I always imagined Maikoās reconciliation wouldnāt start with a grand confession or a dramatic kiss. It would start with small things. Shared conversations after long days. Seeking each other out without thinking about it. Trusting each other with worries they would tell no one else.
At some point, they would realize that they had quietly become a significant part of each other's lives again. Mai would already know when Zuko was carrying too much on his shoulders. Zuko would already know when something was bothering Mai despite her attempts to hide it. Itās not like they would actively try to get back together (or okay, maybe they would semi-consciously yearn for each other lol), but it would simply happen through countless small choices.
The realization would come later. Perhaps when someone casually referred to them as a couple, and neither of them immediately corrected it because they had already accepted it privately. Because somewhere along the way, they had stopped acting like exes and started acting like partners again. Their reconciliation is not a sudden decision but the natural result of months of friendship, teamwork and mutual support. By the time they officially reunite, it feels less like starting over and more like finally allowing their love to thrive again.
It will feel like theyāve finally come home to each other ā¤ļø
Rewatching Book 3 of ATLA and cringing at how dumb the Iroh fanservice plot twists are:
"Iroh lied about killing the last dragon before Zuko was born because he wanted to protect them! They actually deemed him pure of heart and worthy to learn the truest form of firebendingš„°" .......... even though he continued to be a violent general in an evil genocidal empire long after that...? I'm questioning the dragons' wisdom now.
"Actually Iroh and all the other old guys in the show are senior members of a super secret society working for the good of the world!!" ..... even though one of them flat out refused to teach the Avatar waterbending for misogynistic reasons, another refused to teach the Avatar firebending for personal reasons, and Iroh was an evil war general barely 6 years ago so I suppose he's only a recent member?
I love AtLA as much as anyone, but yeah it is, uh. Pretty abundantly clear that the White Lotus didn't exist in the writers' room until at least season two, and they didn't have a full idea of its role in the narrative probably until season three. The timeline on Iroh "Did A War Against All The Rest Of You" Azulonson joining and being trusted so high in the membership is also. Very questionable.
Which is all to say I think it would be perfect if we got to the season three end game and realized Iroh was actually still an errand boy initiate in the White Lotus. And Piandao pulls aside the main tent flap to reveal our Supreme Grand Lotus:
Gran-Gran
Canonically traveled the world without Committing A War, thus reasonably having met and networked with most of these other people in a positive way? Check
Saw the Avatar and told her only grandkids to go help that kid ASAP, don't worry Gran-Gran's just going to stay riiiiiight here while you're gone and definitely not relive the excitements of her youth? Check
Would recontextualize Pakku's constant sour grapes face (and his reaction to seeing Katara's necklace) to "my ex left me and now she's my superior, if I don't train her grandkid she will mobilize a global movement to Kick My Ass"? CHECK
You are Iroh, you finally land a job in your new field. This is the first time in your life youāve ever had to work your way up. This time, this time you will succeed or fail entirely on your own. No weight of expectation bears down from your father, no brother waiting in the wings, salivating for you to slip up. No legions of men looking to you with trust and hope and faith shining in their eyes. You feelā¦ free, hopeful, ready.
Then your kid assaults your new boss.
Or not really your boss, more like your bossās bossās boss.
And it turns out everything is really really hard when everyone around you isnāt trying to curry your favor or affirm your ideas. Outside of the fire nation people donāt just nod and go along with you. They ask follow-up questions and instead of adopting your plans and automatically beginning to work on adapting and generating solutions they instead point out flaws that you hadnāt considered. Nobody is troubleshooting for you, nobody stands ready to spin anything that goes wrong in a favorable light. You are repeatedly written off at best and criticized at worst.
Turns out you kinda suck at this new thing youāre trying, and while itās a novel experience you do kind of want to ask Agni why you had to be so GOOD at destroying the world and so BAD at uniting it. Why will nation and sons alike follow you so readily towards certain death, but not turn back with you towards peace and life? Were you ever the leader you imagined yourself to be or have you always been a fool riding a mighty riptide and believing yourself the fastest swimmer.
Iāve always thought a lot of this was odd. But itās also hilarious to me that literally in the last chapter I posted I made Kanna a White Lotus member after a conversation with @atlaculture where we talked about how Kanna totally was a White Lotus member and Pakku got in because they mistakenly believed he had Kannaās approval. (Pakku originally made Kannaās necklace so he might have carved something else with the symbol leading to the confusion.) Plus, Kanna sending her grandkids off knowing that when people see the necklace they know they had better help or else. Itās a tile that is not a tile!
celestia is such a funny character like she's constantly manipulating twilight and friends to do shit instead of just asking and you could arguably frame that as being bc she's a "god" and pushing fate to her design or whatever, except that she engages with the group like a normal and relatable person, which makes it more like villainous machinations, except 90% of this manipulation goes towards things like "I don't want my party to be boring shit again. put my little country girl blorbos in there with zero prep so they fuck it up bad"
Celestia instantly makes more sense as a character when you ignore the princess stuff and remember that she's a 1000+ years old wizard. Of course she does manipulative trickster stuff to teach moral lessons and/or cause chaos to amuse herself, that's classic wizard behavior. Of course sometimes she's actually socially awkward and bad at personal relationships and has bad ideas that she thought were good that result in her eating shit embarrassing style, that's classic wizard behavior. Of course she lets the aristocrats and nobles run around being assholes she's still running on wizard advisor programming, she's basically trying to merlin the entire upper class of equestria instead of just a king and some knights. "Yeah uuhhh we'll release the incarnation of chaos himself from his ancient prison because we think this shy girl can be friends with him", terrible plan if you're thinking like a ruler, amazing plan if you're thinking like a wizard. Just look at Canterlot 'Castle' for five seconds and ask yourself if that's in any way a castle. No. Wizard tower, yes. Wizard.
Planthopper Parasite Moths: the caterpillars of this family are parasites that attach themselves to the bodies of other insects and then gradually feed on the fluids within the host's abdomen
Above: the larval form of Fulgoraecia exigua
Caterpillars of the family Epipyropidae, commonly known as planthopper parasite moths, are ectoparasites that feed on the haemolymph (i.e. "blood") of planthoppers and cicadas. This family contains at least 40 described species, all of which are parasites or parasitoids.
Above: planthopper parasite caterpillars tucked beneath the wings of their hosts
This is one of the few known examples of a caterpillar that actually engages in parasitic, carnivorous and/or predatory behavior.
Above: Fulgoraecia exigua
The caterpillar has hooked claws that allow it to cling to the host's body; it uses its mandibles to penetrate the cuticle around the abdomen, then inserts a proboscis-like structure into the planthopper's body and begins to feed on the fluids within.
Each caterpillar spends about 4-6 weeks feeding on its host, with its body often tucked beneath the larger insect's wings.
Above: a Fulgoraecia exigua caterpillar can be seen feeding beneath the wings of this planthopper
Young planthopper nymphs that are parasitized by these caterpillars rarely survive the process. The survival rate for older nymphs and adult hemipterans is also quite low.
Above: the photo at the top shows an Epipomponia nawai caterpillar feeding on a cicada, while the photo on the bottom shows Fulgoraecia exigua feeding on a leafhopper
Planthopper parasite caterpillars are often tiny, with their bodies measuring just 3-7mm long, and they're covered in waxy white filaments that make them look like little cottonballs. These features seem to mimic the "fluffy" appearance of many fulgoroid planthopper nymphs, which may enable the caterpillar to sneak up on its host.
Above: planthopper parasite caterpillars
When the caterpillar reaches maturity, it finally detaches from its host and then uses a thin strand of silk to abseil down to a leaf or a branch, where it can spin a cocoon around its body and enter pupation.
Above: the cocoons of Fulgoraecia exigua
The caterpillars of this family create very distinctive cocoons. As delicate layers of silk are folded together around the pupal case, they often form ridges, cone-like structures, or wider, flatter folds that look almost like rose petals.
Above: a cocoon made by an unidentified moth from family Epipyropidae
The fully-developed moth may emerge weeks or even months later, depending on the species. The adults of this family typically have a blackish-gray appearance.
Above: the adult form of Epipomponia nawai
Other examples of predatory, carnivorous and/or parasitic moths can be found in my earlier post about meat-eating caterpillars.
Sources & More Info:
Journal of the Lepidopterist's Society: Predatory and Parasitic Lepidoptera
The Lepidoptera: Form, Function, and Diversity: Epipyropidae
Moths of North Carolina: Fulgoraecia exigua
Bug Guide: Family Epipyropidae
Bombay Natural History Society: The Biology and Morphology of Epipyrops eurybrachydis
Egyptian Journal of Biological Pest Control: Parasitism by Fulgoraecia melanoleuca
Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology: Behavioural and Phylogeographic Observations on Epipomponia nawai
Species Connect: Carnivorous Butterflies and Moths
I refuse to let DC reboot their way out of a warped timeline. No explaining it away, lean into it.
Tim drake is a 90s kid. He is seventeen, he grew up alongside computers and listens to terrible rock rap. Jason, one year older than him, is from the 80s and the height of the AIDs epidemic. Dick, maybe six years older than Jason, is from the 40s. Babs, five years older than dick, is from the 50s. The year is 2025. Bruce Wayne has just turned 40.
Interviewer, catching Damian in costume: Robin! Can you explain the process of picking up Robin or passing on the mantle?
Damian, mildly annoyed at Bruce at the moment: It's quite simple. Batmam steals young children from their bed, usually nine or ten or so. Then he takes you to his lair and give you a deal.
Damian: If you can beat him in a game of your choosing, he will train you to be Robin. If you lose, you are eaten. I beat him in a classic fencing game. He's quite good with swords, but he wasn't very good with the sport itself.
Tim, standing next to him: Yeah, I beat him at a memory card game. I like totally cheated, but I'm too old for him to eat now, so ot doesn't matter.
Damian, nodding: Yes. The worst part of the job is disposing of failed Robins bones. He usually sucks them clean and leaves them all over the floor.
Tim: Yeah, its messy. But after you hit, like 15 he stops trying to eat you, so that's cool.
Damian: I have not yet reached 15. I'm still in danger. If you have more questions, ask Nightwing, as he was the first to avoid being eaten.
-
Same interviewer, at a different date: Mr. Nightwing. Is it true Batman tries to eat potential Robins?
Dick, who has no idea what she's taking about: Yeah, it's really scary. His jaw unhinges like a snake.
i love that bruce is infinitely charmed by tim not just when he notices something integral or finally masters a skill but also even when tim is like. going to extreme lengths to hide something genuinely insane that he has been told explicitly not to do. clark is listening to bruce talk about his week like oh wow tim did that? how long is he grounded for? and bruce is like what do you mean grounded why would he ground him he's so proud of his clever little lad for hiding his expert embezzlement did you know his little lad is so good at evading reckless endangerment charges and committing bank fraud and he got an a on his science test too āŗļøāŗļøāŗļø
he would feel this exact way about dick except dick hides every single thing from bruce as a matter of principle so the novelty wore off about eight years ago and anyway bruce expects instant perfect competence from dick as a baseline so dick managing to do something impossible is just another tuesday
The data are severely confounded by the fact that most people responding to the survey were born between 1991 and 2005. If we recast the data to show the proportions in each age group, itās much less dramatic:
However, itās still clear that there are too many people under the age of 20 who have not yet watched Phineas and Ferb.
I wish Iād seen this poll while it was still active.
Bruce never engaged hitmen to re-enact his kidsā deepest trauma in front of them and then beat them up while they were busy having a flashback.
Bruce never punished his kids by confiscating every resource for their favourite hobby and requiring them to earn it back bit by bit over months of good behaviour.
Bruce never told his kids their parents wouldnāt be proud of them.
Bruce never let his kids believe they werenāt real people.
For the anon asking about Jason's memorial case and Alfred's degree of power over Bruce!! I recommend this post about the history of the memorial case as how it came to be really isn't as clear cut as all that.
Alfred meanwhile can do... honestly nearly anything he wants. The worst thing Bruce could theoretically do is fire him, but that's virtually never happened. Meanwhile Alfred has threatened to leave if Bruce does something he truly doesn't like many a time. Alfred frequently just does things and makes very personal commentary on Bruce's life and Bruce accepts this, but generally if Bruce does that in turn Alfred will distance himself by reminding him it's inappropriate as his employer and that he could just leave. Being that Bruce is so terrified of abandonment Alfred can essentially get away with murder - as evidenced by LotDK #1, which I recently reblogged panels from. Alfred can quite literally have Bruce beaten within an inch of his life in a reenactment of the night his parents died and Bruce will just go of course Alfred thank you.
So you're a go to source for all things Dick&Tim bros and you tend to write primarily from Dick's POV. So, odd question, but if you were to summarize their relationship from his POV in FIVE panels which panels would you pick? Keeping in mind that one specific aspect of their relationship that you love needs to be clearly represented by each panel (loyalty, trust etc). I hope this is a fun challenge and not an annoying question so if you don't want to answer that's cool! Have a wonderful day!
No more talk. The same thoughts run through two minds... (SotB 29) / You're my equal. My closest ally. (RR 1) / I can't stop thinking how much I rely on him. (GoG 3)
25 Feelings Dick Has About Tim
This was such a kind ask & a cool challenge which I totally failed; here are TWENTY-five panels of Dick's POV on Tim sdfdsfds Look, I got carried away! Marcia and Cindy! The boys!!
OKAY SO BEFORE I GET TO THE PANELS A FEW NOTES:
WARNING THAT THERE ARE SOME NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN HERE because I love conflict but but but you gotta remember those are not the final word!! They are complicated people and sometimes they get mad at each other BUT ultimately their relationship is so hugely important in both their lives & they love each other and rely on each other so much -!!! <3
Also I have CONCLUDING THOUGHTS at the end about what Dick's POV leaves out (mostly: a lot of Dick defending & protecting & supporting Tim, which Dick does instinctively but isn't very self-aware about most of the time)
I have loosely organized my list into 5^5 format (5 categories with 5 examples each!), so if you want to skip to a relevant one, here are the categories!!
Below the cut:
I hate him and find him infuriating (#1-5)
On second thought, he's endearing & fun (#6-10)
Grief is complicated & he's all tangled up in mine (#11-15)
I love him & think highly of him (#16-20)
I rely on him & though it's hard for me, I trust him (#21-25)
I hate him and find him infuriating (#1 - 5)
1) He thinks heās so smart and can psychoanalyze me and Bruce, but he doesnāt know me at all, he should get lost (New Titans 61)
2) He thinks heās so smart and can psychoanalyze Bruce but he doesnāt know Bruce at all, he should get lost (Gotham Knights 26)
3) He is so nosy about stuff that is MY business (Robin 0)
4) He sounds like an insincere suck-up half the time... but okay, fine, if you push him he's got a sense of humor about it (New Titans 65)
5) I'm sure he's a better vigilante than me. It's my fault for being a failure, but I resent him anyway. (Nightwing 9 - Dick's having a nightmare)
On second thought, he's kinda endearing (#6-10)
6) He worries too much and gets anxious so easily,Ā but it makes him fun to tease (Robin 67)
7) I'm not that competitive - okay, so maybe I'm a little competitive, I gotta make sure he doesn't get a swelled head (Prodigal)
8) I'm supposed to be his favorite! It is not cool for him to be fanboying over my not-girlfriend's not-boyfriend!! (Birds of Prey 19)
9) We have fun together. I can kick back and relax when it's just the two of us. Plus I get to boss him around a bit. (Prodigal)
10) Heās always trying to reassure me, and I guess it's a little comforting, but also he doesnāt really get it. Or me. He makes excuses that he shouldn't, because he doesn't understand that I suck. (Nightwing 64)
Grief is complicated and he's all tangled up in mine (#11 - 15)
11) He reminds me of everything I try not to think about. Sometimes the memories are so strong it hurts to look at him. (Batman 441)
12) WHY IS HE BEING IMPOSSIBLE ALL OF A SUDDEN??? THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING (Nightwing 139)
13) We're the same. He says all the things I don't let myself think about. It's like arguing with myself. (Nightwing 139)
14) He thinks he gets to tell me what to do but he doesnāt, fuck him (Battle for the Cowl)
15) Life sucks, so what. I sucked it up so he should too (RR 1)
I love him and think highly of him (#16 - 20)
16) Heās the closest thing to a brother Iāll ever have.Ā If someone hurts him I will hurt them harder. (Nightwing 6)
17) I can't handle the idea of losing him. (Nightwing 97)
17) Heās so good and Iām not. I'm afraid Iām bad for him. (Nightwing 110)
18) Heās better than me, and itās kind of a relief because I know no matter what heāll be okay. (Gates of Gotham 3)
19) In my head heās the responsible one.Ā (Gotham Knights 10)
I rely on him, and though it's hard for me, I trust him (#20-25)
20) I know I have to trust him but I'm afraid he'll make the wrong choices and get hurt (Nightwing 139)
21) I'm sure I know what he should do because I see myself in him - not that I can take my own advice, but he should (Blackest Night 3)
22) I trust him.Ā When Iām losing my grip on things, he pulls me back. (Gotham Knights 10)
23) I want him to trust me (Red Robin 12)
24) He can tell when I'm lying. Sometimes he sees my weaknesses better than I wish he did. (Detective Comics 874)
25) Heās always there when I need him. (Teen Titans / Outsiders Secret Files)
Final rambling thoughts:
TIM: Uhh, okay, so I'm just skimming this list - do you really trust me? you're not just saying that? - but anyway, I'm confused because you left some stuff out? Like some stuff that's kinda important?
DICK: No? I think I got everything?
TIM (starts counting on his fingers): The time I was having a bad day but then I called you. The time I got captured by Two-Face but then you saved me. The time I fell off a train but then you saved me. The time I fell off a building but then you saved me. The time I fell off a different building -
DICK: I feel like you're trying to make some kind of point but I'm not sure what it could be.
SO THE THING IS, I put 25 panels in here and not a single one has Dick catching Tim when heās falling!!! But I think that's a central motif of their relationship from Timās POV, not Dickās. I love Dick, but in some ways I think he is spectacularly un-self-aware.
And I think he especially has a lot of blind spots about Tim. He kinda intermittently gets that Tim admires him, and he enjoys it in a playful I-get-to-boss-you-around way. But Dick tends to consistently underestimate all of his own good qualities & skills, and he meets Tim at a point in his life when he's especially down on himself & his abilities. And so he's unable to see his own influence on Tim, & therefore unable to fully understand a lot of Tim's priorities and loyalties and motivations, because you can't actually understand Tim without understanding Dick's impact on him. There's a fascinating moment in Bruce Wayne: Murderer when Dick's completely blindsided & upset to discover that Tim doesn't entirely trust Bruce, even though this has been a definitive fact of Tim's whole thing ever since he showed up with his Batman needs Robin theory, and Barbara has to actively remind Dick of the obvious-to-everyone-except-Dick fact that a lot of Tim's loyalty is to Dick, and Tim loves Bruce but feels free to be more wary of him. (And to give Bruce credit: this is not something he ever begrudges.) But anyway Babs points this out, and Dick manages to sorta process it for about five seconds, but he cannot actually accept it into his worldview so instead he discards it at the speed of light and goes off and has an argument with Tim instead sdfsfdsf
All of Dick's virtues - Dick's kindness at the circus and Dick's determination to fight through grief and Dick's rigid sense of morals and Dick's vigilante skills and every time Dick has ever backed Tim up or listened to him or protected him or saved him from something or just been casually kind to a stranger in Tim's presence etc etc etc - all these things loom really large in Tim's mental story of Who Dick Is, and What Dick And Tim's Relationship Is. Tim meets Dick before he meets Bruce, trusts Dick more than Bruce, aspires to be Robin instead of Batman. And so in Tim's default version of the story, Dick is the super-special and admirable hero and Tim is... nobody in particular, a tagalong outsider who's barely managing to be a hero, not part of Dick and Bruce's family and not part of their story, who, if he's VERY LUCKY and tries REALLY HARD, might be able to fight his way to proving himself and offering something to Dick that Dick will value, if Dick doesn't get fed up with him first.
But that's not Dick's version of the story!!!
Dick's version of the story is almost the exact opposite, a story where Dick's an outcast failure black sheep who's screwing up everything he tries, and meanwhile Tim is The Sudden New Perfect Robin Who's Better Than Me And Probably Bruce Loves Him More And Probably They Gossip About What A Loser I Am, mixed with a complicated edge of Tim Thinks He's So Smart But He Doesn't Know Me/Us At All. Dick gets much more attached to Tim over time, and Tim gets unnervingly better at the know-it-all psychoanalysis so then Dick gets to have complicated feelings about him being right instead of just annoyance at him for being wrong, plus Dick's relationship with Bruce improves a lot, so Tim stops feeling so threatening. But Dick never fundamentally changes his basic theory of their relationship in which Tim is highly impressive and capable, and Dick is not so much.
And so asking Dick about Tim is kinda like if you asked George Bailey to tell you about Harry Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life; like, you'll be there for five hours while he tells you how great Harry is, and how accomplished Harry is, and how he doesn't really get how or why Harry does the things he does, and maybe George does feel a little resentful or jealous sometimes, but that pales in comparison to all his admiration and trust for Harry who he loves so much, who's better than him in so many ways, and he's not gonna openly gripe but secretly he can't help but feel sometimes like he's such a failure in comparison to Harry, a perfect person who emerged fully formed from Zeus's head with all the virtues and also all the accomplishments, etc. etc. etc. --
-- and he will not actually remember the part where he changed and saved Harry's whole entire life unless you literally send him to an alternate timeline in order to force him to remember it. <3
I am so fucking sick of DC fanon making women exclusively mature and Wise and So Much Smarter Than The Dumb Boys god fucking FORBID a woman show a sliver of personality that isn't being Better than the Men. God forbid Diana fucks up and isn't the Wise Woman of the JL or Jessica is irrational or Stephanie is immature or Carol is mean or Selina is impulsive or Cassie childish or Artemis is rude you people beg for more stories about women but clutch your pearls when it's not about them being Girlbosses and God Look at How Dumb The Boys Are Arenāt Women So Much Better For Not Doing That.
#dc bs#fandom#for fucking real though#it's also sexism to do this you know#you can NOT be sending the message that women have to be perfect where men don't have to#āwomen can't have flawsā is sexism#āwomen are incapable of harm in the way men are capable of harmā is sexism#and yes it's sexism toward women!#just like stuff like the 'noble savage' trope is racism#āwe want more complicated female charactersā but you can't even handle one of them doing something wrong#without blaming a man somehow#she did that shit!#let her be interesting and flawed and make her grapple with those flaws and have autonomy within her own universe ā @katanahime
pick whatever option the person you're following who reblogged this post didn't pick. if they didn't say in the tags what they picked or if you're seeing the original post and not a reblog, pick at random instead.
