ruby

today: Tai Huang, right hand man of pirate lord Sao Feng

full version and inspiration under the cut

i think disregarding the serum disregards everything about slade & rose's relationship. before tt03, rose didnt give a shit about slade. she didnt like him but she ultimately had no strong feelings for him either way. he was just the guy who happened to technically be her father

the drugging is Everything that defines how rose thinks about slade, which is why im still mad that the new52 retconned it. she loves him as her father because he trained her, protected her, took care of her for as long as she was training with him. but he was manipulating her and keeping her vulnerable so that she couldnt choose what she wanted, and he kept her devoted to him. so she has an intense love/hate relationship with him, because he did the worst thing that anyone has ever done to her, But he also cared about her more than anyone else has since her mother died

and ever since the drugging was retconned, writers have wanted their relationship to have this same complexity, but without the complicated past. their relationship means nothing if this wasnt done to her. when writers want to make slade a good/loving father, they make it so that it seems like rose hates him for no reason. they keep rose angry and upset with slade, but its always for surface level reasons. she'll hate him for being distant or just for killing people, which makes it seem like shes the dramatic one just so they can have good family moments later on. but the whole point!!! is that she is incredibly justified in her hatred!!!! and she loves him anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also! a huge part of rose pre52 is that she never really had autonomy over what she did. really the only choices she actively made for herself were when she isolated herself from her friends. but the drugging is a huge part of her trauma because her autonomy was taken away, she was manipulated and controlled for months (depending on how long you think it was. comic timelines yk) and forced to do things she wouldnt have done otherwise (such as. killing people.). and That defines rose's entire personality in tt03 and onward. whether they realize it or not, every writer since geoff johns is writing his version of her. there is a clear change in who rose was before and after the drugging, and thats the point!!!!! she was controlled and abused, and her aggressive personality comes from that. so once again, it seems so shallow and pointless when the drugging is retconned but shes still acting like that

without the drugging, she has no reason to hate him or even think about him at all. in every appearance she had before that, she barely gaf about him because!!! she didnt even know him until she was 14, and before the drugging, she had talked to him like. twice ever. she does not know that man she does not care about that man!!!!! and slade only wanted her in his life when he was desperate. and ive talked before about how the drugging could be a desperate way to keep her safe (for one thing she would never spend time with him if he didnt force her to, and the only way to make sure she was protected was to keep her with him, so he could easily convince himself that he was doing it for her own good) but the point is that he loves her, but hes fucked up and can only show his love in fucked up ways. rose loves slade because she knows that he loves her, but she hates him because of how he hurts her when he tries to show his love. and in my opinion thats The defining aspect of their relationship

once again i personally believe every iteration of rose & slade since the new52 (even priest. sorry goat) has fallen flat due to the drugging being retconned. why does she hate him!!! why does she still try to spend time with him!!! why is she angry at him and the world!!!! none of it makes sense when you remove a core part of her backstory!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was part of a "before/after" thingy that I've never finished. I only did the "before" in the end :p

I’m not feeling like myself, and I’m not hiding it well.