#; meta

[alightindarkplaces]

Frodo was always corruptible, otherwise, there would really be no drama and it would not be such a tremendous achievement that he resisted for so long- key word resist. So what is he tempted with? The books don't tell us outright, but there are clues.

He has abandonment issues - parents dying, leaving him nothing but a place in the Brandybuck familial home, where he is largely ignored and left to his own devices (and later Bilbo abandons him too.) This also leaves him feeling unimportant and unloved. Please note he doesn't get adopted by Bilbo until nine years after his parents' deaths. He is obviously a troubled youth or he would not have been stealing mushrooms or wandering at night.

At his coming of age, he is friends with mostly younger hobbits, so he also has no friends during this time and no real support, as Bilbo is scarcely around and his future friends are little kids at the time. So some deep seated issues begin to emerge here. He is lonely and coping through avoidance and escapism- long walks, theft/indulgence, stories, pretend play.

His avoidant attachment style becomes more pronounced after Bilbo's disappearance. He does enjoy his time as master of Bag End, which tells me he is employing very successful coping strategies, but also that something in him is fed and content. He is happy being in control of his life and he doesn't give anyone the chance to leave him again. Sam is his employee at this time and he doesn't let him in a friend until after the journey begins. Merry, Pippin, and Fatty are his best friends, and still he keeps them at arm's length. He is protective of people he loves, but doesn't think himself capable of doing anything for them, so this namely shows up in his willingness to sacrifice himself for their benefit.

Jumping far forward, in the aftermath of the Ring, his biggest fear and anxiety is being shunned and isolated and in his dream, he tries to remedy that with a lofty self important air, and this is really important.

This is his shadow side; self important, needing validation from others, thinking he knows what's best/being too sure of his own judgement, possessiveness over people he loves and wanting to be theirs in turn (codependency,) over indulgence/greed.

After the Ring is gone, having seen intimately all these things in himself, Frodo does a lot of overcorrecting and ends up (in my opinion) reenacting his trauma again through abandoning his friends and main support network in a misguided self sacrifice, since this seems correct and good to him as it is the opposite of the possessive greed he is so adamantly avoiding. In the end, he doesn't grow from his experience, but is set back tremendously and harmed deeply.

[jackalopc]

it's almost a shame that we don't get the line "james sterling. like the machine gun, not the engine." when we first meet the character sterling in the show; because it truly does tell you everything you need to know about the man and it's such a fascinating way to introduce himself both like in-character and meta context.

like um yeah okay. how many people are thinking stirling like the engine, or sterling like the gun manufacturer? probably not many. and like especially when there is a much more common thing that most people actually would be familiar with that is spelled the same way: sterling silver.

[batcassed]

This is really important to me for some reason but I don’t want to see Cass become Batwoman.

I’m a huge advocate for batman!cass. Occasionally when talking about it to other dc fans online they’re like ‘okay, but she’d be batwoman, right? Not batman, since... she’s not a man.’ And they’re right! Her canonical self is not a man- and yet, that doesn’t matter in this sense. Cass being batwoman would A) dilute the point of the Batman name- it’s a symbol, not a label. And B) the batwoman mantle already exists- and it means something different from batman. Making Cass Batwoman and calling it ‘the female Batman’ erases what Batwoman as a mantle means. C) Cass and Kate have fundamentally different motivations, so she wouldn’t take the Batwoman name. It makes no sense.

Her gender shouldn’t matter in this case- it’s a symbol, not a label. Batman may have originated as a name because Bruce is a man, but the name has shifted over time to be a symbol; a genderless symbol of darkness and strength and protection. Plus, the name was never that accurate. ‘Batman’ insinuates a half man, half bat- If you say that Cass can’t be Batman because the name isn’t accurate to her when taken literally, then you have to also acknowledge that using that logic, Bruce can’t be Batman either- he’s a man, yeah, but not a Bat.

The batwoman mantle already exists- and it means something different from batman. Equating the name Batwoman to ‘female Batman’ utterly erases what Batwoman means. Batwoman and Batman are two very, very different heroes. For example, Kate does eat pu- But seriously, Kate Kane isn’t Bruce. They have different motivations, morals, and ideals. Kate has carved out her own place in the Batfamily- it’s disrespectful to call her ‘the female batman,’ because she’s not. It’s like calling batgirl or spoiler or orphan the ‘female batman,’ just because they work with batman and are female. See, it’s weird! They’re all very different heroes with their own stories and lives. Kate is the same. She isn’t Batman, just like Bruce isn’t Batwoman. If there was a genderswap au, Bruce would still be Bruce and Kate would still be Kate. They’re their own characters, not gender opposites of each other.

Cass and Kate have fundamentally different motivations, so she wouldn’t take the Batwoman name. In a superhero group like the Batfamily, where mantles are so important- as opposed to the flashfam and Superman where it’s looser on legacies and passing down mantles- Cass and Kate disagree on many things, for instance the killing rule, and the batwoman cowl started with Kate so logistically the next Batwoman would share some of her origins and values. Making Cass Batwoman when she already doesn’t interact much with Kate and is such a different character; it makes no sense.

All headcanons that she’s batwoman are valid and interesting. These are just reasons why I feel it should never be canon.

[voiicefound]

And that's on narcissistic mothers;

When she was little, in kindergarten, she made her mother cards. And they always got put on the fridge and cooed thank yous, there was always something wrong with them. Her handwriting was askew, or the colouring wasn't great, or it looked like less effort was put in than the year before, or the glitter got everywhere; as soon as her dad wasn't in the room. Because apparently not even her mother's day cards were Good Enough :/

[harknesstm]

Good evening, so much of Jack is a facade at this point that even Ianto didn't really know him. No one does tbh, because he's built so many levels on himself that deep down he thinks/knows he's fundamentally unloveable; so he just keeps adding more fake conman levels to himself over and over again to escape the person he really is under it all.

[socialiisms]

Lemme stress real quick that Thanos doesn't much care for pointless death at his hand. The snap, the conquested, the genocides, to him were NECESSARY-- a method of leading the lambs that would have been slaughtered by their own blind following of capitalism into a better life. But on a case by case basis, he is very much inclined to let people live. Aka how he spared Wanda and Tony. He sees it as unnecessary and cruel to simply kill people for the hell of it. He sees himself as a strict but benevolent father to the galaxy, and thus will give ample warnings and chances unless he sees it as necessary to kill someone. He doesn't kill anyone for no reason, even in battle. If someone doesn't need to die, in his view, he will go to lengths to prevent having to kill them.

That being said, he only warns so many times. If it isn't heeded, then yes, unfortunately that person has decided they must die and martyr themselves, and who is he to deny them.

[sesshcmaru]

  The Final Act: Episode 13  painful icon time!!  ( DONT REBLOG )

 This scene is incredibly painful to watch for anyone that empathizes with sess.homaru’s  previous  home-situation (including his distant mother).  through  his  eyes,  he’s  always  felt  as  though  his  father  didn’t  trust  him,  didn’t  believe  in  him,  didn’t  love  him  as  much  as  inu.yasha.  and  in  this  scene,  as  much  as  he  hates  it,  those  feelings  are  confirmed  and  validated  by  Shis.hinki.  He learns that the  coveted  Meido  Zange.tsuha  was  originally a  technique  held  by  the  Tessaiga,  and  that  Inu.taisho  found  it  dangerous  and  useless  and  cast  it  aside  into  tenseiga  when  he  did  not  want  it.  thus,  sess.homaru  confirms  that  he  was  given  a  sword  that  was,  not  only  to  him  but  also  to  his  father,  completely  useless.  although this may not be inu.taisho’s true intention, it is how it is painted.   

 in  reaction  to  this,  he  spars  with  inu.yasha  and  GIVES  him  the  meido  zang.etsuha,  the  tens.eiga’s  only  offensive  ability. But  this  is  only  after  attempting  and  failing  to  destroy  both  Tess.aiga  and  Tense.iga  out  of  anger.  

 granted,  this  in  no  way  shape  or  form  excuses  his  deplorable  actions  throughout  the  series,  but  it  is  an  insight  into  why  he  was  so  desperate  to  obtain  either  tess.aiga  or  so’unga  despite  his  father’s  wishes,  as  well  as  why  he  hated  inu.yasha,

( note 2 self: add more to this later )