#also i wanna say i'm glad that they did a retcon specifically because of THIS and not 'eh we didn't feel like writing out a whole resolutio

[plaguerare]

[ID: a screenshot of a post on flight rising's forums by Aequorin, posted on january 13th 2023. the post reads;

Thank you to everyone who linked back to our previous statements on this update.

When we understood what exactly it was we released in Beastclans on the Rise!, we realized two things. One was that we've placed players in this position and left you there for almost a decade. The other? That the only lore way out of this was to write what would essentially be a 'feel-good' redemption arc for the genocidal aggressors. We'd have to write a story that would effectively force the Beastclans conquered by the dragons—whose cultures they destroyed in order to take what they wanted—to work with them "for the greater good" and [no, we are not going to do that.]

Our noting as a team how the systems and society we grew up in influenced Beastclans on the Rise! is a simple statement of fact. Is it uncomfortable? Of course it is! Reflecting on privilege, on how historical and systemic injustice influence us and benefit us in our current lives is always uncomfortable. But it's also a necessary discomfort and step, one that allows us to look at our work critically, to grow, and to do better. end ID.]

read all of this but especially the middle-to-end of the second part. read it over and over and over and over and over again until you finally understand the implications of a resolution over a retcon. i am not asking nicely i have a crowbar in my hands. read it again.

[dilfdoctordoom]

So... Rich's appearance in GOTG 2019 sure was a disappointment. They sell him at the end of an issue as Gamora's love so you expect big things with him and then he just. Leads the people that are chasing her directly to her and dips after the battle is over. I think he doesn't even say a word to her? Or even Peter. His best buddy "dies" and we don't even see a reaction. Whoa. It's also so incredibly weird to bring him up in that way if you're gonna push Gamora x Peter IMMEDIATELY after writers really were out there setting up the ot3 without noticing huh. But theeeeen there's those few pages in the Annual by Al Ewing that are just CHEF'S KISS

That said! I enjoyed the second arc more than the first. Characters still come and go weirdly so you know that Donny Cates is writing them elsewhere (seriously. Ghost Rider and Silver Suffer don't do much of anything besides popping up here and there but they're in the "family" scene in the hospital with Rocket?)

It was kinda fun overall? Peter was competent and that's the least I can ask? I like Daddy Issues? The Drax thing was. Weird. I know "being alive" is already a weird thing when it comes to him because of the way he was artificially recreated but the whole "hey let's shove our memories of Drax into one of these hundreds of random bodies that look like him" thing is gonna leave me pondering about the philosophical implications for days

I gotta say, my judgment was a bit clouded as soon as I saw baby Magus. I can't tell if he's a good character but I'm absolutely obsessed with him now. Baby! Magus!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!! AND HE LOOKS ADORABLE!!! I WANNA STUDY HIM LIKE A BUG

Oh, Rich is awful in GOTG2019.

There's obviously everything going on with Pete & Gamora, but the second arc literally opens with the Nova Corps being massacred & he is never shown to react to it which feels... strange, to say the least.

I hate that 616 Starmora started the way that it did here; I think it did have some potential prior, to feed into the narrative about healing but instead, it feels incredibly awkward & contrived. I don't like the retcon that Peter has always been in love with Gamora; I don't like the idea of him being in love with someone he's manipulating, brainwashing & lying to (regardless of intent).

The second arc does flow a lot better than the first. I've still got my issues with it but it does work better than the first one.

The Drax thing is so??? We all knew after Infinity Wars that he'd be back but the ramifications of him coming back in this specific way... Ewing, the loml, did touch on them. The current writers don't seem to be doing that. Cates even had a chance to. The vagueness on what, exactly, Drax is now is frustrating.

Baby Magus makes me giggle BUT. I don't know where the fuck he came from. Magus's last appearance prior to that was being murdered by Ultron in Infinity Countdown and like, yeah, that series ends with Gamora going off with baby Magus leading into Thanos (2019) but I don't know what happened between Magus dying and the end of Infinity Wars to bring us to any version of Magus being alive.

I did, admittedly, spend most of Infinity Wars slamming my head against a wall so. my memory might be fuzzy.

The annual by Ewing <3 that man GETS cosmic Marvel & Richard Rider so so well. I'm glad he's still fiddling with bits over in X-Men: Red but god, I wish he was back on GOTG.