#i have a lot to say about sexy villains apparently

[pwurrz]

yeah, miguel is fucked up. he’s hypocritical and rash and obsessive and angry and mean and goes too far and doesn’t know when to stop. he’s not supposed to be a good guy.

his motivations make sense. his intensity and insistence on keeping things canon and not interfering with events that are ‘destined’ to happen makes sense. he knows first hand what will happen if canon events are changed or prevented. he’s a deeply unstable man due to trauma that he inadvertently caused and he’s taking his emotions out on a 15 year old kid, and that makes perfect sense.

he’s the villain. his purpose in the story is to be an antagonist to miles and the other spider people. and he fills that role in the story perfectly. he’s the direct antithesis to miles. he’s convinced himself that the rules need to be followed, no matter what. he believes people have to die. in every universe. that’s just the way things need to be. and he thinks he has a very good reason for thinking and acting this way.

miles, on the other hand, is a firm believer in deciding your own destiny. he doesn’t listen to miguel’s rules because he’s not convinced that bad things need to happen. he’s convinced that he can save everyone, and if it doesn’t seem possible, he’ll find a way to make it possible. he’s not like the other spider people, and he never really has been. he’s his own unique individual, even among the other spider people. doing things his way has always been his style.

they’re polar opposites of each other and it’s great. it’s wonderful storytelling. miguel, a man hardened by witnessing tragedy over and over, helpless to stop it. a man who’s seen enough to know that being spiderman means losing people close to you. he lost his entire family trying desperately to fix a mistake, and caused more damage in the long run, and he’s not going to let anyone else make the same mistakes that he did.

and miles, a boy who ended up as spiderman by complete accident, who firmly believes in making the most of that accident. he’s young, and his heart is big. he’s a true hero who just wants to save everyone. and he has the determination to potentially bend the universe itself to his will just so that no one else has to die.

[snekdood]

i kinda feel like so long as someone like me isn’t accepted as a part of the queer community that none of us will ever be able to work together for our rights

[dc-imagines]

~DC Imagines~

Jason Todd X Hero!Reader

TW: Suggestive, Mentions of murder, Cussing

Depending on what time in Jason's life the two of you meet, you two could be on opposite ends of justice ⚖️ or fighting side by side

Whatever your abilities are, he's going to kind of scoff at you and do his best to show he's the better fighter between you two

Either he entered your city or you entered Gotham, both of you following a lead and trying to stop something from happening

Apparently your leads ran in the same circles because you're suddenly face to face with Red Hood and he's fucking massive 👌

If you beat his ass then he'll sulk about it later and insist you pulled some dirty trick or cheated, even blames whatever circumstances were going on at the time

"You got lucky! That's what happened!"

But if he wins, then he's smug and will lord it over you in a way that is irritating and sexy

"Listen, Babe, if you're looking to get pinned down again, then you're barking up the wrong tree. I don't have time for that."

The most amicable encounters the two of you will have is when you have to team up against a common enemy, and even then, you'll have to intervene, or he'll kill them

"We aren't killing them! Stand down!"

Honestly, you'll have to stand between them and Red Hood to prevent it, but you might not be doing much to stop him

If he has to hurt you to take them down, then he will. He doesn't know you well enough to care about you and your well-being at this point

"The hell we aren't! I'm doing the world a favor by putting them down!"

Of course, he pushes back. It will honestly turn into a fight between the two of you, which leads to the villain getting away

"You let them get away!"

"I did!? You're the one who picked a fight!"

Eventually, as you two run into each more and team up more often then Jason will start to warm up to you more, be more willing to abide by your boundaries

You two still do butt heads when it comes to beliefs, but if you manage to skirt around the topic of punishment and killing, then it's a good time

He pushes those thoughts down though, not letting himself dwell on them for too long and trying to just enjoy the moment together

You two sometimes catch each other staring, both of you looking away with small blushes on your faces but neither says anything

Or one of you tackles the other to keep them from getting hit, rolling until one of you is on top, both panting and staring at each other's lips

Only to have the moment ruined when you're both attacked because you got too caught up in each other

Lots of little moments where you two smile a little too long at each other, or you hold him a little too tight on his motorcycle or you two are stuck a little too close to each other for it to be platonic

Talking about that time you two hid in a vent together with Jason on top of you and your ass was pressed to his groin, the two of you deathly still and unable to look at each other without blushing afterwards

It helps that you two have an insane attraction to each other, that he thinks you're hot as hell and could see himself working with you long-term

He's always in a better mood after a night out with you, no matter how things went down or how beat up he got

He's just in a good mood the next day, unable to hold in the small smile on his face whenever he thinks of you

Everyone around him notices it, Dick of course, being the first to press him about it, not so subtly teasing him and insinuating that Jason has a lover

Tim and Duke try to team up and trick Jason into giving up information about you but he just threatens to knock their heads together

Cass and Steph try to follow him out on patrol and see if you two are meeting up or hooking up, but you manage to catch them, Jason quickly booting them out

Damian genuinely doesn't care at first, but everyone's sudden interest sparks something in him, and he takes it as a competition to try and find out just who you are to Jason

Barbara is the one who finds out the most about you because, of course she does, she's too smart for her own good and she rubs it in everyone's faces

"I know what city they protect, their abilities, and how many times they've been spotted with Red Hood~ What do you guys have on them?"

"I know that they're really killing it in that suit. You think they could make me one in purple?"

Alfred helped her out, though. In fact, he helped everyone out because he's a sucker for all that gossip

Bruce is just tired and wants Jason to be happy, is grateful to you for putting a stop to Jason's more extreme forms of punishment

You may or may not have a run with Batman himself and have an awkward conversation about Red Hood and your intentions

But Bruce also just wants to make sure you know what you're getting into with Jason, he even gives you a way to contact him if Jason ever goes too far

"Uh-thank you..? Mr. Batman-Sir..?"

Jason is just sick of everyone trying to sniff out his business and just wants to have this one thing to himself without having to share with his family

Which makes it really sound like he likes you, just a little bit 🤏

He will deny it and tell everyone to butt out of his business, which only confirms their suspicions

"Oh, he's so into them."

"For sure."

It's not like you two know each other's secret identities so he can't just call you up and ask when you're free to hang out, he has to wait for when you two are in vigilante mode

So he looks forward to nighttime and will find excuses to come around your territory when he can, which isn't often, but it's enough for you two to grow closer

Your relationship becomes more relaxed than it was in the beginning, more playful and teasing as tension between you two turns into something else

You start to rely on each other in a fight, moving in sync and quickly becoming an unstoppable duo that balances the other out

You stop asking not to kill and instead just ask him to trust you, which seems to work because he'll always reluctantly let you handle the criminal/villain

"Just-trust me with this, okay? Let me handle them and keep the blood off your hands a little longer."

"...fine."

But he's not going to leave you alone with them, insisting on helping you escort them because he would never forgive himself if something happened to you

"I'm coming with you to make sure you don't let them get away again, got it?"

You have two options, tease him because you see through his pathetic attempt to hide his real motivation

"You could just admit you worry about me~"

Or take the bait and end up bickering the entire way there with him, making your hostage wish you had just let Jason kill them instead

"You bastard! You were the one who let them get away last time!"

He thinks it's cute to ruffle your feathers but will roll his eyes under the mask if you tease him instead

Jason gets a bit jealous if you work with other heroes, especially anybody from the Batfam, because how could you!?!?!

Is super rude and testy with whoever your partner is, and it's just horribly obvious how jealous he is but he won't admit it

"Wait, are you jealous..?"

"Of course not! I just think it would make more sense for us to work together on this, don't you?"

"Maybe, but they're my boyfriend/girlfriend/lover sooooo-"

"YOUR WHAT!?"

"So you are jealous!"

Weeks later, he'll ask you if you're actually seeing anyone, which will be the most he's ever asked about your personal life, your real identity

He doesn't know why he asked you, hates that he did because he's terrified of your answer, if you do have a boyfriend then he's going to be crushed

But if you don't, then you surely deserve better than him, every bad thing he's ever done since you two met suddenly haunting him

You hum softly and look up at the night sky, unsure if you want to really answer that before deciding that you trust him enough

"No, no boyfriend or anything like that. Just some annoying guy who won't quit bothering me at night, but he isn't so bad."

It takes Jason a moment to register what you said, relief flooding his body before hot realization hits him

"You're the annoying one!"

He throws a strong arm around you and tugs you close to him, squeezing you playfully as his heart thunders in his chest

Your laughter makes his heart ache, your flushed cheeks and smile just make it so much worse because he knows his feelings have developed beyond lust

He can handle lust, it's something hot and electric that would fizzle out the moment he's hit it and quit it

But these warm bubbling feelings inside him? He knows it's only going to get worse because he's falling for you, he wants to be with you

Yet part of him realizes that you two only know half of each other's lives, your true identities still hidden from each other

But he wants you, craves being with you more than anything, so he knows he has to start somewhere, his hands coming up to suddenly unlatch his helmet

You're not too confused, keeping your head on his shoulder, having seen him without the helmet before and knowing of the domino mask underneath

Until his hand is suddenly guiding your own up towards his face, encouraging you to remove the mask and see his real face

"What are you-"

"I want you to know me. All of me. It's okay if you don't trust me but I trust you with this."

He's blushing, you're close enough to see that his cheeks are tinted pink and you can't help but cup his face in your hands, rubbing your thumb against his bottom lip

He really does have kissable lips-

Focus

Instead you guide his hands to your own mask, giving him a reassuring smile as you start to lift his mask off of his face

"I trust you."

You knew he was beautiful, scars and all but you weren't prepared for just how pretty Jason was without the mask

It was unfair really, he already had an amazing physique why couldn't he be just a little bit ugly???

You don't even get a chance to say it because the moment your own mask comes off then you feel naked, trying to look away before a strong hand grips your chin and guides you back to him

You're frozen under his intense gaze as he pulls your face forward, lips nearly touching as he wraps his other arm around your waist

"It won't be easy, being with me you know..."

He sounds so genuine and hurt that it pulls you out of it for a moment, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him in for a bruising kiss

He's in a daze when you pull away, not remembering how you ended up in his lap but drunk on the taste of your lips, strong hands squeezing your ass appreciatively

You lean in to kiss him again and stop just before you kiss him, smiling and cupping his cheek softly

"I was gonna say the same thing, baby~"

✨️🌟✨️

I hope you guys like it! This is my first work for my blog so please send me some requests!

[robotlesbianjavert]

Why do you think the makima reveal worked while the afo-tenko reveal didn't?

let me share an anecdote of me reading chainsaw man as part one was rolling. upon the release of chapter 71: bath. man makima has been really hot and sexy but also very sketchy and ambiguous this entire series i wonder what she obviously has planned for denji. but look denji is prioritizing his friendship and care for power over deluding himself into thinking he can has a real chance with a woman like makima, as many teenage boys delude themselves into thinking. whatever she's planning it doesn't matter because friendship and found family trumps all! me reading chapters 81: paw & 82: always eat a hearty breakfast, as they came out. i'm ending it all.

like honestly, part of the reason that the makima reveal works so well is that it's much more integrated into the story. obviously denji is the main character focused on throughout the entire story, and his developing dynamic with makima is highlighted throughout. but my experience, as i followed the story, was so focused on thinking about "what does makima have planned" that i missed the enormity of what she'd already done.

not only do we spend more time with that dynamic, but it's also so well entwined with the overall ideas of the story. one of things i love csm part one for is how tightly written it is - fujimoto had a strong idea of what he wanted to do from beginning to end. while i'm sure there was some massaging and diversion throughout the actual creation, i think it's apparent that fujimoto knew what he wanted to do with the characters and what he wanted to say with the story. one theme that is present throughout is what quality of life denji desires, how the standards for a satisfactory life keeps escalating as denji has more life experiences, as he fulfills more goals and has to find something new to satisfy him.

and that's directly entwined with makima's plans for denji - to satisfy his idea of a happy life, escalate that standard, and break him by taking it all away. that's baked into his relationships with aki, power, pochita, everyone - it's the central conceit of the entire story. it's very on the nose, and also one of the most engaging takes on a protagonist's relationship with his villainous pseudo-parental figure.

and basically. we know that makima's intentions for denji are sketchy all along, but it's difficult to deduce what exactly her plans are. then you learn, it's so much deeper and more horrible than expected, and it actively enriches the story, it's organically thematic. the kind of thing that made me immediately reread csm from the beginning with this knowledge in mind.

in comparison to shigaraki, while one of the if not theeeee central character, is still an antagonist/deuteragonist. he is cruelly forced to split share panel time with deku and bakugou and all might and whoever else, and accordingly we spend a lot less time specifically with shigaraki & afo than we do denji & makima. this isn't a bad thing - look at how much discussion shigaraki and afo's relationship has generated throughout the years, because what matters is what details are shared about them and how. you can say a lot about a story with very little!

i think it's also a matter of how expectations for each plotline were set up - with makima and denji, you know she's plotting, but you don't really know in which direction, why, how, what, etc. the tidbits you can meaningfully speculate off of aren't enough to come up with something better than what fujimoto had planned. i had simply carelessly thought she needed denji loyal to her for Whatever reason, not that she was going to dig so deeper into what we as readers knew about his past.

in comparison to bnha. listen remember way back when a big selling point for bnha's writing was for how it apparently subverted superhero and shonen tropes without being a grimdark deconstruction like idk. the boys or something. ultimately the problem there is that bnha only gets so far into that subversion before snapping right back to the norm of those genres, ie rah rah heroes so cool villains so vile whatever.

so with afo and shigaraki specifically. like for one, we know from basically the start that afo fucked with shigaraki's history in one way or another. he knew tenko was nana's grandkid, he conveniently was around when tenko was wandering helplessly through the streets. and when we know that from the get go, there's only so much you can to that before it gets a bit much. in comparison to where the twist with makima is that she didn't directly impact denji's past, but has enough knowledge of it to manipulate him in the present.

so when we get the "afo is possessing shigaraki" plotline in the PLF raid is less "WHOA who could have seen that coming" and more "ugh. so we're going there?"

the care that denji also had for aki and power is also both 100% organic on denji's part, while still being intended by makima, which is meant to make her manipulations hit that much harder (and also why things got tripped up with power. denjipower real forever). while with shigaraki and the league we as readers are in this weird grey area? afo is trying to lay claim to all of shigaraki's choices and development, which extends ambiguously to his relationship with the league, but the closest we get to afo actually using this against shigaraki is him overloading spinner with quirks? which can still screw afo over - after all, spinner certainly didn't wake up kurogiri the way that afo intended! i am holding onto that! but it still leaves the league as "collateral" throughout the manipulations in comparison to aki and power.

also like. i just want to know more about afo & shigaraki's relationship. we see the sum of makima & denji's relationship throughout the series, but afo & shigaraki's is left to either backstory, vague implication, or comical evil in the present. it's not that the story needs to show us a bunch of sappy shit, but it would also hit harder if we saw more of that emotional enmeshment, more reason to shigaraki to trust and respect afo that wasn't Obvious Evil, to make that betrayal an actual betrayal rather than a. yeah of course afo, obviously evil and manipulative man, would do all of that.

and going back to expectations. it was just cooler when there was more subversive expectations. like afo doing the mentor sacrifice at the kamino fight, letting shigaraki and crew get away and accepting the end of his era in favour of shigaraki's, versus all might who was still struggling with letting go of his legacy and handing it off to deku, something affirmed when toshinori, in his all might get up, visited an imprisoned afo who by all accounts was cool with shigaraki doing his own thing. until he wasn't? idk.

i guess basically. where csm succeeded with the makima reveal is that it showed a clarity of vision and foreplanning. bnha failed because it didn't enrich what was already there, pounded on what was already apparent in in cartoonish ways, and every alternative interpretation of the relationship was more engaging and original, and it's basically a clumsy shortcut to some of the things that horikoshi wants to say but simplified so that he can push his rah rah heroes so cool agenda.

also makima was innately sexy through all of that. while afo is my chewable barbie doll. it be what it be.

i feel like i had more to say but i sat on this too long and when crazy. again, it be what it be.

[spicymalepolls]

ROUND THREE: POLL #2 - Semifinals

ROUND 3 ALL POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

🔞 18 + Content Ahead 🔞

Shen Qingqiu/Yuan:

*Warning! Light spoilers for the entire book!*

There are canonical, in-world, ooc hardcore rpf porn of him and his husband written by other characters, heavily featuring how sexy and domninatable he is. Shen Qingqiu has his chest stripped, causing his love interests gay awakening, his clothes torn sexily when in prison, his clothes torn and his waist caressed under house arrest, had the narrative interrupt his 'I must look like an old man' inner monolog to say he was looking fine as hell, and had an evil alternate version of his husband try to sleep with him despite looking just like that guy's childhood abuser.

Shen Qingqiu is also described as having a fat ass and long sexy legs in the explicit extras.

Image #1 (Rule 34)

Image #2 (Rule 34)

Olivine:

He's a guy from a BL porn gacha, so he quite literally exists to be lewded. Facts about him that make me feral:

- he's a big titted priest with nipple piercings, and it's all but stated that he pierced himself

- you see the outfit in the back in the official art? that's his formal preaching outfit. he preaches in that. not all the time, but that's because the outfit is, in his words, too formal.

- is a masochist. NuCa is one of those gachas that has damaged clothes portraits when characters take damage in battle, and in every single one of his variants, he has an ahegao in the max damage portrait. in all but one variant he has heart eyes with that ahegao. I have chosen my favorite from many choices to include in the image propaganda.

- one of his home screen lines is thinking out loud about how he's heard that having a dick piercing feels good, but then he realizes he's talking out loud and goes "ah! never mind, you didn't hear that..." it's adorable.

- has a scene where he gives a tit job, and cums just from giving said tit job. it was his first time giving a tit job and apparently he has a natural talent for it, and got turned on when he was praised for this.

- and also he loves sucking cock.

- and also loves being creampied.

- one time he fucked in a confessional booth. has a lot of public sex scenes, actually. he's also into exhibitionism.

I know he's going to immediately get swept because NuCa isn't /that/ well known as a game but like. Look at him. He's so submissive and breedable and incredibly lewdable

Image #1 (Official Art)

Image #2 (Danbooru)

Image #3 (Twitter)

Image #4 (Twitter)

Image #5 (Twitter)

[veliseraptor]

top 5 fictional villains

oh man how am I supposed to choose from my entire villain warehouse. let's see.

1. Xue Yang. I mean, if this wasn't obvious from my [gestures] whole blog. But boy did I fall hard from pretty much scene one of my first watch of The Untamed, and then never looked back from there. He's just! What a guy. An icon. I love him so much. Fucks up his own life irreversibly and doesn't even realize he's doing it until too late. Whoops.

2. Maeglin. #my trash son. I waffled between putting him and Celegorm on this list (I could've done both, but, well, I felt like I should pick one per canon) and decided to go with Maeglin because he's arguably worse? Though I guess it probably depends on your metric. (I'm not really interested in arguing on that one, I don't particularly care, they're both my beloveds and there's no changing that at this point.) Seriously fucked up childhood that's got to fuck some things up in one's head to begin with, and then making some terrible choices later on that just go rapidly downhill, and again, tragedy of condemning oneself but also how doomed was he from the beginning (pretty doomed).

3. Vegas Theerapanyakul. I kind of hesitated about putting him on here because it feels sort of weird to call him a "villain" but like. He did sexually assault the protagonist in an early episode and threaten to kill him later on, so, like. Even if the story turns around and gives him a happy ending (iconic) I feel like he counts. Disaster of a man, kind of an awful person ("kind of?", you say, and okay, that might be so), and it's very sexy of him. Pete thinks so too, apparently.

4. Shen Jiu. Yest all right I know he's technically Sir Not Appearing In This Book but he is technically the titular scum villain so I'm counting him. Awful man. Miserable history, miserable story. I'm irresistibly drawn to tragedies created by characters themselves and that's what this guy's got going on.

5. Moridin/Ishamael/Elan Morin Tedronai. We! Love! A nihilistic villain just craving the end of everything! Of tenuous sanity and an abiding obsession with the protagonist! Anyway I didn't have a lot of feelings about this guy the first couple times I read Wheel of Time but then on my second to latest reread he came roaring out in front and plop, in the villain warehouse he goes.

thought about including He Xuan but he only sort of feels like he counts as a villain somehow; honorable mentions here go to Celegorm (disney prince murderer), Jun Wu (king of creating a toxic work environment), Clytemnestra (queen of my heart), Azula (since I just mentioned her), Jin Guangyao (generator of infinite discourse) and Jinx. I feel like I'm forgetting folks here. but that happens, I suppose.

and this is not including villains who are just so much fun for me to watch, who live in a slightly separate corner of my brain but are beloved of me nonetheless.

[frostise]

🐠 why i love (or hate) this hobby

🦄 the best thing that's happened to me in roleplay this year

🖼 my favorite types of characters

𝐌𝐘 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘   ┇   accepting ♡

🐠 why i love (or hate) this hobby

5 reasons why i love this hobby:

i get to interact with passionate writers who love their muse to the heavens above!! i genuinely love seeing that on my dash because it inspires me to write when i'm suffering from writer's block and it also helps boost my creativity ^^

i think my writing got better?? ngl i'm still trying to find my own writing style and be flexible about it but i'm just glad most of my moots like the way i write since that's like my number one struggle when portraying frost

i like that you mutuals are really patient with me!! even when i'm gone for long periods of time due to my personal life and i haven't replied to a thread or a ask. that takes the pressure off my shoulders A LOT so i thank you all because my writing really does flow better when i take my time ♡

the amount of engagement i get when people send anons or my mutuals sending IC one-liners from prompt/meme and leaving a nice comment to brighten up my day on a OOC post. little things like that make me twice as excited to roleplay on here

when i see someone who struggles with anxiety interact with me. i mean, i suffer from social anxiety so i know it's really hard to talk to newer muns for the first time but it makes me super happy to see my mutuals are getting comfortable interacting OOC

🦄 the best thing that's happened to me in roleplay this year

the best thing about my year was that more people wanted to interact with my version of KF even when she strayed away from canon. it's good to see everyone here is open to my interpretation of frost without being too judgemental about it because i changed certain things in her canon that didn't suit my taste as much. oh, and the fact nobody takes it personally when frost is being a total asshole because i always worry about offending someone irl but i'm 100% glad that never happened 😭😭

🖼 my favorite types of characters

i always lean into the villains more than the heroes. that's not to say i have a distaste for heroes or anti-heroes because i do love them!! but i'm always pulled into the dark side because villains are so real to me?? don't get me wrong because i'll NEVER excuse their actions but it's how they interact with their environment or other people in their life that's so fascinating to watch. plus, their overall aesthetics and fashion taste is so good for no reason.

i also noticed that my favourite characters tend to be blue and sexy with a cold personality. take widowmaker for example because apparently that's my type of woman to main on a video game and she's got sm KF vibes it's unbelievable to me.

[deshima]

So I just realised something, and I am not really sure if I will manage to articulate very well, but it pisses me off, and I need to rant... so for a bit of context. I am both an enthusiastic dancer and martial artist. I am also pretty flat-chested and I sew my own clothes including bras.. these three facts are important...when I say I make my own bras that includes my sports bras. My current ones are actually based on the pattern of a wireless normal bra which had already very little sideways and downward bounce to which I added an additional panel to the top of the cup to prevent upward bounce and then hiked the neckline to the start of the brastraps. These bras have served me well for almost three years, and I have almost no bounce and never had any spillage or even cleavage showing.... these are damn comfortable bras and they give enough coverage that if it gets hot I don't have any compunctions to take off my shirt, or in the case of martial arts that I don't wear a t-shirt under my gi.

So yesterday I got into a conversation with my black belt opponent, a very respectful dude whose only consideration when faced with a female opponent is mostly that we are little bit less strong, have a different centre of gravity and are a little ( or in my case a lot) more flexible... And we got into a conversation on where to hit women versus men during a friendly exercise.

When you have to hit a man in the torso, it is generally considered smart to do it a little bit high to avoid accidentally hitting him in the balls. Nobody intends to hit there, but you know shit happens during exercises, so aim a bit higher to be sure. In the same vein, when hitting a woman in the torso, you tend to aim a bit low to avoid accidentally hitting her in the boobs. It sounded logical to me because even being somewhat flat-chested, getting hit in the boobs bloody well hurts. But then my opponent said: well yeah there is that, but you also don't want to heave cleavage spilling everywhere... And that puzzled me because my half-selfdrafted sports bra has never spilled anywhere, even when upside down during a fish flop at the dance lesson. But I thought about it a bit more and I looked around and then I realised that almost all the ladies had high necked t-shirts under their gi. The only one who didn't was another petite flatchested lady and one of the beginners who had some serious boobs and who was indeed,despite the fact she was wearing a sports bra, in danger of spilling if she moved wrong... and then I thought back to my last dance class where a lot of ladies had taken off their shirts since it was hot ( we have only four guys in the class and all of them are gay so nobody is afraid of anyone being creepy)... and I realised that all of their bras, no matter how big-breasted or flat-chested they were, showed off some cleavage. That I was, in fact, the only one who had full coverage..... and I realised that even when we are doing sports, you know one of those moments no-one is aiming to look particularly sexy, the industry apparently though it necessary to make bras that show cleavage...even when it actively negates the function of a sports bra, aka keeping your boobs secure under any and all circumstances....

And this pisses me off so much. Because apparently, there is no moment in a woman's life where she can escape society 's need to make her sexy. Not even if she is simply taking care of her health, or getting sweaty tossing guys around and cackling like a villain when it works, or just honestly enjoying the fact you got that tricky combination down.

And that worse, society's need to make her sexy even during these activities is actively impeding her in doing so...

Just bugger off, okay...

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 016: Let's finish 1972! (ASM 110-115)

MASTERPOST

Dear readers,

This is it! The Lee-Ditko team is about to break up! Conway is going to take over Lee's mantel, a 19 years old dude entrusted with what was already a renowned character.

The last batch was painful at times, captivating some other times. I especially enjoyed the fanservice.

Want some context? Keep reading!

So this set of issue, Lee's last ish, introduces... the Gibbon.

And to be fair, the Gibbon is a nice character. For his last (regular, at least) outing, Stan introduces a character with a lot of empathy. Ostracized for his face and abilities, Marty is a gentle figure and immediately nice to the hero, which you never get enough of in these comics.

Both artists also gift me with some supreme Parker whump that just keeps on going. So here's a few panels to celebrate that!

A look at everybody's outfit: I particularly enjoy Harry's! It feels modern, in his own way. Is it because he has a much better mental health since he left the hospital? Maybe. Gwen has bold red, it suits her well.

Pete's still afraid of Flash stealing his girl, but Flash actually just promised Gwen he'd try to be a friend to Peter, which is great development. They do become roommates later on... Or is Ned?

Anyway, we get to see Peter's O-Face once again.

This issue's giving me everything I ever wanted: angst, whump, Parksborn, it's great.

When Pete wakes up, the Gibbon tries to speedrun TASM2 and quickly feels betrayed when Spidey laughs at him for suggesting they'd partner up.

Not far from them, somebody seems to be satisfied with what his gaze has set on.

A requested villain? No way... Surely... It can't be... The Wall?

(It isn't.)

Lee's last regular issue is a surprising delight, in spite of the first look I had at it. The ridiculous costume is acknowledged, and there's plenty of soap. Luv it.

I wanted to check out the reader's letters, but my scans don't have them and the archive I used last time was deleted. In the space of two weeks!!!! This is absurd.

Anyway.

Let's make way for baby Conway! What's his first SM story gonna be like, under Lee's supervision?

Well Kraven's sure gonna show us with his fabulous dancer's soles and sexy pantyhose. Turns out he wants revenge for his dino pet (understandable). So Kraven's basically Newt Geizler, nice.

As implied in the previous issue, May is going away, letting the readers (and the writers, who don't know what to do with her) breathe a sigh of relief. Peter wonders with whom May could leave, completely forgetting that she has a girlfriend in the person of Anna.

Kraven drugs the Gibbon and subsequently takes over him. It's no time for nipple lasers!

This leads me to think the reason Gerry Conway started in the middle of a mini-arc was for Lee to show him the ropes. The style is pretty much identical to Stan's, maybe so as to not shock the readers (in the same way Romita tried to imitate Ditko's style in 39-40).

(Peter looking like a sad boi.)

The issue features nice word art for Kraven's commands to the Gibbon.

Issue #111 is a nice one, not that remarkable. The Gibbon gets out of Kraven's grip, but nothing's too conclusive...

I have the letters, though! James Brandwein hopes Stan "doesn't do something dumb, like kill [Gwen]". Hahaha. He also hopes that Peter doesn't get married. Did he plot Mephisto's inference with the plot? Hmm!

Mark Wilson asks for a mystery villain, whose identity shall be unknown for years! He should be satisfied with the upcoming Hobgoblin storyline. He argues that back in the day, the Green Goblin's identity was a source of discussions with fellow fans. (I guess this ask actually inspired the Jackal, but his identity would be revealed not too late.)

In issue #112, Peter gets a few new facial expressions. The mystery of May's disappearance (because it's a mystery now, apparently) paces the issue. Gwen gets some welcome characterization and also says Flash had promised he wouldn't ~ride~ Peter anymore. She's very disapproving of their bedroom activities, obviously.

Doc Ock announced his arrival through Romita having a lot of fun drawing great perspectives. And continuing in issue 113, the perspective shots are at least nice to look at. The issue also advertises Team Up because they need that sweet money, but I don't care about it.

I was just thinking I missed the side characters when Randy Robertson pops up, which makes me very happy. He's no Hobie Brown, but he's still Randy.

The Peter whump continues to my delight, and Doc Ock looks for a nightclub. He's always had that Elton John look, so I'm not surprised. Seems like the gangs are fighting ahead, and a "Mr. H" namedrop leads me to think Hammerhead's back... I'm already dealing with him in Insomniac's Spider-Man DLC (hey, remember when he died but was revived after his death being a life-changing event for a developing character? that sucked!) And his squared head appears a few panels later, so I was right. The two villains start fighting, but Peter gets whumped harder and offers me some nice shots...

... and the whump soon turns into shirtless visuals, as is bound to happen...

... and turns back into whump so whumpy I might have written it when I was a teenager. 19-year old Gerry Conway doesn't disappoint.

Romita completely succeeds at making Peter look frail in these issues (and particularly this one), so kudos to him. Please produce more of this, please.

In issue #114, Peter finds himself a passion for architecture.

More importantly, Professor Warren's back too. Gerry Conway, I see you... And Gwen once again gets angry at Flash for him making fun of Peter. Déjà vu... but it makes me think Flash and Gwen could be a compelling couple...

Turns out May was at Ock's, being a nice little houseworker, and she does not take Spidey intruding gladly.

In the letters, Jeff H. Berlin complains about Peter's distrust of Gwen, and I agree with him. He has no faith in her and immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion.

May got away, and this is just a nice set of panels.

All is well that ends well (Ock does have a word with May before leaving with the cops called by Robbie), but Peter truly looks like a puppy with his shojo eyes.

Yeah, because making an old lady work is very nice of Ock.

Like I said, very sad puppy indeed.

You know, I'm very glad to have read this arc, because it gives context to what happens later... Hammerhead's first appearance and rivalry with Doc Ock, May's behavior, the relationships between Gwen, Flash and Peter... and since we just finished up with the year 1972, next time, we'll enter year 1973. That's right, baby, two (arguably, three) years I've fully read before, and multiple times too!

The Green Goblin (finally) comes back, in multiple ways! The first Clone Saga is ashore! Are we ready?

I repeat:

ARE WE READY?!

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/17/2023: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932)

I'm probably not supposed to say this, but I find this movie pretty silly. I'd never seen it before, even though it's one of the most referred-to titles alive. And I mean it's from Ernest Schoedsack who co-directed KING KONG, so what could go wrong? But I have to be honest, I'm not attracted to its boys' adventure vibrations; Joel McCrea is strutting around being the World's Most Awesomest Dude, with everybody including the villain slavering for his approval, and I'm just sitting there thinking, Can't some weasels come and rip this guys' flesh already?

I don't think my problem is just that, like everyone else, I know the twist and the ending already. I've seen lots of very old, very famous movies pretty late in life, and I treasure the discovery of how great and powerful they are despite being so familiar. THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME does face one specific contextual challenge, which is that this Blogtober season I also watched SVENGALI and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931), and to be blunt about it, Leslie Banks is nowhere near the class of Fredric March and John Barrymore in terms of crafting a charismatic, sexy, scary, physically impressive screen villain. Joel McCrea is perfectly bland as the movie's flawless hero, who doesn't so much learn an ironic lesson about his hunter's hubris as he proves that he can do anything he wants in any situation, especially when he's up against a bunch of swarthy foreigners who wish they could be him, so who really cares. Fay Wray flops around being completely helpless and witless, with this look on her face all the time

while the music goes, "Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh NUH. Duh nuh nuh NUH NUH NUH! DUH NUH NUH NUH NUH NUH!!!" The jungle sets are admittedly beautiful and fun, but I have to deal with all these boring jerks if I want to enjoy them, so that's too bad.

What would have brightened this movie up for me is if it fulfilled on its consistent teasing that the evil Count Zaroff has a super fucked up trophy room with all the most dangerous games that he's murdered stuffed and mounted in it...but apparently whatever version of this once existed was so upsetting to test audiences that it basically survived only in the viewer's imagination. Here are some pretty concise notes on that, if you're interested. But obviously I don't have much of interest to say about this movie. I know it's a classic and all, but let's just say that if you've ever suspected that I'm here to toe the party line on all the great classics to try to sound smart and sophisticated, well, you'd be wrong!

[morhath]

SPN S1E16 liveblog for Some Goddamn Reason

It's been a while since I did this but I need to mend some pants. Netflix pls do not @ me about account sharing. This one is called "Shadow" and apparently involves Meg. I do not currently remember jack or shit about it.

Oh hey this is the episode that that post I reblogged recently (the one with Dean teasing Sam about his being in "Our Town") comes from!

"Your alarm is about as useful as boobs on a man" well I. I think I might have some objections to what that statement implies.

Shoutout to Sam for instantly being suspicious of Meg--it's a little sad how he's like "nice coincidences like this don't happen to us" tho.

You know I feel like I've seen Meg's haircut on like twenty different young queer people recently and that + her general style are kind of throwing how I read her in 2024. She looks kinda gay to me now. I don't recall thinking that before, but of course I was also like. twelve. and significantly less familiar with gay people. Dude I totally focused on writing this post for too long Sam are you in an elevator shaft. Are you going to fall down the elevator shaft. Man sewing my pants took way less time than I assumed.

No matter how charming Dean is, I have a really hard time believing that he actually managed to get the--presumably confidential!--records of the murder victims out of someone at the police station. (I'm not sure if Amy is an officer or not.) Well actually as I type this I can totally see a police officer leaking that kind of thing to impress someone they want to fuck.

"What if this whole thing was over tonight?" he says. This just gets funnier with time. FIFTEEN SEASONS. And Sam still wants to back to school...... :'( I am once again saying that having a lawyer in the family would've been really useful. Man this whole convo is just sad knowing about the. as I said. FIFTEEN SEASONS.

There is NO way they actually got out of the elevator shaft that quietly. I mean I was assuming Meg knew Sam followed her but now I'm like oh she's GOT to know they're there.

Meg's kinda hot. Anyway.

She is, to me, less hot when she's doing the typical sexy villain thing tho. I find that very overdone.

Anyway! There's John. I am not as happy about this as the show wants me to be. He ALSO looks so young here. And the Spanish voice they picked for him isn't helping, it sounds really young/a lot like the Sam and Dean voices. Also slightly evil, which is fun.

Ooh it gets so GRAINY when things are brightly lit.

[winns-stuff]

the funny thing is if you ARE more outspoken about sexuality or your own beauty you are slutshamed and villainized (see thetis, minthe) 😭 the only way to not be a prude (artemis) or a slut (thetis) in RS eyes is to be SO naive to your own sexiness and deny it but have everyone else comment about how perfect and sexy and desirable and a cinnamon bun you are because you yourself are a humble queen

Yeahh see a lot of fans always accuse critics of being prudes themselves because we don’t want to see sexually liberated women expressing their sexuality, I say this with the upmost sarcasm btw, and it’s mostly pertaining to how Persephone magically got over her sexual trauma over night. But at the same time, everyone who says that sounds like hypocrites when you support this comic which obviously shames women for being sexual or being confident about their sex drive. It’s absolutely telling how everyone is fine calling Aphrodite or even Minthe and Thetis sluts and such but we draw the line at Persephone because she’s pure, she’s never done it before, and apparently she has a magical vagina.

You know I’m starting to realize that LO as a whole is only adding onto purity culture and not actually doing the efforts to go against it.

[naiive-and-starry-eyed]

fandom: black butler, ship: merthur, character: elias bitchard, and also like some bonus ones that u feel like doing

001 | Black Butler:

Favorite character: Ciel Phantomhive tbh, he's rude and fucked up and I like him so much!! The amount of analysis my bestie and I have poured into him and the choices made in the manga and anime and how this is foreshadowing and that is a hidden message,,, Lau is a runner up as my fav tho cause he's hilarious and vibing at all times and I love that for him!!

Least Favorite character: Claude Faustus my behated, hit him with my car ass motherfucker

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Hmm idk if I have 5 ships, but we will figure this out

SebAgni - they are so fun and the fact Sebastian respects Agni is so funny considering Ciel is so bothered by Soma. They simply vibe together and I think they should have gotten to hang out more. Pour one out for Agni 😭😭

Cielois - Idc if Alois is from a non-canon season, he's an icon and it would be so fun and amazing if Ciel and Alois could get over the fact Alois tried to kill him one (1) time and live in Phantomhive manor together and kill Druitt and whoever they want <3

Will x Grell - Grell is a girlboss and it's funny how much she bothers Will; she simps for many characters but I like her with Will the most. Is this decision influenced by the Wil and Grell season 2 OVA? Mayhaps

Lau x winning at whatever he's up to - nothing more to say here, I just hope Lau manipulate mansplain manwhores his way to the top

Othello x vibes - he's doing a great job at his grim reaper forensic nonsense, king deserves a breakthrough and a coffee or 10

Character I find most attractive: *picture my aroace ass giving a blank face here* Lots of conventionally attractive characters but none specifically come to mind lmao, a lot of them are pretty

Character I would marry: Lau, we can be so cool and sexy together

Character I would be best friends with: Soma or Lizzie! They're both fun and energetic and I think we would have a great time dressing up and running around London getting into trouble

a random thought: Manifesting School Arc manga to be animated...or the musical to be subbed where I can get to it *grabby hands*

An unpopular opinion: Sebastian is a fine and well written character and deserves good things! and I think the end of the manga will be him sacrificing himself for Ciel and ending the contract that way, because he cares about Ciel. He didn't plan to care about Ciel in the beginning, but oops, you have acquired a son and you like him so much. The tragedy of Ciel having planned to die all this time but now having lost someone he cares about and who cared about him? And having to live on despite that? *chef's kiss*

My Canon OTP: none?? I don't ship anyone who's actually together in canon rip

My Non-canon OTP: Cielois, see above for my ramblings <3

Most Badass Character: Obvious answer, but Sebastian! He kills people and is iconic while doing it. His LookTM straight out of being summoned in the ritual was also fun, love the high heels his demonic form apparently has. The fact he can kill the shit out of people with fucking silverware is v badass

Most Epic Villain: The Circus Troupe are fun, and I'm counting them as a villain collectively. This doesn't include Baron K*lvin, he's another hit with my car ass bitch. Joker, Dagger, Beast, Doll, Jumbo, and Peter and Wendy are all fun though and I do like that they cause problems and kill people. Unfortunately Sebastian and Ciel were just better at causing problems and killing people. Rip the most to Doll though, you were the best

Pairing I am not a fan of: Ciel x Sebastian 🤢 he's a child worsties

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Alois. I don't really love his ending in season 2 - he, Hannah, Claude and the triplets all merge into one consciousness or something?? It's stupid and I hate that Claude is included in anything. I think Alois should have also been able to become a demon with Ciel if they wanted to go that route, or simply have him not die and get therapy but still continue being evil if he wants he's allowed

Favourite Friendship: I really like the friendship between Bard, Finny, and Mey-Rin! They all bonded and are all soo stupid together they're great. Also adding Snake to their mix is fun, even though everyone is lying to him,,, oops 😬

Character I most identify with: Lizzie I think! She's sweet and badass and wants what's best for Ciel, even if she doesn't completely understand what's going on or how he changed from what she remembered as a child. I love that she's super good at sword fighting, and I want to be that good as well!! Next step is sword fighting classes lmao

Character I wish I could be: I love most of the characters but honestly I don't want to be any of them lmaoo; they're all suffering or in danger in various ways and I just want everyone to feel better and so would not like to be in that situation <3

002 | Merthur:

When I started shipping them: Season 1 episode 1 tbh. They have great chemistry and bother each other a lot but also genuinely care about each other which is so important!

My thoughts: Oooh you are not ready for my thoughts on them. Just got done doing a rewatch of Merlin BBC with my bestie and we suffered and exalted together

What makes me happy about them: The way they are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other! Merlin drinks poison for Arthur and Arthur ignores his father and places himself in danger to save Merlin's life, who his father dismisses as a mere serving boy and Arthur's like he's more than that!! to me!! and I just

What makes me sad about them: Girl the everrrryything 😭 the tragedy of Merlin doing all he can to prevent Arthur's death at Camlann but all he does just makes it happen. The tragedy of Merlin becoming so jaded over the course of the show, with how trusting and happy he was in season 1 and how unwilling he was to trust or give Mordred a fair chance in season 5 - especially when it came to the girl Mordred loved. The fact that Arthur never found out about Merlin's magic until it's too late!! That Merlin spends the whole show worried Arthur will hate him when he finds out, and does his best to ensure magic won't return to Camelot and advises Arthur not to trust magic,,,, ough agggh the agonies!!

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: no magic AU or modern AU. Yeah I know the show ends showing Merlin still around in modern day waiting for Arthur, but I don't care! I want them to be around in Arthurian times and causing and solving problems. Throw in angst as needed, but don't put them in a place without magic or in modern day. I also tend to avoid major character death - I'm usually not opposed to it if done right since angst is a good time, but since it happened irl in the show I can't handle it in fic

Things I look for in fanfic: I never say no to a good magic reveal fic!! Especially if it takes a minute for Arthur to forgive Merlin for not saying anything and he's mean about it and makes Merlin feels bad and then feels bad later when he gets over it and Merlin is sad and they work on themselves together. Hurt/comfort type stuff!

My wishlist: That Merlin's magic gets revealed to Arthur sooner than canon and that Arthur comes to terms with it and magic is accepted in Camelot, that Merlin dates Arthur and Arthur dates Gwen and Gwen dates Morgana <3 Also that Uther dies choking on his own blood. Not related to Merthur but also still related to them cause his Huge Bitch disease prevented them from being happy

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Merlin with Gwaine and Arthur with Gwen! Gwaine and Merlin are so sweet actually, and we see how good Arthur and Gwen are in canon

My happily ever after for them: Merlin is court sorcerer/magical advisor to Arthur, also maybe his royal boyfriend, and they rule Camelot in peace and happiness. Morgana is happy with Gwen and Mordred is vibing somewhere to, maybe with his gf if we want to continue pretending he's straight

003 | Elias Bouchard:

How I feel about this character: absolute bastard, commit as many war crimes and murder as you would like, you are so fun and so cool and it's great when you bother everyone else and sound smug abt it

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Peter Lukas and also Jon. Both are great concepts and I think that fear monsters should harm people together but also kiss kiss fall in love

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Elias, Simon Fairchild, Peter Lukas, and M

My unpopular opinion about this character: I'll be real with you besties, Melanie was kind of annoying and I had fun when he traumatized her on screen in podcast <3 also he should have won the end of the world it was great that he caused the apocalypse

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I would have loved to get more backstory on Jonah Magnus, or somehow hear statements from the people he hung out with in ye olden times in their own voices! It would also have been neat to hear his own thoughts/feelings on living through a ton of shit - invention of electricity, the car, the airplane, the internet! I would love to hear if he thinks everything is cool and better now or if he's a crotchety old bitch about it and is like "back in my day 😤"

Favorite friendship for this character: Lmao he doesn't have friends!! Best I can do is his friendships in the 1800s where he was prob just using everyone so he could open his funny little eye temple <3 but I will say I liked the statement from him about Barnabas Bennett , so I'll say I liked their 'friendship' 😏

My crossover ship: I don't have many crossover ships, and I can't honestly think of any I'd have for Elias. He's perfectly fine being evil and terrible with Peter or Jon

[sounds-of-some-day]

Captain America #3 Case #1 - The Return of the Red Skull

So I'm on the third issue and the cases are starting to get really fun. The first few cases, honestly were a *little* bit dry, but now it feels like they were starting to have fun with it. Also we're finally getting to see a little more of *Steve's* personality, whereas the first couple of issues were really more focused on Captain America.

Okay, so for the first time we get a repeat villain, and what do you know, it's Cap's main villain (though again, Red Skull goes through a big change at some point. Here he is/was an American businessman who decided to align with Hitler because Hitler basically told him that he would give him a lot of business when he eventually took over America. So greed.)

A lot of Steve's early villains, if they're not just outright Nazis, are men motivated by greed. Which, honestly, nice.

Okay, so if you've been following along on our journey, Red Skull was just some dude in a red skull mask, who killed his victims with the Stare of Death (ie he jabbed them with a needle full of poison while staring deep into their eyes and telling them he was killing them with his Stare of Death). I'm not really sure what the purpose of these dramatics were, since they wouldn't be able to tell anyone about the Stare of Death (TM) once they were dead, but points for style I guess.

Last we saw him, he killed himself by accidentally (??) jabbing himself with his own needle, which Steve just let him do. So how has he returned?

Turns out he was immune to his own poison, a lá the Dread Pirate Roberts.

This is already a little bit of retconning because Steve turned his body over to the police, who, apparently, just left his body on the floor of his living room and then he stopped pretending to be dead and escaped, because something something comic books and stellar work on behalf of the police, even back in the forties.

I forgot to mention this before, but Steve smokes a pipe.

Also I'll be honest, but Steve does not come across as a twenty-something year old guy to me here. He feels much more like mid-thirties to forties. I don't think his age was ever established here, though they did introduce him as "a young man who wanted to join the army but was rejected for being unhealthy". So probably not in his thirties, but he definitely gives off Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind vibes to me (Gone with the Wind came out in 1939 so it's possible that Gable was actually at least partially an inspiration).

In a very good, very sexy way. And like, look, comic book art has come a long way in the last eighty years, but there's definitely something about Steve's very relaxed, very chill, unflappableness that's just very old school sexy. And you can kinda tell that in this issue they decided that Steve was going to be sexy, and I'd very much like to thank them for that development.

I'm not going to get into Red Skull's dastardly plan cause it's not actually that interesting, but now Red Skull is killing important military people with his Touch of Death (TM), which they pretty much have to touch him if they're fighting back, so it's pretty effective. And yes, he announces this to them as he is killing them because dramatics.

Far more fun is the b-plot, which is that some guy decides to capitalize off of Captain America and the fact that no one knows who he is by getting two other guys to dress up at Cap and Bucky and then sell people -- now you might be thinking I'm going to say something like fake autographs here, but I'm not -- the opportunity to touch Captain America's muscles. Which I mean, I'd love to say that I'd be immune to something like this, but I'm only human.

This woman that wants to buy two tickets, I feel you.

As you might guess, Steve is not a fan of this particular capitalistic endeavor.

The evening gets even worse for our fraudulent pair when Red Skull turns up because he wants to kill Captain America and Bucky. Even though they try to explain that they are not the real Captain America and Bucky.

Like things go very poorly for them.

This is a hell of an image here. Like kudos to Jack Kirby for this cover.

The Red Skull and his henchmen's initial reaction to the real Captain America and Bucky showing up is that they're ghosts that have come back to haunt them.

Instead of, you know, thinking that maybe the guys were telling the truth when they said they weren't the real thing. 🙃🙃🙃

Red Skull tries to goad Bucky into punching him so he can kill him with his Touch of Death (TM), but unfortunately for him, Steve figured out that he was accomplishing this by having electric wiring in his clothes, so he was basically electrocuting people to death. So both Steve and Bucky have insulated their gloves.

Red Skull ends up lobbing a bomb at them, which Steve throws back, and then after the explosion Steve says that Red Skull is "probably dead" because he didn't learn anything from the first time.

And Steve gets in trouble *again*, this time for turning up to inspection injured. This time he's assigned to guard duty.

This wasn't my favorite of the three cases in this issue, but I did enjoy this one quite a lot.

[praphit]

Scream 6: Happy Women’s History Month!

Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of this franchise. I like the first one, the second one is ok, but the rest?? - meh. I just can't go with it, you know?? I tried. There are always too many times when I say "Wait, what?" And yet, the "Fast & Furious" franchise; I'm 100% bought.

I know that makes no sense.

Maybe it's because I'm a child of Jason Voorhees. 

I hold all slashers to his standards of art, comedy, and excellence:)

Meanwhile, 

Ghostface is clumsy, kinda stupid, chatty, sloppy, reckless, and always has a partner. Teamwork is for heroes, villains are supposed to be able to do it all by themselves.

So, why did I watch this? - Women's History Month. Yep. A friend of mine (a woman) asked me to go with her to see it. Normally, I would have told this friend to kick rocks, but I figured since we're honoring women this month... that it's the least I can do :) Just trying to do my part.

If you're not caught up with this franchise, it doesn't matter. We all know the basics, and the basics still apply. It's a rated R Scooby Doo (Who dun done it?! Let’s take off their mask and see). Kinda like the show "Velma", 

but with better writing.

  Idk how many ghostface's we're up too now (that's another thing about him - he/she always dies, but somehow the masks are still getting manufactured and some new psychopath picks up where the last one left off), but he's back, and this time he's in NY. And this time, he's not chasing Sidney. 

Sorry, Sid, but apparently he got bored with you, and is now chasing after someone younger. Happy Women's History Month!

The youth I speak of are the same yoots from the last movie:

THE CORE FOUR (they call themselves):

We've got the trauma sisters (what I’m calling them). 

They've been through a lot. People keep getting murdered around them. They're trying to move on, but it's hard when Ghostface keeps tracking them down. Some of you kids out there might think you've got it bad, but at least there's no murderer hunting you down. Imagine your life like this: You try to go to college and get your education on, but here comes Ghostface to your classroom. You try to have a party and get into some sexy-time action with some drunken, shady, stranger, and here comes Ghostface. (side note: Jenna Ortega’s character does this - idk how old she is... 20ish maybe, but she looks like a teenager, so when some guy who looks like he’s in his 30′s tries to take her upstairs, it comes across to me like we have an R.Kelly situation on our hands)

You try to make a TikTok video alone in your room, and here comes Ghostface. You try to get a Big Mac with cheese from Mickey D’s, and you guessed it - Ghostface is there, ready to take your order.

Damn, dude! Either kill them or let them live! You gotta admire these young ladies. Despite the crud that this world keeps throwing their way, they find the strength to keep on keeping on. Happy Women's History Month :)

We also have... I forgot his name... we’ll call him Macho Man. He's the protector of the group, so he thinks. He's a level 10 bro. And no guy is good enough to be around the ladies in his life except for him. Isn't that sweet?? What would we do without our "protectors"?

And then there's the movie nerd.

She's the one who explains all of the movie meta stuff that's going on. One thing I can appreciate about her is that she leans into her nerdiness. But, that appreciation did not stop me from wanting to choke her out every time she talked. It's not completely her fault, cuz this franchise's schtick got old for me in the 3rd installment, but I'm placing all of the blame on her. Seriously, she could not have been more annoying. It was painful for me. I couldn't stop squirming through her monologues. I was gnashing my teeth. I thought I was turning into Ghostface. This movie almost became the crux of my villain origin story.

Look, the kills in this movie were multiplied, as they should be, but honesly, I think Ghostface could have killed MORE... OR this movie needed to be shorter, and cut out all of the emotional gush-gush from The Core Four. I have never rooted so hard for the "heroes" of a story to be killed. I wanted them all to go, including Ghostface. Perhaps I’m remembering it wrong, but weren’t the OG characters of “Scream” likeable? Not all of them, but enough, right?? (or maybe it was just Dewey - idk)

Everybody here is so ughckq... not one likeable character in this movie. I was rooting for something biblical to happen:

God interrupts Movie Nerd's monologue and says "ENOUGH! THIS IS HORRIBLE!" Then, he sends an angel to blow up the town. Everybody is dead. God says "Amen" and they roll the credits, but that's not what happens.

Everyone is so whiny! Not just the kids, but the adults too. Is that just what we are now? Maybe it's true to reality. Are we all whiny? Have my eyes just been opened?

Trauma sisters, I respect your strength, but don't TRY to move on with your lives, DO IT. There are ways! Adele uses grammy award winning music. Batman uses revenge, Chris Rock uses Netflix specials. Do something! Who's that lady? um... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She's been through worst shit than y'all, and look at her! She ain't bitchin about it! She’s bout it bout it! She got tough! and carved out a new life for herself. Look at her - 

  she’s living the dream!

Macho Man! AM I supposed to like you? All men know his game! He points out to the lady that he wants (he’s trying to score with Ortega), that the men she's been seeking are toxic (and well over 30). What she really needs is a guy like him. We all know that game! I think... do women know that game? I think they do... idk Happy Women's History Month! While Macho Man is not quite the picture of "toxic masculinity" he's close enough. He's like diet TM.

And don't get me started on Movie Nerd. She sparked this rant in me!

Ghostface! Kill! Kill them all! But, you won't will you?? You'll kill (awesomely) through NY. Bursting on the scene whenever The Core Four try to get some down time, but like every other part of this franchise, you'll never kill the main person/people whom you actually set out to kill.

These four are lucky that I didn't become Ghostface, cuz this movie would have only been about 30mins long, if that! I'd break in to their home, and call them to play a game alerting them to what I'm up to? NO! I'd kill them! I'm not going to let the trauma sisters take up valuable screen time to whine about their problems. I'm not going to allow Macho Man to... well, maybe a lil sexy-time action with the ladies before I kill him... bros before hoes, am I right?? (Happy Women's History Month). And I would definitely end Movie Nerd's reign of Annoyance. 

*WHEW* sorry... that's been building up for a while. It kept me up. Seriously... I'm up early, typing right now, cuz I had this rant in me, and it was keeping me from rest. Now, I can move on. See, trauma sisters, that's how you do it! You move on! You don't take a break while running from the killer to have an emotional pow wow. Now, is NOT the time! You're being hunted! DAG GON YOU! Ghostface, kill them! *WHEW* *clearing throat* sorry again. That's... the last drop, I think.

It wasn't all bad. Like I said, the kills are awesome. More blood in this one than the others, I think. You’ve gotta hand it to Ghostface, the man loves his work. I like his gusto. If he does catch you in this movie, he’s going to stab you like 35 times - that’s solid work ethic. The camera work for these kills is on point. Ghostface ain't playing around with all of the stabbing. You'll feel that shit, and that's why most people are there. I also LOVED the first scene. LOVED! I didn't see that coming at all. But, then... same ol bullshit. And that's the thing, I'm not about this brand of bullshit, but if you are, then it'll be just as enjoyable for you as the others. But, for a casual ( I use that word lightly) fan ------ Grade: D

I wondered to my friend (who's lucky that I love her) if the message over these types of movies are positive for women. I don't have the answer to that question. I mean, these "final girls (women)" are strong, but they've been through a whole lot, and don't seem all that healthy. They're bitter, angry, depressed, tired, lonely in some cases... that's a lot of pain/death they've been around.

Can we do better? Again, I don't know.

What if the woman is the lead antagonist? She hunts down the men for a change... although unless the writers let her win (which would be letting the murderer win) she'll end up being beaten up by a bunch of men... that doesn't look good.

But, what if...

Ok, what if there's some sort of alien entity that takes over the woman, and she becomes empowered. During the day she becomes powerful, independent, successful, glorious, and at night this entity leads her to kill... a lot. No, like A LOT - she's a beast. (look, we've gotta make money off this thing:). She'll only kill men... white men... Republican white men (kidding:)... but definitely white men who love Tucker Carlson. This way when she inevitably is defeated, they won't be killing the woman per se, but the empowered, successful monster that she has beco.... hmmm... Shoot... Maybe this is the best that we can do.

Happy Women's History Month!

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #654

Top Ten Magic Users in Superhero Fiction

I’m a bit busy this week so I’m going to try to do this quite quickly. Seriously, I had to deal with an unexploded bomb on Friday. I’m not even joking, although the truth may not be as exciting as the headline.

Anyway, after what feels like quite a while of me not being too bothered about TV programmes, there are a ton on the go at the moment. And by “on the go”, I mean, “stuff I want to watch that I’ve not started yet”. Kaos, Rings of Power, Only Murders in the Building, and – as of next week – Agatha All Along (I kinda feel bad about The Acolyte; I really did want to watch it, and who knows? Maybe one more viewer was all it needed to save it from cancellation). Anyway, Agatha: as may have been apparent to anyone who’s read a few of these blogs, I’m quite into the MCU. And as WandaVision is not only one of the best – if not the best – of their TV programmes, but is easily one of the best things they’ve ever done, I’m pretty excited for this semi-sequel/follow-up.

And so, to celebrate, I’m going all supernatural by looking at magic-users such as Agatha title character Agatha Harkness. Witches and wizards, yeah? Although, as it’s me, we’re inevitably going to get into questions of how “magic” is “used”. Oh, but here’s the wrinkle: I’m not just after yer common or garden sorcerers here. You won’t find any of the Istari, let alone Simon. No, today I’m specifically talking about the use of magic within a superhero setting.

Having magic users in superhero stories has always interested me. Because the main characters – Superman, Iron Man, whoever – are so fantastical anways, what added wrinkle does Actual Magic create? I don’t just mean the fact that the seemingly-invulnerable Superman is actually incredibly vulnerable to magic; I mean, if you’re (say) Batman, how do you deal with wizards in the world? Is it a threat, is it a tool? And then there’s just how “regular” heroes work alongside magic-users; I love the whole “magic with a kick!” sequence between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in Infinity War (and then the way Peter works out the geometry of the Mirror Dimension in No Way Home). And that’s before you get to characters like Wonder Woman or Thor, who aren’t really magic, but kind of have magic infused into their power set (also, how do “gods” square up against magic in this setting?).

So lots to think about. Mostly, I guess, I like the way a superhero team book can have a street-level hero like Daredevil rubbing shoulders with aliens, wizards, and people with supreme power sets. It’s this mix of styles, genres, and tones that I love about shared superhero universes. So I think it’s all interesting!

And with no further ado, my favourite super-wizards. Sort of.

Raven: I could wax lyrical about how her spooky, demonic brand of magic sits alongside the powerset of her teammates (super-strong alien princess, shape-changing green dude, incredibly sexy acrobat); I could talk for ages about the duality of her personality, how her innate goodness struggles with the fact she’s literally a monster; but let’s be honest, the real reason I love her so much is because of her dry, sardonic, miserablist personality. Also has one of the best lines in a team-up comic: “I’m not a goth; my father is a demon. I like all kinds of music.”

Loki: whether it’s the historically more villainous character from decades of comic books; or the more nuanced, troubled, self-doubting younger version he became in Journey Into Mystery; or the phenomenal saga-spanning arc steered by Tom Hiddleston’s performance in the MCU – Loki is cool. A bastard with a genuine grievance, a wounded soul lashing out, a selfish, vainglorious little bugger who – I guess? – has a heart of gold. Plus his brand of tricksy magic is awesome.

Zatanna: straight out of the gate, I wanna say, I love her costume. Yes, I know, you can argue that it’s cheesy or even sexist; but I think it rocks. Anyway, she’s really cool, a terrifically strong and capable magic user, able to mix it up with the big guns in the Justice League, but arguably finding a bit more nuance with the weirder, messier characters on the darker fringes of the DCU. And her magical gimmick of talking backwards produces some great, and often hilarious, speech balloons.

The Scarlet Witch: Wanda’s arc in the comics is really interesting, and has sort of been reflected in the MCU. Starting out as a villain – a daughter of Magneto – she eventually joined the side of the angels, had a romance with Vision, and then went, well, doolally, with the iconic, infamous House of M and “no more mutants”. Her brand of reality-distorting chaos magic is both strange and incredibly powerful, making her distinct among other witches and wizards. Over in the MCU, her arc across Civil War and Infinity War was terrific and tragic, given further nuance and depth in WandaVision, before becoming a really creepy baddie in Multiverse of Madness.

Doctor Strange: I’ve not read loads of his comics, but I’ve always enjoyed both his superior, somewhat arrogant demeanour – he always seems to be so much smarter than everyone, with his knowledge of the arcane and mystic far above the trivial concerns of lesser heroes – as well as his seventies-style love god aesthetic. In the films, he’s been one of the most visually interesting heroes, with a sardonic sense of humour.

Doctor Doom: would be higher, but a bit like Strange, I’ve not actually read loads of comics that focus on Doom (just ones where he’s part of an ensemble). But it’s the combination of Doom’s abilities that’s intriguing; he’s a technical genius with an Iron Man-esque suit of robotic armour (and capable of creating lifelike duplicates); he’s the king of a sovereign nation, granting him diplomatic immunity; and he’s also, like, a wizard, who’s literally ventured into hell. Can even RDJ do justice to such a multifaceted character?!

Doctor Fate: so many doctors, so little time! What is it with the mystic arts and a PhD? Anyway, what I like about Fate is that, unlike Strange, he really does harken back to a mysterious and mystical past; he’s the custodian of an ancient art of magic that feels archetypal. Plus he has a tremendous sense of style; the Helmet of Fate is iconic and, frankly, fabulous. Pierce Brosnan did a fine job playing him in Black Adam, a film which was quite interesting when it didn’t feature its title character.

John Constantine: again, lower than maybe he would be because I’ve not read a lot of his solo stuff, just his team-up appearances. But, man, what a character: an absolute swaggering douche who also somehow manages to be a great hero. He looks like an alcoholic detective (and also, famously, like Sting); he smokes like a chimney; he’s earnestly self-destructive. But he knows a spell or too and, well, he’s just so damn cool. For what it’s worth – and I’ve not seen it in ages, truth be told – I really liked the Keanu Reeves film.

Black Adam: see, this is where I might be getting a bit tenuous; Black Adam (along with his fractionally-less-interesting stablemates such as Shazam/Captain Marvel, etc) definitely has magic, his whole powerset informed by it; but does he use it, or is it just the source of his powers? I mean, he literally says a magic word to transform into Black Adam, so I guess he counts? Anyway, I love his characterisation, someone who straddles the line between villain and anti-hero so well. His arc in Countdown, and his subsequent massacre of an entire nation, is tragic and powerful.

The Spectre: again, a character where I’ve sort of ummed-and-ahhhed over their use of magic. The Spectre’s whole deal is inflicting ironic punishments on evildoers; he’s basically God’s judgement. This is a great hook; it’s pushed further by he fact that he has to bond with a human soul, so there’s this whole angst thing where the bloke who’s also the Spectre doesn’t really like what he’s having to do. It’s a really great concept (and could have made for a cool indie movie adaptation about 25 years ago). And, I mean, he definitely uses magic, right? He once turned someone into a candle and lit them. Batman can’t do that.