The kawaii life

Caleb may be emotionally dead inside but his facial expressions sure ain’t!

Paul “the real-estate novelist”. Three words! That’s all we need to build a complete picture of this man’s personality and history. And then it just rounds out the picture with “never had time for a wife”.

And we don’t even pause a beat before jumping to the equally vivid tragedy of “Davy who’s still in the navy and probably will be for life.”

And these two are talking together! Because of course they are, these kindred souls stuck in their lives of mediocrity.

The whole song’s nothing but lightning-fast character sketches. The old man whose song is “sad and sweet and knew it complete when I wore a younger man’s clothes.”

John at the bar, so firmly established as cheerful and friendly and exuberant before the 180 turn to “Bill, I believe this is killing me.”

The waitress practicing politics.

Even the businessmen “sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it’s better than drinking alone.”

All these tiny little tragicomic figures gathered around a bar’s piano. Sketched in five minutes and thirty-nine seconds–and that’s counting the choruses and harmonica breaks.

But how about a new take: most of Batman's rogues call him off limits, because they find out he is their benefactor, when/if they try to reform?

Mr Freeze won't touch him because when he's in Arkham, Bruce is the one who finances the research to help Nora Fries.

Poison Ivy won't touch him because he had been the one supplying her with plants, while in prison.

Harley won't touch him because he's just a great guy an' gotham needs guys like that.

Riddler won't touch him because he was the secret backer that time Eddie tried to open a detective agency.

Croc won't touch him because he's one of the few people who ever talks to him like a person.

But also: Harvey is screaming at him like “f*** you dude, that guy was my best friend. Also, he visits me in Arkham and treats the both of us like a damn human being.”

And Two-Face being like “f*** it, that’s fair. i’ll flip a coin and see.”

Harvey: “you most certainly wILL NOT. Just walk away, man.”

The GCPD, shielded behind their cars, staring in shock and confusion: “what.”

Bruce slowly forming an amicable relationship with the Rogues is such a fun concept to me, because as much horror as these people have caused, Batman’s whole shtick is that everyone deserves a chance. So, while he doesn’t forget that these people are in Arkham for very legitimate reasons, he also takes the time to treat them as human beings

Riddler gets asked one day by a detective why he seems to explicitly avoid anything Wayne related, and he’s just like, “oh, he’s actually helping me draft plans for escape rooms and puzzle boxes and stuff as a positive outlet for my implicit need for attention and a constructive way of using my intelligence. It’d be just rude of me to bother him, ya know?”

Ivy: “how many billionaires do you know that seem to genuinely care about our planet and make actual, tangible efforts to create technologies to preserve what we have? The man is a rarity. Also, he convinced the guards to let me have a few plants with me—for comfort. Nice guy.”

Freeze: “he’s basically the only person who’s every given a damn about helping me save my wife. No way in hell am I crossing him.”

Deadshot, scrolling (or whatever) through his potential contracts: “Wayne? Oh hell no. I thought I blacklisted those ones. Delete. Begone. Live your best life Mr Wayne. Payday will come from somebody else.”

Harley: “I just think he’s neat. Also I know he’s Batman and he’s a cool dude, but I’m not gonna tell anyone that sooooo yeah.”

Waylon (Croc): “he saw my previous cell in Arkham and flipped made sure I got an actual habitat, and not a shoddy hole in the ground filled with sewer water, which made my stay there much more livable. He gives me food sometimes when he sees me in the wild. Nice guy. 10/10 will not eat.”

Toonami: