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lovelyysiriuss · 4 years ago

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chromatic | one

*gif not mine

AUTHOR’S NOTE: welcome to part one! you guys are amazing, I literally cannot fathom the fact that so many of you are reading this and from tiktok. give me feedback through comments/likes, i would love to know what you guys think so far! ily guys sm <3

PAIRING: Steve Rogers x Fem!Reader / Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

WORD COUNT: 617

INSPO: a series on TikTok by @serenaivory of the same name.

CHROMATIC MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST | ASKS! REQUESTS! TAGS! | SUBMIT ANYTHING! | WATTPAD VERSION

prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Comfortable. Recognizable. Yet, with a touch of loneliness.

Seeing black and white made her feel as though she was blind to the world. She had the vision without the right colors to live. She was missing the beauty of pigment making up the world.

Envy was what she felt when hearing the description of the hues from individuals around her. With the lush chromatic colors bursting throughout their vision, the rich tints replacing prior grayscale. She knew of the stories, though never encountered it herself.

A spiritual experience; being acquainted with one’s soulmate. Completion of their soul occurs within the split second their gazes meet. Color rushing into their line of vision, easily able to make them dizzy.

Her circumstance made her unsteady, with her grayscale vision. It was unwise, yet she was incredibly sure of it. “Possibly the colors would appear later,” they reassured themselves. Though there was no use for it, it had already been done.

Bound together for life. To have and to hold from that day forward. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death does them part.

“I do.” Steve declares.

“I do.” She follows. Putting the rings on, they exchange a kiss. She knew he was hers, as she was his. However, there should not be complications such as being unable to see the wondrous colors. Only if they were the one.

The romantic aura brought them to their first slow dance together, as man and wife. A slow song surrounded the wedding venue. Guests stared in awe as the couple swayed.

“Did I mention how beautiful you look tonight?” Steve purred in her ear.

She sighed, a smile twitching on her lips, “Only about the thousandth time.”

A heartfelt chuckle escaped him, adoration twinkling in his eyes. He noticed a figure entering through the grand doors, mingling with the guests. He smirked, then turning to her, “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Confusion etched her face. Eyebrows furrowing, she asked, “Who?”

Before Steve could reply, a man’s voice cried out, “Hey, buddy!” She had not turned to the voice yet, distracted by a family member asking for a photograph. The man embraced Steve, “Congratulations.” He murmured.

“Thank you, Buck,” Steve replied. He brought the man forward, “Bucky, meet my wife.”

The word ‘wife’ gained her attention. Her heart melted at the thought. Unfortunately, she looked up. Their gazes met as if seeing for the first time. Ironically, it almost blinded them. The colors were vibrant, rich, chromatic. Her heart was pounding while his breathing faltered.

Steve stepped away for a moment to let her become acquainted with his best friend.

She took a small step back, unable to believe her own eyes. Her limbs were shaking; she had to have been dreaming. She dreamt of this moment. Although there is uncertainty whether this was a daydream or a nightmare.

Overwhelmed was all Bucky felt within that moment. Years of torture could not possibly be equivalent to meeting his soulmate at his best friend’s wedding. While she was the bride. This pained him. He had quit looking for her, believing that no one could carry the sanity to love a monster.

A quiet gasp escaped her lips. “Oh my God,” she muttered. Bucky embraces her, to which intense sparks course throughout their bodies, feeling as if they were walking on clouds.

“So it’s you,” Bucky whispers in her ear, the sparks traveling north.

“But… it can’t be-” The girl replies, cut off by Bucky shushing her.

“It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.” Bucky’s voice attempts to soothe her, unknowing to him, it does. Nonetheless, worry floods them both.

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koalas-koalas-everywhere · 4 years ago

Note

this ask is probably annoying, i’m really sorry, but i never really read superhero comics and i’m just getting into superheroes from the.. em cee you, i guess? over the past month (actually watching h*mec*ming as i type this) and i was wondering if you’d explain some of the differences between em cee you peter and comics peter — only if you want to, of course, but it kinda seems to me like you probably have a lot to say on why you don’t like that version and you’re waiting for someone to ask?? if so, i’m curious to hear it (& i’d also love any comic recommendations, if you’ve got them to give :))

Hi, anon! Not annoying at all!

I'm not... eager to talk, I only mention it to... shall we say, clear the air? The m/cu is the most popular version of every marvel character, so, when someone wanted to talk to me about marvel, I had to assume that the conversation would go there eventually, and the last thing I wanted was for someone to approach me with love for it and to meet it with less than lukewarm enthusiasm. So, I thought, if I just pepper the fact that I don’t like it into the conversation, no one will make that mistake. Although I love you for giving me the chance, and I WILL NOW. NO TAKE BACKS.

First of all, I wouldn't give you recs off the cuff, because I don't know what you like. If you end up liking Homecoming, I might go with Untold Stories of Spider-Man. It's a flashback series, written in the 90's but set in Peter's high-school years, to expand them. I think it's a very good example of a text that modernizes the material (getting rid of all that 60's whackiness) while staying as true as possible to the source. Darker and more serious than the original, but that’s because writing had changed since then. Maybe it had to do with the Hayes Code, too. I can think of one thing that wouldn’t have flown back then. It's still pretty different from th!Peter, but much closer than the original high-school years. Peter's also more likeable. Or, more easily likeable, I love that 60′s teenage rat bastard who can't get a grip.

Zdarsky’s run of Spectacular Spider-Man has that hopeless-but-well-meaning vibe, too, although he’s an adult there. (It’s okay, he hasn’t acted like an actual adult since One More Day. I do think you might find USoSM!Peter more mature than Zdarsky’s Peter.)

Hmu with more specific requests and I'll oh-so-gladly comply, you have no idea. As you’re about to find out, I’m talkative. I tried to include panels to make it a bit more bearable. I would like to apologize for any typos or mistakes, English isn’t my first language.

I guess the next order of business is to say that, unless you said it like that to avoid tagging/searching problems, there's no reason to be apologetic to me about watching/liking that Peter. I don't like him, and I think it's human nature to think your taste is better than everyone else's taste lmao, but, while I did find it... not to my taste (Peter seemed like a pushover to me, and the only thing I found actually funny, which seemed to be the point of the whole movie, was the porn joke - there's a lot of deeper issues that have to do with the em cee you as a whole, but this post isn't about that and there's plenty of people who could and have explained it better), my... anger comes from the fact that, for being a really inaccurate version of the story, it's put a lot of effort into seeming like the most accurate one to date, and that has consequences outside of any individual decisions to watch the movies or not.

The point of the movies is to bring in new readers from the audience, and the audience will want to see what they saw on the movies, so things get changed to create synergy. Dumb examples, born from the fact that I don't read those comics or haven't gotten to that part yet: last year or so, Valkyrie was killed so that she could be brought back as a Tessa Thompson look alike. Jessica Jones is a brunette, when she’s always been a redhead. Matt Murdock had a crisis or something (I think it was because he committed manslaughter, accidentally, of course, but it might be unrelated) changed his costume to one that looked like the one in the netflix show. Hell, they made a new team of the Defenders with the netflix crew! They used to have a completely different roster! Doctor Strange was there! They didn’t replace the other team, and I’m not sure either of them are still active, but still. These were just small, aesthetic examples (well, at least their consequences were - Brunhilde did die and all that, I have no idea whether she acts more like m/cu Valkyrie now, or if she did before) to get you used to the idea that there's a clear pecking order at Marvel and the movies have some big teeth.

So, people buy that that's how Peter is, so not only is all the fan content I get about that version, it also becomes more and more likely that things will get changed in the comics to make them more similar. Not just that, but people will also go into the comics with that lense and things will get twisted around. An example from a post I saw recently: there's a story in the comics about Peter wanting to get his story out there and so he makes a deal with the Bugle that, in exchange for publishing it, he'll unmask himself publicly. As he reaches the agreed place and time to do it, a lot of people step forward in Spider-Man costume and claim to be him, letting him go through with his deal and unmask himself without exposing his real id. Now, if that somehow happened to Captain America, you'd have no doubt that it was a sign of gratitude, appreciating his heroism, you'd maybe even say it was NY giving back. And that's what it was. A show of respect to a hero. Because of the view of Peter as a smol bean, though, the op of the post talking about it immediately took it to mean protectiveness, like that of a parent to a child. Because he's so pure.

Well-meaning, of course. Kinda condescending, when the guy was supposed to be around 30, though. It's, plainly put, a misreading. But it's all the Spider-Man fanon content you get these days.

After writing most of comes now, I went through my “peter parker” tag and found a post about the (amazing) essay “The First Thirty Years” by Peter Sanderson, published in Amazing Spider-Man #365 (if you go to that one comic reading site, it starts on page 64) that explains and touches on most of what I go into now. I’m not gonna delete all that, though.

Now, there has been a... de-clawing of Peter since as early as the 2000's, although Straczynski held the fort well (almost too well, but if I start on that now it will sound like I just like to complain lol), but they just made him a... cleaner, more sanitized version of him, they didn't outright woobify him the way fandom does. I'm reminded of a recent comic event*, I talked about it here, where, at one point, Steve Rogers, Logan, Luke Cage and Peter are discussing berserk rages and everyone sort of agrees that it's happened to them, maybe even share some backstory... until we get to Peter. The idea being that Peter's just too pure to have those kinds of urges when... Peter's the crown prince of berserk rages (he's Logan's heir). But Marvel has seen the writing on the wall! It's the cinnamon rolls who sell these days, so we can't go around reminding people of the fact that Peter once lost it so badly he beat the Sin Eater half to death until Daredevil stopped him (and then he tried to take his anger out on Daredevil), so he, oh, only left him disabled, with a severe limp and a lisp, nothing much! It's like they want you to forget that he's a character better suited to the current Defenders than to the Avengers (although he is pretty hybrid about that).

I don’t mean to make the differences all about his anger, but that’s arguably 616!Peter’s greatest flaw and it informs his whole character, and its removal informs m/cu’s Peter’s. He just lacks... edge.

Going back to that post I mentioned earlier, about NY protecting him, there’s something the op mentioned when they talked about Peter’s pure pureness and such. They mentioned how he directs tourists to the best hot dog stands, and helps old ladies cross the street and making kids smile at their birthday parties (I looked up that post just for you) and... I don’t remember him doing any of that. Getting cats out of trees, yes, although the only example that comes to mind is that one time he gave up being Spider-Man, moved to Portland and lost his powers, so, go figure (taking into account that I was so offended by the mischaracterization post OMD in 2008~ that I just skipped most of it until Nick Spencer took over in 2018, so there’s like ten years of comics I didn’t read). The rest, though? No. And there’s something I find interesting about that list. See, there’s something nice Peter has done plenty of times that should’ve been in that list for sure, yet wasn’t: using his webs to make shelters for homeless people caught out in the rain.

Oh! Oh! Hang on! Let me show you one of my absolute favorite Peter moments:

Looking at those pages... what time of day do you think it is? Granted, the 80′s-90′s saw some very dark coloring, but it’s probably night, right?

Funny story, around the late 70′s or so, Peter was once accused of like 3 different murders (or two murders and a crime, don’t quite recall). They renew their investigations and find him not guilty and officially recall the order for his arrest when he got a reputation boost after saving a building full of people from a fire, during the day, which he had never done before, allowing people to see him as something more than a shadowy figure the Bugle talked shit about. Now, this is bogus, of course he’d saved the day when it wasn’t night before, but it gives you an idea of the image Spider-Man had, and his MO. Muggings in back-alleys in the dark. Is... night the time you’d imagine for helping old ladies cross the street, or giving tourists directions to good carts, or children’s bday parties? Like, first impression, first image that came to your mind when you thought about Peter doing those things. No, right? Unlike helping homeless people stay out of the rain, that summons up a dreary image, best suited for the shadows, and the night, and the darkest parts of the city, where most would fear to tread... like Peter is.

(Is that from when he had a severe mental breakdown after a year of trauma and tragedy and a bit of an exaggeration of his usual menace? Yes, what of it.)

Instances where he was doing low stake good deeds like the ones are just mentioned were just filling, he was always stopping muggings and robberies and assaults and powerful and dangerous supervillains. That is, Peter was always fighting. Not being “pure”. He is good! He’s even naïve compared to some of the Defenders. But even while standing out, he’d fit right in.

Like, there’s comics fans who will tell you Peter wasn’t nice at all, just kind, and I disagree! The only reason I don’t include examples of that is because you already assume Peter’s nice and I don’t need to prove that. But he definitely had an edge. Even his niceness could be problematic (as in, it could cause problems) because he was just too intense and/or assertive. As in, he was sweet, and nice, and caring... in his way. He’s less of a child and more of a caretaker himself.

That’s an example of him walking all over someone and things going well.

Looking at those previous pages, though, you can see why it’s so important that Peter have his rage. So that he can rise above it. He’s fucking Achilles, is what he is. Everyone else can be as perfect and pure as they like, but Peter can rise to such heights that are only comparable (and maybe due) to his lows.

There’s also something best illustrated by what follows that interaction.

See that anger? It’s because he cares. He gives his life up at the altar of Spider-Man because he just cares so much about people, and we all like to talk about that part (I know I do). It follows that an equal anger/hate would be directed at those that would hurt people. (“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.”)

There’s another difference: 616!Peter, as I mentioned, is intense. He’s emotional. It’s not always pretty. It’s not always good. It’s essential to him, though. I don’t know what to do with a Peter who apologizes for punching a man who’d pulled out and tried to use an alien-powered weapon in the middle of a ship full of people. Don’t you care at all????? Of course, violence is far from the only way to express care, but it’s one of Peter’s main ways. Or just being mean.

Guy’s car: gets crushed

Peter: “You took a handicapped spot? Serves you right!”

Compared to that, m/cu!Peter’s... bland. He’s driven, I guess. It might be harder to tell because, unlike 616!Aunt May, m/cu isn’t old or disabled in a way that prevents her from keeping as close an eye on Peter as she’d like when he’s a teen, and with Tony (and all the freaking universe) knowing his id, too, he’s kept on a tighter leash. But they went too hard with the “Spider-Man, the hero who could be you!” angle and he’s “Spider-Man, the hero who could be anyone, because he’s no one at all”. He’s Standard Hero #24.

616!Peter’s extreme independence, as a lone hero, one of the first, and the sole breadwinner of his family, consisting solely of him and his ailing, elderly aunt, after Ben’s death, is another difference between them and something else that’s essential to his character. Simply put, I don’t think he’d have made it in the circumstances he was in if he wasn’t the kind of lone wolf who’d take on the whole world on his own, if he had to, even if he might resent the loneliness (and he was so lonely), because, well... he often had to. Those sharp edges served him, even though it also tends to cut him.

(I do want to mention that 1- the test thing is bogus, the only Avenger that got tested was Hawkeye, at his insistence and the rest’s protest and 2- they gave him a time limit to show up and when he got there they told him they weren’t ready and to wait outside the room. Most importantly, though, look at Peter’s own reaction to his anger.)

A very common attempt to shield em cee you against criticisms of inaccuracy is to say that Peter's just a kid there, of course he didn't have such an edge. Peter was worse at that age. Not as violent, granted, not by far, but much more likely to get his temper stoked. I mean... I think I gave you the worst example of Peter's rage with the Sin Eater story, so few things can compare. Oh, sure, Back in Black, where he goes on a hunt for the people who shot Aunt May and then the man who hired them, the Kingpin, but the violence isn’t worse so much as just sustained for longer. If anything, it's more controlled and colder.

But, yeah, he was hot-headed and combative. Like, maybe you can call m/cu Peter stubborn, but it's that... heroic stubbornness to do the right thing despite the odds against him (again, SH#24). Peter's angry at those odds, and the people who stack them against him. He got into two fistfights with Flash Thompson because he just couldn’t control his temper.

It’s not always the righteous rage of a hero. Sometimes he’s just a little bitch. A little, petty, hot-headed bitch.

There’s also the very interesting case of the “teenage superhero”. We have an idea of what that means, one that fits very well with m/cu Peter: inexperienced, sweet and naïve and not yet tainted by the cruelty of the world, “got an F bc I was out fighting Electro!”, “I will one day make it to the ranks of the grown-ups!” It’s interesting because Peter’s often called the original teenage superhero and... he wasn’t like that. He wasn’t any more naïve than he’d be when he grew up. If his youth (and take into account he was supposed to be a major) had any relevance, it’s because they made him even more emotional and a wild card.

As you can see, he wasn’t a sweet anything. Except for his Aunt.

(Ok, seriously, though, refer to my other comments. He can be sweet and nice and soft, it just takes a different quality than “sweet smol bean”.)

He wasn’t inexperienced. In The Amazing Spider-Man #1, he holds his own pretty well against the Fantastic Four. Want some badass teenage Peter content? Look no further than his very first Annual, where he fights the Sinister Six! Strong, fast, resourceful, a skilled fighter, that’s Peter!

“With every nerve tangling... every sense honed to a razor sharp edge... the most amazing human fighting machine the world has ever known goes into action with dazzling speed and surging power!” Spider-Man fighting two leopards and Kraven the Hunter. Who spoils you like I do? Seriously, though, outside of the fact that your average comic book storyline followed a structure of “hero gets defeated by the villain at first, maybe suffers a bit of a crisis because of it, then comes back stronger from getting through that crisis and/or having gathered information on his foe during that first fight”... there's no example I can think of of teenage Peter being out-and-out inept, like m/cu Peter is.

I’m not even sure that he spent more time at school than at the Bugle, at least on panel. We see him lie about studying and going to the library more often than we see him actually studying. His grades didn’t seem to suffer. The closest he got to getting in trouble was when he got into a fight with like 10 of his classmates, but then Flash confessed that he’d started it and the Principal was glad to let Peter off the hook. He got a full ride to what looked like a very good college (I mean, the son of renowned scientist and industrialist Norman Osborn went there) on scientific merit. In college, he struggled, yes, but he definitely wasn’t a kid by then.

He also predates the Avengers, so there was no hero-worship there, even if he were to agree that fighting bigger threats out in space made you a better or higher-ranked hero (as the m/cu does). I think it’s partly why he was so meh about joining them when they recruited them and only went for the money and because Thor convinced him he was under performing and being “irresponsible” by limiting himself to street thugs. He understood that they were just a bunch of guys, like him, only they’d gone for strength in numbers. (There’s a lot to say about Peter’s ability to work in a team and about that particular invitation to the Avengers, but that’s for another time.) There was no promotion. Heck, for a time, outside of the F4 and Pym (and Hulk, who wasn’t even reaaaaaaaally a hero), there was no one. No one but him.

I mean, seriously. Fourth strongest hero. The Marvel Universe was tiny.

And it isn’t now! I get the difficulties this causes in the m/cu (I mentioned that Peter might have needed that edge under his circumstances, and the truth is, those circumstances don’t apply to the m/cu, which is just a long-winded way to say that the internal inaccuracies, that is, his personality, might have been caused by external inaccuracies), but none of the Defenders were belittled like Peter was just because they got late to the party, partly (I assume) because they got netflix shows instead of movies and they didn’t really interact with the Avengers as much, while Peter did and had to be adapted to fit, but what I said before stays true. Peter’s more of a (netflix roster) Defender than an Avenger. He belongs at street level. Also, while this was a bit of a retcon from 2001 and didn’t influence Peter’s teenage years, Jessica went to school with him. She’s supposed to be his age. Why does she get to be an adult? (The push to make him all about youth, and an actual teenager whenever possible, came from Marvel Comics first, of course, but it’s the movies that have made that version the most popular one. Also, my bitterness for modern comics just doesn’t come up as much because comics don’t come up as much as movies.)

Even while making him a teenager, they could’ve respected him enough to let him be his own hero, instead of constantly panting after Iron Man and the Avengers. Think Ant-Man... but, you know, a teen. The rest of the universe exists, but their casts don’t have a near to equal presence as that of Ant-Man’s. I’m reading the essay I mentioned before as I write this and I don’t think I could explain it better than Sanderson does when he talks about him being called Spider-Man and not Spider-Boy. It’s condescending. I just remembered that Tony literally does that in Civil War. It’s nuts, how the more I think about it, the worse it gets.

I’m outright following the Sanderson essay now, because it’s so good and it mentions things I thought of mentioning here but forgot about lol. The humor. A problem that’s much older than the m/cu, much less m/cu!Peter, but I’m talking abut this now. Spider-Man isn’t the chatter-box superhero, he’s the quipping superhero. The only writer I can remember making Peter a rambler is Straczynski, and he gets a pass, because he’s Straczynski, and part of being Straczynski means having some of the best Peter Parker repartee. It’s just... I’ll put it plainly. Peter’s actually funny. Like, on purpose and in a very self-aware, sometimes even strategic, way. He’s not funny because he’s gushing over the Winter Soldier’s arm. That’s like verbal slapstick! It’s only funny because it’s ridiculous

“Are you trying to defeat me by talking me to death?!” Well, are you???????

Listen. Everyone has their preferences. I personally don’t like m/cu Peter because, even outside of his inaccuracies, I think he’s bland in personality and lacks a spine. The fanon version of him is even worse in that department, so it goes double. I’d be fine with that, except for the fact that stuff about him is ubiquitous and spreading over to the stuff I do like. I just wanna enjoy my Peter “you’re the only accident around here” Parker in peace... but with other people to share with. You see my struggle.

I’m not saying my version’s better (although I do like him better), it’s just... the accurate version. I get the appeal, I get that thye were trying to tell a particular story with Peter that they couldn’t have told if they’d stuck to his original skills, powers and personality, but maybe... just maybe... if the shoe doesn’t fit... don’t cut off your toes and heels to make it.

(If you got to the end, are disappointed by the lack of recs and are curious about the stories the panels I used are from, hmu! Or if you have more specific requests!)

#Peter Parker #Spider-Man #Spider Man #comics #anti-mcu #anti mcu #60's teenage Peter was /out there/! I get why they wouldn't stick to character! He's not for everyone!#try this on for size though: maybe they shouldn't have used him at all then #asks #ugh I get the feeling I'm forgetting something #but this is too long already

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santaclausdeadindian · 4 years ago

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Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in

@mr-laugh

Oh boy, lot to unpack here.

So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?

And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?

If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!

There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.

Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.

Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.

Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.

Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?

Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.

Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.

Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.

Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.

He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,

It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.

but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;

Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.

it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.

This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!

A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.

Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.

Central Europe? What, Germany? Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!

Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.

I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything. It always is.

No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.

See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?

Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.

Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!

If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.

This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.

Moving on. As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.

No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.

What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.

ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)

There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.

The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.

Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.

We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird. Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.

to be continued

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