any time someone says "you really think they'd make mike lie in his speech to eleven? how are they going to address that in season five then? š" i have to laugh. as if the villain of this story isn't someone that literally and specifically targets people who feel shame and guilt and lie LMAO
you know what i want? i want some more of that time when jack drake benched tim after he found out tim was robin. specifically, i want jack drake having to deal with the fact that his sonĀ is robin.
oh heās angry. his son goes around beating up criminals and breaking the law and he knows batman. but the thing is, batman and robin have been these distant, almost mythological figures for so long. gotham thinks of the duo as heroes, as not as people. and jack drake didnāt realize what exactly constitutes as being robin.
jack canāt hear his son anymore, not unless he wants to. granted, he had always been a quiet child. but now, his footsteps were completely silent. his breathing was almost nonexistent. his voice could carry across a room if he wanted, then shroud itself in fog, muffling it instantly. tim would just suddenly appear, at the kitchen counter, in the office, next to or behind jack. jack never saw him coming. and when jack reminded his son of these things, albeit a little shakily, tim blinked in surprise, as if he wasnāt even aware he was doing these things.
there are scars all over his body. objectively, jack knew that. batman and robin fought brutally, of course they would be injured. seeing the marks littered all over timās skin, however, is another matter. there are slashes and stabs. puckered skin that looks like a bullet hole. clean lines with little hashes, a nicely healed and well-taken-care-of injury. ugly, jagged streaks that scream pain, that jack felt nauseous seeing, let alone having the strength to bear it. tim acts like theyāre normal, acts like assimilating all these scars were a mark of progress, a mark of strength. he rubs lotion on them a couple nights a week, falling into a routine. thereās a story behind each and every one of them, a life saved behind each and every one of them. jack doesnāt know whether to be somber or relieved at the fact that tim will never tell them to him.
timās reflexes are catlike, his instincts sharp, his mind always working a split-second faster than anyone elseās in the room. jack will accidentally drop something, and tim will catch it out of the air, easy as breathing, and hand it to him. as a test, jack dropped a ceramic mug filled with coffee on purpose. it landed in timās perfectly outstretched palm, not a drop of the drink spilled. tim was still on his phone with the other hand, but he looked away enough to raise an eyebrow at jack. jack didnāt question how tim knew he had done it on purpose. tim knows things, things that he has no reason to know, until he explained how he knew them. he had all of jackās nervous tics memorized, apparently, and picked up things from other people uncannily accurately. dana poured acceptance and affection into the kid, and jack loved her for that, but he knew that tim scared her, just a little. jack was left wondering when his son had become the modern-day sherlock holmes.
and tim knew people. heād casually reference batman or nightwing in a conversation, acting as if he knew them personally. which. well. apparently he did know them personally. but it wasnāt just the heroes from gotham, no. someone had once called tim while he, jack, and dana were cooking dinner together, sort of a bonding activity. tim had answered, then put the call on speaker, then continuing to chop a couple vegetables. (he looked far too comfortable with a knife in his hand. tim flipped it between his fingers and in the air with an ease and grace that made it impossible to tear his eyes from. and he wasnāt even trying.) then the sounds of an explosion came in, causing jack and dana to flinch, but tim didnāt even more. apparently, the flashĀ was calling him, all the way from central city, where he was fighting killer robots, and asking for advice because apparently, someone namedĀ ābartā had told the flash (the! actual! flash!) that tim had worked out a way to defeat them once before. tim advised them on how to get under armour platings and where the weak spots were while mashing potatoes with a fork. then tim said goodbye and good luck with a cheerful tone before hanging up. because apparently the flashĀ calling him was something that didnāt faze him anymore. jack never said anything about the pictures hanging up in timās room, of a too-small kid in a robin suit, a boy in a leather jacket and an earring, someone more hair and goggles than boy, a girl with a confident smirk flexing her biceps, a girl with a bow and arrow, and a literal ghost. he also didnāt say anything about the photos of tim and that boy in the leather jacket, just to two of them. in those pictures, tim was laughing harder than jack had ever seen in his life.
tim was still his son, but he wasnāt entirely himself. jack couldnāt get rid of robin, no matter how hard he tried. tim moved like a predator when he was just walking down the stairs, a new grace in his movements. his eyes flicked to all possible exits any time he entered a room. he was no longer afraid to walk the streets of gotham at night, treading calm and sure even as jack and dana hurried quickly home with their shoulders bent.Ā
his son was important. his son was powerful. his son walked and talked and laughed amongst gods, and they showered him with respect. jack was beginning to think he was foolish for ever believing he could take robin away.Ā
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People defending Alicent by saying that Rhaenyra's kids are really bastards when they're not? According to the laws of Westeros, they're Laenor's legitimate sons because he claimed them as his own and gave them his name.
He may not be their biological father but they're his kids and they were raised as such. They're rightfully Velaryons.
Jace is also second in line for the Iron Throne according to his birthright because Rhaenyra is the legitimate heir, the line goes through her and her only.
ā jack veasey,Ā ālovingā
Me: *Removes my cat from my lap to do something else.*
My cat: Father isā¦evil? Father is unyielding? Father is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.
sobbing into my plate after overhearing a conversation between a mom and her tiny daughter in this shopping centre food court
Today I'm here to talk about how from season one we are shown how Mike was forced to grow up and mature at a very young age given the dysfunctional dynamics of his family, the neglect he was put through and how he's been left to fence for himself as if he was an adult.
There's many scenes where Mike's attitude and behaviors make a contrast from Dustin and Lucas, even though they are exposed to the same situations. For example, when Hopper questions them and Dustin and Lucas start bickering over whether Mirkwood is a reference from the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, Mike is sitting in the middle trying to convince Hopper they can help as well and that they should be out there to find Will. This isn't because Dustin or Lucas don't care about Will as much as Mike does, but immediately we see Mike taking over the role of leader of the group with a much serious approach to the situation.
Where this is even more evident is at the beginning of Episode 2 when the guys bring El to Mike's basement and interact with her. Here is how that goes down:
Mike: "Is there a number we can call? For your parents?
Dustin: "Where is your hair? Do you have cancer?!"
Lucas: "Did you run away?!"
Mike: "Are you in some kind of trouble?"
Lucas: "Is that blood?" *reaches out to touch the blood*
Then Mike stops Lucas saying he's freaking El out. When things get complicated over what to do with El, Mike immediately comes up with a plan for the next day so they all stay out of trouble and can go out there the next night to go and find Will.
Now, keeping in mind that these are twelve years old we are talking about, Dustin and Lucas' reaction to El make sense with how a kid could react. A bit of curiosity, a bit of hesitance and awe, asking questions like of El has cancer because her hair is buzzed and trying to touch the blood on her clothes. Mike, however, takes the approach I would expect from an adult, immediately asking for a number to contact and if the strange girl he found in the woods is okay or in trouble. Instead of giving into his curiosity and awe like Dustin and Lucas, Mike pushes that away and gets to the point in order to help El and learn more about the situation so he can understand how he can solve it.
Then when El tries to take off her clothes we again see this contrast. Dustin and Lucas freak out and turn away, both probably embarrassed and weirded out that a girl just tried to take off her shirt in front of them. And honestly, it makes sense for Mike to feel the same way, but he still instead reaches out to El to kindly stop her and show her the bathroom where she can change. He steps up in the situation and takes control of it. Then when El tells her she doesn't want the door closed, Mike is quick to learn how to communicate with her in order to make her feel comfortable around him (like a protective figure would).
Once Dustin and Lucas leave his house, Mike shows El where she will sleep and they sit down to talk. Now, this is an interesting part of their dynamic because THIS is the first time since meeting El that Mike allows himself to behave like a kid just like Dustin and Lucas had been acting before. When Mike sees El's tattoo he drops trying to control the situation like an adult would and reaches to touch the tattoo because he is a kid and he's never seen another kid with a tattoo, it's something new that surprises him and he acts on that surprise. And then El pulls away and Mike is quick to apologize and pull back as well, and just like that he's back on seizing control of the situation and acting like the grown up between them.
The next day we see Mike also allowing himself to behave more his age around El, showing him around and making impressions for her with his toys, but El is mostly uninterested going around on her own and looking around the house. (This because, in my opinion, El from the first moment is more interested in a parental/protector type of relationship with Mike since she doesn't know what a friend is and doesn't know that type of relationship can even exist. Then El learns about what a friend is but by then Mike has been pushed into a romantic type of dynamic with El by Lucas and Nancy). And then El sees Will's picture and she reveals she knows Will and saw him, and Mike is back on being the leader, the one that makes the plans and doesn't allow himself to be surprised over small things or get distracted with toys and games when his best friend is missing.
So, yeah. Mike has always been in a rush to grow up, but during the first and second season I see it more being an unconscious process for him that comes from being neglected by his family. Then, by season three, Mike takes an active role in wanting to grow up fast and leave all the "childish" things behind in order to fill his role as El's boyfriend.
It's interesting to think how running out of time is Mike's thing in ST, and how that's linked to Mike rushing through life as if he had no seconds to waste because he is either after something or something is chasing him.
I see how El exacerbates these feelings in Mike, that also link to him wanting to pretend to be someone else that's worthy of being with El, from season one when Mike tries to lie to El about the wound on his chin because he doesn't want El to know he gets bullied at school, to Mike wearing that outfit at the airport that's a knockoff of real brands and that, we know, is not his style at all.
Now, of course I HAVE to link this to Byler. And, well, just thinking how Mike was forced to mature at a really young age, how he's pushed into thinking he should be embarrassed about the things he enjoys, about how he thinks he has to pretend to be someone he's not in order to get the "normal" everyone seems to want. And how then there's Will, the one person that tells Mike things don't have to be like that, that on this the rest of the world is wrong because yes, they can stay in Mike's basement and play games for the rest of their lives, they can keep on enjoying their favorite board game, they can make plans to retire at a young age and play Nintendo for a living. Will tries to tell Mike that it is okay if he wants those things, that it's nothing he should avoid or feel ashamed of, that they don't have to stop being kids because the world and the Upside Down keeps making them soldiers, fighting battles they should've never had to fight.
Because Will wants all of that, and Mike wants it too. But Mike knows he's not supposed to. He knows he should want something different, something like what the rest of the people want because otherwise he'll be different. And for now, it is Will the one that's okay with being different because Mike is there, and Mike makes Will feel like it's okay being different, that he shouldn't feel like a mistake at all. And I think Mike has put so much effort into not being different, that he hasn't stopped to think that maybe it could be good, until season four happens and the van scene happens.
There's a TON more of this I wanted to write about but this will do for now.
Anyhow, love Mike Wheeler and how disturbed he's on the inside.
youth have a right to be educated about the world regardless of what their parents/caretakers believe. youth have a right to learn accurate information about the world for themselves, including information that allows them to disagree with their parents/caretakers. we have got to destroy this mindset that everyone under 18 is essentially sentient playdough for parents to mold however they want and its violating "parent's rights" to allow their children to be educated on basic facts of the world (like that queer people exist or that america is founded on genocide) because it would mean they lose the slightest bit of control over their child's reality. imo schools have a moral responsibility to protect youth's right to knowledge and freedom of thought over their parent's "right" to control everything they know. your children should be allowed to fucking disagree with you, and restricting their access to knowledge in order to prevent that is abuse.
Good morning! Iām salty.
I think we, as a general community, need to start taking this little moment more seriously.
This, right here? This is asking for consent. Itās a legal necessity, yes, but it is also you, the reader, actively consenting to see adult content; and in doing so, saying that you are of an age to see it, and that youāre emotionally capable of handling it.
You find the content you find behind this warning disgusting, horrifying, upsetting, triggering? You consented. You said you could handle it, and you were able to back out at any time. You take responsibility for yourself when you click through this, and so long as the creator used warnings and tags correctly, you bear full responsibility for its impact on you.
āChildren are going to lie about their ageā is probably true, but thatās the problem of them and the people who are responsible for them, not the people that they lie to.
If youāre not prepared to see adult content, created by and for adults, donāt fucking click through this. And if you do, for all thatās holy, donāt blame anyone else for it.