#also kudos to the langs because of the way they build their characters. their needs (or lack of them ily paul) are fascinating

[missholloween]

Ted Spankoffski is a character who defines himself through others.

After Jenny leaves, Ted decides to turn himself into a "pushy asshole", as he thinks only pushy assholes what they want (aka love). Rejection pushes him to make a radical change in his life, one so drastic he builds a new version of himself around it, and never lets go of it. He knows he is a pushy asshole, and he enjoys being a pushy asshole. Or at least he did.

During Time Bastard, we see how Ted has grown bitter and sour because of being a pushy asshole. The good things that persona had, aka getting laid, don't work anymore. He's just a shadow of the person he had constructed.

That's why, when Kilgore calls him "time bastard" and he understands how time travel works, he fastly clings to that identity. Not only he has power over others as the time bastard, but he can change the errors of his way and return to Jenny. And even better yet, because he's learned what being a pushy ashole is, and he can show Jenny. Surely this time they'll end up together... Won't they?

I'd lastly want to mention the Hatchetfield Ape-Man. Even though he first wanted Lucy just for her money, he ends up falling in love with her. Ted becomes Cronk to please her, as she loves Cronk, and he can be loved through that persona. He even decides to die as Cronk in the episode, not as Ted. He dismisses his identity just so that he can be loved.

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Last Marvel Meta Field Notes for the night is for Ant Man. This set is a lot more lighthearted than other recent entries but that’s because the other movies are so deep in Marvel mythos that they’re just. An investment. An investment I love, but an investment. Because AM is an origins movie, however, it’s more light-hearted and independent, and a hell of a lot of fun.

1. So obviously the building under construction during the meeting Hank had with SHIELD in 1989 is obviously the Triskelion (which Steve blew up in CA:TWS), but I like that mid-construction as it was in that period they showed the bays where eventually the helicarriers would eventually be housed. I’m a little curious as to why SHIELD built those bays so large thirty years before they had helicarriers planned, just. You know. As a question. 2. Scott Lang is every single one of us that has worked a customer service job and who is over-educated, over-qualified, or frankly just too done with that shit. 3. The Yellowjacket Presentation is in fact 1000 times worse than the Jericho Presentation in IM, and Cross Technology within Pym Tech is shameless about marketing to the rich and paranoid and zealous. The whole moralistic argument that Cross makes when selling the Yellowjacket armor is the kind of shit that rich white supremacists would eat up, which is precisely why he ends up with the clientele he does. However, I do find it interesting that AM included a direct tie-in Carson being a part of SHIELD in the 80s and then being the person that arranges for the business deal Cross gets with HYDRA. 4. Cross is literally “crossing” the boundary into godhood, or something possibly worse because it’s not that he fashions himself as a god so much as he completely disconnects from any sense of morality, law, or respect for life. To date he might be the most ostentatiously disgusting villain, but it’s because his brain is literally rotting. And I know that can be a prickly subject when talked about in the wrong light but Cross doesn’t just have a mental disorder - he has physically melted his brain-pan and his morality and concept of justice are fucked because of it, which feeds into why he’s so creepy but also why it’s arguably creepier that his nihilism attracts fascist supremacists. Like I even liked Stane better than this lord. 5. While I understand Scott’s ex’s complaints about visitation rights, there’s a complex legal process that has to be walked through before legal action can be taken (so her schlub cop fiancee is keyed to be a defensive moron), but since Scott is still technically the father they’re obligated to set up a court approved parenting plan before they can bar him completely. Like any attempt to totally bar him would have to be put before a court and no real court given a good prison record and attempting employment would keep Scott from seeing Cassie entirely. He’d have restricted hours, but they couldn’t legally out him even if based on financial reasons. Not that he could afford to sue over that, but still. 6. Even though Hank and Hope are still jagged people and won’t ever necessarily slot into one another’s lives perfectly, the portrayal of a difficult adult father/daughter relationship is refreshing for Marvel. It’s a complicated and touchy subject no matter who you are, but again Scott steps in as a sort of mediating factor in both of them understanding that their relationship can’t go on as it has and that something has to give. Scott isn’t the one who “fixes” them so much as Scott is the person who breaks the ice, and from there he lets them have their space to discuss their hardships which is a very real and very adult set of exchanges. Nicely done, Marvel. 7. I appreciate Hope loving kicking the shit out of Scott. I just. That’s it. It’s great when she’s proud of his progress too, but I like that we get to see a woman reveling in beating the tar out of a guy. 8. Just ever so slightly more on why Hope still gets to be angry at Hank about her mother, it’s impressive to me all the same that even while Hope points out why she has every reason to think the way her dad handled the situation wasn’t okay, Hope also identifies immediately the guilt that Hank was carrying all those years for killing his wife and being the reason her mother died. Hope is so much the big person in that talk because she could continue to rant and rave, but at some point adults let go. Adults live with not getting closure and handling it well or badly, and Hope has spent her whole life trying to process that trauma. By the age she is, she doesn’t need reconciliation to function, but when she gets it she appreciates it and makes a point of acknowledging the truth of the matter because she’s sorted a lot of her feelings on her own, though she hasn’t sorted all of them. 9. For a really interesting period for Hank to be involved with historically, late Soviet brinkmanship is a really poignant choice. The USSR was changing leaders like the British gentry change hats, and even though the Cold War was in decline the tension between countries was also relatively at an all time diplomatic high. With America tangled up in what came after the Vietnam and Korean wars, and headed headlong into the Gulf War, Russia saw its neighbors getting hemmed in from all sides at its weakest moment and did try to pose as many major problems for its enemies as it could because the communist regime was losing, and they couldn’t accept that. Regardless of whether or not Hank bought into the ideology, Hank’s connections to SHIELD - and by unknown association HYDRA - would have been an especially tense one in those years because of the intelligence war that was really seriously being waged during that time. Hank also would have seen it as the worst a country can do when they’re backed into a corner and afraid, and he didn’t want his technology to inspire that in any person or any country because he knew what the results would be. 10. Scott Lang is actually the WORST thief because he has the personality of a jilted millennial mixed with a golden retriever, and yet somehow is the BEST thief because he’s brilliant and versatile. 11. Cross literally selling out to Hydra is the least surprising thing because let’s face it fascists go for the lowest hanging fruit and Cross is it. 12. Also little man Hank Pym who will punch a bitch just because. He knows he’s not going to beat the tar out of them, but he’ll punch them if and when he wants to. 13. Kudos to Pym for being so paranoid that he carries a damn actual tank on his keychain “just for emergencies.” That’s actually a step above and a step ahead of Tony Stark in some ways. 14. Also it figures that Cross calls it the Yellowjacket because yellowj ackets are the asshole of the natural world and everyone knows it. 15. The visual aesthetic of the sub-atomic realm in AM is a predecessor and also thematically similar to the view of the Multiverse that Doctor Strange gets. Especially one level of the sub-atomic world exhibits mirror-dimension type qualities and even if they’re independent the visual similarity and parallelism is striking to note. 16. Scott and Paxton having a real shared-dad moment that’s not toxic masculinity? Fuck yes. It’s awkward yeah, but when both of them get over their own perceptions of how they are the better dad for Cassie, and especially when they see that both of them would die to make sure she’s okay, them getting to have that genuine moment of “you’re okay” and “thank you” is very cathartic for paternal masculinity in general because it circumvents the need for competition to be the only point of contact between them. 17. Cassie adopting the giant ant because she would. I hope she names him Ant-hony too without ever knowing that’s what Scott called 247. 18. Luis I think is the most hilarious Marvel side character to date and I honestly don’t know what the Ant Man movie would be without him. Scott is amazing at offsetting the seriousness of the plot aspects of the film but Luis is the keystone for where Scott’s humor and irony comes from, and where the actual absolutely necessary comedic aspect of Ant Man comes in and I appreciate him greatly.

That’s all for tonight guys. More to come later!∞