#Miles and gwen are such fantastic characters

[hobiebrownismygod]

Why Spiderman-India/Pavitr Prabhakar is one of the best examples of Indian representation I've seen in a long time

Mumbattan

Lets talk about Earth-50101, Mumbattan, Pavitr's home dimension. Mumbattan is displayed as a beautiful, colorful dimension with lots of traffic, lots of people, and lots of culture. When we see Gwen, Miles and Pav swinging through Mumbattan, we see people wearing saris, people driving scootys, Indian-style billboards and even temples in the surroundings. This is an extremely accurate depiction of large Indian cities.

Mumbattan on the left, Mumbai on the right

See how similar these look?

Now compare this to how Hollywood's Slumdog Millionaire movie depicts India.

Every single movie depicting India made by Hollywood portrays India as a country full of slums and dirty people. I have never seen Hollywood portray India as the beautiful, culture-filled country it is, and I have never seen one of the many beautiful temples, or the advanced cities represented in western media until now. Slumdog Millionaire is a fantastic movie, but India isn't only made up of slums.

Hollywood tends to romanticize struggle and when depicting India, makes it seem like a very depressing country. Yes, there are slums in India. Yes, there are people struggling in India. But that doesn't mean that India isn't beautiful. It doesn't mean India is behind. Mumbattan is the first depiction of India I've seen that I feel portrays the beauty and culture of India well. It is a fantastic representation.

2. Pavitr's personality

One of the most recent and most popular Indian representation series right now is the show, Never Have I Ever. In my opinion, this show is terrible. The main character, Devi Vishwakumar, is the stereotype of all stereotypes and doesn't accurately portray most Desi girls. She is rude, selfish, and extremely narcissistic. Her entire personality is being Indian and I find that extremely hard to watch. They make fun of her by addressing stereotypes like an excess of body hair, fashion, and even accents but instead of shutting down these stereotypes, they amplified them by making fun of them.

In western media, Indians are either portrayed as IT workers, scammers, grocery store owners, or nerdy, try-hard teenagers. Every show with an Indian teenager in it portrays them as cheap, unhygienic or unattractive which I, as an Indian, find extremely offensive.

Pavitr is portrayed as an optimistic Indian teenager who's smart and strong, without bragging about it, proud of being Indian without making it his whole personality and genuinely funny. He isn't portrayed as some skinny, nerdy guy with glasses. In fact, he's literally shown flexing his muscles, and performing well in class without going overboard about it. He's so full of culture, I can't even begin to explain it because I'll never stop. His suit, his mask, his webs, the way he moves, the way he fights, its all beautiful and I could watch for days on end without getting bored.

We were finally served an attractive, funny Indian character who isn't a walking stereotype, who loves and embraces his culture and just seems like an awesome guy to be around. Seeing him on screen made me feel so proud, of my religion and my culture. I hope Hollywood takes notes on this and continues providing the media with proper Indian representation and strong Indian role models for characters!

This article explains everything I said a little better, because I know my writing style can be confusing sometimes. It really goes into depth on how impactful it is on Indians to see this kind of representation for the first time in western media and how important this is.

He's so pretty <3 I'm so proud that I look like him

Might go even more in-depth eventually, I just really wanted to get this off my chest because I love him so much 😭

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

one character trope that i really don't like is what i call the "shipper friend".

basically imagine any piece of media with two love interests. the shipper friend is another character who may be a friend or an acquaintance or someone who knows one or both of these characters, and constantly gushes about how compatible these two are and how they should just kiss already.

i don't know why but this trope pisses me off so much. even when the couple in question is actually compatible and have a good relationship, i still find it so stupid to make the other characters fangirl over the couple, just to make the viewers aware that these two characters are indeed going to be a couple and that you SHOULD ship them.

take Across The Spiderverse, for example. amazing movie, i loved it, and i think Miles and Gwen were pretty cute. they're not like my OTP or anything, but they've got good chemistry and they care about each other, and that's all i need.

i also really liked Pavitr (as a desi person myself, i think he was fantastic representation) but what i didn't like was Pavitr being the shipper friend and constantly using ship lingo to gush about how Miles and Gwen have sooo much chemistry and romantic tension.

it just takes away from the chemistry and compatibility that's already there, and comes off as the writers desperately trying to convince you that this ship is so good, you guys, even the other characters ship it!

it's even worse when the couple isn't compatible or cute. i've mentioned this before but spop has a LOT of instances of this - Scorpia talking about how Adora and Catra have a history and a special connection, Horde Prime saying that Catra cares about Adora, Glimmer and Bow being reduced to the c//a wingmen, etc.

is it not insulting enough to do a piss poor job of writing a good relationship? do you also have to shoehorn in a shit ton of ship fodder in order to convince fans that they should be shipping the adoptive sisters?

[b00inazkaban]

MASTERLIST #2

Navigation!

Let me know if there are any characters you’d like added and I’ll look into it! :)

MARVEL:

☆ Tony Stark

☆ Steve Rogers

☆ Bruce Banner

☆ Natasha Romanoff

☆ Clint Barton

☆ Bucky Barnes

☆ Sam Wilson

☆ Peter Parker

☆ Thor Odison

☆ Loki Laufeyson

☆ Dr. Stephen Strange

☆ Peter Quill

☆ Gamora

☆ Drax the destroyer

☆ Rocket the Racoon

☆ Mantis

☆ Groot

Poly Requests:

STRANGER THINGS:

☆ Steve Harrington: Steve Harrington x FtM reader**

☆ Robin Buckley :

☆ Nancy Wheeler:

☆ Eddie Munson:

☆ Johnathan Byers:

☆ Argyle:

☆ Billy Hargrove:

☆ Mike Wheeler: Little!Mike x GN!CG!Reader

☆ Dustin Henderson

☆ Will Byers

☆ Lucas Sinclair

☆ Eleven Hopper

☆ Max Mayfield

☆ Jim Hopper:

☆ Joyce Byers:

☆ Dmitri Antonov:

Poly Requests:

HARRY POTTER/MARAUDER:

☆ Harry Potter:

☆ Ron Weasley: CG!Ron Weasley x Little!GN!reader

☆ Hermione Granger:

☆ Fred Weasley: CG!Fred Weasley x Little!Fem!Reader

☆ George Weasley: George Weasley x reader ; CG!George Weasley x LittleMale!Reader

☆ Neville Longbottom: Sub!Neville x Dom!Reader**

☆ Draco Malfoy:

☆ Blaise Zambini:

☆ Enzo Berkshire:

☆ Mattheo Riddle:

☆ Theo Nott:

☆ Pansy Parkinson:

Marauders Era or Lighting Era:

☆ Lucius Malfoy:

☆ Narcissa Malfoy:

☆ Severus Snape:

☆ Bellatrix Lestrange:

☆ Barty Crouch Jr. :

☆ Evan Rosier:

☆ Pandora Rosier:

☆ Zahara Zambini:

☆ Regulus Black:

☆ Sirius Black:

☆ Remus Lupin:

☆ Lily Evans:

☆ Marlene McKinnon:

☆ Mary McDonald:

☆ Dorcas Meadows:

FANTASTIC BEASTS:

☆ Newt Scamander:

☆ Thesus Scammander:

☆ Jacob Kowalski:

☆ Queenie Goldstein:

☆ Albus Dumbledore (young):

☆ Gellart Grindlewald (young):

Poly Requests:

CRIMINAL MINDS:

☆Aaron Hotchner

☆ Jason Gideon

☆ Spencer Reid

☆ Derek Morgan

☆ JJ/ Jennifer Jareau

☆ Elle Greenaway

☆ Penelope Garcia

☆ Emily Prentiss

☆ David Rossi

Poly Requests:

BRIDGERTON:

☆ Anthony Bridgerton

☆ Benedict Bridgerton

☆ Colin Briderton

☆ Daphne Bridgerton

☆ Eloise Bridgerton

☆ Simon Basset

☆ Penelope Fetherington

☆ Queen Charlotte (Young)

☆ King George (Young)

Poly Requests:

Queen charlotte x reader x King George

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES:

☆ Leonardo: NSFW alphabet

☆ Raphael:

☆ Donnatelo:

☆ Michelangelo: Mikey x Reader

☆ April O'Neil:

☆ Casey Jones:

Poly Requests:

Poly!TMNT x Fem!Reader; April 4-in-1; turtles are manspreading and you want payback 😚

Poly!TMNT x Fem!Reader; Casey tries to flirt with reader but she puts down the idea and the turtles are proud

TOP GUN:

☆ Pete Mitchell "Maverick"

☆ Bradley Bradshaw "Rooster"

☆ Jake Seresin "Hangman"

☆ Natasha Trace "Phoenix"

☆ Robert Floyd "Bob"

Poly Requests:

THE HOBBIT/LOTR:

☆ Thorin

☆ Bilbo

☆ Fili

☆ Kili

☆ Dwalin

☆ Bofur

☆ Bard

☆ Legolas

☆ Tauriel

☆ Thuranduil

Poly Requests:

TWILIGHT:

☆ Carlisle Cullen

☆ Esme Cullen

☆ Emmet Cullen

☆ Rosalie Cullen

☆ Alice Cullen

☆ Jasper Cullen: CG!Jasper Hale x nb!little!reader

☆ Edward Cullen

☆ Bella Cullen/Swan

☆ Jacob Black

☆ Garrett

The Volturi:

☆ Aro

☆ Caius

☆ Marcus

Poly Requests:

THE HUNGER GAMES:

☆ Katniss Everdeen

☆ Petta Mellark

☆ Finnick Odair

☆ Johanna Mason

☆ Haymitch Abernathy

Poly Requests:

LUCIFER:

☆ Lucifer Morningstar

☆ Mazikeen

☆ Amenadeil

☆ Chole Decker

☆ Linda Martin

Poly Requests:

How To Train Your Dragon:

☆ Hiccup Haddock

☆ Astrid Hofferson

☆ Snotlout

☆ Ruffnut

☆ Tuffnut

Poly Requests:

Across The SpiderVerse:

☆ Miles Morales

☆ Miguel O'Hara

Spider thoughts!

☆ Peter B. Parker

Spider thoughts!

☆ Hobie Brown

☆ Gwen Stacy

☆ Spider-Noir

Spider thoughts!

Poly Requests:

Descendants:

☆ Mal

☆ Evie

☆ Carlos

☆ Jay

☆ Gil

☆ Harry

☆ Uma

Poly Requests:

MATCHUPS/MOODBOARDS:

☆ @thoughtfulcreatornight x Raphael matchup

☆ Anonymous x Remus Lupin matchup

꧁〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎〰︎꧂

I’ve redone my masterlist because I was vey unhappy with my first one, and I wanted to add pictures to go with it! I’ll also be adding all my new work onto here and my old work will be on the first masterlist! Love y’all! 💗

[avelera]

Some slightly more coherent thoughts about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (ATSV) now that I've had a little time to process and long to return to the theater to see it again and again and again:

1 ) Go see it. Holy shit, go see it. Re-watch Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (ITSV) before you go if you have the chance but you don't have to, they recap it well enough and I promise anyway, the first thing you're gonna do when you get home after is turn ITSV on and then scream a bunch because it is all so tightly connected from the very beginning.

2 ) ITSV is a masterpiece. ATSV is more of a masterpiece in the same way that 11 is bigger than 10. They took everything in ITSV, which is a perfect 10/10 and made it 11/10 for this film. I shit you not. It cannot be otherwise expressed with words. Everything is just bigger, faster, bolder, more.

Ok, now getting into some of the more spoiler-y thoughts:

3 ) Loved me those themes of connection and loneliness. When you go back to ITSV, you see it's right there from the start. All of the version of Spider-Man are lonely. They are tired. They're isolated and unsupported and they are all suffering. Miles makes their lives better. They make Miles' life better. This becomes such a huge, huge theme in ATSV as Miles literally breaks the canon, he is the ultimate fix-it fanfic character, every Spider-Man he interacts with gets some element of their tragic backstory fixed. Peter B. reunites with MJ and has a child that brings joy back into his life. Gwen gets a friend again. Pavitr doesn't have to watch his girlfriend's father die. They are no longer doomed by the narrative.

4) Another post commented on how tired Peni looks when we finally see her, but she's not the only one. All of the Spider-People in the Spider-Verse look tired and it is, in fact I'd argue, Miguel's fault. He appealed to their sense of martyrdom to put together an organization that helps people and saves the world(s). BUT he made "maintaining the canon" an aspect of this (a wonderful meta commentary on Miles himself, btw, and all the comic book nerds who want to rehash the same story over and over instead of transforming it into something new and hopeful). Because they had all suffered so much, it followed logically for all the Spider-People that all of their parallel universe selves must also suffer.

This is the crab bucket mentality. Miguel dragged all the Spider-People into the crab bucket with him. He taught them learned helplessness. They're all tired and worn down because they have to keep reliving their own trauma by standing by and making sure these awful things that happened to them continue to happen, over and over. It's the mirror too for any marginalized community where the past generation believes the next one must suffer as they did. But it's exhausting for them to see the misery and do nothing. That's why they're all so tired. It makes sense to them that to be Spider-People, the next generation must suffer as they did but they are also, all of them, heroes and so it wears them down to watch this happen over and over. Miles brings back their energy and joy and their hope by refusing to be doomed by the narrative.

It's wonderful fanfic but it's also fantastic storytelling and it works on so many layers of the story, Doylist and Watsonian, all the way down.

5 ) THIS is a tightly knit story. Every. Single. Element. Ties back to the central story, the central themes. Every line either reveals plot, character, setting, or themes. It is so, so tight as a writer I was gaping. In necessary, if brief, moments of exposition they make sure to keep the screen busy and moving. There's no time for boredom. It is literally so fast that even as someone with ADHD I was sometimes overwhelmed as much as riveted. The few scenes that slowed down to simply fast movie pace felt achingly slow as a result and I bet you they were maybe 30 seconds long.

6 ) I AM. SO HYPED. FOR THE ENDING AND THE SEQUEL IT SETS UP? The perfect dark mirror story, not rushed but simply introduced so we can see that the final boss for Miles is himself. Unless they subvert that expectation, which they might! But it is so ominous to see Prowler Miles, it makes so much sense, it is perfect and deep and rich. Literally every time you think, "Maybe they'll rehash old material?" they don't they just keep introducing cool new characters and concepts and themes it's mindblowing.

7 ) They never leave you with one thread. Miles is going to face himself and fight to save his dad from the Spot and fight Miguel, presumably, in the next one. No single line only does one thing. No frame does one thing. And yet everything ties back to the core story of Miles and the Spider-People both on the Watsonian and Doylist level. I want to study every frame under a microscope. It's insane.

8 ) THE ART IT'S JUST. I'm not an artist so I'll leave it at this but THE ART.

9 ) I love Pavitr and Hobie. So much. I gasped when we saw Pavitr's world.

10 ) The Spot's animation was insane just insane and I think he's foreshadowed in the ITSV and it blew my mind on the re-watch.

I need to see it again. I could talk about any single element for hours. But I just can't stop thinking about the mastery embodied in this film. I know a sequel to a superhero movie that's animated will never win Best Picture but I do not exaggerate when I say that in itself might be an indictment of Best Picture. This film deserves Best Picture. It is the best movie I've seen in an unfathomably long time including ITSV.

[clowningaroundmars]

prowlerbyte hcs

ok..... yall got me. you did. i ship prowlerbyte now 😅 and i'd like to throw out some Thoughts about them bc damnit if this ship doesn't have some Flavor to it that i'd like to share with you all 🤌

both margo and miles g here are from earth 42 tho bc i think miles g has been thru Enough and he deserves someone in his corner in his own universe, besides his family members

LOTS of words under the cut ↓

♡ weirdgirl nerd x edgyboy nerd 100%… you just KNOW IT. miles is absolutely a geek either for comics or anime and he only opens up to his closest friends to let them see that side of him, no one else. margo brings that side out of him often when they meet up (but miles is still p reserved if anyone else is with them)

♡ margo is a fantastic singer and hums mind-blowing runs as easily as she breathes and miles absolutely loves it. when she's depressed, she sings a lot less so whenever she DOES sing that's how he knows she's in a good mood. he loves having her over bc he gets to pull out uncle aaron's old secondhand record player and place rnb and 90's hiphop vinyls on it, playing soulful music that she hums to as they parallel-play or do homework together

♡ when margo first convinced miles to let her do his hair, he was hella worried that his mom would disapprove and chastise him once she saw but she was surprisingly very supportive of it, although a bit hesitant. eventually she was grateful she didnt have to braid her son's hair as often (being a single parent is exhausting enough lol)

♡ rio42 ofc had the same reaction to margo as rio1610 when she 1st met gwen, but when margo eventually started showing up more and more to hang out with the morales fam (and aaron too lol), she grew on rio. they both keep a close eye on miles and try to keep him going towards the right path

♡ in their universe they both go to visions and even have a class together, and they are both very very academically competitive. rio doesn't need to stay on miles' ass about his grades bc margo is right there taunting him with an A+ on a test every single time

♡ they actually ACTUALLY study together in the library or in miles' room during study sessions. neither of them can afford to fall off wrt their grades and they both have big dreams they wanna achieve: margo wants to become a hardlight technician and apply for oscorp (much to miles' chagrin), and miles wants to continue his engineering and robotics career so he can provide for his whole family

♡ margo's parents constantly fighting means she is often over at miles' house more than he is at hers. it actually took her an embarrassingly long amount of time to finally invite him over because she never wanted her parents to know he even existed, let alone actually meet him at all. miles was at first kinda offended she didn't want him to meet her parents even after they got together but when he heard them arguing in the background during a call one day, he finally Understood

♡ after he found out about her crappy home life (and also secretly told rio), she was welcome to stay more often at his place. she has a blanket, a few clothes and several diff books and console games lying around in his room

♡ it honestly also took them both a ridiculously long time to finally start dating. everyone around them shipped them but they remained friends for a long time bc miles was just too closed off and scared to let anyone into his private life like that. also i hc they are both on the ace spectrum but don't realize it until later (listen i see purple characters and i HAVE to wave the ace wand on them ok 😭)

♡ margo is sometimes frustrated at miles for being so secretive and hiding his emotions behind walls, as goofy and dorky as he can be. she wishes he would just come out and be more honest about his feelings but understands that after his dad's passing, its harder for him to communicate his emotions

♡ she was the one who asked him out first, actually. he was beating around the bush way too much and so she finally put her foot down and initiated the relationship

♡ in public or with strangers they are: sunshine x sunshine protector. in private or with family n friends they are: "EXCUSE ME! miles asked for no pickles ☝️" esp since margo is the extrovert and he's the introvert.

♡ miles is actually p jealous and protective of margo and she finds that hilarious.

"i don't need any protecting, babe. i am a certified badass," margo says, flipping her box braids.

miles laughs, winding boxing wraps around his hands and standing in front of his giant punching bag. he looks over at his girlfriend sitting on a bean bag, with her adorable kitten t-shirt and fluffy sweater and grins even wider. "yeah… aight, sure thing."

margo scoffs, noticing his line of sight and looking very offended. "i may look cute and unassuming but that's exactly what i want our enemies to think! it gives me an advantage!"

miles hums, nodding. "mhm. advantage to do what, exactly?"

margo throws an empty soda can at him, which miles easily dodges as he laughs harder.

♡ it's funny, bc on the outside they seem like the stereotypical traditional straight relationship with a macho boy and sweetheart girl. but in reality they're both sarcastic snippy geeks who can both throw down in any verbal argument. and miles adores his gf, he's completely whipped for her. lets her paint his nails and everything, and if anyone tries to make fun of him for it, he doubles down and threatens to fight them over it

♡ they are THAT couple that wears lowkey matching outfits every once in a while. they actually enjoy shopping together which was a relief for both of them bc miles LIVES just to go sneaker shopping and margo absolutely loves trying new things on in the dressing room. theyre also both fashionistas in their own ways and love to accessorize. they swap accessories a lot

♡ whenever they hit up a bookstore, they are the first to head right on over to the manga section. right afterwards, they make a beeline over to the science fiction section and compare their purchases together after leaving

♡ miles is absolutely the "idc what my girl wears bc i know how to fight" boyfriend. margo doesn't go out in revealing outfits or anything, but looking a little TOO adorable in a dystopian city can sometimes paint a target on your back and so miles makes sure she's with him at all times if she wants to put her braids up into heart buns or wear a dress outside

♡ any hardware or mechanical problem that margo has, she takes it straight to miles. miles takes any software or coding issues he has to margo. if those software issues have anything to do with his prowler gear, however… he tries to isolate the issue and explain in vague terms what the problem is to avoid telling his gf he's actually the prowler

♡ no, he has not revealed to margo that he is the prowler yet. he's terrified to see her face when she inevitably finds out anyways, just KNOWING it would doom their relationship to a breakup if she ever figured it out. he does everything in his power to keep her from finding out his secret, even if it means disappointing her when he misses out on dates they set together

♡ they are both total champions at whatever multiplayer video game they get hooked onto. their personal faves are mmorpgs and battle royale games, but they are UNBELIEVABLY competitive when it comes to party games and even board games. they absolutely wipe the floor if they get to team up together

♡ tbqh they're the EXACT level of nerdy that they would consider playing video games in their separate homes as a date. "mmorpg and chill babe?" miles texts margo sometimes as a joking way to ask her on an online date. every minute they spend on voicechat as they kick digital ass together counts as quality time for sure

♡ even tho she's kind of embarrassed about it, margo has an absolutely huge plushie and figurine collection. she was worried miles would judge her SUPER HARD for her lowkey (highkey) special interest in anime figures when he 1st came over to her room, but immediately felt relieved when miles practically flew up to a rare figure she got secondhand from a japanese seller online and started ooohing and aaahing about it

♡ he actually tries to put aside whatever he earns prowling around the city for his mom first. then whatever's left over goes right to margo. he likes taking her out shopping and letting her pick out two or three things and seeing her beam like a sunrise before giving him a kiss on the cheek

♡ miles tries to hide his prowling behind the excuse of getting a job with his uncle at the family auto shop. every time he has a job to do or needs to leave suddenly, he blames it on "an emergency/new car job at the garage". margo eventually starts hating the word "garage"

♡ get either of these 2 to start talking abt their special interest, and it will be like Infodump City in there in 2 secs flat. they listen to each other's infodumping with hearts in their eyes, ESPECIALLY miles. margo goes "hey can i just rant to you about my new interest rq" and he goes "yes ma'am 🥰"

♡ everyone thinks margo is the one who cooks and cleans but hell no. miles is a neat freak whose room is the total opposite of margo's and he spends a lot of time alone at home when his mom is working a double shift and his uncle is out trying to secure another job for them. he knows how to cook like a damn chef by the time he's 16 (and also rio42 is not a toxic boymom. she will not raise any lazy needy son, her boy WILL know how to do laundry, cook meals and wash the damn dishes!)

♡ margo on the other hand tries to avoid the kitchen as often as possible and gets panic attacks when having to clean anywhere else but her own room bc of bad memories of having to sweep up broken glass after hearing her parents have violent fights that left the apartment in tatters. she never got to learn how to cook bc they never taught her, either

♡ margo is actually p traumatized from her parents' constant hateful fighting that she tries to squash down or hide behind a confident mask. but sometimes it pops up in ugly ways like when miles accidentally slams a cupboard door too loudly or a sarcastic comment sounds a little too bitter. her knee-jerk reaction is to always distance herself from miles a bit as a coping mechanism, which they had to work through

♡ miles' own grief and loss traumatized him beyond belief too ofc. after his dad's passing, his anxiety grows and he becomes more withdrawn, easily tired, and forgetful. it becomes worse after he becomes the prowler, bc dipping into the NYC underworld every so often gives p much anyone a healthy dose of paranoia. plus it takes some time away from his gf on top of all of that.

♡ if they're ever at parties or get-togethers at all, its always margo initiating conversations and meeting with people, making introductions and chatting happily. she always happens to have a quiet, chill miles-shaped shadow with her the whole time

♡ if margo was going to date miles, he told her one time, she was GOING to learn how to dance bachata and salsa. throw in a lil reggaeton in there as they get older and rio becomes a TINY bit more chill with seeing them on the dancefloor. they actually become much better at dancing together as they practice at family reunions and birthday parties

♡ miles carries around plush keychains and other trinkets that remind him of margo. he's a total sap when it comes to her, even if he tries to hide just how much he loves her sometimes. his phone's lockscreen is something dark or aesthetic like a city skyline or whatever but then when he unlocks it, margo is always his wallpaper

♡ aaron likes margo, he really does. he worries that miles doesn't have enough friends but he's happy that his nephew has a gf that is genuinely good for him. they all have a great time together whenever they do get downtime to chill together, like playing cards or helping aaron clean the garage

♡ that being said, aaron loves to pretend to sabotage their relationship as a running joke and watch miles get all riled up about it. it is hilarious to him, never gets old.

they're giving the garage connected to the autoshop its bimonthly deep clean just ahead of the yearly inspection.

it's a sunday, the only day of the week that the shop is closed for business and miles is on corner duty once they get down to the concrete floor. he's tasked with using the short hard brush attached to a long wooden handle to scrub the dust and grime out of the neglected corners. margo is scrubbing the middle with a much bigger sturdier widebroom, and aaron--being the tallest ofc-- has the duster on an extendable handle, swiping through the metal rafters and high shelves.

he notices miles struggling a bit with a mysterious stain in one corner, repeatedly attacking it before finally crouching down to shove the brush even harder against the floor with his hands.

aaron casually sneaks backwards and catches margo's attention with a smirk and a point of his chin. she swings her gaze around to her slightly frustrated boyfriend crouched down into a corner and starts giggling.

aaron grins as he suddenly says, "so yeah, thats why i got miles here on corner duty, usually. y'know being a little guy and all, he can do all that that someone as tall as me can't really do anymore yanno what i'm sayin? he's real good in those small spaces. that's why i'm up here, dustin' these rafters."

scandalized, miles springs back up with a "hey!!" and a withering glare shot their way. margo bursts out laughing.

♡ miles is the little spoon and margo is the big spoon, fight me abt it. his fave cuddling position is actually when his arms are wrapped around her and her cheek is laid against his head. otherwise, he loves his weighted blanket, and margo loves her warm mattress ♡ when they're home alone and on the couch watching movies, his back is usually to her side as he half-lays on her, using her arm as a pillow

♡ margo is def not a sports kind of girl but she tries for her bf. he and aaron are very much into basketball which she tries to keep up with just to join in on their convos. she always attends miles' boxing matches tho, ofc. she actually likes watching boxing matches in general! aaron gives her some old tapes of his own matches when he was younger and that's how margo gets into televised mma fights and ufc. she's always cheering for miles the loudest in the audience

♡ miles actually uses margo sometimes in his workouts. the proudest day of his life was when he was able to have margo laying on his back as he did pushups, and he made it to 10 before tiring himself out. she's the one holding his feet down as he does sit-ups and ab crunches. she tries to join in on his workouts too, and gets p good with the speedbag relatively quickly!

♡ miles-- being the paranoid guy he is-- happens to be the one to teach margo all of the effective self-defense moves. she thinks he's always exaggerating the danger out on the streets but she can't lie sometimes; whenever she's out past sunset with her keys in between her knuckles, she's just a TINY bit glad that miles taught her how to escape a rear chokehold

♡ margo is the soc media girl who is embarassingly online and posts about anything and everything of her life. new website coded? met a stray cat on her way over to miles'? bought a new manga? invented a cool gadget? they always show up in her followers soc media feed. she tries to get miles to pose for pics with her but he's mostly content to just be the guy behind the camera tbh. his own soc media account is pretty boring and bare since he rarely ever posts. he's got other things on his mind, errands to run

♡ the one and only time margo has ever seen miles cry was right after his dad died. the whole neighborhood got the news and she ran straight over to miles' apartment the minute she could. they climbed into his bed (the only time rio didn't reprimand them for it) and he just sobbed his heart out while they held each other for a real long time. she brought over homework and notes when he stayed home from school to recuperate

[punkeropercyjackson]

Nonblack Atsv fans stop acting like Punkflower's popularity and Ghostpunk's chemistry is oppression.Punkflower was popularized by black folks wanting black queer love and it's a good faith ship between two minors with a 2 year age difference with the older one having black kid adultification trauma and the younger one who's also black and growing up too fast trauma himself helping him them feel like a real kid.You think Miles and Hobie are 'brothers-coded'?Yeah,of course you'd think the two non-related black boys are brothers,you're nonblack.You got that propaganda and superiority complex all up in there and you ain't unlearned jackshit because you don't actually see Hobie as anything but a minstrel show with punk spice thrown in and that's so disrespectful and disgusting on so many levels,that you'd take our character,an afropunk as black people made punk and y'all took it from us and now you're trying to make Hobie yours too.Get over yourselves-If Punkflower was wonderbread yaoi,you'd be tripping over yourselves to call them your precious t4t disaster canon gays uwu like you do with Steve and Eddie from ST,Hunter and Edric from Toh and countless other white gay ships that don't have NEITHER the strong of a bond or romantic potential Punkflower does,including y'all's lil pedo ships like them Teen Wolf hoes.You mad at the niggas existing positively,don't lie

And Ghostpunk,wether you like it or not and you clearly don't since you have no taste or rizz,is the canon queer Spiderverse ship because Gwen and Hobie are implied to both be trans(trans girl/unlabeled gnc trans)so they're a queer m/f ship,t4t m/f specifically.Daniel Kaluuya stated in an interview how deep Gwen and Hobie's friendship goes is 'entierly up to them' i.e we're cool to interpret Gwobie or Siblings!Ghost Punk and either is equally valid according to the crew themselves and they did a fantastic job at writing that,as Gwen and Hobie's closeness is very easy to read as romantic or platonic with both making equal sense to their interactions and the background we're given to their dynamic.But as always,nonblacks gotta prove themselves the far ultimate right ones and can't shut the fuck up about how there's no indication of a character who's first fact we learned was going to a direct quote be a ROMANTIC rival for the mc to his love interest with no takebacks to it by anyone in the team and don't know what 'anarchy' means either by throwing norms to 'prove' their points.Y'all just mad that Ghostpunk being heavily implied as romantic means you can't write Hobie as a stereotype of black toxic masculinity and by extension misogynoir or some triffling ass poser who chases after 'good girls' as if he's even a bad boy to begin with and Gwen proved Hobie is punk4punk with her pastel punk subculture and THAT is a realistic punk dude x girl character ship dynamic and the actual 'improvement' to their relathionship as a romance is biracial lightskin afrolatino/black Gwen since she should've been adapted as black to begin with for rep

You're a nonblack who hates Punkflower or Ghostpunk or Ghostpunkflower?Keep that shit to yourself.You should be embarrased

@a-hypnos-v @weirdo09

[clay-tries-his-best]

! atsv spoilers !

when i sat down in my theatre seat to see atsv im telling you i was being the most autistic fuck you've ever witnessed. you could practically see the sparkles in my eye, dude.

the spot. my godddd he's so silly. the marketing ploy to make him seem like the side villain from the trailers was so fucking smart. I really thought that Miguel was going to be the main villain considering him fighting miles in pracgjcalky every trailer ever and being in the post-credits scene of itsv. and miles dealing with having to be everywhere at once was very realistic and gave me the classic "oh my god this poor boy this is painful to watch". oh and gwen's beginning scene of the drums just gave me the feeling that the movie was going to be fantastic. like, betrayal, amazing visuals, more gwen?? already a wonderful start. also the fact that the spot's whole reason to turn into a major villain is that nobody, not even the person who caused his disfigurement, would take him seriously- like- HUH???? perfect. wonderful. bro just wanted miles to pay attention to him for a little while.

Pavitr and Hobie were also really great additions to the spider team. Despite the fact that Hobie's accent was so thick and deep that I couldn't understand what he was saying a good third of the time, he still managed to work his way into my top 5 characters of the movie. THAT is good character building. At first I thought he was going to be the stereotypical love rival, considering his first mention was miles getting jealous of him and gwen being friends. I was worried that was how the story was actually going to go when he upstaged miles by breaking done the collider force field, but hes actually a really chill and cool guy. pretty sure he even roots for gwen and miles, so that's pretty funny. Pavitr was also super funny with a great character design. " Chai means tea, you're just saying tea tea! " was probably one of my favorite lines / jokes from the whole movie. His world was also very pretty and SUPER detailed. Props to every artist for Mumbatten.

Miguel and Peter B.'s dynamic was really fun to watch as well. This cryptic emo ass mastermind vampire who has watched people die and destroyed a universe next to this middle aged man in a pink fuzzy bathrobe who's oogling over his daughter. also, the line where Miguel said " I've had the right amount of you today " to peter b instead of " I've had enough of you " like the normal saying goes was kinda queer. just saying. but yeah, great villain, and I do want to see him in the final battle against spot, but I eventually don't want him to be the one to beat spot, y'know? If it was to be anyone, it's obviously going to be miles. Whether it's just miles or miles and gwen or miles and the gang gwen assembled at the end of atsv (WHICH HAD SPIDERNOIR YESSS SPIDERNOIR FANS LETS GOOOOOOO I HAD THE STUPIDEST SMILE ON MY FACE WHEN I SAW HIM IM TELLKNG YOU), in the end it's still gotta be miles.

the collider scene with the spot was really cool. spot may be silly, but he's not dumb enough to be " saved " by his archnemesis who only cared about him when he was about to become a transdimensional eldritch horror. boss move. his final form was really pleasing to look at because you can just see the detail that went into it. Looking at some screenshots, I noticed there were a lot of eyes and I'm pretty sure I saw a version of spiderman (original world 1610 peter, possibly?) staring at miles / the audience. despite him not showing up for another hour, hour and a half, I wasn't mad. If a movie can avoid showing the main villain for that long and still have them integrated properly, just, wow. blown away. oh and this part made me even more interested because his beginning ost, spot 1, I think? his random beats and tunes sounded more silly and disorganized and clumsy, like him trying to take the atm. near the end, he got spot 2, which was more shrill and frightening. I'm not musically trained, and I could still tell that it was scarier, and to me, they sounded very similar. To not have too far of a difference between the two and stroke two entirely different chords is just. ugh. wow.

don't even get me started on prowler miles... RAHHH THE CHARACTER AND WORLD DESIGN FOR UNIVERSE 42!!!! it was so beautiful and scary and breathtaking because there is. no. spiderman. when miles's mom didn't know what he was talking about and gwen wasn't really outside, it hit me like a brick in the head. and alternate aaron??? hello??? he made me physically uncomfortable because of how terrifying his face was. i couldnt even tell if he was wearing makeup or he was just that dramatjcally shaded. the turn miles does to see that it was his dad painted on the wall instead of aaron.... GRAHHHHHH

as an aspiring artist, I can say nothing but wow. that movie, the fact that it was 2 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES???? HELLO??? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK THAT MUSTVE TOOK??? unbelievable. and you know that sony felt bad for making us wait on a cliffhanger, so they probably were around 3/4 done with atsv and started working on beyond, so we didn't have to wait as long as we would've if they finished atsv and then started beyond. I'm so glad that those 5 years in the Sony team paid off, because that. was. amazing. my depression is vaporized. im going feral, going wild, going insane. i will not think of anything else until beyond is out. can't wait to see my bbg spot have his villain moment in March 2024!!! <333

[brighterdaysarebeforeus]

Found this prompt here and just couldn’t help myself!! This is silly, I think, and maybe a little off character, maybe, but I couldn’t help it. (>.<)

Also as an apology for taking so long with the a/b/o verse, which came out a few minutes ago (and by proxy, taking so long with the a whole new world verse, which should come out tomorrow as well)!!

Enjoy!!

When Hobie imagined being part of theater, he hadn’t quite imagined this; he’d thought he’d spend his time backstage, helping with costume changes or prop handling, maybe even just dealing with the set pieces and set changes.

And that’s sort of what he’s done, if he’s being honest, the past three years or so of theater classes and he’s done a little bit of everything backstage-wise; he’s done lighting and sound, he’s done set building and prop making (though technically the whole class was part of that, so…), he’s done costuming —

And then Gwen, Gwennifer, Gwendolyn (she hates when he calls her random names, it’s great), anyway — then Gwen insisted she needed help with her audition for their production of Cinderella, and Hobie tried to fight her on it but he’d lost. Which, honestly, was whatever because it wasn’t like it was Hobie who was trying to audition, specifically, and so it wasn’t likely Hobie was going to get casted as anything anyway, right?

Wrong. Apparently, dead wrong.

When all was said and done, Gwen got cast as an evil stepsister (how? She didn’t even read for the stepsister?), Pavitr got cast as an evil stepsister (how?), Peni was the fairy godmother (which…ok, sort of worked, that was fine), Margo was cast as Cinderella (that actually tracked, ok), Miles was cast as the evil stepmother (how??), and somehow…somehow Hobie got casted as the prince (HOW?), which…

Hobie tried to fight it, just a little; he didn’t particularly care for being onstage, he was much more used to being backstage with other responsibilities, he wasn’t even auditioning for anything anyway — didn’t matter. Peter wouldn’t let him step down or put, just kept telling him it would be good for him to break out of the shadows one time. Hobie’d scowled at that but, ultimately realizing that it was pointless, just gave in and let it happen.

Might as well, right?

They’d had a couple of good rehearsals thus far, mostly just reading the line from the script book in a circle with each other; they got in trouble several times for getting off topic or ad-libbing stupid lines that would never make it into the final cut (like when they got to the part where Hobie found the shoe after a very long hour of them all messing around and he said, “ah, I’ll let her go, not really worth it, is it?” and made the whole cast burst into giggles; Peter didn’t look amused but Miles did, and Hobie didn’t particularly care how Peter took it as long as Miles thought it was funny).

Honestly, though Hobie liked theater a lot (really he did — the fun parts of building the show before the live event, the stress of making sure things went smoothly once they went live, the joy and melancholy that came with putting on a fantastic show — all of the was great and fun, and Hobie was having the time of his life doing it), he liked being in theater with Miles specifically a lot more. Miles had been Peni and Gwen’s friend first, and had spent the first few theater sessions with them being slightly weary of Hobie while Hobie put his foot in his mouth continually around him, but they were past that now. Partly because it seemed like he had a crush on Gwen and realized after a couple of weeks that Hobie wasn’t trying to make a move on her.

Hobie thought it was mostly because at one point, Miles looked like he was ready to fight one of the other teachers about unfair casting practices, and Hobie had ensured that he knew he was on his side for it if things went down. It didn’t end up in flames, at least, but Miles seemed to be more open with Hobie after that, more friendly with him. And Hobie —

Well. Hobie knew Miles had a crush on Gwen, so that was that, wasn’t it?

Anyway, they’d moved on from regular script memorization onto adding movement to the scenes; the theater was booked for their use, and Pav and Hobie were play fighting on the stage while Gwen shouted encouragements to both boys (“I can’t pick favorites!” was her argument, “you’re both my friends, I want you both to win!” and Hobie had told her “that’s cowards talk, mate!” but she wouldn’t budge up) while they waited for everyone else to show up for rehearsal.

Hobie had just gotten Pav in a headlock, rubbing his knuckles into his hair and mussing it up while he shrieked, when Miles came in followed by Peni and Peter. He looked a bit resigned, calling them to attention as soon as he got the front.

“So Margo had some family thing at home and she can’t make it.” He said, and the teens groaned, “but! We can still get a rough start of the blocking today, and refine it more when Margo comes back, so chop chop!”

“Wait, then who’s gonna play Cinderella?” Hobie asked, jumping off the stage and falling carelessly into the theater seat. The one good thing about playing the prince, in his opinion, was that he didn’t have to be onstage all that much. Just the ball scene, and the final twenty minutes or so, and that was all. Easy, for the most part.

“Uhhh — ”

“I can play her for the beginning part!” Peni volunteered, throwing her hand up. “I’ll just need someone to play opposite of when it’s my turn.”

“Miles can fill in.” Gwen said before anyone else could say anything. She had a glint in her eye that made Hobie uneasy in a way, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

“Great!” Peter said brightly, clapping his hands together. “We’ll also skip some of the more Margo specific parts she’ll need to be here for, like the ball dancing scene and the monologues she has, and go from there. Let’s go!”

Hobie knew he tuned out most of the rehearsal in front of him; he didn’t really need to focus, his part was only the last bit right now (thanks Margo) so when it was his turn to go up he almost missed his cue. It took Peter elbowing him in the side for him to even look up from his phone, and then to the stage where the group was assembled. Gwen was giving him a wide eyed look, one that read ‘get up here now’, and Hobie only blinked at her for a moment before scrambling up onto the stage.

She and Pav were on either side of Miles, who was sitting in the chair Margo was meant to be sitting in. Hobie frowned a bit, glancing around and realizing that Peni had vanished.

“Just keep going for now.” Peter called out, pencil in hand as he watched the teens onstage. “From your line, Hobie.”

“Right, uh.” Hobie pulled his script out, flipping to the last couple of pages. Gwen smacked her forehead into her palm, loud enough that it echoed upstage, and Pav snickered into his palm. “I do request that every girl in this house try on the shoe.”

“Surely not every girl,” Pav said brightly, “for there are but two here in this household!”

“Then who is this?” Hobie gestures towards Miles, and Peter’s pencil scratched against the paper.

“None but the serving girl, who couldn’t have gone to the ball,” Gwen added, “for she had many chores to occupy her time, and nothing to wear besides.”

“I said every girl and I meant it.” Hobie stepped forward. “Whether she was there or not, she shall try on the shoe.” He kneeled down, blinking up at Miles, who looked like he was embarrassed. Unable to stop himself, Hobie reached out and grabbed Miles’s leg. Miles stared down at him, wide eyed and looking like he would be bright red if he could be, and Hobie pretended to put a shoe on him.

“It fits?” Gwen said, pretending to be startled.

“It fits!” Pav sounded, still, very bright and happy for being a stepsister who wasn’t going to be marrying into royalty.

“You’re the one I’ve been searching for.” Hobie said, standing up. Miles stood up with him, staring up at Hobie, and Hobie pressed his lips together for a brief second before pressing them lightly against Miles’s cheek. Miles squeaked, and suddenly everything stopped; Peter’s pencil against the paper, the quiet squealing that had been coming from Pav from his right, the whispered encouragement from Gwen.

“Ah, this is…a rehearsal, guys?” Peter said slowly from the seats, “there’s…there’s not really a need for — ”

“Right, right, sorry.” Hobie cleared his throat, pulling back and putting some space between him and Miles.

They continued onwards with the scene, though Hobie couldn’t bring himself to look Miles in the eye for the rest of the play and it felt like Miles couldn’t stop staring at him the entire time.

Afterwards, he sort of wanted to dip right away, but Gwen grabbed hold of his arm and was chattering to him about something or other while Pav was talking to Miles by the bottom of the stage.

With a heavy sigh, Hobie patted Gwen’s shoulder and made his way over to where the other two boys were, making Miles fall silent and Pav practically skip away from the two of them.

“Hey, Hobie.” Miles said brightly, shuffling a little and looking shy. Hobie smiled down at him, shifting slightly in place.

“Hey, mate.” He glanced away, to where Peni had rejoined the group magically, standing in a little crowd with Pav and Gwen by the door. “Look, I just wanted to say — ”

“You-You did great today!” Miles said loudly, and Hobie was startled into silence. “I just…I mean, you-you had, like, some real natural kind of movements, for blocking, you know, I don’t think Peter’s pencil stopped moving, like, once, you know?”

“Yeah…” Hobie trailed off, took another deep breath, and said it as quickly as possibly. “Look, man, I’m sorry. About the kiss, you know?” Miles’s mouth slid shut slowly and he gave Hobie a sort of unreadable look. He pressed on. “Peter was right, today was only the first day of blocking? Not even a reason for it, really. Should’ve asked, at least.”

“Well…” Miles took a breath, and it was Hobie’s turn to blink in surprise. Miles glanced at their friends as well, then stood up straight. “If you want, you can-you can get permission. Later. On…on a date?”

“Like a movie date?” Hobie asked, and the breath seemed to go out of Miles all at once. He looked less nervous, somehow, more excited as he bounced a couple of times on his toes.

“Yeah, maybe this Friday?” He added. “At six?”

“At six.” Hobie confirmed with a nod. Miles beamed at him, then leaned up as best as he could. Hobie leaned down a bit to humor him, pressing his lips together to hide the grin that wanted to bust out when Miles pressed his lips against his cheek.

“It’s a date!”

[phantomrose96]

Okay since I'm waiting for laundry, I'm gonna write up some fuller thoughts on the new Spider-verse. Spoilers abound beneath the readmore!

So I'm gonna start with the good, because it really WAS a good movie. The main thing working against it is that it's the successor to the original Spider-verse, which was such a master-class in style and storytelling.

Things I loved:

I'll shout out the animation to start, because how can you not. Absolutely lives up to the original Spider-verse and more with "oh this is giving me chills" style and animation. The whole sequence of Gwen saving people at the Gugenheim absolutely awed me.

Speaking of Gwen, Gwen. That whole first half-hour-ish of Gwen-focused screentime was so, so good... Loved her character-development. Loved her banter. Loved all the jokes and goofs and punch-out back and forth during the Gugenheim fight against... villain whose name I'm forgetting. Miguel showing up was great. Jess showing up was even better.

Gwen unmasking herself to her father was so so good... That was the precise moment I went "oh, yeah, I want to come see this again." This then rolled into Miles's part of the story, and his whole sequence with fighting Spot while trying to get to the parent-teacher conference *chef's kiss*. Amazing animation. Amazing goofs. Amazing humor.

Then... hmm, I have some critiques about much of the middle of the movie... I'll get back to that in the next section. But it still had its highlights: Spider-punk and Pavitr were fantastic, and I feel they were used just the right amount. The gags at Spider H.Q. were excellent. Spiderman-pointing-meme my beloved.

Then when the twist hit... my jaw was on the floor. I'd noticed Rio's eyes were green instead of brown, and just chalked it up to maybe a small production error or an effect of the lighting. Even the "Who's Spiderman?" I was willing to count as just the most hilarious possible identity reveal, to a mom who's just not really paying attention to the street vigilante scene. Then it hit... and the fact that Gwen and Miles were not experiencing the same reality just ah... AH!!!

Things I felt kinda so-so about:

The middle part of the movie felt a bit... lacking in tightness? The tension with his parents felt a bit meandering, seeming to wrap up and then come back, and I feel Rio's attitude toward Miles changed without much reason to have caused it to change.

There was a discomfort to the scene with Miles and Gwen spidering around the city... which I know was largely intentional due to the romantic tension and the "Gwen lying to Miles", but I just Do Not Like romantic tension between characters that did so well as friends. I really didn't care for Miles's jealousy over Hobie.

The Spider H.Q. stuff... I really WANTED to like... but I always feel a sort of perhaps second-hand embarrassment for the kind of stories that are like "yeah there's literally thousands of us in on this, but we didn't invite you because ummmmm 😬".

In addition to that, I also have a distaste for the trope that's like "Every single rational and highly-qualified individual knows that 'X' is a terrible and destructive idea that can get people killed. However our naive and head-strong main character thinks we should do 'X'! So he fights off literally everyone else (and wins, for no reason, considering any one of the highly qualified individuals should out-class him) because he's the main character, and it'll work out okay just because." Like.. personally I had a very hard time rooting for Miles in all that.

Additionally... why did Miguel even tell him that they were all just gonna sit back and let Miles's dad die? Like I get it was necessary for the plot, but it was done with this expectation that Miles would just be like "oh okay I guess :(".

What I would have liked way more would be this: After Miles saves the (should have died) Police Chief from Pavitr's world, Miguel says Miles has "proven himself" and can come to Spider H.Q. to come be trained. (Really, Miguel has recognized Miles is an active threat as a canon-breaker, and he needs to keep Miles distracted for a few days while the canon event of Miles's dad dying takes place in his own dimension.) Gwen and Peter B. understand what's happening, but are forced to go along with it, behaving strangely the whole time. Then when Miles catches them in a lie and the truth comes out, THAT'S when Miles rebels and tries to fight against everyone to get home...

I also would have liked it if maybe there was like... more of a hint of hope for canon-broken universes to be saved. Like if Miguel's policy was "a universe can be saved after canon-breaking, however it's too risky for all the people in that universe to it's Spider Law that we must let our canon events occur. We all make this sacrifice for everyone's mutual protection." then I'd see Miles's defiance as more of a "well I'm breaking from you and will succeed at the risky thing of saving my universe and my dad". They did a little bit hint at this possibility with the fact that Pavitr's dimension is not necessarily doomed, but like if they made this clearer I'd feel better about Miles's defiance being not doomed to kill his entire dimension.

Hmm, I also wanted more out of Peter B. I know this wasn't his movie, but I didn't totally love that so much of his role in this movie was being against Miles. (Next movie, I guess).

And all of this felt just, way less tight than the OG Spider-verse. The OG hit all its marks like a perfect run of Guitar Hero and exploded into an amazing finale. This one... just meandered a bit. In the OG, Miles's leap of faith hit so perfectly. That was THE moment he could make that leap. Vs in this one when he tells his mom ("mom", lol) that he finally faced everyone and won and whatever... it just didn't really hit right.

BUT, I don't wanna end this on a negative note, so actually I wanna talk about the twist again.

Actually before I talk about the twist again, I wanna talk about the scene with Gwen and her dad. The "I quit being a cop halfway through your speech" (and the fact that this may present the loophole that saves her father now). The unspoken fact that Gwen was maybe avoiding coming back because she knew her dad was doomed and didn't want to deal with it. Her dad choosing her over everything. It just. It's good...

BACK to the twist. I am NOT a "talks in the movie theater" person but I couldn't help going "OH his dad is dead in THIS universe :000000" once the reveal hit. And that reveal was like 10 reveals all at once that had me just :0000000

Aaron walking in. The reveal that the whole city is aflame because, as Miguel had called out earlier, this universe doesn't have its Spiderman. The "what did you do to your hair". The mural for Jeff instead. The reveal that Gwen and Miles are nowhere near each other. The overlap of Jeff returning him in the universe Gwen is in with Aaron returning him in the universe Miles is in. Miles getting knocked out and I instantly knew it was Dimension42!Miles that did it to him. The Prowler is thriving and it's Miles this time.

[stackthedeck]

One of my favorite things about Miles Morales' and Gwenpool's limited interactions is that Miles just fucking hates her. Like she's a combination of Gwen Stacy and Deadpool (no she isn't) which both have romantic/flirty histories with Peter Parker and Marvel easily could have done some spideypool bait through the transitive property or like another spider gwen kinda romantic subplot. but they didn't! Gwen is like oh my gosh it's my favorite Spider-Man and Miles is like seek help and never speak to me again. It's fantastic because it really cements that Miles is not Peter and fans are weird for assuming he would be. like they really introduced a character that is a mix of two iconic spider-man ships but made her Miles' age and his response is to try to erase her from the universe, perfect no notes

[battlekidx2]

Across the Spider Verse Thoughts

Across the spider verse was my most anticipated movie of 2023. I came in with sky high expectations and yet somehow the movie managed to surpass them.

By the end of the opening sequence across the spider verse had me sold that this was going to be one of my favorite spider-man movies and when the movie finished that belief held true. Spider-Man across the spider verse is easily one of my favorite superhero movie sequels of all time (I actually think it might be my favorite). The movie just came out and I’ve already seen it, what my brother has dubbed, “too many times” (Though I vehemently disagree with him on that point).

It’s a movie sold on its scope and love for all of spider-man and his lore and yet it never loses its heart in the spectacle. It manages to be a fantastic middle chapter to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite film series of all time.

There’s a lot I want to talk about so I’m just going to get right into it.

Miles is a great protagonist

Miles Morales is a character that I felt Into the Spider Verse really elevated. I had read all of the ultimate comics spider-man run that was his debut series and, while I liked Miles, he was never in the top tier of my favorite superheroes, but that quickly changed with Into the Spider Verse. They managed to explore his struggle and hesitance to accept the Spider-man mantle in a way that was far more compelling than his comic book counter part.

Across the Spider Verse takes the already really strong basis that Into the Spider Verse created for Miles and builds on it through a brilliant meta narrative on what it means to be spider-man and asking the question of whether or not Miles really is spider-man.

Trauma is so ingrained into the creation and growth of spider-man as a character. Ask anyone to list what the most iconic moments in spider-man comics are and you are bound to get answers that include uncle ben’s death, the death of gwen stacy, the death of Jean DeWolfe, Captain Stacy’s death, etc.

There are a lot of moments of loss within the spider-man mythos that define the character and these moments are carried over into a lot of spider-man media outside of the comics. Miles’ rejection of this narrative and the necessity of loss to make a hero in this movie is what truly makes him become spider-man.

The first movie had him accepting the mantle but this is where he truly grows into the role.

Outside of the mask Miles is a unique and three dimensional character as well.

Miles has a youthful charm and good heart that feels authentic to a high schooler that has yet to experience a lot of what life has to offer without falling into feeling like a middle schooler or a caricature of a teenager like MCU Peter Parker tends to do at certain points in his trilogy.

I think this is displayed really well in his relationship with Gwen. There’s an innocence and inexperience there that shows that this is his (an her) first attempt at a real relationship but it never feels surface level because the movie does a great job at selling their bond and how they are similar in key ways that makes it so the understanding they find in one another feels natural.

This elevates the betrayal he feels when it’s revealed that Gwen and Peter B Parker knew everything Miguel reveals to him the whole time and it makes his goodbye to Gwen all the more impactful.

Another relationship I want to shed light on is the one Miles has with his parents.

Miles’ bond with both his parents in this movie is phenomenal but the relationship that is really allowed to shine is the one between Miles and his mother, Rio.

I loved the expansion of Rio Morales’ role. In the first movie she was a memorable but underused character (understandably) and her relationship to Miles took a backseat to his relationship to his father. But here we get to see their unique bond and her attempts to understand him and learn to give him the space he needs to grow into his own person. It felt earned that she was the one he was going to reveal his identity to first before it was revealed that the Rio he told wasn’t from his universe.

As it stands Miles’ arc isn’t complete, but what is shown and the place he is left in make for a strong set up for the finale of this three part story. I have complete faith that this trilogy will stick the landing and provide satisfying conclusions to the arcs and relationships that have been set up. Miles has really become one of the best iterations of the spider-man character and one of my favorites to hold the mantle. I can’t wait to see what they do with him in the next movie.

Gwen’s increased role

One of my favorite changes from the first movie is the amount of emphasis put on Gwen and her arc.

I knew after Into the Spider Verse that if they were going to make a sequel Gwen would likely have a much bigger role considering the seeds they planted to have her connection to Miles grow and the fact that where she was on her journey as a spider-person had her in the perfect place to be a foil to him moving forward. It felt like a natural progression, but even knowing that and having read the Spider-Gwen comics, the way the movie utilized her was better than I ever could have hoped.

Across the Spider Verse took the potential for Gwen as a character and foil for Miles and ran with it by creating a duality in how their arcs compare to one another.

The opening sequence very purposefully made her a dark parallel to Miles, a cautionary tale of what could go wrong if he unmasks himself to his parents and an extreme case of the isolation he could experience throughout his journey. But also just like Miles she’s very early on in her journey as Spider-woman. She’s not even out of high school so many of her canon events haven’t happened yet and, like she learns later on in the film, her story isn’t set in stone.

She’s on that same journey of self discovery and forging your own path that Miles is and having this contrast between them elevates both their arcs.

She’s not just an amazing foil for Miles. She’s also an excellent vehicle for the movie’s themes.

Across the spider verse is centered around themes of isolation, fate, the weight of life, and making your own path and, while Miles is undoubtedly the protagonist of the feature, Gwen is the one the movie tells a complete arc with surrounding these themes.

Her loneliness was hinted at in the first movie but it’s put on full display here with the opening 20 minutes hammering home just how isolated she is in her world and how much the loss of Peter Parker and her role in his death has effected her.

Gwen lacks any sort of support system at the start of the movie. Even before the showdown with Vulture there’s a disconnect between her and her police captain father that stems from the fact that he’s leading the hunt for Spider-woman, her alter ego, because he believes she killed Peter. She struggles to open up to anyone else and make friends in her world because of her life as spider-woman and how intrinsically tied it is to her issues. And she’s lost the only people she feels could understand her with no way that she knows of to see them (particularly Miles) again.

The opening culminates with Gwen losing the last person she has left in her own world when her father tries to arrest her after she unmasks herself to him and she flees her world to join Miguel’s spider society.

This all sets up a very powerful arc dealing with her loneliness and struggles with doing the right thing in the face of her fear of rejection and loss where she finally really opens up to other people and “starts her own band” to stand against Miguel O’Hara through her connection with Miles and desire to help him as well as her reconciliation with her father.

This movie asks questions about whether or not trauma and loss are necessary to make you spider-man so it’s significant that it is instead through healing from parts of her trauma, reconnecting with her father, and making genuine connections that Gwen is able to grow as a hero. It says a lot about what this movie believes makes someone “spider-man”.

Another moment in Gwen’s arc that exemplifies what the movie believes makes a hero is actually Gwen’s reconciliation with her father where he reveals he quit the force. That moment proves that Miguel’s belief is wrong and that breaking the canon isn’t the end of the multiverse as they know it. This coupled with the fact that it’s Gwen’s speech about her desire to do what’s right and protect those she loves that gets her father to quit tells you everything this movie is trying to say about heroism. It’s not the loss and trauma that makes you spider-man but the character of the person behind the mask.

The opening also does a great job of establishing just how much Miles impacted Gwen in the first movie. He broke through this wall of isolation she put around herself and for the first time in a long while she found a genuine connection with someone who could understand and know all of her. It sells you immediately on how much this bond means to her and makes her conflict moving forward really compelling.

This relationship is a linchpin in the narrative of this film so if it didn’t work then the impact the movie’s story and themes would have been severely hampered.

If I’m being honest Gwen’s arc is where the movie hit me the hardest. I think everyone has dealt with loneliness and that feeling of isolation that can come from being different and/or grief. There’s always that underlying desire for understanding and community that many people fear they’ll never have and seeing that portrayed in Gwen hit for me.

It’s the kind of desire I know I feared I would never get, but when I left home and went out on my own I was finally able to find people who understood me and accepted my idiosyncrasies in a way no one ever had before. And I always get emotional when I see that same isolation I felt portrayed in such a raw way and when those characters I see it in finally find the connection they need.

It’s also this isolation that goes a long way to explain why so many spider-people would join Miguel’s task force and go along with his plans. There’s a sense of community where all these people who have lost so much can find other people who understand them. That understand their unique form of grief, loss, and isolation that they struggle to find anywhere else because of the path they chose to take with their life. And won’t reject the half of them they are usually forced to hide from those they care about. Without showing this through Gwen’s perspective the last act of the film could have felt forced.

Gwen is a strong character that really grew into her role as the deuteragonist of the film and the role of spider-woman and serves to strengthen the themes of the film. She’s a great character that has so much potential moving forward and I look forward to her role and eventual reunion with Miles in Beyond the Spider Verse.

The animation

It’s no secret that spider verse changed the animation industry after it came out. Before spider verse many animated movies had started to feel like they fell into a very similar style that focused on realism above all else and in many ways I felt didn’t fully capitalize on what animation could do as a medium (there were exceptions but a lot of studios were starting to lean on the Disney/Pixar animation style). But now there are shows and movies that are taking a page out of spider verse’s book and experimenting. Studios are less afraid to let their animators get creative and it’s been incredible to see.

Across the Spider Verse continues to push the envelope and goes beyond what they did with the first one to create one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen.

The way they experimented with the animation in different dimensions to bring comic book art styles to life (Gwen’s universe) and further accentuate the character and culture they are centered around (Hobie and Pavitr’s universes) really served to elevate the story, heighten the emotions of every scene, and make this truly feel like a multiversal epic.

One of my favorite visual flares in the movie is how color is used in Gwen’s universe. In the opening it really plays up the stark divide she feels between her and everyone else. She feels like she’s completely separate from the world around her through the very deliberate contrast in coloring and the way the background bleeds and morphs around her. She’s frequently portrayed in shades of blue while the world around her is full of vibrant pinks, oranges, and white.

I also love how the paint like aesthetic of her world’s backgrounds are used to heighten the emotions of scenes like the talks she has with her father. The background bleeds and the colors morph to reflect the emotions of the characters talking. When Gwen is desperately trying to reach out to her father in the beginning after she unmasks herself and at the end when she admits how powerless she feels to protect those she cares about the background starts to run and the colors bleed together and it captures how her world is falling apart and her path forward is no longer clear.

I also want to point out how the lighting is one of the major hints that Miles isn’t on earth-1610. The lighting of every scene from the moment Miles is sent to earth-42 is some shade of purple or green which immediately gives the world a different feel than Miles’. It’s not so noticeable at first that it gives away the twist but it’s enough that it gives you an uneasy feeling the first time through and it’s details like these that elevate the reveal on rewatch.

This level of care and attention to detail permeates every frame of the film. There isn’t a single second of this movie that is wasted and it really uses the medium of animation to its fullest potential.

I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in Beyond the Spider Verse. If it’s anything like this then it will be amazing.

conclusion

Spider-man is far and away my favorite hero. I’ve read many of his comic book runs, I own all his movies and video games, I’ve seen all his shows, etc. I’m the massive fan that probably understood way too many obscure references that this movie made and I loved every second of the movie I got to see.

I had so much fun with this movie and I hope everyone who watched the movie managed to get some enjoyment out of it. I can’t wait for Beyond the Spider Verse to come out and to finally get to see the conclusion to this animated trilogy.  

side note

Spider-man is a character that is able to speak to a wide range of people because of the struggles he faces. Having a movie that understands the diversity of the people who relate to the character and reflect that on screen through the many (canonical) spider-people portrayed is amazing.

I love that so many people will get to see someone like them being the hero they admire. Stan Lee himself said that anyone can wear the spider-man mask. He wanted people to be able to see themselves in the heroes he created which was the basis of spider-man (and the x-men but that’s another story). And that’s something that I will always love about the character.

[amageish]

Spider-Man 2 Post-Credit Spoilers

Time for some more signature Amageish overthinking!

Sooooooooooooo.

How about that Cindy Moon appearance, huh?

From this Gizmodo article, we do have a bit of insight into the decision to have her appear where they mention the challenge of making a Cindy unique to the GamerVerse specifically - though it's obvious they are keeping their cards close to their chest here as well.

io9: Along with giving Miles a promotion, you’ve introduced Cindy Moon, aka Silk, into your universe. Of all the Spider-heroes, I don’t think anyone was expecting her. What made her so appealing over someone like Eddie or Gwen Stacy? Arfmann: Cindy’s always been a really compelling character in the comics who, similar to [SM1's] Martin Li, hasn’t really gotten a ton of exposure outside of the immediate fanbase. There’s something really exciting about taking a character who we love, who not everybody’s had a chance to meet, and exposing her to a wider audience. Morris: I’m so excited to see what we do with Cindy. Arfmann: Exactly. That was the real drive with her, and figuring out who Insomniac’s Cindy Moon is a really exciting challenge. And we also have this interesting complication that [Cindy’s dad] Albert is dating [Miles’ mom] Rio, and we’re thrilled to explore how that creates a new iteration of this character that folks already love.

So this confirms that they will be changing stuff too! This is going to be a unique take on her, but they are also self-aware that this will be plenty of people's introduction to the character.

The main question on my mind is a pretty basic one: Does Cindy Moon need to be shoved into a bunker for 7-10 years in order to be recognizably Cindy Moon? Her father is already in the game, so we know the "parents are missing" story is probably off the table, but does she need to still spend all that time in isolation to be Cindy?

In the comics, her time in the bunker is credited in-text with being a source of so many of her defining character traits.

It is something that separates her experiences from Peter and the other Spider-heroes.

It's something that fills her with a drive to prove herself and is the experience that made her such a talented martial artist.

It informs her understanding of modern technology and the level of pop culture awareness she has - the former of which helped her develop her uniquely positive relationship with J Jonah Jameson.

And, lastly, the time she had in isolation is credited with causing her to develop her anxiety disorder and communication challenges.

So, with all that in mind, it feels like Cindy does have to be put into a bunker, right? As it's such a core part of her backstory?

Well, no. Maybe this will be a hot take, but I honestly don't think she does.

While I do think everything I've listed here is a key aspect of Cindy Moon as a character, I don't think they need to lock her in a vault for 7-10 years in order to explain why a Korean-American woman in New York city has anxiety or practices martial arts or feels a need to work twice as hard to have her accomplishments recognized. These are all very relatable experiences that do not require a fantastical superhero origin story to justify them.

Honestly, with how emotion-forward the Insomniac Spider-Man games are already, I think her being a woman who has had a depressive episode recently which she describes as having felt like being trapped would work just as well as literally having had her be trapped by a supervillain. I would not be surprised if the ability to tell a story about anxiety and depression was a factor in them selecting Cindy as the next playable character as well - the potential for a Silk game that incorporates actual mindfulness and grounding techniques into the gameplay is really high IMHO.

I also think that the final scene kind of supports the idea too? Cindy has no lines, but she does have a silent awkward wave. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but her introduction makes me think she already has social anxiety - so unless she's already been in the bunker and we'll get a story about how she escaped, then I think she will probably jut be getting powers and moving forward from there.

Anyway, that's a lot of thoughts brought about by like 5 seconds of Cindy waving. I'm just really eager to see where things go from here and am hoping we'll get a DLC trailer or a Silk expandalone announced sometimes soon...

(PS: Having Peter already be in a committed relationship with MJ and Miles, who is also already in a relationship with Hailey, being in a psuedo-sibling relationship with Cindy is an excellent way of desexualizing the Cindy + Spider-Men relationship. I have no fears about Insomniac stumbling on that particular hurdle.)

(I do, however, have fears that I will be seeing unironic speculation about pheromones in reddit threads for the next 2 years until whenever Spider-Man: Miles Morales 2 or Silk: Cindy Moon is announced... but that probably cannot be changed, unfortunately.)

[foundfamilynonsense]

I’ve been seeing some posts saying that Hobie was not an instant fav but won them over quickly and I realized I had a similar experience. So I started thinking about why.

And a few people brought up that his comic book intro used very dry sarcasm that might have come off badly to some but I don’t think that’s it (at least it wasn’t for me)

And then I realized: I didn’t like Hobie at first bc he was being set up as the third in a love triangle between Miles and Gwen.

I don’t care if Miles and Gwen get together (in fact I would prefer they don’t) but there are few things I think ruin a story more than a love triangle (no matter how small a part it takes in the plot). Especially in this movie bc all it would have done is make Miles feel intimidated and whiny.

So Miles is already jealous bc hey Gwen stays over some guy’s dimension :(

and then! Pavitr picks up on something between Gwen and Miles and says “does he know about Hobie”

Which to me said that Gwen and Hobie were actually in a relationship. Or starting one.

Then we meet Hobie. And there’s a whole montage where he’s basically like “yea this is the coolest character ever” and you think oh fantastic. This character exists only so Miles will be annoying and jealous for the rest of the movie.

But then that DOESNT HAPPEN. And of course it doesn’t. Because you actually meet Hobie and if one thing is certain about this character it’s that he could never be in a love triangle bc he is acutely aware that he has two hands.

And then he turns out to be the mentor archetype of the movie. He is out there not only teaching but giving gifts. (The new bracelets). Which is one of the main things with mentor archetypes.

He is not a new barrier between Gwen and Miles. He has replaced Peter B’s role as the mentor of the group. Because this is a harder challenge and calls for a mentor with a sharper edge.

And part of me is going “why would the writers underplay him up front like this?” But the rest of me is going “of course the writers misdirected the audience at the beginning”.

Bc Hobie’s whole thing is misdirection. He doesn’t look or feel like they typical mentor we see in movies. He seems like an interesting character, maybe a little comic relief. But being underrated is how he managed to save the day at the end. And while I think Pavitr’s line might have been taking the misdirection a step too far (we already had it, now I’m wondering why Pavitr thinks Hobie and Gwen are together), it was a great way to handle the character.

I just… wanna stick him under a microscope. I wanna write a thesis on him. What a cool way to shake up some well known archetypes.

[andrewmoocow]

My personal roster for a potential Marvel vs Capcom 4 that I call Marvel vs Capcom 4: Resurrection, filled with as many newcomers and veterans as I could gather to fit this template I found on Twitter a while back, with everyone bringing something new to the table.

Marvel Side

Spider-Man

Captain America

Iron Man

Thor

Hulk

Black Widow

Hawkeye

Wolverine

Storm

Gambit

Deadpool

Magneto

Psylocke

Doctor Strange

Black Panther

Captain Marvel

Loki

Ms. Marvel

Star-Lord (assisted by Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Mantis)

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic assisted by Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing)

Doctor Doom

Ultron

Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

She-Hulk

Squirrel Girl

Ant-Man (assisted by Wasp)

Green Goblin

Daredevil

Scarlet Witch

Thanos

Capcom Side

Ryu

Ken

Chun-Li

Luke

Jamie

Kimberly

Mega Man

Mega Man X

Zero

Tron Bonne (assisted by Servbots)

Morrigan Aensland

Felicia

Demitri Maximoff

Leon Kennedy

Lady Dimitrescu

Dante

Vergil

Nero

Phoenix Wright (assisted by Trucy Wright)

Apollo Justice (assisted by Athena Cykes)

Amaterasu

Viewtiful Joe

Gene

Frank West

Asura

Akira Kazama

Tessa

Mike Haggar

Strider Hiryu

Ruby Heart (assisted by Amingo and Son-Son)

DLC (not pictured)

Mister Sinister (also appears in Story Mode)

Juri Han (also appears in Story Mode)

Moon Girl (assisted by Devil Dinosaur)

Monster Hunter (assisted by Palico and Palamute)

Venom

Akuma

Spider-Gwen

Sakura

Elsa Bloodstone (assisted by Blade and Man-Thing)

B.B. Hood

Morbius

Jedah Dohma

Doctor Octopus (assisted by Sinister Six)

Doctor Wily (assisted by Robot Masters)

Namor

Edward Falcon

Howard the Duck

Miles Edgeworth (assisted by Ema Skye)

Silver Surfer

Abyss

The story mode involves an alliance between Apocalypse and JP from Street Fighter 6 as the two work together to take over the worlds of Marvel and Capcom by bringing together a new team of Horsemen of the Apocalypse to collect the Infinity Stones, the Cosmic Cube, the Power Stone, and the Celestial Brush, and the heroes of both companies have to stop them before it's too late. Pretty simple premise, all things considered, but the character interactions and rivalries will be where it's at!

Rivalries

Spider-Man vs Mega Man

Captain America vs Leon Kennedy

Iron Man vs Tron Bonne

Thor vs Dante

Hulk vs Gene

Black Widow vs Chun-Li

Hawkeye vs Frank West

Wolverine vs Ryu

Storm vs Amaterasu

Gambit vs Morrigan

Deadpool vs Viewtiful Joe

Magneto vs Mega Man X

Psylocke vs Strider Hiryu

Doctor Strange vs Nero

Black Panther vs Felicia

Captain Marvel vs Akira Kazama

Loki vs Vergil

Ms. Marvel vs Kimberly

Star-Lord vs Ruby Heart

Fantastic Four vs Mike Haggar

Doctor Doom vs Demitri

Ultron vs Zero

Miles Morales vs Luke

She-Hulk vs Phoenix Wright

Squirrel Girl vs Jamie

Ant-Man vs Ken

Green Goblin vs Lady Dimitrescu

Daredevil vs Apollo Justice

Scarlet Witch vs Tessa

Thanos vs Asura

Mister Sinister vs Juri

Moon Girl vs Monster Hunter

Venom vs Akuma

Spider-Gwen vs Sakura

Elsa Bloodstone vs B.B. Hood

Morbius vs Jedah

Doctor Octopus vs Doctor Wily

Namor vs Edward Falcon

Howard the Duck vs Miles Edgeworth

Silver Surfer vs Abyss

Base: https://x.com/DreaminErryDay/status/1811493788214256113

[worrywrite]

Still lingering on Across the Spiderverse. Great movie. Fantastic movie. Love it.

But every time I watch it (I like rewatching it and it's on Netflix so it's easy to rewatch) I think my favorite part is that little moment in the first third where Gwen meets Miles' parents. And she does that awkward little jog in place thing with a "woops, gotta go, need to get my steps in..." Because I get to stop and do a combination Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme and "haha, I do that" (and I do, because sometimes you just move and be awkward and goofy). It's a great bit of animation, very subtle, by very clean movement in a tight space with a scrunched up character.

[domquixotedospobresblog]

See the King of Monsters tower over iconic Marvel characters in 21 new Godzilla Variant Covers, in collaboration with @godzilla_toho, coming this September!

💥 Scarlet Witch #4 Godzilla Variant Cover by Mitsuhiro Arita

💥 Fantastic Four #25 Godzilla Variant Cover by Greg Land

💥 Miles Morales: Spider-Man #24 Godzilla Variant by Romy Jones

💥 Immortal Thor #15 Godzilla Variant by Jonas Scharf

💥 Dazzler #1 Godzilla Variant by Elizabeth Torque

💥 Avengers #18 Godzilla Variant by Ario Anindito

💥 Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9 Godzilla Variant Cover by Taurin Clarke

💥 Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #5 Godzilla Variant Cover by Inhyuk Lee

💥 Deadpool #6 Godzilla Variant Cover by Paco Medina

View some of the covers and their select issues coming this September on Marvel.com.