lunarcavalier - Tumblr blog

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Dw guys he's just stimming.

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Marc: I can't believe you live in this frickin' mess

Steven, who DIDN'T PICK OUT THE APARTMENT, who literally does NOT have the time nor energy nor MONEY to fix up the place, who probably isn't the reason the kitchen table is jury rigged and on a tilt, who is just managing to keep his goldfish alive, who wouldn't have sand and tape everywhere if he weren't being hijacked at night for secret quests: oh I'm sorry we can't all be weird military washouts who live in a tidy little storage locker because all the rest of our stuff is actually stored at MY place and the only thing you had to stash there was a cot and your bag full of crimes.

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Somebody is watching...

Open for zoom ins:

This month's illustration:)

I tried to practice some perspective and background for this one. And also since it's october it felt right that the piece had some lowkey spooky thing going on?

Idk, I always liked those vibes from episode 1 so that inspired this:)

This piece was posted early on my Patreon! Consider checking it out for future artworks❤

I'll be adding this to INPRNT soon!

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Avengers Unlimited: Infinity Comic #64 - "A Systemic Approach II" (2023)

written by Mat Groom art by Caio Majado & Pete Pantazis

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a system from a system

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First of a short series of follow-up gags to Moon Knight Annual (2022).

Marc has gotten therapy, but not "stop trying to appeal to people by making extravagant promises you'll never be able to fulfill" levels of therapy! Luckily, Marlene's been around for enough of his publication history that she knows this pattern by now.

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I was trying to explain who Oscar Isaac is to my mom for the zillionth time the other day bc i really want to go see him in the play he’s in on Broadway rn before it closes (go check it out, it’s called The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and he’s in it with Rachel Brosnahan of Marvelous Mrs. Maizel) and i was pulling up photos of him on google images and i found one from Moon Knight of him as Steven, and then i was like “ok so that’s Steven, wait, now i need to find a photo of Marc and a photo of Jake” as if they’re not all played by the same guy with the same face. But they don’t feel like the same guy, which is obviously the point and what makes him such a good actor, you can look at a photo of him from that show and instantly know which character he’s playing. I’m still incensed that he didn’t even get nominated for any awards, much less win any, for Moon Knight, he played three different people! In one show!

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I’m rewatching Moon Knight while I’m cleaning the house bc cleaning the house sucks and I’m trying to keep it ✨fun✨ but ANYWAY I wanna talk about this scene real quick

Because this is the sneakiest little bit of forshadowing/plot clues I have EVER seen and I fucking love it

‘Worm’ is Khonshu’s lil nickname for Steven, for lack of a better term, so you would assume that Khonshu’s speaking to Steven here. He does, after all, call Steven ‘worm’ 95% of the time from here on out.

However.

This is the first time Steven and Khonshu have ever interacted. Steven, up until this point, has never had anything to do with the Moon Knight side of the business. And yet Khonshu reacts to Steven’s sudden appearance like it’s happened before. “Go back to sleep” has a very this is not for you to take care of kind of vibe. It’s not a dismissal. It’s a go back to sleep and I’ll talk to you later.

And then Khonshu immediately follows up with this.

And he says it in a panicked and frazzled sort of tone. Khonshu sounds worried here. Which I find a little odd, since Marc has always been easily able to take back the body from Steven—up until this point at least. Steven has never been a concern for Khonshu because he knows and, for the most part, trusts Marc to keep Steven out of it. And Marc has largely been successful with that. Steven’s appearance here should be no different, and, at the end, for all of Steven’s reappearances, it wasn’t different. Marc took the body back and Marc handled it like he always does. There was no need for Khonshu to be worried.

But then Khonshu says this.

Which I think is a very interesting choice of words.

“Surrender the body” is nowhere near as harsh of a language as Khonshu usually uses with Steven. It’s a command, sure, but it’s also an ask. Surrendering is a voluntary action. And the language Khonshu uses with Steven is never like that. It’s demanding. It’s commands. It’s threats. Khonshu wants Steven gone and he’s not shy about letting Steven know.

We see it right here

He also, if I may point out, calls Steven ‘parasite’ here. Not ‘worm’. ‘Worm’ does not come into play until after this, almost like Khonshu’s trying to cover up a slip up of words.

But anyway.

For as worried as Khonshu sounds here, there is no hesitation when he says “you’re not supposed to be here.” There is no hesitation when he says “surrender the body to Marc” It is instant and it’s direct and he knows exactly who he’s speaking to.

Except he doesn’t.

The idiot’s in control.

Not the worm.

This is when Khonshu realizes who he’s talking to.

This when when Khonshu realizes he’s talking to Steven and not who he thought he was talking to.

And we know Khonshu’s not talking to Marc, so who else could he be talking to? Who would Khonshu know about, who would be able to easily take the body from Marc and keep it, who Khonshu would have interacted with before and would have been panicked and worried about showing up unannounced because he’s not supposed to be there?

Khonshu thought he was speaking to Jake Lockley.

Not Steven.

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Tiptapricot again! I’m not the best for giving recs and info on the comics, but can give some trigger warnings on the show and two of the runs I’ve read! This will all b below cut as it’s as in depth as I can do off the top of my head.

This is a long post, but I’ve tried to make it as informative as possible. It lists some heavy stuff! MK fans are welcome to let me know if there’s things they think I should add, and though I say in the post, anyone is welcome to shoot me an ask about specific triggers! There also may be some typos haha so excuse those.

Without further ado, let’s get into it :-)

First up!

The Lemire Run, 2016

This may not be the best run to jump onto as it has a pre-established cast and is highly referential to past MK work, but it was also the first one I read and I still really enjoyed it! As long as you have a general knowledge of the characters from like a quick wiki read, you should be good.

Warnings for: Medical unreality, unreality, psych ward setting, gaslighting, abusive nurses/orderlies and doctors, shock therapy, drugging, death of friends, warped reality, manipulative Khonshu (the god they work for), further unreality/blending of realities between different headmates, mis-naming, car crashes/ship crashes, death of friends again, arrest/police interrogation, institutionalization as a child though not shown graphically, off-page death of father, internalized ableism/belief that to be normal you must not be a system, invalidation of headmates by another headmate, apparent though not actual alter death (they come back triumphantly, they are all ok), talk of brain and mental space/being “broken” as a form of manipulation.

This is the one I sent a propaganda post in about also! It was one of the first really major positive MK explorations (not the first, the 80s run and a handful of others actually have some real good stuff) and while it still has some funky parts, is a really gorgeous and awesome look at them, and again, has one of my favorite characters!

Second!

The MacKay run, 2021

This one’s the currently ongoing comic run! And while there’s less warnings it should be mentioned that since it’s ongoing, my list may become out of date somewhat soon, esp since issue 25 is apparently going to be 70 pages. But it’s a good time to hop on and join!

Warnings include: general monsters and fighting of them, self hate, internalized ableism and force-fronting by Marc/him being frontstuck for a lot of it, regular therapy sessions with Marc and his therapist that, although not manipulative or toxic or abusive like in other runs, are coerced by the avengers due to a previous run where the system basically took stuff over and took down the avengers for Khonshu (this run is referenced a lot), temporary death of main, discussion of gods, faith, and general theology, vomit in the issue 17 fight, racism/cultural appropriation by the character Jack Russel in the annual, forced switch by an outside partner in the annual.

There’s also a general blanket thing that, while MacKay is doing good at a lot, and issues 14/15 specifically have some really good system conversations facilitated by him working with a system for them, he is still not including Steven and Jake as much as he should, and stuff can feel unbalanced/that he’s forgetting about their systemhood sometimes. It’s overall a very solid run so far, but that’s good to be aware of!

And lastly but not leastly!

Moon Knight, 2022 show

The show is 6 episodes long and on Disney+ or u can pirate it (which. Is what I do haha) and these are what I can think of for warnings.

Best to skim beforehand and then peek at each chunk for each ep as you go. Id be able to give times if I was live watching with someone but I hope these cover stuff generally ok, and you can also look up specific stuff if you need, or send me an ask if you watch about a specific moment and I can find the time stamp! My inbox is always open :-)

Disclaimer that the show also has a lot of levity and comedy and calmer moments within everything I’m going to list. These are just the triggers, and since it is a heavy show it will seem dense, but it’s not just hell all the way through.

Ep 1, The Goldfish Problem—At the very beginning there is a scene where glass is put in shoes and stepped on, there is no blood or pain reaction or visuals of the skin, but that is a constant presence in the background for the whole show as the main antagonist is a cult leader who uses it for self flagellation. Lot of sudden and discombobulating switches accompanied by minor flashing, confusion and paranoia as it involves the beginning of system discovery by a headmate who has no idea what’s going on, a generally eerie vibe involving a large bird headed skeleton creature (Khonshu) popping up, voices from indeterminant origin/people seen in mirrors, scene in the mountains involves seeing the cult, and ideas of good and bad and predestined morality, car chase involving car crashes, guns and blood but not really gore or any especially violent ways of taking out bad guys, missing an important event due to amnesia and lost time, apparent stalking by cult and unreliable coworkers, mild panic attack.

Episode 2, Summon The Suit—More of eerie vibe from first ep and more of big bird man and some flashing, uncomfortable firing from job for perceived mental health reasons, headmates arguing, headmate freaking out and jumping to internalized ableism, person who knows one headmate but not ab the system being confused and frustrated/believing the one fronting is putting on an act, police arrest/kidnapping, more of the cult, discussion of eugenics ideology from cult, panic attacks, one use of the word “Psycho” during a joke, headmates arguing worse and lashing out at each other, manipulation by Khonshu, brief use of alcohol in an obviously unhappy state as coping.

Episode 3, The Friendly Type—Sudden and abrupt switches, coming to mid fight/after an adversary has been killed, confusion, non-graphic suicide as form of escape from protags (falling off cliff, body not shown in detail or close up at all), very intense trial scene involving possession by a god, and weaponized ableism and personality language against mains from antag, both demonizing and infantilizing them, somewhat of a breakdown/lashing out from main because of it, another fight at rich guys place involving guns and knives, as well as choking, and impaling of mains, but impalement has no blood or gore shown, the poles r kinda just through them and they’re alright, some more possible flashing triggers at end with sky scene though more mild.

Episode 4, The Tomb—Headmates arguing/tension, choice to pursue relationship action without direct discussion about it, sounds of dissection of human by a monster (dissection is blurred in background and not shown in detail), scary undead creatures coming out of the dark and fighting with a main, emotional manipulation by cult leader, argument with a partner causing a forced switch, intense guilt and mention of believing one should’ve died, main character death, and at very end and also big one for next ep: unreality, medical unreality, psych ward setting, drugging and restraint of patient, gaslighting, feeling like an “it was all a dream” twist (which is proven to be false, the psych ward here is not real and is a construct of the afterlife, but it is a big scare and can be triggering).

Episode 5, Asylum (biggest ones here and very intense episode)—More of same medical unreality and gaslighting by a doctor, on screen drugging of patient/mains with a syringe, forced trauma memory exploration involving static dead bodies, passive suicidal ideation, off screen drowning, off screen sibling/child death, intense verbal abuse from mother, passive father, alcoholic abusive parent, guilty flashback to older Marc the night Khonshu contacted him which involves an attempted suicide (gun put against chin) and manipulation, headmate hitting their head rapidly during a breakdown, physical abuse from parent with belt (action not shown on screen but build up is and there is briefly audio of impacts), headmates arguing, internalized ableism, discovery of being an introject and negative thoughts about “realness” and self as a result, emotionally abusive doctor, parental/abuser death, alcoholism by main, breakdown at funeral, hitting of kippah on ground during breakdown, intense switch in time of distress, apparent alter death (not permanent but is not resolved in this episode).

IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY ME TO WATCH EPISODES 5 AND 6 IN THE SAME SITTING OR CLOSE TOGETHER. 5 is really fucking intense, and even while being very well done, it can really fuck up your brain and mental space. Episode 6 is a huge balm onto that and makes me cry every time because of it.

Episode 6, Gods and Monsters—Cult carrying out goals, intense grief from living main, dead bodies talking, brief possession by a god, guilt tripping and trauma leveraging by antag onto mains, sudden switch, brief return of psych ward setting (though in a context of triumphing over it/proving it to be a construct), after credits scene involves abduction of antag from a care facility, and murder.

Also general note that the show is really complicated and nuanced in its rep. It has a lot that’s really good but they also made some mistakes. The term DID/Dissociative Identity Disorder is not said on screen, for example, largely because the system themselves don’t know what’s going on/are dealing with a lot of internalized ableism, however it was still a choice by the writers. Some cast and crew members have also said not great things in interviews, but on the flip side, a lot of them have shown they really care.

Oscar Isaac specifically did a whole lot of research for his roles, and has been very respectful and awesome in interviews and in his pushing for the characters to be given the best they can. There’s a lot of discussion to have around all of it, and a lot they can improve in a season 2 if/when we get it, but it’s still a really complex and empathetic exploration of the system in general.

But also, it may not be for everyone!

I’m a singlet, and I’ve talked and discussed stuff a lot with the groups I’m in including systems in fandom, and there’s a lot in it people connect to, but it also may not be the type of show others want to watch and that’s ok. Rep is so nuanced and complicated especially with something so stigmatized, every step forward doing its best but not always nailing it, that everyone will have their varying relationships to it, and what works for some may not be good for others.

But yeah! I love moon knight a lot, and all of the things recommended here while none are perfect each do really amazing things with their stories, art, and explorations. I hope this can help some people interested in checking them out do so in an informed and safe way. My inbox is open if anyone has questions, and I can also point to some other really cool people in the community for specific discussions, recommendations, and more!

Hope you all have an epic and wonderful day! Good job on a swaggy bracket :-D

(ID in ALT)

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Thinking about how Harrow let out 2 shots to kill the moonboys. Symbolically killing marc and steven,,,not jake though. Yet it ends up being precisely our man Jake Lockley who takes revenge on Harrow for Marc and Steven. Bc no one messes with his boys<333

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The Goldfish Problem & Text Posts

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I miss moon knight

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Sometimes I look how Tumblr fandom has interpreted Steven Grant and wonder if we watched the same show.

It is frustrating how so many people take Steven’s kindness and his pacifism and his quite frankly autistic coded traits and use it to baby-fy him.  As if kindness and pacifism can’t be grown man traits.  As if people with autism are inherently not true grown up people.

The fandom from what I can see leans heavy on the idea that Steven needs protection, that Marc (or Layla or Jake or OMG Khonshu of all people) need to take care and protect him.

And I reject that.  Or, at least, I don’t think Steven needs to rely on others more than is typical for any person.  As part of a system, Steven does rely on Marc to some degree, but people acknowledge that without acknowledging that Marc relies on Steven just as much.  They don’t acknowledge that Steven has strengths that Marc lacks - the ability to form healthy boundaries and communicate well and honestly with others.  As Moon Knight, or rather Mr. Knight, Steven’s more observant, perceptive, more able to use a depth of knowledge to help with the mission (come’on Marc, you’re the avatar of a Egyptian god so may pick up a book and learn some Egyptian mythology). 

Side note - I do love that Steven clearly has autism and thus we need to reason that Marc and Jake do as well BUT is the least gullible of the two.  Khonshu simply can’t manipulate Steven.  I think Khonshu always knew this.  That was the real reason Marc’s deal with Khonshu included Steven not interfering.  It wasn’t because Steven wasn’t a fighter, clearly he was able to pick that up.  It was because Khonshu knew that he couldn’t pull that manipulative abuse with Steven.  I think this is why Khonshu made a purposeful effort to scare the shit out of Steven when Steven started to perceive him.

Any rate, I feel that Steven’s strengths are woefully overlooked in a fandom that seems largely intent on baby-fying him and it’s frustrating.

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Why can’t the Marvel writing and editing staff invest in a copy of the DSM that isn’t 30 years out of date? We haven’t used that terminology since the last days of the DSM-III in 1993.

In the intervening years, there have been the DSM-IV, the DSM-IV-TR, the DSM-5, the DSM-5-TR, and any of these would provide the correct language to refer to a system. There is no reason anyone should be classifying DID as a personality disorder, or using the word “personalities” to describe alters.

I shudder to think what will happen once Jed MacKay stops writing for Moon Knight if this is the “quality” of writing that Marvel throws at a marginalized community.

Yikes, Marvel. I know y’all don’t care, but could you do the bare minimum? At the very least, put a restraining order on writer Danny Lore and keep him 100 meters away from Moon Knight at all times!

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