Gotham As A Collective: Beating Up People For Money Is Normal But Beating Up Bruce Wayne For Money Is

So I’ve probably told this story before, but - my Gay and Lesbian Studies professor. He’s fairly elderly; he was young in the ‘60s. And he was called up for draft for the Vietnam War. And, like most everybody who was drafted for the Vietnam War, he didn’t want to be in the Vietnam War.

This is the story of how his draft went, as best as I can remember how he tells it.

“Well, son,” said the doctor assigned to do his physical. “You seem healthy from here. Is there any condition you have that would disqualify you from serving in the United States Army?”

“Yes, sir,” said my professor. “I’m gay.”

The doctor blinked at him.

Looked at the door.

Looked back.

“Do you understand what you’re telling me? Do you understand what this means?”

What this meant, in 1969, was that he would be sent home, with the information given to everyone in his hometown about exactly why he had been sent home. It meant he would be disowned by his family. It meant he could pretty much never get a job again. And this was decades before Lawrence v Texas, so it also meant he could very well get arrested.

But, you see, my professor had already been outed. And all these things had already happened.

So “yes, sir,” he said.

“Are you absolutely positive?”

“Yes, sir. My boyfriend is waiting for me outside. Would you like us to demonstrate?”

My professor did not go to Vietnam.

I absolutely will die on this hill, access to fiction that makes your skin crawl and open discussion about it is the best way to keep that skin crawling fiction from happening in reality.

It doesn't matter if it is ~positively~ or negatively portrayed. If you censor it, we don't talk about it, then we can't protect against it.

I’m finally reading the Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon, I had not realized it covered the case of Marguerite and Blanche of Burgundy and ummm….. really has forcibly put HoTD back into historical perspective for me.

For those not familiar with it, the daughters-in-law of King Philip the Fair of France, Marguerite (married to the eldest son Louis) and Blanche (married to the youngest son Charles) were both caught having an affair with a pair of brothers. Needless to say, it does not end well for any of the parties involved. The men were flayed, hanged, and beheaded, and the two princesses were imprisoned, with Marguerite being murdered a year later so that her husband could remarry. And her daughter, Jeanne, who would have been the heiress of France, may or may not be a bastard, so is forcibly removed from the line of succession by the invention of Salic law, which dictates that the crown can only pass to men through the male line. (Since Louis who may or may not have been her father died without any male heirs) Unsurprisingly, this causes problems! And partly sparks (among other things) the Hundred Years War between France and England.

Having bastards is serious business with serious consequences for married women. And YES, it is absolutely unfair and ridiculous that men can do it with far fewer consequences, but the show downplayed what those consequences can be. In GoT, the whole starting point is that Cersei has illegitimate children and passed them off as her husbands, and people are killed to keep that secret. Not to mention the humiliating punishment that she has to endure, and she was only being punished for having sex as a widow!!!

My point is that Rhaenyra having bastard children is kinda downplayed in the show, and that this IS a big deal both historically and in universe was glossed over.

pastel mugs

au where Steve is a famous Disney kid and Eddie is a teenaged singer-songwriter. They get pushed together at events because they're close in age, but they just quietly dislike each other.

Steve's got a new show starting, a spinoff of the one that made him a household name. They hire a newcomer, Robin Buckley, to play his best friend and the two quickly become BFF in real life.

The show runs for two seasons but when it comes time to renegotiate contracts, neither star is interested. They're older now, ready to live life on their terms and not the company's, or in Steve's case, his parents.

As soon as the finale airs, Robin and Steve celebrate by going to a gay club. A few weeks later, an interview is released where Steve comes out as bi and talks about how his parents mistreated him; how they worked with the network to pressure him to be a perfect "all-American" kid even off screen.

Meanwhile, Eddie's an impossible level of famous. He's had number-one hits, won a Grammy, headlined an arena tour, achieved every dream he had for himself as a kid growing up in a trailer park in Indiana. He's not shocked by the news that Steve is leaving Hollywood, but he's flabbergasted that the guy isn't straight. When Eddie reads the interview, he gets this weird pang in his chest, almost like regret. But he never even liked Steve.

Steve isn't in the news again and Eddie doesn't think of him for a long time.

Steve goes to college. He loves it. Not because he's great in his classes, or anything, but because he's free to be himself for the first time. He makes friends and goes to parties and relaxes. He and Robin share an apartment.

After a few semesters, Steve decides to take a couple of theater classes, and is quickly cast in campus productions. In the vague anonymity of college theater he rediscovers his love of acting. No one has expectations of him, no one forces him to perform. He graduates and slowly starts appearing in small roles in Indie films, gathering critical acclaim. He feels good. Happy. Hopeful.

Eddie is blissfully unaware of Steve's career resurgence, experiencing his own musical highpoints, until the day where he's scrolling Twitter, sees a Variety headline that's getting a bunch of attention, "Steve Harrington in talks to star in Max Mayfield's first film." Eddie's livid.

"Maxine, what the fuck?" He growls when she answers his call.

They grew up together in the same Indiana trailer park. When she moved to Hollywood to start a career as a screenwriter, Eddie was by her side. And when her first script wound up on the Black List, his involvement on the soundtrack and original songs sealed her production deal.

She gives a long suffering sigh. "Munson," she grumbles. "I know you have a weird history with this guy, but I swear he's the right choice."

"He's a stuck up rich boy who's never been in trouble in his life."

"He's changed."

"Doubtful," Eddie sneers.

"Look. I'll set-up a meeting. Come hang out and you'll see what I mean." Before she hangs up she adds, "Call me Maxine again and I'll end you."

They invite Harrington to Eddie's recording studio. His hopes are not high for this meeting, so he's already a little thrown when Steve Harrington walks in, all grown up. He's in a crimson sweater, tight jeans, hair grown long so that it flops around his face in tousled waves that actually look genuine, windswept and golden. Eddie's eyes instinctively trace the scatter of moles on Harrington's face and neck, a pang of something hitting deep in his gut. Fuck, this dude is beautiful.

"Harrington," he greets, sticks out his hand. Eddie barely hears the answering, "Munson," because instead of a handshake, Harrington pulls Eddie in for a hug. Muscles bunch under the sleeves of the sweater, against Eddie's chest, and he's assaulted by the scent of cedar and sunshine and Steve. Eddie's not prepared for any of this.

They make small talk, Harrington sharing about going to college, falling in love with theater, Robin Buckley who he calls his soulmate. Eddie's head rings with how wrong he was about this guy; the pretty kid he grew up alongside who seemed to have the world in his hands. Max was right, he's perfect. Except.

"Let's get down to it, Harrington," Eddie says. Can't bring himself to call him Steve yet, feels that will somehow change everything and he's not ready. "I'll admit that Mayfield had the right idea about you, but can you sing? Play guitar? You have to perform my music, dude. That's not a small ask."

Harrington smirks, asks for a guitar. He gets it settled across his lap before he speaks. "I started taking piano lessons when I was 4. Voice and guitar at 7."

Eddie belatedly recalls that Harrington's parents were the worst kind of stage-parents, pushing their cute kid to perform even as he sobbed about wanting to play soccer with his friends instead of going to auditions. He has a moment of shame that he forgets as the other man begins to play. It's one of Eddie's biggest hits, a ballad about a teenaged broken heart from a kid whose name he can't even remember.

Harrington's hair flops in a swoop over his forehead, his fingers move across the strings with ease, skill. His voice is a rasp, close mimic to Eddie's own, but not quite deep enough. Goosebumps spread across Eddie's arms, his neck, and warmth pools low in his gut.

Steve finishes the song, looks up, cheeks glowing pink, honey eyes bright. Eddie's fucking gone for this guy. He wants so badly he might choke on it.

"Good?" Steve asks.

Eddie's embarrassed suddenly. Unsure. He tugs at his hair. "Yeah," he laughs. "Good."

He reaches out to take the guitar, the one Steve's already handing to him, and their hands brush. Eddie flushes. Their eyes meet and Steve smiles. Eddie's thoughts are consumed with the desire to kiss his plush pink mouth.

"You wanna get dinner? Just you and me?" Steve asks.

"Yeah, Steve," he laughs. "I'd love to."

🎬🎸🎬🎸

Fifteen Months Later

"Former Teen Heartthrobs Make Love Connection?"

Fans of musician Eddie Munson and former child star, Steve Harrington, were in for the surprise of their lives last night as the men arrived together for the premier of Harrington's new movie, Small Town Sins, written by up-and-coming screenwriter Max Mayfield, featuring original music by Munson. While Harrington's performance and the movie itself are garnering quite a bit of positive buzz, it's being overshadowed by gossip about Harrington and Munson's budding romance. They walked the red carpet together, pausing for photos as a duo, holding hands and flirting. When asked for confirmation of their relationship, Munson answered, 'we're bros,' before winking and pulling Harrington close.

There's a TikTok video embedded below the article, showing the men being interviewed on the red carpet. Their arms are loosely around each others' waists, and when their eyes meet they catch and hang for a beat.

"So, longtime fans of both of yours are going feral online right now because of the rumors that you two used to hate each other. Is there any truth to that?" An off-camera voice asks.

The men laugh. "We've always been great friends," Eddie answers.

"Eddie thought I was stuck up," Steve giggles.

"I did not." Eddie slaps at Steve, who gives him an affectionate smile.

"Liar," Steve answers.

Eddie leans into the camera like he's telling a secret. "Harrington here was afraid of me."

"Fuck off, I was not." They wrestle around for a couple of seconds.

Steve shrugs Eddie off, straightening his suit jacket. "Okay, maybe I was a little intimidated back then, but then this morning you found a pretty rock and cried about it."

Eddie shrieks, swatting at Steve until someone in a black suit and name tag shoos them down the red carpet.

Eddie walks off first, so he misses Steve withdrawing a hand from his pocket and saying, "Still have the rock, though." He flashes the red, grey, blue striped stone at the camera.

His gaze drifts away, landing somewhere in the distance, hazel eyes soft and heart-wrenchingly fond.

Please read the whole thing.  

Now I will argue that Batman’s motivations (protecting the innocent), level of preparedness, and the fact that he doesn’t kill people, put him miles above the current uniformed fascists charged with maintaining the status quo and protecting property. That being said I think this would be an innovative take on the Batman mythos, and have social commentary guaranteed to piss the wrong people (by which I mean the right people) right off.  Personally I’d watch the shit out of that. 😉

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.

it’s 2022 and i’m still mad over the game of thrones scene where ned gives sansa a doll

d&d and the fandom really do paint it as sansa just being ungrateful but i would argue it’s the exact opposite

first off, in the show sansa is 13 years old.

13 year olds in westeros are seen as a midway point between child and adult, the closest concept they have to teenagers. sansa is betrothed, she’s 13, giving her a child’s toy is completely inappropriate

and then there’s her line “i haven’t played with dolls since i was 8.” i love arya and this isn’t criticizing her, but i do think it’s telling that ned gets arya sword lessons and clearly takes an obvious interest in her life yet misses sansa not playing with dolls for 5 years.