#I'm full of contradictions like that

[wanderingmind867]

The best thing to co e from the super soldier serum or it's many duplicates is Man-Thing. Man-Thing is the opposite of eugenics: instead of creating a perfect man, they tried and accidentally created a monster. But in some ways, I feel Man-Thing is a better man than all those who made the super soldier serum. He just wants compassion. He doesn't want to be feared. Man-Thing is like the Hulk in that way. I'm incredibly easily scared (anything horror related usually haunts me for months afterwards), but Hulk and Man-Thing don't scare me. They make me feel compassion and sympathy and relatability in the Hulk's case, and I also honestly find them too cute to hate (especially Man-Thing. Something about Man-Thing is just adorable. Maybe it's because I saw him in Lego form first).

[averlym]

fairest of the fair

[skep-eroni]

Picking a random TWST card to draw until I get to all of them or give up

Card 4: Floyd Swimwear SSR

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

The backlash against Frozen, which, from my observation, has cooled down (that isn't a joke, I swear-) quite a bit over the past few years, was less based on the quality of the movie itself and more on the fact that its massive success and reach really overshadowed a lot of other movies that came out prior to it and after it and was getting credited for stuff that had already been done before plenty of times, and in many cases, in those exact movies. This is why, to this day, many fans STILL refuse to give Tangled its props without trying to put Frozen down in some way. In their eyes, Tangled should have gotten the glory and accolades Frozen received, but did not, and that made them quite jealous. Overall, Frozen is far from a bad movie. It's a great movie with a great message, characters, music and does actually deserve the success and recognition it got, and some fans need to stop being so salty about it and uplift their fav movies without putting Frozen down so they get the proper appreciation they deserve as well. Although, yes, the credit this movie got for allegedly introducing themes, archetypes and tropes that had already been seen before in Disney, including movies set in a fairytale world with heroines as the protags, was undoubtedly the most annoying part about its success and is part of the reason why many tried to drag this movie and its main leads.

[singingcicadas]

The way it's depicted, Cybertron's pre-war societal issues had a lot less to do with Functionism and more to do with unchecked government corruption, massive wealth disparity, high layoff/unemployment rates, and disenfranchisement.

People were starving, they needed work, they weren’t getting any. Those that were fortunate enough to have work didn’t get paid living wages, much less have anything to spare for health contingencies. Even then stability’s still the luxury of the top few tiers; they live one cut away from layoff. The government cared only enough to exacerbate these issues by coming up with new ways for exploitation. Any attempts to protest or lobby were shut down through political persecution. As a result the masses turned increasingly to crime, drug abuse, thuggery, and violence. Extreme acts of terrorism gets lauded as long as the collateral damage's suffered by someone else. Morality and caution are eroded in the face of desperation.

Meanwhile the many alleged restrictions of Functionism are just lip service complaints made by the characters which doesn’t match up to most of the stuff we’re shown. Like if Rung could become a psychologist, a specialized job that requires higher education, despite having zero background on top of such a weird alt that he had to be classified as an ornament, then wow the functionists must be open-minded. If Dominus Ambus could be a scientist/doctor/explorer/author/successful social rights advocator during the height of functionist control with a minesweeper military-use alt (assuming that his secondary alt's the same as Minimus'), then wow the functionists must be accommodating. If Tyrest could become chief engineer under Nova and later go into law, a complete change of profession, while being a jet, then wow functionism's flexible. If Ratbat and Momus could become senators in a society that discriminates heavily against beastformers and labor frames, then wow that’s progressive. If every Prime from Nova to Zeta (with the exception of Sentinel, his alt’s a tank, he only has wings in Megatron Origin as part of his Apex armour upgrade), every single named pre-war senator other than Proteus and Momus, and four out of five of Nova Prime’s buddy club (only Galvatron's a grounder) were wingframes in a society that supposedly discriminates against wingframes, then wow that’s… inconsistent worldbuilding.

Megatron didn’t get into bloodsports or start a war because he didn’t get to pursue his dream job. He got driven into the pits and down the slippery slope of moral degeneration because his only source of income was cut off by the mine closure incident. People wanted livelihoods above anything else, it's the failure to provide that that made the miners go off the deep end and resulted in the death of a guard. If Functionism actually ensured that everyone could be guaranteed a job or at least minimized the unemployment rates, then stratified castes or not, there would have been no war. People, or societies, are generally capable of tolerating an incredible amount of injustice as long as the majority still have a chance at scraping by at the end of the day. But the government, and later Megatron, kept yanking the rug out from under everyone over and over until they no longer even had a chance at that; there's no other choice left but fight or die.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Janeway in 'Nothing Human' vs Tuvok in 'Resolutions' There's something here I know there is I can almost wrap my teeth around it.

[fruit-colored-ninja]

I think for me the thing about ninjago that’s its defining trait is that like. there’s always going to be more villains. like yeah there’s literally always going to be more villains because this show just won’t fucking end, but also, the central theme of the show is that there’s always going to be more villains. they’ve acknowledged numerous times that the balance between good and evil is a balance, that every time they defeat the newest big bad there’s going to eventually be something new and terrible that fills the void left behind, and that nothing they do is ever going to change this, but that doesn’t make the victories they do win any less meaningful. It’s about finding hope in the darkest moments, it’s about just barely making it through some of the darkest shit ever and still knowing that there’s probably something even worse somewhere on the horizon and still choosing to celebrate because even if there’s no way to truly win, to secure a permanent happily-ever-after, they still won this time around. and that’s still something worth celebrating.

[marinsawakening]

It's pretty fun for me to play Zelda games in a manner mostly isolated from fandom opinions. Like don't get me wrong I've absorbed a lot of LOZ spoilers, headcanons, interpretations etc. via osmosis, I am not playing these games blind. But regardless of how many spoilers and fanart/fanfic I've seen going through the AO3 tag after playing BOTW was still an Experience because it made me realize that the way I interpret both Link as a character and the game as a whole is apparently completely counter to the majority fandom opinion. Something I was blissfully oblivious to while playing the game.

[angelsdean]

jensen is literally so funny (and so deancoded my god) makes horrified disgusted faces at the vibrating unicorn. proceeds to sit on it and smile knowingly

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

u know i find it quite funny that a significant amount of tumblr will go on and on about how great it is to have morally grey characters or stories that deal with contradictory and complicated things but as SOON as you start talking about how real people and real life scenarios should be treated with the same nuance you get shut down because people seem to refuse to look at things w/o resorting the purely black and white thinking... idk

[bugsbenefit]

okay i'll say it again. i'm personally not a very big fan of the theory that Alice Creel and Karen Wheeler are the same person from a personal perspective. However, looking at the show, i think at this point we should consider it as more of an option because aside from the multiple weird instances about it. i think the most notable is that it's one of the most solid explanations for what Nancy saw in her vision.

Vecna specifically threatening Karen, Holly, and Mike. leaving Ted out. is funny to us from an audience perspective because it allows for the assumption that Nancy just doesn't give enough of a shit about Ted for Vecna to use his death as something shocking.

but this makes very little sense in universe and with the way it was shot:

While Nancy is never shown to be close to Ted it's also clear she doesn't hate him. they're very ambivalent to each other, we rarely even see them in the same scenes. from a character perspective, jumping from this to Nancy not caring if something happened to him is very inconsistent character writing. most people would care if someone in their lives died even if they weren't personally very close. for Nancy to really not care if he died they would require a more negatively afflicted relationship. which they don't have.

the moment is also not played like a joke. the entirety of Nancy's vision serves as foreshadowing to the end of s4 and s5. it's all taken very seriously both by the characters and the audience. Nancy leaving Ted out of her vision is subtle and something we only talk about in hindsight because it's weird Vecna left only him out. causing jokes like "even Vecna says fuck Ted Wheeler" to spring up as an explanation. but the scene isn't shot like a joke and the exclusion of him falls flat. it was just subtle enough to be there and pass by ga's prime focus since no character drew attention to it, or asked afterwards "what about your dad?" "what about my dad?" which would have made it an actual joke and given pay off to this weird list. but none of this happens. Ted is just Missing from the vision and we're moving on. it's not played like something funny to notice, Nancy is crying and everyone is serious.

so. why IS Ted missing from the vision? summing up what we know:

it does not come across like a joke at all. without drawing attention to it the GA misses it, causing the joke to not work. and even more attentive audiences who pick up on it, recognize it's not really a funny haha joke. and while we can try and turn it into something jokey and say it's because Ted is stupid and nobody likes him, that explanation makes much less sense for the characters themselves. Nancy and Ted don't have a bad enough relationship as far as we're shown to justify Nancy suddenly not caring if he died. he's still a person she sees every day, even without a parental bond she would at least have an opinion on him dying.

so if this dialogue doesn't serve the purpose of character development/ exposition or comedy, why is it there?

well like the rest of the vision, it's part of the points that pretty straightforwardly tell us what will happen next season. s5 will have a creature with a gaping mouth, monsters all over Hawkins, and the Wheeler family minus Ted in danger.

Mike being in danger here makes sense since he's already hinted at being a central character in s5. both from a "return to s1" perspective, because of the "love triangle" plot and painting plot that include him, AND the fact that him and Will had a whole scene dedicated to planning Vecna's death as a conclusion to the season. Mike and his relationship with Will and the overall story are being highlighted so him subsequently being in danger because of that is a given. (there's also the whole argument to be made of Mike getting targeted Specifically because of Will as a bargaining tool) still, why Holly and Karen would have that same target on their back is a little bit more unclear as of now.

but the Real question is why Vecna doesn't include Ted when he already lists the whole Wheeler family by name. naming three people and then being too lazy for a fourth is... pointed. again i've made it clear i do believe Nancy would be sad if Ted died. there's also the opposite question to be raised: why does Vecna go to Nancy and show her Karen, Holly, and Mike specifically? there's other people Nancy is close to, arguably even closer with than with Mike for example since the two of them Also have a very minimal bond. Vecna showing her Jonathan dead, or any of the kids, Steve, even Robin by this point. it would hurt her just as bad. if not worse. because Nancy is Not a family oriented character. she doesn't value her family over her friends, the whole blood is thicker than water is bullshit to her and her characterization shows that, she's actively afraid of repeating the suburban nuclear family life her mother chose. Nancy is NOT more scared of her family dying than she is of her friends dying.

so this raises even More questions now as if the one we have isn't out there enough already. into the question pile it goes:

why does Vecna only show her her family and no one else when it would arguably be equally as shocking for her, if not more so in some cases? why is only Ted missing? and honestly why does Vecna even show Nancy the vision? (there were 7 people present so it was a 1/7 chance it would be her. why didn't he go for Steve standing right next to her? he had to pick one of them but given he had 7 options and seemingly no bias towards any of them we can question this choice.)

as of now we can't answer any of these questions, we'll need more insight from s5 to understand what Vecna is trying to get at here. however, this is where the theory comes back in because as of now it's one of the only things that actually Could explain it.

if Karen was actually Alice Creel and somehow survived that night. (there's a Lot to say about this but this i'll get into it on another post) it would mean Henry's attempt at familicide went even worse than originally thought. not only did his father survive but his sister would have lived as well and even gone on to have a family of her own after the fact. Victor tells us that he fears the "demon" will return, kill him for good, even Vecna himself tells Nancy he's interested in paying Victor a visit soon, so by that we can assume Henry is finishing his sloppy family murder that really only killed his mom next season. (and in all honesty, i don't see Victor surviving it, he's got death flags all over him)

but this presents a new possibility. Alice, now having children of her own, means that Henry's original family he wanted to kill is now extended by a nephew and two nieces he didn't have before. which raises the question: why wouldn't he want them dead too? Henry's murders were never about the people he Lived with, it was targeted at his family specifically - it was about the ideals he hated so much and what their superficially perfect happy nuclear family embodied despite being "bad people" on the inside, according to Henry's perception.

so when Henry finally goes back on what he announced to Nancy and kills his family for real next time, who would he classify as family? just Victor and Alice? or Alice's children who are his blood relatives as well?

because "Mom, and Holly... Mike" would be the exact list of Henry's living relatives according to this theory. minus of course Victor (locked in Pennhurst) and Nancy herself (the one receiving the threat).

and this would also finally give us an explanation of why Ted wasn't included in the vision. being a random well-earning man Karen married years ago he has no blood relation to the Creel family and therefore no significant role in a potential familicide. giving us the explanation that it's not Nancy who doesn't care about him dying but actually Vecna, since he would really just be a Random Guy to him.

this theory would all in all go to explain why:

the 1/7 chance of having the vision fell on Nancy.

Vecna then went out of his way to give her his whole tragic backstory in an immersive dia show instead of us seeing it through El's NINA memories

AND why Ted Wheeler is weirdly missing from the threats known family killer Henry Creel makes.

again, i'm personally not a die hard believer of this theory myself, but at this point there's a lot that would make infinitely more sense when placed with the backdrop of this theory. for this scene alone it's the only solid explanation as of now to really give us a reason as to what could be going on here. of course we're still missing the facts s5 will give us but with what we're working with right now? this theory is actually a lot less crack-y than i initially believed.

(ngl i was pretty anti this theory at first. again, not the biggest fan of the "and they're related" trope in general so it's not my full jam. but I have to consider it at this point because there's just so much in canon hinting at it. it'll either actually be what canon goes for or it's supposed to be a deliberate audience misguide and fakeout to leave people guessing for s5 because there's Too Much going on here. this scene is just the tip of the iceberg too, i'm genuinely amazed how much there actually is both in the show as well as narrative wise)

[hazmatazz]

unpopular opinion: everyone should shut up :)

[mikodrawnnarratives]

After she successfully pushes everyone away in her goal of surviving. After she gets what she needs. Her blood crawling for more. More more it is not enough it will never be enough she needs more. After all that...

Do you think Maggie can't escape the silence? The empty and hollow feeling in her gut? She opens the door to the apartment she can finally pay toward, and there is not a noise. The buzz in her veins as if doused in ice cold water. With the truth of it all.

There is no annoying nerd chatting on about how wonderful the world is, joking incessantly. No sandy haired boy looking at her with the most flabbergasted face that she's come over through the window again. That boy would probably think it was amazing she got this far.

Do you think Maggie would crush every one of those thoughts under her heel when she remembers pushing him away too?

No one to boss her around. No one to scorn her for what she's done to get here. No one.

Just silence.

Do you think, in an empty room, as the divide between Heroes and Villains escalates outside, do you think she'd sit down and have no choice to listen to the echo. The only comfort she can allow herself being to wrap her arms around herself and imagine it was someone else? I think so. I like think she'd hug herself as she slides to the floor. Alone. In the silence. The screaming, glass shattering silence.

And maybe, she'd wonder, why did she survive.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I find it so fascinating how Hawks admires the Todoroki family for sticking together despite the abuse because he never did that with his abusive parents. How he specifically paints himself in an unfavorable light compared to them because he, in his own words, hardens his heart and cuts himselff off clean from people. Because if we're talking about characters who stay loyal to those close to them even if they've done horrible things. Characters who Hawks has recently interacted with in a significant manner.

Well, I could think of someone.

And isn't it interesting how that's exactly what he did? Set aside any affection he had for Twice to cut him off, quite a bit more literal this time?

And even now he admires twice for not being like that. He acknowledges that twice is a good person due to how much he cares about his friends, even though that exact quality is what made Hawks kill him. The thing that made Hawks want to save Twice also made "saving" him impossible. Because Hawks' offer to twice is just a repeat of what the hpsc offered him. Leave behind your old life, who you used to be, and any of the people who meant something to you, and come with us. But Twice is not like Hawks. He could never leave behind the league. And I just have to wonder, how did Hawks ever think his offer was going to work? Did he not realize the contradiction at its core? Was it wishful thinking? Or did he know, deep down, and had he already resigned himself to that fate before he ever even opened that door?

[saucetail-hasanewblog]

one thing that is interesting abt the count of monte cristo that I've never seen adapted in retellings is the fact that before he takes vengeance he rewards the people that tried to help him. I mean he still did a gay little speech about retiring the god of Providence and calling upon the god of Vengeance once he was done but still. Real nice of him you know

[bragganhyl]

ngl at times i get the urge to datamine some of the convo files to see if some of the lines Berci is getting are responses to his behavior or just generic lines that a custom Tav gets, but at the same time those lines usually play out in a funny way so i don't want to wreck the illusion