sapphirerubydragon

[sapphirerubydragon]

Miles²

[sapphirerubydragon]

Hello,

Just me showing up ✨️inconsistently✨️ but still showing up when I can! Chapter 18 of my fanfiction Friends with Felonies is up and this is the first time I'm posting two excerpts from Miles's perspective in this somewhat deviated, alternative timeline. Still love these babies forever whether it's Gwen + Miles or Maxine + Gonzalo. If you're still tracking this story, please let me know what you think 😁 if you're new to it, you can still jump in. Thanks always for reading =]

[sapphirerubydragon]

Such an important conversation to have that drifts around in my mind daily, especially when writing about this character in any iteration, comics or film.

From a doylist perspective, the reason Miles Morales hardly used any aave in his original comics (to mild controversy) was because his demeanor and way of expressing himself was explicitly referenced from Donald Glover’s performance in Community, the one that sparked the internet campaign for him to portray Peter Parker in 2010.

But from a watsonian perspective, while there are other factors (like his only friend growing up being an asian kid), I think it comes down most simply to the fact that he wasn’t raised by someone who used it either, that being Jeff Davis. You know who does though? His uncle, Jeff’s brother, the Prowler.

And when I thought about that, It made a lot more sense. Growing up with a brother like Aaron, who defined their adolescences by roping him into his criminal escapades, Jeff so obviously grew up into one of those older black men that buy into respectability politics, and the belief that there is a distinction between black people by how they express themselves, with the end result being that his son inherited his way of speaking without having to think that the community is the way it is is because the people in it don’t act properly enough.

And it makes me wish Miles’ vernacular remained the way it was, because being raised by someone like that is a near universal experience for black kids growing up upper middle class, mixed ones no less.

[sapphirerubydragon]

Baybeeeees 😍

Have you met Miles Morales? He actually invented it

[sapphirerubydragon]

Just reposting some exquisite fan art 🥹

Hugs and Kisses (@RedrumAlice)

[sapphirerubydragon]

Guys I wish I was an artist-

Because I think Gwen would ROCK this look.

Don't get me wrong, I adore her current costume, but I also love seeing other costumes, and Gwen could look amazing in this.

[sapphirerubydragon]

Such brilliant writing ✨️

I imagined Gwen learning about her dad’s canon event to be less traumatizing than this, but here we are. Don’t yell at me.

A little snippy snip from Chappy 3 of For Everything (the Ghostflower death fic with a ✨Happy Ending✨

[sapphirerubydragon]

Real.

Happy Father's Day to the Uncle who stepped up 😌👌🏾💜💚✨

“We wanted to create a world where it felt like Aaron and Miles G. Morales [this reality counterpart to Miles Morales] are the only heroes.” - Director Justin K. Thompson

[sapphirerubydragon]

GOSH! 2024 has been such an uphill battle for me. I've been sick for almost 3 weeks and while that means time off work it also means I haven't updated in almost a month. I'm rolling with the punches but that's life right?

Don't know if there are still some Ghostflower fans looking for crumbs but if you need a fix, this chapter is a little longer than usual so have a go and let me know what you think. I'm shifting povs for this chapter and the next and then we're out of canon field and back into my imaginative space. Crossing my fingers that the rest of the year will be kind to me... to all of us 💜

Chapter 17 is up! Thanks for sticking this out!

[sapphirerubydragon]

This is a pretty good analysis!

Going to get off the mountain, from a high place, down to "look at the fun", to do something she'd enjoy, to seek out pleasure for once, is what saved her life.

By the end of the season, I interpreted Akemi and Taigen's relationship as over. It appeared to have been doomed when Akemi married to a man she actually liked, but if I had any doupt, it was cemented by them growing incompatible to each other.

(Notice how Akemi is on one side of the shot, with intense orange fire in the background, while Taigen is on the other side, with the blue sky and the calm forest in the background. Everything from the colors to the atmosphere signifies incompatibility).

Taigen used to value greatness, the show makes references to this all the time.

But something changed. Isolating his lines from the previous scene:

He chose happiness over greatness - the thing he valued, but ultimately had no value if it means he's not happy. Just like Mizu's quest for revenge. It is undoubtedly unhealthy for her and for those around her. She must choose happiness over it, she must dodge the sword.

[sapphirerubydragon]

The dialogue is so natural 🥺🥺

Please, have a snippy from Chapter Two of For Everything! It’s coming soon, yall! I hope you’re ready 🫶🏽

Anybody else ever feel victimized we never got to see Miles and Gwen bond on the bus ride from Alchemax? Yeah, me too…

[sapphirerubydragon]

I also needed to see their faces. This art just made me down bad for this ship afresh 😭🥹

Yall we missed out on some great expressions bc of their masks

[sapphirerubydragon]

Brief reprieve. Does anyone ever have something haunting you, peeking over your shoulder, drifting through your dreams begging you to write but you can't because life is too much with us but you need to write before your head explodes with the people and places and ideas that need to be put down on paper? Yeah.

Okay. So I'm hoping that I can get this story back up and running and to its finish line. Because I still love Miles and Gwen I want to do it justice so here's a short chapter for now as I haven't abandoned the work.

Thank you so much to readers who still read, support, comment on, think about and ask about stories even when they fall off. You guys are truly writer fuel. 💜

[sapphirerubydragon]

I was initially indifferent to the "Miles is the Gwen Stacy to Spider-Gwen's Peter Parker" theory I've seen a few times, but after giving it two minutes of thought I actually realize that that would be a very interesting route for the story to take

Because the thing with Spider-Gwen is that the only way Gwen Stacy lives is if she's the one with the powers. This also means she's the one who suffers the great loss instead. Which as the movie has made clear, is something she fears repeating more than anything; this fear is her main motivation behind all of her actions towards Miles in ATSV. And the last moment the two have before the Nueva York train fight is them repeating the iconic "Peter catching Gwen" moment, but the roles are reversed, like the tables have been turned on who is going to have to save who in the end.

Also, sidebar, me just rambling here, but the lyrics of "Calling" by Metro Boomin at the end of the movie seem to be from Gwen's POV post the events of the movie. I keep thinking back to the lyric "it's my fault, I made you fall for me," which obviously is meant to be Gwen feeling responsible for what happened to Miles, because if he hadn't become so attached to her then he wouldn't have followed her across dimensions (which was not actually her fault). But I also kinda see this lyric having another meaning; it's Gwen expressing regret for siding with the society instead of standing with Miles. Her actions were understandable ofc, since siding with Miguel's orders was the only way to avoid being expelled from the Society and sent back to her dimension and facing her dad and thus risking her actual life. But this meant letting Miles take the fall instead of her. So this lyric is like Gwen saying to Miles, it's my fault, I let you take the fall for me.

So now the roles the two were playing have been reversed.

If this theory ends up being the case, then you essentially have a Gwen Stacy who's been dealt an arguably worse fate than all the other Gwen Stacys; one that maybe Gwen herself would consider a fate worse than death (something she already fears greatly), which is being the one who suffers the loss and has to keep getting up, who always manages to save everyone except the people that actually matter most to her, who's doomed to watch all her weak, fragile loved ones die while her durable, enhanced superhuman body stubbornly keeps living.

[sapphirerubydragon]

Hoping to get back to writing and reading about these babies soon. When I finally catch a break... Missed them so much. This is such a nice edit.

i have another one too. i thought it wasn’t legal to post edits on tumblr

[sapphirerubydragon]

"Gwen crashed in Hobie's dimension sometimes"

What Miles thought Gwen and Hobie were doing:

What Gwen and Hobie were actually doing:

[sapphirerubydragon]

Preach this gospel because I would NEVER understand how anybody would want to water down gorgeous animation with live action. Never, ever could understand.

I am someone who will never understand why you'd want to see a superhero adapted to live action rather than to animation