#apologies for going off on a rant there

[sarksarkos]

Flash '59: Pieces Without A Whole

This is Flash #108, the third issue this year to feature Gorilla Grodd. Despite DC having a well-known affection for apes and monkeys of all kinds, he made three appearances this year but was not on the cover for any of them. But oh, that will change. Welcome to the Gutters!

One unfortunate aspect about comics in this era is how many of them just do not matter, and how the writers don't seem to realize what is and isn't important. For example, issues #106-108 all feature Gorilla Grodd, and there's enough there to view them almost as a trilogy. Yet the covers think it's more important to feature the Pied Piper and two stories that are essentially filler.

#107's "The Amazing Race Against Time" is about an alien race that creates a humanoid alien designed to use speed power to seal a dimensional rift. The aliens don't look like humans and it only arrived on earth by accident, so there's really no reason for it to look like a human, and the only conflict comes from Barry Allen getting pissy that an alien is faster than him. This also feels weird in retrospect considering that the Green Lantern Corps would be introduced this same year, and this is the kind of thing they do all the time.

#108's "The Speed of Doom" is about another alien tricking the Flash on a treadmill to measure his maximum speed, but the machine is actually a trap that will force Flash to keep running until he exhausts himself. The aliens had been using their own speed technology to steal from Earth, and Flash is the only one who can stop them. Flash gets out of the machine by running faster than the speed of light, something the aliens didn't think was possible, which is cool, at least.

While I'm at it, let's talk about #109, "The Secret of the Sunken Satellite," which is a story about the Flash meeting a race of goofy underwater people and helping them fight a second, even goofier race of fish monsters. He defeats them instantly, because of course he does. Again, this feels a bit incongruous, especially since Aquaman already exists.

Neither of these generic aliens make a second appearance, and the sea people only show up once more in an issue of Justice League in 1971. There isn't really any character or world development, because in most cases all we see is a token appearance by Iris West, and Barry Allen apparently doesn't have any other friends. There's nothing particularly wrong with these stories either, but they don't seem to exist in the context of anything. They're like jigsaw pieces that don't fit to anything else. Pieces without a whole.

Excuse me one second, I need to edit the title of this post.

Anyway, back to the monkeys. Issue #108's "The Super-Gorilla's Secret Identity" sees Grodd escaping from prison and then forcibly evolving himself into a superbeing. Presumably this is the supposed de-evolution ray he was going to use last issue, just put in reverse. He evolves himself into... well, basically into Lex Luthor, but from the post-crisis era where he was an industrialist. I guess his evolution ray let him skip forward 25 years of comics publishing.

This is something that would be seen as incredibly out of character for Grodd, a villain who's defined by his hatred of humanity and belief in gorilla supremacy. Him willingly becoming a human is like you or I becoming a cockroach. There's also a really fun aspect whereby Barry Allen is implied to be jealous of Grodd's human identity, Drew Drowden. That's actually a fun character trait, that whenever anyone upstages Barry in any way he's just seething with jealousy.

Grodd uses his technology to create a pill designed to give him telekinesis, which they just call "the power of mind over matter," because that's not clunky at all. Unfortunately for the story, the second that Flash shows up to fight, Grodd turns back into a gorilla and loses his new powers because they were only designed to work on a human brain. Fortunately an ordinary gorilla made of meat is strong enough to tank a human being moving so fast he sets the ground on fire, to which I say, sure. But the Flash is somehow can just pick up Grodd and run him back to gorilla jail, to which I also say, sure.

I do wanna talk about Carmine Infantino's art here, which is some of the greatest. In general, he's able to walk a very narrow path between realism and expressionism, dipping into one or the other as the story dictates. The sequence of Grodd turning back into a gorilla is incredibly well done, full of energy and non-diagetic flourishes that enhance the emotion, while the slower moments are filled with nuance in the depiction of the characters.

That brings us to the main story in #109, "Return of the Mirror Master." This is kind of a wild one. Sam Scudder, the Mirror Master, escapes from prison using a trick mirror he had on him that allowed him to shrink down so small he could go unseen. Apparently they didn't search him when he went into prison. One would think that the flash of light from the camera would be in some way involved, like he needed enough light to make the mirror work, but no, he says outright that he just wanted to make a show for the reporters.

Next time we see him robbing banks using whatever the exact opposite of camouflage is. He covers himself in light that I guess is meant to be so bright that it's blinding, but my dude, you are as bright as the goddamn sun. Everyone is going to know something is up, and they're going to tie it to the one supervillain who escaped. This can't be harder than just making yourself invisible. Flash beats him because this was a bad plan, but the Mirror Master escapes.

The Mirror Master then has a pretty good plan, where he creates a big, obvious laser beam weapon on top of a building. When the Flash comes to stop his machine, Mirror Master hits him with his real weapon, a "mirror-reducer." Now. I'm not trying to strawman these stories. I will give them as much credit as I can. This could some kind of funhouse mirror effect, or something to do with the refraction of light, or any other science-adjacent effect that they didn't feel like explaining. Sure. Point is, it works, and Flash is just a little teeny man!

This story and the Grodd one both do a thing where they set up this situation where the villain has some kind of advantage over the hero and then they negate it before there story reaches a climax. The last time, Grodd had given himself telekinesis, and the he loses it almost immediately when Flash shows up. This time, Flash is shrunken down to the size of an insect, and then restores himself by himself in time to stop the Mirror Master.

Reading this, it feels like the logical climax would be that the tiny Flash has to defeat the Mirror Master, who is a freaking Kaiju relative to him, which would be a far more challenging fight. But that's not what they do.

There's like... so we've all seen the diagram of a rising and falling, action, right?

You have now.

The climax is supposed to be the high point of the story. Everything is supposed to lead up to that peak of tension, excitement, and conflict, and only after that do the problems get resolved. In this case, the action rises when Flash gets shrunk, and then falls again when he restores himself to normal size, and the climax - actually defeating the mirror master - happens after that. It's the textbook definition of an anticlimax. A lot of comic stories will happen this way. I'm genuinely confused as to why.

Was this just not a part of literary criticism at the time? Like I looked it up and that specific narrative structure was described by Kenneth Thorpe Rowe in 1939, and earlier models were described in the 19th century. This feels like an elementary part of narrative and I don't understand why so many comic stories seem to go against the grain.

Anyway, that's my time. Showcase is up next. Until next time!

[margindoodles2407]

Alright, everyone, say it with me: The Catholic Church Has No Power Or Authority To Change Her Doctrines Or The Moral Law

[crystalpallette]

I have never been and will continue to not be normal about ally. jesus christ ally.... they put you on rollerskates........ i thought you couldn't get cuter and they keep making you cuter

[triaelf9]

DA fandom really hearing the lords of fortune saying "we return items of CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE to their rightful owners for an acquisition FEE and keep everything else" and being like

DUR HUR THESE PIRATES (they're not pirates, they're treasure hunters & thrill seekers but that's for another day) DON'T STEAL ANYTHING DUR HUR WHERE ARE MY MORALLY GRAY SHIT

I'm sorry but are you kidding me??????

Are you actively trying to misread shit? Like ACTIVELY? Also I really hope ya'll aren't the same folks who got mad about cultural disrespect in the DA games & now are mad that they added in some sensitivity????? OOPS the grey wardens got the morally grey treatment in DAI & this game and we're all mad, but we want morally grey shit?

Look, if we're dunking jokingly that's fine, I'll chuckle along too, but like people are ACTUIVELY upset at this stuff and are wanting to "rewrite" the game to make it "better" and it's like okay calm down. Take a breath. If the game isn't clicking for you, you don't have to play it.

Or at least tag your mopey takes like good LORD. *insert game here* critical is RIGHT THERE.

ALSO equating "morally grey" to like "why aren't my favs racist, sexist, homophobic, and culturally insensitive like they USED TO BE" jesus christ think about what you're saying.

Again if the game isn't clicking for you THAT'S FINE, but stop giving ammo to the gaters that plays into their "this game sucks b/c it's woke" fascist dreamland.

[azalea-blooming]

i'm so fucking tired of people pretending tim isn't in a minority

i'm so fucking tired.

people. people can you hear me? he's canonically bi. canonically. no i don't care that you headcanon everyone as queer, it still matters. that representation matters. his identity matters. i'm not here for the bi erasure/biphobia. i'm not here for it and no one should be.

also. tim is jewish. actually canonically jewish. there was a star of david on his mother's grave.

TIM. DRAKE. IS. JEWISH. AND. BISEXUAL.

THESE. ARE. MINORITIES.

[purplepixel]

One of the top 5 most obnoxious people I know just went on a whole rant about how Thanos was right and the world was better after the snap, and also how the Avengers bringing everyone back was the real problem that ruined everything. So uh. I don't know enough about Marvel to understand the exact implications, but this is a massive red flag, right?

(please be gentle if I've entirely misunderstood everything ahaha)

Ok short answer. No, whoever this is, is WRONG and would be a huge red flag, but only if the person still believes that after being presented with what im about to explain. Bc on the one hand, i do understand where this persons line of thinking is coming from and im gonna try to take them in good faith for the time being.

If you take the thought and motive of thanos' problem and solution as presented by the mcu, then its simply one big trolley problem. Would you flip the switch to save a majority of people if it means sacrificing some? The conflict of infinity war is this: thanos' home planet was destroyed seemingly from overpopulation and lack of resources. The solution? Killing half the people so that the rest can survive. Thanos then saw other planets and decided to extend this to the entire galaxy as a way to save everything.

So taking this info at face value, this person is arguing the trolley problem. Is it ok to sacrifice a few to save the rest? If society is already doomed, is it ok to snap half the population to save the remaining population? Which, you know, can be debated, just like how the trolley problem is debatable.

Theres just one teensy little problem. The second you think critically on thanos' plan, the SECOND you apply it to real life, is the moment you realize thanos was WRONG and his plan MAKES NO SENSE if you use in universe rules and real life parralels. Bc unlike the thought experiment of being granted only two choices, the overpopulation problem presented by marvel does not have a this or that solution.

The narrative of the film WANTS you to think theres only two choices (kill half save the universe, or let everyone be doomed), bc THATS what will make a fun thought experiment and a compelling story and quite frankly create marvels BEST villain. But to quote tony stark in the first avengers film when asked a this or that question, "I think Id just cut the wire", there is always another way around the problem then what is presented. And for thanos, it all comes down to this--

Why did thanos choose to snap half the population, when he couldve doubled the universe's resources instead?

Having possession of all six infinity stones grants you the power to pretty much do anything you want. Time, space, reality, mind, soul, power. Its how he was able to destroy. Why couldnt he create? (Bc thatd be a bad story).

But lets say he couldnt. Or that it wouldnt fix the issue. Hypothetical. Even being unable to snap resources in, THE REAL LIFE ISSUE OF WORLD HUNGER IS NOT OVER POPULATION TAKING UP RESOURCES.

IT'S CAPITALISM AND THE INABILITY TO DISTRIBUTE SAID RESOURCES WITHOUT DISRUPTING THE STATUS QUO.

Unless theres some real world famine Im not aware of effecting THE ENTIRE EARTH, then no. We are capable of feeding the entire population many times over with the amount of resources this planet has. The real issue is the complications of distributions, labor, corporate greed, making a profit etc etc. (Thinking of all the corporations that choose to throw out perfectly good food or lace it with poison, instead of giving it to shelters/homeless) So thanos' problem and solution is inherently flawed. He saw a problem and came to the wrong solution.

Uhh also the russo brothers shot themselves in the foot by saying in a tweet that animals also got snapped. (I think they did it to make people sad without realizing the implications itd mean in universe). But if we take their words as canon then NOTHING CHANGED. THANOS DIDNT DO ANYTHING CUZ HE CUT HALF THE RESOURCES ON TOP OF THE POPULATION. So really, he screwed everyone over on top of killing all the people that died from proxy of the snap. The person having an operation whos surgeon got snapped? The kid on his way to a soccer game but his mom driving him got snapped? The swimmer drowning bc the lifeguard got snapped? The pilot flying a commercial airline? And so on. So many people died that were not randomly selected to be snapped. Its actually horrific when you think about it. More then half died from the snap.

Oh boy. The comment on the avengers making things worse by bringing everyone back. That out of everything is the biggest red flag to me. Because you can excuse the other points as someone taking the story at face value and not thinking a bit more critically in real world context. But there is no way that the avengers made it worse on an economic factor or a moral one. The mcu was left devestated in more ways then one post snap. Humanity survived, but we saw evidence of how horrible everything was at the beginning of endgame. And if you look at any real world disaster that wipes a population. Things arent better bc of it.

I wont lie, snapping everyone back also creates its own horrors and complications but...are we really gonna say its worse then leaving things how it was? Heres what i hear anytime someone says the avengers were wrong for bringing the people back--

"I would rather have these people dead then have my life inconvenienced"

Cuz unlike thanos snapping, nobody DIES in being brought back. The new status quo does get shaken up again, but NOBODY DIES. Unless you think the world was in immediate threat of dying from no resources. Which wasnt remotely true. It is in no way "the actual problem". The actual problem was thanos being stupid enough to think he'd solve world hunger by killing half of everyone. This is all thanos' fault and you cant blame the avengers for trying to fix it. Is someone really gonna tell me if given the chance, you wouldnt bring back everyone taken by covid? (Hm yes thats right. There is a real world equivelant to this dilemna. Funny. We are also 5 years post 2020)

Having said that, i do like how in universe there ARE people who also think thanos was right. Theyre wrong, but it does make the mcu feel a bit more realistic. People are not immune to blaming their problems on the wrong thing.

So ya. Tldr: Thanos was wrong about snapping everyone bc his issue shouldve been with capitalism instead of lack of resources. The world was not better post snap, bc everything was halved. The avengers were right to bring everyone back bc its the morally right thing to do.

Infinity war and endgame are still amazing films despite all that. Its just the second you make a serious claim that the villain is right, is the second I have to sit you down and tell you how very wrong you are.

[napping-sapphic]

Love is so freaky and messed up to the point that sometimes i do wish and hope SO badly that no one ever has to suffer being in love with me specifically because it honestly sounds absolutely unbearable

[foolishlyzephyrus]

i do truly this season—it’s not my most favorite or anything but I’m stilling enjoying it—so let me have my minor gripes in peace pretty please

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

if dorian didn't show up, do you think louis would have shot minnie?

I do. I know some people think either he wouldn't have or he would've missed so that's why the writers had him shoot Dorian instead, but mmmmmm no, I don't personally think so. I like to think that if he had taken the shot, his shaky hands would've caused him to shoot her fatally.

Mostly because I'm already so normal about the fact that of the Ericson crew, Marlon and Louis are the only ones with a body count. Well, that we know of, but shown to us in the game, at least. Plus, we know it's Louis' first kill.

Like yeah, Clementine and AJ become part of the crew and they have bigger body counts, and if we're counting indirect kills caused by actions, then Tenn has a count... and I guess everyone has blood on their hands for blowing up the boat... but I'm talking about killed directly with a weapon like....... I lied, I'm not normal about that at all, Louis and Marlon are the ones who have killed someone in Louis' route. I'm also not normal about the fact that Louis kills Dorian and then even as he's clearly in shock, he tries to go with Clementine to get AJ, and then later on when they talk about it, he says it feels like bile but not quite and he's glad he has it in him to do it.... listen, listen, listen... I'm obsessed with that.

Anyway, so if Louis shot Minerva, I think he would've accidentally killed her and can you imagine? He's already enough of a mess after killing the woman who pinned him down and tried to cut his finger off [or succeeded] but he knew Minerva, they were friends before the twins were taken. Even Violet couldn't kill her even though that would've been the smarter thing to do, and we know thanks to meta knowledge that killing her would've saved lives, but Violet couldn't, and I don't think Louis would intentionally either.

Speaking of Violet, if Louis killed Minerva, I hate to think about what that would've done to Vi. I think she might've actually left at that point, like what was planned before it got changed to her being burned. I don't think she would've attacked Louis over it, though, like yeah she attacked Clementine in the cell but Louis? I don't know, but I don't think so just because it's Louis and he'd be a mess about it anyway.

Though if he did kill her, it would be a neat parallel to draw... y'know, because Louis forgave AJ for killing Marlon even though he was pissed and heartbroken, and Violet was annoyed with him the entire time... but could she ever forgive Louis for killing Minerva? Y'know? We already have a similar parallel with AJ shooting Tenn, but still.

If Clementine killed Minerva in that moment, though, then I could see Violet attacking her since in her eyes, Clem proved her right.

So yeah, I get why they added the Dorian kill to his route. It adds another compelling element to Louis as a character, but we also need Minerva alive for episode 4; Louis can't kill her, he can't miss, and he's not going to stay with her because we need Violet to stay on the boat and him to be on shore for all routes.

[m-p-lebrush]

Tumblr wants to put religion into all the ads on this site for me.

When I have the time, I'm going to design a villain team entirely comprised of demons representing different overarching manifestations of evil. I will forge them in a spire-feulled furnace and reblog this post with so many verbose tags it will make those who would advertise God to me weep.

I'm normally quite nice to people who try and sell me on religion, at least I'm polite. But a faceless advertiser is no better than a false prophet. No better than a wretched imp undeserving of love or compassion. Merely a mask covering a cavity where a face would belong, for a corporation has nothing to relate to; it is a shambling revenant of the dreams of its founders, possessed by the greed of its masters.

[oceanwithouthermoon]

okay i just put this in the tags of a different post but now i have to put it in another post so i can talk about it more <3

celestia and luna : kusuo and kusuke is NOT a cut and dry comparison and neither of them fit one or the other perfectly.. for the most part, kusuo is celestia and kusuke is luna (kusuke lashing out because he thinks kusuo is better than him, that things are easier for kusuo, kusuo not understanding, etc etc.) but the problem with that by itself is that that goes BOTH ways in almost the same exact way, the biggest difference is in how they cope with it all.. kusuo also sees himself in luna A LOT, but unlike kusuke he keeps his issues bottled up and never once takes it out on him.. he competes back to kusuke, especially when they were kids, but for the most part he doesnt WANT to and only does it because either 1) kusuke tries to make him feel inferior or 2) kusuke BRIBES him to do it ???

they both think the other has it better and wish that they could live the others life, and neither of them understand the others struggles (and probably never will fully, but hopefully itll get better for them.)

kusuo definitely watched mlp and thinks of HIMSELF as the luna or the 'nightmare moon' of the two of them because, even though he hasnt ever actually lashed out in that way, he knows how perfectly capable of it he is and he believes himself to be some sort of monster.. and its not really a rational way for him to see things, especially since he doesnt even usually view kusuke in a positive light ? but lunas story just hits home with him that badly..

this is just one reason why i think it sucks that kusuo being "powerless" basically only lasted a weekend, because we totally couldve gotten to see a "celestia and luna switching cutie marks for a day" kind of dynamic between kusuo and kusuke.. obviously not with kusuke having powers, but with him being above kusuo and more powerful than the general human race and realizing that being better than kusuo isnt what he wanted it to be..

and seeing how absolutely depressed and in denial kusuo becomes at first when he starts getting his powers back wouldve hit so much harder for kusuke if it had been a slower realization before kusuo could begin accepting himself again

[gayeredin]

he needed so little to get a win

[pastelpousay]

I’m so sick of everyone (kinda rant/vent to be deleted)

BRO ISTG THIS WEEK EVERYTIME SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS SOMETHING GOOD HAPPENS THEN IT GOED RIGHT BACK TO BAD. LIKE LITERALLY EARLIER I THOUGHT I FUCKED UP N SHIT AND THEN AFTER I GET AN AMAZING SUPRISE!! 💗 AFTER THAT THERE COMES THE ANON AND THEN I GET SOME SUPER SWEET MESSAGES FROM PPL BUT LIKE

I DOTM EVEN WANNA SAY WHAT THIS IS ABOUT LIKE I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE NICE AND THINK OF MY FRIEND LIKE AND BE KIND ONLY TO BE CALLED SELFISH LIKE WHAT. IDEK THIS PERSON IRL IDK WHY I GIVE A DAMN THEY DONT WVEN CARE ABOUT ME THEY ONLY WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THEIR SHIT LIKE DUDE I DONT CARE ABOUT YOUU, FUCK YOU. HOW ARE YOU GONNA TREAT ME LIKE SOME TOXIC FRIEND MEANWHILE ITS NOT EVEN THAT DEEP. IM NOT GONNA FIGHT OVER PIXELS I WAS LITERALLY JUST GOING TO HIDE IT IVE ALREADY BEEN LYING ALL THIS TIME WHAT DOES IT MATTER 💀😭

“You should probably try and let go again” FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF IM NOT DOING WHAT YOU SAY IM NOT A FUCKIN SUCK UP I DONT KNOW I FEEL LIKE THERES SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME BUT LIKE WHAT LIKE WHY DO PEOPLE HATE ME, WHY ARE YOU MAD I LIKE A CHARACTER WHATS?? WRONG WITH MY ART?? SOMETHINGS WRONG WITH ME BECAUSE I LIKE THE SAME CHARACTER AS YOU!! UR SUCH A PICKY BITCH I DONT EVEN KNOW WHY I BOTHERED WITH YOU I WAS PUTTING OFF EVEN INTERACTING WITH YOU CIZ I ALREADY KNEW IT WASNT GONNA GO GOOD THATS WHY I DIDNT WANT TO I SHOULDVE LEFT YOU ALONE BUT IM TO NICE APPARENTLY WHY AM I THE BAD GUY HERE WHY AM I THE BETRAYER (I get it from my man 💙)

I don’t get it I don’t get it it wasn’t even that deep why do I have to do something every time something might go south. ME it’s always me having to do something and never anyone else

Tomorrow I will stop interacting with that mf tomorrow I’m going to block you. DUD IM NOT A STEPPING STONE IM A REAL PERSON WITH FEELINGS I EVEN IF I AM ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCREEN. STOP TREATING ME LIKE IM A SUCK UP IM NOT A SUCK UP AND ESPECIALLY NOT FOR YOU. IF I DODNT SEE THE NEED TO APOLOGIZE I WONT IM SICK OF SAYING SORRY, IM SICK OF PEOPLE WANTING THAT, I REFUSE TO APOLOGIZE FOR SOMETHING I CANNOT CHANGE FUCK OFFFFFFF.

Thank you everyone who has ever looked out for me thank you to my friends and mutuals, thank you to everyone who was literally ever nice to me. I HATE EVERYONE BUT YOU 💗/j

Yall I promise I’m not this mean 😭 not unless you give me a reason to (once again from my man 💙)

[rustedbread]

I'm feeling undoubtably pretty bad right now, so I'm just going to like play sad music and play Sisyphus simulator because, why the fuck not

[liliumaa]

Regarding the possible tumblr shut down im just gonna. be here. but my other links are here if youre interested!

my discord is liliumaa (same as my username here) feel free to send me a friend request if you want. If I take a while to respond pls pls dont take it personally i just overthink and get tired easily