aspects of Astarion's character (to keep consistent when bringing him to Idle Champions, at least) is that he enjoys violence, but is also fun about it

"He has a certain appreciation for violence, I guess? A bit of a murdery streak. [...] He's a vampire, he's all about blood, and he's all about, kind of, those darker sides of humanity. [..] But at the same time, he is ... He is really fun, he's really fun to write, he's really fun to have in your party, and it's very important for me that that is also represented."

"He's gonna stab you, but will have a smile on his face as he does it? I mean, I dunno. That's kind of him in a nutshell."

Larian would not have allowed for Astarion to be a typical brooding Dracula type, and there were scenes that were shot down for not being original enough

The main thing about Astarion was trying to get a "sense of fun." It would be easy to write a character that was very unlikable, and they absolutely did not want to do that

Rooney says Astarion is consistently terrible throughout the game and awful in a whole lot of ways, but he also needed to be charming enough that you could tolerate his presence and wanted him around

Rooney also had a lot of input on Astarion's stats (meaning the 10 Charisma is probalby 100% intentional)

He also had input on how certain lines should be delivered, even though the writers didn't directly work with voice actors

The way Astarion moves and poses is "all Neil"

Apparently, Neil Newbon worked on the character for years and Rooney did not speak to him once, though his voice work did influence how Astarion's lines were written and it became a "feedback loop" (Possible context for "ONLY SLIGHTLY, NEIL")

There were no points where a line delivery drastically changed Astarion's writing; rather it was a constant, slow evolution

However, there was one very spoilery moment where Neil gave such emotion to some "basic" lines that it fundamentally changed the scene (WHAT IS IT OMG)

It's difficult to balance approval, as you don't want to straight up write a monster. Every character needs to have some humanity in them. So if it comes to leaving the party, it needed to be the result of something central to said character. They wanted to be mindful of situations that would cause actual rifts between characters. (I assume this is why most generic disapprovals/approvals are +/- 1 or 2, while character-related ones give +/-5 or more)

However, as they don't write straight up horrible people/monsters, it doesn't come up as often as one might think.

The interviewer makes a point about how characters like Astarion and Lae'zel are good examples of how to play "evil" characters, as they are maybe not the best people but are still eager and willing to stick around the other party members

They worked to make sure the characters would work as a group, no matter the configuration of the group. The characters needed to be on the same path, even if they don't always agree or walk that path the same way.

Stephen Rooney is very proud of the "climactic" scene of Astarion's story. (AS HE SHOULD BE.) He even had to step away from the computer and have an emotional moment. Me too, man.

He's also "extremely pleased" that there's a point where you can punch Astarion in the face. "Actually, that one might be my favorite part" A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!!

Stephen Rooney's tip on what specific thing you should try out with Astarion: When he's trying to get a "sneaky nibble" at night, you should "probably" let him bite you. Way ahead of you there, sir.

No discussion about Astarion's romance unfortunately, but that's that!

If a war between Iran and Israel really will emerge it will not just be Iranians who will suffer, but every country in the region will be somewhat involved, which includes some nations that are already declared as one of the poorest, most war-torn and starved nations in the world. All of whom all be completely unprotected while Israel wreak havoc on their citizens (excluding those who live in puppet-states aligned with the US) with full-support and funding from the US and other Western superpowers to ensure that no matter happens, their influence and interests in the Middle East will not be lost and they'e willing to sacrifice the lives of as many non-Israeli civilians as they want to in order to achieve their goal.

This is one of the reasons they implanted this cancerous tumor called Israel in our region, to act as military base that cause instability and state-sponsored terrorism in the area so that it would be easier for them to exploit these failed-states that surround it and the best part is? All they have to do to maintain this military base is give them a couple billions and some weapons yearly so that those blood-lust Zionist settlers can do all the dirty work for them, that's NOTHING compared to the costs and casualties of other wars that had the US be directly involved in like Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan (off the record; but that's exactly why they're using Saudi Arabia to indirectly destroy Yemen, they learned their lesson, its always better to use a proxy.)

If a war breaks out? The US will not be in any real danger, because they're half-way across the world and all the fighting will be in West Asia and North Africa, far away from them. No American building is in danger of being destroyed, no American city is under the threat of being bombed, the average American citizen will not be in any danger and can just continue living their life like normal, hence why they're always the first ones to start making those WW3 memes, because they're not the ones in danger of dying.

This is precisely why the US's imperialism in the Middle East hasn't slowed down in decades, because they do not suffer any negative consequences from it. All the destruction and casualties they cause is inflicted solely on the native people and the native people only, for the US, they only have things to gain from these wars, whether it was stolen resources or more instability that will further their control and influence in the area.

The US, like every single oppressive empire in history, will not suddenly grow a conscious over-night and immediately halt all their wrongdoings simply because they don't want the innocent people in other countries to suffer anymore. The only way to stop their imperialism is to have them believe that its not worth it anymore, to have the cons of being involved in our region out-weight the pros.

Because at the moment if the only cons here are "innocent Muslims will die"? Then those motherfucking colonizers will NOT stop, they will only stop once it reaches a point where its also the colonizers who are dying alongside the native population and the first step for that to happen is to dismantle this giant settler-colony built square in the middle of our region and forcing these Western Superpowers to choose between continuously spending trillions of dollars to maintain their interests directly or to fucking leave us alone already and save those trillions for something else.