#{especially since the dr is known to not be racist TOWARDS HUMANS NO MATTER WHAT LIKE ITS WEAK. EXCUSE}

[thebadtimewolf]

.

[sineala]

Is 616 Tony a Democrat or Republican or neither? I’ve seen posts comparing him to Trump (barf!)

Wow. Geez. You don't ask easy questions, do you, anon?

First off, I am going to assume that whoever was comparing 616 Tony to Trump was trying to slander Tony. And I will tell you that we do in fact have 616 Tony's canonical opinion of Trump -- yes, Donald Trump exists on Earth-616 and has been referenced in several comics -- and he doesn't seem to like him much. I mean, this is back when Trump was primarily being known for being a New York businessman. They canonically ran in the same circles and Tony canonically knows him. He doesn't like him.

Here's Tony in Iron Man v1 #227 complaining that Trump bought him out of a building:

And here's Tony again in Iron Man v3 #37 being not especially thrilled when he thinks that the person he is about to meet is Trump:

(The person he is actually meeting is Tiberius Stone, which is also a very bad idea.)

I am also going to point out that due to the way Marvel likes to handle politics in its comics, I don't think we can say anything about the canonical political affiliation of most characters, because Marvel deliberately leaves that undefined. So to the best of my knowledge, we don't have a canonical statement about Tony's political affiliation and we probably won't ever get one.

But we can speculate based on canonical evidence, can't we?

My very long answer is under the Read More.

Your question is sort of framed as "tell me if Tony is a good or a bad person," and I would like to suggest that this is not really a useful framing for several reasons: (1) what the political parties currently stand for is pretty recent, actually, and Tony as a character predates a lot of the modern conceptions of the two parties; (2) the history of the Democratic Party specifically in New York, where Tony is from, is, let's just say, not 100% pure and unproblematic; and (3), when we're talking about someone with the amount of money, connections, and influence that Tony has, party affiliation generally doesn't mean the same thing it would mean for us ordinary mortals. What I mean by that last point is that there is a big, big difference between every one of the following list of statements: "I would vote for Republicans," "I am a registered Republican," "I would give very large amounts of money to Republicans," and "I would accept a political appointment in a Republican administration." For most of us, the last two of those points aren't ever going to be something that comes up in our lives, but they are going to be things that matter very much for someone like Tony Stark. And we have a canonical answer for at least one of those things. We can theorize about at least some of the rest of them.

I'm saying all that because I suspect you're really not going to like my answer.

I think that there is a very, very high chance that 616 Tony is a Republican.

I mean, I don't think he'd be a Republican right now at this exact moment in time, are you kidding me, but I feel like he has definitely been a Republican at some point in the past. Say, before Trump. One of those socially-liberal fiscally-conservative types. With a conscience. Sort of like Mitt Romney. Picture the kind of Republican Massachusetts likes to keep electing as their governor.

Yes, is possible that, since Tony is from New York, he's a lifelong Democrat. It is definitely possible. New York is heavily Democratic in our world, and barring contradictory evidence, that is probably also the case on Earth-616. But I think that, specifically because of the rest of Tony's background and the ways that Tony has interacted with the world of politics in 616, he is most likely to be a Republican. It doesn't mean he couldn't be a Democrat! I have no proof either way! In terms of several elements of his characterization -- say, his commitment to social justice and fighting inequity -- I would say he definitely leans Democrat, because these days that sort of thing is mostly the province of the Democrats, although I suspect that back when Tony was created it wouldn't have been out of character for a lot of Republicans. I'm just saying that Republican seems more likely. If you gotta pick one. I think you could definitely argue for either. He doesn't fit completely into either but his canon interactions with politics push me toward thinking he's a Republican, because he does several specific things that I think it would be unlikely that anyone other than a Republican would be given the opportunity to do at the specific time that he does them.

Yeah. I know.

Right. Okay. Tony is extremely, extremely rich, and even though I know that he is basically the fantasy of The One Good Ethical Billionaire (more on this in a sec), it's probably worth thinking about what actual real-life rich people do with their money in ways that intersect with politics. And the answer to that is, well, generally they give money to politicians who are favorable to, say, helping them continue to have money. Now, yes, as far as I know there is no evidence of Tony doing this in canon -- this is where all the conjecture comes in. So we ask ourselves, okay, if Tony were to endorse particular politicians because of this, what party would he give money to? Who would he want to get in good with? In most parts of the country, that would probably be the Republican party. But, specifically in New York, it's the Democrats.

So, yeah, one of the big points in favor of him being a Democrat is that, well, Democrats traditionally run New York. The class of old-money New York elites are pretty stereotypically Democrats. And that would include Tony. Which is not to say that he couldn't be a Republican, but if he wants to get anywhere with New York politicians, and I suspect he probably does because he is trying to run a series of very large businesses and he owns a fair amount of real estate including several buildings whose permitting processes I can only imagine fall into the category of “probably highly irregular" -- I mean, he has multiple jets that he regularly lands on his house and secret underwater tunnels for a submarine -- he has to cozy up to Democrats. If he gives money to anyone involved in politics, that's who he gives money to. Making superhero bases probably took a lot of money. A massive amount of money. The city planners probably cry when they see him coming.

(At one point I believe they did ban him from keeping the Quinjets in his house. That was when the Avengers had the Hydrobase.)

I tend to assume most people know something about the history of the Democrats in New York, or at least the history of US political parties in general, but the tl;dr version is that the parties haven't always stood for the same things that they do now. They also weren't always the same parties. And historically, in New York, the political machine gives you Democrats. That's just the way it is. The Democratic Party of the past was not really, um, devoted to all the same causes as the current Democratic Party. And it was very hard to get anywhere in New York and not be a Democrat. It still is. If you haven't read up on Tammany Hall, maybe you should. There was a lot of corruption. I mean, yeah, it's not currently a thing, but the Democrats remained in power in New York; it dissolved probably around about the time the Republican Party explicitly decided that the way to win the South was to appeal to the racism of white voters ("the Southern strategy"). Because, yes, before that a lot of white, conservative Southerners were traditionally Democrats. And then the Democrats split about civil rights, and, uh, the Republicans took in the racists.

Anyway! US political history is sure a land of contrasts! Rich New Yorkers are traditionally Democrats! That is a point for Tony possibly being a Democrat, yes. Moving on!

But Tony is not just a random old-money New Yorker. He inherited Howard Stark's money and Howard Stark's company. And Howard was, well, a defense contractor. And so was Tony, until he stopped making weapons. And, uh, being a defense contractor is, um, one of those things that is extremely, extremely Republican. No, I don't have stats to back this up. Just trust me. So, yeah, he's a rich New Yorker -- but he's also a defense contractor from a family of defense contractors. I would be amazed if Howard Stark were anything other than a Republican. Which is not to say that Tony could not be a Democrat anyway, but the job does come with a certain predisposition.

(Incidentally, one of the other things Tony inherited from Howard was his membership in the Hellfire Club, which is one of those things I keep forgetting about until canon smacks me in the face with it every few years.)

We all know that the conception of Tony, as a character, is basically the fantasy of the Ethical Billionaire. He is The Best At Capitalism. He has money and he is not corrupted by it. He has money and he uses it to do the maximum amount of good in the world because that is what he really, deeply wants to do. He supports a large number of philanthropic causes! He has a foundation named after his mother! He funds programs for low-income youth! He runs a homeless shelter for women! Throughout his history, he has been consistently portrayed as a deeply, deeply kind human being, who wants to help people. A lot of people! People who aren't like him! People who might not even like him! That is just... who he is, as a person.

And these days we tend to associate that kind of push for systemic change and caring about social issues and remedying inequity with Democrats, but that wasn't always the case. I think it still would have been believable coming from a Republican, oh, around about the time Tony came into existence. He was created back when you could be an elected Republican and, uh, push social policies that I think these days we would consider progressive. I mean, Eisenhower was the one who started integrating schools, right? The Republicans are the party of Lincoln! It's not like Republicans are prevented from doing good things. And I think we need to keep in mind that Tony dates from the early 60s when socially-progressive was still a thing Republicans could conceivably be.

So, yes, Tony is very kind. It's nice. We all like that about him. But also many of the ways in which he is kind to people are very much Republican fantasies. Like, yes, he's a great boss. He's close to his employees. They're like family. If any of his employees have problems, he helps them out on a personal, individual level -- and that, as an ideal, seems very Republican to me. I mean, he's a CEO, right? He's owned a lot of companies. Are any of them unionized? Combing through Wiki, I find one reference to a union in ToS 63, which is really, really early -- you know, back when unions were more popular. I can't find anything after that. And nothing is coming to mind. So, I mean, yes, we have now established his employees were at one point unionized, but he's certainly not known for, say, running a union shop. Part of the fantasy of the Ethical Billionaire is the idea that Tony's employees don't need unions because Tony is so kind and so generous and so personally selflessly good that he takes care of everyone who works for him. And the thing is, Tony actually does do this. He is fictional and therefore capable of achieving perfection.

Okay. He's a fictional character. Let's step back a little and think about fictional characters, and specifically the way Marvel Comics depicts fictional characters interacting with well-known real people. Many real people from our Earth do seem to exist in 616. Earth-616 is not our Earth in a vast number of ways, but one thing it shares with our Earth is presidents. Whoever is the real-life president when a comic comes out is pretty much generally president on Earth-616 at the time. Yes, I'm going somewhere with this.

Now, for whatever reason, Marvel often does not canonically refer to presidents by their names in dialogue, but the artists pretty much draw whoever is president at the time when someone in canon needs to meet the president. (Captain America seems to get to meet the president a lot. I'm sure you're shocked.)

There are a couple exceptions to "everyone who looks like the president is the president,” namely that Marvel says that the villain who was Number One of the Secret Empire in Captain America v1 #175, who attempted to conspire with aliens to take over the Earth, whom Steve watched commit suicide -- anyway, the official Marvel word is, I believe, that this guy is not Richard Nixon, but Steve Englehart, who wrote the comic, says it absolutely was:

And, yes, this is the incident that causes Steve to lose faith in America and become Nomad. You can kind of see why that would be traumatic. Marvel clearly had some feelings about Watergate they needed to process.

Anyway, I just wanted to put in a picture of that time Ronald Reagan was turned into a snake person. It's Captain America v1 #344:

I love comics.

More recent presidents still make appearances in the comics, and they are the president who was the real-life president at the time. For example, the president who pardons Steve for all his SHRA-related crimes in Who Will Wield The Shield is definitely Obama:

And that means that I must also unfortunately inform you that Hydra Steve also received a presidential pardon:

Though the issue in question (Captain America v9 #8) does not specifically name the president, following the "whoever is the actual president is the 616 president" rule, the president who canonically pardoned Hydra Steve is... Donald Trump.

Let's just pause here to contemplate this. Take as long as you need.

(I was today years old when I learned that Hydra Steve has been dead in comics for over a year. Since the issue in which he was pardoned, actually. Which is an issue I am sure I read the day it came out, but somehow I missed the four entire pages where Hydra Steve is set on fire and burns to death while hailing Hydra with his last breath. I guess it wasn't memorable! I mention because I am pretty sure I am not the only one who missed this.)

Anyway. I do have a point to make here, and my point is this: Tony has received political appointments. Two of them, in fact. In the 2003-2004 Iron Man arc "The Best Defense," Tony becomes Secretary of Defense. He does get Senate confirmation; it's not a deputy appointment. He actually gets unanimous confirmation. And I know that Tony had this job is a fact that everyone knows about Tony, but I feel like a lot of people may not be totally conscious of the timeframe involved here, and by that I mean that he is absolutely, positively, the Secretary of Defense for Earth-616's George W. Bush. Yes, I am sure of this.

Here is Tony with the president in Iron Man v3 #78, being told he got the job:

Yeah. That’s George W. Bush.

Can a Cabinet appointment cross party lines? I mean, sure, it's possible. I am not the kind of giant politics nerd who has this memorized, but there is in fact, a Wikipedia page for US political appointments across party lines. And it looks like there have been five cross-party Secretaries of Defense and five Secretaries of War. So, I mean, yes, it's happened, but it's fairly rare. None of the cross-party Secretaries of Defense (deputy secretaries excluded, since they weren't confirmed, obviously) were ever Democrats appointed by Republicans. And since we're looking at Dubya's administration specifically, it looks like only one of his Cabinet appointees (Transportation) was cross-party. So it looks like he in particular would not have been especially likely to appoint a Democrat to his Cabinet, since in real life he only had the one.

So to me it seems that the most likely party affiliation for Tony has to be Republican, because of this. Sure, the appointment could have crossed party lines. But I feel like it's just... not likely. Being a Republican Secretary of Defense in a Republican administration just seems way, way more possible.

(Also I'd like everyone to remember that Tony is replacing the previous Secretary of Defense because the previous Secretary of Defense was secretly the Red Skull and released an engineered flesh-eating virus at Mount Rushmore. Just, y'know, to set the mood.)

What's more, Tony gets a second political appointment from the Bush administration. It's not a Cabinet position, but he does become the Director of SHIELD in 2007. Here Tony is with the president, slightly earlier, in Civil War #1:

This is not really as good a likeness of Bush as the previous and I guess you could argue that the artist was drawing A Generic Politician but I feel like, y'know, it's probably still meant to be Bush. And Tony may not have wanted this particular job -- we know he definitely didn't -- but he absolutely wanted to be Secretary of Defense. So we know that he is definitely fine with serving in a Republican administration.

So, yeah, that's my argument: odds are pretty good that Tony has, at some point in his life, been a Republican. Maybe not right now. But probably in the past.

Having said that, given the way Marvel handles politics, I don't think it's likely to ever be much of an issue in canon; the Avengers mostly just tend to get to get along with whoever the president is at the time and I can't recall really anything about partisan issues. However, you're never going to convince me 616 Steve was anything other than a New Deal Democrat -- even though I know that in Cap #250 he turns down both the Democrats and the Republicans when they ask him to run for president -- because, I mean, come on. I assume that he and Tony probably try not to discuss politics ever anymore, because we all know how the SHRA went. They probably mostly agree, but when they disagree, people have a tendency to end up dead.

That was probably more than you ever wanted to know about my thoughts on this topic.

[mk-wizard]

Rescue Bots and BLM

Hello, dear friends of all the lovely flavors. Today, I want to address a serious topic I take to heart and how it would most likely be handled in the Rescue Bots series. That is the Black Lives Matter movement or as it is also known as simply BLM. Exploring this fan theory was a request by @ petrichornial and thank you for doing so.

I want to start off by saying that even though I’m white, I am very BLM as I believe treating everyone with kindness and justice ought to be human nature. Also, Chief Burns is a very special character to me in general because he’s a genuinely good man morally and lawfully. Anyway, onto the fan theory.

It has always been clear from the get go that Rescue Bots is a progressive series in many aspects and one of those aspects is how black positive it is. From the beginning, characters of colour were on equal footing with the white ones and were portrayed very well. In fact, even Blades the helicopter bot turned out to be brown after all this time according to his hologram. And I think they did this beautifully in how no one was shown any favour and the characters of colour were not stereotypically mistreated either. For the first time, colour diversity was treated like a natural and normal thing as it ought to be in real life.

Sadly, the real world isn’t always as kind as it should be and there is no doubt in my mind that if Rescue Bots had the chance, it would have most definitely handled BLM honourably because the Burns and Greene family are so close that they practically are family to each other. And like I said before, Chief Burns is an extremely good cop and man, so he would have the Greene’s back as well as every other black person’ back. However, he would also have to face a huge challenge because he is still a cop and just because he wouldn’t tolerate any police brutality towards black people doesn’t mean he believes it excuses excessive violence or taking advantage of riots to commit crimes on the other side of the fence. And knowing the Greene family, they would agree with Burns on this one.

To elaborate how this would most likely play out in Rescue Bots if it was introduced in the series, knowing its style and how it has firm continuity, it wouldn’t be handled in one single episode like in the old days. It probably be a two parter and the BLM issue would still be ongoing in the background. Anyway, it would all start with several incidents happening all over the news and the Burns family would become passive supporters of BLM as would most of Griffin Rock, but then one fateful day, there would be an incident (there always is sadly). Dr. Greene would be the victim of abuse by a racist police officer after committing a rather minor and harmless crime such as being wrongfully parked or something which results in him being accused of other radical things and even having his colour and background brought up. And while Doc Greene is a pacifist, he would still try to protest a little, but the cop would get even meaner and go as far as threatening him which would most likely scare his wife and daughters. The event would spark an uproar in the town of which Chief Burns would fire the cop who took things too far, but things (as always) don’t end there and the ex-cop would start lodging complaints was he was doing his job and Dr. Greene was the one at fault for refusing to comply and giving him lip. I would also think this would be the time the mayor would shine because despite everything, he is not the type to tolerate racism or police brutality so he would side with the Greenes and Burns on this one. This would drive the bad ex-cop to rally together other extremists and other racist cops that the mayor and police chief are social justice warriors. In return, the black community would protest back especially because now, they would start being treated bad a lot more and sometimes, they will retaliate in all of the wrong ways.

Knowing Chief Burns, while he would now be open about being pro-BLM, he would not consider violence as an option to fight racism and slandering, so when the two sides would attempt to duke it out, he would get in the middle of it and command everyone to go home. I think Dr. Greene would feel overwhelmed and responsible for the town controversy while his family and the Burns reassure him that he did the right thing by lodging a complaint and they all know he didn’t play victim that day. He was an actual victim of racism that day and he handled the situation gracefully. Also, the bots would feel the heat as well because they are technically not white humans and Blades specifically isn’t white at all. He is what humans would consider as brown and he wonders that if some humans were aware of that, would he be treated differently. Cody of course would reassure him that none of them or any decent person would ever judge him by what he was as they never judged him for being an alien.

Though the situation in Griffin Rock isn’t getting any better and this would drive the bots into calling up Optimus for help and he sends the Autobot most appropriate for this situation: Jazz. He would come right in the middle of a peak riot silencing everyone by getting their attention by giving them a speech on colour and society. Basically, he would point out that the entire point of BLM is to bring awareness that prejudice by way of one’s colour is still a problem in human society and many black people still get bullied or judged for simply being black including by the law and this needs to change. However, BLM is not a get out of jail free card to be violent and cruel back and being pro-BLM doesn’t mean you are any less loyal to your own “colour” or that you disregard all other injustices. And it definitely doesn’t mean a black person who really is in the wrong should be exempted from taking responsibility for their actions. Jazz would also point out that on Cybertron, they don’t just believe in technological progress, but also social progress and Griffin Rock needs to believe in it too.

Sadly, it doesn’t end with Jazz changing every human’s mind though it at least ends the riots though the issues and BLM awareness become ongoing after. Also, the bad ex-cop’s mind never changes. The good part is that Dr. Greene is inspired to become more proactive in the BLM movement by going to a website and submitting a video of him telling his story to inspire other victims to come forward, but to retaliate civilly.

The incident ends with the Burns and Greene remaining close though now openly pro BLM. The bots in turn show what each of their human hologram equivalents look like and it is revealed that after all this time, NONE of them were white. As mentioned before, Blades is brown, Boulder is Hawaiian, Heatwave Latino, and Chase is black. Cody asks why none of them other than Blades ever mentioned they were coloured. They reply that up until now, they never thought it mattered and once the whole BLM incident happened, they feared that it would start mattering but only Blades admitted it because he was the only one who they knew was of colour. After everything boiled over though, they are all reassured that it still doesn’t change anything except now that they should be open about their true colours to which Chief Burns says they always were.

And that’s the end of how I believe the episodes and series would play out. Pardon me if it is sounds a bit sensational. I also firmly believe BLM would not simply end with just two episodes because BLM is still ongoing. It would leave us with the impression that though it’s going to be a long battle, there is hope and many victories to be celebrated. That and since Jazz is the most iconic black Transformer, he would have to be showcased here.

I hope I did this respectfully because BLM is something I take to heart as I do with all humanitarian causes. I mean, I’m an artist. I love everyone and believe in love for everyone.

Support BLM, people!

If you have a Transformers theory or character analysis you want explored, please let me know in my ask box. And please, support me through Patreon or Ko-fi if you want me to make Transformers merch and videos. Or if you want a commission of your favourite bot, let me know in my shop. All links are on my profile page.

Thanks for reading and as always, stay safe. And stay kind.

[minotaurman-ayjay]

ACAB - Leaving Wonderland

This will be a post on how I used to support the police, and how I’ve changed.

I will also write on this later. This will be detailing…

How increased coverage on Police Brutality changed my mind

Recollections on institutionalized racism, racism in police culture, and racism among civilian employees that I worked with as well as the police themselves.

How the very police department that I worked for mishandled my report, put me in danger, and how they treated me as a mentally ill civilian.

How police departments become corrupt, and how chain of command becomes compromised.

And lastly, how I was treated by my coworkers and supervisors after filing my report, and how they handled my mental and personal crisis, forcing me to quit and forever changed my outlook towards police.

I used to work for the police department in a civilian division. I was really good at my job, and loved the job that I did because I felt like I was helping people. I never really knew the outcome of those that I helped, and have helped many people out of volatile domestically centered situations. I helped spoke to fellow mentally ill citizens, especially those that were suicidal. I never really knew the outcome of my clients, because we weren’t really supposed to know unless it’s for official reasons. It’s a very thankless job, but it feels good to just be there for someone.

However, that slowly got tainted as 1) department wide corruption reared it’s ugly head and 2) how the division I worked for became toxic.

We had a black police chief for quite some time. Things were handled differently, and as painfully awkward he was on the PR front, he was really good at caring for people. And I feel like he legitimately did. He made a lot of changes in the department, and had different classes and training specifically for dealing with people who are mentally ill. Classes for “LGBT and Racial sensitivity”, and “Emergency De-escalation for Mentally Ill Civilians”  that basically amounted to “Treat everybody like a human being. Yes. Everybody. Not just WASPs. “ and “Don’t just shoot that guy because he’s having a violent psychological breakdown” and was always de-escalation before violence for *everybody*.

And then he was fired, and the reason for it was very vague and flimsy. Something that we were spoonfed and expected to accept. Hindsight tells me that it was most likely was for racial reasons and hiding those reasons behind “He embarrassed us at Washington DC and he used police resources for personal gain”. Like if such crime was committed, where are the receipts for it? Seriously, where is the evidence??? We weren’t allowed to know that much.

I asked way too many questions on this matter, and I’m pretty sure this is what got the higher ups pissed at me just enough that they opportunistically struck on me and force me to quit.

 --- more on that later, I’m trying to keep this as linear as possible ---.

A new police chief was soon appointed and to my (not) surprise, he is a Godfearing white guy who would suck Trump’s orange stump once he is within eyeshot of the guy.

Then the “LGBT and Racial Sensitivity” classes and classes how to handle the mentally ill disappeared for “budget cuts”. I’m certainly hoping that their crisis intervention that is de-escalation based and social worker run continues to be a thing and won’t be done away with because of this new leadership.

Now that the very top is corrupt and obviously not for the People, it enabled racist assholes with a god complex to come out of the goddamn woodwork. He started appointing people with his same views, etc.

Let’s get into Police Culture real quick. Police Culture is known for it’s Good Ol’ Boy mentality. Something that has supposed to have changed. It’s always been dominated by white men, and obviously, the white men within it are going to make sure that it stays that way. Again, hindsight has taught me, that police culture will never change because even though there are people on the inside who want to change it, white centric corruption will always be there to whisk it away.

I had been looking for another job to get out of the Department as my support for the police and for the Department itself began to wain. During this time, I would find an employer who sounded like they would move mountains to hire me... and then suddenly I would hear nothing. 

Then, there was some massive leadership reshuffling in my Division, and these were people who should not have been there at all. Remember when I asked too many questions about why the recent police chief was fired? These people were against that chief and are very pro-this chief. Shocking, right? So of course, me who did not like this chief (but was not outward it) or at very least had the AUDACITY to question something that was so obviously bullshit instead of accepting what I was spoonfed like everybody else.

... this is another point on how police culture works. The nail that stands out the most gets hammered. The loosest screw gets screwed..

---This is how I get screwed---

 then something happened to me that required me needing the police to help me.

TL;DR AND CW: PET DEATH, ANIMAL CRUELTY

I found my dog stabbed to death, most likely by my exroommates who still had a key... It happened while I was getting knew locks for my house. I called the police, and they took a report. But they did not collect any evidence that was obviously tied to what happened. The reporting officer pushed it through as an Information Only report because HE had concluded that my dog was mauled. He wasn’t even a detective. He was a REPORTING OFFICER who came to a conclusion and used that conclusion to dictate how my report went through --- 

*This was how we USED to (or so I thought) treat people who were mentally ill and constantly, frequently, calling with bizarre cases* It was active discrimination against the mentally ill that puts them in danger. I was “mentally apped” a long time ago, (where they take you to a hospital against your will. This is on your personal record forever and can fuck with getting driver’s license, and other things) and concluding something just because it doesn’t add up for “information only” was an old practice that I thought had been done away with.

but did anybody care about this? No, of course not. We were on different management. Months pass despite me blowing up the phones of Sergeants and the Detective that was assigned to my case.

I was talking to peer support to help me go through this, I told them what was going on with my life and what I was doing. They told me not to call these Sergeants and Detectives again and to wait for them to contact me.

I was then put under investigation for “Using police resources for personal gain”, and my supervisor had told me that I was harassing detectives and sergeants. Harassing them to do their job and pick up evidence? Sure.

Since I was under investigation, I was given an alternative assignment. I was put on a different shift--- Something that should have never happened because the shift that I was working was for medical reasons. I was on a rough antipsychotic medical schedule to keep my bipolar disorder and psychosis in check. My shift changed, which caused my medication to not work like it used to. 

I was also put in a room with a shitty chair that fucked with my osteoarthritis in my hip... another ADA accommodation that had been violated. They refused to give me a new chair and doctors notes were mysteriously never received. My ADA accommodations had suddenly disappeared, because we had changed to a 3rd party to handle ADA accommodations. We were told that resubmitting accommodations was not necessary as they are still active for the year--- That was a lie.

I eventually spiraled and had to go back to the mental hospital. I was under investigation for 3 months. I was stressed out of my mind and my medication was not working.

My therapist at the mental hospital had many one-on-ones with me, because she was concerned. She said that what I was going through was workplace abuse. This piled on top of the grief of losing my PTSD companion dog in a terrible, vicious, violent, senseless way, was not good for my already fragile mental health.

Before I went to the mental hospital, I had found out that Peer Support had told the administration what I was doing, and what I was going through. This was what triggered the investigation. 

TW.... SUI IDEATION AND PLAN....

Because of this, I was probably a day or so away from running away to the creek and overdosing in a place where my girlfriend couldn’t find me. My life had been turned upside down, and nobody was helping me. My workplace didn’t care. Their treatment of me became abusive when I needed them the most.

I quit after getting out of the mental hospital. Ever since then, I’ve had an issue with becoming employed elsewhere.

There are no good cops. Good cops do not last long. If a good cop ends up becoming police chief, he ends up being overthrown by the white male majority, because of white-centric police culture. This caused a lot of changes that fucked a lot of civilians and civilian employees over. There was one police involved slaying shortly after these changes were made, and it’s the same ol’ song and dance that’s going on across america.

I will never support the police again. Not only because of my personal experience, but because I understand and have witnessed the culture, and how institutionally racist it is. 

I am sorry that I ever supported the police. I am sorry that I worked for an entity that actively suppresses minorities and actively suppresses Freedom of Speech for the interest of corporations. I realize that I couldn’t be both a Black Lives Matter supporter and a police supporter. I chose Black Lives Matter as I saw the police brutality that I now realize that has always been there. I chose black lives matter as I watched a white police chief do away everything that was progressive. I chose Black Lives Matter as I increasingly worry about my friends of color as hate continues to spread and increase.

I was in the division that I chose because I felt that I was helping people. I thought working with the police was what was going to enable me to help people. That became apparent that wasn’t true the moment we switched police chiefs. We’ve become just like any other police department in the country.

I’m sorry.

[cihojuda]

TSS Project part 7: The Tea is Hot

Warning as usual, long post. I think this is the longest single thing I’ve written for a non-academic purpose since my middle school fanfiction days lmao

Section 1: Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

oo look a section header

What do I mean by titling this section Let’s Talk About Sex? Well, technically, I mean Let’s Talk About Disproportionate Representation of Gender and Stereotyping, but there wasn’t a catchy song lyric to go along with that. I am an anthropology major but I’m also a sucker for pizzazz.

I’ve noted in the past that there’s a ginormous gender imbalance in TSS- and pretty much all kids’ tv in general except things that are explicitly marketed towards 6-year-old girls. Don’t believe me? Google it. Shows that are “for everyone” or “for boys” only have a female:male ratio of 1:3 or 2:5 if we’re really lucky. And those female characters are usually ascribed one of a few personalities, which you’re no doubt familiar with if you, I don’t know, have eyes and ears.

Granted, this show and the other example I was thinking of, My Little Pony, are shows that play into the characters’ main traits by linking them to their ~Special Powers~ but that still doesn’t change the fact that they are VERY stereotypical Girls. Especially Rarity, Fluttershy, Flora and Stella. Like, goddamn.

Here’s a disclaimer, though: stereotypes exist for a reason. Whether that reason is prejudice or observation changes the nature of the stereotype, but it doesn’t change the fact that that’s the reason why it’s there. Playing somewhat into stereotypes is a good way to play to the things that people know, which in turn draws them in. The problem is making up your entire cast with reductive character tropes à la 1970s Super Friends cartoons, and you do NOT want to go full Super Friends.

Their names are literally just Apache Chief and Samurai. That is, like, uncomfortably racist to a 2018 (or 2000 anything) audience. But shit like that isn’t just limited to the 1970s. Reductive- sexist or racist, usually- stereotypes are permeated into American society so thoroughly that we usually don’t realize that there needs to be more nuance to the characters we’re showing our kids than “this guy is Native American. That’s who he is.” Because that’s what happens with most stereotypes. “This girl is the music girl. That’s what she does. She sings in the shower and has music tattoos and all her fairy powers are music based and...” It’s just So Much.

I had another point. Right.

~Girly~ shows have a main cast made up of entirely of female characters; with supporting males entering every so often just to be “there.” Romantic interests tailored specifically to the protagonists’ wildest dreams, usually. This does happen in ~~boys’ tv~~ too, but not in the same way. You know. The swoon-y, heartfelt love poem, I-can-change-him way. It’s different than how female characters are “just there” in boys’ tv, because then they’re either nagging mothers or coveted prom dates. I was going to say I don’t know why that is, but I do know. It’s the patriarchy. What I don’t know is why the “just there” thing happens in girls’ tv. What I do know is that I could write my goddamn thesis on why the “just there” thing happens in boys’ tv- and it is a thing- and why I hate it, but I don’t think you can swear in an undergrad thesis and I’m not sure if I’m ever getting a master’s degree. yaaaaay

So here’s a TL;DR for what’s coming:

http://secretsaturdays.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Characters

If you’d like to fact-check me about the gender imbalance in TSS, the link for the character section of the wiki is above. I only counted characters who were on the show (TGIS? new fone who dis) and important enough to be included in the wiki, not the ones who only made an appearance in the comics. (Don’t fucking @ me for not including people like “security guard who refused van Rook’s American money,” although most of those people were men too.) Otherwise the ratio would have been even more skewed blue because there were literally no new ladies introduced in the comics? At least none important enough to be included in the wiki? And there were literally only four recurring female characters in the entire series at all period, sixteen females total if you count the single-use randos (not mentioning whether those characters said lines which advanced the plot or anything either, because some did and some didn’t). SIXTEEN. Let me break them down for you:

Drew: second-tier protagonist

Miranda Grey: second-tier main character (both pro- and antagonist)

Abbey Grey: love interest/second-tier antagonist

“Charles and Lily’s Mom”: single-use background rando from s1e9

Lily: single-use plot device character from s1e9

Dr. Pachacutec: single-use plot device character from s1e11

Drew Monday: third-tier antagonist

Rani Nagi: third-tier antagonist

Ruby: single-use rando from s1e21

Sita: fourth-tier antagonist from s1e16

Tica: single-use plot device character from s2e3

Unnamed Agent #1: single-use background rando from s1e23

Wadi: third-tier protagonist

Zon: could be replaced with a potato and nobody would care

Anti-matter Zon: could be replaced with an anti-matter potato and nobody would care

Drew and Doyle’s mom: single-use plot device character from s1e7

Does that look like a lot of characters? Well, sure it does, when you write out descriptions like that for all of them. Let’s do all the guys, though, just for shits and giggles.

Zak: main progtaonist and story focus

Doc: second-tier protagonist

Doyle: second-tier protagonist

Fiskerton: second-tier protagonist

Komodo: second-tier protagonist

Argost: main antagonist

Munya: secondary main antagonist/Argost’s second and third pair of arms

Ulraj: third-tier protagonist

Dr. Beeman: second-tier main character

Dr. Cheechoo: second-tier main character

Dr. Cheeveyo: third-tier main character

Dr. Bara: single-use plot device character from s1e25

Odele: fourth-tier protagonist (whose side was he on in the Secret Scientist fight?) in two episodes

Epsilon: second- to third-tier antagonist

Francis: third-tier antagonist

Having fun yet?

Joseph: fourth-tier antagonist from s1e16

Ron Bantington: single-use plot device character from s2e1

Pierre Groshomme: single-use plot device character from s2e6

Professor Misuki: fourth-tier main character

Shoji Fuzen: fourth-tier antagonist in two episodes

Eterno: fourth-tier antagonist from s1e11

Maboul: fourth-tier protagonist (barely)

Baron Finster: fourth-tier antagonist

Basil Lancaster: single-use plot device character from s1e15

Bud Harger: single-use plot device character from s1e21

Charles: single-use plot device character from s1e9

Dr. Lee: single-use plot device character from s1e15

Cody: single-use rando from s1e21

Gokul: single-use plot device character from s2e5

Ian: single-use background rando from s1e9

Since Tumblr doesn’t allow numbering to continue after linebreaks, we’re up to 30 now.

The Constable: single-use plot device character from s1e9

Leonidas van Rook: third-tier main character

Piecemeal: fourth-tier antagonist and source of much wasted potential

Zak Monday: third-tier antagonist

Doc Monday: fourth-tier antagonist

Komodo Monday: third-tier antagonist

Fiskerton Monday: fourth-tier antagonist

Unnamed Agent #2: single-use background rando from s1e23

Unnamed Agent #3: single-use background rando from s1e23

Wyatt: single-use rando from s1e21

Drew and Doyle’s dad: single-use plot device character from s1e7

Ulraj’s dad: single-use plot device character from s1e6

FORTY-TWO 👏 GODDAMN 👏 MEN👏 AND 👏 SIXTEEN 👏 WOMEN. Y’all. Oh my god.

Going further, I want to look at stereotyping. Now, you can get some of that by looking at the other parts of this post series (torpedo tits discussion in the character design post whaaaaaat) but I want to go deeper.

Of the sixteen TSS women:

5 are love interests of male characters (Drew is Doc’s wife and she also dated van Rook, Drew Monday is Doc Monday’s wife, Abbey dated Doyle, Wadi is Zak’s crush) + everybody ships Miranda Grey with Beeman in some capacity

4 characters are explicitly known to be mothers, and in two cases it’s central to their identity insofar as that it’s how we refer to them  (Drew, Drew Monday, Drew and Doyle’s mom and Charles and Lily’s mom)

4 have no speaking or communication with humans other than through Zak’s cryptid powers (Unnamed Agent #1, Drew and Doyle’s mom, Zon and her antimatter counterpart)

3 of them aren’t human or humanoid (Rani Nagi, Zon and her antimatter counterpart)

3 have no names (Unnamed Agent #1, Drew and Doyle’s mom and Charles and Lily’s mom)

8 of them only appear in one episode apiece (Sita, Tica, Lily, Charles and Lily’s mom, Drew and Doyle’s mom, Unnamed Agent #1, Ruby, Dr. Pachacutec) + the reappearance of Zon’s antimatter counterpart is very short and doesn’t add much to the episode it’s in.

Only 1 of them is depicted as being “older,” or in the “gray hair and wrinkles” stage (Dr. Pachacutec)

I know what you’re going to say. “But Lilly, if you divide them all into categories, of course it’s going to sound bad!” Well...

Only 5 of the men are without names, which makes there be a higher percentage of unnamed women than men (18.75% of women to 12.5% of men)

The main pro- and antagonists are both male (Zak and Argost)

6 men are explicitly known to be fathers (or raising a child), but in only 2 cases it’s central to their identity insofar as that it’s how we refer to them (Doc, Doc Monday, Maboul, Epsilon, Drew and Doyle’s dad, Ulraj’s father). Although, in the case of Ulraj’s father, he’s often referred to as the King of Kumari Kandam as well, so that adds another layer. There’s no concrete way to refer to the female characters without names because “Blackwell” is only suspected to be Drew’s maiden name (Jay Stephens can @ me about that) and Charles and Lily’s mom can be referred to as something like “Owlman victim” but not really much else.

10 male characters are non-humans (Argost, Munya, Fisk, Komodo, Fiskerton Monday, Komodo Monday, Eterno, Professor Misuki, Ulraj and Ulraj’s father) but of those non-humans nearly all of them can speak or communicate with humans (Fisk, Fiskerton Monday, Komodo and Munya don’t speak) as opposed to the three non-human female characters (Rani Nagi, Zon and her antimatter counterpart) two of whom can’t do either unless you have cryptid powers (Zon and her antimatter counterpart)

Only 2 of the men have no speaking or otherwise communicating during their appearances (Drew and Doyle’s dad and Ulraj’s father) out of the whole 42 of them, even the plot device characters say something except for two who only appear in flashbacks. That’s opposed to 4 of the 16 women who don’t speak or otherwise communicate and 2 of the female characters can’t communicate at all (see above). Those two percentages are hugely different. (4.76% of men vs. a full 25% of women)

At least 6 of the male characters are in the “gray hair and/or wrinkles” stage. (Dr. Lee, Professor Misuki’s human body, van Rook, Baron Finster, Basil Lancaster, Ian) Now, 6 out of 42 is NOT a high number (see above). But it’s a lot higher than the number of women who were allowed to look that way. Thank God they treated Pachacutec with some dignity, even though she only appeared in one episode.

How’s that for “bad if you put it that way?”

Now, listen. I’m not calling TSS a bad show. I fucking lived and breathed this shit for YEARS as a kid, and I’m still very impressed with it- on other levels than gender equality. The thing about it is that it was most likely intended for boys, the idea was conceived by a man, and it was produced in 2008 American society. The whole thing is covered in latent sexism like a minivan is covered in snot. Just because you don’t see the nasty doesn’t mean it’s not there.

I still like the show for reasons that tie into my earlier point about stereotyping: TSS breaks a bunch of them.

A highly educated, rich black man

A happy interracial relationship

Parents who are just the right level of involved with their child instead of being helicopters or ignorant assholes

Not drawing negative attention to the hijabi character at all

The women aren’t nags

No one is reduced to labels like “woman” or “Native American guy”

That’s the thing that we miss sometimes: you can love something while still realizing its faults, and TSS has faults along with its goodness. Namely the gender imbalance, but you can read my other problems with the series in my other posts tagged #tss project.

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

“Mutant Empire: Siege” Ch 5 & 6

Okay guys, here's my notes for Chapter Five and Six of “Siege” the first book in the “Mutant Empire” triology! We get some interesting Charles/Erik debate stuff, reflection on the reality of how relationships are basically all sacrified for the X-Men, some Acolytes team dynamics, and MILAN! 

MILAN IS SO ADORABLE OMFG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH especially because the way he acts with Magneto is the way I've always written Anne Marie with Magneto? I want to put him with the first-gen Acolytes so he can fanboy with Anne Marie about THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR MAGNETO and so Delgado can protect him <3 This is SUPER LONG so it’s under a cut

CHAPTER FIVE This chapter is about the X-Men, not the Acolytes, so no Magneto or Milan, but here's a few bits I thought worth noting

“Where Dr. Henry P. McCoy could forget, just for a moment, that he was a member of that elite race known as homo sapiens superior.” Elite race seems a....poor word choice. But this kinda comes back to what I talked to you two about before, about how I think certain forms of bigotry are actually MORE likely among mutants (ableism, scientific racism, etc.) because so much of mutant identity and the way mutants are understood both by society and themselves is based around being the ���next step of human evolution” and being able to do things other people can't, etc.

“Finally, Bobby looked over at him, raised eyebrows in place of an actual shrug. His body had filled out from the time he'd joined the X-Men as a teenager. These days he was muscular and fit. But Hank figured that tousled brown hair and open, genuinely handsome features would make him look like a college boy forever.” Is...is Hank kinda gay for Bobby here? I didn't think straight guys thought about other guys bodies filling out with muscle or having handsome features. But then again, straight girls get to straight up compliment other girls on their boobs and it's not gay, so maybe I'm just falling victim to the homophobic mindset that guys can never ever EVER notice anything attractive about another guy or it's TOTALLY HOMO which is not something I support. Normalize bros saying their bros look nice today! You go novel! Anyway, Bobby has pointed out that they're fighting for their future and their children and all that, but the reality is that none of them except Jean and Scott have been able to have a consistent relationship that lasts more than a year, so most likely none of them actually will ever have children. Deep, man. I mean, I guess if you wanted to go all selfless hero you could say “yeah but other children still matter!” but the fact is, they have basically given up their lives for this. Wolverine tells Storm he wants to be on her X-team and not Scott's because Scott at least sort of expects Wolverine to call him boss, whereas being called “boss” surprises Storm every time. Okay, I'm calling bullshit, no way SCOTT would expect LOGAN to call him boss, whereas Storm is THE BOSS OF ALL BOSSES ok, this queen led a team of X-Men at the same time she was leader of the Morlocks at the same time she was White KING of the Hellfire Club. And this is when SHE DIDN'T HAVE HER POWERS. She is THE boss. I am just gonna say Logan is trying to suck up to her. BECAUSE SHE'S THE BOSS! “Attention X-Men. This is Colonel Tomko, United States Army. You are trespassing at a top-secret federal facility. Throw down your weapons and surrender or you will be fired upon.” “Seem a little anxious to shoot a couple mutants, don't they?” Uh, no, Wolverine, I think it's that you're a group of known vigilantes with a history of leaving a whole lot of destruction, trespassing at a top-secret government facility, and carrying A HUGE PLASMA RIFLE. Like I feel like the fact they are giving the X-Men warning here proves they'd rather NOT open fire, because like...look what happens to actual minorities when they encounter racist government authorities while NOT trespassing and NOT carrying weapons and NOT known criminals? Like I feel like this warning would have been just as easily issued to a bunch of humans, especially if said humans were a vigilante group commonly believed to be terrorists by the public and also toting A BIG FUCKING GUN like sell me on this 'feared and hated' thing a bit better please. I...have a hunch this writer might be a white dude, if he thinks this is what constitutes super-obvious out-of-bounds bigotry from government authority towards a minority seen as dangerous.

CHAPTER SIX Ok, here's where we get Magneto and Milan and the Acolytes! It starts out with some stuff about Charles and Erik, and I know you guys are hella down for that, so here's the bigass quote because I love you enough to type it all out: “Xavier would see the light at last. That was important to Magneto. Once, they had been the best of friends, but their divergent dreams tore them apart. Ever the idealist, Charles would argue with him hour after hour, day after day, until finally Magneto realized he must act to make his dream real, rather than simply debate its finer points. The last time they had parted as friends, at peace with one another, the argument had reached new heights. In the heat of the Israeli summer, desert sand flying in the sweltering wind, bodies baking inside uncomfortable clothing as their Jeep bounced on rutted unpaved roads, their already-tattered friendship was torn asunder. Finally, Magneto had insisted that Charles recognized the primary flaw in his philosophy. “And what might that be?” Charles asked, eyes narrowing at this new approach to the debate. “It's so obvious, Charles,” Magneto had answered, “You see it around you every day, in every newspaper, in every city. It's something I learned in war that you have yet to accept. Human society needs someone to hate. There must be a bottom rung on the ladder. Right now, mutants are it, and I don't see anyone else climbing up after us. Therefore, as long as mutant society exists in its current form, humans will hate and fear mutants.” Charles was quiet for a long time after that, his face darkened by the shadow of his consternation. When he met Magneto's gaze again, he seemed unsettled, yet determined. “There are certainly humans who need to hate,” Charles began, “But I do not believe that is true of humanity as a whole. Humans and mutants can live in peace, Magnus. I will never believe otherwise. Never.” That stubborn quality had blinded Charles from the beginning, and Magneto believed that it still did. But not for long. In one day, he would teach Charles Xavier what he not been able to in all the long years since they had first met. Today.” I think this is really interesting for two reason. The minor reason is that the “humans need someone to hate” isn't something I've seen Magneto say before (though that could be because I've read far less of him than you, Hex) Like I feel like he's said things that are CLOSE but not this specific. The bigger thing, though, is that this points out what a lot of people miss in fandom in my opinion, that Charles is as adamant in his stance as Magneto is in his. He gets painted a lot as the soft and yielding one who compromises, but he's NOT. He does NOT compromise with Magneto one little bit, he is NOT open to Magneto's ideas, and you know what, GOOD, he shouldn't be. But I feel like that tends to get forgotten and Magneto is the only one people talk about as being hubristic in his belief he's absolutely right, even though Xavier is doing the same thing. Also, even though I really like this, I have to point out that at this point in the timeline...the claim that mutants are the bottom rung really would not apply? Mutants were NOT really cropping up enough to be noticed by the public at that point in time, Magneto and Xavier were the first of their kind each other had met, the whole “mutants as a persecuted minority” thing didn't start till the 1980s. Magneto's belief back then, if I recall right, is supposed to be that mutants will BECOME treated like other minorities, not that they already ARE. Now on to Milan, my favorite part/person. He's still mentally hooked up to a computer to broadcast a jamming signal so the US military's radios don't work (Magneto and the Acolytes have taken over the military base where the Sentinels are kept) while Magneto's magnetic force shield (MAGNETS ARE MAGIC I GUESS) keeps them out. Milan's consciousness is “completely integrated into the computer core” and the poor baby is totally slumped over like a corpse. We get a POV switch to Amelia Voght. In case you don't know who that is, Jon, she's a mutant woman (a teleporter, precisely) who is not only an Acolyte, but was Xavier's girlfriend when he founded the X-Men. But she considered that to be “asking for trouble” and wanted to live a normal life, so she left him  (and he tried to MIND-CONTROL HER INTO STOPPING) It's not clear exactly what happened in her life later, but apparently she lost her family and everything else to humans, according to her, and she decided that, also according to her, since every decision she made was bad, she'd let someone else do it. But she was always one of the questioning, less hateful Acolytes despite this claim she WANTED someone else to think for her. Oh, and she's the poor lady that Fabian tried to shove in his would-be harem. I would like to note he's still dead at the time this novel takes place, and while I would like to see him, I am glad for Amelia's sake that his skeevy self isn't around. Anyway, we get this infodump on her past, and this interesting bit gets said: “When he began to build the foundations for the X-Men, their relationship became...well, competition was the only word she could think of. If she had wanted to continue her relationship with Xavier, she would have had to throw herself wholly into his dreams for the X-Men.” I guess this is something I technically knew, but never thought about: That anyone romantically involved with Xavier basically has to be involved with his dream too. They're inseparable. I'd say the same is true of Magneto too except he does end up having a tryst or two where that doesn't apply, like with Lee Forrester, but then again I think that was when he wasn't a villain? I can't remember. But I think this also goes back to what Bobby and Beast were talking about, about how they probably won't ever have kids and a family and all. And canon reflects this. Not only do a lot of superhero relationships not last, but if one of the parties is NOT a superhero, they usually DIE. I guess this doesn't really come up in RP a lot because everybody is playing a member of the X-Men or Brotherhood or similar, no civilians, but, yeah. (Or civilians who can just...somehow be buddy-pals with bad guys and never had it affect them or think twice about these people being CRIMINALS >>) Also just because Amelia questions the violence and methods of the anti-human Acolytes, we're reminded she also thinks that the X-Men are “hopeless fools all, seduced by romanticism and wallowing in ignorance” and that she will be “happy to teach them the error of their ways.” Magneto tells Amelia to watch her back in battle around Carmella Unuscione, and Amelia thinks how she expects that from Unuscione but is surprised Magneto would “deign” to mention it. For some reason, this makes her worry he has romantic interest in her. I don't pretend to understand the leap that she's making here. She then wonders if he's trying to manipulate a confrontation between her and Unuscione, which makes slightly more sense at least. Just slightly. As for what Magneto is thinking, we get back to his POV, and it's neither. He is confident that Amelia can handle herself against Carmella, but he believes the women are on a “collision course” for each other's throats and he doesn't want to see their conflict undermine the “Empire Agenda” which is what his plot is called. We never see any sign of this dymanic between Amelia and Carmella in the comics, nor any backstabbing traits from Carmella, which is why I really enjoy these novels---the comics don't have time to give a lot of development to the personalities and team dynamics to the bad guys, it's hard enough working that in with the good guys in a 25-page issue, but the novels frequently take time to develop this stuff even for the baddies that don't usually get it. Milan 'wakes up' to tell Magneto that “We're ready, My Lord” and Magneto thinks he looks like he's dying and he's all sweaty but he seems super pleased at Doing A Good and dgkgksfkg I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUUUUCH and he says all that's needed to reprogram the Sentinels now is to enter Magneto's password. “For a moment, Magneto wished he did not have to disappoint one of his most faithful Acolytes, but there was no avoiding it.” Oh no! What is Magneto about to do?! Magneto: “I'm sorry, Milan, but I must take over from here.” Milan: “My Lord? Have I offended you somehow, Lord? What may I do to salve whatever wrong I have produced. Surely, there must be...” Magneto: “Please, Milan, be still. You have done no wrong.” OH NO, THIS PRECIOUS ANXIOUS NERD HE THINKS HE DID A BAD BECAUSE MAGNETO IS TAKING OVER THE REST OF THE JOB

LOVE HIIIIM Anyway, Mags puts in his password (“Empire”) and identifies himself as “Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, called Magneto, White King of the Hellfire Club” and we learn that Shaw programmed this all in for him while he was with the Hellfire Club in the 1980s. So Magneto not only KNEW that Shaw had Sentinels, Shaw set things up for Magneto to use them! Holy shit, HOW GOOD WAS THE MAGNET DICK, SHAW?! Magneto has to put his fingers down to scan for fingerprints and cut off a swatch of skin for genetic analysis to confirm it's him (smart move, Shaw, that keeps out shapeshifters) and when it does, Magneto winces, and: “My Lord, you are in pain,” Milan said, and Magneto almost laughed at the childlike wonder in the man. Though it was possible devout piety and childlike wonder were too often confused.” OH MY GOD HE -IS- ANNE MARIE ANNE MARIE IS THE GIRL JOCK, MILAN IS THE BOY NERD, THEY ARE THE RULE 63 VERSIONS OF EACH OTHER CLEARLY SRSLY THIS IS JUST LIKE HOW I WRITE ANNE MARIE WITH MAGS AND IT MAKES ME LOVE HIM I WOULD LOVE HIM ANYWAY ALL THE LOVE FOR MILAN

Cut to some government people. Specifically Valerie Cooper and Henry Gyrich. These are long-standing canon characters, and long story short, Cooper is on the side of mutants and Gyrich is not. But bigot though he might be, GYRICH IS CLEARLY SMART because I don't think ANYONE else has thought of this in the X-series before: “Then we can only assume, as I have long believed that Professor Xavier is directly tied to the X-Men.”

GASP! Val Cooper, who knows that's indeed the case, tells Gyrich basically pssh no, we just know that Xavier is friendly with the Beast (whose identity is apparently public? I guess because he was a member of the Avengers and Defenders for awhile) and Beast has been seen with the X-Men before, so probably Xavier passed on such and so info to Beast who passed it on to the X-Men. ...I feel like this is MORE support for Gyrich's guess, not less. But she continues she finds even this idea unlikely because Xavier has too much to lose in terms of support for mutant rights if he did something to make himself so unfavorable to the current administration. Yup, that's Professor Xavier, never puts a toe out of line, perfectly respectable law-abiding human guy! ;)

Surprisingly, Gyrich agrees with her, but now he thinks it's the X-Men who took over the facility (the one Magneto has taken over) Whoops. Back to Milan and beating himself up immediately when Magneto says he needs to take over, this reminds me of when he does that in the comics too. Like when he couldn’t get everything from Moira’s head that they needed all at once when he was trying to digitally reroute her memories on to the computer to get info they needed, he said that he felt like he had failed his brethren. Amazingly, it was FABIAN who comforted him, saying that,“You’ve done nothing wrong, Milan. The task you set yourself up for was monumental. Using your mutant ability to psionically transfer mental impulses into electromagnetic video impulses is difficult to apply under the best of circumstances. Having to fight this human’s formidable will makes it nearly impossible. I am confident that wherever Magnus is, our true lord and master has blessed you for your efforts.” AW, FABIAN Seriously, I really love this moment, not because I think Fabian has a secret soft side or something but because showing him being kind and encouraging to the Acolytes makes his manipulation and control of them more believable. If an abusive person is abusive and awful 24/7 all the time, nobody would get near them, but true abusers know how to balance the carrot with the stick. It’s ESPECIALLY common with cult leaders; they recruit with the carrot, and once you’re deep in and dependent on them, they can bring out the stick over and over, but the carrot still makes an appearance now and then so you have REASON to try and want to please them. Fabian showing that he values and appreciates the gifts and efforts of his Acolytes (or rather, acting like he does) is probably something they needed tremendously in their lives when he first approaches them, as likely no one else saw anything good about them being mutants, and that’s what enabled him to get them to stay around long enough for him to start showing his tyrannical dickbag side. Sure, he might be awful—but if they left him, they would be going to an even worse world, one that was ALWAYS awful to them, unlike Fabian, who, clearly, was not. I also notice that when he’s harsh on the Acolytes, it’s usually only on an individual to individual basis, when he’s alone with just one of them, so they probably don’t realize they’re ALL being abused, versus that they alone are being singled out like they probably think, so they’re less likely to think there’s a chance of uniting against him. But anyway, I’m getting off-topic, this is about MILAN, not Fabian. And Milan clearly wants to be useful SO BAD and he beats himself up over minor things/acts like he failed just because he didn’t 100% flawlessly succeed, and I just AW BABY especially since we see his teammates being jerks to him too. For instance, when the Acolytes were looking for Cable in the comics, Milan said that the base they were searching for him in was jamming his power, so he couldn’t use it to pick up any signs of Cable, and his teammate Javitz said “So you’re even more useless than usual.” SO MEAN, JAVITZ! WE CAN’T ALL BE TEN FEET TALL! So yeah, he gets ribbed, his powers aren’t good for fighting, maybe that’s why he stays buff, so he won’t be the scrawny nerd cliche (yes, I’m reaching to explain 90s-art anatomy, because this dork child is drawn all big and buff like every man in the 1990s) But I would just like to point out that he clearly has other talents! Milan, along with Joanna “Frenzy” Cargill and Carmella Unuscione, were the ones who found Simon “Neophyte” Hall, a young mutant who had holed himself up in a church, and they spent two days talking him out.  This is just a hunch, but given the aggressive, downright mean personalities of Frenzy and Carmella, I suspect that it was Milan who did a lot of the actual coaxing, with the ladies just there to protect him in case this young mutant had dangerous abilities. Likewise, this is also just a hunch, but given how upset Milan was at Neophyte “betraying” the Acolytes later, I also wonder if he didn’t bond with him afterward, maybe feel responsible for him. It would make sense, with Neophyte being younger and someone he had personally brought into the fold at such a vulnerable point in the boy’s life. I like to imagine that Neophyte looked up these three Acolytes, seeing Frenzy and Carmella as the terrifying badasses they are, and Milan more as a kindred spirit cool big brother. Which would also be nice for Milan, since, again, it seems like the more aggressively-powered Acolytes looked down on him. I love Milan guys I love him so much ;A;