I’m kinda weirded out by people assuming that when Poe says he’s not Ranpo’s fanboy and is his rival they take it as him being in denial about their friendship.
Like, no, he’s not saying he’s not Ranpo’s friend he’s saying he’s not Ranpo’s fanboy. The appropriate response when someone assumes you are a fanboy of the man who’s both your rival and friend is that you are his rival, because rival is more contradictory to fanboy. You can be someone’s fanboy and friend very easily, but not fanboy and rival. Of course it’s possible but being a fanboy also implies a particular power dynamic(? Not sure if that’s the right word) where you are somewhat lesser in that specific field, which Poe refuses to imply because the man has an ego either the same size or somewhat lesser than Ranpo himself.
Poe himself has an ego the size of the moon, it’s just not as evident because he despises social interaction, not because he’s shy but because everyone is utterly insufferable and refuses to be on their level. That’s also the reason why he was so insulted by Ranpo winning in the battle of wits, it’s because he was just humiliated in front of a bunch of people he viewed as lesser than himself.
He gets along so well with Ranpo because Ranpo doesn’t crush those beliefs, if anything he endorses them with his own belief that he is better than everyone making Poe feel special by being special to Ranpo.
Ranpo and Poe are in a perpetual state of constantly making each others ego bigger, because with the better Ranpo is, the better Poe is, and Poe is constantly trying to challenge Ranpo making Ranpo better.
Don’t take this as me saying the irl Edgar Allan Poe was egotistical, he just tended to mainly write through the lens of an incredibly egocentric and hypocritical person.
The entire perfect crime trio has got to be some of the most outspokenly egotistical people in the series.
I really enjoy the connections between Yokomizo and the rest of the perfect crime trio. He somehow haunts Mushitarō so much that he haunts all three.
Ranpo is under the responsibility of knowing something that he should not know. Yokomizo wanted his death to be unsolvable, it was his dying wish, and Ranpo solved it. I’m quite sure that Ranpo does feel guilty about this and it’s why he is so sympathetic with Mushitarō. He ruined the dying wish of the most important person to his new friend.
Poe is where most similarities are obvious. They’re both mystery authors with a blatant fascination with the murder method and the goal of an unsolvable mystery. It can also be seen in how they interact with Mushitarō, they both really annoy Mushitarō with simply enjoying their passion and find it endearing when he gets mad at them. It can and sometimes does come across as outwardly teasing him.
A fun little tidbit is also the fact that no one knows how the irl Edgar Allan Poe died! Most believe it to be alcohol poisoning but that was proven false, others think it was suicide. There are many different ways people speculate his death, but so far no one knows.He was simply found one day in another persons clothing out in the street. No injuries or anything to prove the truth of his death, similar to Yokomizo in bsd.
I really don’t think I need to get into Yokomizo and Mushitarō’s relationship, I’m sure you get the point.
By the way, I do love that the "Everything you touch breaks" statement from Jamato to Spoke comes right before Jamato mentioning that Purgatory ran perfectly before Spoke arrived, because it really does exemplify how much this man genuinely only pays attention to Spoke.
Before Spoke arrived, there was already a Black Market. There were already people placing hits on each other (that's how Vix got all of his armor). There was a prolific smuggling business. There was a gladiator pit. And there were people making their plans of escape all the same.
Spoke changed nothing. Spoke did nothing exceptional beyond revealing Jamato's identity (which happened later). The very presence of an execution chamber and such harsh solitary that, according to Found, people do not return from, implies that Jamato should know that there were problems.
But if Jamato admitted that there are problems other than Spoke (that the world out there is falling apart perfectly well without Spoke in it, too), then what's all he's doing for? And, even worse, what would that mean about him being so willing in the past to doom the entire server for Spoke's sake if he's not that important?
Of course, for Jamato it makes sense to assign Spoke so much value when he's basically the only person he interacts with. He talked with Wemmbu once and it went horrendously. Who else is he meant to obsessively latch onto while emulating the source of his trauma? (Because the parallels between NULL and the Invisible Mafia as well as between Jamato and Ash are undeniable atp. Jamato even tried to frame Spoke in a very similar way. He just didn't keep in mind that Spoke has grown and learned and he knows how to deal with power-tripping nerds with a fear of responsibility).
Making fun of Jamato aside, I think that's also why he's been executing and trying to execute people around Spoke the entire time. We know Spoke is not the only one of his kidnapping victims who tried to run away. Obviously, it's quite natural to try when, again, they've all been kidnapped. And yet I wonder how many of them got outright executed for it before Dev got involved with Spoke. Vix is another story entirely, because the justification for executing him was even flimsier. It was literally just to hurt Spoke and to drive home the point that everything he touches breaks... except from the point of view of the abuser smashing his things in front of him and telling him he's to blame.
Which actually ties neatly into the fall of the rebel groups, too. Because, like, objectively, Spoke there had been given two wrong choices. He was being blackmailed and he knew Jamato was behind NULL. He could let himself and his friends get kidnapped or try to find allies to fight back. Those were his options, neither would have brought him anything good, and under stress as he was, he chose one of the two wrong ones instead of trying to think more outside the box. He could have revealed the truth, too, but chances are that would have just delivered Jumper and Mapicc straight to Jamato, so it's only another wrong option.
And in the end, Jamato is the one who was blackmailing him and who put him in this impossible conundrum. He was the one attacking the rebel groups. He was the one deciding all of that. And yet he acts as if Spoke brought upon them a natural plague he's unrelated to. Because, Jamato will do anything but admit he has agency and he makes choices of his own. Cruel and violent ones, for the most part.
Just like Ash, Jamato sits back and points at his clean hands while his invisible army does his bloody bidding
Juni Ba’s The Boy Wonder is a great comic. Its character designs and colours are both fun and distinct, the storytelling is creative, and every issue is a lot of fun. But one of the best parts of the 2024 comic is undoubtedly the message that it blatantly showcases. Through Damian, the storytelling shows that while a person may have grown up with strong beliefs about what makes a person weak versus strong, they can change their views once given the chance to learn from a healthier environment. It’s an important theme to have and one that Ba demonstrates well.
The first characters who leave an impression on Damian are Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. While Damian snuck out to try to patrol alone, the older vigilantes easily worked together to find and help him. They’re portrayed as being in-sync, completely trusting of each other as they swing in to clean up the scene. It disgusts Damian at first, he’s clearly put-off by the idea of needing somebody else’s help - especially in the field. Ba even demonstrates his disgruntled nature by making the flashbacks and beliefs of his childhood clear. Damian had been taught that reliance and such clear love were weaknesses in the field, his grandfather discouraged any kind of attachment lest it distract from Damian’s purpose as the Demon’s Heir. But weakness isn’t what Damian ends up seeing when he watches Dick and Barbara. He sees echoes of love's past, seeing the adoration that love can create - even comparing the scene to something he never saw, the Flying Graysons. He sees that Dick and Barbara can truly trust each other to hold on even when a battle is tough. It’s the opposite from what he thought was true and he isn’t too open to the idea that he was taught wrong. It’s difficult to change an opinion, especially one so deeply ingrained within him. So the first lesson is one that Damian scoffs at, one he isn’t going to believe so easily. Not when he’s yet to truly see that what his previous life had taught him was wrong on many levels.
The second lesson comes from Jason Todd, though in a less obvious way from the first one. Jason’s not teaching a strength - he’s teaching a weakness. The second issue draws comparisons between Jason and Damian, particularly their inability to accept that they don’t have to be alone to be strong. Both of them are struggling hard with their past traumas, no doubt about it. But instead of doing something healthy to help them cope, like going to therapy, they fight crime. They do this alone, keeping their distance from the other vigilantes - including each other. But Damian recognises their similarities, as evidenced by how the first person he goes to is Jason. They’re both league trained, they’re both killers, and - admit it or not - they want to be accepted by their family even after they’ve committed crimes they don’t believe they can come back from. It shows two things, one is that he’s already learning from Dick and Barbara’s example that trusting someone isn't a weakness, and two is that Damian can kind of reluctantly admit when he needs help. Him working with Jason proceeds to emphasise that their pains come from their usual inability to go to others for help because they can’t accept themselves. The red door within Jason’s apartment is especially used to symbolise how keeping distanced from your issues and not letting others in to help you is an issue. Damian sees while with Jason that it isn’t only good to trust others, but that accepting help is a strength. Damian critiques Jason and how he stays away, not yet completely acknowledging that he needs others - though it’s becoming more clear to him that it isn’t weak to accept help.
Tim Drake is the third lesson taught - and probably the easiest message to see and understand. Within the third issue, Ba uses Tim and Damian’s rocky relationship to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Damian goes with Tim to a party thrown by Penguin. He watches how Tim is easily able to fit in with that crowd, charming those around him, and is disgusted - thinking that Tim is genuinely like those who Penguin associates with and a terrible person like those his grandfather had warned him of. It’s when Damian sneaks away to continue his mission that Tim is given an honest chance to show he isn’t that kind of person, that he’s as good as the others. Damian’s judgement of Tim is harsh and unforgiving in the beginning of the comic. He’s critical of the elder vigilante, believing that Tim is fraternising with the enemy and making criminal connections. As a child, Damian had been taught that people were inherently cruel and selfish, that mankind could not be trusted. While he may have already learnt that he needs to trust other people and that he cannot always work alone in the previous issues of the comic, that doesn’t mean Damian understands that these people can surprise him with layers. He trusted Tim to get him into the party - that was all Damian needed the older boy for. Therefore, Tim had already fulfilled his purpose and Damian had no reason to continue working with him after seeing him supposedly cozying up with the Penguin and other high society folks. Which is where the shift in perspective comes, as Tim absolutely shocks Damian by already being on the same case - looking into Penguin and discovering the LoA having ties within Gotham. It forces Damian to completely reassess how he saw Tim - he couldn’t pass him off as another wicked socialite when he too cared for Gotham and was smart enough to have already been working this case. It completely subverts Damian’s expectations and what he was taught about people. Like, sure - there are still bad people. But not everybody is as shallow as they pretend to be. It’s this lesson that forces Damian to acknowledge he isn’t perfect nor above everybody - people can be trusted and people can be good. It’s what causes him to push Tim out of the demon’s attack, he needs to prove to both himself and Tim that he knows what he’s being taught - that he isn’t a lone entity and he can be trusted, for he understands why it’s needed.
In the fourth issue, Talia al Ghul’s story is brought front and centre to the story. About how she was raised, about how similar her life was to Damian’s when he was in league - but with the key difference of her being a woman and therefore never able to become the Demon’s Head. This is why the next lesson, although it’s taught by Talia, applies to both her and Damian - that those who you grew up learning from and admiring are not always right. Both Talia and Damian were raised by Ra’s and taught to always believe him, believe that what he was doing was always the right path. Them being his daughter and grandson trusted him - of course they did. They had nobody else who could teach them if he was being fair or honest with them, and with how dedicated and seemingly correct Ra’s was with his goal, they can’t be blamed for never doubting their biggest influencer. But Talia was never given a real chance by Ra’s all because she was a woman. And the cycle only continued with Damian because he would be the heir. Talia may have loved her son but she allowed him to be abused the same way she was because of her trust in her father. Damian trusted her because she was his mother and one would hope that no mother would lead them wrong. It was the wrong decision for Talia to not get Damian out of the League of Assassins sooner. But it all reinforces that a child will trust their parent even in some of the cruelest circumstances.. The fourth issue deconstructs the idea of an everlasting trust in parents though and it does this by letting Talia save both herself and her beloved son. She realises that as much as she loves and respects her father, he will never give her the same level of respect. She also realises that Damian deserves better than what they have had with the league, that they deserve a choice. Damian is taught through Talia’s choice that he also has a choice and he does not have to fall to the lessons that Ra’s taught him. He is suddenly allowing himself to realise that Ra’s taught him lessons that were not right. He watches as his mother dives after him, disobeying the Demon’s Head, and he finally knows that he does not have to hold those old lessons within him anymore - not from Ra’s and not from Talia. He can be himself and he can let himself embrace what he has seen from three of the Robin’s before him.
This leads to the finale of the comic, which has the most wholesome lesson. Damian is rescued and able to fight alongside those who he now has started to see as potential family. He isn’t all the way there with them - closer with some than others. But he sees how they will rally behind him when he needs it and he can now acknowledge what important lessons they have taught to him. Damian finally sees that those who truly love him will be there for him. He is Dick, Jason, and Tim’s little brother and Talia and Bruce’s son. That is what matters. Ra’s wanted an heir more than anything else, the other’s just wanted Damian as family and to have a second chance at life. Damian wants that, he really does. It’s part of why Damian wanted to be Robin - he wanted to prove himself to the Batman but he ends up wanting to redeem himself, to prove he can be good. It’s why he goes after Clayface in the first part. It’s why he goes to Jason for help in the second issue. It’s why he decides to trust Tim to get into the party in the third part. All of this is done because he decides that he needs to prove himself as being good and trustworthy. In return for his hard work, the others return the sentiment of trust and love and therefore come to help get him back. To bring him back home. The lesson of this final issue is that those who want you as family will always be therefore you in the end. They will be the ones who come for you and who support you no matter the challenges they have to face. Damian finally sees that he has a family that he can truly rely on.
In conclusion, Ba’s storytelling is that of a young boy who learns that he does not have to be who he thought he had to be. It’s a story of second chances and relearning what you thought was true. As a Black Label, The Boy Wonder stands alone as a story. This gave some level of free reign to Ba as a storyteller and that freedom is used to teach important lessons. It’s a wholesome story all around and one that is beautifully pulled off through a fairytale-esque style.
it's out of this world how your life can drastically change in 24 hrs
I thought genuinely that my relationship was doing great, everything going smoothly and out of nowhere my boyfriend just starts talking about how he is breaking pieces of himself to fit in our relationship??? but that he doesn't want to break up with me???? he just wanted me to know that this metaphor of breaking plates to fit inside of a cabinet really resonated with him about our relationship???
just giving me this piece of info and hoping I will make the best out of it
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN
what am I supposed to do with the info that apparently for God knows how long the person I love the most has been feeling like this and it's because of me???? because of our relationship? what do I do?
