#how does it serve scott as a character? it doesn't. its only to tell us more about eleanor

[dashiellqvverty]

id forgotten a lot of details about black sails bc thats how i am with tv shows (and also i watched seasons 3 and 4 a couple episodes at a time over a long period of time) but something really fucking shitty im only being reminded of as im rewatching the first episode of season 3 is how the audience is meant to empathize with enslaved people specifically through the eyes of a white man

[princeescaluswords]

Hmmmm..... genuinely wondering how much of the "SCOTT BELIEVED THEO OVER STILES!1" belief of fandom stems from not only racism such as the assertion that white characters just "know better" but also another facet of white supremacy, specifically anti intellectualism.

"Theo was evil! We saw it!!!" Yes, *we* the VIEWERS saw it but not the characters. Because we are often privy to things which they are not. Also, Stiles never produced any solid PROOF that Theo was untrustworthy.

"That's not Theo." Except... it is. It is Theo.

"Because you trust everyone!" Except no Scott doesn't.

Being friends doesn't mean having to believe or follow whatever they tell you, it also doesn't mean that you let your friends make decisions for you. It doesn't mean relinquishing control to them. Which is what they mean when they tag things as "Good Friend Scott McCall" 99% of the time.

I have spoken many times before about my frustration with the scene in Lies of Omission (5x09) in terms of its reception by the fandom. I have also been critical of the production's writing, because in summary, I feel that if the most important conflict of the season could have been derailed by one character saying one word ("scaffolding"), the entire situation could be seen as contrived.

But, to be fair, the conflict between Scott and Stiles does serve as an excellent character study for both characters. I may have a fundamental dislike for how the fight was resolved in Season 5B (and don't underestimate how much I dislike it), but I recognize that the fight addresses some fractures in their relationship and their individual psyches.

Especially after a friend of mine informed me of a high correlation of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in people with ADHD, Stiles behavior in Season 5A makes a lot more sense to me, when taking his earlier behaviors into account. We've seen multiple times over the previous 68 episodes that Stiles is insecure and that he attempts to cover up that insecurity with aggression, sarcasm, and lies. The implication is that they stem from his reaction to Claudia's paranoid hallucinations. He deflects and obfuscates because he believes that he's not worth it. Of course, someone suffering from this condition and enduring the amount of stress the entire pack is under will assume the worst possible scenario.

Given the Doctors' and Theo's skills and the failure of Donovan to kill Stiles, it's not at all a reach to use Stiles's conditions and habits against him, leading to this moment. To me, this doesn't make Stiles innocent, just consistently motivated. He's supposed to be the person who "always figures it out" and yet his own insecurity renders him almost completely passive in Season 5A, unless it comes to deceiving and lashing out at the people he loves. That is all he accomplishes, hamstrung by his own vision of himself.

On the other hand, Scott has his own weakness to confront -- his tendency to internalize his conflicts with others. In previous clashes, Scott has always swallowed his feelings, choosing to focus on helping others. For example, Peter Hale mentally and physically violated him repeatedly in Season 1 yet during the 37 episodes between Master Plan (2x12) and Smoke & Mirrors (4x12), he simply ignores every minute of that trauma. The only comment he ever makes to the man who tried to make him murder his friends and forced him to experience being burned alive is "you were never an alpha but you were always a monster." This is characteristic of Scott, so much so that the audience was shocked when he threatened Gerard in Visionary (3x08) even after Gerard had stabbed him in the gut, had threatened his mother, had tried to murder Isaac, and had extorted him with Allison's life. His mild hostility towards his father was enough for the fandom to imagine that Rafael was a bad guy on the level of child molester. There's no clearer expression of this than in his suicide attempt during Motel California (3x06) where he blames himself for everything that's happening, when, logically, none of it was his fault.

But no one can truly be a good leader if they can't confront the people they lead when those people do something wrong. He recognizes that Liam and Kira are having control issues in Season 5, but he doesn't address it honestly. What would have happened if Scott, in Parasomnia (5x02), instead of only taking Stiles's pain after he screamed "Because you trust everybody!" and recklessly smashed his hand in anger, had confronted Stiles about that belief (because Scott does not 'trust everybody') and the way that Stiles had been acting unstable? If you look again at Theo's story to Scott, the chimera's goal isn't just to tell on Stiles, it is to imply that it's Scott's responsibility to confront Stiles, which is a task Scott dislikes to the point of avoidance, "You have to talk to him." Scott reacts to Stiles's opening vicious salvo, the "Some of us are human!" speech, by ignoring the ramifications of that statement and focusing on a particular action -- Donovan's death -- instead of the larger problems of Stiles's behavior.

In other words, as much as I dislike the contrivance, the conflict was valid.

I've laid out in other places how much I dislike Stiles's behavior in this scene, even if it is in-character, but I have also recognized all the elements (the nogitsune, Claudia, the "pedestal problem," etc.) that helped make it happen. I've also talked about how there are similar elements relating to Scott: Kira's depature, Hayden's impending demise, the death toll of the doctors, and the way his responsibilities were forced on him by his loved ones. I've made it clear that Scott, to be the alpha, has to talk to Stiles about Donovan; the problem I see is that he tried to avoid confronting Stiles directly. If he had demanded that Stiles tell him the whole story rather than let Stiles shout at him, the end result would have been different. Scott had a responsibility to act with the authority his duties as alpha and 'protector of Beacon Hills' force upon him, and he didn't do it.

Still doesn't excuse his treatment in 5B, but it is what it is.

What I want to ask Stiles stans, and I would appreciate an answer, is what did they think Stiles's responsibility was in that scene? If Scott is to blame because Stiles tried to warn him about Theo and he didn't listen, how much blame does Stiles carry for not figuring out a way to stop Theo or reveal his machinations? In other words, in the middle of this horror show, why does Stiles get a pass for avoiding his duty and Scott doesn't?

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of April 1st, 2019

Best of this Week: War of the Realms - Strikeforce: The Dark Realm #1 - Bryan Hill, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Matt Hollingsworth and Joe Sabini

If I haven’t made it clear enough, I love stories of War.

I love seeing characters struggle with hard decisions or doing things that normally they wouldn't. I like the idea of burgeoning respect for others for their bravery or absolute assholish-ness in the face of grave opposition and this book is full of it.

While the main War of the Realms series offers a continuing story focused on everyone’s efforts to fight off Malekith’s forces, I like the more self contained and focused stories like this one and War Scrolls. Strikeforce, if that’s the name that they’re going for, is a team made up of darkness, anger and righteous vengeance as that’s what will be needed to venture into Svartalheim and destroy the Black Bifrost.

The book begins with Lady Freyja, Thor’s mother and arguably the wisest woman in all of Asgard, seeking counsel from an unknown individual on who would be best to take the fight to the Dark Elves. She needs those who are uncompromising and full of rage, able to fight fire with fire, so it comes as no surprise when the man that she’s speaking to turns out to be Frank Castle.

She makes it a point to note that while Captain America told her to approach him and while he doesn't like Frank, he respects him enough to know that Frank is the only man that can cross the line between heroism and villainy. She asks him to pick heroes to embody similar natures to his own and he selects Jen Walters “Hulk”, Ghost Rider and Blade because of their individual senses of justice, vengeance and anger.

Walters, taking the position of leader of the team and acting as the seasoned Avengers Vet, asks if she can trust them, calling a vote to join Freyja’s fight. They agree and she puts them through a mental test to show their darkness and see if they can overcome their fears. For Jen, it’s her primal nature now that she’s no longer the She-Hulk that she once was. Robbie has to overcome the Riders need for fear and vengeance. And Blade has to overcome himself, at least a version of himself that embraces the Vampire within and stops protecting humanity.

I will say that Yu's art in this book isn't his best, but it’s still great and absolutely serves its purpose. Everything is mostly dark and gritty. His line work is heavy and is complimented by Alanguilan's dark inks and Hollingsworth’s colors. The action scenes are sparse, but dynamic enough for you to feel the weight of the situation at hand. Frank is naturally grim while Freyja contrasts this with her normally hopefully nature as she's also clad in white, making them both stand out amongst the cast.

The group overcomes their fears and converge on Freyja, defeating her to prove their worth. We don’t learn much of Franks trial other than, he kills the rest of the team but feels bad about it afterwards. He and Freyja then have one of the most chilling conversations I have read, in a little while, away from the rest of the team.

Throughout the book, Lady Freyja comments to Frank that he would be a man welcome as a God in Asgard for his uncompromising nature, laser focus and sheer violent rage. She fears that whatever she does in this war will have a grave cost, maybe even with her becoming the monsters she so fears. We then see a vision of her appearing as the new leader of the Dark Elves in a cook, but unsettling scene. She asks Frank if he knows the feeling… and Frank does of course. He recalls a mission where he was saving a child, murdering through a mansion to save her life and as he looked in a mirror, he saw his blood covered visage and her cowering in fear and just decided that it was better to be the monster.

As long as he was a monster, but lives were still saved and the mission was accomplished, then it didn’t matter what the cost was and... Lady Freyja agreed. “I see why the others fear you, but you have the respect of Asgard.” She says before walking away. Frank has a way of getting into people's heads. He can inspire fear and terror, but I don’t think in all of my years I have seen him turn someone to his side. Hell, last week’s Daredevil saw him try it with Matt, before he was given Heimdall’s sword, and he told Frank to screw off, but seeing Lady Freyja acknowledge Frank’s harsh point of view for the greater good was poetic.

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Death may be a revolving door for the X-Men, but that doesn't mean that things don't hurt when they lose another one of their own.

Runner Up: Uncanny X-Men #17 (Legacy #639) - Matthew Rosenberg, Carlos Gómez, Guru-eFX and Joe Caramagna

I've always had a penchant for the 90s X-Factor team. Multiple Man, Havok, Polaris, Strong Guy and especially Wolfsbane stand out as some of my favorites from that team, but sadly one of them is no more.

Rahne Sinclair has always had a bit of a messed up history; from having religion beat into her, causing her to hate herself and her powers, to losing best friends and lovers like Cypher, to being brainwashed and having one of her best friends murder her child, things haven't gone great for her. Recently, she had found some sort of peace with it all and decided to quit the superhero game altogether.

Scott let her go. Logan let her go. The entire rest of the current X-Men were happy to let her live a normal life and then she was murdered soon after. It came out of left field for everyone, including us readers.

Scott held a funeral service that the rest of the team attended, while Logan and a released Kwannon left to “mourn in their own way.” IE, finding the bastards who killed her and absolutely destroying them.

The contrast between these two ways of mourning is drastic and heartbreaking on both sides. Scott gives a melancholic speech, telling everyone that he's tired of losing friends and names off every “dead” mutant that he can. Logan and Kwannon, however find the guys that killed Rahne and Logan asks Kwannon to show him their memories.

After a lot of pushing, she shows Logan how they catcalled her and kept harassing her until she said no and bared her fangs. Thinking they were “tricked” by a “mutie”, they beat her to death. Suddenly a SWAT team enters the home and corners the pair and Logan goes on the attack.

As always, Logan and Scott are on opposite ends of their respective spectrums with Scott choosing the path of peace and Logan choosing the path of vengeance. It's hard to say which side is more righteous here. Scott promised something of change when he came back and allowed the X-Men to be democratic instead of having him as the leader and that possibly led to Rahne's death. Logan, of course may have cost The X-Men some good in the public eye as it's heavily implied that he and Kwannon murdered everyone in that house. But damn if he didn't get Rahne the justice she deserved.

Loganq returns home later to be yelled at by Scott, who tells him that he should have been at Rahne's funeral. Logan, also in a rage, brings up that Scott knew that Logan would do it and also brings up Blindfolds suicide and their own past schism when Scott tells him to leave the team. They get into a scuffle and Juggernaut stops them, telling them that they should be focused on Scott's list of enemies instead of each other and notes one BIG name missing that no one can seem to remember, I wonder what COLD BITCH that might be?

This issue really hit hard for me. While it doesn't bring up everything specifically, it does tie up her character arc in a bow made of razor blades. There are acknowledgements to her past, her times with X-Force, X-Factor and the New Mutants. It's shown how much she means to Scott as a sister and to Logan as another kid that he raised and couldn't save. Her best friends, Dani Moonstar and Magik reflected on their relationship with her and how kind of a soul she was and how she didn't deserve this. This end was as tragic as Rahne's life was and while she deserves the rest, I hope she does come back at some point.