clash-of-moonbeams

Latest Posts by clash-of-moonbeams

Another "Guess that Artist" game in Haunting Heroes discord server. This time drawing fanarts for fics with less than 10k hits on ao3.

I chose amazing IRIS Log #1548 by @deadchannelradio!

Love this fic. "As buddies" got me. Hilarious and absolutely worth reading and then rereading twice. Or trice.

@arzuera thanks or hosting the game! @serxeri thanks for tormenting me! i won tho.

Go watch this. NOW.

The National Parks Service have purged trans people from the website on the Stonewall National Monument

“Those poor boys”

“She deserves to be punished too.”

“I’m not saying I support rape, but-”

“Sorry to say - she deserved it.”

“She put herself in harm’s way”

“But if she was fingered, then that’s not rape.”

“She ruined their lives.”

Sorry I had to do this xD Petey with his last opponent: Grampa!

Before the computing era, ILM was the master of oil matte painting, making audiences believe that some of the sets in the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogy were real when they weren’t. They were the work of geniuses like Chris Evans, Michael Pangrazio, Frank Ordaz, Harrison Ellenshaw and Ralph McQuarrie ! Forever thank you, to their handmade art and the work of their colleagues, that made us dream of impossible worlds and fantastic places across Earth and the Universe.

There are more background paintings on this article, featuring comments by the masters/artists themselves ! 

Some of the following pieces were made by other artists 2:

Just thinking about how the behavior of the aliens in Animorphs makes so much sense in the context of their biology.

Andalites are boastful, misogynistic, abilist, and unnecessarily secretive. They're like that because they're a species of herd animals that grew up on a planet of predators. Everything about the Andalites tells us that they are apex prey animals. They have natural camouflage (for the blue foliage of their planet) because if you get seen you get eaten. They have full 360° vision, because if you don't see the predator, you get eaten. They communicate psychically, because if you make noise, you get eaten. They eat from their feet while running because if you slow down to eat, you get eaten. They have a tail blade because IF a predator can see you and IF they can sneak up on you and IF you can't run away, your best hope is to convince them that they will have to bleed for every bite of your flesh.

That last one is important. So many prey animals survive by just looking like they're too much trouble to eat. Don't eat me, I'm too tough. Eat the guy next to me.

Generations of living like that has hardwired their brains into thinking that ANY show of vulnerability is a threat to your life. If you're smaller than the next guy, you get eaten. If your hooves are duller, you get eaten. If you look less experienced, you get eaten, etc. etc. etc.

Then you have the Yeerks. Little slugs with HUGE egos. And of course they need those massive egos. When you're trying to control a creature a hundred times bigger you have to act like you're a thousand times bigger than it. On top of that Yeerks are basically just self sufficient brains. Essentially no sensory organs, they eat though what is more or less photosynthesis. And since they're only brains, no bodies, they're prone to addiction. Not just oatmeal, but the addiction of sensation. A brain craves new experiences and rewards itself when it finds them. So the yeerks will strap themselves into a skull for days at a time, starving themselves of their limitless food supply, just for another hit of those sweet endorphins. They'll take whatever they can get be it cannibalistic taxxon or clumsy nearly useless gedd.

Speaking of Gedds, let's talk about those parasites. Now you're probably thinking "no, Gedds aren't the parasites, Yeerks are!" Are you sure? One defining characteristic of the Gedd is that one leg is shorter than the other. I see this as an evolutionary stroke of genius. Imagine, you are a Gedd, born with a malformed foot. Because of this you're far more clumsy than the rest of your species, so you fall down, stumble, and trip all the time. One day, you fall into a lake. When you get out of the lake, something has changed. You have a genius brain in your skull. This genius brain craves experience. It wants to eat, breed, see, feel, everything. Because it's a genius it can get you food, it can get you mates, it makes you king of your tribe. All because you had that one freak gene that gave you a wonky foot. So of course some of your offspring end up with the wonky foot gene, they fall into lakes and get free genius brains. Their lives are improved. They have more wonky footed children and so on and so forth. Your survival is all but guaranteed because these genius brains need you. You are their drug. They give you everything and in return you give them practically nothing.

Taxxons are in the same boat. Parasites to the yeerks, when you look at what their evolutionary path must have been. They were bugs under a queen. The queen gave them commands, dig here, forage there, care for the larvae. We know from the Animorphs adventures in ant land how overpoweringly distracting those kind of orders can be. A lot can fall by the way side when you're under the thrall of your queen, such as eating. So a simple solution is evolved: eat whatever you can whenever you can. Always be hungry, even if your body doesn't actually need food right now. You don't notice the hunger much because you have more important things to think about, the queen needs a tunnel here, better dig it now you'll just swallow anything that gets in tongue's reach. Of course, all that food, all that nutrition, eventually your species will develop bigger brains. You have more independent thoughts, better problem-solving, that's great for the whole species right? Except... Now that you can reason, you reason out that maybe the queen isn't always right. So you start experimenting with other approaches. Approaches that work! Great! Fantastic! You don't need a queen anymore! But...now there's nothing to distract you from that instinctive drive to eat what you can when you can. You're hungry all the time, no matter how much you eat, you feel like you're starving. If only you could turn off that part of your brain! Then one day a wonderful answer comes out of the sky. A species of genius brains who want bodies shows up. You have bodies and they can turn off you hunger. Easy solution. We read about how taxxon controllers are constantly struggling to keep their host body's hunger in check, I theorized that they're downplaying the severity of the effort. I think it takes nearly all a yeerk's focus just to manage the hunger, the taxxon remains in control of its own actions. No yeerk will ever admit it, though. They're junkies and getting half an experience high while fighting off the irrational pain of starvation is better than nothing. The taxxons get far more than they give up. As soon as they have an option to get rid of the hunger without giving anything to the yeerks, they take it.

And then we have humans. Illogical, impractical, unpredictable humans. What sets humans apart in the Animorphs world is that they have a left brain and a right brain and those two halves are always fighting. So many of the human characters are walking contradictions. Cassie, the pacifist who rips out her enemies throats with her teeth. Rachel, the killer who became a monster to stop the ones she loves from becoming monsters. Marco, who's always laughing while being deadly serious. Jake, the leader who always follows his team. Humans are always contradicting themselves because, in reality, they aren't. They're always arguing with the other side of their brain. Boldness vs caution. Violence vs peace. Fight vs flight. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other one does. That's what makes humans so unpredictable to other species, every choice they make is the result of an unknowable battle within.

Lest I forget, Hork-bajir. The only ones who have the benefit of evolutionary planning. They're smart enough to solve problems, but not curious enough to look for problems to solve. Equipped with the dangerous tools needed for their work, but not the drive to use them against their masters. Hork-bajir are seen to be a hardy species, able to heal from injury quickly, that, plus the face that they generally don't have any predators gives them that manatee/ capybara mindset. They may not know what you are, but they'll probably assume you're a friend because what else is there? They trust because they have never had a scenario where trusting another was the wrong move. They grew up in a Garden of Eden that didn't even have a snake. They are perhaps one of the few species that is actually a complete victim of the yeerks.

Listen.

EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas. 

It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS. 

There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.

also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.

Reblog To Save Life

I'm curious, what are nudibranchs? They sound neat.

nudibranchs are a whole order of marine invertebrates!! they're commonly called sea slugs!

you might know the sea bunny (Jorunna parva) which went viral for being so adorable with its little tiny bunny ear like rhinophores:

but nudibranchs come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and places all over the world!!! they range from literal bean size (blue glaucus) to Absolutely Mahoosive Specimen (black sea hare)

as much as i want to give a little kiss to every single one of them, it's recommended not to touch them because some of them are venomous, and some are protected under law depending where you are in the world! i will do so from a distance instead

Different Stories Resonate with Different People

Someone PLEASE save the jaykyle tag in ao3 we are so starved im gonna go insane

people whose favourite female character is seen as an extension of a shitty wlw ship by the fandom, and not as their own complex and amazing character, deserve financial compensation.

I think as a society we moved way to fast past David Duke being at a pro Palestine protest.

David Duke... the former grand wizard of the KKK.

Profesional white supremist neo nazi attended a protest for brown people, and everyone still claimed there was no antisemitism present.

Let me rephrase that.

A man who dedicated his life to hating brown people and jews, rocked up to an event meant to support brown people and protest the only jewish country, and people denied that there may be an antisemitism problem.

Being pro Palestine isn't inherently antisemitic. You can criticize Israel without being antisemitic. But if David fucking Duke of all people, shows up to your protest and is on your side, maybe, just maybe, there is an antisemitism problem in your specific protest

Dick Put Jason in Arkham!

Yeah! That sounds horrible with zero context. And I’ve been seeing an influx of posts recently acting like Dick is a terrible person because he did this…but I just wanted to clarify what happened in canon, because honestly he wasn’t being cruel or horrible. 

First thing to keep in mind is the characterization of the Jason that Dick was dealing with. He didn’t throw Rebirth anti-hero Jason Todd into Arkham…he was dealing with a Jason that had beaten Tim nearly to death twice, one who had nearly killed Bruce on several different occasions. 

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2 Jason attempts to kill Tim, and believes he has with no remorse. It is only luck that allows Tim to survive. 

In fact, Jason had nearly killed Tim very recently before Dick put Jason into Arkham. After Bruce’s death, Jason was written as really unstable. He wasn’t depicted as an anti-hero, he was pretty much a villain. He even describes himself as such: 

Batman and Robin (2009) #23 Jason talks to Bruce about transferring to another prison facility. 

“I am simply homicidal. Will I kill again? Sure. Am I a bad person? Oh yeah.” I would not say that this the characterization for Jason I prefer (not at all), but a psychotic, unhinged Jason Todd was the one that Dick was dealing with at the time all this went down. 

Keep reading

thank you for all your jason posts! it's frustrating when some more titans-adjacent fans (especially hurts if you like mia and others too) like to warp any fans of him into being like serial killer fetishists, or act really misogynist and assume one only likes him for being "hawt guy", and then even warp some of his canon faults and shitty moments to be even worse than they are like saying he killed everyone at mia's school or wanted to SA her. at least charge him with the crimes he really did, people.

They claim he what

They said he wanted to do what to Mia

I'm genuinely upset about this

Also yeah that sexism towards jason fans thing is so real like yeah assuming we're so shallow calling us "fanon fans"/assuming with zero proof that we don't read comics (which you know is just repackaged "fake fan" comicsgate discourse) it's so fucking annoying like "jason fans have stolen traits from other characters and his personality is just fanon and they just like him because they think he's woman-coded because they actually hate women but what can you expect from stupid little girls who wouldn't know any better"

It's almost like because this character is popular amongst women there's this assumption of shallowness.

And also like, I do make a lot of post about how interesting he is and the catharsis he brings but I feel like in the end nothing I say matters when it can be waved aside with "you're just bending backwards to defend your favourite serial killer white boy you fangirl", nevermind 1) my actual gender and 2) that jason isn't even a serial killer. It's like, I feel like being a Jason fan I always have to prove I'm not shallow to others and have a right to my interest, which is a very usual, tiring experience and like, when in doubt people should assume depth and intelligence. Why do I have to defend my depth all the time? I shouldn't have to be defensive all the time I shouldn't have to perform the social equivalent of an IQ test to be allowed to engage in fandom.

There's a lot of sexism in fandom and yes, this can definitely happen to female characters, I've seen the way people talk about Stephanie Brown or Talia al Ghul and Jesus fucking Christ wth. And yes, at large, there's also a question of the impact of sexism on popularity at large, aka characters that would definitely be more popular if they were men. That absolutely does not mean that liking a male character somehow makes you a misogynist (and especially not with how talk of sexism in fandom doesn't often take into account gender stuff) and most importantly sexism in fandom is not limited to sexism towards characters. People are sexist as fuck towards female fans¹, notoriously real life human people. But I'm not fucking shallow. I know when I'm being called a fangirl even if it's dressed up in fandom speech. "Read a comic" how about you read all the meta I've written about all those comics I have read.

So anyway sorry that got a little out of hand I'm pretty upset about that one but I'm really glad you like my posts! I'm just tired because as much as I love literary analysis I just wish I didn't have to be on the defensive all the time. Maybe next time someone claims we're shallow we can join forces to print out all the good JT meta out there into one big book and beat them up with it- aside from that I'm all out of solutions.

Also just one last thing - "they just like jason todd because they think he's hot" this is comics. Literally everyone is hot. Who's your fav? Starfire? Oliver Queen? Kyle Rayner? Dinah Lance? Donna Troy? Raven? Cassandra Cain? Dick Grayson? Do you think your fav is ugly? (John Constantine fans this doesn't concern you). "They just like him because he's hawt" is short for "because I don't find anything interesting in him I'm going to assume shallowness and act sexist about it because I can't conceive that different people have different tastes and may enjoy different things than me without acting superior about it." But also it's ridiculous because again, this is comics. They're hot. 🤦

1. And towards female writers. Devin Grayson I haven't forgotten you. They should be so ashamed of what they did to you.

This is one of those true, declassified government things that always sounds made up but one of the things Henry Kissinger did with his career was use the CIA to help turn small, prosperous socialist nations into fascist dictatorships just to keep those nations powerless and possibly to keep socialist systems *looking* doomed and futile to the American public, like maybe just to scare Americans out of demanding better infrastructure or universal income. Yes it sounds like an insane conspiracy theory a maniac would invent. It also happened multiple times and several generations of people around the world are still living in misery because of it.

Two Goddess OCs I made a couple of years ago that I’m planning to redesign. I have a fondness for them, but there’s a lot I could do to make them better

You are a long forgotten god. A small girl leaves a piece of candy at your shrine, and you awaken. Now, you must do everything to protect your High Priestess, the girl, and her entire kindergarten class, your worshipers.

I’d like to clear up some common misconceptions about the Attack on Titan Tower, aka when Jason infiltrated it to attack Tim

If you want to read this for yourself, here are some links: readallcomics - I have the best luck with this site on destop zipcomic readcomicsonline - this site can be temperamental

1) Jason did not go there to attempt to kill Tim

Jason seems to have 3 separate goals for this: - size up the new kid. - make sure he knows Bruce just sees him as another soldier - prove to Tim just how dangerous the job is (heavily implied, in my opinion, especially after Tim tried telling Jason he was wrong about how Bruce saw him) He also voiced his anger over being forgotten by everyone. Depending on your interpretation of Jason and his character, this could also be a reason. To me, this feels more like an afterthought because they moved to the Hall of Fallen Heroes before he said this, and Jason likes to be dramatic.

Side note on this. Jason never says anything about being replaced.

2) none of Tim’s injuries were life threatening

Once again, Jason was not attempting to kill him. He beat him up pretty badly, but it was designed to prove a point

3) Jason did NOT cut Tim’s throat.

That happened during Hush which predates both Under the Red Hood and Titan’s Tower. Jason was pretending to be Hush, put a knife to Tim’s throat, and put enough pressure to make him bleed (it was not an actual slice) to get Bruce to react to him. That injury was not life threatening either

Edit: I’ve seen some comments about the ‘not life threatening’ statement. Yes, it needed stitches, but it wasn’t spurting blood, therefore not life threatening. Just because you’re bleeding from a neck injury, it doesn’t mean you’re at an immediate risk of dying (spoken from experience). It’s if the carotid artery or jugular vein are cut that it’s a problem, and you’ll know if that happens because of SO MUCH BLOOD. You will bleed out within minutes.

The way it’s portrayed, it’s not a life threatening injury

4) Jason developed a respect and a bit of envy for Tim after fighting him

At the end of the issue while he’s leaving (while outside the tower), Jason acknowledges Tim’s skill. Jason also wonders if he could have had a life more similar to his, where he had friends and a better support system, if he could have had a different life.

5) Tim was NOT a damsel in distress during the fight, and he did NOT develop a fear of Jason.

Tim was making quips and dissing Jason the entire fight. Tim was not afraid of him nor did he bat an eye at being attacked by Jason. He also vocalized just how much he had to work for his cape because of how Jason's death affected Bruce

Also, the next time Tim saw Jason after this, he made sure to kick Jason in the groin

6) Jason wrote "Jason Todd was here" and signed it with a hand print on the wall.

It looks like it could be in blood, but Tim's not injured enough for there to be that much... and blood darkens after a while. There's a bit of time between Tim getting knocked out and the rest of the Titans finding him and the writing so it's probably paint. Again, Jason likes to be dramatic

7) more Robin!Jason slander by Raven

Once again, we get the mention that Jason was "aggressive". I swear, this is the only thing writers remember from Death in the Family and not the point that that behavior was out of the ordinary for Jason. This is a personal pet peeve of mine in the comics.

8) almost forgot to add the most important part, Jason made a homemade Robin costume and wore it under his Red Hood outfit because he could

Again, Jason is a dramatic bitch.

Times are troubling and hard right now-but never forget, your Beet loving Grandmother loves you very very much and wants you to be safe.

And for you to eat your vegetables.

NORMAL GIRLS

Anyways so Bruce Wayne is an overgrown manchild with attachment and control issues and hitting your kids, even if they are adults, is fucked up.

The Robins & co are not often possessed in a way that "justifies" beating them.

Just because the "adult batkid" swings first (usually because Bruce is being preemptively shitty, like lying to them and forcing them to the place they died at to re-trigger them about their death, or having secretly faked their death after their real actual temporary death and forcing them to submit to pretending to be dead and going undercover on a mission he wants them to go on, to pick some non-random examples) does not mean subsequently beating them into submission isn't abusive as he has a position of emotional power over them.

Additionally, there are ways to abuse your kids without beating them. Such as Tim's 16th birthday thing. Everything Bruce did to Stephanie pretty much. Isolating them (multiple incidents of this including the 16th birthday thing, the implications that Bruce doesn't want Robin!Jason to work with the Teen Titans, Stephanie again, his general stance that Cass doesn't need to get involved in more civilian things because "she isn't interested" & encouraging her worst habits). Pressuring Duke operate in the suit Bruce gave him despite his personal preferences being something else might not be strictly "abusive" bit it's definitely over-controlling of him.

And look I don't give a fuck what in-universe justifications there are. if the person you have power over, adult or child, stops hitting back, you really don't have any fucking excuse if you keep beating them (RHATOv2 25, I think the dick thing was still in forever evil, right? or was that the beginning of Grayson?). I'm still not over the "I wasn't beating my kids I taught them a coded language that I was sending them messages by hitting them." <- not a normal thing!! No I don't care that they're vigilantes no one else in-universe does that shit!!! FUCKING NO ONE!!!

And! I mean there are instances where that's the case like Dick cussing Bruce out about Jason's death and Bruce punched him. Yeah I'm familiar with visual symbolism and what that was meant to do at the time, that doesn't change the fact that when we get further patterns of the behavior, the context stops fucking mattering. (Uhh, didn't he also hit Tim after Catwoman left him at the altar? I don't really read for him often so idr.)

God, other people probably could go on in more detail and my recollection here might not be perfect bcs for once I'm not just going and pulling up every fucking source like I normally would, sue me I'm sick, but hoooly fucking shit. "Yeah he hit them but it wasn't abuse" that's really the take you're going with here??? That's really the take you're fucking going with here????

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of free resources for different sign languages:

American Sign Language (ASL)

Australian Sign Language (Auslan)

Australian Indigenous Sign Languages

Black American Sign Language (BASL)

Brazilian Sign Language (LSB)

British Sign Language (BSL)

Chinese Sign Language (CSL)

Emirati Sign Language (ESL)

French Sign Language (LSF)

Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Indian Sign Language (ISL)

International Sign Language (IS)

Irish Sign Language (ISL)

Japanese Sign Language (JSL)

New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)

Mexican Sign Language (LSM)

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL)

Polish Sign Language (PJM)

Ukrainian Sign Language (USL)

Yolŋu Sign Language (YSL)

Please feel free to add on if you know of others, be it more resource for one of the sign languages above, or resources for learning any of the other 300 plus sign languages.

Edit: I updated the ASL reference to Bill Vicars, but reminder that these are just things I found around, please find Deaf teachers wherever possible! And for ASL, lifeprint.com is another wonderful resource.

Jason does a really interesting thing in UtRH where he consistently positions himself with the other victims of the Joker. Every speech he makes about the Joker is essentially "them and, worse, me". The worse there being because Jason is Bruce's son. His argument over the various moments (and this goes for Lost Days, as well), comes down to this: It is bad enough that Bruce didn't kill the Joker before Jason died. That, in itself, when the Joker had already killed who knows how many, when he had already shot Barbara (and Jason was alive when that happened, canonically) - that is nearly indefensible.

But even if he forgives that. Even if he accepts that.

The Joker then killed Bruce's son. And not only did Bruce not kill him them, he continued to not kill him, even when bodies continued to pile up. Note that at this point in continuity, not only does Joker likely have a body count well into the triple digits, he's also attempted mass infanticide and killed Gordon's wife (fiance?).

And yet. For his moral code, for his peace of mind, because it would be too easy - Bruce lets him live. And inherently, in the world of DC as it exists, letting the Joker live means letting the Joker kill. Even if you don't agree, it's certainly what Jason believes, look at what he says:

"I thought I'd be the last person you let him hurt."

So here's our scene: Jason, who has been positioning himself as both Bruce's son and also just another victim of the Joker, is holding the Joker at gunpoint. The options are: let Jason kill the Joker, or kill Jason.

Him or me, you have to choose.

This is a choice. This was always the choice. Inaction is still a choice. Every victim of the Joker is also a victim of the collateral of the no killing rule.

Him or me, you have to choose.

Bruce has to choose. No more pretending his choice doesn't have direct victims, no more acting like no-killing doesn't also mean accepting that the victim's of the Joker are a sacrifice to the rule.

Him or me.

Him or me.

Him or me.

You have to decide. You have to choose, now, while his victim looks you in the eyes. You have to choose while the victim still has a voice to tell you you're making the wrong choice.

But Bruce is Bruce. And he tries a third way. And everybody loses! Bruce finds a way to win and everybody loses - but then, maybe that's been the choice he's been making this whole time, over and over. Until there were graveyards full of the consequences.

If Jason is going to be wrong, let him be wrong and cathartic. Let him be wrong and still a voice of every victim. Let him be wrong and unforgiving, uncomprising, demanding every hero to choose, to look at the graveyards full of bodies and know their role in it.

Let him be rage and grief and blood crying for blood, of everyone who has ever been collateral.

new ebbits! new site!

I think “Mastermind” could have been a stronger episode if the trial focused on the fact that Stolas’ incompetence has led to humans discovering the existence of Heaven and Hell.

In the past, there have been alluded to consequences about I.M.P creating a commotion up top and not being careful, so why not have that finally come back to bite everyone in “Mastermind”? But, what do I mean by saying it’s the fault of Stolas, you may ask? After all, it was I.M.P who did their business without being properly careful, right?

That’s still technically on Stolas.

Alright, consider the other two times we see Hell-born doing a job up top, that being Barbie-Wire and the succubi. Both parties not only had a way to get there, but a human disguise as well. Presumably, Barbie-Wire and the succubi were given both Asmodean crystals and human disguised by their employers, because you know they’re supposed to be discreet and all. We could also assume they all got some form of training on how to act, too. Why am I bringing this up though?

It’s because Stolas irresponsibly let I.M.P have access to the living world without training or human disguises!

A high-ranking Goetia prince gave access to his grimoire, and that was all he did, presumably with an assumption they would be careful. And then in the D.H.O.R.K.S episode, he just leaves the two head agents alive! Two humans who have knowledge about Hell being a thing are just hand-waved away by him, simply stating that nobody would believe them. No wiping their minds or anything, they’re just left there!

Which comes back to bite everyone because those two had actual evidence that was believed, and now they’re working to open a portal to Hell. Even after that episode and “Seeing Stars”, Stolas doesn’t give them human disguises, even after Blitzø had asked about getting some earlier.

Tl;Dr of it all is that Stolas is responsible for I.M.P’s actions up top and them not being properly careful. Mostly because he didn’t give them the resources needed other than the book.

Ok, but how would Andrealphus know all about this?

That…actually comes with a bit of a rewrite. So imagine if Andrealphus, after Stella won’t get anything from the divorce, sends out an imp to spy and regularly report back to him about Stolas (and eventually I.M.P’s) actions through one of his tail feathers. In this rewrite, Andrealphus has the ability to see things through his tail feathers, making the fact that he’s a peacock matter in the narrative.

So through his spy (sent after the events of “Western Energy”) Andrealphus learns that Stolas gave the grimoire away to be used. But not only that, the spy sees the fight with the cherubs, as well as them leaving via portal that doesn’t look like a standard one used often in Hell, and it doesn’t look like something Heaven would use either. So the spy brings back their findings, which Andrealphus brings to the Sins. An investigation is then launched (presumably during the time period between “Apology Tour” and “Ghostf**kers”), and a lot of damning evidence is found by the agents that were sent (presumably by Satan).

So, that’s when the trial is set up, and both I.M.P and Stolas are brought in. Several things are properly brought to light, Stolas is found guilty (but I.M.P got off scott-free, a rarity in Hell), and he’s striped of his title, legions, everything. Satan states that it’s a fitting punishment, since he can’t be trusted with his former position and the responsibility that vmcomes with it. And Octavia’s still 17, so Andrealphus temporarily serves as a regent until the day of her 18th birthday. Meanwhile, the Sins go to talk about just how bad the damage is, and what they can do to fix it.

Maybe one of them suggests bringing Lucifer in, but that’s shot down by Satan, alluding to how Lucifer hasn’t gotten involved in the state of affairs in Hell for a while now.

…So that’s my vague idea for a rewrite that I think makes a better episode. What do y’all think?

"Bruce and Jason are the worst communicators! They'd find common ground if they just sat down and talked!"

I know it varies from comic to comic, but I can't get on board with this take for how many times I've seen Jason be so incredibly real with Bruce, only for him to come at Jason with the most irreparable emotional gut punches, regardless of how he meant them.

This isn't even the only time I've seen Jason speak very openly about his feelings. And this is proceeding what Bruce always does, which is bring him into these situations, only to tell him "Get out" as soon as he's outlived his use.

Out of the many issues DC has with its own writing, how they use dialogue and convenient narration to manipulate audience perspective is the one that makes me question why I keep reading these comics. Obviously, this isn't limited to DC, but it is one of the worst cases I've seen.

Let's take Batman and Red Hood, for example. Comics from Jason's perspective often portray the Dark Knight as being a distant, controlling, emotionally neglectful and even physically abusive as a Father/mentor-- And before any Batman stans come for me, he isn't the only one writers do this with. Bear with me and you'll see why this is a problem.

DC almost always purposely uses this as drama at the cost of inconsistent character writing. Most have agreed that the way Bruce gets written when any of his kids are in the picture is messed up. Read enough of them and you'll notice a pattern: He does something borderline abusive, the plot progresses, and you can practically feel the writers realize this might make their cash cow Bat look bad (God Forbid.) But instead of the comics calling him out or changing his behavior, they shift dialogue to try and manipulate the narrative as if Batman was correct the whole time, and anyone not doing things his way is just wrong.

This doesn't just happen to Red Hood, but staying on him as an example, there will be a turning point in the plot where every other character involved is suddenly adamant that Jason is being immature, stupid, reckless, etc, and whatever trouble he's in was his fault to begin with, even when he's been doing things Batman's way. Heroes, neutral parties, and even villains start mocking and condescending to him, sometimes for doing the exact same thing that Bruce gets praised for. However reversibly, Batman does something just as bad (or even worse) and the narrative is that it was completely justified or the outcome is retconned/changed in his favor. Yet when this hypocrisy does get called out in comic, Bruce gives his usual edgy "Exactly, I don't want you to be like me." As if the writers are trying to look directly at the audience and say "See? He's just a flawed character! He's relatable!"

This leads to people hyper-defending every action of Batman instead of criticizing the writing behind it. "Bruce respects his kids! He says so in issue #467889999--" Just because the writers put the words in Batman's mouth doesn't mean anything when his actions don't back it up.

There's a reason why Show, don't tell is such a crucial writing rule. Portraying Batman as controlling and abusive, only to twist the narrative that he was "right all along," by

- changing the rules last minute

-having everyone verbally discredit his opponent

- emphasize how "badass and right Batman was" in every goddamn exchange

is lazy and poor writing. "I respect Nightwing," means nothing when Batman undermines him, insults him, criticizes his choices or punches him for the sake of ✨️the drama.✨️

It would be like telling the story of Snow White, where everything is exactly the same except she regularly kicks small animals, and bullies the dwarves. But the magic mirror, the Hunter and the dwarves still all emphasize what "kind and gentle Princess" she is without ever addressing her actions. Inconsistent character writing means the drama loses its effect. If your character can just sidestep their convictions for the sake of the plot, especially in a character driven story, then there is no character. A game with no rules, roles or directive isn't a game. That's why DC fanon is usually more popular, because somehow an entire fandom has managed to create more consistency than a team of writers.