Dr. Heaton: French Fry Connoisseur @linuxscouser - Tumblr Blog

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Just an idea I had for a song fic that seemed suited for Gourrina Week over on The Slayers Fan Server on Discord, June 11-17. Hope you enjoy it but I mostly wrote it to get it out of my system.

#gourrinaweek #gourrina #slayers #gourrina week 2023

Gourrina Week: Gloves

https://archiveofourown.org/works/40482159

#gourrinaweek #gourrina week 2022

When you stumble across a song and then your brain refuses to let go of an idea until you do something with it.

#slayers #lina/gourry

pakchoys

i’m gonna get so bullied for this but after doing my english language A level, i’m critical of how much the british accent is mocked—specifically the variant of the accent that’s mocked. this variation (with t-glottalisation, so like wa’er instead of water) is also treated badly within the uk for being predominantly associated with the working class.

accent discrimination is a huge, un-talked about issue here, given that there’s a vast variation of accents and dialects in the uk. i wouldnt expect overseas people to know this, but people really do lose out on jobs etc because of this discrimination, or are judged because they don’t sound “upper-class” and “respectable” enough. there have been instances of schools forcing children with “undesirable” accents to speak “properly” (historically this is very pervasive—the standardisation of english in schools sought to eradicate regional dialects. the linguist john honey believes standard english should be mandatory so that working class people could sound smarter and get better jobs).

and you can see it in pop culture: in movies with british bad guy goons, the baddies usually have a working class or cockney accent (the one people find so funny) as a direct reflection of the notion that working class = bad (101 dalmations is a prime example). on the flip side, suave, smart british villains speak in standard english, reflecting the classist notion that upper class accent = smarter (howard giles’ accentism study showed that “upper class” accents are considered intelligent).

colloquialisms like “innit” are features of working class accents (see cockney english, estuary english, multicultural london english) and yes, these are practically demonised in the uk too, by the upper class and mainstream media to maintain the age old presentation of the working class as rough, uncultured and unintelligent.

this is a good article about how accent discrimination affects employability

this has an infographic about british accents and discrimination

it’s legal for schools to ban specific dialect features

what i’m saying is if you’re gonna make fun of the accent, maybe go for the snobby ones like received pronunciation because these don’t have a history of being used to demonise the working class. boris johnson is literally right there and ready to be bullied

whostarlockeda03

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS

I have been mocked *so much* for my accent, and when talking to people with a "posher" accent, I always feel like my speech sticks out horribly, sometimes to the point where I'd rather not speak.

In school I had to speak in standard English if I wanted my teachers to listen to me and they frequently told us we'd have to speak that way if we "wanted to be taken seriously as adults"...... I'm sorry, I wasn't aware my natural dialect is childish?

And at university, I went to a southern one, and after about a week I again adopted standard English because I couldn't stand being gawked at and constantly being asked to repeat myself because people didn't understand my accent.

It really does rile me up when I see people being like "oh I love the British accent" cos like... WHICH ONE?!?! It's a ridiculous notion that everyone in Britain talks the same, just like it would be mental if people in all 52 American states were to sound identical.

themechanicsnightmare

I spent my entire childhood being told to "speak properly" and that "no one will take you seriously if you talk like that" and having people commenting on my accent.

I went to uni in Scotland, but that doesn't stop people from mocking the way I speak, repeating things I say and laughing. "Say it again" and "how you talk is so funny" are distinct memories of first year. My accent flattened out in basically self defence so I could stop worrying about being teased or told to repeat myself.

I'm self conscious when I speak and it just makes me so angry that I have to alter the way I am just to be allowed to exist, to be taken seriously.

"Speak the Queen's English" you know what, actually, fuck your Queen's English. I was born and raised in Yorkshire and I should be allowed to speak like it.

linuxscouser

Hi, I’m the one who’s going to steal your tyres the moment you hear my accent.

Selina: Are you... blushing?

Bruce: What, no.

Selina: Did I get the ever-stoic, hardcore, total badass Batman to blush?

Bruce: No... it's... it's the cold.

Selina: Huh. It's the cold. And not that I told "your face is freaking adorable and I bet the rest of you is too"?

Bruce, blushing harder, voice cracking: N-no.

traveling-spartan

If you ever tagged me to do one of those tag game thingies and I never did it:

1) Thank you, seriously. Those are fun and being included shows that my followers care enough to want to learn more about me.

2) Very sorry about that, it’s extremely likely that I said to myself “Cool! But I’m busy at the moment, I’ll have to do this later today or tomorrow” before proceeding to just straight-up forget, now it’s too far back in my notifications and/or your blog to find again.

pikapuff-316

This is me and I apologize to anyone who had ever tagged me in something

linuxscouser

I know this makes me a dick but this is why I don’t do these.

heroesandtheirloves-deactivated

Reblog if you ship them too.

whitefrostqueen

BatCat Week → Day 5 | Parallels

redflav

Question is why haven’t we already launched a petition to fire Dan DiDio?

vigilantsycamore

Point number 1: How the fuck are we taking the story for granted? How? To take something for granted means to not properly appreciate it. How are we failing to properly appreciate a story where two people in a loving relationship headed towards marriage break up because one of them leaves the other at the altar because a friend mentioned that said other seems to need to be miserable - an idea that got old the second time it was used, and is frankly offensive. I’ve been lucky enough not to suffer any traumatic events, but I’m sure the war veterans with PTSD would not enjoy being told that if they’re ever happy or show signs of recovery, they’ll stop being successful at what they do.

Point 2: DC is taking us for granted. Half the run so far has been dedicated to building towards something that we were told would happen in issue 50 since we knew what the cover of issue 50 was. The whole selling point of the issue was that Batman and Catwoman would get married. You spent half the run, and a huge press campaign, building to this point… and then it didn’t happen. A year of build up, all for nothing.

Point 3: We know you’re not interested in a married Batman, DiDio. For some reason, you think that marriage and productivity are mutually exclusive. No, no. You think happiness and productivity are mutually exclusive. Apparently, the only way for me to get into university is if someone kicks me in the balls every time I feel happy about my life - otherwise, I’m going to be an absolute failure.

Point 4: We have read that story over and over. “Batman can’t be happy, if he is he’ll lose his drive to be Batman” is not only bullshit (hi, the first four decades of Batman’s existence called), it’s not only insulting, it’s done. That was even the point of King’s statement (I guess at this point it’s more like a lie) that he wanted to do something different. And a Batman who comes close to living a normal life but has that chance taken away at the last moment? Have you heard of Andrea Beaumont? How about Silver St Cloud? Or Talia, back in 1987?

Point 5: Happiness wouldn’t end Batman any more than digital clocks ended timekeeping.

Point 6: Putting one’s personal interests aside to help others is not the same as not being allowed to have any personal successes while helping others. And unless the writer can demonstrate how said personal interest is in conflict with the greater good (e.g.: a character who’s been wrongly convicted wants to break out of prison but has to stay there to get close to and get information from one of the villain’s former allies), acting like they are is bad writing and sacrificing the personal interest for the greater good is not heroic. So go on, King and DiDio. How is Batman’s mission in conflict with his happiness? Oh wait, to show us that you’d have to make Batman happy in order to put him in a situation where that might come in conflict with his mission.

Point 7: That’s not what the hero’s journey is. The hero’s journey is a common narrative structure found throughout legends, epics, sagas, myths, and other stories. It goes like this: Main Character is living in Normal Life, when Evil Force shows up and causes problems that mean Normal Life is threatened; Main Character leaves Normal Life behind to defeat Evil Force; Main Character experiences many wonderful adventures and victories but then suffers a defeat at the hands of Evil Force, typically as a result of a flaw or choice of Main Character; Main Character has to confront their flaws and grow as a person while recovering from the defeat, then confront Evil Force again and emerge victorious; Main Character returns to Normal Life having grown as a person and achieved success and happiness.

In other words, the hero’s journey is about protecting ordinary people, experiencing many adventures, overcoming defeats and internal and external adversity in order to grow as a person and find happiness, and succeeding.

That sounds like the opposite of what you want, DiDio. If this was the hero’s journey, we’d have Bane attacking Gotham, Bruce deciding to push his loved ones away to take on Bane himself, Bruce being defeated and, as he recovers, having to realize that he needs loved ones, happiness, and recovery from his trauma in order to be an effective Batman, then reconnecting with his loved ones, strengthening his relationship with his family (including his wife Selina), and working to recover from his trauma (also a good opportunity to take a comprehensive look at mental health), and making a triumphant comeback to defeat Bane. That might still happen, but going by this statement, I doubt that.

Plus, if this arc was going to adhere to the hero’s journey, Selina and Bruce would have gotten married before Bane attacked since the protagonists typically experience a huge victory that the narrative has been leading towards right before the Act Two Defeat, and in this case that victory would have been the wedding.

Point 8: Batman is our greatest hero. Because he’s a non-super who can hold his own alongside the Justice League by acknowledging, accepting, and overcoming, his vulnerabilities. Heroes, especially superheroes, inspire us; we see ourselves in them, and we want to find a way to both be happy and do good in the world. We don’t want to be told that it’s impossible to have both, that we have to choose one or the other.

Point 9: You know what was an Elseworlds concept at some point? Superman having a son. How about this idea for an imaginary story: Dick quits being Robin and someone else takes on the mantle. Oh, what if Bruce had a biological son? What if Wonder Woman… uh, Wonder Woman fandom, help me out here, what’s a Wonder Woman concept that for a long time was seen as strictly alternate continuity but later became canon? The point is, just because a married Batman is an Elseworlds Batman doesn’t mean a married Batman has to be an Elseworlds Batman.

Point 10: You did those stories with Golden Age characters in what was by then an alternate continuity. You could have done those stories in the mainstream continuities with the characters as they are now and saw how that turned out, but nope. Also, since when has ‘we’ve done those stories’ stopped DC from rehashing old concepts like “let’s make this three-dimensional, sympathetic but morally grey female character with an interesting romantic relationship with a male character into a jealous villainous ex-girlfriend” or “let’s change Donna Troy’s origin” or “let’s make these fun and light-hearted characters dark and cynical instead” or “let’s brutally murder this character for no reason” or “let’s shoot this relationship down as soon as possible”? Oh I get it, that logic only applies for good story ideas.

Point 11: Ah yes, because marriage equals death. A story with a married main character? Inconceivable!

Point 12: Here’s a challenge: Bruce and Selina try to find a compromise between vigilantism and thievery. Here’s another: Bruce and Selina trying to navigate married life. How about Selina adjusting to life at Wayne Manor? How about Bruce adjusting to having somebody in his life to this degree? How about Bruce trying to be supportive of Selina stealing because the aforementioned compromise was that she only steals from people they both agree are bad guys so now Bruce has no reason to feel guilty about not stopping her?

How about Bruce still fighting villains because he may be married but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still Batman?

How about Bane’s latest scheme is to put Bruce in a situation where he has to choose between saving his family and saving Gotham?

How about Bruce re-evaluating how he fights crime as Batman and trying to change his approach? There’s a very good chance that Selina would play a big role in that. How about Bruce taking a step back so we can show him as more of a mentor and a symbol? How about Bruce making his mission more global again and recruiting more vigilantes from around the world?

Do you know where you would have a hard time finding a challenge: keeping things exactly as they are instead of letting the characters change and develop (and not just warp according to the writer’s view of the themes in the character’s stories).

Point 13: And I can’t speak for others, but I would care about those next 49 issues, if half of the ones we’d gotten so far hadn’t turned out to be a big con.

Point 14: affects not effects. If you’re going to be a dick, at least be a grammatically correct dick.

Point 15: Actually, a story is judged by how a story is told. That’s how stories work. Next you’re going to tell me that a meal isn’t judged by how it tastes but by the effect it has on future meals.

“This spaghetti is delicious!”

“So you like it?”

“Too soon to say, I can’t judge it until I’ve eaten something else and seen how the spaghetti affects it.”

Point 16: There are a few ways this could turn out. Let’s talk about how they’d affect future stories.

A: Batman and Catwoman don’t get married. This is treated as Batman’s choice to remain miserable in order to be Batman, even though 1/ he can be happy and be Batman, 2/ that’s not how success works, 3/ that’s not how marriage works, 4/ that’s not how mental health issues work. Nothing changes.

B: Batman and Catwoman don’t get married, but towards the end Batman starts trying to deal with his mental health. This is then forgotten about in the next run because blah blah blah, Batman can’t be happy, blah blah. Blah blah blah. Blah. Nothing changes.

C: Batman and Catwoman almost get married, but Catwoman gets fridged. Something does change: even more people hate DC now. (Alternatively, they do get married, and Catwoman still gets fridged, causing people to hate DC).

D: Batman and Catwoman almost get married… but then the run ends and the next run starts by breaking them up off-screen (hey, Heart of Hush did that). Nothing changes.

E: Batman and Catwoman get married… in the final issue. Then there’s a reboot so they can be broken up in the next run. Nothing changes.

F: Batman and Catwoman get married, the story delves into how marriage affects the characters… and editorial manages to find a bad way to break them up. Their marriage is barely mentioned in the next run. Nothing changes.

So even by your fake logic, this is meh at best.

Point 14: The stories would be stronger if you did something to change the status quo for the characters for once in your career

Point 15: Awfully bold suggesting that this issue is the best possible Bat-Cat wedding story that could ever have been told. It sounds like you were the one to come up with this shitty-ass idea, you arrogant excuse for an editor who can’t take any sort of feedback.

Point 16: What’s with the “low”-key reader-bashing throughout this? We are where your money comes from. Technically, we’re your bosses. This is like getting a job at Asda and then posting a post that just says

“F*** ASDA!”

on Asda’s Facebook page (does Asda have a Facebook page? I’m guessing they do)

@thebatscomeouttoplay yeah, let’s make that petition a thing

redflav

PREACHED

#truth

medusaceratops-deactivated20210

after reading batman #50, i can say the amount of craft that went into it is incredible. tom king spends a few pages having bruce talk about selina’s gorgeous blue eyes

her beautiful blue peepers

they’re so blue

even the wiki says they’re incredibly blue eyes

linuxscouser

What are you to say King is wrong? Apparently you’ve never ACTUALLY looked at her eyes because they’re blue...or yellow...or purple, no red? No, orange.

So in all seriousness, it genuinely reads like his canon Catwoman has blue eyes, and everyone else sees green because they don’t look close enough, or they don’t know her as well as he does.

But dude...her eyes are green. They’ve always been green.