okay, so let's break down whatever this monstrosity is.
"I was only ever a tourist in her world" could not be a more inaccurate statement. if you've read any comic involving talia and bruce's relationship from the 70s-90s, you'd know they were obsessed with each other. while they had their flaws, it was a genuine, mutual relationship
"...and an unwilling one at that." aaand this is the magnum opus of this panel. we all know the retcon and how the fandom (and apparently authors) treats it. putting that phrase in any context with talia & bruce is like asking for people to take it and run with the "oh, it's canon again, let's all hate her now" or something along those lines. now, having that on its own just brought up would've been bad enough, but putting it directly above an illustration of the two of them clearly being intimate is like pulling the pin to a hand grenade.
"all steeped in her unorthodox cultural traditions" holy anti/arabphobia. the concept of this line even being thought of, let alone being written, making it past editorial, and being published. but then again, it's DC, so i'm not surprised.
"convinced his presence in my life would destroy me, she threw him [damian] in my lap." honestly, this may be one of the worst things ever written. the entire reason she sent him was to keep him safe and so damian could meet his father. could she have had other motives? yeah, maybe, but it wasn't to destroy bruce's life, nowhere near that extreme.
"... and ran away laughing." while i'm sure this is hyperbole, and she didn't literally walk away laughing, by saying that, implies she took pleasure in just dropping damian off with bruce and found it amusing. which, again, could not be any further away from the truth as this was one of the most difficult decsions she ever made + one of her biggest regrets. and due to the wording it implies she could basically care less about damian and just dropped him off without a second look, again could not be an even falser statement
"it became my job to both dismantle that time bomb, and to make it stronger." ah yes because the feral child will learn how to control himself, all thanks to his white father, after living with his arab maternal side for the first ten years of his life, yes, yes, exactly. and the whole "make it stronger" bit is so odd because you want to dismantle, which the definition of dismantling is: "to take apart a machine or structure so that it is in separate pieces." OR "to end an organization or system by gradually in an organized way." (oxford dictionary)
so you want to take what he learned from the league apart and just essentially reteach him? pick and choose what "pieces" from his time in the league he gets to keep and use while being robin? you do you ii guess.
now the big thing is, well, he would not fucking say that. bruce genuinely loved talia to the point he had her scent memorized. he respected her AND ra's. no way would he be caught dead talking about her or damian for that matter like this.
moral of the story, this whole thing is orientalist, and rascist. also i take back what i said about how talia fans have been eating lately. we are in fact on the edge of being sent back to purgatory & it was fun while it lasted.
Pleased to report that after a day of this i am not longer craving caper brine and my mouth is not dry as usual. There's some good suggestions in the notes too that I want to try.
-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)
-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt
one of my favorite bits in lord of the rings is something the movies didn't really try to do because it's entirely internal, but sam's carrying the ring and it starts trying to do its work on him, so he's having these intrusive visions of himself marching at the head of a vast and terrible army, and he just starts laughing because, me? samwise gamgee? sam gamgee the general sam gamgee the dark lord are you for real? man i just want to go home and do some gardening. and the ring gets frustrated and it starts trying to figure out other stuff that would actually tempt sam and it's finally like, okay, but hear me out: imagine if you could have...A REALLY REALLY BIG GARDEN
I LOVE COLLABORATIVE SOTRYTELLING I LOVE CREATING THINGS TOGETHER I LOVE "YES AND"ING WITH OTHERS I LOVE "NO BUT WHAT ABOUT-"S I LOVE HEARIJG MY FRIENDS' IDEAS I LOVE BOUNDING OFF OF THEM I LOVE ART I LOVE STORIES I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT PASSIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT MEDIA IT TAKES I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE
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