Bruce Wayne doesn't know how to react when being called a dad or how to act when he is being treated like one, even if he is one, because Alfred "I'm just the butler" Pennyworth never learned or understood he is Bruce's dad. In this essay I will
Hello welcome my ADHD themed gameshow, "So you were holding it literally moments ago but now it's gone" the where YOU look for whatever you were just holding while going increasingly mad
I'm just trying to get the mood right
Reblog if you didn't notice the missing words
Always RB: because there is never enough love. And fanfic love is some of the purest.
Folks let me talk about Crowley and sunglasses, because I have a lot of emotions about when he wears them and when he doesn’t, and Hiding versus Being Seen.
We’re introduced to the concept of Crowley wearing glasses even before we’re introduced to Crowley, by Hastur: “If you ask me he’s been up here too long. Gone native. Enjoying himself too much. Wearing sunglasses even when he doesn’t need them.”
Honestly Crowley’s whole introduction is a fantastic; we learn so much about his character in a tiny amount of time. The fact that he’s late, the Queen playing as the Bentley approaches, the “Hi, guys” in response to Hastur and Ligur’s “Hail Satan”. I like this intro much better than the one originally scripted with the rats at the phone company, but I digress.
Crowley wears sunglasses when he doesn’t need them. Specifically, he still wears them around the demons, and when he’s in hell.
You know where Crowley doesn’t wear glasses? At home.
We never once see him wearing glasses in his flat, except for when he knows Hastur and Ligur are coming. That’s an emotional kick to the gut for me. Here’s one of the only places Crowley’s comfortable enough to be sans glasses, and when he knows it’s going to be invaded he prepares not just physically with the holy water, but by putting up that emotional barrier in a place where he wasn’t supposed to need it.
An argument could be made that Crowley actually never needs glasses. We’re shown that it’s well within the angels’ and demons’ powers to pass unnoticed by humans. Crowley and Aziraphale waltz out of the manor in the middle of a police raid, and going unnoticed by the police takes so little effort that they can keep up a conversation while they stroll through. Even an unimaginative demon like Hastur apparently doesn’t have trouble with the humans losing it over his demonic eyes. The humans in the scene at Megiddo are acting like “this guy is a little weird” and not “holy shit his entire eyeballs are black jelly”
That means that Crowley’s glasses are a choice, just like Aziraphale’s softness. Sure, he could arrange matters so that nobody ever noticed his eyes, but he doesn’t want to. Crowley wants acceptance, and he wants to belong, and he’s never, ever had that. He didn’t fit in before the Fall in Heaven, he doesn’t fit in with the demons in Hell. With the glasses, and with the Bentley and his plants and with the barely-bad-enough-to-be-evil nuisance temptations, he’s choosing Earth. This is where he wants to fit in, perhaps not with the humans, but amongst them.
Even after Crowley is at his absolute lowest, when he thinks Aziraphale’s dead and he’s on his way to drink until the world ends, he takes the time to put a new pair on when the old ones are damaged. He needs that emotional crutch right now, even with everything about to turn into a pile of puddling goo he’s not ready for the world to see his eyes.
Which is why I swore out loud when Hastur forcibly takes them off.
It’s about the worst thing that Hastur could have done. Rather than leading with a physical threat, his first act is to strip away Crowley’s emotional defences. It’s a great writing choice because god it made me hate Hastur, even more than all the physical violence we see him do.
It’s also the moment that Crowley really truly gets his shit together, and focuses all of his considerable imagination on getting to Tadfield and Aziraphale to help save the world. He’s wielding the terrifyingly unimaginable power of someone who’s hit rock bottom and realised it literally could not get any worse than this. He doesn’t put another pair of glasses on after discorporating Hastur, and he spends the majority of the airbase sequence without them.
He puts them back on again, I think, at the moment that he really lets himself hope. When he thinks ‘shit, there may be a real chance that we get through this to a future that I don’t want to lose’.
The vulnerability is back, and he needs Adam to trust him. In Crowley’s mind being accepted by a human means he needs to have his eyes hidden. Someone give the demon a hug, please.
Interestingly, there’s only one time in the whole series that we see Crowley willingly choose to take his glasses off around another person. Only one person he’ll take down that barrier for, and even then he’s drunk before he does it.
Dear God/Satan/Someone that makes my heart ache. Crowley’s chosen Earth, but he’s also chosen Aziraphale. He’s been looking for somewhere to belong his entire existence, and it’s with the angel that he finally feels it.
When the dust settles and the world is saved and they finally have space to be themselves unguarded, I like to imagine Crowley takes off the glasses when it’s just the two of them; the idea of being known doesn’t scare him quite so much anymore.
I reblogged this post this morning, and I’ve literally been thinking about it all day. (I mean what a good analysis @theladyzephyr!!)
In particular, I’ve been thinking about how this idea applies to the sunglasses in the Aziraphale as Crowley scenes. On one hand, maybe the rule of sunglasses as a way to create an emotional boundary doesn’t hold up in these scenes, because we’re dealing with Aziraphale.
Now, personally, I think Aziraphale knows Crowley well enough to knows when and why Crowley chooses to wear his sunglasses. Maybe he doesn’t get every individual reason as to why, but we never see Aziraphale push the boundary with the sunglasses. He doesn’t joke about them. He doesn’t force Crowley to take them off. He just accepts the sunglasses, because he understands and respects that they are important to Crowley.
So we then we have the swap, and Aziraphale!Crowley is brought to Hell.
During Crowley’s trial, Aziraphale chooses to keep the glasses on. This is very in line with Crowley’s character. He’s in Hell, surrounded by demons who want him dead, and he’s just watched the archangel Michael pour him a lovely bath of holy water. This is to say, in this situation Crowley would 100% be scared and need the security of the glasses.
And then we see Crowley in the bathtub.
No sunglasses. This is where we see Aziraphale breaking from Crowley’s character.
Why is this breaking character? Because Crowley, when handling holy water in ep5 to set up for Hastur and Lingur, has his glasses on. Yes, he’s in battle mode, but the directors could have decided that he put on his glasses after Home Alone-ing his apartment. They don’t. Instead, we have this scene with Crowley in his glasses pouring the holy water into a bucket, and I think that it’s partially because Crowley is aware that he could screw up here. He could end up in a puddle of goo before Hastur and Lingur turn up, and part of dealing with that potential reality is by hiding behind the sunglasses.
So back to the bathtub. If Crowley was about to face his extinction in front all of Hell, he sure as fuck wouldn’t take off his glasses.
But Aziraphale chooses to take the glasses off.
There are a couple reasons he might have done this. He might have wanted to keep the glasses free from holy water, like the coat, not wanting to risk potential harming Crowley when they switch back. This is a cute idea truly, but we also know that Crowley has back up glasses and, honestly, Aziraphale would have bought him new ones anyway (again, like the coat).
Aziraphale might have also removed the glasses, because maybe he doesn’t know when or why Crowley wears his glasses. This seems unlikely, because, I mean, this is Aziraphale we’re talking about. He knows Crowley better than anyone.
So that leaves us with the idea that this was a deliberate choice. Aziraphale decided that the sunglasses needed to be removed. And, in doing so, he creates a tremendous amount of power for Crowley. Taking off the sunglasses is a louder fuck you than any ask for a rubber duck or a towel could have been.
By removing the sunglasses, Aziraphale!Crowley has essentially said “I am not afraid of you. I am comfortable as myself. You cannot hurt me.” It’s powerful.
And then there’s one more detail.
Aziraphale!Crowley has also chosen to go full demon eyed, instead of the human/demon eye that Crowley uses throughout most of the series. And I think that this choice was to further reinforce this idea of Crowley taking his power back. The full demon eyes take away the humanness of Crowley (which we, as viewers, know is a good trait, but the demons of Hell see humanness more negatively), but it replaces that humanness with an incredible amount of self acceptance/ confidence. In other words, this is Aziraphale saying “Try me bitch,” while all the other poo their pants.
Aziraphale!Crowley survives, and our bois get back together.
And the sunglasses are back on. This was also Aziraphale’s decision, and, to me, this is Aziraphale acknowledging that Crowley still needs that emotional barrier. He’s back in character. Back to understanding and acting as Crowley, because he knows that his display would be enough to keep Crowley safe for the time being.
Anyway, if I don’t stop here, I’ll never stop talking about Crowley’s sunglasses. But here! Have a gif of Aziraphale walking like Crowley. My treat. Thanks for reading!
Oh I missed this one and it is excellent. Taking off the glasses to get in the bath is a key component of Aziraphale playing Crowley as he sees him: the cool badass. It’s mind-bending what the two actors are doing here. Now I want to go back and, as well as the slightly rolling walk, look for details of how Crowley plays Aziraphale (as an officer, a gentleman, and a badass).
I had seen the first part of this meta but not the second, and the whole thing is absolutely excellent ❤️.
This meta hits the nail nicely, but let’s hit it one more time -
Specifically, I want to clarify: Crowley’s sunglasses aren’t really his emotional crutch. The words “emotional defenses” were spot on - The sunglasses are Crowley’s armor.
Especially as Angels and Demons don’t really fight only in the same physical way as humans - Crowley definitely uses his glasses like plate mail, and he’s going into battle every damned day of his existence.
And as angelite-and-serpentine pointed out above, Aziraphale absolutely knows how he uses it.
So we might be tired of this, but I’m going to unpack the “unarmored” scenes again.
The first, drunk in the bookstore, Crowley is making the choice here, to be unarmored around Aziraphale. It’s a legitimate expression of Trust, whether or not Crowley is fully conscious of this. He forgoes his defenses because he knows to his soul that Aziraphale would never hurt him.
The second, where Hastur takes the glasses away, everything’s been said. Hastur stole Crowley’s armor off here. And Crowley is given every single reason, even though he’s driving to battle, to believe that nothing he does will make a difference. So why armor up, when the battle is already lost? It won’t matter, in the end, Crowley thinks, so even taking the two seconds to replace his pair? Not worth it. Until he has some kind of hope again, and he armors up, because he does have a very good sense of self-and-Aziraphale-preservation.
The third, where Aziraphale-as-Crowley takes them off in the bathtub scene though? That’s the really interesting one.
Because Aziraphale is absolutely sending a message here, and the goal is to scare the shit enough out of Heaven and Hell alike so that both he and Crowley are left alone. The goal isn’t just a projection of strength, it’s a projection of You cannot harm me in any way that matters.
The goal is to make all of Hell feel like Crowley felt when Hastur stripped the glasses away - to make it so the armor isn’t even a factor in the equation.
So Aziraphale removing Crowley’s glasses for the bathtub? It’s very much a show of Power here. Here he is, telling all of Crowley’s biggest fears: “I am Crowley, and I don’t need armor to beat you. You have no weapons that can harm me anymore. Do your worst, and I’ll still survive. And if you piss me off, I will come for you, and nothing you can do will stop me.”
And that show, that display, of Power, is exactly why the bathtub scene is so effective. It’s not just Aziraphale showing Crowley as unafraid as confident. No, it’s the literal removal of Crowely’s armor to present him as undefended, and turning that into the message of even at my weakest, you cannot harm me.
“I need attention or I will die” vs. “the only things I want to write are huge passion projects for old/small/dead fandoms”
babygirl I'm bothered by noises you wouldn't even hear
wrote this about sensory issues but people relating because of hallucinations or tinnitus or anything else I am shaking your hand in solidarity if you are comfortable with that
[Rings a tiny silver bell] Jeeves, bring me my boxes of illegal documents, you know I can't enjoy a bath without my several boxes of illegal documents.
"Do you like this character?🥺?" I want to see him sobbing and writhing in a ditch. Leave me alone
We're number one! We're number one! We're number one!
Me, a Danny Phantom fan: “Only 114? that number seems low...”
Me: “Oh, wait. Some of them are probably tagged as ‘Dissection’ instead. That would do it.”
cracker barrel.... has fallen
CRACKER BARREL HAS. FALLEN!!!!!!!!!!
A second queer has hit the Cracker Barrel
Rainbow capitalism can be silly but I hope on some level y’all understand what it means that the second-most conservative restaurant chain in America* decided that marketing to the LGBTQ+ community is more profitable than marketing to homophobes. Like I’m not saying we all need to go buy some grits, just take it as a sign that homophobes are losing the culture war they started. Do you know how mad this chair is going to make thousands of grandpas that won’t be able to play Giant Checkers because they’re scared it will turn them gay
* behind Chick-Fil-A, yes American food chains have political ideologies
If you are making a boy character into a girl character for a gender swap art thing you better put that bulk back on that girl or so help me. You think girls are allergic to muscles? To fat? Do you think big bulky butch women are imaginary or something?? If that boy is as wide as a fridge that girl better be a deep freezer. Cowardice. Rights for women that are built like a tank!
In other news:
This is probably a really dumb question. But is it okay for us non-Jewish people to reblog the very lovely quote about how it's okay not to complete the work, but we're not allowed to abandon it? Because I'm not Jewish, I follow you, and b/c of your posts I've been seeing how really shitty we non-Jews are w/assimilation and stuff, & I don't want to do wrong by anybody. Thanks, Marbles
OKAY SO.
As with all things Jewish, there’s a short answer and there’s a good answer. There also is no “right” answer, because “two Jews, three opinions” is an underestimation of how many opinions you can fit into one Jew, but this is MY answer, and I think a decent chunk of Jews will probably find it at least mostly acceptable.
For those just tuning into this program, the quote @marblesarelost is referring to is my favorite in all of Judaism, and was written by Rabbi Tarfon in a section of Talmud called the Pirkei Avot:
“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Walk humbly NOW! Do justly NOW! No one is obligated to complete the work, but neither may any one desist from it.”
The “work” being spoken of is to repair the world, or in Hebrew, “tikkun olam.” It’s the central tenet of my movement in Judaism, the Reform movement.
So: you are absolutely correct that there’s a huge problem with gentiles appropriating things from Judaism. However, let’s go back to the original, actual definition of cultural appropriation, as created by Black women: it’s not just that you do a thing we do. It’s that you mock or berate us for a thing, then turn around and take that thing, strip it of all its original meaning, and use it, and suddenly in your hands it’s “cool.” When the concept of cultural appropriation first fell onto my radar circa 2016, one of the major examples was dreadlocks, and how clean, well-kept locs on a Black woman are “unprofessional” and “dirty” but the kind-of-vaguely-looks-like-locs-if-you-get-drunk-and-squint deliberately-created MATS some white people wear and call “locs” are seen as a sign you’re “boho” or “a free spirit.” This was closely followed by discussion of bindis, and how they’re treated with disdain when worn by Indian women but Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande puts one on and suddenly they’re sooooooo chic.
(Yes, in an ironic twist you couldn’t put in a book because people would call it unrealistic, the very concept of cultural appropriation has been appropriated.)
So with the actual, this-is-what-the-Black-community-meant definition in front of you for reference, take a look at these questions. These are rhetorical—anybody with the degree of self-awareness to say “I don’t know if this thing from a closed religion is for me” is probably not doing any of this. It’s just here for reference.
—do you see a problem with “Christian Seders” or do you think Jews should be flattered other people are interested, geez, it’s not like we’re being murdered?
—do you make fun of people wearing skullcaps/kippot/yarmulkes, or do you recognize it’s cultural garb?
—do you get all weird and pissy over the major Jewish holiday season being in fall rather than in winter?
—do you conflate Jews with Israel or do you recognize that these are two separate groups with some overlap?
—do you make fun of Orthodox clothing and hairstyles?
If you can honestly say “no, I realize this is a culture of its own and things I don’t understand aren’t necessarily ‘wrong’ or ‘weird,’ just different,” you’re in a good position to share Jewish voices.
HERE IS WHERE THE CURVEBALL COMES IN.
This quote is from Talmud.
And unlike things like, say….talking about a Seder you were invited to, or saying “may you be sealed” to a Jewish friend on Yom Kippur, the Talmud is not semi-closed, it’s *closed.* People study Talmud all their lives in the hope of gaining even a small glimmer of understanding. It has to be studied in the context of being well-versed in Torah and Jewish interpretation, because removing it from that context renders it entirely incomprehensible.
WITH THAT SAID.
I think this is one of the few places in Talmud where there is, at a bare minimum, a surface understanding that’s applicable to everyone. Certainly Rabbi Tarfon’s words carry additional weight with the force of Jewish learning and tradition behind them, but I’m pretty sure if you could sit down with him and say “Rabbi, your words inspired me to keep fighting for my community. When I was ready to give up your words reminded me I wasn’t alone, that anything I do in the interest of pushing forward justice and equality is a net positive, and I was able to keep going. I’m a gentile. Is it okay that I take this from your words?” he’d almost certainly be like “yes??? As you say, it’s a net positive, so why wouldn’t I be okay with you gleaning this?” It’s slightly different from a lot of Talmudic commentary in that it applies to the mitzvot of things like tikkun olam and pikuach nefesh, but these things can also be done outside the Jewish community without any reference to Torah at all. You can pay for a homeless person’s dinner and that’s tikkun olam. You can take a CPR class and that’s pikuach nefesh (or at least, preparing yourself to commit an act thereof, should it be necessary). You aren’t doing those things as mitzvot, because you’re a gentile—you’re doing them because you think they’re the right thing to do—but that doesn’t mean “don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do it all, but don’t just give up either” isn’t good advice. We don’t call him one of our greatest sages because he was an idiot. Is there plenty more below the surface? Oh, for sure. Does that make the surface reading wrong? Not necessarily.
So: 99.999999% of the time, I would say you should not reblog Talmudic quotes. They’re not going to be relevant to you or your life experience and you’ll lack the background knowledge to interpret them.
But this one, specifically? Yeah. I’d say this one is okay. Make sure it’s sourced to Rabbi Tarfon and the Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Father, or to the Talmud.
And then go forth, and do justly now, and remember: you can’t finish the work alone. But you also don’t have the right to walk away.
Okay, fellow Jews, time for a pie fight in the comments. Have fun.
The Assorted Old Fic Rec Post
I was given a friendly challenge today, through Discord, by the lovely @merfilly, to do some public fanfic recommendations - with the caveat that the fic be older than 5 years old.
“Huh,” I said... and went to my AO3 bookmarks.
Friends, I found some absolute treasures there. I had to stop opening more links - I limited myself to five, all from different fandoms, or else this post would be too long and I wouldn’t finish it. Enjoy the following curated section, and I highly encourage you to reblog this post. If you have any Fanfiction Recommendations Older Than 5 Years Old, please do add some on to share with us as well!
Recs under the cut, fandoms in this post are: Discworld, Calvin & Hobbes, Young Wizards, Animorphs, and The Avengers (2012) (MCU)
I’m saying this as a preemptive statement: if crowley and aziraphale kiss……great. if not it does not count as queerbaiting bc they’re literally canonically in love grow the fuck up I will be hiding under ur floorboards if y’all start acting up <3
Hello it is time for my Now Yearly Realization:
I am an Old Fan.
Huh.
#fandom life#i am 36 and i got into fandom when i was a teenager so....#uh. fuck#i've been in fandom 20 years?#HOW.#HOW THE FUCK.#momentary personal crisis over#you may continue with your life now#also: this only happens once a year partly because#i am consistently interacting with other fans#who are also mostly old fans#yeah I welcome and interact with and am polite with the occasional teenager fan#and they're good people#but most of my FRIENDS are... uh....#my fandom age or older now#not a bad thing just a thing
How I Modify My Google Doc for Outlining and Drafting
I previously talked about setting up my document to look like a formatted paperback book to help writing not feel so daunting.
Today, I bring you a different way I change my document that is more appealing to me than the standard Doc.
For Drafts
first, go to Page Set Up
this is what the default is
For my setup: Margins will change to .5" for top, bottom, left, and right.
this is the page color I chose but it's totally optional.
Then, I change my default font. Here is how to find the ones I like. Go to the font option, then click More fonts.
These are the fonts I love. You can search them or browse for ones you like.
next, i change my first-line paragraph indent to .25"
For Outlining
(and also character profiles, world-building, etc.)
You are going to follow the same steps as above first. The only difference is you don't need to mess with any of the indent settings.
I use boxes as dividers and organizers. To do this, go to Insert > Table > 1x1.
Then, change the border thickness to 2.25pt. I usually have a color palette for these, so I'm choosing a darker brown than the background for the borders. But white paper and black table lines work just as well and are more print-friendly ;)
Next, I change the Headings, Subheadings, and Subtitles. To begin, I am changing my Title heading. I choose my font, how big I want it to be, and then I like using a highlight color as well. Here, I'm using a standard light/pastel color and 18pt font.
Highlight to select this new title. Go to the dropdown menu that says "normal text", hover over "Title", then choose "Update 'Title' to Match". Now you can click that every time with no hassle. And it will begin an outline for you to the left.
Let's make that box within a box! Make sure you are typing inside the first box. Then insert another table. I am going to use a 2x3.
Because this table is more than one cell, you can go to the three dots up top and click "Table Options" to change every table border selected at once. Again, 2.25pt with the same color as before. The cell background color says white but you don't have to change it to match the page color.
You can save both your Heading preferences and page setup as your default style. Every new document you make will use these settings automatically.
I really hope this was helpful and/or interesting!
As always, take what you want and leave the rest. Happy writing!
[call it good] writing