Sci-fi Short Stories Are So Efficient; They Take 15 Minutes To Read And Then You Think About Them For

Say what you will about the rise and fall of Young Justice but they really did pop off with their iteration of Batman.

They did right by my man Bruce Wayne—he was seriously not to be fucked with.

Like, the third season really did me in. This bitch had plans with plans, was willing to absolutely verbally annihilate the League at the drop of a hat, and pretty much told everyone to kiss his ass while he fucked off to save the world with nothing but his team of former protégés and his own goddamn brain power.

And you know what? It. Fucking. Worked. (Basically.)

Because he’s Batman.

He was brilliant to watch in the first season—he was an excellent mentor, a total badass in the field, and he was a good father figure to Robin. (He was actually surprisingly gentle with him, like he wanted to guide Robin instead of boss him around, which I really appreciated).

Such a king. Rest in peace Young Justice Batman.

can anybody hear me

imagine your little brother gets married to a beautiful and wonderful woman that makes him a better version of himself and you and her become really good friends and the four of you including your husband become a unit and you're close and you like each other and your little brother is so happy and fulfilled and then his wonderful wife dies horribly and leaves him stricken and permanently changed with grief and he sinks so low that he permanently cuts his mind in two just so he can make the days go by faster and get work done without being haunted by his dead wife who he still loves and you also still love her and you really love your brother and you can't stop him from making the decisions he makes but you can keep reminding him you love him by being someone he can lean on and never letting up your affectionate teasing of him and in general being a "way better sibling than him" and you never agree with how he's handling his life and you're never trusting of his employers but you still haven't found a way of telling him you disapprove without pushing him further away and that's the last thing you want because he's your brother and you're all each other has and you can't help but love his stupid annoying ass and then one night his alternate self shows up to talk to you and ask you for help and he's so different and earnest and vulnerable and interested and bright-eyed and he smiles at you and you so badly want to help him but then he's gone and you're left exhausted and overwhelmed and there you are you're nearing middle age and you're life has wound up in this fucked up place where you're caring for your strange and awkward but loyal and loving manchild of a husband, your actual child who has just been born, and your fucked up grieving suicide risk of a little brother who has gone and got himself caught up in some kind of dystopian corporate conspiracy just because he'd rather let himself be exploited for labour through ethically dubious brain surgery rather than face up to his feelings which are too grotesque and intense for you to ever fathom or understand and that scares you because you want to understand him but you can't. and he's never been more out of reach. okay you've successfully simulated what it's like to be devon scout and that's why she's the best character in the show

why are all these modern aus for the Odyssey set in a high school. where's the retelling where Odysseus is just a guy lost in an airport who keeps missing his connecting flights home due to a comical series of delays and disgruntled airline employees

Here's an addition to the previous Mal redesign I posted, just with an extra outfit. This is my take on her coronation dress at the end of the story, fully embracing the red palette that was previously creeping in, now that she's standing in her individuality, away from and opposing her mother.

I wanted her coronation look to have a mix of princess and lightness in there, but not take away the witchiness and villain aesthetic from her. I also gave her a small cape to reflect her hero moment at that point in the story.

These are some images I was looking at for her two looks, going back to some early concepts from Sleeping Beauty (1959):

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the whole point of a zine is that it's cheap to produce, amateur and homemade. if you're being asked to apply to participate in a print project, it is not a zine. if the final product is being printed and bound professionally, it is not a zine. if you are being asked to enter into any kind of licensing agreement more complex than "my work can be reproduced as part of this publication" it is not a zine. nine times put of ten if the final product costs more than $5 you have left zine country. im so serious about this.

I have some random thoughts about Vace from Teenage Exocolonist. (It's been a while since I played, so hopefully I haven't gotten anything incorrect.)

He was always so insufferable at the start, but I really like characters who can grow and actually become better people, because that doesn't happen often enough in real life. And he really does change, if you can get through to him. It's not an instant, overly perfect change, it's still a struggle for him, but he never stops trying. He doesn't even ask for forgiveness from the people he hurt, he understands they don't owe him that, he just acknowledges his wrongs and tries to right them and be better.

And when you think about what the Helios society is like and learn about his upbringing, his past, it doesn't make some of his actions excusable, but it does make them make more sense. He was abused by his parent. His enhancement, according to the artbook, is a perfect body or something like that, though in-game it's listed as having a big dick. That's what he was raised to believe is most important in life. Helios seems to be a society of toxic masculinity and bullying and "might makes right." He says himself, "I was born because they knew they'd need the next generation of soldiers to fight." IIRC, Rex and Nomi are anomalies on Helios. Vace is the norm. Vace is the ideal. And he's still young. All the adults in his life are just as much to blame, and at least (again, depending on the ending) he's breaking that cycle. That's a credit to him. That he's willing to go against so much of what's ingrained in his mind, to face the regret or shame or pain that comes with acknowledging your wrongs, and say, "I'm going to be better than that from now on." The world would be a better place if more people did that.

Listen, in real life, I'd have most likely avoided him pre-change because he is a real asshole at the start, and I wouldn't blame anyone hurt by him for not forgiving him. But as a character, I like him a lot *shrug* There's more depth to him than it first seems there is, and he has a great redemption arc. And although some of his convo after he starts therapy is a bit cliche and maybe a bit more insightful than is realistic for most people, it's a great look at how someone's upbringing can mess them up and what it means to genuinely change and try to do right by the people you've hurt.

Also he did sometimes make me laugh when he was just being grumpy or full of himself 😅

i feel like we don't appreciate these days how much the twin towers sucked, like, design-wise

they were contemporarily hated for just being these giant grey monoliths

like there probably could've been an easier way to get rid of them, but they probably needed to go either way

ok but all the jokes aside, i DO appreciate the fact that Rise of Red brought back a theme that's not only central to the story of descendants as a whole, but that's also been neglected in the last few installments of the franchise: the theme of parental abuse and the empowerment of the abused child to take back their life and learn to be loved

it also touched on the theme of moral ambiguity, and the reality of living with certain privileges (and the blind spots that come with them)

the execution is debatable, obviously, but they were there, and i appreciate that, especially since they're pretty rare themes in children's mainstream media

INFO POST

Welcome to queereads-brackets, a tournament blog where queer books face-off by genre! May your to-read list expand to unwieldy levels

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Monstrous Regiment by Terry Prachett

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