#meta post?

[ennard-is-near]

If I was even a little better at drawing gore it would be over for you guys

[paigeoforacle]

Alright, folks. Time to talk about Oracle in a big Mega post. I might even blaze this one.

The main point of this is to address how perfect a character Babs would have been for the modern era of comics had she not been hollowed out and filled with such a vapid and inane version of herself thanks to ableist writing and an obsession with a version of the character that has not existed in over 50 years. The impact of having the woman who knows everyone and impacts the world through the Internet, especially as we are more technologically connected than ever.

First, let's talk about what she could do /before/ the New 52. She was able to hack the Pentagon for government files, create false rap sheets for Tim Drake, keep in contact with every major superhero, provide endless information to Batman and the others, and lead her own team of international heroines. This was back when the internet was in its relative infancy and its power had not been fully realized. All without taking to the field and being better than she ever was as Batgirl. She defeated Brainiac and was such a threat that Blockbuster sought to hunt her down (see below).

And this is before we consider what the internet has power over now. Finances, stocks, medical files, location data, videos, business and military documents, resumes, payment data and more. Hell, biometrics are also stored online so you can use your finger or face to unlock your phone. The entire world runs on the internet in one way or another. But with this much power comes the potential for nefarious deeds. Hackers stealing hundreds of millions without a trace, military documents being leaked, people suffering identity fraud, it goes on. In fact, what was once considered unbelievable ten years ago is now a legitimate risk; people hacking pacemakers and cars and taking control of them. The internet is a powerful resource, and this is the perfect place for Oracle to flex her might.

Think about it. With this kind of power, Oracle would be unstoppable. Except, with so much information, even she would have trouble keeping track. And she has mentioned before that people have been able to catch up to her at least somewhat back in the mid 2000s. Now imagine what they can do now.

Which leads me to a fun idea. An "Oracle Corps" if you will. We have seen her have friends from the internet that do what she does. Cheese Freak from The Cure immediately comes to mind. But imagine if we got this as a chance to flesh out the DCU. Different "oracles" that work with different teams. Proxy worked with the Titans, it makes perfect sense for others to, say, work with Justice League China.

But there would only be one true Oracle. Her name is Barbara Gordon, and she should be the linchpin of the entire DCU. Hopefully this post shows my reasoning.

[itsforexposure]

[adrien-a-agreste]

i wonder how pigeon anon is doing

[samcarter34]

So there’s this guy, Itachi Uchiha, who was considered to be a child prodigy, and then one day he just up and murders his entire clan to test his abilities, save his brother who leaves alive just to torment. So you think, welp he’s a bad guy. Pure evil.

And his character made sense when that was what it was...but then they just up and changed it. Like suddenly he was a guy who, as a child, was traumatized by war and as a result put the stability of the state above everything, including his clan and even his own well-being. In fact he is so devoted to this ideal that he commits genocide on the state’s behalf, against his own clan no less. Except for Sasuke, his little brother whom he apparently loves so much he was willing to sell out the village he committed genocide for if they harmed him.

Except he still used the Tsukuyomi on Sasuke to make Sasuke have to watch his entire family get slaughtered. Why? He says he wanted to make Sasuke hate him, but Sasuke was already going to, considering he, you know, massacre the entire Uchiha clan. And then, when he meets Sasuke again years later, he does the exact same thing! And it takes Lady Tsunade’s medical skills to heal him. Medical jutsu heals physical damage, right?

Itachi literally gave his brother brain damage and put him in a coma...because he loves Sasuke?

Not to mention he’s willing to become one of the most reviled people on the planet in order to stop a war, but he just goes along with kidnapping and murdering the Kazekage, aka the same damn thing that resulted i the war that lead to this worldview in the first place. Like yeah, double agent, but still you’d think a mindset as extreme as his is supposed to be would result in him doing something to at least slow the process down. We know for a fact he’s still loyal to the Leaf Village, he tried to mind control Sasuke into not harming it.

It really feels like Kishimoto started with an idea for Itachi and then went in a radically different direction.

[orsaria]

One thing I find curious about Sunless Sea is how if you try to help the officers with their various issues it rarely ends well for either of you. At the risk of spoiling a few of them, one can result in someone losing their body to a Fingerking, another can be turned into a living candle, while another can just be plain lost entirely. 

It’s an interesting contrast to some of the games I’ve played over the years. Like Mass Effect for instance, where helping your officers (if one wanted to call them that) will result in a new available tech/biotic power and possibly a level up. 

It fits Sunless Sea this way. Another way to show how merciless the zee is.

[sonic-rider]

people are starting to get annoyed at the invisible snufkin au, and thats a bit of a shame, so I thought I'd put a few reasons why ive seen people like it.

First off:

Not all neglect is inherently abusive and not all neglect is intentional.

Snufkin has a real fear of being forgotten about. He likes to shut himself away so much, he legitimently has nightmares about people forgetting about him or abandoning him because of them getting fed up with his isolationist behavior.

A story of Snufkin working himself into nervous break due to maybe being a bit ignored or freaked out and becoming invisible due to his own worries is a completely valid story idea.

Its a really nice hurt/comfort scenario, especially when he's reassured his friends will always love him, no matter what!

A lot of people take comfort in stories like this, and with the english moomin fandom being relatively small... Of course the idea would spread!

second:

Snufkin was canonically abandoned.

A lot of people don't like to acknowlage this (bc cat daddy joxter am i right???) But he was.

He was abandoned as a child with nothing but his hat, and even if he wasn't, his mother is My's mother, and we've already seen how overclocked she is. Neglect has been guaranteed both ways.

Snufkin has issues. Biiig issues. At the end of "the invisible girl" he pops up in an ending song about listening to lost souls. (and animation dont fuck around like that!!!)

canon seems to lead something like this may happen to snufkin and people are running with it. So that's reason 2

third:

Insisting it only happens in cases of severe abuse is downright wrong.

something like this could also happen with a severe loss of trust or faith. Or just a flat out refusal to listen.

Fanon likes to think of cruel strangers over winter.

Canon keeps having people push snufkin's buttons and impede on his personal space.

Take this too far and volia. Nobodys listening to snuf and he vanishes bc if it.

so in conclusion:

I've seen a lot of abuse survivors and neglected peoples using these aus as a way to cope. Its harmless and likely to be canon

so really, if you dislike this content, maybe you should just block the tag instead of calling people out for "fetishizing abuse."

And if you feel as if you must call somebody out, there are people in this fandom who write joxter/snufkin rape fic.

Go after them. Not the people just looking to enjoy a harmless au.

(so uh...yeah! i wrote this wayyyy too late in the night so there might be mistakes. but i really just wanted to say this. yeet)

[mia6363]

UTSW: Kesha's "Praying" in Ch. 9

All right guys… if you haven’t read Under the Songbird’s Wing: Chapter 9, then I advise skipping this post because it will be SPOILER HEAVY.

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Okay.

I really wanted to take a breather after the chapter and collect my thoughts on the influences and art that went into this chapter, and how everything has led up to this point so far. From the beginning, I knew it was going to take a long time. I didn’t want Stiles to solve it in two years. It had to be long, long enough to be devastating, and after seven years of being missing, a person will be considered legally dead. If you guys have been reading my work for a while, you know that one of my absolute favorite themes is a human’s perseverance in comparison to other supernatural beings.

From the start, I knew that Stiles would be the one to get them out, and that he’d do it by himself.

Kesha’s “Praying” helped me figure out beat-per-beat how it would happen and how Stiles would get himself there physically and mentally. It was a shorter chapter than usual because I only wanted the focus to be on Stiles, and as I mentioned in the Author Notes, I did my best to put in “invisible breaks” to help with pacing. When I break down the song lyric by lyric, it really does show just how much it influenced the ending.

Well, you almost had me fooled Told me that I was nothing without you Oh, but after everything you've done I can thank you for how strong I have become

At the start of Stiles’s journey, he had just turned 16 and was abducted and imprisoned. His father was loving but deeply neglectful and wasn’t showing his affection enough or in a healthy way. He was already touch-starved. He was isolated at school. In a way, Stiles was already fighting an uphill battle in life, and then the worst and unthinkable happens, and everything he thought was important and pressing, suddenly isn’t.

In a sense, Kate made Stiles stronger. She didn’t do this intentionally, but captivity and the terror of that event was the start of Stiles growing up. Talk about the world’s most brutal coming of age story.

Not just Stiles, but all the Alphas also grow with him. They were silent before, rarely talking or moving. By the time they leave, they’ve grown, accepted and forgiven themselves. It’s going to be strange to think that, if none of Kate’s sinister plans had happened, that none of them would have ever met, never grown in the way they had in captivity.

'Cause you brought the flames and you put me through hell I had to learn how to fight for myself And we both know all the truth I could tell I'll just say this is "I wish you farewell"

Fighting for himself, being aggressive in changing his fate and life, wasn’t something Stiles did before he was taken. When his father stopped hugging him, Stiles didn’t ask why. He passively found a solution: to pretend to be asleep so his father had to embrace him to get him up the stairs to his room. When handling a gun made him deeply uncomfortable, but he saw that it made his father happy- he kept up target practice.

Stiles didn’t have much of a voice or the confidence to raise it except in moments of lapsed judgement. With the forced captivity and extreme intimacy he shared with the Alphas, he was put on a forced, constructed, even playing field. Everyone was equal in the glass prisons. Everyone had the same room, the same predicament, and the same looming existential dread that comes with being in captivity with no (immediate) hope of escape. Where Stiles never felt equal in his everyday life, he was put under the circumstances where his peers were always with him, sympathized deeply with his situation because they had all lived it, and talking to them, exercising and dancing, was easy because they were always there.

“I wish you farewell,” is what really resonated with me in terms of the exact nature of Stiles’s escape and liberation from Kate and Gerard.

While I knew Kate and Gerard couldn’t live, that Stiles would have to resort to murder to free himself and the Alphas. I know that the easy way would just be to shrug it off as a “yeah but they deserved it.” Did they? Sure. But I think cheapening a violent act like that would also cheapen the story and the characters.

I'm proud of who I am No more monsters, I can breathe again And you said that I was done Well, you were wrong and now the best is yet to come 'Cause I can make it on my own, oh And I don't need you, I found a strength I've never known I'll bring thunder, I'll bring rain, oh When I'm finished, they won't even know your name

This section is all about the big finale. Every moment, every second of every minute of every hour-- that finally led to Stiles freeing the Alphas. The best is yet to come is the hope that things will be better once they are out.

Violence was necessary and I didn’t want to glorify it, but at the same time I wanted to be realistic. I’m not sure if I succeeded. Murder, even if your whole heart believes that you’re in the right, is deeply traumatic to the average person. Stiles has had time to plan. From the moment he first woke up in that tub, he knew what he had to do, that he wouldn’t stand a chance running, so the next best thing was to get rid of the threat.

Kate Argent was still a person in Stiles’s life. A friendly acquaintance. Even if she were a stranger, Stiles would still feel something at having to kill her. And the fact that he did know her, that he spent a lot of time with her, affects him deeper. Even though she has been keeping the Alphas there, even though she showed no signs of stopping their captivity, it’s still a member of a community that Stiles had viewed as idyllic and safe.

Kate Argent is the last thread of innocence that has to be severed for Stiles to be free.

Ah sometimes, I pray for you at night, oh Someday, maybe you'll see the light Whoa oh oh oh, some say, in life, you're gonna get what you give But some things only God can forgive

Yeah! (I hope you're somewhere prayin', prayin') I hope your soul is changin', changin' I hope you find your peace Falling on your knees, prayin'

This both pertains to the escape and what’s to come. Again, when dealing with the trauma of captivity as well as the escape… it’s going to be a lot of healing needed.

But some things only God can forgive to me this pertains BOTH to Stiles and Kate. Stiles still had to murder his way to freedom, and in the future he’ll have to deal with that, and not just his own trauma. Really, the entire act itself, I wanted to show that… Stiles was conflicted. That this wasn’t easy, just because he was out of the prison and he had a weapon, and the advantage of surprise.

I’m going to make a separate ART EXPLAINED post, to detail like… some of the inspirations behind it and how trashy really took it to the next LEVEL. I’ll probably be making other posts about this chapter… because I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. Would more posts (in addition to the Art Explanation) be good?