Theavatarthatdies - Paradox3

Middle East Eye

Israel may cut off Palestinian banks from global banking system next week

The decision by Israel's finance minister to isolate PA banks would paralyse Palestinian economy

Palestinian banks could be cut off from the Israeli banking system starting next week following a decision by Israel’s finance minister to cease dealings between the two financial institutions, according to a report on Thursday by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has two days to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss reversing plans by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to isolate Palestinian banks from both the Israeli and international banking systems. The Palestinian economy is based on the Israeli currency, the shekel, making it reliant on ties to Israel and its financial dealings with the rest of the world must go through the Bank of Israel and Israeli banks.

We call this Apartheid.

I love this idea

i would genuinely love a red hood show like the harley quinn show. a feel-good, comedy series that follows jason coming back from the dead and becoming red hood, getting his crew, becoming a crime lord, interacting with the bats and the rogues- it would be so fun, i'm convinced

jason's dark humour, stupid moments between him and bruce (less angsty and more bruce being an awkward dad), cute dad-son moments between him and harvey where harvey brags about jason and jason being so over it, the other rogues being so irritated by jason because he keeps foiling their plans, harley and him bonding over how shitty joker was (he's dead), and overall jason just being super fun to watch.

because let's be honest, jason is literally the kind of anti-hero character who would be so engaging to watch as a main character in a dark comedy.

#thisiswhydukeissuchanicon

so i’m trying to write duke and i don’t think i’m writing him right. how would you describe his personality because with don’t trust fanon lmfaooo

(this was only supposed to be a paragraph or two i swear to god)

1. first things first, duke is a hardcore gryffindor. don’t let the yellow color scheme mislead you, okay. and while most of the time he’s depicted in fanon as “omg this family is crazy and i’m the only sane one,” it’s actually pretty much the opposite? if anything, i think the other batkids would be like “oh finally, someone who can match our level of chaotic energy. HEY DUKE WANNA BUNGEE JUMP OFF WAYNE TOWER—” and an hour later they’d all be in the batcave getting lectured by bruce for leading poor sweet innocent duke astray when really he was already planning on doing that this weekend.

listen, this is the kid who once jumped off a bridge to escape police. this is the dude who decided to fight criminals while they’re still eating their wheaties at 6am in a bright yellow suit. and while duke seems to be the best at following bruce’s command at the moment due to having been trained by him most recently compared to the others and is still figuring out how to be a hero, i’m positive that if bruce weren’t here to guide him, duke would be running around gotham taking down criminals anyway. i mean, he literally did do that with the “we are robin” kids. plus there was the whole thing when he was like ten years old and decided “i am going to singlehandedly stop the riddler in my light up sketchers and pikachu backpack. try and stop me.” 

duke is headstrong and has a strong drive toward heroism. he’s an extremely enthusiastic and passionate person in general, and i try to capture a little of that when i write him, even with mundane things like trying to beat his siblings to the last cupcake. 

2. another thing i noticed is that duke swears like a sailor in comics? seriously, this boy could give jason a run for his money with how many “@#!%” speech bubbles there are. i don’t know if this is just a trend the writers added in the comics i’ve read of him, or if it’s a genuine trait throughout every comic he’s in, but that’s something to make note of when writing dialogue for duke. after all, he did grow up in the narrows, so it makes sense that he’d use a lot of swearing and slang in his everyday vernacular.

3. i would also make a point of noting that duke is fairly young compared to the rest of the batfamily, being the second youngest after damian. duke is still a teenager in high school, and he acts like it. he’s got homework and friends and is eager to make a difference in gotham, trying to juggle everything and make it all work somehow. he’s stubborn and doesn’t give up easily, so it’s important to write him as someone who is trying to save the world while also struggling with finding time to study for his next math test. he's human. he doesn’t get to dedicate all of his time to fighting crime like cass or jason might be able to, since duke is still a mostly normal teenager with teenager problems.

4. and don’t forget that unlike the other batkids, duke still has two living parents. sure, they’re jokerized and might not ever be the same again, but they’re alive and that’s what holds him back from letting himself get as close to the waynes as he wants to. duke won’t be calling bruce “dad” anytime soon, and i think he’d have some internal struggle over stuff like holidays and birthdays with the waynes, remembering what his parents are missing out on and wondering if joining the wayne family is a betrayal to them. duke is very conflicted over this, even if he doesn’t say it directly. stuff like ducking out of movie night early or feeling a bittersweet pang during thanksgiving dinner makes sense for someone in his situation. 

(i usually ignore that aspect in my fics because i want duke to just be adopted and part of the family already, but not everyone does that, and that’s perfectly fine.)

5. honestly, duke is such a caring individual and we as a fandom need more of him being a shoulder for people to lean on because he’s?? so soft?? duke can be so sympathetic and rational when it comes to emotional problems. it seems like duke internalizes every bit of advice he gets from the people around him and uses it to inspire others and help them through their own problems. as tough and hotheaded as duke can sometimes be, he really is good when it comes to emotions.

6. duke is a smartass. he will 100% use sarcasm against any and every authority figure he meets, usually just for the hell of it. 

7. he’s very frank in general, usually the first to be like “okay full disclosure, we’re about to die right now. that sucks. anyway—” in a situation. he’s honest and tends to be upfront about his fears/anxieties, usually for comic relief, but i think it still counts.

8. okay i have to add that duke is also kind of a punk? he and jason have a lot in common because of this: they both grew up in one of gotham’s worse areas (jay in crime alley and duke in the narrows) and they’re both highkey deliquents. duke has no problem getting into fights or talking back to authority figures, and it’s gotten him in hot water on more than one occasion. it’s why he kept getting moved around the foster system before bruce took him in because no one wanted to keep him.

9. he’s also gotten so close with the other batkids and we love to see it!! duke calls cass “sis” and treats damian like the annoying little brother he never had and i adore every second of it. we haven’t gotten a lot of interactions between duke and the others aside from training and stuff, but he and jason have the whole “punk kid who got adopted by batman and is baffled by how rich people live” going for them, so they can bond over that. and duke is a thinker like tim, so they can hang out and do puzzles or play chess or whatever it is that smart people do. (and duke and steph are BESTIES i don’t care what anyone says.)

10. most of all, duke is still learning how the whole hero thing works. he’s young and he’s trying his best, but he also makes mistakes. he will be impulsive and screw up, and he’ll try and merge the lessons batman’s taught him and that his parents taught him and that other heroes teach him until it all makes sense in his own mind. duke isn’t experienced like dick or even damian, so he’s going to be lagging behind for a while until he grows until the role he’s made for himself.

other miscellaneous details to include: 

- duke is dating izzy, who used to be part of the “we are robin” gang with him - he used to live at the manor and now lives with his cousin jay, but honestly i just have him living at the manor in everything i write because i like it better that way - he can control shadows and light now! what a king! - duke secretly writes poetry and is good at creative writing in general  - this:

- duke is super smart?? he figured out that agent 37 was dick grayson without even trying?? i’m so proud of him - his biological father is this supervillain called gnomon so now duke has got four parents: his mom, his dad, his supervillain dad, and bruce (plus selina if you count her as the batkids’ stepmom, which i do) - jason calls him “narrows” and i love that

- and, lastly, the most important panel in the history of comics:

worst feeling in the fucking world when the fandom falls victim to the delusions/lies that the character's feed themselves and than those lies are taken to be the True Essence of the characters

like i just finished rereading assassination classroom (for maybe the fifth time?) and focusing on karma + nagisa cus theyre my faves and like theyre fucking liars!!! ik its basically a dead fandom now so most of the content ive been looking at is years old at this point but like they would be sooooo happy to know accurate grasps of their characters are near nonexistent.

like karma WANTS you to think he's a cool genius lone wolf who only cares about his own abilities!! meanwhile basically every single action he takes in the second half of the manga proves each of those traits to be false outright!!!

like hes (sort of) a team player! he knows everyones strengths! hes thinking about other ppls feelings when it comes to the assassination! he's been putting in insane amounts of effort since he failed that one final!

nagisa WANTS you to believe that he's a fully selfless, weak, support player while being pretty much the exact opposite!! but he doesnt work in a team he works best alone! literally w express permission to work fully solo during the war arc! he wasnt thinking of how everyone else felt during his proposal to save korosensei! he wanted to be the one to kill korosensei (somewhat selfishly)!!

the narrative foils are narratively foiling and no one wants to give it the proper respect it deserves smh.

Azula as the Ophelia of the Avatarverse (Warning: possible mention of self-harm and/or suicide)

If I had to compare Azula to a well-known literary character, it’d be Ophelia from Hamlet. It might seem weird to some people to read that. On the surface of the narrative, Ophelia is very much a passive victim, and Azula would set you on fire if you ever described her that way.

The worst thing to call somebody is crazy. It’s dismissive. “I don’t understand this person. So they’re crazy.” That’s bullshit. These people are not crazy. They strong people. Maybe their environment is a little sick. (source)

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (source)

Banishing me was they best thing you did for my life. It put me on the right path. (source)

Nevertheless, there are strong parallels between the two in that they’re both teenaged girls whose mental deterioration is directly connected to their toxic environments and the failure of the adults in their lives to intervene before a major mental health crisis.

Even so, most analysis of these characters take a more individualistic approach, aiming to understand what’s wrong with Azula or Ophelia instead of examining the conditions that lead to the outcomes of these characters. In essence, they ask, “What is her problem?” when a more fruitful question might be, “What’s going on that allows this to happen?”

When Ophelia appears onstage in Act IV, scene V, singing little songs and handing out imaginary flowers, she temporarily upsets the entire power dynamic of the Elsinore court. When I picture that scene, I always imagine Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Horatio sharing a stunned look, all of them thinking the same thing: “We fucked up. We fucked up bad.” It might be the only moment of group self-awareness in the whole play. Not even the grossest old Victorian dinosaur of a critic tries to pretend that Ophelia is making a big deal out of nothing. Her madness and death is plainly the direct result of the alternating tyranny and neglect of the men in her life. She’s proof that adolescent girls don’t just go out of their minds for the fun of it. They’re driven there by people in their lives who should have known better. (source)

You could argue that Ophelia’s fate is a consequence of the rottenness in Denmark. Thus, her decline and death can be read as an indictment of the court at Elsinore. Ophelia clearly needed help from the moment she found out Hamlet killed her father. But where was everyone? What were they doing? Why didn’t someone say or do something?

The same thing can be said about Azula. What befalls Azula at the end of the show is a direct result of the corruption of Fire Nation society. That moment by the bonfire in “The Beach” was a cry for help, but why did no one see it for what it was? Why did no one even attempt to help? Where were the grownups who could have stepped in? True, it would’ve been tricky considering her disposition and social status, but not impossible.

More importantly, what does all of this say about the societies that Ophelia and Azula live in? What’s going on in a society where people so clearly in need of help aren’t getting it? What does that say about who that society deems indispensable and who it deems disposable?

How are we encouraged by the narrative and by audience reactions to notice Ophelia’s vulnerability but not Azula’s? How does this reflect our society’s attitudes towards teenaged girls who are mentally ill? What are some things we can do differently to push back against those attitudes?

the art is *chef's kiss*

Whatchu gonna do? Stab me? :D

You: Why are there two different dates on this single comic?

Me: Hehe... Draw at 11:00PM on 11/2, then finish at 2:00AM on 11/3. :D

Edit: Eyo? 69 notes? *wiggles eyebrows intensively* :3

Edit: Oof and YAY! *Inserts megamind meme* No more 69? :/

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(Source)

I'm convinced that at least half of the JLA are terrified of Dames

AU where the JLA knew the first Robin and knew Nightwing but never really. Connected the dots.

Clark and Diana know Nightwing = first Robin = Dick Grayson, and Barry knows Dick as Wally's friend, the first Robin as Wally's old teammate, and Nightwing as the dude Wally sometimes gushes about. No he does not know they're one and the same.

In his Robin days, when Bruce revealed his identity, he asked Dick if he wanted his identity to be revealed too. The answer was a firm no thank you.

When Dick was asked if he was Robin, he pinned the asker with a deadpan look and a, "do you really think Bruce would let his own kid go out in that costume? The best I'm allowed to do is man the comms."

Most of the JLA have no idea where Robin came from and are too afraid to ask.

Dick thinks that everyone who needs to know who he is already does—he has his own friends, thank you very much, he doesn't need his dad's friends getting in his business.

So anyway JLA goes to Bludhaven to recruit Nightwing. Dick looks Oliver dead in the eyes, calls him Uncle Ollie, and tells them in no uncertain terms to get the fuck out of his city.

Oliver goes pale, and once they get to the Watchtower, pulls Batman away like "what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck WHAT THE FUCK BRUCE IS THAT DICKIE???"

"He's going through his rebellious phase."

"IN FUCKING BLUDHAVEN? BRUCE I SWEAR TO GOD GO TALK TO YOUR KID OR I'M SIGNING HIS ADOPTION PAPERS MYSELF."

Bruce knows Dick would agree if only to piss him off so he drafts a hand-written letter and sends it. It's basically him apologizing and begging Dick to even consider visiting and to also not let Oliver adopt him because Bruce has had the papers filled for almost a decade now if Dick wants that?

Dick thinks it's the funniest shit and agrees to come home for holidays and a weekend a month if Bruce is civil so he's in Gotham when Bruce comes home with Jason.

Dick loves Jason immediately and demands Jason’s allowed to visit him one weekend a month.

Jason outright preens under Dick's attention so Bruce can't say no without looking like an asshole.

Dick gives Jason Robin after a few months, and the JLA are puzzled to see a new kid wearing the Robin suit.

"Who are you?"

The new Robin gives them a blank look. "Nonya fuckin' business."

Oliver's biting back laughter because that's the same little kid that begged him to read Pride and Prejudice to him when he spent the night in Star.

They ask Dick if Robin is his new little brother.

Dick looks at them with his age-old deadpan "you're an idiot" look. "Even if Bruce was negligent enough to let him be Robin, do you think I'd let him?"

Tim's even WORSE. Jason doesn't die or anything—he just feels his new ten-year-old genius little brother should be Robin with him and Dick agrees.

I can't emphasize how little control Bruce has over Jason and Tim because they just run to Babs or Dick when he's being annoying.

Tim showed up saying he wants to live with them because his parents won't notice and he knows Batman's identity and hasn't told anyone.

Dick and Jason decide to keep him right then and there.

Tim's quiet, wide-eyed, pale and incredibly small. Half of the JLA think they're hallucinating this new kid because he's literally just a little shadow.

Batman, Nightwing and Robin the elder only acknowledge him directly in soft tones or to direct him, and he never answers verbally—only nods.

Clark and Diana, who know full well that it's Tim under the mask because they were told once it happened, "Hey, is Batman your dad?"

The new Robin stares up at them with creepy white lenses. "He picked me off the streets."

They've learnt not to ask Dick. Jason doesn't answer them. Tim looks like a frail Victorian child and they're scared to ask.

It doesn't help that Tim redesigned the Robin costume so it has pants and the colors are a bit more muted. He disappears for six months (Lady Shiva) and comes back scarily efficient with a bo staff (one that has fucking retractable blades on each end)

Cass is a wraith of a child; small, skinny, never talks, silent footsteps.

Black Bat shows up on patrols sometimes, when she feels like it. The JLA are half sure she's an urban legend.

They don't even bother asking whether Cass is Black Bat.

Oliver's mildly frightened of her, but Cass adores Dinah and barely looks his way so they get along fine.

Dick's endlessly amused by all of this, and has never been happier to have siblings.

Bruce is honestly just happy to have his family together and in one place.

And then Damian shows up.

Everyone reblog this IMMEDIATELY

fanfiction was such a good idea. like put those guys in situations