#especially in re stopping the problems that would lead to war again - in fact they are one of those very problems

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Somewhere beneath those roofs, the Sons of the Harpy were gathered, plotting ways to kill her and all those who loved her and put her children back in chains. Somewhere down there a hungry child was crying for milk. Somewhere an old woman lay dying. Somewhere a man and a maid embraced, and fumbled at each other's clothes with eager hands. But up here there was only the sheen of moonlight on pyramids and pits, with no hint what lay beneath. Up here there was only her, alone. She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman's pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon? —ADWD, Daenerys II

Interviewer: One could argue that more can be learned about everyday politics from your novels than from the newspaper.

George: I did indeed intend to make politics one of the main themes of these novels. I hope to make my readers reflect on political issues. For example, when Daenerys Targaryen conquers a city of slave traders and tries to rule it, she realizes that good intentions alone do not make a government program. There is a series of very difficult decisions to make and, no matter what you do, people will hate you.

Interviewer: Even if one has three dragons.

George: Exactly. The dragons are metaphors.

Interviewer: Virtually the nuclear weapons of your world.

George: The most terrible weapon! However, they don't put you in a position to abolish poverty, make everyone love you, or lead a happy life. You can very well use them to burn things down, to destroy your enemies, cities, and entire cultures, but that doesn't solve the problem of good governance.

- George R.R. Martin, The Father Of Fire And Ice

[lullabyes22-blog]

hi <3

i am once again asking your thoughts on the latest act of arcane?

Honestly, my feelings on S2 so far are pretty mixed.

:')

On the one hand, visually, it's absolutely heartstopping. The cinematography is incredible, and it's the first time in a while where every episode felt like an experience I had to endure in a good way. Plus the score, the voice-acting, and the sound design is, as usual, top notch.

Buuuut when you have all these stellar spheres working on this show, it makes the areas where they drop the ball stand out.

For me, that's the plot.

Alot of folks have criticized the pacing and how there's too much piled into one season. Personally, at this point I've made peace with the breakneck speed and sort of taken it as a given in a series where 'War' is the overarching theme. I can even let go of the fact that certain plot beats don't feel earned, as there's so much subtlety and foreshadowing that you can easily make the case for them via long-drawn out analyses of every frame.

But the writing, ohhhh boy. The writing. It feels like there's a disconnect between the overall plot and the individual character moments.

It's really hard to articulate, but I'll do my best.

I love that we're getting so much characterization for the main cast. Every episode, it feels like there's a new layer peeled back, and each of our leads has an opportunity to shine.

And that's exactly the problem. They're all shining.

Separately.

When I think about it, the reason why S1 worked so well was because every episode gave us a glimpse into the mind of someone different. We got a taste of what it was like to be in the head of every major player in the cast, and through this, we grew to understand their motivations, their fears, their hopes. I've used the 'gem' analogy in previous reviews, and the way the show handled that concept was amazing. Every character was a facet of the gem that was Arcane, and each shift of PoV allowed us to see them from a new angle.

There was coherence. There was cohesion. And there was a sense of complexity told in a concise and well-planned format.

S2, for me, doesn't quite work the same way.

It's not that I don't understand the characters, or that I don't appreciate the way they're handled. It's just that their individual journeys are so self-contained. I'm not getting a sense of their interpersonal connections. More as if they're crashing into and out of each other's lives, without ever stopping to have a proper conversation.

It's a common complaint with ensemble casts, and I don't mind it for the most part, but the problem here is that Arcane has been very careful about establishing its characters as part of a cohesive whole. They're not just random individuals who happen to share a stage. They're siblings, lovers, colleagues, friends, enemies, etc. And the reason why we can relate to them is because, on some level, they mirror our own relationships. We've seen how they treat each other, and we've come to care about them.

But in this season, I feel like there's been a failure to communicate.

Scenes between characters feel like a series of disconnected vignettes, some of which are great and some of which are not so great. It's as if the writers are trying to force the characters to react to the plot rather than the other way around.

I don't want to be overly critical. So much love and effort has gone into making this show, and I'd never want to disparage the efforts of so many talented artists.

But, yeah. Coherence is a bit of an issue.

I will say, however, that re: the subject of grief, especially in Jinx's journey, this season has delivered some beautiful moments. It's a surprisingly nuanced treatment of a complicated and ugly emotion, and it's something I wish more shows would tackle. The problem with a lot of modern storytelling is that, because it's trying so hard to be edgy, complex and subversive, it doesn't really leave any room for just letting characters exist. And Jinx's arc in particular is a perfect example of this.

I was worried, going into the season, that they'd take the easy route and paint her as a pure monster, utterly deranged from her loss. That's what the fandom seems to want, anyway, and it's what you'd probably expect given the general climate.

But instead, the show has chosen for Jinx to be vulnerable, and to let her arc be honest. Granted, Isha, though she's adorable, still doesn't quite feel like a full-fleshed out person, but Jinx's bond with her has been written with such heartbreaking realism that I'm inclined to forgive the former for the sake of the latter. It's just refreshing to see the series not to take that insulting and reductive 'but Jinx is crazy' route, and instead allow her to grapple with the pain of losing her family and the horror of what she's done, but to also heal old wounds with brand-new connections.

'Crazy' does not mean 'irredeemable.'

And it's about time more mainstream media got this memo.

The series also continues to be stellar at showcasing so much with such restraint. A lot of the scenes don't last longer than a few minutes, and yet you can feel so much conveyed in that brief window. And the framing and composition is consistently masterful.

Overall, though, I'm a bit underwhelmed by this season so far. It feels like an incomplete masterpiece, and the sense that the narrative has lost control is starting to get overwhelming. We've still got Act 3 left, and I'm hoping the final stretch is able to tie things together a little more neatly.

Anyway, thank you for reading this mess! And feel free to share your thoughts as well. I'm curious to hear how other people are finding the series.

<3

[maukree]

Masterpost with all parts

Heyyyyy, I’m back. Again.

Did you miss me? Don’t answer that, I’m fragile.

Anyway, I just posted Chapter 5 of my increasingly 616-obsessive winteriron fic (you know, the one that this recap was meant to be for and all, not that it got away from me or anything), and it suddenly hit me that I may have jumped the gun there a tiny bit in terms of canon context.

Oops.

So here I am, crawling back into this super short (ha. HA.) recap series to catch up with my own fic timeline before anyone starts shaking receipts at me in the comments. And yes, I’m painfully aware that my very fancy, very curated, very aesthetically pleasing cover art doesn’t actually list half the comics I’ve ended up referencing in these posts, but we’re still on track: from when Bucky pops into the 616 continuity just before Civil War, through all the post-Civil War fallout, and heading straight toward Fear Itself.

Yes, other events are going to pop up in between. No, I’m not updating my Photoshop files to reflect that. Just squint, pretend it’s all intentional, and move on.

Now, as for this specific part, if you read this, you’ll find out:

What happens to Tony as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

What happens to Bucky while Tony mostly flails under the weight of the world's dumbest job offer.

That there are some intersections between them, but this is canon, folks, and, sadly, they both spend time banging people completely wrong for them (just my opinion, calm down).

Still, this is the part where, if you make it to the end, you’ll finally know how the hell Tony ends up deleting his own brain after the Secret Invasion—because he’s just that dramatic—and who he sends the only backup to. It’s Bucky. Sorry, I just knew the suspense would be killing you.

Quick reminder: we left off Part 3 with Tony handing Bucky Steve’s shield, Bucky agreeing (somehow??) to let Tony mess around with his brain, and both of them pretending this was totally normal behavior and not the fandom equivalent of swapping promise rings.

Anyhow, let’s go.

Holy shit, you clicked again. What’s wrong with you? Kidding, please stay.

So… Tony has finished emotionally decimating the superhero community via Civil War, and also just had his sexy little moment with Bucky in Captain America (2004–2011).

I might repeat myself a bit here, but I’ll at least try to keep it only to the relevant shit you came here for. (Lies. I will likely repeat myself a lot here, because only a crazy person would re-read their own ramblings to see where I actually stopped. And I will very likely add a ton of completely irrelevant information and too many bad jokes, but if you are reading part 4, you might be sorta into it, so that’s your problem, not mine.) 

We are roughly over in Invincible Iron Man Vol. 4 (2004–2007), around Issue #15, where Tony bullshits himself into thinking he’s ready to lead. Despite the fact that he’s been freshly dumped by his entire friend group and is still grieving his dead boyfriend who asked him—in writing, to make it legal and binding or something—to take care of his very stabby former possibly-love.

This stretch of comics in general is fascinating because it’s less about the suit and more about Tony vs. The System, which is hilarious when you remember he is the system now. He’s balancing national security, superhuman politics, his own guilt, and the absolute circus that is post-Civil War America. I mean, you might love him, you might hate him, and he did make a spectacular mess of things in Civil War, but the man’s trying, okay? And the art is really nice. 

Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 4) #15–18: The Initiative 

This tiny arc is mostly foreshadowing and starts off Tony’s tenure as Director with exactly the kind of subtlety you’d expect from him: by pissing off everyone. Especially Dum Dum Dugan, who, as I’ve mentioned before, is around, is very ginger, has a very impressive mustache that deserves its own comic book run, and has some very strong opinions.

So, let’s talk about Dugan for a second. Because my man is not having it. Tony rolls into S.H.I.E.L.D. with his futurist swagger, immediately starts running it like a Stark Industries satellite office, replaces a beloved cook named Cookie (rip legend, we never knew you, but your name lives on) with a private chef, and suddenly—for completely no reason at all, honestly—Dugan's looking one fabulous lunch away from full mutiny.

I mean… he kind of has a point? From the very beginning, as soon as he takes the job, Tony is so hands-on as Director that it's a miracle anyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D. has anything to do. He’s micromanaging ops and personally suiting up to punch bioweapons, which is, arguably, super effective, but also very infuriating for hardened pros. I kinda agree with Dugan here in a sense that Tony’s behavior is giving the entire agency, who already has deeply repressed authority issues from Fury, too many reasons to call Tony both daddy and their emergency field response unit.

But don’t worry, Sal Kennedy is here to try and convince Dugan that Tony’s fit for the job. If you were around for Part 1 of this totally useless recap series, you’ll remember (or not, I don't remember if I told you about him) Sal from Extremis—Tony’s chill tech philosopher BFF who wears sandals on government property and speaks exclusively like a walking TED Talk. He is ride-or-die Team Tony, which we respect, and Sal spends most of Issue #15 trying to convince Dugan that installing childcare on the Helicarrier is a boss move (it is) and that Tony isn’t an actual threat to the republic (debatable). He’s the only person besides Jarvis who talks to Tony like a human being, which, of course, means he is absolutely doomed.

More on that in a minute.

Meanwhile, over in the “Should’ve Stayed in Jail” department, Maya Hansen is still around. Remember her from Extremis, where she invented nightmare fuel, emotionally manipulated Tony, got him nearly killed, and then helped him inject that nightmare fuel into his bloodstream? Good times.

So, yeah. This gal. Unofficially working on Extremis for Tony, officially killing Tony’s chances of having a normal relationship for the foreseeable future, and vibe-check failing in every panel. She and Tony have that tragic pseudo-ex energy that won’t fucking die already, mostly because she keeps hanging around long enough to remind us she still exists.

And Tony, poor bastard, is just trying to get to the part where he can start obsessing over Bucky in peace—but no. Maya is here with her Extremis research and suspicious side-deal offers behind Tony’s back because everyone in this comic is after Extremis like it’s a completed, no archive warnings applies, slow burn, good smut on AO3.

Also, yes, in case you’re wondering who’s looming in the background all mysterious and villainous—since there’s always one of those per series—it’s The Mandarin. Yay? Different from the MCU, for sure, and you don’t know that yet in these issues, but I do, and now you do, and I’m telling you this man will haunt Tony’s entire run like the yoga-practicing demon asshat he is. He doesn’t do much here at the beginning aside from loom and look ominous and flex his yoga poses, occasionally making me confuse him with Sal (’cause both could use a haircut), but…

Anyway.

By the time we hit Issue #18 and Initiative wraps up Tony’s intro to being Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., things go from “shaky office politics” to “oh no, Tony’s having a trauma spiral again.” 

Sal dies. 

And it is gnarly. It’s really gross, people, and it leaves Tony absolutely gutted and flashing back to a few folks he’s recently lost, starting with Steve.

Thankfully, this is not a Captain America comic book, and reminiscing about dead friends is more of a Steve move, so the writers of the Iron Man comic book promptly decided that this specific moment could wait and instead gave us an epic naked scene to round this arc off—for which I am willing to forever visit comic book shops on Wednesdays and buy so many I am running out of storage space, hoping for another naked Tony scene.

That. Yeah. Tony takes off his clothes and uses the power of being hot, upset, and nearly dead to defeat an Extremis-inspired biotech weapon. It’s symbolic. It’s sweaty. And yes, I will be including those panels.

This arc ends with Maya, the sweet summer traitor that she is, taking that shady offer and wandering off to go work for the Mandarin. Seriously. Get Bucky on the phone. Or someone else on the phone. Because this isn’t the person Tony should be banging, okay?

At this point, it should be painfully clear that the only person Tony should be entangled with in the 616—or any continuity—is either:

A) A traumatized assassin with a metal arm and an obsessive lip-licking habit

B) A traumatized, mouthy, currently unemployed and on-the-run photographer who goes by Spider-Man

C) Okay, fine, a guy who used to have a shield, but is currently dead, so not dealing with trauma, lucky him

Unfortunately, Peter is busy dealing with his own angst in New Avengers, Steve is, in fact, still dead, and Bucky is somewhere punching fascists and feeling feelings off-panel—which brings us to a small detour to discuss World War Hulk, because I briefly mentioned it in my fic, which I will continue aggressively plugging because it’s Tumblr and nothing is free in this life except maybe actual fanfiction.

Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 4) #19–20: World War Hulk 

Ah yes. The event where Marvel looked at the most damaged and in need of a break heroes and said, “Want to be punched in the face?” And Tony, being Tony, said: Sure, I’ll go first. Make sure to hit hard.

A while ago, Tony and his big-brain boyband—also known as the Illuminati, or, as I like to call them, powerful assholes with terrible ideas—decided it would be a genius move to yeet Bruce Banner into space. For reasons, obviously. Because he was too unstable, dangerous, big green feelings, etc., and because nobody in that group has ever heard of successful therapy.

Naturally, Hulk comes back from space with an army, a lot of rage, a spaceship (well, you kinda need one to come back from space, but it’s a cool spaceship), and a very short, extremely pointed “Puny humans, I’m gonna wreck your shit” speech.

This is an actual Marvel event, but in issues #19–20, we stay tight on Tony’s perspective, while others, presumably, have their own tragedy happening. Since I read this event in full donkeys ago and don’t feel like doing it again just yet, here is a basic recap as it pertains to Tony.

Tony is spiraling hard. He feels genuinely awful about what they did. But guilt doesn't stop him from immediately dusting off the Hulkbuster armor to fly straight into Hulk’s fist, since 616 is peak martyr Tony. This is “let me throw my body at a problem because I deserve it and maybe also it’ll prove something to Steve, who’s still dead and everyone would not shut up about it, and Bucky, who’s probably watching” energy. It’s so Tony. And if by now you are at the very least not interested just a little in reading 616 comic books, idk what I’m doing wrong here.

Anyhow, Maria Hill and Dugan, who were skeptical at first, are fully Team Tony by this point. They’re trying to stop him from the full-on confrontation by reminding him they have protocols, but Tony always needs to suffer because he hates himself a little, so suffer he does, and he absolutely does not win. 

In fact, Avengers Tower gets leveled, which is deeply rude to all the fic writers who imagined Bucky moving into that specific version someday. Tony gets captured, but still looks great while doing that, assuming you’re into him being all chained up and in a lot of trouble. Panels included for all interested in that dynamic, you perverts. But I am not deleting those screenshots from my phone, so you are not alone. Isn’t that nice?

The actual World War Hulk is pretty fun, and a lot of shit does get wrecked, but Tony isn’t the one to save the day. It all boils down to the very shirt-ripping showdown between two of the most overpowered boys Marvel has ever created: Hulk vs. Sentry. And yes, if you’re here just after the new Thunderbolts movie, it’s that Sentry. Our boy with sad eyes and weird slippers—Bob.

I’m not gonna spoil anything about Bob (much), but 616 is different from the MCU, so don’t worry too much, I guess? The point is, both of them go full God Mode, and for a few glorious panels it’s “trauma vs. trauma,” gamma rage vs. unstable sun-god energy, and absolutely no one wins except the artists who got to draw it and readers who forked out $3.99 per issue for it.

In summary: this is a cool event, Tony gets his beatdown, gets humbled once again, and the city gets a facelift. I wasn’t yet a winteriron shipper when I read WWH, so I actually do not remember what the hell happened to Bucky during this event, but there are no Captain America issues that cover it, so… possibly not much? I assume he punches things. 

On a completely unrelated side-note (but also kind of important because I can’t stop thinking about it):

The second I mentioned Sentry, my brain—filthy thing that it is—flashed me straight back to that one issue of Mighty Avengers that ran during the same timeline as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I had to cackle when I remembered Tony got turned into a girl, and the first thing he did as soon as he came to after it was over was check that all of his body parts were still there.

Like. No “is my heart okay,” no “do I still have functioning lungs,” just straight to “do I still have my Stark Industries, patent-pending, nanotech-augmented dick.” Iconic. (I’m kidding about it being augmented, btw—that man has big dick energy, we all know it.)

And no, I am not recapping Mighty Avengers fully here, unless I have to. Because if I do that, I’d have to go back and cover New Avengers properly, and that’s no longer a recap—that’s me writing a wiki.

Just sort of assume that there are many other issues, adventures, and semi-shippy shit happening at the same time as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. We nod, acknowledge, giggle at Tony pawing at his boy-parts in front of his new team (Bucky excluded for the moment), and, yes, move on.

Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 4) #21–28: Haunted 

In this arc, Tony is just trying to do his job, save the world, maybe cry in peace over Steve’s memory, and instead gets absolutely steamrolled by the government, by biotech horror, by Maya “Poor decision making is my thing” Hansen, and, finally, by Mandarin.

It’s important to remember that during his time as Director, Tony is doing the best he can under impossible circumstances. And by “impossible,” I mean: the government is always on his ass, Norman Osborn is also on his ass, Norman Osborn is also just... an ass, and Tony can’t stop losing people.

This lovely eight-issue arc begins with Tony getting mindfucked on his own balcony by hallucinating Steve standing there looking all blond and tragic and judgmental, which is extra delicious for Stony shippers—especially since this is a very tender hallucination moment that hurts in all the right ways. But if you’re here in winteriron goggles, Bucky is currently wearing the stars and stripes, and if Tony saw someone in that somewhat similar suit and had a flash of “Steve?”, there’s a very real chance his brain could've hiccupped and whispered “Bucky?” first.

Anyway. Real Steve is still dead at this point (ish), so hallucination Steve disappears, and Tony is left spiraling. Again.

Then he gets… mindfucked. Also again—this time by Maya, when he’s told she’s dead. Maya, in her defense, doesn’t know she’s being accidentally evil, which is kind of her brand at this point: smart-stupid. She possibly thinks she’s helping humanity but is really just aiding Mandarin who is doing Extremis experiments on kidnapped humans and superheroes in a very evil-looking lab.

Tony, upon learning all this, reacts the way anyone in his position would: by launching an actual investigation. The government, in turn, puts him on probation, and if there’s one thing this arc reinforces, it’s that no one appreciates Tony unless he’s saving the world shirtless and bleeding.

Maya eventually does discover she’s being evil, but still manages to nearly cause a full extinction-level event, since Mandarin’s very classic plan is to unleash Extremis on the world, knowing full well only a tiny percentage of people (Tony included) can survive it.

You’d figure that instead of trying to make it more difficult for him, the government would back off—but instead, Tony gets collared with a device that dampens his Extremis connection, has to use his clunky old Iron Man suit, gets blamed, blocked, and nearly blown up. Which is where it builds to a massive showdown between Tony and Mandarin that includes a lot of sci-fi body horror, Maya yelling science things too late to be helpful, Tony nearly dying, Tony mutilating his own body to rip off the collar and reconnect with Extremis (ugh, that was very ick), and Tony saving 99.9% (or something) of the planet while bleeding out.

It’s pretty epic. It’s horrifying. It’s kind of hot in a very unwell way. And yes, I recommend reading it. At the end of all this, the same government that was just about to fire him suddenly goes, “Oh wait—you’re a hero,” and lets him keep his job.

It’s, obviously, a very squished recap of what actually happens, but do you want me to write up in detail Tony having to slice off his own heel to save the world? Nah, I didn’t think so.

Bucky’s not around in these issues, but he’s wearing the suit, carrying the shield, and probably somewhere hearing the news about Tony almost dying again. Personally, I like to imagine him muttering something like “idiot” under his breath while lowkey loading a sniper rifle labeled “In case of Osborn.”

Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 4) #29–32: With Iron Hands 

So, these four issues are technically the final arc of the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. era in this run (unless you count some stuff about War Machine doing War Machine things)—even though Tony keeps clinging to the Director title like it’s an unhealthy relationship (which it is) through the beginning of the next series. Honestly, the timeline is a bit of a mess (classic Marvel), and the next run kinda starts before this one fully ends, but for all narrative purposes: this is where Invincible Iron Man Vol. 4 drops the mic. Gently. Into a crater. While on fire.

You’d think, after everything Tony’s been through—bio-horror of Extremis, Maya-related betrayal, his support system and friends dropping dead all around him, government gaslighting—they’d give him a proper send-off. But no. Then again, maybe it’s perfectly fitting that this run closes out with two separate murder plots, a mini-nuke or two, and literally everyone and their mother acting like Tony on purpose handcrafted their personal trauma in a Stark Industries lab.

The arc is about Tony winning (barely) yet another fight, but also looking like he desperately needs a nap, a decent lay (you know with whom), and five minutes where someone isn’t trying to lecture, blame, or explode him. This arc also has two villains—sorta—because, heaven forbid Tony gets a single uninterrupted crisis. Bad Guy #1 is a former friend turned nuclear hobbyist, since in Marvel, failed friendships don’t simply end in blocked numbers. Bad Guy #2 is a salty ex–S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist-slash-weapons designer who is so terminally offended by Tony’s brilliance that he hijacks a superweapon just to scream “NOTICE ME, SENPAI.”

To the shock of no one—and please tell me you are seeing the pattern here—Tony nearly dies while trying to sacrifice himself.

I could walk you through the whole plot—the plans, the explosions, the monologuing—but it’s frankly boilerplate Evil Genius 101. The real meat of this arc is in the ending, where Tony takes the win and the guilt in equal measure. Broods. Reflects. Self-flags. Stares off into the distance while flashbacking to everyone he’s ever failed and—no, this time fully dressed.

If you’re feeling MCU nostalgia, this is “I remember all of them” mood before the Russos gave that line to Bucky for drama purposes (panel included). This is OG 616 Tony Stark, kinda constipated when it comes to expressing his feelings but fully aware of every ghost he carries around in his tortured Gucci luggage.

Depending on who you ask in the 616 fandom, Tony from this era—with Civil War and all—is either a fascist, a martyr, an idiot genius with bad boundaries, or just a problematic fave with better hair than everyone else.

I say he’s a man doing his fucking best.

Yes, I’m biased. Yes, my "I Heart Tony" goggles are welded to my skull. But this run makes it very clear that Tony always believes he’s doing the right thing—or at least the best possible thing when everything is already falling apart, and the best possible thing is, okay, occasionally, a still pretty shitty choice. And unlike a lot of other superheroes who love to grandstand and sulk from rooftops, Tony actually steps up every time and doesn’t run away from hurt. And, boy, do comic book writers love to hurt him.

616 Tony is wildly flawed, emotionally repressed, and so bad at self-care it makes fanfic-level angst look tame, but he always shows up for people—whether they want his help or not. He tries, even when he knows that his past choices made it impossible for some to even say thank you. Could be why S.H.I.E.L.D.—for a hot second here—actually respects him at the end of this run. Sure, he’s a control-freak boss if there ever was one, but they don’t just tolerate Tony; they believe in him because he never asks his people to do shit he isn’t willing to do himself. And yeah, that belief is going to implode spectacularly the minute we step into the next run and Tony helps to level the whole organization, but shhh. That’s future drama.

We’ll get there.

Okay. So we’ve been elbows-deep in Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a while now, and at this point, you might be reasonably screaming: “What the hell is Bucky doing during all this, and please don’t tell me he’s off-panel polishing a gun?”

Well. I'm glad you asked.

It’s time to treat ourselves to Captain America (2004–2011) and catch up with our favorite murder-angel-turned-America’s Sweetheart boytoy.

And yes, before this gets more confusing—let me for the tenth time shout it loud and clear for those in the back: comic book series all happen at the same time, simultaneously, in parallel but out of order, written by four different caffeine-guzzling writers on a gazillion separate timelines. 

It’s a fact, no matter how sad, that it’s logical to suspect they don’t even read too much into the issues that do not relate to them directly. And while the guys who wrote Tony’s run didn’t think to include Bucky (we deserved at least one rooftop scene with heavy breathing and unresolved sexual tension), the guys who wrote Bucky’s Cap run did include Tony, because they clearly know he can’t resist orbiting drama that isn’t his.

Quick refresher: this picks up right after Bucky officially steps into the Captain America role, courtesy of Tony, who is secretly funding and outfitting him like it’s his side hustle. Of course, Tony lies about all this to his government bosses because honesty is not for people who are just after meeting the love of their life.

At this point, Bucky’s already thrown a few punches in the suit, decided he’s definitely not Steve, and fully committed to his own personal combat aesthetic: gun in one hand, shield in the other, a lot of fucks suddently left to give. This man is perfect, and his main bad guy to deal with is Red Skull who is lurking in the background like a racist cockroach. 

Sharon is still around (we love her), but girl is having a time. She’s pregnant with Steve’s baby, which is already a lot, was the one to kill him (oh, honey, I know brainwashing ain’t fun), and she’s also currently being mindfucked by Red Skull, which is somehow the least of her problems. Last we saw her, she faceplanted over a mysterious sci-fi tube in an evil lair she’s currently hanging out in, inside said tube finding someone who looks suspiciously like her dead baby daddy.

Captain America (Vol. 5) #37–#42: The Death of Captain America Act 3: The Man Who Bought America

This arc is super packed. Not plot-wise (meh), but emotionally, sexually, and with more sweaty men in tight costumes than a single arc should be legally allowed to contain, and this is me saying it.

Things get rolling with Tony trying to explain to Sam (Falcon) that his whole “I gave Bucky a shield, lied to my bosses, and started secretly outfitting him like a blushing sugar daddy” thing isn’t what it looks like. 

Sam’s not buying it, and neither are we, because let’s be honest: this smells strongly of love at first sight. That shield was not handed off platonically, okay? You don’t break protocol for just any guy with cheekbones and a murder record, and nobody can convince me otherwise. You can, of course, try, but when was the last time you won an argument on the internet?

Right.

Anyhow, Sam, who is hanging out with both unregistered heroes and Tony because he’s a good guy like that, is very unofficially—but also very emotionally—asked to “keep an eye” on Bucky. Aw. Again, that’s either babysitting, low-key stalking on Tony’s part, or the 616 equivalent of “he needs someone who isn’t me to make sure he eats.”

As for the actual plot, yeah, yeah, evil guys are trying to install their own president via independent candidate blah blah political corruption blah, but who the fuck cares when the shippy content is this loaded? 

Such as: Clint shows up at Bucky’s place while Bucky’s sweaty and angsty (arrrr), and they proceed to have a feelings-heavy pow-wow about what it means to wear the suit and be Cap and carry that legacy and—yeah. Winterhawk is practically canon-adjacent, tbh, and the sparks are flyyyying as Clint and Bucky have their first interaction in this timeline.

This is where we pivot to Sharon, who’s still being held hostage in Red Skull’s lair of awful and finally stumbles into a tube containing... someone who looks a hell of a lot like Steve. But… sadly not Steve. Clone Steve, since this collective trauma lasagna clearly needed more layers. So, back in evil plot town, the bad guys are still pushing their off-brand evil president, but now with a combo pack of cloned Steve they’re trying to pass off as Captain America. If you’re a little confused, we’re in this together. Let’s just assume the bad guys think this is a cool, normal, stable plan.

Some things do progress, such as: Bucky going head-to-head with evil Clone-Steve in a mutual homoerotic recognition; Sharon getting into a bit of a fight with Red Skull’s demented daughter Sin (who Bucky fucked up a few issues back); and Sam saving Bucky from falling to his death (allegedly—Bucky probably had a backup plan, but sure, let’s give Sam his moment). Bucky and Sam then set off on a shady-motel road trip to track down the clone, who sorta escapes.

I am going to repeat this again:

Sam. Bucky. Bucky and Sam. Go on a road trip that includes very shady motels, and while we are not explicitly told they’re sharing a bed, I only see one, and this was giving off so many gay vibes that Marvel editorial immediately had to send in Nat to join them before folks got the wrong idea.

On a more serious note, by the end of this arc, Sharon finally gets saved by the good guys, but loses the baby she also now doesn’t remember ever being pregnant with, which is heartbreaking. She also gets kinda fired for it, and I am not sure I am with Tony on how he handled that particular HR dispute. Sin is to blame for the baby loss, which was sorta easy to see coming and gutting to read about, and I assume was added in so we have one more reason to hate her annoying AF character. 

Bucky, of course, performs like an absolute beast under pressure, wins hearts and minds, and everyone stops side-eyeing the New Cap—though he’s still technically illegally running around as far as Tony’s official stance is concerned.

And the end of this arc—because Marvel giveth and Marvel taketh away—has Bucky celebrate by starting a cozy little hetero-flavored romance with Natasha, which I personally choose to ignore in favor of yelling “winteriron supremacy” all over Tumblr when I’m not busy yelling about winterspider, starker, or, occasionally, winterhawk. 

And while I think Anthony Mackie is one of the most gorgeous men I’ve ever had the privilege to water-damage my keyboard over from excessive drooling, I am honestly blanking on what the Bucky/Sam ship is even called, which should give you all you need to know about how much I care about it. I will, however, be fair and keep my own eye for any shippy Sambucky (looked it up, are you people serious with that name?) panels.

The clone doesn’t die, btw—he’s still around and cracked crazy—but a few bad guys do get what’s coming to them. Just not the main cast. Obviously.

Captain America (Vol. 5) #43–#48: Time’s Arrow Arc & Old Friends and Enemies Arc

Okay, I’m not gonna lie—by this point in the reading order, I’m running out of steam, out of chill, and possibly out of character limit. So consider this a speed recap of the two arcs that are very much worth reading, where Bucky is doing some extra brooding, Natasha is being very bendy and helpful, and I am rapidly losing patience because Secret Invasion is coming and so is the Tony-deletes-his-brain moment we’ve all been thirstily waiting for.

But first, here’s what matters for these two arcs—which really should’ve just been one, because they both deal with the same issue, technically. The big mood for this stretch of time is: Bucky has trauma (shocking), Nat has abs (glorious), and Bucky is having some trouble sleeping. Which is unfortunate for him but also possibly unfortunate for all Bucky/Nat shippers, because instead of having healthy sex with his extremely attractive girlfriend or at least cuddling her in bed, Bucky chooses to brood and monologue about the ghosts of his past. I mean…

These arcs are basically the closest thing we get in comics to the Bucky vibes from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show, minus Sam, who is just... not here. What we do get initially is Bucky staring into the distance, whispering “I remember them all,” and quite possibly in this timeline at approximately the same time Tony is doing the same dramatic whispering with a nearly identical speech/thought bubble.

Yes, yes, I know I joked about this line belonging to Tony and being given to Bucky, but here’s the actual beautiful winteriron parallel: both of them, simultaneously, are struggling with their past mistakes. Yes, Bucky’s guilt isn’t his fault. Yes, Tony’s guilt is kind of his fault. But I’m calling it: soulmate behavior and winteriron brainrot symmetry at its finest.

Now, about Bucky/Nat. I know I’m biased—deeply, unreasonably biased—but I don’t fully ship them? Like… at all? Even though I love them separately to bits? Yeah, they’re canon. Yeah, there’s chemistry. Yeah, they are still, sorta, going strong in the comic books. Yeah, she shows up in most of these arcs wearing strategically unzipped spy suits, and he’s out here looking like a beefcake with PTSD who is super into that, allegedly, but. Okay. Okay. Hear me out.

They have history, sure. Soviet conditioning, manipulation, sexy espionage nights, all that jazz. But both of them were stripped of agency for most of their lives, and now you want me to believe that makes for a solid romantic foundation?

No, Marvel. That makes for trauma buddies who should’ve stayed very emotionally intense besties without benefits. And yes, I do have a panel of Bucky below doing some next-level brooding on a motorcycle while referring to Natasha as his “best friend,” and if that’s not textbook “we should’ve just stayed friends” energy, I don’t know what is. Please don’t throw tomatoes, this is just a woman’s opinion. 

Back to plot: Bucky, Nat, and Namor (that fishy guy in charge of the oceans that I don't care about because DC got Jason Momoa to play Aquaman first) head to Asia and deal with some bad guys. That’s pretty much the whole plot aside from aforementioned brooding and too many (never enough) panels of Nat almost flashing us her behind. 

The bad guy in question is someone Bucky had encountered in his Winter Soldier days when he was like… 12 years old or something. Said bad guy is a super-genius with a world-ending virus, and he’s a bit salty since Winter Soldier may or may not have killed someone they love. The bad guy has a plan to use a body of Bucky’s old buddy Human Torch from the 50s (they had one when Bucky was with Steve in the Invaders) to unleash a deadly virus on the world (while, yes, Tony is preventing Mandarin from doing the same with Extremis—and are you seeing what I am seeing here?). 

There’s obviously more to this very generic bad guy and very generic bad guy plot, but the key takeaways are that Nat does cool flips, looks flawless, and occasionally side-eyes Bucky’s descent into angst. Bucky wins. World doesn’t end. The virus stays in the plot fridge.

The end.

TL;DR: Before Secret Invasion kicks off, Bucky’s haunted but doing well as Captain America. Nat’s hot but emotionally evasive, sorta. They flirt, fight, presumably do fuck. The whole dynamic is sexy, but mostly friendship-coded with a side of spy kink, and I won’t be convinced otherwise. Bucky clearly wants someone to say, “You’re enough as you are,” and I would like a word with whoever is in charge of making these decisions about why that someone couldn’t be Tony.

Anyway.

That’s it. That’s the recap. Nice arcs. Great art. Solid Bucky development. You should read it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s finally time for Secret Invasion: proper trauma porn, and Tony fucking up so bad he has to resort to turning his entire brain into downloadable content.

How do Marvel Events actually work?

Alright. Quick but necessary explanation I probably should’ve done in Part 1. Because if you’ve ever opened the Marvel Unlimited app (recommended), tried to “just read Civil War,” and suddenly found yourself 26 tabs deep in something called Front Line, you’ve already been here. Welcome to hell. We have tie-ins.

So how do Marvel events work? Well. Every once in a while, Marvel goes, “You know what would be great? Making every superhero’s life miserable at the exact same time.” That’s an event.

Here’s the basic structure: Main Event Run — usually around 5–10 issues, sometimes more. This is the “core” storyline. Think:

Civil War (2006) #1–7

Secret Invasion (2008) #1–8

Fear Itself (2011) #1–7

You can also think of Infinity War—that was an event in the MCU. Everyone gets wrecked, regardless of how well their franchise is doing. Sure, they called it a “phase” or whatever, but an event is where the big bad stuff happens to everyone and overlaps other plotlines: alien invasions, political fallout, exploding cities, Steve dramatically dying (again), Tony spiraling (again), Peter being stuck in the middle (also again), etc.

And you probably sorta get this already, but tie-ins to events specifically are where Marvel interrupts your regularly scheduled programming to say:

“Hi, we know you were enjoying Spider-Man’s personal arc, but now we’re hijacking it to show you what he was doing during this big crossover event. You will be very confused as to what the fuck is going on unless you suddenly subscribe to about a dozen other runs you never had any desire to pay for before. You’re welcome.”

Every major character, side character, and pigeon that’s ever been near a superhero gets a tie-in. Some tie-ins slap (Iron Man, Captain America), some are emotionally devastating (Front Line), some are hot garbage. But they’re all technically canon.

So when I say Secret Invasion had about 98 issues related to it (I counted once, while scrolling), I mean: the main run, a bunch of spin-offs and all those pesky tie-ins.

Am I a well-adjusted person who read all of these once like a sane casual reader? No. I read them three times:

Once for fun, because I love comic books and already finished my list of 100 classic books to read before I die, so everyone can fuck off with it not being an adult hobby (do you know how expensive it is to collect runs that completed decades ago?). Second time a few months ago for a few fic paragraphs, to make sure I got the canon right. And third time for this recap, which is less of a recap now and more like 60% my weak analysis of trauma (and repeating the words trauma, again, and hot too many times), and 40% my unhinged shipping headcanons.

I never claimed sanity. I do, however, claim to have a comic book collection, three fireproof longboxes, and a boarding technique that would make your LCS weep tears of pride—just for this event alone and the event-adjacent other runs. But that’s my cross to bear, I digress. Yes, if this amount of space for only 98 issues is confusing, well… I can’t possibly slot, say, New Avengers into my event without, like… having the whole New Avengers run. So there’s that.

I am not actually going to cover all tie-ins, just what I think is somewhat relevant to Tony and Bucky, for once.

Avengers Groups: Explained Poorly but Accurately Enough, I Hope

Okay, now that you do suspect I’m a bit crazy, let’s clear something up before Marvel gaslights you into thinking there’s only one “Avengers” team in comic books. Here’s the cheat sheet for this specific stretch of time:

Mighty Avengers

The Clean-Cut Government-Approved Avenger Experience led by our professional mess, Tony.

Includes: Carol Danvers, Ares, Wonder Man, Sentry, and others whose names I keep forgetting because they never seem to be around when Tony is having a breakdown and needs a hug.

New Avengers

The Underdog, Off-the-Grid, “We Don’t Follow Your Rules” Vibes Team—essentially Steve’s resistance crew.

Led by: Luke Cage, and occasionally (they come and go), featuring Spider-Man, Wolverine, Jessica Jones, and Doctor Strange. Clint’s around—I'll tell you about him banging Wanda in a second (whoops, let it slip too early).

Basically, they’re the scrappy, emotionally exhausted, chaotic little brother of the Avengers world. And yes, for those who’ve seen Thunderbolts, I just need Marvel to call Sam’s team the Mighty Avengers and my life will be complete.

There’s actually a new New Avengers run planned? Bucky’s on the cover. Arrrr. I can’t wait.

So… let’s assume that just before Secret Invasion, Tony is running S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Mighty Avengers, and Bucky is Captain America and mostly aligned with New Avengers vibes—though he’s not technically with them where we left him before Secret Invasion and is mostly doing his own thing as Cap while also doing Nat, who works for Tony. Neither team seems to know jack shit about what the other one’s doing 90% of the time, though Tony does spend a lot of time trying to talk his pals on the other side into giving up already and coming back to him.

It does involve the New Avengers sitting very quietly inside Strange’s magicked-to-look-like-crap mansion and pretending they are not home while Tony is standing outside with a small army, scratching on the door like a sad rejected puppy and asking for Peter to come out. I am not kidding.

Back to more important things: it is now canon in my brain (and it was planted there by the evil mastermind known as @massivespacewren) that during this exact post–Civil War, pre–Fear Itself period, Tony and Bucky were absolutely having a secret relationship. Like, think about it: Tony helps him, even though they’re on opposite sides / they’re both grieving Steve / they’re both emotionally compromised on the account of feeling too much guilt, weaponized hot, and need someone on their side privately who just wants them for them / neither of their respective teams knows where they’re going at night or why they keep showing up with mysterious bruises and better moods (Ugh… fine, this is pure headcanon, whatever.)

Still. Tell me that’s not peak forbidden romance setup. Tell me that’s not operationally inconvenient, emotionally catastrophic, and deeply sexy. You can’t. You won’t. Right? 

Anyway… now that you understand how events work (not that you didn’t before, after I alluded to this about 20 times), that Marvel dabbled in money-grabbing before Disney, and how the Avengers are more of a rotating trainwreck than a team, you’re ready to tackle Secret Invasion. Good for you. Keep reading. You know you want to.

Secret Invasion Event

When I didn’t say but very much implied that tie-ins can joyfully fuck themselves with a chainsaw, I meant it. I wasn’t exaggerating—and yes, I meant it with the full force of a person who has willingly, repeatedly, and stupidly read every tie-in to Secret Invasion, not once, not twice, but three times. That’s… not dedication so much as a personal obsession I’ve accepted. I’m not putting you through that insanity. Instead, I’m giving you a bite-sized recap of how it kicks off and what you actually need to know.

Well—bite-sized by my standards, and if you want to know more, just… read comic books or something.

So, let’s begin, like I always do, with someone emotionally repressed and traumatized making it everyone else’s problem.

Clint comes back from the dead.

This was pre–Civil War business (long story, Wanda killed him) but, as I’ve repeatedly pointed out, nobody commits to permanently dying in comic books. So, here he is, very much alive again.

After checking in on the emotional wreckage of his friends, Clint finds Tony, chats briefly about the concept of being Captain America, politely declines, and then goes off to find Wanda. To clarify, this happens just before Tony chokes on Bucky’s super-thighs and slaps that shield on him.

Now, what Wanda’s up to is happening in a completely unrelated comic I didn't read, because, contrary to what it looks like, I do actually have a personal life, the cutest dog to ever dog and full-time job. But yes, Clint finds her while Tony and Bucky are sadly not banging, bangs her, does not get the closure he’s looking for (since he’s still very much in love with his presumed-dead wife), pops up in Captain America to say hi to Bucky, considers falling in love with him on the spot and moving on just for him, but changes his mind (postpones), and decides to reinvent himself instead.

While Clint was dead for, like, five minutes in comic book years, a spunky gal stole his Hawkeye brand, and Clint’s a giver, so he lets her keep it instead of asking for his shit back. He’s a bit upset with Tony, just like everyone else, even though he missed entire Civil War and has no fucking leg to stand on, so he heads off to Asia with the New Avengers (Luke Cage, Peter, Spider-Woman, et al.), wearing a mask, wielding a sword, and being unnecessarily sexy about it as Ronin.

While in Asia, they fight Elektra, they kill Elektra, and then her body turns into what I can only describe as a very unattractive green alien lizard-zombie thing. Not even the weirdest thing that’s happened in 616, but there’s usually a bit more lead-up when a popular (ish) character like Elektra dies and is then revealed to be an alien. So this is the moment the New Avengers take a collective shaky breath and go, “What the actual fuck?”

That’s when the event kicks off.

Spider-Woman (whose arc in 616 is wildly underappreciated, btw) promptly fucks off with the Skrull-Elektra corpse, finds Tony back in his bedroom in New York (not for a sexy, slightly complicated Avengers hookup… this time) but to drop the suspicious-looking dead lady in Elektra’s clothes on his floor and ask, him being Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the guy allegedly in charge of Avengers with a big, government-approved A, what exactly he plans to do about it.

I am not a mind reader, and while Tony—who, at this point, has been holding his career together with sheer delusion and willpower, who does not need this job, who is increasingly unsure whether the clout was worth the collapse of every meaningful relationship in his life—gets out of bed, I can only hope he at least starts to wonder if he should’ve opened a winery in Malibu instead of becoming America’s scapegoat-in-chief.

But, yk, he does get involved. Of course. 

Which brings us to…

Who the hell are Skrull and what their deal is?

Green. Shapeshifting. Space assholes. That’s the short version.

The longer one is that they are a race of green-skinned, pointy-eared alien shapeshifters from a planet called Skrullos (come on, Marvel, you can do better than that). They’ve been around in comics since the 1960s, which means they’ve had decades to cause a bunch of bullshit.

They can look like anyone, down to DNA-deep impersonation. I mean, it’s not the shittiest power. You want to be Tony? Cool, now you are. You want to be Peter and perfectly mimic his resting trauma face and bubble-butt? Sure, go for it. The Skrulls started out as just one of many alien races Marvel cooked up to make the Avengers’ lives harder, but then they got kinda interesting and actually got good plotlines. Their history is unclear on some points and clearer on others, but basically for the purposes of this event:

The Skrulls once had an empire.

Then their shit got blown up.

Then they got very religious and very desperate.

Then they said, “Hey, let’s infiltrate Earth by pretending to be their heroes and sow paranoia even though… we could probably just invade.”

Which… I mean, it is still a much better plan than to keep cloning superheroes for plot reasons (cough, Thor, cough, Steve). 

And Skrull are not actually always evil by default, but Secret Invasion makes sure you think they are. If someone was a crazy-obsessed lore-hungry lunatic, one might know by now that there are good Skrulls, bad Skrulls, sexy Skrulls (hi, Teddy), and just deeply tired Skrulls who don’t want to shapeshift into your dad anymore and would rather go back to pretending to be cats in Brooklyn.

But in this specific arc they’re mostly fanatical religious terrorists with a God Complex and a master plan called “He Loves You” (the he is God, or possibly Reed Richards who they used for evil purposes, depending on how cracked your interpretation is). So yeah. They infiltrate Earth. They replace a bunch of heroes and hero-adjacent individuals—some A-list, some Z-tier (RIP whoever was pretending to be Dum Dum Dugan), and sit quietly in the background for years, waiting to strike.

In addition to their normal shape-shiffting thing they’ve got going on for them, in Secret Invasion, they’ve upgraded. They’re not just Skrulls anymore—they’re Super-Skrulls? Which somehow means they have composite powers of multiple heroes. Essentially, imagine fighting a guy who’s Spider-Man, Wolverine, Cyclops, and has Carol Danvers’ energy blasts. Now imagine there’s 20 of them. Now imagine Tony—poor, trying so hard, nobody loves him anymore Tony—emotionally compromised and under pressure, trying to tell who’s real and who’s a lizard in Steve Rogers’ pants (who, duh, is still dead).

I personally both loved and hated this event, because literally anyone could be a Skrull. That sexy panel of Natasha? Could be Skrull. That dramatic moment where Sue Storm leaves Reed in Civil War and tells him about an oily fish dinner? Actually is? That villain who suddenly got a redemption arc? Guess what. Essentially, the main reason not to love this event is that if you care about canon and character development, especially given the clusterfuck that was Civil War… well, fuck you, your favorite character might not even be the real person. So, the basic wisdom of this event, as it stands is: trust no bitch, she might be Skrull.

Main Secret Invasion Event

While we’re talking about Secret Invasion—because Tony deleting his entire brain (god, I hate that phrase too) is a direct consequence of what goes down during this event—you are not going to get a lot out of me (again, by my standards). 

Unlike Civil War, which I lovingly dissected like it was a frog in a high school lab, I’m not as emotionally invested in giving you the full play-by-play for everyone involved. So here’s me speed-running through most of it until we hit the juicy Bucky content, because, let’s be honest, that’s why we’re all here anyway.

The main event has 8 issues. Issue #1 opens strong with Tony’s meltdown arc, Season 87, things kicking off in the Savage Land. You might remember that place from that one amazing ’90s X-Men cartoon with the dinosaurs and inexplicably shirtless Charles Xavier. This is where a Skrull ship lands, so, both the New Avengers and Mighty Avengers decide to crash the party.

And just a quick side note while we’re at it: while this group of unrealistically hot people is off playing jungle lizard whodunnit, Skrulls are already running amok around the globe too. People are turning mid-sentence, Tony’s tech is getting absolutely wrecked by alien malware, S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised, satellites are offline, and somewhere there’s probably a Skrull that was pretending to be you, stopping drawing hearts on the poster of Sebastian Stan and getting to work.

Both Avenger squads show up in the Savage Land with maximum distrust, immediately run into each other like exes in the same shop aisle, both thinking they totally had the right to be there first, some yelling happens, insults are exchanged, and everyone is kinda sweaty until the Skrull ship dramatically opens and spits out a lot of heroes.

Including Steve, which is not cool, Marvel. And Peter, who is already there, making the whole situation extremely awkward and extra uncool. No one knows who’s real, everyone is sus, the vibe is mostly paranoia, and Clint has a full-on oh no my dead wife is alive but what about Bucky moment when Bobbi Morse steps out looking sexy but possibly lizard-coded. It’s emotional. It’s also probably a Skrull.

Issue #2 is technically not filler, but it sure does feel like everyone in the Savage Land just woke up, had a group panic attack, and decided violence was the best love language. We’re deep in jungle fever now—with everyone, yes, sweaty, pissed, and staring down their dead friends in the world’s worst family reunion. Like I said, the Skrull ship has popped like a horrifying piñata full of imposters. Some of them look like old-school Avengers, some are presumed-dead exes, and others are “please God no” duplicates of people who are already standing there. And they all think they are the real deal. Spider-Man vs Spider-Man standoff freaked me out, and is literally the only thing that could make his life worse than it already was. (Besides, you know, One More Day. But we don’t talk about that anymore.)

Teams split into smaller groups to punch each other because you can’t keep stuffing 50 people into a single panel, and paranoia hits a ten. Outside the Savage Land, the rest of the world is still watching S.H.I.E.L.D. crumble, big scary spaceships land and the general question floating about is: “Are we about to get bent over by our new scaly overlords?”

Issue #3 is gutting. It’s trust no bitch, take 3—but now with the addition of not trusting your butler. The issue itself is also a banger. I love it. Peak chaos.

So. Everything’s blowing up. S.H.I.E.L.D. is fully compromised, strategic facilities around the globe are detonating like it’s clearance week at Doomsday Depot, no one knows what the fuck is happening, including the reader who is now losing track of who is alien and who is not, refusing to believe, and the only consistent thing is that literally everyone is accusing each other of being lizards.

Like—Maria gets called out for possibly being a Skrull purely because she’s competent, organized, and doesn’t flirt with Tony. Which, in 616 logic, is apparently suspicious behavior. She’s also a robot who gets very much beheaded. Long story, all good there. But the biggest betrayal of all is Jarvis. My sweet, soft-spoken, murder-capable butler is also a Skrull. The betrayal cuts deep, and this is why we can’t have nice things.

Tony, for the moment, doesn’t know he needs to start looking for another British emotional support blanket, and is hiding in a cave in Savage Lands. No, really. Tony, billionaire genius futurist, is once again dying in a dinosaur-infested jungle cave. He has no Wi-Fi, his Extremis is crashing harder than his social standing post–Civil War, and his fancy suit might as well be made of wet cardboard. Then—just to add insult to internal bleeding—Spider-Woman walks in. You’d think: “Oh, cool, someone here to help and finally give him a hug.” No. Absolutely not.

She slinks in all sultry and suspicious, looks him dead in the eyes, and says something that sounds awfully similar to: “Hi babe. You’re one of us. Surprise! Congrats! You’ve done so well! Mommy Skrull is proud.” The Skrull Queen claiming that Tony—the man who already hated himself more than the public does—is the greatest Skrull weapon of all time is just…

You know what? For a second there, it makes sense, and would explain a bunch of things and his recent fuck-ups. But no… they just let Tony be Tony, that’s all. Which is somehow worse. Give him enough rope, a registration act, and control over national defense systems, and boom: StarkTech in everything and the Skrulls are waltzing in—all thanks to the damaged but still very lovable unintentional war crime with facial hair I don’t approve of in these runs. 

Issue #4 is somehow both eventful as hell and weirdly filler-adjacent, in that a bunch of important shit happens, but also half of it is setup for the finale and the other half is just everyone still being sweaty and confused. Tony is still not enjoying his caving experience, looking like he’s just lost a three-way fight between a Skrull, his nervous system, and the concept of self-worth. Thankfully, Nat kicks in cave’s non-existing door, with guns blazing and hair immaculate, delivering the closest thing Tony gets to aftercare in, like, a decade of comic books. She scares the Skrull Queen away, sees Tony mid-breakdown, and is like, “Jesus Christ, you look like shit.” Then she shoots him up with adrenaline, because she’s awesome like that.

Back on the mainland, Nick Fury finally crawls out of his hidey-hole, just after finishing binge-watching all of Netflix and is now ready to kick some things. He’s got a new crew, a trench coat, and approximately zero time for anyone’s bullshit. Thor shows up too, back from the dead, officially. Not a clone. Not a Skrull. I don’t actually remember why, but I assume it happened in his comic book. The point is, the big blond thunder daddy is back and is descending from the sky to say, “Alright, who the fuck broke Midgard?”

I don’t know if Bucky found out about Skrull on TV or opened his door in New York to find a Skrull on his doorstep trying to sell him girl scout cookies, but he’s joining the fight too and doesn’t currently know how much trouble Tony is in. 

Issue #5 is… kinda skippable. It's the narrative equivalent of holding your breath and hoping nobody asks if you’re a Skrull. The Skrulls decide it's time to go full reality TV and broadcast a heartfelt global message starring Tony, a few random politicians (lol, "trusted officials"—Marvel, be serious), and a touch of “we come in peace” bullshit. Classic intergalactic gaslighting, now with better production value. Shockingly, some civilians buy it and start chanting “Take us!”—which is maybe kink, maybe cowardice, but definitely not the way to be saved.

Issue #6 has Thor, Tony, and Bucky-Cap gracing the cover, which is the stuff of dreams for me, honestly. Thor and Bucky share a weirdly intimate, testosterone-heavy moment where Thor’s like “Who the hell are you?” and Bucky’s like “America’s rebound, nice to meet you.” Meanwhile, Tony is still out here having a crisis inside a crisis, his Extremis all but useless, but also gearing up to save the world while nearly dead again. For the love of God, someone hug this man already. Or at least offer him a sandwich and tell him he’s doing okay.

The rest of the issue is just Marvel flexing every team-up they’ve got. New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Young Avengers, probably someone's cousin from the West Coast Avengers—all yeeted onto a battlefield in New York. The Skrulls are out here led by Queen Veranke, who is still doing her sexy Spider-Woman cosplay, and the issue ends with the general vibe of it’s everybody-vs-everybody-else-but-green and “Avengers Assemble!” energy. It’s very symbolic post-Civil War, it is. I just wish they didn’t touch Jarvis, that was a low blow.

Issue #7 is 90% punching, 10% emotional damage, and 100% shipping fuel if you’re feral enough (hi, it’s me). The big battle’s in full swing now, and we finally get a panel with Tony, Bucky, and Peter all in the same frame—which, if you know me at all, is basically my OT3 doing a full-body naked Eiffel Tower in my brain. We eat.

Tony is grumbling that his suit’s duct tape, since Extremis is toast. He mentions it while punching bad guys, and then Bucky—who is surprisingly tender when he wants to be—looks at him and goes: “Go fix yourself. This isn’t the place for—damn!”

Now.

I’m not usually the type to hallucinate ships out of nothing (bold lie, moving on), and I’m sure someone out there will claim “He just meant Tony was complaining and Bucky just needed him in top shape to fight,” but no. No. Because this isn’t just a professional concern. This is “I’m trying really hard not to say ‘baby’ in front of the Avengers.”

There’s a pause. A cut-off word. That’s comic book language for feelings, people. He might as well have whispered, “Get to safety, love, I’ll hold them off,” and slapped Peter on the ass just to make Tony jealous.

Panel included. Because I’m a giver too. You’re welcome.

While you rejoice and want me to shut up already to scroll to that panel, we cut to Jessica Jones, who has been hanging around for a while like a relatable, exhausted mom trying to finish one (1) cup of coffee before a new level of shit hits the fan. She’s mostly been off-panel burping the cutest baby in the Marvel universe, which she made with Luke Cage, obviously. Power couple. Literally. But now, while sipping her juice and watching the Skrullpocalypse unfold on basic-ass cable, she clocks her man Luke out there getting his ass handed to him and goes, “Yeah, no.”

She panics. She tears up. And in the ultimate I’m-a-bad-bitch-and-a-bad-mom-sometimes-too move, she grabs her jacket, tosses the infant at Jarvis, and fucks off to join the battle. Yes. You read that correctly. She leaves the actual, literal Avengers baby—the Marvel equivalent of America’s Next Hope—with Jarvis, who, friendly reminder, is currently a Skrull, which we know and are crying about.

So, good issue. While Jessica is off joining her man in battle, Bucky is here being a supportive, leather-clad husband, telling Tony to “go fix yourself” while casually sticking around to bodyguard Peter—the traumatized child they co-parent via mutually unresolved guilt or, like, do other unspeakably awesome things to, since he’s—I am tired of saying this to everyone—not underage in 616 (dude was married) and, since it’s about time you all quit it, is also not underage in the MCU anymore. Starker, winterspider, and winterironspider for life, every ship is valid. I give you SamBucky, Stony and Stucky in equal measures, give me that.

So let’s break that down:

Jessica says, “I see my man suffering—I’m going in.” Bucky sees his man suffering—says, “I’ll take care of our kid while you go put some make-up on, darlin’.” Jarvis is in the kitchen being like, “Would now be a bad time to reveal I’m not actually me?” The symmetry is gorgeous. The emotional neglect is peak Marvel. And the shippy content is everything you want it to be.

Issue #8 is where the event technically “wraps up,” as in, we won—but at what fucking cost? The Skrulls go down, the planet is saved, sure, whatever, congratulations Earth—but emotionally this issue breaks Tony over its knee like a cheap broomstick. The final kill shot doesn’t even come from one of our main heroes. Norman Osborn is who gets the last shot in on Queen Veranke, who is already dying anyway. And that one move—that one media-perfect, camera-ready “hero” moment—is all it takes for the world to decide he is the new face of heroism. As opposed to Tony and everyone else who busted their ass and didn’t roll in at the last minute like the criminal with greasy hair and government connections and the moral compass of Elon Musk he is. 

One last Skrull ship opens its door on the battlefield (because drama), revealing the real Dugan, real Spider-Woman, real Jarvis, and real Bobbi and some other real folk. It's supposed to be a big moment—yay, everyone who was a Skrull is now not a Skrull and are technically back, just missed the last few however long—but the only one who really gets anything good out of this is Clint, who starts making out with Bobbi immediately. That is, of course, until Bucky becomes emotionally available for some mutual pining in Hawkeye and Winter Soldier run, which I really should cover one day, ‘cause Tales of Suspense slap.

And while Jessica and Luke promptly realize that their baby has been kidnapped…

Tony. Is. Ruined.

He’s bruised. He’s exhausted. He’s so happy to see Thor again—you can literally feel the baby-hope coming off him in waves. He’s already smiling, already probably planning post-battle shawarma and a group therapy invite—and then Thor tells him to fuck off. Just, “No, you don’t get to be part of this.”

And then everyone walks away. Yup. Every hero on the battlefield, including Bucky, turns their back on Tony. Like he didn’t just risk everything (again). Like he didn’t just crawl through this entire event bleeding from the brain and still trying to fix everything.

And look—I’m not saying this is the moment that broke him, but if Tony was still on the fence about deleting his own brain before this? Yeah. This is the last straw. He’s lost his rep, lost S.H.I.E.L.D., lost the narrative, and now he’s lost his people what feels like for good.

Which leads us—seamlessly, tragically—into World’s Most Wanted and Dark Reign, which I’m going to skim past because if I don’t, this recap will hit 15k and nobody is that committed to reading my shit unless it involves actual smut. Not that I have any illusions that anyone’s still reading this except maybe Googlebot and the 2.5 mutuals who also cry about 616 Tony at 2AM, but I’m stubborn as hell and I need this finished—for me. Because I have plans. I have fics. I have so many winteriron and others ideas shoved in my notes app related to 616 I will die on this hill.

So… we keep going. Just for a few more issues and the brain deletion. But, like, we sprint, okay? 

Invincible Iron Man (2008–2012) #8–#19.

Or, as it will be known from now until the solar death of the internet: Brain Damage Is a Love Language.

Note: The first 7 issues of this run feature Tony still as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. pre–Secret Invasion, with Issue #7 featuring both Tony and Peter on the cover—for my brand of perverts—but we’re gonna skip those, because they’re not that relevant.

So here we are, post–Secret Invasion, and boy, are things just peachy. By “peachy,” I mean Tony has been very publicly fired, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been deleted from the timeline for the foreseeable future, and Norman Osborn—yes, the former Green Goblin—is now in charge of national security. He’s renamed the operation H.A.M.M.E.R. after firing everyone else, which everyone from the MCU probably finds at least a bit confusing (the name)—since, what about Justin? Idk, nobody cares.

Tony is not coping well, sure, and he’s once again been abandoned by everyone. He’s been ousted as Director, publicly humiliated, accused of handing Earth to the Skrulls (it wasn’t entirely his fault, okay?), and now Norman “I Put the Creep in Creepypolitics” Osborn is breathing down his neck demanding the superhero registration database. You might wonder why he needs it, but Norman has an uncomfortable fixation on Spider-Man that will make Quintin Beck seem very subtle and boyfriend-material, and if Norman can’t bang Peter, he at least wants to fuck him up—or, at minimum, know his legal name.

If you’ve been paying attention, you might recall that during One More Day (gross), Peter traded his marriage and the knowledge of his secret identity to Mephisto for Aunt May’s life, like the messy Catholic masochist that he is. So now no one remembers he unmasked during Civil War, not even Tony. This is prime Starker identity-porn brainrot territory—Tony doesn’t remember Peter’s face, but there’s this haunting familiarity, this vibe, this urge to protect the mouthy little spider. Delicious. But this is not about Peter, so this is all you get on this for now. (Pause for mournful sigh from the Starker corner.)

So, this is the real start of Norman’s Dark Reign era: Tony disgraced, on the run, hated by everyone, but still hot and surprisingly functional until becomes a lot less functional but remains hot even when in a coma. We are nearly there, I know you are tired.

So while Peter is swinging around anonymously again and Norman is salivating over his IP address, Tony is quietly deciding to erase his memories from existence. Because that’s what you do when:

Your public image is in the toilet

Your tech has been compromised

You’re personally holding the most dangerous database in the world inside your brain

And literally everyone you love has left you or been brainwashed or died

As in: Tony takes one look at the hellscape that is Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign, knows he’s about to be officially hunted, and goes, “You know what might fix this? Me, but less,” and starts planning his brain deletion.

Like… is this him giving up? Is this him taking a mental health day? Is this a long-overdue vacation into clinical dissociation? I am honestly unsure—it’s a bit unclear. All I know is, he thinks wiping his brain like it’s a crusty hard drive is a good idea, and unfortunately, nobody can stop him.

Now, to be fair, Pepper and Maria both try to talk him out of it. They give him the whole “Tony, sweetie, maybe don’t” routine. But their voices of reason are quickly overridden by the even louder voice of comic book logic, which says: yes, deleting your own memories to protect the superhero registry from Norman Osborn is a totally normal decision. It’s also extremely yummy when it comes to angsty fanfiction follow-ups, so we are gonna call this a splendid move on his part, cool?

Anyway, here are some greatest hits from this extremely questionable arc:

Tony leaves Stark Industries to Pepper, but then tops it by giving her her own Iron Man suit, because apparently you can’t be CEO of SI without having a repulsor of your own.

He also bangs her goodbye. As in, “Sorry I’m about to erase my personality, wanna hook up real quick?”

Then Tony gives the only backup of his brain to Maria Hill and pretty much tells her, “Take this to the one man I trust with my entire mind.” Maybe not in those words, but sending his chance to ever wake up again to Bucky has to mean something, right? Let’s pause and feel that. Bucky. Who Tony, allegedly, met only a handful of times. Like… Maria is there. She could just hold onto the drive. But… no. Give it to Bucky. Do I even need to say more here? How are there not, like, 10000 fanfics about this?

Then, of course, Tony bangs Maria goodbye too. Which I’m honestly fine with because it’s weirdly sexy, but also a clear sign that the brain deletion is working and we’ve officially entered the “Tony regresses emotionally to horny self-destruction” portion of the arc. For further clarity, the brain deletion is not instant, hence all the random banging, not that it’s not already Tony’s brand.

To my extreme disappointment, this whole storyline is not just “Tony on the run, being clever.” I wish. It’s Tony getting increasingly dumber by the issue, Maria losing her mind trying to keep the backup safe and delivered, Pepper doing something I really couldn't be arsed mentioning, and Norman Osborn looming like an asshole he is, making his crush on Peter everyone’s problem. It all culminates with Tony finally going full potato, Norman about to kill him, and then having to back off because it’s being broadcast live on TV.

By the end of the arc, Tony doesn’t get fully dead, but does fall into a coma, Norman doesn’t get his database, Bucky is doing Bucky things and about to properly team up with New Avengers, Peter included, and that’s the big ending of the World’s Most Wanted arc which will be promptly followed by actual panels of Bucky standing over Tony’s unconscious body and resisting the urge to hold his hand. 

And that—that’s where I leave you. Also where I left you in my fanfic, since my refreshed canon knowledge and my AO3 published shit like to meet at the exact same tragic midpoint. Sorta. 

I’ll be doing some more comic reading this weekend, so expect another recap soon, my trusty Googlebot. Later.

P.S. Yes, I’m including the panel of Tony banging Maria—not just because I’m weirdly into it (I am), but because Marvel gave us a full visual of Tony going at it against a wall and this needs to exist on the interwebs.

[eventual-ghoste]

TOG rambling

Hello! This post has to do with Andy and some revelations at the end of Force Multiplied. Spoilers I give aren’t super specific but they’re there, and I can’t promise they won’t bite.

This is also in response to a TOG discord question I couldn’t stop thinking about, regarding Andy’s history as compared to Nicky’s, as posited by Em | salzundhonig:

But Nicky's past as a crusader and his growth from his past was well received, surely that'll be the same with Andy right?

I apologize if these ramblings sound like a rant but I swear my intentions are in the spirit of debate/discourse, and they are not an attack on any individuals.

The TL;DR is: Andy has work to do. Hopefully Hollywood and Rucka don’t fuck that up.

Feel free to check/correct/call me out if I’ve misspoke anywhere here (I realize I still have a lot to learn) but IMHO, I don’t think a semblance of Andy’s growth will be well received. Or, at least, I’m not so certain it should be because, in the comics, I genuinely don’t think Andy has grown. At the end of Force Multiplied, she still defends her actions with the “this is how I grew up” argument, and says it was “a long time ago,” and as much as I love love LOVE Andromache the Scythian for her badassery and how she’s a vision of female empowerment, I can’t help but think about how I hear those words all the time from people defending themselves against racist and/or sexist comments from so-called bygone eras.

Wanna know a sad difference between those people and our beloved Andy? They apologize for what they’ve done, or who they were. As hollow as the words will sound, however unforgivable their actions, however self-serving the apology will be— Those Asshats apologize. Comic!Andy never does, not even when confronted by Nile, an African American woman who likely descends from slaves, and has undoubtedly experienced racism and discrimination on a regular basis. It’s been thousands of years and Andy doesn’t even know how to say sorry (if she ever does, kudos to whoever finds a timestamp/panel, and let me know!). Instead, Andy buries the truth of her actions with a load of justifications to the point that she becomes self-deprecating, calling herself “vermin,” concluding she’s no better than the apathetic, selfish, evil POS they hunt. She may have spent the past millennia with TOG, trying to make things right but then—

But then she gives up. She’s tired. She resigns because she doesn’t have it in her anymore to fight the injustice she once willingly and self-servingly participated in. So, on top of being incapable of apology, Andy also doesn’t vow to do better. She doesn’t accede to change.

If there is one reason for why “The Old Guard” is a fucking absolutely shitty title, is that it refers to people who refuse to accept new ideas and progress. We are in a fandom that has four canonically queer characters, three people of color, and two female leads! Maybe the irony is intentional but damn, why is it that Andy, PROTAGONIST #1, hasn’t completely caught up with the program?

And that brings me to why I think Andy’s reckoning will not be on the same level as Nicky’s. Because as popular as Kaysanova is, neither Nicky or Joe are the main protagonists of TOG.

We don’t follow Nicky or Joe (or Booker) into scenes. The men are strictly back-at-the-ranch, supporting characters. We follow Andy or Nile (who also have the most screen time, I believe, but fact-check me). Filmically speaking, we ought to value them with a measure of precedence. Their words and actions matter the most, especially Andy’s by nature of how everyone looks to her for guidance.

So, with all that in mind: How does one reconcile a beloved protagonist with a despicable past in slavery, of all things? In the wake of an international racial reckoning, how is a celebrated, white South African actress going to fulfill that role? How is production going to balance fantasy with reality? How are Rucka and other involved writers (Theron, Prince-Bythewood?) going to alter the original IP, while retaining the nuance of this moral quandry?

Forgive me for the overkill but: How is it going to happen?

I’m well aware that my thoughts are going down a rabbit hole, and I am definitely overthinking this, but as somebody who’s genuinely curious about whether Victoria Mahoney and the rest of the TOG crew will have the guts to confront the issue head-on, or if they’ll take the easy way out. Excise the bits that no one wants to talk about, much less watch in a feel-good film that TOG has become for many fans.

Whatever production ends up doing, I hope that 2O2G doesn’t end on a cliffhanging “pity Andromache” note because, damn, I’m gonna feel real uncomfortable scrolling through fandom posts, reading people defending slavery and giving the same “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” spiel, in order to protect a fictional character played by a conventionally-attractive cis heterosexual white woman.

(Also: If the past is so different from the present, why are there still calls for social justice? Why do ALL industries still lack diverse and equitable representation?)

Now, this is where I’ll go back to the original question and say: While I think Nicky functions well as an example for change/growth/redemption, I don’t think his change serves as a good comparison to Andy’s. I say this, even while I’m aware of double standards in gender, and even between the reception of gay characters vs lesbian characters vs etc. (re: I’m open to critique).

My line of thought stems from the fact that, canonically, Nicky always had Joe. The two have seemingly been inseparable from the moment they first killed each other. It’s likely that Joe would check Nicky whenever he said or did something wrong and offensive, and perhaps this symbiosis was mutual.

(I also have a feeling that many people easily disregarded the Christian/Muslim conflict because A) lack of knowledge in BOTH religions and B) the onscreen couple appear very much in love, especially when one is giving a beautiful monologue on the nature of their relationship. When we meet Joe and Nicky, we meet them at their best. Shout-out to interfaith couples who know more about this than my single (and secular) ass does, and might have more to say about this.)

On the other hand: Andy never had someone who was like how Joe was for Nicky. No one ever calls out Andy because A) she’s the oldest, B) she’s the lead, and C) her business card says ANDROMACHE OF SCYTHIA, WAR GOD. Yeah, she had Quynh/Noriko but— at the risk of yelling at Rucka for vilifying a queer woman of color (or praising him for not leaning on the stereotype of Asian passivity? idk, anyone got thoughts on this?)— Noriko is clearly not encouraging good behavior. Neither will Quynh if Netflix lets 2O2G be as faithful to the comics as TOG1 was.

Which means the Law 282 conversation might be…unavoidable? Somewhere along the line, we still end up in the hotel room with Andy, on the floor, pleading for her crew to not abandon her, even though she is the one who abandoned their cause.

This sets up a circumstance in which Fade Away might be spent trying to redeem Andy/Charlize Theron, bring her back to the “good side,” teaching her to be better— thereby highlighting her experience and “salvation,” rather than making a point of her past, and the reality of her actions. In other words, a “pity the white woman” fest.

(Because I’m crossing my fingers that TOG production/Netflix know better) In an effort to prevent that from happening, I wonder if Rucka will combine Force Multiplied with Fade Away for the 2O2G script. Given the series’ track record, I think it is feasible that FA’s release coincides with 2O2G’s, and that it finally resolves Andy. Whether by revitalizing her energy as a do-some-gooder, or finalizing her vulnerability by putting her 6,000 years to rest, thus handing off the reigns to Nile and a new generation of leadership.

The last thing I want to leave off with is: I don’t hate Andy. It’s a credit to Rucka and fellow writers (from film and fandom) that I don’t.

I might not love her character as enthusiastically as I used to, but that doesn’t mean I’m not amazed by her creation. She’s a female lead whose sexuality is not exploited by the male gaze; whose emotional vulnerability is not considered a hindrance to, nor an explanation for, her battle prowess; and whose unabashed queerness is not reinforced by cookie cutter stereotypes. Andromache the Scythian is AMAZING.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to excuse or ignore her most glaring and contemptible flaw. More than anything, I’d love to sweep her past under the carpet so that 2O2G can be problem-free. Like many people, I just want to enjoy a movie without getting triggered.

I want to see Quynh and Andy kiss and make up. I want to see Joe rocking Those Shorts, and a cheeky shot of Nicky appreciating his ass. I want to see Nile welcoming Booker back to the family again. Some form of group therapy would be chef’s kiss.

But something about glossing over/removing slavery from Andy’s narrative reeks of dishonesty, and reminds me that the (Hollywood) movie industry is full of people who do not want to be tainted with negative perceptions. Understandably, appearances are their livelihood— but that particular truth is something they still have to reckon with.

[popwasabi]

“The Matrix Reloaded” deserves a re-watch in 2020

Here’s a burning hot take for, y’all; “The Matrix Reloaded” is not bad actually!

In fact, it’s more than not bad, it’s actually pretty good and perhaps a bit misunderstood by the fans.

Now, I’m not here to tell you it’s the best Matrix film. That honor will remain always and forever with the first movie, as it remains not just one of the best action films of all-time but one of the best science fiction films ever, period. It’s a classic and simply one of my all-time favorite films.

(Not to mention turned me into a Rage Against The Machine fan.)

But somehow, over the course of my lifetime, you know what movie I have watched exponentially more than “The Matrix?” The fucking “Matrix Reloaded!”

I used to think maybe it was an ironic infatuation. To a certain extent, I think it still is, as its overly indulgent action, bad lines at times, cringey new characters, and over the top moments can make it about as comical as many so bad it’s good movies. But growing up time can change perceptions, sometimes for the better, and can help you see things in new ways that you didn’t before and “The Matrix Reloaded,” especially this year, was one of them for me.

(My plans vs 2020)

I could defend the much controversial sequel by going in on its ambitious action film-making (the car chase is still my all-time favorite in any movie), pulse-pounding score, or its eye-popping cinematography that, honestly, holds up even to today’s standards but I think these are all things that even the film’s detractors generally agree on. 

No, I’m going to defend this film by talking about its most controversial scene: The Architect room.

I can hear the groans already and I don’t blame you. I found this scene preposterous and mightily confusing when I first saw it.

“The One is actually a part of the Machines’ system?? WTF!?”

(I remember having a similar feeling after playing Mass Effect 3...)

To be fair, its set up is a bit muddled, given the clunky script and pacing issues of the movie but when you start thinking about the message more deeply, given current events, and its relation to the real world it hits about as hard and fits as neatly as the first film’s more positive message.

The first Matrix film has a pretty dark setup, obviously. Neo finds out that he’s a part of gigantic computer program meant to create the illusion of free will for humanity while they are quite literally eaten for power by the Machines like cattle. Of course, Neo discovers he’s more than just another human connected to The Matrix but a prophesized messiah who has the ability to combat the system beyond its considerable control. By the end of the film he fulfills his destiny by becoming The One and beginning a new revolution against the Machines that control the human race.

(And looking fucking cool and totally 90s while doing it!)

It’s a pretty positive and uplifting story when you really break it down. It shows the viewer the lengths at which power tries to maintain its control and the Machines are a worthy avatar for this metaphor, but it also shows that power can be fought against when someone begins to empower themselves. When Neo says he will “show you a world where anything is possible” at the end its an earned moment of catharsis for not just him but the audience as well. We begin to start to believe in hope and beating the system too.

“The Matrix Reloaded” however goes several steps further showing that power can maintain its control in far more nefarious ways. Throughout the film Neo is told about the illusion of control and choice by characters like The Oracle and the, admittedly cringey, Merovingian. It feels strange at first because Neo is supposedly someone who is above the system but you can tell there is sense of jadedness, with some optimism of course, when The Oracle explains his role in saving Zion, like someone who has seen someone try to do this before, and The Merovingian simply mocks him for being another in a long line of “predecessors” who is completely “out of control.”

But then Neo finally does get to the Architect after being led there by The Key Maker and it’s here he learns his true nature; that he is the sixth in a long line of previous “Ones” in the Matrix and a part of The Machine’s control. He is less a prophet and more just another cog in the machine meant to lead humanity in one direction over and over again in order to create an illusion of free will for the resistance, the same way The Matrix does its human cattle.

Neo was a part of their plan and had been from the start.

(In case y’all need a refresher...)

There were tons of fans, including myself at one point, who couldn’t square with this strange narrative turn. Like Morpheus at the end of the film, there was refusal to believe it. It seemingly rewrote how one could view the first film and Neo’s role in it.

It changed the way a lot of people could see the positivity of the first film and understandably that could, and did, make a lot of people upset. Neo wasn’t sent to save humanity; he was there to keep them in line. It was like saying “actually Emperor Palpatine always wanted Luke Skywalker to blow up the Death Star.”

(I mean he does say this a lot though...)

But “The Matrix” was always about the lengths at which power works to maintain its control over the masses and “Reloaded” asks how can a corrupt and evil system be a part of the solution? How can it be reformed?

It can’t.

Way back in 2008, I cast my first vote as an eligible American for Barack Obama for president. Like many millennials at the time I found his mantra of “hope and change” sincere and uplifting and I truly felt the country was going to take a turn for the better the night he was inaugurated. For a moment it really did feel like things would be different after eight years of Bush.

Fast forward to 2011 however, and things changed dramatically for myself when I found out about the drones.

I’m aware of the fact that in leadership positions hard choices are made but after spending the previous decade vociferously calling out the Bush Administration for what they did in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars this was a truly rude awakening for me. Combine this with finding out about him continuing Bush era tax cuts, re-upping the Patriot Act, the mass deportations, the major corporate donors, his mishandling of Flint, and The Standing Rock Crisis it became clear Obama was just as much a part of the machine as Bush was.

(Also, no matter how much you hate Trump, DO NOT participate in the the gas-lighting of this man’s record...) 

Now, I can already hear the pitchforks picking up and I’m not here to tell you that the Obama presidency didn’t have its moments or that it was worse than what we have now BUT this does not excuse what would be considered awful behavior by liberals under any conservative president.

Each Democratic presidency or nomination I’ve seen in my lifetime, from Clinton to Obama, has always touted themselves as a chance to “fix America” and bring “hope and change” to a largely corrupt system. But neither of these presidencies really changed much of what the previous conservative administrations did, in fact in some ways they got worse. Minimum wage hasn’t risen in over a decade, we still have the world’s largest prison population by far, the wealth gap has only INCREASED regardless of who held the White House, and need I remind some of you Black Lives Matter started under the Obama administration.

At some point the problem goes beyond just conservative stonewalling and political impasse. You can’t blame everything on Mitch McConnell (though a lot of it can too, admittedly). The system is behaving exactly as its supposed to because corrupt people hold power.

(They’re not laughing with you, they are laughing AT you...)

The extremely cynical Biden-Harris ticket we got going right now is being pitched, more or less, the same way as a "fight to fix everything terrible” that Trump has done. Look, I’m not going to tell you Trump hasn’t been terrible because that should be obvious to EVERYONE at this point, but when you have Wall Street goons actively cheering the announcement of the Democratic party nomination, a DNC that is running more conservative speakers in its first day than Latinx across the entire event, you have to wonder to yourself if they are really “The One.”

(A reminder that “Never Trump” Republicans are not your friends either...)

Again, I’m not saying things can’t be “better” right now under a Democratic White House or that some communities would benefit greatly from a change in leadership BUT the bar is FUCKING LOW and the truth of the matter is people WILL be hurt under the next administration regardless of who it is and framing it as “privileged” to think otherwise is actually quite privileged itself.

There are people who can’t wait for medicare for all. There are people who can’t wait for sentencing and prison reform. There are people who cannot survive another wave of US imperialism overseas.

We are being guided to the same predetermined destination that The Architect gives Neo and its what makes all this so aggravating for many.

“The Matrix Reloaded” shows Neo that he is simply another system of control for the afflicted masses but what makes the final moments of the film important is that he chooses to stop playing its game. When The Architect gives him the choice of the door that guarantees the “salvation” of the human race but in bonded servitude to the Machines and the door to make the supposed “selfish” decision to save Trinity from death but doom humanity to extinction, he does this fully expecting Neo to make the same choice every other One did before him did.

But Neo doesn’t, he goes through the door to save Trinity and for a chance to destroy the system in another way. Neo decides to break the cycle even if it might have catastrophic consequences. He challenges The Architect on whether he would be willing to allow Neo any chance at any other outcome and calls his bluff. It’s what makes him a hero and in a strange way gives “Reloaded” a positive ending as well.

(And again, just looking cool as hell while doing it.)

Now, with the way the next movie ends you could make the argument that the cycle continues and this theme gets contradicted but I would argue it’s a bit more ambiguous than that and with the fourth film supposedly on its way in the coming years there is a chance for a more conclusive and satisfying ending. This write-up is strictly arguing the message of the second film anyways.

What a viewer should get on further review of “The Matrix Reloaded” is that corrupt systems have more insidious ways of maintaining control than we may be able to accept. Wall Street goons wouldn’t allow a consistent formidable opposition party to run against them every year, it’s why they are deep in both red AND blue pockets. It’s why campaign financing is out of control. It’s why ultimately both wings of our government are pro-surveillance, pro-big money donors, pro-US exceptionalism/imperialism and the only real difference comes down to mostly minor minutia between the two to maintain their illusion of choice.

In the end to a certain extent, I still believe in the system, given that I donate money and support various leftist causes, progressive primary challenges, and reelections around the country in hopes they run a real left wing someday. However, each year, and frankly each month at the rate we’re going, I’ve grown more cynical about it. At best it is incremental change and at worst its ultimately empty power against the larger juggernaut of corrupt politics throughout our government.

(Me desperately trying to avoid the relentless bullshit of this year.)

“Reloaded” deposits that in order to break the cycle you have to make a choice not accounted for by the system. That in order to truly change anything, as silly and as obvious as it sounds, you have to do something different. Voting for people who better represent your beliefs much more fully and refusing to vote for ones who don’t is one way but as I stated in my “Black Sails” write-up the more active third option should never be off the table.

Changing the world shouldn’t come down to a false binary choice like the ones the Machines gave Neo at the end of “Reloaded.” And while, for the record, I’m not necessarily against people making the lesser of two evils choice again, people need to stop ignoring the ways in which corruption keeps its power and start having honest looks at those who call themselves “The One” who will make things right.

If this entire year hasn’t convinced you of that yet, I don’t know what will and the sooner we understand this the sooner we can start a real “revolution” in this country’s cynical politics.

Until then The Machines will continue to win...

*Me getting away from the liberal bullshit that will likely be tossed at me over this*

[zi-i-think]

3 | Yu Dao

Pairing: Zuko x Ama (OC)

Word Count: 3300+

.☽☼☾.

          Ama waited in the gardens for what seemed like hours. When I'm reality, it's only been sometime over thirty minutes. She tried to pass the time by reading, but after a while she gave up. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked around the garden. There was the pond, the pavilion, the trees. But no Zuko.

         He was usually there in the morning to talk and be with each other until he had to get to his Fire Lord duties. He was never late. In fact, the only times that he wasn't in the gardens in the morning was when Ama wasn't there either.

         With a huff, Ama closed her book and walked back inside where the closest guard would be. "Good morning, Officer Chasu. How is are you?" She greeted the officer with a chirpy tone and a warm smile.

         "I am doing well, Lady Ama. Thank you for asking." The tall soldier responded. He didn't break his stance for a moment, but he gave the waterbender a smile. She was always friendly and kind to the people working at the palace, and everyone appreciated it.

         "Have you by any chance seen the Fire Lord?" It felt weird to address Zuko that way, but Ama knew that when address people in power and other people formally she had to use proper etiquette.

         "I- you haven't heard?" He asked in confusion.

         Ama's head tilted and her eyebrows furrowed. "Heard what?"

         "Fire Lord Zuko left his morning to Yu Dao." He told her.

         "He left?!" She couldn't help the frustrated tone that left her mouth. "Without telling me? Goodness, I swear..." She held her tough. The waterbender couldn't really speak freely in the middle of the palace after all. Turning back to the guard, Ama gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Officer Chasu. Have a great rest of your day."

         "Likewise, Lady Ama." He replied.

         Ama walked away, into the long, silent hallway. How can he leave like that? No warning. No note. Nothing. A long breath escaped through her mouth and she fiddled with her nails. It was like a needle in the heart.

         She knew he was stressed. He refused to talk about work with her no matter how much she insisted to help. But that didn't mean he could leave without a word. An idea popped into Ama's head. A way to help out.

         Her pace quickened, hurrying back to her room to write a letter.

.☽☼☾.

         A whole week passed when Zuko returned back to the Royal Palace. His feet hit the floor with heavy steps. He was tired and overwhelmed.

         Ama found him in the throne room. "So the Fire Lord has returned." She spoke up by the door.

         Zuko turned around, seeing the Water Tribe girl approach him with a frown. "Ama." He started, walking towards her as well. "The mob outside Yu Dao is gone. For now, at least, the Fire Nation citizens are safe."

         The girl furrowed her eyebrows, she didn't even know what he was talking about. And as much as she wanted to ask about what was happening in Yu Dao, there was a different thought on her mind.

         "You left without saying anything to me!" She growled. "I had to figure out where you were by one of the guards!" Zuko looked at the ground and stayed silent. "Zuko, I've told you. If you're having problems you're suppose to talk to me. I'm you girlfriend for crying out loud."

         "You're right." He sighed and Ama stepped closer to him. "It won't happen again."

         Ama put her hand on his cheek her eyes observing his face. More specifically, the dark bags under his eyes. "You're still having trouble sleeping." She noted out loud.

         "Yeah." He admitted.

         Ama took his hand leading him out the throne room. "You're bodyguards are fine, but I mean, you're Fire Lord now. You need the best of the best." She moved the red curtain to the side, revealing five Kyoshi warriors. Two of which were her good friends Suki and Ty Lee. "So I asked some friend to come help."

.☽☼☾.

         Ama enjoyed reading. She didn't get to do it often during the war, but after, she found herself engrossed in a good fantasy or mystery. But reading the laws and the history of the Fire Nation left her bored. She found herself zoning out and then having to re-read certain passages.

         The sound of footsteps caught her attention. Looking over, Ama saw Suki walking through the library. "Oh, thank goodness." Ama grinned. "I need a distraction." Closing the scroll, Ama leaned her head in the palm of her hand.

         "Ama there's something you should know." Suki's serious and hesitant tone make Ama sit upright and her grin disappeared. "Zuko has been visiting Ozai."

         "What? Why?" Ama wondered. That didn't make sense. At least, she didn't want it to make sense. She wondered if what she feared was actually happening. If Zuko was starting to turn into his father.

         "I don't know. He didn't tell anyone about it." Suki answered. "I was hoping that you could talk to him about it. Just to make sure that-"

         "I know." Ama interrupted Suki. She quiet for a minute before she stood up from her seat. "I'm going to talk to him." The Kyoshi Warrior watched as Ama walked out of the library.

         The waterbender found Zuko in the throne room, yet again. This time he stood on the stage for the throne. The fire in front of the throne was lit with a thick flame. She learn him mutter "this isn't me." before he got rid of the fire.

         Walking forward, Ama revealed herself on the lower floor. "I know you've been meeting with Ozai secretly." She said up front.

         "Ama! Who did you hear that from?" He looked surprised to see her.

         "Not from you, that's who." She snapped with a light scoff.

         Zuko sighed, shutting his eyes tightly. "I know I've been distant, Ama. I'm sorry. I- I love you."

         The way he begged, the way he stumbled in his words, he sounded distressed. "Zuko. I just need you to talk to me." Ama told him. Her voice was soft, caring, soothing. Zuko felt safe when hearing her speak.

         "I'm been getting advice from him father." He started. Surprisingly, Ama didn't react badly. She looked at the ground in thought, but allowed for him to continue. "I just, I need to protect my people. The people of Yu Dao, they have lives, families. I can't break that up. I went to him for guidance."

         "He want's me to be fierce. Show no mercy. But, I know I need to wait." He said firmly. "Listen to Earth King Kuei first. But I worry that thing might go into a different direction."

         "You know I'm just worried about you." Ama told him. "I just want to know what's going on. You never let me in." Zuko was quiet. He opened his mouth to say something, but a new voice came into the room.

         "Fire Lord Zuko." A general spoke respectfully and bowed on one knee.

         "General Mak!" Zuko was expecting for the general to visit and anxious to hear what he had to say.

         "A message has arrived from the spies you sent to the Earth Kingdom." He reported.

         "You sent spies?" Ama sounded surprised, but at this point, she didn't know if she should be.

         "Your suspicions are confirmed." The general continued. "The Earth King's army now marches towards Yu Dao."

         "Father, you were right." Zuko mumbled to himself. Ama gasped. Another war? Over a city? King Kuei wasn't willing to talk. He believed that Zuko was completely turning back on his promise That he wasn't honoring the end of the war.

         Zuko immediately started barking orders, setting up a meeting for that day. The intent was to prepare to meet the Earth Kingdom's troops. To protect his people.

         "Zuko..." Ama started as the general started to walk away.

         "I understand that you may not want violence, Ama, but I have to do this. For my people." Zuko interrupted her.

         Ama shook her head. "You're not going alone." She spoke firmly. Zuko was surprised at her position. After all, the Harmony Restoration Movement was an idea that she agreed with strongly before. But now, it seemed she had a change of heart.

         And she did change her mind. Hearing about the families that would be broken up. The entire cities society could collapse. She could stand by and let that happen. She'd stand by Zuko. She didn't always understand his methods, like the part where he kept secrets. But she trusted him enough.

.☽☼☾.

         Ama rode on a Komodo rhino beside, but a few feet behind, Zuko. He wore his traditional Fire Lord robes and armor, helmet and all, to meet the battle. Ama wore black clothing with blue accents on the hems. She didn't want to represent the Fire Nation Army, despite that being exactly what was happening.

         "We don't look like ourselves." Ama muttered to herself. It felt so wrong to be going into battle again, especially with a Nation that wasn't hers. But she believed in what Zuko was saying. If the people in Yu Dao can't keep their families, can't keep their homes, their lives. What did that mean for her and Zuko?

         Besides, it was King Kuei who sent the troop. He refused to hear the Fire Lord out. To understand why he was turning his back on the Harmony Restoration Movement.

         So caught up in her conflicted mind, Ama didn't realize that they were at Yu Dao's gate until her rhino stopped. Taking in the scene, she was overwhelmed. The Earth King's army stood proudly on their ostrich-horses or in their tanks and King Kuei in an air balloon. In the middle was General How, along with Aang, Katara, some teenage girls in orange and protestors of Yu Dao from both sides of the argument. Then there was the Fire Nation army on the other side.

         One of the Fire Nation tanks rolled up further than the others and stopped in the middle, by Aang and Katara. And the people who came out weren't Fire Nation soldiers, they were Toph and Sokka.

         "Fire Lord?! What's going on?!" A general asked at the commotion.

         "I'm not sure...!" Zuko answered, having to shout so that the general would hear him.

         Katara and Ama caught each others eyes. The sisters shared a terrified and sympathetic look for each other. Ama saw that Katara wasn't angry at her, or betrayed. She looked understanding.

         Something Toph must have said, made Katara turn away and argue with the little earthbender. Until Toph jumped down from her tank and the ground cracked towards the Fire Nation tanks. The bolts flew out form the wheels, making the tanks fall apart.

         "Quickly, Earth Kingdom Troops, while the Fire Nation of in disarray! By Royal Decree, enter Yu Dao and arrest the colonials!" General How of the Earth Kingdom ordered.

         "Fire Lord, our tanks-!" General Mak started, but there was no time.

         "Soldiers of the Fire nation, defend our people in the city of Yu Dao! Your Fire Lord commands you!" Zuko commanded loudly. Ama took a deep breath in and out, keeping her place by Zuko.

         "No!" Aang shouted, flying above the Fire Nation soldiers and landed in front of Zuko. But he flew up again, this time in the Avatar state. His eyes glowed it's blue-white and the air around him spun. "The Harmony Restoration Movement was such a simple plan! Why couldn't you just follow it through?"

         Ama couldn't express how much gratitude she felt for Katara when she slid on ice over Ama's head and grabbing Aang out of the air. "Snap out of it Aang!" Ama let out a sight of relief that Aang didn't go through with his drastic promise.

         But she couldn't just stand by anymore. Throwing her leg over the rhino, Ama spilled off the animal and onto the ground. But she bent water into ice to catch her and moved it forward with her on top. It created a slide-like structure with her at the front.

         She landed on top of the city's wall where Katara and Aang were just talking. But the Avatar took his glider, leaving the situation to contemplate the issue. Katara turned, seeing her sister step off her ice-slide. "Ama." She sighed and embraced her sister. "This is all-"

         "A mess." Ama finished. "I know."

         "Let me see if I got this." Sokka's voice appeared. He, Suki and Toph took a rock elevator, so to speak, in order to meet the sisters on top of the wall. "The protestors and the Earth Kingdom army want the colonials to go, the Fire Nation Army wants the colonials to stay, and the Yu Dao Resistance just want their city to be left alone?"

         "Yes!" Katara basically shouted in frustration.

         "So where's Aang flying off to then?" He asked.

         "He needs a place to be calm, to figure things out." Katara answered.

         "What is there to figure out?!" Toph interjected, her tone was annoyed and angry. "If he wants harmony-" Ama rolled her eyes. Of course Toph would side with the Earth Kingdom army. She was an all or nothing kind of girl, and to her the Harmony Restoration Movement was only option.

         "Look, I trust him!" Katara snapped to defend her boyfriend. "And after all we've been through, you ought to, too! So for now, we need to keep all those people down there from killing each other. Kind of like what Aang's fan club is trying to do."

         "Aang has a fan club?" Ama asked in confusion, looking down at the battle and seeing girls in yellow Air Nomad clothing and red bandanas covering their foreheads and were half-bald.

         "Yes, Ama. That's old news. Living in the Fire Nation has really got you out of the loop." Sokka shook his head in fake disappointment.

         "Tell me about it." The oldest sibling grumbled.

         "We need to split up!" Katara got them back on track. "Toph and Suki, you disarm as many Fire Nation troops as you can. Ama and I'll work on the Earth Kingdom soldiers."

         "And I'll take care of the protestors!" Sokka early claimed the task for himself. "But how am I supposed to get down there?"

         Toph bent the earth, creating a steep slide down the wall. "Here you go, Sokka." She crossed her arms smugly.

         "Aw, not another one!" Sokka groaned and Ama could assume that Sokka has had unpleasant experiences with Toph's earth slides.

         Ama and Katara gave each other a determined nod and both created slides of ice to get to the ground. They both stuck to using water whips in order to knock out and push back the Earth Kingdom soldiers.

         Ama practiced regularly in order to maintain her chi. Her body flowed like water and her fighting looked so natural. Her water followed the flow of her hand, smacking the soldiers to the floor with it.

         Katara looked up, seeing King Kuei's hot air balloon flying above their heads. "I'm going to try talking to the Earth King." Katara told her sister urgently. Without waiting for a response, the youngest sibling took off on a slide of ice.

         With a grumble about how Katara was leaving her to deal with all the soldiers, Ama kept up her pace, focusing on keeping the Earth Kingdom soldiers back. Until minutes later, she, along with everyone else, was interrupted by a boom and a bright, blue light in the mountains.

         Everyone in the battle looked at the light in awe. Aang in his Avatar state, with all the elements surrounding him in the form of a sphere. He flew between General How and Fire Lord Zuko, staring down at Zuko emotionlessly.

         "Aang, I know how this looks!" Zuko pleaded with him, believed that Aang had the intent to fulfill his promise. "But I swear to you, in my heart...!" He stopped, sighing as he removed his helmet. "None of that matters, does it? I'm doing exactly what my father would have none."

         The earth underneath Aang, between the two armies cracked and broke, creating a deep cavern. Zuko was too close to it, the earth under him fell, and so did he. "Zuko!" Ama shouted, running to the cavern.

         Aang flew down, grabbing the Fire Lord by the wrist and flying him back up. As Aang sat him onto the ground gently, the Avatar state left him. Ama slid on the ground beside the shocked and confused Zuko. Her arms wrapped around him and she tightly hugged him.

         "You gave me a heart attack. What the fuck, Zuko." She worried and pulled away. Zuko was too much in a state of shock to respond. He sat there, staring at absolutely nothing.

         Ama looked over to her friends. King Kuei stood alone as Aang and Katara stood together in front of him. Along with Yee-Li, the daughter of the firebending mayor and an earthbender, her boyfriend, Sneers, and the rest of the Yu Dao resisters.

         "Earth King Kuei, look at who you're fighting!" Aang demand for the king to look at the people around him. "Fire Nation, yes. But also Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe, and now, Air Nomad. This is who stands against your army."

         "And against the Fire Nation army, too!" Sneers added.

         "It took me a while but I finally understand, but I finally understand." Aang continued. "You're fighting a whole new kind of world."

         King Kuei's eyebrows arched up, realizing that he may have been wrong. That he overreacted. The chants and shouts of the protestors interrupted his thoughts. "Don't listen to that ash-maker propaganda, Earth King Kuei! Harmony now!"

         The Earth King held up his hand to silence them. "Quiet! Quiet! I need to see that I.. what I..." He turned to the resistance, seeing them stand strong together. From both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. "I just need to see."

         While he looked around, Zuko was standing up slowly with Ama's assistance. "Zuko...?" Aang looked over at the Fire Lord.

         Zuko was taking deep breaths in and out, trying to steady himself. "So I was right, then?" He was almost shocked that he made the correct decision. "All along... my decision... was right?"

         His body was too overwhelmed and he passed out. Ama had her arm on his shoulder before, but as he fell, she moved her body in front of him so that he'd lean on her instead on being collapsed on the dirt floor.

         "Zuko!" Aang exclaimed and ran over to the Fire Lord.

         Ama looked from Aang to Zuko, her soft hand running through his hair. "He's okay, Aang." She assured him. "Our favorite Fire Lord has just exhausted himself."

         "Let's take him to Iroh's." He suggested, which was likely the best option. "He can get some rest there." Ama nodded in agreement. They got Zuko onto Appa, took him to Ba Sing Se, and where Iroh eagerly allowed for Zuko to rest.

         Standing outside and looking over the vast city, Ama felt the wind on her face. Only a year after the war ended, another one almost started. The world was changing. The nations couldn't just go back to being separate again. Yu Dao showed that.

         Now, it was only a matter of time until something else came along. Until something else was hurled at them and their lives took another turn.

.☽☼☾.

This might be the shortest chapter in the entire book, so that’s fun. lmao.

Hang loose, amigos 🤙

[linkspooky]

I agree with the parallels between tenko and eri but I remain resolute that Tenko is long gone and can't be saved at this point. If he was taken in by someone whom did properly teach him right from wrong as a child yes but Shigaraki is an adult that was raised to seek nothing but destruction and has committed many many murders at this point. People seem to ignore the fact that person might not want to be saved. 1/2

Eri is a child with very little agency of her own, but Shigaraki is an adult who can make conscious decisions of his own. I think either deku will save shigaraki by putting him out of his misery or shigaraki will show deku that he cant save everyone 2/2

Thank you for sending me this ask anon! Once again you’re free to have your own opinions, I just hope you’ll join me for a discusssion of ideas. 

Let’s choose to focus on this idea you have that Shigaraki is “Someone who is long gone”, because I believe the story establishes the opposite. I agree in fiction there are villains that need to be defeated rather than saved. The reason I am arguing that Shigaraki can be saved is not because I peresonally want him to be, or I believe he’s owed it, but because those ideas are present in the text itself. 

Shigaraki is a Villain who Fights other Villains

The reason Shigaraki is constantly facing off against other villains, is to make the comparison between them. To show that there are villains who unlike Shigaraki, are set in their ways and not capable of learning from their actions. These villains are past the point of no return in a way that Shigaraki isn’t because his arc is structured differently. Shigaraki is a character that experiences positive growths, whereas these villains are characters that experience negative growth and spiral out of control. 

The reason Shigaraki is constantly compared to other villains is to show that he is not the same as them, because he can do better. 

1. Shigaraki and Stain

Shigaraki and Stain are foils mostly in what direct opposites they are. Shigaraki was raised to become a villain, Stain is someone who was on the hero path who decided to become a villain. They both try to destroy heroes but for different means, Stain is someone who believes in hero society and wants heroes to improve, whereas Shigaraki wants the destruction of heroes.

Shigaraki believes heroes are incapable of saving anyone and they provide a false peace. Stain believes that heroes are an ideal, and they should save everyone. Stain considers himself to be righteous, while Shigaraki’s entire identity is built around him being a villain who wants to destroy for no reason. 

Stain is driven by a grand cause, Shigaraki works in antithesis of a cause. Their only similaritiy is that both of them are sick of the world the way it is and want to disrupt it. They are total opposites that have one thing in common, and Stain pretending to be a hero even while acting as a villain is the exact thing that Shigaraki hates. He even laughs at the fact that Stain believes his actions have a positive effect of the world. Shigaraki being someone fundamentally at his core someone who rejects everything.

At first it seems that Stain is the superior villain because he at least has morals he follows, and a code of honor. As opposed to Shigaraki who seems like a child throwing a tantrum who just wants to rampage, and destroy and get away with it. 

However, important to the comparison between the two characters. Shigaraki hates righteousness and does not want anything positive to come out of his actions so why does Shigaraki turn out to be more sympathetic of a character in the end. Simple, stain’s flaws cause his ruin, whereas Shigaraki’s flaws are something he grows from. Stain’s main flaw is his pride. 

Despite saying that he wants to improve the world with his actions, Stain decides everything on what he personally thinks is best. Due to the fact that he’s doing this entirely alone, his views have become warped. Stain can justify almost everything for his supposed good cause. He goes from wanting to purge heroes that are genuine problems like Endeavor, to trying to kill Children because they were witnesses to his crime.

The main flaw in Stain is that he fights alone, and because of that he thinks he’s absolutely in the right and can justify anything to himself for the sake of ideals. When he is like this, he cannot grow or change. Stain loses a battle that is simply a matter of numbers, he easily disables Iida, but then loses when Todoroki and Deku come to back him up. Stain had conviction, but it turned into stubborness and pride when he decided he had to save the world entirely by himself. 

Not only that but Stain’s overreliance on his idenpdence and physical strength shows that he is repeating the abuses of the hero system he himself thinks is rotted. The reason the system is wrong is because people rely too much on individuals with strong and flashy quirks like Endeavor. Individual strength is something that has come to matter far more than saving people. Yet, here is the way Stain wages his war, he picks out weak heroes and kills them, and does so by using superior strength to cull them. In trying to destroy Endeavor’s ideas, due to his methodology stain ends up reinforcing him and turning into the exact kind of hero, one who preeches survival of the fittest.

Just like Endeavor he stops caring about the victims caught in the crossfire of his actions. He gets far less choosy as he goes on, and starts killing people who are not the corrupt heroes he claims to be weeding out. 

What does Shigaraki do immediately after losing to Stain. He starts making allies, and using them in smarter ways rather than trying to handle everything by himself with the use of the Nomu AFO provides him. Shigaraki, unlike Stain, is able to make and keep allies.

Shigaraki cannot find a cause that people believe in, so he starts bonding with his allies as a person and gets them to believe in him as a person. Shigaraki is capable of genuinely connecting to people in a way that Stain is not, which supports his grown as a person. 

2. Shigaraki and Chisaki

Unlike Shigaraki and stain, Chisaki and Shigaraki actually have several similarities in common. They are both heirs to the crimminal underworlds who have ambitions to rule over the underworld. They are both also abandoned children who were taken in and raised by a crimminal to ultimately be a tool of that person. They both have in their possession, allies that would die for them. They both act out of a central desire to please their father figure who in the end regards them as only a tool. They are both intellectual cold thinker types who lead a gang of eccentric. 

Yet, the difference between the two of them becomes as clear as night and day in the way they treat their allies. Once again, with their conflict it’s established why Shigaraki is someone capable of changing his ways, whereas Chisaki is someone doomed to fail due to his own flaws. 

Chisaki is someone who sees allies as completely expendable. That they exist as pawns to be used and nothing else. His criticism of Shigaraki is not how he mistreated allies in the past, but that he did not make proper use of them. He only sees people as how they can best be used.

Shigaraki’s response is not to make better use of his allies. He does the opposite of Chisaki, and starts to value the lives of the allies around him more. He learns to see worth in life when Shigaraki had absolutely no regard for human life before this. 

Not only that, but he opens up to his allies as a person. This is even said to be the main difference between Chisaki’s precepts and the League of Villains.

Shigaraki takes off his mask and becomes far more of a person in front of his allies. We are supposed to notice his change he is even drawn differently. We’re meant to compare this to the face he showed to Deku the last time he took his mask off, and realize that the face he presents to his allies is now much different. 

Chisaki is unable to see any value in life, especially in the people underneath him because ultimately he himself is a tool. He is never able to earn the recognition from the leader of the Yakuza he wants, because he can never be that man’s son, at best he is a good tool. Which is why he himself spirals into tragic failure at the end of his arc.

Shigaraki and Chisaki are both victims in the same sense. At their heart both of them are trying to pay back the man who took them in. However, I do not go out of my way to say that Chisaki is going to be saved because that is not what his arc was leading to. 

Chisaki showed nothing but negative growth. He just spiraled towards the end. The plot goes out of its way to show that Chisaki is fixated and stuck in his ways, while at the same time Shigaraki is capable of change. The plot even gives a reason for this, Chisaki is closed off to the others around them and only sees them as tools. Shigaraki starts to see his allies as people, and because he takes their thoughts and feelings into consideration changes in his interactions with them.

Even Chisaki’s own childhood friend is considered one of the expendable ones. Not only that, but we have that same friend directly say that Chisaki is so incredibly focused and set in his ways that it’s almost distrubing. 

Chisaki gives people worth by using them. Shigaraki gives outcasts a place to belong, the comparison between the two of them shows Shigaraki as growing and Chisaki is not. 

3. Meta Liberation Army

Shigaraki and Re-destro are also characters with several similarities. They are both raised to be the heir of a villain because of who they happened to be born to, Shigaraki because he is Nana’s grandson, and Re-Destro is a bastard son who inherits the burdens of a father he never met.

They were both raised in an extremely cult-like environment, and groomed to be villains by people who did not care about their development as people but rather how they could best be used as symbols for a cause. Rikiya was there to inspire the followers of Destro and carry on his will, Shigaraki was raised to cling only to negative emotions and be a symbol of fear. 

In that regard, Re-Destro is every bit the victim that Shigaraki is. They are both child soldiers of a sort, raised for a cause that was not theirs. Of course they see no value in life, because the both of them have been kept from the outside world for so long and have had their perspectives entirely manipulated by people who pretty much dictated their entire childhoods. 

Yet, once again we see in the comparison, Shigaraki is someone who is capable of changing in a positive way, whereas Re-Destro only experiences negative character development. A major difference is how they treat their allies.

Rikiya raises people to be completely expendable and die for a cause, and clearly values ideas far more than he does individual lives. He plans an attack and ends up sacrificing hundreds of people against the league of villains because he does not like their reputation. As opposed to Shigaraki who gets the entire league to agree to a plan to save one of its members because every member of the league is equally valuable to him. 

Shigaraki is capable of reaching his people and connecting them on a personal level, because unlike Rikiya who just does exactly what the cult that raised him tells him to do and only accepts other people’s values, Shigaraki is starting to create an identity of his own away from All for One. Rikiya believes that it’s an honor and a burden to follow the destiny that was thrown on his shoulders as a child, where Shigaraki knows ultimately that growing into what All for One wants to be is something that will never satisfy him.

Shigaraki differentiates himself from Re-Destro because instead of trying to chain himself to it, Shigaraki is someone desperately trying to free himself from the history that burdens him.

Shigaraki wants to escape his past and develop into his own person, and he also wants the same for his allies around them. That is why he unlike Re-Destro has a character arc.

Shigaraki’s arc is about growing into his own person outside of AFO’s influence, and because of that it makes no sense for him to just die as the villain that AFO wanted him to be. The best resolution for his arc is for him to grow into his own desires and realize what he wants. In order to do that, just like when he needed to accept and value his allies in order to start his development after the Stain Arc, Shigaraki needs an outside perspective on his life like Deku to show him that things could be different, that there’s another way even for someone like him. 

If Shigaraki were past the point of no return he would not be shown to be capable of changing. There are villains in the story that are already past the point of no return, but they are not Shigaraki, and not only that but the story always compares them to Shigaraki to show that he’s learning to be better than them. 

[normal-thoughts-official]

I've seen anti-saphael posts that only focus on Raphael's faults and act like Simon is a poor uwu baby who did nothing wrong and is being hurt by the big mean vampire man. Okay... Raphael wanted his people to be safe and Simon wanted some of that entitled ginger pussy no matter the cost. But sure. Raphael is the bad guy.

why do i feel like im being lured into a trap idndjdndidndidndj to be fair im not anti-saphael or anti-simon, i think that they could have a lot of potential together, especially in the future, when things settle down and simon is more mature and etc, i think they could be really good for each other. i even wrote a few fics revolving around this (okay i wrote two but you know), i think there was a lot of shit between them but nothing that can't be fixed over time

with that being said! i think the problem with how some ppl perceive raphael and simon's relationship is that classic "taking a legitimate reaction to aggression as violence, but not the aggression that incited it" that happens a lot with marginalised ppl's, particularly poc. nine times out of ten, raphael lashed out at simon for legitimate reasons, because simon was absolutely, 100%, comitting acts of aggression against him and the vampires, but not the obvious, physical/verbal violence kind. Raphael, in turn, responded by yelling or being verbally violent, and that's what people focus on, instead of the fact that he was actually... pretty goddamn patient with simon

a good example on that is the scene when Simon went to talk to raphael about the Daylighter thing. ppl complain that Raphael yelled at him. but he asked simon to leave him alone three times. he was clearly distraught, in tears, the person he loved most in the world had just died, and simon wouldnt fucking respect that! and then raphael screamed at him, and hes the bad guy, because you know, he screamed. but that was a reaction to the very violent act on simon's part of not allowing him to grieve his own goddamn sister, and demanding that he stop everything and help simon, despite the fact that he didnt owe simon that

not to mention everything else surrounding simon and rosa. people are very quick to forget that simon threatened to hurt rosa, idc if it was izzy's idea and he was reluctant, he still did it, and besides, that's all that raphael knows about it. not to mention he refused to help raphael with the Daylighter thing, and because of that, he didn't even get to go to her funeral. but then he demands Raphael help him with the very same thing. on the day that she died. thats pretty fucking violent, if you ask me

and look, im not saying simon is a bad guy, because hes definitely not, hes actually very fucking sweet. but he is extremely entitled (particularly on the earlier seasons), just as much as clary and jace. and he also has no clue what he's getting himself into, from the start. he doesn't understand that his actions have consequences, hes careless, and because of that, he puts all of their lives at risk. he got Raphael tortured because he was so careless. that's a real thing that happened. Raphael was tortured because of simon

and again, i dont think he meant that to happen, i think he was dumb, and that he only had shadowhunters' version of the facts, and he was way too blinded by Clary. he was also clearly very, very immature, and that's something that we got to see him grow out of a little bit. but there was a war going on, and Raphael had a people to lead and save, a responsibility with them all. he didn't have the time to patiently explain the facts of life to Simon (who btw never cared to listen), and even then, he tried to. Raphael tried to reach out to Simon and help him so many times it's not even funny. hell, if it weren't for him, clary wouldnt even have gotten his body back. he tried time and time again to get Simon to understand, and Simon didnt, and kept getting him and all of the vampires at risk. so Raphael lashed out. and then of course, hes the violent one. but people ignore that Raphael's reaction to him was legitimate, because Simon was, even if unknowingly, risking all of their lives and wellbeing. and if thats not violence, i dont know what is

one more time! im not saying simon is a bad person. i really, really dont think he is. i think he's actually one of the most well intentioned people in shadowhunters, but intention, even if it matters a lot, isnt everything. and it particularly isnt everything when there are lives at stake. it particularly isnt everything when you refuse to listen, and act entitled because Raphael was, from the beginning, kind as fuck to him

I'm also not saying Raphael is perfect, because he said some pretty hurtful shit. but i am saying that he was always acting in defense, not attack. Raphael never, not once, was the one to attack Simon first. but Simon didnt do it with words, and so ppl who dont understand what its like to suffer microagressions dont see where he's coming from

with all of that being said, id like to reiterate again that i still think their relationship has potential. i think that the fact that they still clearly like each other even after everything that's happened between them (hell, simon was willing to die for Raphael) means a lot. I think that Simon has grown up, and has the potential to grow up, a lot, and that in more peaceful times, as im going to assume they will be post-canon because our boys deserve it, okay, they could be really, really good for each other. i think Simon has the potential to not only break Raphael out of his shell, but also make him really look at himself in a different light, and Raphael has the potential to help simon grow and be more sure footed, steadier, more confident.

that doesnt mean they would erase all that happened, but i think they could build good things despite it all, if they talked it through and really understood each other, which i think they could do because theyre both very empathic people. it's one of the things that draw me to their dynamics; their potential for forgiveness, for re-examining themselves, for seeing how context dramatically changed their relationship and dynamics because in a less vicious context, they are good together. so yeah. i dont think what happened between them has to be between them forever, although i do hate it when ppl simply ignore it

but the perception that Raphael was the violent one and Simon wasnt is definitely rooted in an entitled, blind to microagressions point of view, and that's something that needs to be addressed, even within their relationship, if you want it to really work post-canon

[justonecynicsopinion-blog]

Let's Help Make 'Black Lives Matter' MATTER:  10 Things America Needs To Do

"Walking between the pools of light cast by the street lights I saw the group of them from a block away, joking and jostling each other.  In a dark patch I crossed the street.  One of them noticed and they all stopped and stared, their heads rising like wolves testing the breeze for the scent of potential prey.  The tallest one said something and two of them broke from the pack and meandered across to my side of the road, one putting a hand to the small of his back, the other digging one deep into a pocket."

Who is black in that anecdote?  Who is white, yellow, brown, gay or trans?  Does colour change anything in the story for the teller?  Is the narrator 'blue,' a cop?  Off duty?  On duty?  Does that change anything, substantially, in the story?  

Black Police Are the Original BLM Leaders

They Volunteered For The Job of Protecting Blacks From Violence

The cold reality in America today is that guns are as easy to get as smartphones. That cold reality is what the police face every moment of every day.

Another cold reality is that, from the moment that humans got smart enough to band together instead of erring on the side of caution and scattering in the face of a mortal threat, the most dangerous risk any human faced was a more numerous group of humans. What empowered our species to come to dominate the planet was 'tribalism' (otherwise known as 'racism' and the root of 'nationalism'). It is permanently and indelibly hardwired into each and every human brain.

Familiarization with those 'not of our tribe' reduces the power of our instinctive tribalism over our reactions, but it never goes away. And tribalism is not exclusive to whites -- it is true of every human tribe out there.

What's the Most Crucial First Step BLM Has to Make to Succeed?

Black lives automatically matter less if you don't first acknowledge that blue-black lives matter just a bit more than all lives matter.

I'm not being 'cute': if the black community does not first and foremost stand up for the safety of black cops ("blue-black lives”) who are the ‘front line workers’ in their communities -- the first on scene when there’s trouble -- the claim that black Americans are faced with racism that systematically disadvantages them (places their lives in disproportionate jeopardy to that of others) is at best counter-productive, at worst not in their own best interests. Communities are successful only when we police our own people where we live, protecting each other from injury, trespass and property theft. If black cops tell you that they are more nervous about concealed weapons being drawn on them in their own community than in many others, then we can all begin to understand the knee-jerk, 'self-defence through offence' reactions of any cop in a similar situation where they are scared that a suspect may be going into his vehicle or his pocket, against the cops' specific instructions, to get a firearm.

The police have an EXTREMELY dangerous job in a country with more freely available weapons than there are citizens, and they're on high alert any time there's a confrontation, whether that's entirely justified or not. Add to this the fact that 911 calls come in SEVEN TIMES MORE in predominantly black areas and you have seven times the likelihood of high risk altercations taking place, regardless of what colour the police are.

Perception is not always reality and we don't like it when our most emotionally charged perceptions are proven false. The reality is that statistics prove that black men are NOT shot at a higher rate by white police than white men are, despite the impression that we're left with from media exposure. Racism on the part of white cops towards black civilians, outside of some 'bad actors,' is not the principal cause for needles deaths of black Americans: poverty, public education funding through property taxes and 'The War on Drugs' are.

Living in poor neighbourhoods is the highest risk factor for getting into dangerous altercations for people of any colour. In depressed areas crime may seem to be a good way to solve one's poverty, especially when the quality of public education is low. Young residents have far fewer opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty, regardless of individual ability and their interest in doing so. Living conditions can be so miserable and funding for social services like mental health treatment is so inadequate that taking drugs becomes a viable 'medication' for mental health issues. If the system that sets up the causes for unequal outcomes is not addressed, then the poverty, and subsequent risk of death from criminals and police altercations, will never be reduced.

"Defund the Police!" Really Means "Increase Social Support"

The 'systemic racism' in America lies in the fact that black communities continue to face profound inequality, not in the fact that more crime takes place in their neighbourhoods, per se. To fix the inequality problem we don't need less police, we need more health care, better social welfare support (a universal basic income, NOT more welfare for single mothers) and a vastly improved public school system across all American communities.

Using the overly provocative phrase "DEFUND THE POLICE!" detracts from the real message: "INCREASE SOCIAL SUPPORT“. Decreasing the amount of blue-blacks (and blues in general) in their own communities will only lead to the kind of mayhem and instability that holds the citizens of these areas further back in the competition we call life.

If we begin to place the 'right to zero-harm' for every citizen (including the criminals that exist throughout humanity, whether they are white collar criminals, grey collar criminals, blue collar criminals, or criminals whose full-time job is criminality), above that of the blues (the police), then civilization erodes very quickly into pandemonium. Civilization can only exist based upon mutually agreed-to regulations and laws that are enforced by a publicly funded and trusted police force and a judicial system that is fair across the board.

It is this lack of overall fairness, the current inequality of treatment evidenced by the incarceration rate of poor and black people in the US (especially poor black males from fatherless homes), as well as the lack of gainful employment that drives poor people into miserable lives that lead to drug use and crime, that is currently under debate. However, it is the underlying system, NOT the enforcers of the system, that needs reform. People of every stripe who seek simple answers to complex issues look at the most obvious, superficial symptom and claim that THAT is what needs changing, without understanding where the issues that cause the overall problem really lie.

Black Lives Matter: What's the Real Goal of the Movement?

Momentous 'movements' only change history when their aim is clear and the goal is simple. Either that, or, if the goal is complex and the steps numerous, the movement needs a powerful, central voice to coordinate and direct the movement's direction, step by step to achieve its ultimate goal.

Black Lives Matter simply doesn't matter if it has no clear goal that 'the movement' is aiming to achieve, and actionable steps to get there.

"End systemic racism" SOUNDS like just what America needs to improve the lives of many of its underclass, but a problem cannot be addressed if the meaning of its goal is unclear, or is far too complex to ever be achieved by simply shouting the goal over and over again. In the same vein, demanding worthwhile, straightforward social changes that unfortunately fail to address the roots of the underlying problems are just 'half measures.’ A current example is the recent demand to shift funding away from policing toward more social support like addressing inadequate mental health programs. While this is a necessary and wholly appropriate demand, especially given the growing militarization of the police, the enforcers (police) are largely a symptom, it is the laws -- from 'The War on Drugs’ to financing public education through local property taxes -- that are the cause of the problem.

"Systemic racism" means various things to the many and diverse participants in this growing movement. Definitions range from 'fixing the clearly unjust justice system,' to 'giving the underclass a leg up through improved education,' to 'equal outcomes for all, regardless of effort, ability, experience, or merit'. Other notions include 'ending police use of lethal violence against people of colour,’ to 'hand out large sums of cash to the descendants of former slaves,’ and even 'erase racism (tribalism) from humankind's hardwiring' (which would involve re-writing our genetic code).

"Systemic Racism" is Not Racism, It’s Policies, Programs & Laws

Policies, programs and laws expressly designed to keep the wealth-hoarders in charge, making ever more money, while increasing the inequality that prevents the poor from escaping The Poverty Trap. That trap is equally tough to escape no matter what colour you are and it is gettingmore and more difficult to break free from.

“Systemic Racism,” More Accurately, is “Systemic Inequality”

Systemic Inequality can only be addressed by changing programs, policies and laws in a meaningful, effective manner.

What is the Practical, Core Goal of the BLM Movement?

Once slavery was abolished in America, but not until electricity was available in most homes (outside of those households wealthy enough to employ servants), women were the de facto 'household work force,' they were the largely invisible 'engine under the hood’ of the economy. The Suffragette Movement that brought about the right to vote for white women (voting rights for black citizens in America didn't come to pass until much later) could not have come about until women began to be freed from household chores by electrical appliances. The success of the effort to win voting rights for women only came about once the cause of the problem of women being stuck at home 24/7 (i.e. washing clothes in a tub, hauling water, churning butter, hand-sewing clothing, etc.), was addressed. This continues to be the single biggest barrier to female emancipation in developing world countries (if women are out of sight -- even more so if they are all encased in black bags -- they are out of mind).

To solve any problem we cannot focus on the symptoms. The causes of the problem must first be addressed.

The underlying root cause for women not having the right to vote was not simply brutish male egos, it was a fundamental lack of power. Without the freedom to interact in the wider world outside of the home in sufficient numbers to be seen as a force to be reckoned with, without earning salaries to contribute to the household income, without sufficient education to qualify them to rise up into positions of power, women were powerless and could be ignored. Black and brown voices today face a similar challenge. Until the system that underlies their lack of power is changed and they are empowered to ENTER the world outside of their neighbourhoods by being released from ‘The Poverty Trap,’ until they can be given a leg-up to get the education required to fill white collar positions, they will be ignored by the same lawmakers that ignore the poor white voices demanding, for example, universal healthcare.

The ultimate goal of the BLM Movement MUST be to change the policies, programs and laws that undergird the system at its roots, NOT focussing on eliminating racism, whether in law enforcement or in the larger world. Black and brown lives only begin to matter to the wealth- hoarders at the top when their power is threatened, as happened with the Suffragette Movement. Those women were not demanding equal outcomes, they were demanding equal opportunity. That's a key benchmark for BLM to keep in mind if the movement is going to have any real long-term impact:

The fight is only winnable if it is for equal opportunity, NOT equal outcome.

What Goals Proved Achievable for Past Movements?

The Women's Suffrage Movement had a single goal: allow women to vote. Achieving that simple first goal opened up the Women's Rights Movement that followed, much to the betterment of the lives of 51% of the human population in developed countries over the ensuing decades.

The Abolitionist Anti-Slavery Movement had a clear and actionable simple goal: free the slaves.

A civil war had to be fought over it, but America, ‘land of the free,’ became better for achieving that simple goal.

The Black Lives Matter Movement’s single goal should be: end systemic inequality. Yes, the steps to get there are complex and numerous, but with a shared vision, it can be done.

Ending Systemic Inequality Requires a Fire, Not Just A Spark

Keeping a fire going requires the continual addition of fuel. The BLM protests that were sparked by the murder of George Floyd and many others have ignited a much needed conflagration, but like the Occupy Movement and Tea Party Movement that proceeded it, that fire is likely to die out without a unified, clear goal and shared understanding of all the policies, programs and laws that will need changing to result in the goal of ending Systemic Inequality. The fuel that will keep the fire burning will NOT be protests, it will be VOTING and ongoing organization and activism to demand changes to specific policies, programs and laws.

Why is the BLM ‘Fire’ Likely to Die Out?

A Lack of Consensus

The Occupy Movement was able to be crushed by the government for one reason: the occupiers lacked any clearly stated goal. Yes, they all wanted the corporations and the Wall Street gamblers who’d created the 2008 crisis to be held accountable, but they had no single voice to communicate that goal, no coherent steps they wanted to see followed, and no political (voting) power to push their progressive agenda forward.

The Tea Party lacked a clear, singular goal (the usual Conservative laundry list: less taxes, smaller government, immigration control, no black President, etc.), but had major political sway in red states. Yet, despite early success in garnering attention from Republican politicians, by 2016 Politico had declared the movement dead (and indeed the demographic who had initiated it, partly in response to being incensed by the young, diverse, urban, Progressive Occupiers, were older, white, rural and Conservative and have been literally dying off — Trump is their ‘last hurrah’).

To Succeed, Any Progressive Movement Needs:

1. Consensus on a simple, singular goal (a voice),

2. Clear steps to achieve that goal (a strategic plan),

3. The political power to make the steps happen (voter influence).

Without a clear understanding, among the majority, of exactly what the issues are that are causing inequality in American and around the world, we cannot solve complex problems like systemic inequality. A HUGE barrier to doing so is that the vast majority of our human population are not endowed with the ability to assimilate all of the information necessary to address the challenges, much less the ability to understand the roots and inter-connectivity of complex issues and then generate creative, effective solutions.

The majority can raise their voices in protest, but cannot offer up meaningful and effective solutions to the underlying causes of inequality without the leadership of some much more clever-than-average leaders. The solution the mass of protestors are currently offering up, as best I can parse it, is "White people are racist! They have more money than blacks and browns do and they should give a bunch of it to us!" Certainly the rich are currently enjoying ever-less taxation and staggering wealth-hoarding, and that hoarded cash will eventually go a long way to funding the steps necessary to fix the underlying problems (simply starting with making all public schools across America of equally high quality), but cash hand outs that get frittered away will not solve anything long-term. The only way to redistribute wealth that has ever proven effective is the system that the Nordic countries have had in place for many decades: Democratic Social Capitalism.

Taking action against injustice, against the unfairness of inequality, is not only essential to improving the human condition, it is the 'right thing' to do for the majority of us who feel morality in a tangible way, who 'sense' the weight of it in our lives. I was reminded of this in re-listening to Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins discussing the scientific basis of human morality on YouTube. Morality is not simply a concept to be embraced or debated, it is a product of our unique human consciousness and a foundational building block for human civilization. Without our hardwired morality (religion is a just a software manipulation of that hardwiring) there would be no cooperation, no civility, no society for us to live productively and peacefully within.

Of Course Conservatives Resist Change, But Progressives Are Our Future

We hate change, especially in the short-term. Some of us much more than others (they’re called Conservatives). Like our innate tribalism, Conservatism is is an integral part of the human condition. It cautions us to NOT 'fix what isn't broken' and thus helps us to survive to live another day. (I'm always speaking from the point of view of most of our species' existence: the 7,000,000 years we survived since our split from our common ancestor with the chimps, not the 0.1% that we have lived in cities -- what I call our 7,000 year-old 'New Normal.' The circumstances we live in today are most certainly NOT what our species evolved to thrive in most naturally.)

An illustration of the early roots of human Conservatism: if it had always proven wise to have one tribe member stay up all night to maintain a fire burning at the cave entrance to dissuade sabre-toothed tigers and cave bears from coming in to snack on us, experimenting instead with hanging a bunch of dry sticks on a length of cat gut to rattle together to wake us up if an intruder entered the cave probably wasn't a wise innovation. Those individuals who were 'hardwired for Conservatism' back in the day either won out and the fire-tending tradition was maintained instead of the 'trip-wire' innovation, or there were no survivors of that tribe.

In the LONG-TERM, the Progressive innovation of the 'trip wire' helped ensure the survival of the tribe willing to allow the inventor to install it at the back of the cave, where a larger group from a competing tribe could sneak in through the cave system and kill the males and make off with the women and children. While Conservatives fight change (and dream of a return to the bygone fantasy of a better life in the past) in the short-term, they benefit in the long-term from progress. Grandma did NOT want to use her new iPad, at least not until she realized she could watch her grand-kids growing up from afar.

One thing is true of our 'New Normal' and that is that civilization has only flourished over time due to progress. Time and again civilizations of humankind grew and prospered only on the back of Progressivism: innovation that improved the lot of the majority through mutual cooperation. It is only through Progressivism that our cities can grow ever larger, that our ability to feed a human population that is on course to destroy the planet by its ever-increasing volume, is possible. Only by making constant progress can we figure out how to live in peace, rather than tearing each others' throats out due to our hardwiring for irrational tribalism.

In other words, it is only through Progressivism, NOT Conservatism, that humanity can survive in our 'New Normal.'

Let’s Help Make Black Lives Matter MATTER!

10 Things America Needs to Do

We all, deep down, know what the situation is. Despite the abolition of slavery, the door was left open for those who opposed the movement to come up with innumerable subtle and manipulative ways to continue to benefit from the nearly free labour of black Americans, especially the men, by incarcerating them for a myriad of trivial, double-standard reasons and making the length of those imprisonments arbitrarily long. This was taken up another notch by making the prison system for-profit, incentivizing those at the top to increase the volume of imprisonment by increasing the number of crimes related to being poor in the first place (the War on Drugs').

Another intangible barrier to upward mobility was cemented into place by funding public schools from property taxes, thus ensuring that anyone living in poor areas would grow up within a very effective 'Poverty Trap' that would keep poor kids from getting a sufficiently high quality of education that they would graduate 'at parity' with kids from wealthier areas. The ceiling to attaining wealth was raised further by well-meaning, but disastrous 'social welfare for single mothers' programs which have seen young black males who don't have fathers at home being manipulated by criminals in their neighbourhoods to join in and ultimately become incarcerated in their tens of thousands across America. Felony conviction laws then make it nearly impossible for those who emerge from prison to land meaningful work, pushing them back into crime and prison (and working inside, essentially, as slaves for profit-making corporations owned by the rich).

So are there multi-layered issues for us to work through to solve the problem of inequality in America and around the world? Certainly, but it is time to stop blaming 'those not of our tribe' for our tribes' problems (whether your tribe is political, cultural, or colour-based) and get busy doing the effective things that will lead to real change:

1. Stop protesting in the streets! (It really doesn't make much PRACTICAL change happen other than satisfying our inherent love of chanting and marching together in large crowd while patting ourselves on the back and reveling in self-righteous moral outrage.) Put that same energy and investment of time into non-stop emailing, phoning and letter- writing to your Congressional and Senate representatives. They fear losing their seats and they'll listen to well-reasoned arguments and straightforward solutions that will have real impact if the messages come in large quantities.

2. Organize well-reasoned, fact-based (leave the tribal emotions outside) meetings in your living rooms and town halls to come up with REAL, actionable, effective solutions to chip away at the underlying causes, like providing financial incentives like a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to fathers/stepfathers who stick around to parent kids in poor neighbourhoods.

3. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Educate yourself about the real causes of Systemic Racism and what can be done to change things, or at least allow those leaders among you who can explain the REAL causes (not simply manipulate your emotions to gain power for themselves) to lead (think: The Squad, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie).

4. Get back to acknowledging and respecting high 'Fluid IQ,' merit-based advancement (equal opportunity, NOT equal outcome), higher education and respect for science and data, as demonstrated by John McCain, deGrasse Tyson, Sowell, AOC, the Obamas, Pelosi and many more on both sides of the debate, but don't accept any 'notions' or 'opinions' about policies that have no historical proof of having worked effectively (Democratic Social Capitalism has been WINNING in the Nordic countries for decades).

5. Fund the Police! Ensure that more funding is going to individual police salaries, rather than hiring more police officers so that really smart people begin taking on the jobs, rather than the 'bad apples' who can't find higher paying jobs and end up hired by desperate municipalities.

6. Increase social support! If there's funding to be found by cutting money ear-marked for the police to buy more military equipment, great, but America has a bottomless pit of funding for anything its citizens really need, its called The Federal Reserve. They just push buttons to create zero interest money to bail out billionaires, corporations and the profit-making of the Military-Industrial Complex. They can do the same for infrastructure and out-of-work Americans if the Houses approve it. Just say no to "PAYGO" — after all, it never applies to bail-outs!

7. Push for an end to property tax funding of public education. All schooling in America needs to be federally funded at the same level everywhere and all teachers need to get paid the same, substantial wage to encourage the really smart people to take on the jobs. In areas where it's clear that kids are chronically under-performing, change the system: bring in tutorial programs that target the most challenged kids, do more field trips and outdoor teaching the way they do in Finland, end the ancient standardized testing and customize programs for each type of kid.

8. End "The War on Drugs"! Addiction is a deep and insidious problem for human brains. It is a disease, not a 'lifestyle choice,' whether the addiction is to food, gambling, sun-tanning, or drugs. Marijuana is legal in Europe and Canada because it is just like alcohol -- a tax-collecting BONANZA! (And then pardon every single criminal conviction based upon the old laws.)

9. Get out and vote! and work tirelessly to convince your family, friends, neighbours and every young person you come into contact with to vote too! Trump won simply because less people voted, and suppressing the vote is the GOP's go-to strategy moving forward.

10. Lastly, end "Citizens United." That single corruption by the Supreme Court effectively ended the "American Democratic Experiment" by using common human greed to corrupt every single politician on both sides of America's single-party/two-colours, Neo-liberal system. No founder of America ever would have bastardized the Constitution by claiming that a profit-making corporation should be treated as a human citizen of the United States of America. Most politicians are now trapped by their common greed within the corporate lobbying cash hand-out system to both fund their campaigns and line their pockets.

***

I have been blogging and vlogging about insights into why we humans do the so-often counter- productive things we do, and how we can turn things around to live our lives to the fullest (the real meaning of life!) for over a decade. Check out more thoughts and insights at:

• JustOneCynicsOpinion.Blogspot.com

• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfi00q5yaQ0nK8wXkEbvk3Q/

• Support my efforts: https://www.patreon.com/JustOneCynicsOpinion?fan_landing=true

[argentdandelion]

No Soul Necessary: Flowey’s Happy Ending (Part 2)

Introduction

As the previous part in the series noted, Flowey has many psychological problems, and getting a soul might not help. Yet, despite his soullessness, he can still have his happy ending.

For this, Flowey must do eight things: lose his power of SAVE (done), come to terms with his guilt and regret, stop hating himself, make meaningful relationships with others (even if they’re not very strong ones), fill his life with fun, novelty and piles of happy moments, and (on a more minor note) adjust to life as a soulless flower through spending time with humans like him, learn the perks of being a flower, and quality-of-life improvements like a flowerpot-wheelchair.

Guilt, Regret, and Self-Loathing

In some ways, Flowey resembles a person with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD, or sociopathy/psychopathy). Such people are often thought to not feel guilt or regret, and if they do, to not learn from it.

Yet, Flowey is different. He does feel regret or guilt. Most obviously, he feels guilty about “failing” Chara in the buttercup plan. One could argue this is just a memory of guilt when he was Asriel. However, that’s clearly not the case: in the Genocide Route, he also immediately regrets telling the genocidal human “Creatures like us...wouldn’t hesitate to KILL each other if we got in each others’ way”. In addition, in his True Reset speech, he says he doesn’t “think he can do it again”. Clearly, even when unable to feel love and compassion, he can feel some sense of regret or wrongdoing.

Even before his murderous Flowey Runs, Flowey had plenty of reasons to feel guilt. Firstly, his actions in the buttercup plan got both Chara and himself killed. Not only that, but, after the deaths of his children, Asgore declared war on humanity, causing Toriel to leave him. While Asriel/Flowey is only indirectly to blame, he likely felt very guilty when learning what had happened since his death.

Furthermore, Flowey’s guilt for murdering everyone in the Underground countless times (including Frisk), could lead to the Dobby effect, where inextinguishable guilt leads to excessive self-punishment. Reflecting on his actions might even lead to self-loathing: either for who he is (someone who's callously treated the whole Underground as his plaything) or what he is (a soulless, nigh-necromantic flower-abomination).

However, Flowey feeling guilt, regret, and self-loathing would both hinder and help his recovery.

On one hand, guilt and regret creates consequences for his actions. These consequences could be a workaround to his inability to feel love and compassion, and could help him stay out of trouble and keep more-or-less fulfilling relationships. A sense of self-loathing, too, might motivate him to become a better person, so he doesn’t hate himself.

On the other hand, Flowey might, out of guilt or self-loathing, choose to stay in the Underground, as a sort of prison sentence.1 He might also wallow in self-loathing to the point of gaining (or worsening) his depression. However, these forms of self-punishment won’t help him get better; he must confront his regret and guilt.

While he does just that (as Asriel) in the full flowerbed speech of the Pacifist epilogue, in some works, this meeting doesn’t happen. In fact, regaining a soul and love and compassion would just make things worse: his guilt would surely increase, thus making his mental health plummet.

Relationships with Others, and His Lack of Love, Compassion and Empathy

Losing his power of SAVE takes away its corrupting, mental-health eroding influence on him. Without it, he might be able to reconnect with others. After all, since he could memorize responses, people became predictable. His reducing people to sets of numbers and lines of dialogue worsened his problem. Without that power, people on the Surface cannot become predictable.

Furthermore, he can't undo any of his social mistakes: he must be more careful to start, keep, and strengthen relationships with others, even if they're weak due to his soullessness. He could learn to behave himself through self-interest: with permanent consequences, he can’t afford to snap and kill someone.

Though Flowey cannot really feel love and compassion, if his condition is anything like sociopathy, he could surely imitate signs of it, to some extent. Again supposing his condition is like sociopathy, he could be capable of cognitive empathy: a largely conscious drive to understand another’s perspective or mental state. It’s synonymous with perspective-taking, and it should allow him to act in the right ways to achieve wanted outcomes, and avoid bad ones. If he did perspective-taking and risk-balancing quickly and habitually, few could tell the difference.

It’s very likely Flowey is lonely. Though Flowey cannot really love anyone, he nonetheless longs for someone like him, someone unpredictable he’ll “never get bored of”, someone “like him”. He wants someone he’ll care about, even if he can’t really care about them. Even if he cares more about others as resources than people, if he only wants understanding and affinity, rather than actual love, it’s achievable.

Frisk could easily fulfill Flowey’s needs. Frisk is certainly unpredictable: Flowey expects, and wants, Frisk to finish him off after the Omega Flowey fight. Yet, Frisk does not: Frisk’s incomprehensible mercy baffles and scares Flowey.

While Frisk would likely be Flowey’s strongest relationship, it’s possible he could find new joys in the monsters whose responses he memorized as they adjusted to life on the Surface. Papyrus is one possibility: in a Neutral end dialogue, Flowey himself says it took a long time to “get bored of him.” It’s possible for Papyrus to become monsters’ ambassador, rather than Frisk. Seeing Papyrus adapt to the difficulties of human-monster politics could be exciting for Flowey.

There's also humans: a novel experience for Flowey. Asriel himself says, “There are a lot of Floweys on the Surface”. Though he surely meant to warn that life on the Surface wasn't perfect, it's true some humans feel little to no love and compassion and are still law-abiding. It's very likely Flowey can find people just like him on the Surface. He could join a group of PTSD sufferers, who have gone emotionally numb from trauma, or socialize with humans with ASPD, who naturally don't feel empathy.

Despair

Flowey killed himself not only because he didn't "want to live in a world without love", but also because he didn't want to live in a world without Chara. If not love, Flowey needs something to live for. In short, to stave off his despair, he needs purpose, meaning, and friends.

Flowey is unique for his immense knowledge of the Underground and all its people. By exhausting every possibility, he likely learned how every monster would react in any situation. This would be handy in human-monster politics, especially if his knowledge even partially applies to humans. Flowey could, as a sort of penance, find purpose in ensuring everyone is happy on the Surface, and advise whoever is the ambassador. After all, politics is so much more complicated than flirting and joking, and if Frisk is the ambassador, they're just a kid.

If he sentences himself Underground, Flowey’s despair will never lift. A few works mention recovering from trauma through happy little moments piling up; with his days on the Surface filled with fun and meaningful activities, Flowey might eventually get better.

In both the Pacifist and Genocide Route, Flowey says he’s tired of being a flower. While he might be conflating soullessness with having a flower body, and assuming getting a Boss Monster body would make him psychologically revert to "Asriel", it's possible having a flower body in itself makes him unhappy. For one thing, he can’t manipulate objects like he used to; he doesn’t even have hands. His mobility is also limited and strange as a flower; he probably can’t climb stairs, nor ride elevators.

Though most Post-Pacifist works show Flowey in a flower pot, this would probably make his condition worse. One work has Flowey move in a big flower pot with robotic arms (with hands) and legs; another fan improves upon the flowerpot trope with a dirt-filled wheelbarrow.

Related Reading

Flowey and PTSD

Kill 'em with Kindness (actually spun off from this section)

Incidentally, the author of this article has a Patreon.

The author shall dodge whether Flowey deserves at least a life sentence in favor of how to give him a happy life (that is, SAVE him). ↩︎

[veryfantasticstudent]

What happens after Evangelion? Posthumanity in 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

I finally watched (and subsequently re-watched) the classic (and highly controversial anime) Neon Genesis Evangelion, thanks to Netflix’s partial acquisition of the rights to the show—they somehow forgot “Fly Me to the Moon”[1]. Evangelion is an anime about a lot of themes—too many, thanks to Hideaki Anno’s dodgy responses regarding its interpretations. Alienation and depression are at the center of it all. Countless articles will tell you that Anno was suffering from depression while working on Evangelion. Further, Japan had recently faced terrorist attacks in Tokyo, as well as a series of devastating earthquakes. In the face of such tragedies, Evangelion asks, what will become of us in the future? In a world where lives are arbitrarily lost, where we have no direction to go towards, how can humanity itself continue?

These are some of the bigger questions that Evangelion asks, and they connect to the more intimate, the more human questions it poses as well. How can two human beings form any connection when disasters like the Second Impact occur? The English title of the fourth episode of the series is “Hedgehog’s Dilemma”. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer coined this term to express the complexity of human relationships; moving closer together—physically or mentally—means that we will hurt each other. And yet, this proximity is what we humans crave the most. How do we reconcile these conflicting desires and keep moving on in the face of tragedy? For many of us, these thoughts may not result from Second-Impact-scale disasters, but personal tragedies—the death of loved ones, or even the break-up of friendships or relationships. These feelings seem unconnected to the future of humanity, but as the series repeatedly emphasizes, the two are linked. Evangelion asks: how do we face tomorrow. In my essay, I propose that there multiple ways that Evangelion answers these questions, and all of them are linked to the notion of posthumanity.

Before I get into Evangelion we must clarify what I mean by “posthuman”. An umbrella-term, “posthuman” is literally what comes after humanity. It is the posthuman who must adapt to the new world that is altered by climate change, nuclear wars, alien life contact, and endless numbers of (not entirely) science-fictional scenarios. Bio-technological invasion of the human body alters the limits of a human being, extending us into our electronic environments, interfacing us with machines and artificial intelligence. This is a kind of posthumanity, often leaning towards calling the current human being a “cyborg” (in Donna Haraway’s term). A central aspect of posthumanity tends to be the displacement of the “rational thinking machine” of the Renaissance humanist. “Man” is no longer the measure of all things. The posthuman is as much an animal as any, and no longer claims a moral stature higher than its fellow earth inhabitants. It suggests an equality with everything, especially if we look at vitalist materialist Rose Braidotti’s stance in her book The Posthuman. These are the broad notions of the posthuman that I will work with for this essay.

The people in Evangelion are, in at least the bio-technological sense, posthuman. This is especially true for the three EVA pilots, who meld with their EVA Units. However, that is not enough to survive in this world. Humans are no longer allowed their aspirations, displaced as they are by repeated Angel attacks. They still do not connect with their environments—the futuristic landscapes of Tokyo-3 little more than blast shelters. Animals do not even survive in this world. There is something missing in even the humanity of the Evangelion human beings, and all characters can feel that. That is why there is a thrust to the posthuman in the show with the 人類補完成計画, translated as the Human Instrumentality Project, comes into play. 「人類方完成計画」means different things to different people and organizations—is not surprising, considering this is Evangelion. I see three major interpretations of this phrase, and these are the posthumanities of Evangelion, the humanities after the Evangelion series. These are the posthumanities of Seele, Ikari Gendō, and Ikari Shinji.

Let us start with Seele. “To return humanity to its original form”—this is the posthumanity of Seele. All individuality must be extinguished, and we must return to the primal forms of Lilith and Adam. Why Lilith? This is where my knowledge of the Christian tradition fails. As far as I know, Lilith was Adam’s first “companion”, but she never lay with him. Instead, she gave birth to all the monsters of the world. Often, she has been thought of as a witch. If you want an instance of Lilith close to the world, Jean E. Graham’s paper “Women, Sex, and Power: Circe and Lilith in Narnia” compares the White Witch of Narnia to Lilith. In fact, she is explicitly noted to be a descendant of Lilith. This is speculation, but it seems that we are all, then, descendants of Lilith. Not even those of Adam and Eve, we are irredeemable monsters, unless we go back to the form that bore us, and resume the innocence of the formless. This needs the destruction of the human, and in some ways, this is the end that Ayanami Rei almost leads us to.

Ikari Gendō’s posthumanity is a rogue form of Seele’s plan, insofar as is it wishes to bring together all the living and the dead. The show repeatedly tells us that Ayanami Rei is somehow connected to Ikari Yui, Ikari Gendō’s deceased wife. Most people seem to find this form of posthumanism twisted and somehow fundamentally wrong. Akagi Naoko found it disturbing enough to find Yui still shadowing her that she committed suicide.

Finally, we have the posthumanism of Ikari Shinji. This is how I read the last two episodes of Evangelion, the two episodes that make the least sense in an anime where few things make sense. Over the two episodes, the EVA pilots and other NERV personnel face the monsters that have haunted them throughout their lives and try to overcome them. Shinji’s fear is the fear of intimacy, of becoming close to people. He does not know how to open himself up without getting hurt, primarily because his father never showed him any warmth even after his mother gave herself up to EVA – 01. It is the Hedgehog’s Dilemma all over again. The primarily-teenage audience of Evangelion possibly relates the difficulties that Shinji faces, the inability to somehow “let loose” and connect with people freely. How can one do that when it is so easy to not only hurt others but also hurt oneself? This is what stops Shinji often taking decisive action and stops him from fully realizing himself.

The purpose of the last two Evangelion episodes is to show us how Shinji admits that he has been drawing walls in the way he imagines the world to be. In the alternative world that he dreams of, he acts the same way as his classmates—a carefree, horny, uninhibited, Japanese teenage male. It is just an altered version of a scene we have already witnessed before. It is important that this world is not radically different from his own world. The people are the same—his classmates and Misato still make the experiences of this world. If it can be done in that imaginary world, why not in this world? Shinji realizes that the world he has been looking for does not need to be an LCL-fuelled dream, but a world that he can inhabit. When Shinji rejects the dream world that Lilith-Rei gives him, Shinji accepts the difficulty of human existence. He accepts the borders that characterize the individual human and yet also looks to the possibility of moving beyond our borders and bonding with other people. The “congratulations” sequence in the original ending and the final scene of the 1997 movie (where he almost strangles Asuka), both accept the fact that people are always distinct, but there is no reason why we cannot connect with each other.

The show then inevitably puts its weight behind the last form of “perfection” or 「完成」(Kansei). This is how human realization should function. The show not only addresses teenage anxieties through this, but its rejection of other forms of perfection is important too. It rejects forms of human perfection that try to take us into some primordial past or try to erase all our distinctions. The erosion of borders, the assertion that we are all the same is, is as threatening as the assertion that some shadowy organization that does not even live among us can decide who is or is not a part of a community. Evangelion is prescient in the fact that not only does it see the creation of rigid borders as a problem, but it also sees that the complete dismissal of borders is not a solution either. I would like to think that it gives us tools to think about the problems of borders that we face in many regions of the world—whether it is the wars in the Middle East, the anti-immigrant agendas of Trump’s America and Modi’s India, the slowly digesting monster that is the PRC in Hong Kong, or even the xenophobia that countries like Korea and Japan still struggle with. Every individual must revaluate themselves before we blindly forge on this path that we call “humanity”. Maybe we all need to pause for a few days and watch Neon Genesis Evangelion before we create the cataclysm of the Second Impact.

[1] Before pointing out that Netflix’s dubbing and subbing has horribly altered the anime and therefore Evangelion has lost its essence, please note that I know Japanese. You can find that on my LinkedIn Page. Of course, I haven’t linked that anywhere on Tumblr, so don’t look for it.

[rwbyconversations]

Why I think some fans don’t like Ruby

A good protagonist can make or break a story. You can have an incredibly detailed world and setting, fill it with the most fascinating lore and and have an encyclopedia’s worth of information on every street, but if the person you’re following in that world is uninteresting or just dull, the audience will never let that slide. Watch Dogs is a competent game but Aiden Pearce is such a dull scumbag that it taints the entire setting. Echo from Dollhouse was perhaps the dullest character in the main roster, making the show more interesting when she wasn’t around as it gave the much more varied supporting cast a chance to shine.

This is unfortunately a problem that people have with RWBY’s Ruby Rose as well. Ruby is a do-gooder with aspirations to become a Huntress and help people and that’s basically it in terms of explicit character growth. For a variety of reasons over the past two years since Volume 4, Ruby has become a far more divisive character than was ever intended. With Volume 6 now on the horizon, I’ve decided to look into our inarguable main protagonist and to answer the question of why I think some people don’t like Ruby. 

(also before anyone jumps down my throat I don’t hate Ruby, I think she’s a weak character but I don’t want her removed from the show. Also, yes, she is the protagonist, we’re not having this conversation)

1) Ruby’s development in Volumes 4 and 5 is lackluster at best and actively shunted at worst

To be quite blunt, Ruby’s not interesting in her current form and she hasn’t truthfully been since Volume 3′s conclusion. Ruby started out as a fine character, with some good early development from Ozpin about what it means to be a leader, development which had a payoff when Ruby then shared this lesson with Jaune during the Jaundice episodes. “We have to put our teammates first and ourselves second.” Back then Ruby also had several more facets to her personality- she was a naive child brought to Beacon two years early and a lot of her dynamics, especially with Weiss in particular, reflect this in the early volumes. Volume 1 also gives Ruby her overly romanticized view of Huntsmen and Huntresses, further emphasizing her naivety regarding the wider world which is challenged multiple times in the first three volumes- most notably with Roman’s “The real world is cold!” speech in Heroes and Monsters. 

Volume 3 set out to tear those perceptions down, as Ruby bears witness to some horrifying actions in the back half of the Volume- Penny’s dismemberment, Grimm swarming Vale, Roman being eaten alive and Pyrrha being shot and incinerated right in front of her. Ruby breaks from this, Volume 4 was touted as a recovery volume. And yet Ruby’s development is a phantom for Volumes 4 and 5. She puts on a bright smile and other than a few nightmares which exist for very little reason- especially since RTX 2017 confirmed that Ruby was having dreams about Pyrrha because she overheard Jaune’s night-training and not because of other circumstances- Ruby doesn’t ever confront the trauma she faced like Yang and Blake did over their arcs in Volume 4. The one time she tries taking responsibility in the back half of the volume... Jaune shuts her down, literally cutting her off so he can tell her she’s inspiring, which she agrees with blindly, her inner conflict having been forgotten and blown away like leaves falling off a tree in October. 

You know I mentioned this in my Jaune post but it bears repeating that the one time Ruby really tries to get development this season, Jaune literally steals the spotlight and tells the audience, rather than shows us, how far Ruby’s come

Most of the other RWBY girls get scenes on their own during Volume 4- in fact, the other three members all have moments of solitude in their first episodes. It shows how the Fall of Beacon has separated them and scattered them across the world. Ruby gets no such moment of isolation. Ruby not having this doesn’t give her character any moments where she has to confront the events at Beacon, and that lack of isolation or ability to reflect harms her. The one time her facade breaks away in Volume 4, Jaune swoops in to prevent her from having a realization and the problem is smoothed away like it never happened.This also has an adverse effect on our ability to sympathize with Ruby- her not blaming herself despite Jaune’s act of kindness makes it difficult to identify with her struggles and any growth she might have experienced.

I think that half of Ruby’s dialogue in all of Volume 4 comes from her reading her letter to Yang in the finale is a fairly harrowing example of where Ruby’s focus is not going. 

Volume 5 did take a step towards addressing this by having Oscar ask Ruby how she remains so cheerful- a scene I firmly believe should have happened a year earlier with Jaune instead of handing it off to the farmboy who never before or after this scene addresses the stresses of the shadow war with Salem. The scene is fairly obviously damage control for Ruby’s lack of reaction to Volume 3 but this scene has no payoff. Ruby just admits she’s sad, we get a traditional hero speech about moving forward and then the status quo resets for Ruby’s next adventure in sitting around a house.

To cut this rant short, Volumes 4 and 5 do very little with Ruby and the opportunity for development that the Fall of Beacon presented. Rather than having a hopeful naive child face reality, something Roman was trying to do with his dying words, Ruby just backtracks and almost flanderizes into this upbeat chipmunk who spews out inspirational speeches. Ruby’s never allowed to grow in 4 or 5 and her character stagnates as a consequence. A pivotal moment for Ruby should have been her confrontation with Cinder at Haven (something I’ve written about before) and seeing Weiss get stabbed, but Cinder refuses to acknowledge her for the entire battle and she’s unconscious when Weiss drops. Two moments that should have defined her character... and Ruby sidesteps both of them and the challenges therein. 

If I may repeat myself, half of Ruby’s dialogue in V4 comes from her letter to Yang in the finale. Half of her dialogue is in the finale of the season. If that doesn’t speak about bad agency and character handling I’m afraid I don’t know what does. 

And all of this leads us into...

2) Ask about the eyes! (or: Ruby’s lack of agency)

I’m sure if you’ve been a part of the fandom you’ve heard this a thousand times, so I’ll keep this quick:

Ruby’s eyes are supposedly the key to stopping the Grimm and the only reason Cinder was defeated at the end of Volume 3, and will almost certainly play a role in fighting Salem. Despite knowing about them thanks to Qrow and spending a significant amount of time with Qrow and Ozpin, people who knew her mother (a fellow Silver Eyed Warrior) intimately well, Ruby never asks about the eyes during the month she spends with Ozpin and Qrow in the Mistral House. There’s no logical reason in or out of the narrative for her to not immediately ask about this when she reached the house and when the eyes manifest again in the Battle of Haven, no fuss is made about them and they don’t get acknowledged for the rest of the volume.

... OK that was relatively quick. But put bluntly, Ruby not asking about her eyes or Summer has crippled her development. Summer’s death would be an almost childishly simple way to give Ruby a personal stake in the fight against Salem, since it’s all but been confirmed (”We’ve dealt with their kind before”) that Summer was slain by a member of Salem’s cabal. It speaks poorly about Ruby’s priority levels and the agency of herself, Ozcar and Qrow that Ruby never stops to ask either of them about the eyes and instead decides to ask Ozpin if his cane is the Beacon Relic. 

There is however a meta out of universe reason, in that Miles and Kerry aren’t ready to ask about the eyes yet. In my post about why the birds twist failed to land, I mentioned this as an aside that Miles and Kerry have a particular fondness for cliffhangers and plot twists, and while this works sometimes, it means that it can take a fair while for them to answer questions that would otherwise spoil their little tricks and twists in advance. Ruby asking about the eyes would ruin whatever twist is tied to them- be it that they steal life energy or have the risk of blinding her- so she... doesn’t. And there isn’t even a throwaway line about her referencing the existence of her Silver Eyes. 

If V4 or 5 had just had a scene of Ruby about to fight a Grimm like say, the Geist and trying to manifest them or just having a scene where she explains she’s trying to activate the powers, it would at least show initiative on her part- she would be at least trying to activate her powers since she knows they pose a threat to the Grimm and Cinder. But she doesn’t. In fact, Ruby herself never even says the word “silver” after Volume 3. At this point any explanation of the Silver Eyes is going to feel... almost too little too late. It wouldn’t feel natural anymore, since the information was held back because it would make for a better twist or some nonsense. 

3) The Squeak

I mean no offense to Lindsay Jones, she’s a capable actress and by all accounts an all-around good person. I love Kimball from Red vs Blue and Lindsays’ other appearances for Rooster Teeth have proven she has great comedic timing and dramatic chops. But that said... Ruby’s voice was awful in Volume 5.

Lindsay has always been on the record as disliking how Ruby sounded in Volume 1- too much like herself, far too old sounding for a 15 year old girl, to the point where she’d like to go back and re-dub Volume 1. I get that, especially hating how your voice sounds since I work in radio and I know that pain, and I think how Lindsay evolved the voice over Volumes 2 and 3 was a great place to keep Ruby’s voice until she grew up and went back to the Volume 1 voice. The problem is that in the above video, Lindsay evidently never stopped upping the pitch. Ruby now sounds almost like a caricature of herself and one that steadily worsens each passing volume- I’ve made my dislike of “This is my fight too!” plain as day on various occasions on Discord. I don’t want to harp too much on this, like I said I deeply respect Lindsay’s other work, but this is a list of why the fandom is cold on Ruby and unfortunately for Miss Jones... her voice is one of those reasons, however petty it may seem. If you do ever read this Lindsay:

(still gotta support Lindsay for being the only person in RT at the moment who seems to want Ruby to have a breaking point because moooooooooooooood)

4) Decreasing skill levels

More than any other character, Ruby was the one most hit on a fighting-level by Monty’s passing. In hindsight having a weapon such as a scythe was going to spell trouble for Ruby’s fight scenes- scythes are hilariously impractical weapons in real life and aren’t made for fighting. There’s a reason most farmers didn’t bring their scythes with them when they went to war and were taught the spear.

With Monty, Ruby was still given flashy choreography and her scythe’s recoil was used to make it slightly more practical in a straight fight. In the opening to Ruby vs Neo and the Red Trailer she looks lethal with the thing. 

The problem lies in how Ruby’s skills have waned since then, thanks to not only the general nerf everyone took across the board, but Ruby’s scythe took in particular. Ruby’s only seriously used her scythe once, in the V4 Character Short. Otherwise, she hasn’t gotten to cut loose in the show since then, meaning Ruby’s been reduced to running around and sniping or doing... this...

You thought I was done bitching about the weapon spinning but joke’s on you, I’m never done bitching about the weapon spinning

This has been Ruby’s fights for the past two years. In a show that prides itself on fights, Ruby’s last good fight being more than two volumes ago paints a poor picture in the eyes of many, especially in light of the Death Battle team admitting that they can’t have Ruby fight Maka from Soul Eater until Ruby gets a few more feats to be judged by (which still reads to me like “we need Ruby to do some more bullshit feats so we can BS a win for her” after the whole Yang/Tifa debacle). This also ties in with Ruby’s lack of activity in the Battle of Haven- it’s Raven, a low-rent villain, who gets the standout fight in the volume, while Ruby’s left headbutting Mercury. The protagonist of the show is left with little of the agency.

And speaking of Mercury...

5) The hand to hand “plot”

Like the Silver Eyes part I’ll keep this quick- Ruby’s hand to hand weakness, while set up in Volumes 1 and 2, still comes out of nowhere as a random flaw for her to overcome this volume and feels like a poor attempt to give her something to do during Volume 5. Her headbutting Mercury required Merc to take a massive dive in intelligence and skill, and ultimately was her only significant moment in the Haven Battle outside of getting smacked over the head. The worst part of this “arc” to me is how no one else gets anything from it- you could genuinely make an arc of each member of RNJR teaching Oscar something (Ren with Aura and CQC, Nora with strength training, Ruby with weapon repairs, etc). Why not tie in the conversation about Semblances by having Ruby train to use her speed semblance in close quarters? With her speed, Ruby would be nearly impossible to dodge in a fist-fight, or she could engage in lighting fast strikes while withdrawing before the opponent and counter.

Also while I’m offering suggestions, let me point one thing out. Ruby has a lot of leg strength. Like, a lot. Why not skip teaching her to use her hands and train Ruby in kickboxing or another leg-based martial art? Yang already has the punchy-punch category fairly locked down, so giving Ruby a kick-based style would make for more dramatic fights in future.

It would certainly have been more dynamic than this abomination that I am loathe to call “the conclusion of an arc.” 

In conclusion, Ruby as a protagonist is... flawed. She’s a character I want to like more than I do, the simple soul who knows the world is cold and dark but aspires to change it herself. But various conflicts hold her character back, most primarily the writing team’s own refusal to let her have agency by making her refuse to acknowledge her special powers or her dead mother. Add in lackluster performances fighting wise and an absolute slog of a “training arc,” and Ruby fails to stand out. Volume 5 reached the point where Ruby was an absolute blank slate of a character, content to make bland speeches about companionship at the pitch of a chipmunk addicted to helium while the mystery of her dead mother and special heritage practically slapped her in the face.

I am very much aware that over the Volume 5 hiatus, much has been said about Ruby and her lack of growth/dive in popularity. Hell I’m even linking to some at the bottom of the post as recommendations for further elaboration on my points and alternate perspectives. I know I’m at a well that has been well and truly dried of content. But with Volume 6 on the horizon I think it’s worth keeping Ruby’s agency/lack thereof in mind with the premiere looming. Ruby is a problem that the show does need to fix, especially after Volume 5 and the numerous story opportunities that were presented and never followed up on for Ruby- Weiss’s stabbing, Cinder’s return, Summer, etc. Her big character moment in the back half of Volume 5? Saying “I’m angry.” They really did pick the perfect character moment for Ruby.

Ruby has been said to take a more direct role in Volume 6, and Lindsay has implied that Ruby will finally have her breaking point this volume. If this turns out to be the case, I genuinely look forward to see Ruby regaining the charm that made her likable in the original volumes. But if all the talk about Ruby getting more focus turns out to just be hot air or fails to fix any of the cracks in her character that have been present for two volumes in a row now? I’ll be tragically disappointed, partly at the show and mostly for myself in jumping the gun in writing this. I want Ruby to be more than a glorified cheerleader in her own damn show. She’s what got people hyped back with the Red trailer. Let her be that heroine again Rooster Teeth. Ruby inspires people in the show, now let’s see her inspire hope in the fans.

Thank you for reading. 

Additional recommended sources:

[twobitmulder]

On Spider-Man, Reboots, and the Future of the X-Men

A while ago I made a post called “Thoughts on MCU Peter Parker and Reboots” which ended up being mostly an examination (or rant) on why MCU Peter doesn’t work for me and was kind of soft on the analysis of reboots. Now, with the announcement that Sony and Marvel’s Spidey deal has fallen through, I thought I’d take another crack as examining why reboots lead to less than stellar versions of characters, and why it’s got me scarred for the X-Men to join the MCU.

Now, right off the bat I feel I should say that I’m not against reboots and re-imaginings. I think The Incredible Hulk is broadly better than the Ang Lee Hulk. I think the 1999 Mummy is better than the 1932 classic. Reboots can be a radical re-imagining, a second draft, or even an examination of different facets of the character (like how Lettier’s Hulk focused more on the lonely wanderer in search of a cure, while Lee’s focused on the father issues). This works especially for long running characters who have a lot of material to work with.

I think my problem with MCU Spidey starts with the way that Sony and Marvel approached the idea of the reboot. The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield felt the need to be radically different from the Rami films. The Rami films played all the silver age comic book tropes gleefully straight. An old fashioned news room, his start in wrestling, and the campy villains. It exists in a sort of anachronism stew to borrow the TVTropes term, much like Burton’s Batman.

Webb’s films tried to find their own voice by pushing Peter back into high school and making them a little more deliberately modern. They used a more modern incarnation of Peter as opposed to the good natured Silver Age doofus that Tobey Maguire played. Garfield’s Peter is probably my favorite, and the one who feels closest to my ideal comics Peter, but that’s not really the point here. The point is, he HAD to be different otherwise people would accuse it of being the same thing over again.

So there we were with (in my opinion) someone who acted a little more like the Peter I knew growing up, who occupied a more familiar world, but we also had to gloss over his rivalry with Osborne because it had already been done. This was a criminal waste of Chris Cooper and Dane Dehaan, who were fantastic choices for those characters, but more to the point, it shows how this could not just be a second draft. It had to be different, which meant that even if it fixed some things that Raimi might not have hit the mark on, it also got rid of things that he had done right. The Osborne’s, the Bugle, and Mary Jane (well, he didn’t quite to MJ right, but the fact that she had already been used probably spurred the switch to Gwen).

Then when those flopped Peter joined the MCU. I remember reading that in my dorm room my first year of undergrad and whooping with joy. I thought about his relationship with Daredevil, who we knew was coming, and Captain America. Having Osborne be an Avengers level threat who battles Peter on the lawn of the White House while the Sinister SIx hold the Avengers at bay (Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man was the saving grace of the Ultimate Universe). Feige promised Peter would have a “non-stop wit.” It was all coming together.

Civil War came out and he seemed a little tacked on but it didn’t matter because he was there. Sure Stark gave him his suit, but he had designed the prototype and there was no way they’d make Peter the science genius dependent on Tony Stark.

“Weary sigh.”

I want to like the MCU Spider-Man so bad, Everyone else likes him. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I already went over why I don’t care for him, so I’ll skip that*. Once again, the point is, this one HAD to be different. Because he was back with Marvel we had been given the implicit promise of a fully realized comic accurate Spider-Man, fixing everything Webb and Raimi (read Sony) had gotten wrong.

The problem was that Webb and Raimi had gotten a lot right. So MCU Spidey glossed over Uncle Ben “because it had been done before.” He never clashed with Oscorpe or the Goblins “because it had already been done before.” There was no selling pictures to the Bugle “because it had already been done before”*. 

He didn’t make quips because everyone else was funny and he had to be the wide eyed kid, played younger and less mature than Garfield or Maguire. And (okay a little bit of whining from me) he had to rely on Tony Stark because we had to be reminded that now he was part of the MCU. 

The MCU Spidey got a lot right and some of their updates worked for the better. I love that Peter and May live in a small apartment instead of a house because they’re poor and New York is expensive. I like that his school feels like a real high school, with kids who basically act like kids. I like that he has a confidant (Ned Leeds was a weird choice, I’d have gone with Hobie Brown, Deb Whitman, or Kenny Kong, but I like the character anyway). I love love love their takes on Vulture and my favorite Spidey Rogue Mysterio. But, in their drive to be different from the past iterations they changed the character a little too drastically. It wasn’t a third draft to get Spider-Man right, it was a bottom up reimagining that (my opinion only) jettisoned a lot of what makes the character compelling.

Now he’s apparently gone from the future of the MCU and honestly, personally, I’m kind of relieved. I’m glad he’s indelibly a full fledged part of the MCU narrative, and he got to see the Infinity Saga through to the end, but I don’t think I could have taken another movie of Peter becoming Stark’s Robin just to be different from what came before.

This all brings us to the X-Men. I love the X-Men. I love Gambit, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Cyclops and all the rest (but them first and foremost). I love the place Mutants have in the Marvel Universe and the potential for clashes with other heroes and compelling stories to be told about the nature of marginalization and identity. The problem is, the previous X-Men movies covered those bases from a lot of different angles and my fear is that when they join the MCU they’ll be so concerned with being different that they’ll forget what makes them the X-Men*.

In the end, we still have years of comics and alternate universes, cartoons and canon that we can pick and choose from. It’s just so frustrating because we were so close to a perfect unified cinematic universe like we’d only ever dreamed of. We all have different bits of it that we wish had been done better, but I suppose the mere fact that it exists in any form is pretty damn cool.

*Except to say that, as Gail Simone so eloquently put it in an otherwise positive review of Far From Home, Holland’s Spider-Man isn’t the everyman who mocks the rich and powerful, he worships them and wants to be their friend.

*While I was happy to see the Jameson, Simmons, and the Daily Bugle return, and while I can’t deny that turning him into a lunatic pundit makes sense for the character as he’s portrayed in Spider-Man, I think that modern superhero stories have a problem with the old school journalist characters. Yes in real life print journalism isn’t what it used to be, but if we can accept superpowers, alien warlords, and good hearted billionaires surely we can accept the fantasy of a newspaper that still functions like they used to.

*I don’t have this worry for Fantastic Four (my first favorite superheroes) because while the Tim Story movies were close (and Trank’s reboot is emblematic of this whole issue on a massive scale) they haven’t been in the public consciousness and had a continued presence like Spidey and the X-Men so there’s less need to “be different” and more opportunity to actually get to the core of the FF the way they did with Captain America and Thor.

[emperorren]

(6) I guess I'm also not a fan of "Perfect Jedi Goddess Rey for whom Kylo has to crawl on his knees to be worthy of" (I can totally see why ppl like it tho), mainly because at this point, Kylo needs an equal, and not someone he'll always feel inferior too. I think the Throne Room proves that both of them still have some growing up to do in order to not only be together, but also understand each other better, bring out the best in each other, and being able to mature together in a healthy way.

Sorry, forgot to add this last part to the earlier post.

I think nobody wants Kylo to crawl. It was a popular concept like, 2-3 years ago, when Reylo shippers used to self flagellate (and flagellate Kylo) much more than we do now, half to deflect anti discourse and half because we really believed the best we could hope for was Rey not *completely* hating his guts by the end. Those days are gone. We know Kylo has his own reasons, because the narrative is showing them—it’s no longer a stretch or “reading too much into it” on our part. But the fact remains that Kylo is a villain and that, in order for this relationship to work, they’ll need to start being on the same page on something other than their mutual desire to be with each other. And I think it’s clear that, while Rey does have some growing up to do, her ethics are in the right place, while Kylo’s aren’t. It’s kind of unrealistic to expect Rey to move away from her heroic morals in the same way Kylo will have to move away from his villainous morals, so I don’t think it’s worth debating whether she should or not. 

The whole “meeting halfway” thing is still possible, especially if you consider that, so far, they’ve essentially tried to abduct each other into their world, and failed. They both need to acknowledge and accept the fact that they might never “have” the other—not in the terms they currently think would be ideal. But Kylo has objectively more things to make up for. Many of those things have nothing to do with Rey per se, but became Rey’s business the moment she started to care for him.

re: your new round of asks:

(Rey discourse anon here) The problem is that for me, it’s really hard to tell whether Rey pulling the lightsaber away from Ben was her being cornered and knowing that what she’ll do will hurt Ben deeply – and for that, all I’m going to say is that, well, no, she literally did not have to do that. Again, it makes sense that she’d react this way, but the issue is that by reacting on impulse, like Luke did so many years ago, just like he played a part in making Kylo Ren,she played a part in making the Supreme Leader. Yelling at him and making her intentions clear was entirely possible, would have resulted in a similar outcome, and she decided not to. Because reasons. (Seriously, what is Ben going to do if she replies “no” out loud, kill her? *eyeroll*) 

I’m not sure why you think yelling at him would have looked better in Kylo’s eyes, or what else Rey could have done to make her intentions clear, other than beg Kylo to stop firing on the Resistance, which she already had, loud and clear. Kylo perfectly understood what she was asking. He chose not to comply. Had his reasons. But chose to discard her plea.

Also, yes, she *literally* had to pull the saber. It’s her only weapon, and the girl needed one if she wanted to get the fuck out of the Supremacy alive. I think y’all forget she was in enemy territory, alone, unarmed, and in desperate need to get to Crait where there would probably be a huge battle within minutes. Yeah, she has the Force… but a lightsaber could help. 

And frankly, no, I don’t think being morally right gives you a right or even merely an excuse to strike right into someone’s trauma.

Rey really did not do that—not on purpose (unlike Kylo, who totally used the parents card i.e. Rey’s own trauma and repressed painful memories to convince her to accept his offer). Note that Rey never actually got to wield the saber against Kylo—all she did was try to snatch it away from him. They could have gone for a clear cut Luke/Rey parallel by having Kylo regain consciousness to see an armed Rey looming over him, conflicted on whether to kill him or not. But they didn’t. This is absolutely important—Rey could have killed Kylo as he was unconscious, but chose not to. And Kylo never got to see her seriously considering to kill him.

Her face could frankly also be interpreted as “you’re not doing as I say, so screw you!”, and since the next scene we see her in is her woo-hoo-ing on the Falcon and then getting reunited with her buddies, there’s no indication she’s really all that heart-broken. Her closing the door on Ben could be seen that way as well (although I obviously think their story isn’t over, of course). Like… I dunno, it’s hard for me to feel sorry for her.

Her face when she’s slowly lifting her hand in the throne room scene doesn’t scream of “screw you!” to me. Neither does the little gasp in the last force bond. But YMMV.

The story could have been set up as “Rey did nothing wrong and Ben better beg on his knees in IX”, but it wasn’t. Because in the end, both Rey and Ben made their own bed, which leads me to be more “GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER YOU IDIOTS”. But this said, I do believe Rey’s heart was at the right place. She was indeed the catalyst that pushed Ben to finally get rid of his abuser. But realistically speaking, what she pulled off could have gone horribly wrong as well.My point is not that following your heart is always bad – but doing that all the time isn’t exactly a good idea either. Heck, Luke’s heart was at the right place when he went to save his friends in ESB, and he got beat up and lost his hand.

It might be not “exactly a good idea” but it’s still better than the alternative. (in Luke’s case, that would have been leaving his friends to die; in Rey’s case, not attempting to do anything for Kylo at all). These heroes tend to have their heroism challenged at the end of the second movie: they learn that sometimes having the best intentions isn’t enough. It’s an important lesson in humility. But not one that teaches them to follow their hearts a little less. See: Luke in RotJ, doubling down on compassion and being ready to risk his life not only to save his friends, but to redeem his father too.

And for Rey, it’s more than being an outsider: she’s the only person who had, like, an actual human reaction to Ben’s situation and actually did something to help.(Well, so did Han, but it was indeed a case of “too little, too late”, even if it definitely had a huge effect on Ben and made him start to realize Snoke was a PoS) But where she also failed is that just like everyone else, she came to Ben with a clear agenda in mind (or you know, an agenda to convince herself she’s totally doing this for the great cause, not because she wants The Beefcake), and with wanting to be the hero so bad she lost sight of what Ben really needs – a friend.I guess one thing that kind of annoys me at this point is that, honestly, who the heck knows what Ben’s motivations are, at this point, because his speech in the Throne Room could be interpreted in many ways. But I won’t lie by saying about it that if it just boils up to “Ra-Ra-First-Order”, I’ll be bored to tears. It’s not even a matter of saying “Ben was right all along” (because he obviously isn’t), you know, just something like“Ben is right when it comes to the endgame, or the intentions, or whatever, but his methods of getting to that are terrible”. What Rey has in mind is “we’ll help the Resistance together and build a new Jedi Order”, while having no clue whether Ben really wants that or not. I mean, he’s probably already not big on the idea because Rey might think the Resistance is great and all, but he knows they won’t be so nice to him, for obvious reasons.And it’s not even a matter of ideological differences or not – heck, maybe even in the old days with Luke, he flat out didn’t want to be a Jedi. Both of them need to find an outcome that they both want – and they’re obviously not at that point yet. 

I don’t disagree with you on this last part, especially on the bolded. (See what I said earlier about meeting halfway.)  But I do have a couple objections:

I don’t think Rey was at all trying to play the hero by coming to the Supremacy. If anything, she hoped Ben could be, so she could be relieved from the burden of being the galaxy’s last hope. And yeah, Ben might be in desperate need of a friend… but so is she, and it’s not exactly easy to be the perfect friend when a war is raging and you’re on opposite sides of the conflict, ykwim? This isn’t a normal situation.

I wouldn’t really count on Kylo’s endgame being shown in a sympathetic or redeeming light. Politically, his ideas (judging from the little we know of them) are a mess. But most importantly, in politics, the “means” count just as much as the “end” does. If your plan to reduce poverty includes, say, mass incarceration and operates on a racist logic, then your plan is bad, no matter how noble your goal is. If Kylo thought the best way to create his “new order” was using a militaristic, despotic war machine whose goal is forcing the galaxy to yield to their dictatorship and raze to the ground any dissenter, then either his idea of a new order isn’t ESPECIALLY democratic in the first place, or he just doesn’t understand politics at all. He can’t simply give up on his means. He needs to give up on his intended endgame as well.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Comparing Season 6 and Season 10 - which one do you think makes more sense as a whole, which one better pulls of seeming like what happened/was revealed at the end of the season is what was supposed to happen/was planned all along?

I may be biased, but for me, season 6 by miles. And almost all of that is Edlund desperately cramming everything that had happened so far into something that either made sense or handwaved why it didn’t make sense in an effectively emotional enough episode that by the end of TMWWBK you sort of feel like you’ve actually got your answers and Cas has been completely honest and open with YOU at least, making it that much easier to handle what was going on. 

I think for me season 10 was poorly handled in ways that weren’t particularly well addressed and the only offered explanation ever was “oh it was Amara after all” which in the context of season 11 gives us some more characterisation to begin to pull things together, though without addressing everything. Still if we’re dealing with things as a whole, season 10 doesn’t have an episode that scrapes everything together in the post-Edlund era and what we get only within the confines of season 10 is extremely unsatisfactory, even if later canon eases it a little bit, along with just… not being actively in SPN season 10 as it airs :P 

Going off my memories of being in the fandom at the time, we had a lot of issues with things like 

Dean’s incomplete demon reversal (so far as in 10x02, written by Dabb who invented the cure repeating the correct steps, then in 10x03 Buckleming not following through with them)

“the river ends at the source” “never mind I was screwing with you”

Did Cain still have the Mark after 9x11? lasting drama until 10x14, and still debated afterwards especially by people who had thought he didn’t have the Mark and had passed it entirely to Dean now being very confused  

What the fuck was this about Lucifer having the Mark and how did that last minute addition affect everything? 

the Colette parallel being wildly mis-applied by fandom but also issues with the show’s fear to explore it leading to “we are all the colette” episodes with lasting drama until 10x22, where Charlie, Sam and Cas all variously and persistently seemed to be suggested to be capable of being a team effort to pull Dean out of the darkness. 10x22 also wasn’t enough to stop Dean, and the final confrontation was with Sam, I think a general consensus was - especially again with season 11′s help - that the memory of Mary drew him back/unleashed Amara metaphorically who unleashed Mary literally - it wasn’t a great note to end on without season 11 context (as a whole, so, like, a whole YEAR later) that Sam had “won” the battle to bring Dean back from himself where Cas had failed, and the subtext and show and fandom most of all had made SUCH a huge deal out of Colette, after 9x11 over-told her story instead of retelling Cain & Abel, that it was set up with the expectation that saving Dean was a romantic quest, not a brotherly one. 10x14 sort of helped set things to rights with the list, but the fighting about what it all meant at the time was AWFUL, and though I think I was right and the show bore that out and these days I type it all with confidence, I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of buried wank about it that could be dragged out if we want >.>

the fact there wasn’t really an overarcing Mark of Cain plot except “Dean is suffering” with the only 3 actual plot points they could do with it being demon!Dean, kill Cain, and remove Mark. Because of that, everything else is literally set-dressing to fill the time and add drama in between, but these were played with poorly and there wasn’t any subterfuge we weren’t in on (i.e. sam stealing the book) vs Cas betraying both the Winchesters and US. The only retcon offered in the end was Death’s exposition about the Darkness.

people literally forgetting which order episodes came out in and being very confused about why Amara wasn’t released when Dean was 14 in 10x12 even though he didn’t kill Cain for 2 more episodes (like, within weeks of 10x14 airing, I swear)

the understandable disappearance of Cole but bizarre application of that hunter called Rudy who popped up in his place and featured in 10x23 along with Cas for Dean’s guilt trip. Even if Cole and TAW sucked ass, it’s much easier to understand the emotional impact of what happened to Rudy if you assume he has the exact same backstory as Cole and the same nonsense happened to Dean twice in the same year :P 

Pre-season hype about Rowena made a huge deal out of the Grand Coven, and for a brief moment it seemed like there might be a witch plotline, including new lore dumps about different types of witches in 10x07, characters like Olivette the Hamster, etc, but they squandered her first season and 10x19 was as close as we got to any pay off to her actual storyline

Then Oskaar happened and that was like ??? Okay just introduce him in the second to last episode and throw us into that emotional situation 

the entire cure coming out of nowhere as a random last minute macguffin instead of having been anything they put together over the season - even though the book of the damned thing showed up in 10x11 it changed substantially from the clue Charlie left with (a less than 100 year old book with a library reference number found on an antique rare book website, based on a real book, which we all picked over and were left wondering if the plot was to be about some sort of occultism thing as a result) to a much different lore. Then there were a few episodes dealing with it and the codex, the actual spell had no real struggle, and Crowley delivered all the pieces while Cas stood around scowling and Rowena stood around in chains eye-rolling. Compare season 13′s pacing with Sam and Dean cobbling together what they needed from halfway through the season, and being on the mission to get to the AU from episode 9, with relatively little of the endless sitting around googling and being frustrated of past seasons but ESPECIALLY season 10 where Sam was futilely trawling the results of googling “mark of cain” from mid-late season 9 through to like, 10x18 when an actual brief plot appeared around it directly. 

I think all of it points to a problem of working forwards from where they were instead of backwards to tidy up what was left. In season 6 Edlund took as many loose plot threads, from how Sam lost his soul, what was up with Crowley and Cas, the angel war, explanations for Sam and Samuel working together, why eve happened, everything, and put it all together to explain the elements of the season so far in a new light. Despite how disastrous that season was, PRETENDING you knew like you meant to do it all along glosses over inconsistencies in Samuel’s story or Cas and Crowley’s 6x10 interactions, and makes them relatively inconsequential when most of the details add up. 

The same thing works with the Lucifer as Sam’s vessel storyline, in the sense that while Azazel’s plan is fucking ridiculous in its over-complex bizarre attempt to find a worthy true vessel that Heaven had fated, comparing season 1-2 to season 5 head on is bad, each season explains itself from the last in enough of a way and with enough knowledge of what already happened that really despite vast inconsistencies in the lore, by 5x22 we are pretty much all on board to accept the way it all played out because they use what was previously written to build up Sam’s arc, and little details thrown in towards the end like Brady and then Lucifer revealing ALL of Sam’s closer rando peeps had been demons, tidy up more and more loose ends and there’s left with plausible deniability about a lot of the issues.

In season 10 they kept on introducing elements instead of working with what they had already established, and also discarded what seemed like major plot hooks for Rowena and Cole, one annoyingly, one completely metatextually understandably and fuck TAW, I’m glad the show never brought Cole back as soon as rumours of him groping fans appeared, and it makes me genuinely trust that the SPN set is a safe place. But yeah. 

Things they set up and could have worked with, were the Cas’s grace arc, which was resolved to a small personal satisfaction to Cas without any major plot impact except we could stop worrying about when Cas would get sick and die from bad grace, or steal more. 

The demon!Dean issue was bad writing from Buckleming re: was he still a demon or not, but given Dean was supposed to be struggling with succumbing to darkness the season actually kept him almost completely level without any significant relapses, even after killing Cain. The sense of needing a functional Dean Winchester to keep hunting monsters and prop up the show as both the carrier of the mytharc, the emotional core, and the go-between between Sam and Cas even when the show was trying to figure out if Sam and Cas could function without Dean, it was all still so much about Dean that in 10x21 when they’re doing the cringeworthy “for Dean” thing and Rowena rolls her eyes like “I barely know the man”, I was actually applauding Buckleming snark thinking they maybe briefly had a handle on how ridiculous Dean’s position in the narrative was. (Listen, this was the last 10 minutes of my innocence about how awful Buckleming could be, leave past!me alone. She’s sweet and precious and not bitter :P) In any case, a more effective season would have utilised him more to slip and slide between light and dark and explore it in much deeper detail, but balancing that with a procedural formula doesn’t work as well and they were lacking enough philosophers on staff. I think the Dabb era writing team could handle it, because Yockey, Perez, and Glynn especially, who seems to have a psychology background based on her writing, all have a sharp attention to the exact things in emotional arcs that would have made it work better, even just as it was. Since this was a weaker writing team where Robbie, Bobo and Dabb episodes were little islands of excellence and the motw were fun but more shallow even with strong foreshadowing themes, it just didn’t pay off. 

I think the biggest waste of time was “the river ends at the source” which was either Buckleming trying to introduce a concept and hoping someone else dealt with it, or an agreed plot hook which never materialised, or Metatron literally spoke the truth, that the line had only ever been written to mess with us. However 10x23 could have actually included more of a “river ends at the source” sort of slant and had Death confirm it in so many words because Amara really did sort of seem to be the answer to the question. In 10x10 it seemed like they knew where the season was going, but by 10x17 it was obvious they DIDN’T, and it was during 10x18 that the plot actually got hashed out and Robbie was handed heavy revisions to make to change the Stynes to end of season villains and the Book of the Damned was going to be used how it was. I think this is really weak plotting, as someone who always puts in fun lines and then attempts like crazy to pay off on them. My first novel has the line “you can’t talk to me yet” and I play through that the whole book until they CAN talk and make it a major motif, goal and in the end try to explain it as best I can about how it’s all plot relevant and why using that for tension to put off the explanations and such was a valid thing to throw at my main character, and then the springboard to more adventure when she was ready for it. I literally do not understand putting a portentous line into your story, and not becoming desperately eager to answer it or twist something into revealing how it all fits at the end, if not basing your entire story off of it. Sam and Dean seemed wildly uncurious about how to apply that or what it means. 

In season 6 one of the more frustrating things is the “it’s all about the souls” line because Dean fails to investigate until someone or other rolls their eyes and makes it all clear to him. But we get a few more reminders in Cas’s presence, until we find out his plan, and Crowley repeats that line in 6x20 when making his sales pitch to Cas, if I’m remembering rightly (I hope so :/) and so despite Dean’s infuriating lack of investigation (not that he had a great deal of leads, but still - you could build a plot around it by GIVING him a lead, he’s the fictional character and you’re the writer :P) at the very least they repeat the motif in at least 6x17 and 6x20 to my memory, before the souls thing becomes a lot more obvious about Cas taking the purgatory souls and we’re allowed to actually discuss what he’s up to instead of the vague hints Atropos and Rachel give that they know his plans. 6x07 also hints early on that Purgatory is full of monster souls if you add it all up - the writers knew they were doing SOMETHING with this even if it took to the end of the season for it to all come together. (And that’s something that’s clearly and overarcing plot that Gamble oversaw because she wrote 6x11 and the line then appears in multiple episodes around the place, so that’s not just something Edlund tidied up but an actual effort to write the season well.)

Throwing aside the “river ends at the source” line is wildly frustrating because it wouldn’t have been too hard to apply it thematically and even keep Metatron being a douche while giving the viewer a pay off anyway for our own satisfaction, by showing it had been a theme all along anyway. You CAN squint at season 10 and analyse it through that lens but it’s exhausting when the show doesn’t give us the themes on a platter. It also shows that the plotting is careless and they’re experimenting, and rather than working with what they have, this is in a path of episodes where they’re discarding some plotlines, and we’re beginning to have end of season plotlines hastily pasted onto the end of the season, but they make very little of any of the work already done to build up the season as we’d seen it so far.

Add onto that Charlie being murdered for manpain to motivate some things into action and all the random elements being used, and the sense that Crowley, Cas and Rowena all abruptly ran out of a plotline that had been intended to utilise them and put on a side character duty away from Sam and Dean, the season is extremely messily and carelessly written, and without any real attention to detail to its own themes and characters and plotlines. Even if they’d gone into the season not particularly expecting where to go, they brought a lot to the table early on but then quickly wiped a lot of it off, and brought a lot more stuff to the table instead, which makes season 10 a really wonky, unfinished feeling product as a thing on its own, and the overall story is scrappy and carelessly plotted.

And that is speaking just about the easy plot stuff without getting into the absolute mess of speculation from the Destiel side of fandom wondering wtf was going on with the seeming build up to crypt scenes, colette, the grace cure, etc, that made up the bulk of the speculation but makes actually analysing expectations vs presented product completely impossible to evaluate on that side of things because as always Destiel speculation really overshoots what is expected and was really running wild at that point. I mean, not being judgemental because that was the year I was right in the thick of it. 3 years clear of it now, some of it seems really silly, but those 3 things all seemed clearly built up to our eyes, and we got the reverse crypt scene we’d been expecting since before the season started, and we got the Colette reference which slotted Cas firmly into place as a reminder of how Cain’s peeps lined up against Dean’s, as well as Cas asking Dean to stop, which satisfied the terms and conditions of Dean resisting walking in Cain’s footsteps with the overall set up of the scene. With the way Cas got his grace back and then some other rando cure popped up where Rowena of all people made the sacrifice, I really can’t help feeling like the conspiracy theorist who knows they were right but with the way it all shook out, only people who knew the conspiracy would understand how it didn’t happen and it’s very hard for me to look at that and say that some non-Cas-related cure was coming all along, given the conspicuous dropping of one plotline sort of day of picking up the next >.> But I’ll cede that from my position I might be a bit compromised on that one. 

Anyways. To me season 10 is a disaster that only season 11 really justifies, while season 6 has some truly low points but in the end the actual writing skill hauls it through so that it creates the illusion that there was consistency, if you ignore everything outside of the text suggesting it may have been as poorly planned as season 10. Planning isn’t everything - it’s what you do when confronted with the unplanned wire tangle in front of you that really marks how well they were written, and just shoving it under the table and putting a new wire tangle down vs actually unpicking it and making them as neat as possible? Gamble slam dunks Carver :P

[genderonthescreen-blog]

The Problematic Love Interest: No Means Yes?

What do TV and film teach us about love? Well, they teach us that romantic love is very important, that the grand gestures are everything, that true love’s kiss will always break the spell, and, oh yeah, when someone says “no” they really mean “yes.” The lack of consent in movies and TV shows, in scenes that are supposed to be romantic, is shocking. Time and time again I will come across a show or film that looks promising, it usually is, and I am enjoying the film or show. That is before I am shown a scene that is so obviously sexual assault, yet, it is shown as seductive, or romantic, or even funny.

Last summer I watched the movie Blade Runner (1982) for the first time. As an avid fan of Star Wars, I spent most of my pre-teen years drooling over Han Solo (Harrison Ford)—as well as the swashbuckling archaeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones (also Ford). So after re-watching the Star Wars films I was suffering from a Harrison Ford withdrawal, so I decided it was time to check out, supposedly, the next best “Ford Sci-fi Flick”: Blade Runner. Now, in my own personal and unimportant opinion, I don’t think Blade Runner is a very good movie. However, I think it would’ve been much better in my eyes if it weren’t for the rape scene that happens about halfway through the film. In the scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjO8wsjPqbg), the lead character, Rick Deckard, just told his “love interest”, Rachael (Sean Young), that she is an android (the beings the Deckard is supposed to be hunting and killing) and that her human memories are fake. In her moment of distress Deckard makes a move on her. However, she doesn’t respond. She moves away when he tries to kiss her again and quickly gets up to leave his apartment. Deckard becomes angry. He storms in front of her, blocking the path between her and the door, before he grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her up against the window on the opposite end of the room. He proceeds to force a kiss on her and then tells her to to say to him “Kiss me” and then, after she complies, he tells her to say “I want you” to him. In doing this, Deckard forces her to give him “consent”, thus making the whole assault her fault. Its a disgusting scene that made me wonder: “Why I am supposed to be rooting for this main character?” But honestly the worst part about it is that it’s filmed as a seduction. The music swells as Deckard kisses Rachael, telling the audience that this is a romantic and sensual moment. What it really does, however, is perpetuate the falsehood that when a woman says “no” (either with her words or her body language) she really means “yes.”

These kinds of scenes are very prevalent in older films. The John Hughes classic Sixteen Candles (1984) is chalk full of dubious consent. In one scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmf_sT_IcMc&t=125s), the love interest, Jake (Michael Schoeffling), of the main character, Samantha (Molly Ringwald)—who’s supposed to be a sensitive jock; he just wants a nice girl to love him—hands his current girlfriend, a very drunk Caroline (Haviland Morris), off to Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) in exchange for a pair of Sam’s underwear. In the kitchen when the two boys are talking about this plan, Jake delivers the infamous line: “I can get a piece of ass anytime I want. Shit, I’ve got Caroline in my bedroom now passed out cold. I could violate her ten different ways if I wanted to.” This line is the precursor to Jake saying how he wants a nice girl who doesn’t party. Honestly, how is he the romantic male lead in this movie and not the predatory creep! Later in the film it is implied that Caroline and Farmer Ted have sex, to which Caroline is very okay with, despite the fact she was totally drunk throughout the whole ordeal (thus, unable to consent), and was also tricked by her boyfriend into thinking that Farmer Ted was her boyfriend, Jake. This perpetuates that same stereotype seen in Blade Runner: “no” means “yes.”

An argument can be made that “These movies are from the eighties! They’re just a product of the times!” And, while Sixteen Candles especially is a product of it’s time, that doesn’t mean this kind of portrayal of “romance” is gone from TV and cinema today. In fact, it’s unfortunately alive and well.

Take the relationship between Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) from the HBO show Game of Thrones. Daenerys is basically sold into marriage to Drogo by her brother, and proceeds to get raped by her husband multiple times during the beginning of their relationship. However, by the time Khal Drogo makes his exit from the show (SPOILER ALERT! He dies) the two are in love. All is forgiven, and Daenerys is heartbroken by the loss of her husband. This kind of forgiveness of sexual predators in a TV show is quite common. The character Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), from the classic 2000s show Gossip Girl, forces himself on two different characters during the first season, but all is forgotten barely a few episodes later, and he just becomes an annoying antagonist—and by the end of the series, he’s a dashing love interest!

I hate to say it, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer (one of my favorite TV shows of all time) is another example of this kind of forgetfulness when it comes to sexual assault in TV shows. In the episode “Seeing Red” from season six, there is a scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGWhEgjdLeM ) where the vampire, Spike (James Marsters), attempts to rape Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar). These are two characters have been in an “on again, off again” sexual relationship for most of the season. However, Spike has fallen in love with Buffy, and she has not fallen for him. In an attempt to get her to love him back, Spike decides to force himself on her. After a bit of a struggle—where Spike tries to pull off her robe and tackles her to the ground—Buffy kicks him off of her before anything happens, but the damage is done. The problem is Spike still stays a fan favorite on the show and he is very easily redeemed (he gets a soul so all is well!). He is also not only redeemed in the eyes of the viewer, but also in the eyes of Buffy, the victim of his abuse—who, in the next season, actually falls in love with him. These are all classic examples of the actions of a male character, who is a sexual abuser/assaulter, getting forgotten or easily forgiven as the show progresses.

Modern movies still have problems with consent, too. A recent Netflix release titled Sierra Burgess is a Loser (2018) is an example of dubious consent passed off as a sweet romance. The basic plot of this teen romance movie is: a teenage girl, named Sierra (Shannon Purser), cat-fishes this teenage boy, Jamey (Noah Centineo), because she is too insecure to tell him who she really is. Sierra does this with the help of the popular girl from her high school, Veronica (Kristine Froseth), who is the person Jamey thinks he is texting/talking on the phone with. This movie has a LOT of problems, but what I thought the most disturbing part was a scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMdjN-sIxw4) where Veronica goes on a date with Jamey as Sierra. Sierra follows the two around on their “date” and texts Veronica instructions on how to act so Jamey doesn’t think something’s up. Towards the end of the evening, Jamey and Veronica are leaning on the hood of his car—Sierra is hiding underneath the car, spying on the two of them—and Jamey leans in for a kiss. Veronica stops him and tells him to close his eyes first before she gestures for Sierra to come out and kiss Jamey herself, and she does. It’s super weird and uncomfortable to watch because this teenage boy is being kissed by someone he’s never met, and without his consent. But, all the while, the music swells, telling the audience that this is a romantic moment. A lot of people were complaining about this movie—like I said, it had many issues (making fun of deaf people, and some off comments about the LGBT community)—but I wish more people were talking about this scene. If the roles were reversed and Jamey was a girl being kissed by this boy who was cat-fishing her, people would be up in arms (because that literally sounds like it was taken out of Sixteen Candles!). But, because Jamey is a boy, people aren’t as upset about this scene.

The movie Wedding Crashers (2005) is a comedy about two guys who have a hobby of (you guessed it) crashing weddings. It’s a very funny movie that I have thoroughly enjoyed. However, this movie makes many jokes about men who have been sexually assaulted—thus, perpetuating the stereotype that men can’t be sexually assaulted because they always want to have sex. There are several scenes that depict sexual coercion and even a scene that could be considered rape! In this scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_r1zDwdmSg&has_verified=1), Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) wakes up tied to his bed with a naked Gloria (Isla Fisher), the woman that he’s been sleeping with, sitting on top of him. He begins to ask her what is going on, and she tells him she thinks what’s wrong with their relationship is that they aren’t being adventurous enough. Jeremy tries to protest, but Gloria quickly “shushes” him before shoving a sock into his mouth and covering it with duct tape before the camera cuts away. This scene is depicted as funny, as are all of the other sexual assault scenes in this movie. In the next scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6fLskrvsRA also depicted as funny), Jeremy tells his friend, John (Owen Wilson), about what happened to him. Unfortunately, Jeremy is semi-ignored by his friend, who brushes off his complaints and proceeds to go on about the woman he has feelings for. When Jeremy says he wants to leave the house they are staying at and go home, John guilt-trips him into staying (no bro left behind). Later in the film Gloria and Jeremy actually end up getting married! Throughout the film, these scenes are played off as funny, because it’s a man getting sexually assaulted and not a woman. Once again I ask you to switch the roles and pretend that Jeremy is a woman and Gloria is a man. Would people still be laughing if that was the case?

Sexual assault and consent is a serious issue. With the “Time’s Up” and #Metoo movement taking the internet by storm, and so many actresses and actors (and people in general!) coming forward about the sexual assault and mistreatment they experienced in their industry, there is a lot to consider. But the fact that films and TV are still allowing sexual coercion, assault, harassment, and rape to be shot as funny, romantic, sensual, or easily forgiven is sending people the message that sexual assault isn’t a big deal—thus, adding to the problem. This notion is not only wrong, but also dangerous. It is teaching people (especially young people) that consent isn’t important. Future writers, directors, producers, and anyone else involved in making films and TV need to step up to the plate and use their platform to enforce the importance of consent, instead of disregarding it.

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Check out these cool sources!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWoP8VpbpYI

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/when-pop-culture-sells-dangerous-myths-about-romance/549749/

http://shrcc.org/get-the-facts/what-is-consent/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4062022/

How about this cooler bibliography!

https://vimeo.com/194215274

https://books.google.com/books?id=Kq4-DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=consent+in+films&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNvOrYl5nfAhVws1kKHaiCDBUQuwUIOzAD#v=onepage&q=consent%20in%20films&f=false

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/12/05/why-the-last-tango-in-paris-rape-scene-is-generating-such-an-outcry-now/?utm_term=.5b8a35fad57e

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-469646/I-felt-raped-Brando.html