#me: i like superheroes because they are uncomplicated and fun

[laurelwinchester]

so this next arc in htlgi relies somewhat on the citizens of the glades assisting black canary with her investigation into the missing people and while i do not regret making her a mostly well liked figure in the glades in this fic and generally enjoy the whole the citizens of this comic book city love their resident superhero vibe.... 

realistically speaking how fucking spooky would it be to live in a city with a bunch of costumed and masked vigilantes?

you already live in a city with an extremely high crime rate that honestly must feel full on lawless at times and now you’ve got a bunch of random faceless weirdos appearing as if from nowhere in the dark of night with their oddly fancy violence and fetish get ups, melting into and out of the shadows, and speaking to you in straight up demonic sounding voices. 

like yeah it’d be nice to be saved from the cliche of being mugged in a dark alley but then you’ve got to worry if this possible demon with a discount at party city is going to eat you.

[yellowocaballero]

Are there any fic ideas that you'd want to see but don't want to write?

Oh boy! Of course!

To be honest, the Green Lantern story is one of the big ones lmfao. It would be a massive undertaking for an audience of maybe five people. A niche audience normally doesn't stop me, but for such a long story, there's other uses of my time. There is also the fact that it just feels made for television. Same with my Legion of Superheroes Zoobomafoo thing - it just doesn't feel right in a text format. It's webcomic coded. I wish I could draw sometimes!

Then there's the story ideas for my AUs and other fandoms I've moved on from. There's still a few ideas for the No Chip AU in my back pocket (Cody redemption feat. Boba Fett following him around Tatooine yelling at him; Fox as the vigilante sidekick to his insane PA) and my normal Roleswap (Luke & Leia embark on a Great Father Mystery Hunt and bother Fox in the woods). There's also the continuation stories/sequels I've started but haven't finished and don't know if they will get finished (Roleswap Obi-Wan meets his birth family; my Buffy fic Angel and Cordelia through the years). There's other unfinished stories there (the Frenchie story which is literally only missing the final scene, the Heroes For Hire meeting story which is literally only missing the final scene) which I'm pretty sure I'll finish when I feel like it. I don't consider those WIPs so much as 'when I care again I'll go finish them'.

Then there's the stories that I just couldn't make into a decent story (the Naruto fix-it; the roleswap(ish?) story with adult bounty hunters Boba and Omega teaching runaway clones Luke and Leia the power of family and incredible violence). Not every idea is good outside of concept lol.

TL;DR: If I have a fic idea but haven't written it, it's because of one or more reasons: a) the idea itself is too big, b) the idea just doesn't seem right for fic, c) I've moved on from the fandom and don't want to work on it at this moment anymore, d) it just wouldn't make a good story.

If you notice, these are all active choices on my part. I only mention this because a lot of my friends can't relate, so I don't know how common it is even though I assumed it was common, and it's kind of hard to describe: there's no barrier between me having an idea and writing it. Does that make sense? If I have an idea and it'll make a good story and I want to write it I'll write it, at least until I realize that it wouldn't make a good story and I scrap it. If I think about something for too long I write it [this is why I am easily egged on][this is also why I write things I swore never to write very frequently].

Writing is like. It's easy. You just write stuff. You just think something and then you write it. It's uncomplicated.

If it's bad. Writing is easy if what you're writing is bad. It's easy to write 100k if the 100k is bad. There's a ton of shortcuts you can take, which are really useful for beginning writers and was really useful for me a few years ago. I can describe those if you'd like. It's much, much, much harder to write something good. It's hardest when you need something to be good. Writing a good 100k is really hard. I am constantly telling people not to jump into the novels kjlsdf.

Double TL;DR that has nothing to do with the topic: You can write whatever you want if you're okay with it being bad. Making bad art rocks and is a lot of fun and completely necessary towards my emotional well-being. I highly recommend it.

[storm-and-starlight]

so I finally got around to watching Batman Begins (really not beating the the batman hyperfixation allegations here), and while it kinda Says Something about the movie that most of my thoughts on it are actually about the MCU... I did actually have some pretty interesting thoughts about the MCU.

Namely: holy shit the quips have a point.

Marvel movies ( at least the early ones, which were actually good and yes I will die on this hill) are superhero movies, which are about fun and spectacle and being cool. They're full of stunning visual effects and dramatic fight scenes and crazy technology and uncomplicated stories and they're just-- they're cool! They're more, not necessarily realistic, but grounded than the comics themselves, yes, but they're uncomplicated and funny and fast-paced and entertaining.

Batman Begins, meanwhile is.. it's fine? It's fine. The plot is fine, the casting is fine, the character writing is fine, there's nothing egregriouslywrong, there were several pretty damn neat scenes and a few really good characters. For a superhero origin story (and especially a Batman origin story), it got the massive weight that is All The Fucking Exposition you need to do out of the way reasonably well, for a superhero movie that wasn't actually doing an origin-based plot. But it's trying to be an... I don't even know how to describe it, an action-drama? I'm bad with genre, and it fails miserably. It takes itself entirely too seriously for what it is, which is a movie about a man who dresses up as a bat to fight crime. There was one moment where I just straight-up laughed out loud because Bale standing there talking in the cowl looked so goddamn dumb, and it made me think about-- well, first of all it made me think about The Batman, because I fucking love that movie and because it was so much better, but then it made me think about "why didn't I feel this way watching any of the MCU origin movies?" They could be boring, or uninteresting, or badly written, but I never had a moment where I thought they were dumb.

Superheroes are inherently silly, and the movies, for all they try to be more realistic than the comics, aren't immune to that. Iron Man is less unrealistic than most, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have the potential to seem really really stupid as a concept, but Iron Man 1 (the closest match in content and context that I could think of to Batman Begins) is just really fucking fun. The reveal of the Mark 1 suit is epic and awesome, the flight scene with the Mark 2 functions as Plot Setup with the icing thing but it's also really cool to watch, a lot of the movie is just little comedic bits and Tony Stark cracking wise, and it's more entertaining and it works better as a whole and it's just fun.

 And I think that's because of the quips.

The MCU doesn't really try to hang a lampshade on the unreality of what's going on, but it is lighthearted. A huge part of each movie is the "quips", that very specific brand of Marvel Cinematic Universe Humor, and yes, it got super duper overused in the later movies, but I think it's a huge part of why movies like Iron Man 1 work?  They're a little silly; they're having fun with it! Flying suits of armor are a little ridiculous, so let's watch Tony Stark fail comically when he's trying to build one! It bumps the tone up juuuuuust far enough that it's easier to accept it at face value -- for the spectacle and the entertainment value, and the really quick nature of the jokes, little wise-crack-y lines and tiny moments of physical comedy, makes them move by fast enough that you can have that little lighthearted lift and then get right back down to the cool dramatic fight scene without ruining the moments you're supposed to be taking seriously. (This is kinda where late MCU fell flat, btw.)

Batman Begins, meanwhile, isn't... it's not Serious Grimdark Drama like The Batman (but Storm! you say, you think The Batman is an excellent movie, and yes, it really is, and that's because it goes so Serious Grimdark Drama that it almost stops being a superhero movie entirely and is just a really good noir with a weirdo in a bat costume who you can believe would be enough of a weirdo to dress up in a bat costume and go fight crime and also on top of that, like I said in my last post about The Batman, it actively subverts quite a lot of the moments that are supposed to be Superhero Cool, like that time he jumps off a building and promptly crashes into an overpass), but it's still trying to be a Serious Movie, and then you see Christian Bale in that overly-smooth Batcowl growling "I'm Batman" and it just. it Does Not Land. There's no humor, there's no lightheartedness, the movie kind of expects you to take everything it's showing you at complete and utter face value, there's no quips, and it's just. it's too much. it doesn't work.

The quips in a Marvel movie serve a really important function of bumping the tone of the movie overall up just enough that it's easier to accept the silliness that is a superhero movie in the first place. They're there to add enough humor to the entire work that you can just sit back and have fun and enjoy the spectacle, and the specific style of MCU Humor -- while it definitely is a stylistic thing as well to try to maintain some cohesiveness across the whole Cinematic Universe part -- is built to be able to provide that tone bump without really getting too much in the way of the dramatic moments. It certainly can -- that's how you get some of the shit that happens in Doctor Strange, which has some of the worst examples of going too far with the quips -- but at least in the early movies? It keeps things from feeling too full of themselves.

anyways, TL;DR: superheroes are inherently silly and it's easier to accept that silliness when the movie as a whole doesn't take itself too seriously; it doesn't need to do full-on lampshade hanging but having a little bit of comedy and scenes that are meant to be nothing but cool makes it easier to accept the ridiculousness of everything else, and the Marvel style of quips is the main technique by which they actually do that.

[unsettledink]

will be leaving a longer comment after finals BUT i just wanted to tell u that i am 100% obsessed with your fic 'gift wrapped' !! i was looking for an uncomplicated sfw p/t/p fic, but i've read some of your other starker fics and loved them sm and decided to just go for it n read gift wrapped and now i. can't. stop. thinking. about. it. especially about what happens afterwards? will the other chapters b abt more sex on tony's bday or are they getting together for real (originally what i was looking for)? r there feelings involved from tony's side? is he polyamorous? how did pepper initially feel?? GOD. having lots of ot3 thoughts n noone to talk about it with is torture

Oh, thank you! I love hearing that - it's definitely a fic that never got a lot of attention and that's too bad.

I think P/T/P is a very overlooked pairing! They're all such strong personalities with these deep caring streaks and like... interesting assertiveness? You'd think Tony is the most assertive, but he spends so much time just... avoiding and talking around things and not that often just straight out stating things and doing them. Even as an assistant, Pepper's so assertive and really good at sort of... walking over Tony at his most obnoxious. And it's easy to see Peter as the soft sweet one, but like... he's freaking Spider-Man! He hasn't listened to a rule once in his life! He talks to the people he's fighting in the middle of battle! He might well give when the two of them push, but then he's going to push back too.

I definitely had more solidly planned out in terms of like, the rest of that specific fic, which is all that night and the rest of the sex they get up to. I just didn't have time to do it justice during kinktober, and then... never got around to writing it lol. Too many projects at once! I do have like, the idea dump in a document in my ideas file, so it's not going to get lost. Beyond that night, I haven't done a whole lot of exploring - partly because tbh I tend to get most caught up in the verses where someone is egging me on (@the-me09 for being the worst/best about that LOL) and there wasn't much for this pairing.

I don't know that I'm... sure about it, but there's some vague idea in my head that Keeping Watch could be the same universe, months to a year+ later. I haven't quite figured out how it gets there, but I'm a huge fan of like... assertive troublesome topping sub!Peter which is even rarer than P/T/P imo. So I can see these threads where the Peter from Gift Wrapped still fits characterization-wise. But that's not set in stone by any means; they could totally spin off into entirely different universes (because I don't have enough RIP).

I do think that Gift Wrapped ends up with them in a more steady relationship. Peter has always had feeling, and Tony catches feelings at the drop of a hat, so they're easy to make fall in love. I admit I have less of a solid grasp on Pepper, since this is like... maybe the second time I've ever written her? I've never sat down to figure her out enough. I think she'd start out with fondness for both of them and it could morph into something more. Tony and Peter have enough similarities that I can see them both appealing to her. And I like the idea of like... Pepper and Tony are both super busy, super high profile people, so finding time for each other is hard even when they're trying hard. Peter is a superhero and incredibly intelligent but he's still (probably) secret identity and not famous or as in demand, so it's easier for him to make time for them, and work around their crazy schedules. While all three of them together is ideal, I can see there being just as much of Peter with like, Tony, and Pepper being comforted knowing that Tony isn't being neglected or lonely because Peter's taking care of him (and vice versa for Pepper).

I definitely headcanon Tony as open to poly relationships, Pepper less so at first. I don't think she plans on this being more of a thing than a fun fling, but isn't put off by it sliding into more. There might be a period of adjustment where she even thinks it's going to be a V relationships without that much Pepper/Peter, and then realizes that actually, Peter's into her as well, and she's finding Peter more and more appealing the more she gets to know him (beyond the hot sex lol). As to like, why she did this in the first place - she's been around Tony so long and seen him beat himself up endlessly over things, just be consumed by guilt. Which of course starts happening when Tony realizes just how much he wants Peter - which means he's a terrible partner to Pepper and he shouldn't want Peter for Peter's sake either and he's the worst and why can't he stop WANTING D: D: D: Which Pepper objects to a hell of a lot more than a threesome with a sweet kid like Peter, who isn't a threat to their relationship even if Tony does want him that much (I enjoy how much Pepper is not insecure in the movies in that way, though I can definitely see Peter being highly insecure at first). So she's just going to arrange herself, to give Tony the most obvious sort of acceptance and permission of him wanting Peter.

In a lot of ways I see their threeway relationship playing out similar to the Tony/Rhodey/Peter I've written, actually.

(Lol now you've got me thinking about this OH NO) (sorry for the book i tend to go on and on!)

[ectonurites]

I don’t think being a private investigator AND a vigilante superhero with a secret identity really work well together, for the same reasons I don’t think Dick being a cop and a vigilante superhero with a secret identity go well together. Logistically, it’s a nightmare, time-wise, albeit more so for a cop than a PI who I assume can pick their own hours. You’re making yourself a target in both your identities. If you’re using the job to investigate the same people you do as a vigilante, then your two identities are way too closely connected, which makes it easier to link them. I just think having your main two gigs cross over into the same areas is a bad idea especially when you inevitably mix the two together, especially considering all the red tape you’d have to wade through as a cop or PI. A day job as a cop or a PI combined with a night job as a vigilante superhero is also just... a lot. Those are two very potentially demanding, high stress careers that take up a lot of time and energy. That’s why I like Dick best as a gymnastics teacher, or this one fic I read where he worked at a coffee shop just because he liked it, because those are relatively low stress positions which give him something to do that’s unconnected to his high stress, dangerous vigilante life. You’ve gotta have something relatively uncomplicated and enjoyable in your day when that’s what you do at night. One thing I think we forget when we talk about what jobs the Batkids should have or would work for them is that, when the Bats are billionaires as they usually are, they honestly don’t need jobs! They can just do things they enjoy! And they should! That’s why I like the idea of Tim focusing on his charity work and photography and making time for skateboarding and video games

yeah no i totally get that, also coffee shop dick... thats so wholesome.

but yeah lmao like, i think w some of the batkids and work stuff its more a pride/independence thing (wanting to not just live off bruce’s billionaire money, not be dependent on him, etc) as opposed to a need thing.

also like the thing is i agree trying to do both like you said there would be a logistical nightmare and run a person down but i also think thats why Tim of all people strikes me as the type who’d at least try to push himself like that at some point, even if it ain’t the ideal. not forever but i could totally see him trying to do both thinking he could handle it before realizing how much it actually is.

in general im very pro Tim pursuing more fun stuff in his day time, i just think it’d potentially be a process to get him to agree to it, because especially coming out of Red Robin he’s very ‘ah yes the entire weight of the world is on my shoulders’ so it’d take time and support from friends & family to kinda get him to Chill For A Second Please

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (4/21/2021)?

Superman: Red and Blue #2: I got the sweet David Choe variant cover I was hoping for! A win. The Seagle/Douleau/Brosseau story was...odd, character-wise, the Brown/Cowan/Stanisci/Sotomayor/Sharpe story was a fun adventure with some neat ideas but felt surprisingly light given this was the first use of Val-Zod in however long, the Phillips/Zarcone/Leigh story was the exact story you’re always going to get with every Superman anthology ever from now until the end of time, and the Howard/Napolitano final entry was fun and also happened to nail pretty much exactly how I’d like Cyborg Superman to be portrayed. The clear standout however was Dan Panosian’s Luthor story, a total hoot.

Justice League #60: We’re starting to get rolling on the vibe of the team dynamic here if not especially the plot, but keep giving me those pretty Marquez drawings over Bendis-chatter and those delightful V/Xermanico Justice League Dark backups and I’m more than good.

Catwoman #30: Ok I kept saying I was waiting for V and Blanco’s tack for this run to reveal itself, and that it’s “Selina WANTS to be in a nice Brubaker/Cooke run where she’s comfy, but dopey Batman shit keeps creeping in around the edges and fucking with her equilibrium” is basically EXACTLY what I want to see. And that double pager from Blanco? Baby.

Batman vs. Ra’s Al Ghul #6: I’d reread this if I thought it’d explain anything that happened, but I know it wouldn’t and for that I’m grateful. Could this live up to being the sequel to Batman: Odyssey? No. Is there still an extended sequence where Neal Adams characters, who speak and act like Neal Adams characters, perform a science demonstration? Yes. God, yes.

Haha #4: I liked this one! Definitely the least Ice Cream Man thing Prince has written since he started that, which I note mainly because everything else about his work remains at a steady rate of high quality so it’s that variation that most stands out.

Radiant Black #3: Ok, it’s got me sold through at least the three remaining issues of what’ll be the first trade. This is the most the superhero stuff and the personal work have felt like they meshed, and also the most interested I’ve been in the former thus far.

Ultramega #2: Aw yeah, we’re on that good worldbuilding kick I’m here for.

Orphan and the Five Beasts #2: This issue pivots on the most hilariously nightmarish twist I’ve seen in comics in god knows how long and I am enthralled, even with Stokoe firing on all cylinders I don’t know how he intends to match this issue in the remaining issues.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1: The title on critics’ lips this week, this takes a well-worn “what if a higher being had to live among us miserable meatsacks and learn how rough things can be down here” premise and manages to not just reinvigorate it, but set it up with legs that look like they’ll be carrying it forward for a ways to come. The star of the show is Filipe Andrade, who pivots sharply between rendering the divine mundane and the standard bursting with energy as serves the scene; he actually gave me a bit of a Nick Dragotta vibe here, though the end product is something entirely his own. Not quite my favorite of the week as I know it was for a lot of folks, but I’m in for wherever the long haul takes us.

The Mighty Valkyries #1: I’ve been hoping since Gronbekk started that we’d see more of her clear potential as she was hopefully given more opportunities, and this issue represents a titanic leap in that direction - I was already impressed, but there’s a steady hand and conceptual boldness here that’s leaps and bounds beyond what she was already doing and I’m so glad this book is back to give her the chance to flex these emerging muscles.

Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2: The Zdarsky/Checchetto and V/Fernandez stories are both solid, but this isn’t anybody’s best work.

Avengers #45: Ahh, this is what I was starting to miss from this book. It isn’t good, but it’s definitely the exact kind of high-concept brain droppings Aaron’s versed in that effortlessly short-circuit any normal sense of good taste I might possess.

S.W.O.R.D. #5: I’m following multiple X-Men books, and enjoying seeing threads cross between them. Incredible. Is this what it’s normally like for people who dig these? I can’t see it being enough to build an entire comics-reading identity around them, but it’s a treat nonetheless.

Way of X #1: As someone with complicated feelings on X-Men: Legacy and very uncomplicated feelings on how great Doctor Nemesis is I was really looking forward to what Spurrier would do here, and honestly? One issue in and this feels a lot closer to what I want out of Hickman’s X-Men than that book itself has often delivered. This feels like the perfect balance of what I want out of these books and what people who like X-Men comics *not* by Morrison or Hickman want, and while there’s no way it’ll get the audience it deserves I hope it’ll at least get a sizable enough fraction of it to see it go as long as all involved please.

Eternals #4: An extremely good and dense issue, maybe my favorite in a week with some stupendous competition, that I just don’t have a ton to say about - its virtues are self-evident and we already know that this book is great and the specific kind of great it is. My biggest personal item of note that’s not immediately obvious is that it’s with this issue that it clicked for me for the first time that the expressions Esad Ribic gives his characters remind me a bit of Steve Dillon’s.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

A Creepy Christmas Cultural Conundrum: The Lasting Legacy of The Nightmare Before Christmas

A request by @lcvcdbyhim.

If you traveled back in time to the year 1993 and told someone that Tim Burton’s new stop-motion animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was going to be the biggest holiday movie in for the next twenty years, they wouldn’t believe me.  They just wouldn’t.

Of all of the holiday films of the 90s, Christmas or Halloween, nothing comes close to the cultural giant that is The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Even family favorites like The Santa Clause or Home Alone don’t get nearly the attention and praise that this film has.  Every year, from Halloween through Christmas, stores are packed with shirts, wallets, keychains, sneakers, backpacks, banks, toys, clocks, jewelry, decorations and more, all covered with images of Jack Skellington, Sally, Oogie Boogie, Zero, and other characters and images from the film.  Even outside of the holiday months, the more merchandise-driven stores still dedicate an entire section to The Nightmare Before Christmas, putting it on the same level as franchises like Star Wars or the various superhero films.

The question is, why?

Why has The Nightmare Before Christmas’s imagery become nearly as recognizable as images of classic monsters like Dracula and the Frankenstein monster?  How is this oddball little movie fast approaching How The Grinch Stole Christmas and other classic Christmas specials in terms of popularity?

There has to be a larger reason that simply being available to be marketed for two holidays instead of one.  

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at The Nightmare Before Christmas in an attempt to figure out where all the hype came from, and more specifically, why it’s still so popular.

But first, we need a little background.

When The Nightmare Before Christmas was first released in 1993, it received modest critical acclaim and a decent opening.  Right in the middle of Disney’s Renaissance period, a throwback to stop-motion wasn’t really thought of as being quite on the same level as animated films like Aladdin and The Lion King.  As a result, the movie did okay, but just….okay.

So what happened?

Very simply, The Nightmare Before Christmas gained a cult following.  Very quickly.

In the years that followed, The Nightmare Before Christmas started being praised as one of the greats in the animated film category.  People started watching it for part of their holiday tradition, around both Halloween and Christmas, and the further we are away from that mediocre opening, it seems the more people laud it as a work of art.  Stores like Hot Topic started selling so much Nightmare merchandise that now the imagery from The Nightmare Before Christmas seems to be the face of a new goth/emo trend.  In fact, since the film’s release, the movie has been put on a rather bizarre pedestal, with some fans lavishing enormous amounts of praise on this movie.  In a way, it seems like disliking it is unheard of.

To return to our earlier question, why?  It doesn’t seem like anything special.  There have been other ‘weird’ stop-motion films, such as Corpse Bride or Coraline.  The characters and story are simplistic, almost childish at times.  The music is good, sure, but with all the hype around it, the movie can very much seem….overrated.

Once again: Why?

It all boils down to uniqueness.

In 1993, Tim Burton was still relatively new to audiences.  Directing since 1985, his biggest hits had been the likes of horror-comedy Beetlejuice, superhero blockbuster Batman, and drama flick Edward Scissorhands.  In other words, the world was still being introduced to the styles that we are currently familiar with: use of Johnny Depp, score by Danny Elfman, stripes, German Expressionism, and pale-skinned, dark haired, sunken-eyed outcast protagonists.  Thanks to the sheer number of Signature Style Burton-esque films, The Nightmare Before Christmas no longer seems like anything all that special in terms of style of film, but at the time, it was something very new, distinct, and different.

The same goes for the stop-motion aspect.

The stop-motion ‘weird’ films that we are the most familiar with: (Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman) have all come after The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Before Nightmare, stop-motion’s biggest claim to fame were the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials.  The Nightmare Before Christmas revolutionized and reawakened the style of filmmaking and started a new form of animation that is being used since.  Once again, it all comes down to that uniqueness of the time, especially when it applies to the story.

The story of The Nightmare Before Christmas, despite its aforementioned simplicity, is a rather unique one.  The idea came to Burton while watching Halloween decorations come down at the same time Christmas decorations were being put up, and the movie is really all about the juxtaposition between the holidays.  Jack Skellington, the king of Halloweentown, is dissatisfied with the ‘same old thing’ and decides to try something new.  The ‘new thing’ that captivates his interest turns out to be another huge holiday: Christmas.  Full of excitement at this strange new holiday, Jack decides to get the person in charge of Christmas out of the way (Santa Claus) and take Christmas for himself, assigning the denizens of Halloweentown the tasks necessary to bring about the festive holiday.

Being from Halloweentown, of course, Jack doesn’t fully understand Christmas, despite his frantic attempts to do so, and in the end, Christmas is a disaster, thanks to his botched interpretation of what makes the holiday.  In the end, Jack learns not to meddle with things he doesn’t understand, and the movie ends at around 75 minutes.

As basic as it is, the idea of one holiday trying to do another is pretty creative, as is the way it is done.  The concept of holiday worlds, based on the special day is extremely interesting, and it’s executed well.  In fact, when looking at the film for what and when it was, The Nightmare Before Christmas was actually very creative in everything, characters, the visual look, the way it was done, story, even the music by Danny Elfman is very fitting to the story and characters, and it’s all very catchy.

When contextualized into the time period it was made in, The Nightmare Before Christmas, for all it may seem stale and overdone now, was fresh and unique, noteworthy for being something audiences haven’t seen before.  

There’s more to the intense popularity of this film than quirkiness, though.

What I said earlier about the film being basic?  That is actually a point in its favor.

One of the remarkable things about The Nightmare Before Christmas is that, for having a reasonably complex concept, it’s execution is very simple.  The story never makes itself more complicated than it has to be.  It’s very straightforward, with no plot twists or surprises for the audience.  The direction the story takes is predictable, but that’s by no means bad.  Not only is the story uncomplicated, but the meaning is as well.

It isn’t hard for people to understand Jack’s predicament, nor is it difficult for even the youngest kid to know that his endeavors to make Christmas are doomed to failure, because they pick up that Jack does not understand what he is trying to do.  He has the feeling right, but he has no constructive direction to take it, and with a lack of understanding, ends up creating a mess.

Jack’s enthusiasm is for the holiday spirit, and it’s contagious, no matter which holiday you consider.  By never trying to ‘explain’ the good feelings of the holidays and just letting them be, The Nightmare Before Christmas actually continues a trend that one wouldn’t think it has much to do with at all.

In my opinion, the hype behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, especially in the up-and-coming generations, is much the same reason that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is still talked about by the older generations.  The holiday feeling.

Jack experiences the joy of Christmas without knowing why.  Despite his best efforts, he cannot decipher the whys and wherefores of it, he just accepts that ‘just because I cannot see it doesn’t mean I can’t believe it!’.  This tone, this viewpoint towards the holiday of simply enjoying it, is reminiscent of Christmas specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas or the Rankin/Bass stop-motion productions.  It evokes nostalgic feelings for the holiday.  The Nightmare Before Christmas is to the post 90s generation what the other animated Christmas specials were to the ones before it: the traditional, good-feelings, familiar celebration of the holiday.

Most importantly though, it’s a film that people enjoy watching.

With a unique concept, design, and execution, nostalgic feelings and holiday warmth, and it just being a generally fun, charming movie, it’s not really a true wonder why The Nightmare Before Christmas got as popular as it did.

Is it overhyped?  Yes.  

Does that make the movie itself any worse?  No.  It just means that audience expectations are affected by the culture around it, some for the better, some for the worse.

Of course, it’s not a movie for everybody.  Some will like it more than others.  Some might love it, some might hate it, and some might just be okay with it.  But that goes for any film.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a cultural juggernaut, that’s for certain, and I doubt we’ll be seeing any fewer Oogie Boogie coin banks in the near future, but that’s more a reflection on the commercialism of film since 1977 (Thanks, George Lucas!) and how much people are willing to buy to reflect their tastes in film.  My point is, the movie is still popular enough that people buy stuff connected to it because they like it.

And that’s not a bad thing.  It’s a good movie, remarkably simple, but smart enough to hold up years later and continue to emotionally resonate with audiences.  It was something that no one had ever seen before at the time, and is packed full of enough distinctive style and imagery that it is still instantly recognizable as being from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  It’s an immensely popular film for a reason, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Thank you all so much for reading!  If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to say hi, feel free to leave them in the ask box, I’d love to hear from you.  I hope you guys enjoyed this article, and I hope to see you in the next one.

[watchmebitch]

character development, team dynamics, and other shit that was handled badly in avengers endgame

So, here’s my biggest beef with endgame: the movie runs for 20 minutes with the characters we know, then time skips 5 years ahead and changes everyone unconvincingly so that you have to spend the remaining 2hr40m watching extremely different people, to whom you don’t have the same emotional attachment.

The five year time jump is an easy cop-out way for the directors to be like “no no see [weird OOC nonsense] happened bc they Changed,” but you, as the audience, are forced to just accept this without being shown how any of the characters got from point A to point B. For example:

Point A: Hawkeye loses his family. 

Point B: Rampage in Japan, for some reason. 

Point A: Thor is too late killing Thanos. 

Point B: A coping mechanism we’ve literally never seen from Thor before, even though he’s lost loved ones and failed a million times at this point. Him failing/losing literally everything and redeeming himself was the entire plot of Thor 1, but whatever. 

Point A: Tony still holds every grudge he accumulated in previous movies, lashes out at the whole team for collectively losing.

Point B: Tony settles down with Pepper for long enough to have and raise a child, even though he’s been pathologically unable to do that in every previous movie and always, immediately picks up a new project/finds a new problem.

But meanwhile, because they needed to have a bunch of blatant callbacks to previous movies to pander to the audience (up to and including characters shot-for-shot repeating their old lines) everybody ends up looking like a funhouse mirror version of themselves instead of a New Person. Because the main elements the writers needed to keep in order to not make everyone leave the theater are still there.

And in all of this, inexplicably, even though these people are all obviously traumatized by everything that’s happened and seemingly need to make sure the world is recovering OK, they mostly go their separate ways during the 5 years, without explanation. This is dumb for in-universe reasons but, more importantly, literally all anyone has ever wanted out of an avengers movie was uncomplicated team bonding & support systems being developed between these morons.

But we can’t even have that. Instead, the writers need to create half baked families for our heroes to fridge or risk fridging to show that they have Something to Lose or Lost Something, which itself is ridiculous when the team is right there. 

And it’s been nearly ten years since Civil War at the point in the timeline where most of the film runs, so don’t come at me with that. If real life moderate liberals can forgive George Bush in ten years after being presented with a Bigger Bad (yikes, by the way), Tony Stark can get over his friends not signing away their civil rights after coming face to face with a problem that the Accords would not, under any circumstances, have solved.

But wait, there’s more! 

Why no team bonding? Well I’ll tell you why. Joss Whedon (can’t believe I’m saying this) started us on that path with the end of a1, showing a version of the team that sets aside their differences and gets along at the end of the day, at least for long enough to save each other’s asses or share a meal when the dust settles.

-on the contrary the Russo bros just dusted everyone--

He fleshed this out in Age of Ultron by giving us some of the ONLY good scenes in a2: the team hanging out together and throwing parties in their down time.

But Joss also made a dangerous discovery. He paired Nat (at first, the only female avenger) off with Bruce for reasons that I will never be able to explain, and in doing that sent a shocking realization through the core of the marvel writing staff: if your big superhero team only has one girl on it, the fanbase is going to start pairing up the boys.

The thing is, the longer the team maintains a fun found-family dynamic, where they hang out like friends and share meals while not getting married to other people, the more it starts to look exactly like that.

Which Disney is terrified of, as we know. Can’t rake in the big bucks while pandering to the gays.  ignore all of the highly successful gay pandering out there-

So they do two things. (1) They start introducing avengers that have a good reason to keep their distance (Dr. Strange), so as to not make this even more blatant, and (2) they start introducing avengers who already have full fledged families (Ant-Man) and are therefore Proven Hetero for the audience.

Our buddy joss started this mess in a2 by giving Clint a secret family, ostensibly because he realized that everyone in the fanbase would be extremely confused why Natasha and Bruce would be together when Clint’s right there. But even the secret family didn’t feel real or convincing, because it came completely out of nowhere and - I cannot stress this enough - Hawkeye was still hanging out with the avengers 24/7 as far as we know at this time. He wasn’t going missing from group movies yet, and he was at the fun parties and hang-out scenes in a2. So his family ends up looking more like a weird 1950s closet cover set-up in a2, even though Clint is one of the few avengers that the fanbase actually likes to ship with women.

In Conclusion: The drop in quality of the Avengers Movies and compulsory heterosexuality share a direct relationship. The Russo Bros managed to write a movie that simultaneously (1) eviscerates everyone’s favorite characters (namely, all of them) but (2) panders just enough to the audience with catchphrases and nostalgic callbacks to prevent an uprising. Joss Whedon opened pandora’s box in 2015 when he wrote Hawkeye’s family into existence and smashed Bruce and Nat together like barbie dolls. I could have written a better movie in a cave with a box of scraps.

[loopy777]

Peter parkers main 3 love interests is generally accepted as Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and Felicia Hardy/Black cat. Taking your favorite/best written portrayals of each of them as a starting point, what would you say is the biggest strenghts and weakness of each of them as a permanent Romantic partner to peter on a romantic writing level, and a overarching plot writing level?

Hm, this might get complicated. I guess I’ll take it character by character.

Mary Jane

MJ is my preferred romance for Peter, and my favorite portrayals of her are the Spectacular cartoon, the Ultimate comics, the Renew Your Vows AU, and the mainline comics- in that order. (I also like Michelle from the MCU, but I don’t consider her Mary Jane Watson. Michelle just happens for share a nickname with her. For some reason.) The thing that I think helps MJ rise above the rest if that I don’t consider her to have been created as a love interest. Yes, I know, she was literally created to be the Veronica to Gwen’s Betty, but that’s the thing- she wasn’t really intended to be the winner, from what I’ve read. She was meant to be a challenge, a brief diversion, and only accidentally wound up as the winner due to the chaotic nature of comic book production.

As such, MJ has a resilience that most love-interests don’t. Even when she wasn’t dating Peter, the character was able to stick around and continue to develop. She was able to leave the narrative for a while, possibly with no intentions from the writers for her to return, and yet she did and extra layers were added to her character as a result. Even now, her marriage to Peter was sold to the devil as part of a writer agenda to make Peter swingin’ and single again, and yet she’s stuck around and the character has continued to find places in the story. What hasn’t killed MJ has made her stronger, and if she was always intended to be the Final Girl, then I don’t think she would have gotten the opportunities. Sure, it’s a messy history of character development and retcons if you look at it in detail, but that’s true for any comic book character that’s passed through multiple hands and lasted more than a decade.

Within the story itself, I like when MJ is spunky and able to roll with Peter’s life as Spider-Man. I like when her career, whether it’s acting or something else, is only a modest success if a success at all, to fit with the whole Everyman theme of the Spider-Man stories. I’m fine with her feeling stress or angst because of Peter’s heroing -- after all, Peter gets so angsty about he quits every five years or so -- but I do want her to generally buy in to the whole thing; if she’s in love with Peter, she’s in love with the dedication that makes him use his powers for others. I also like when she’s portrayed as an old hand at dealing with the superhero life and gets to meet the other heroes, despite not having powers. It can be contrived when she gets involved with Peter’s adventures, but I do think it can be a great angle, as she can provide even more of an Everyman perspective to the proceedings.

(I haven’t played the PS4 game, and I recognize that making MJ a reporter is an easy way to get her involved, but as I’ve said before, I always feel like making the Love Interest a journalist is rip-off of Lois Lane. I’d like to see a bit more creativity in such things. Personally, I someday want to pitch a ‘Mary Jane: Agent of SHIELD’ book to Marvel where she works in SHIELD’s public relations office in New York.)

In terms of personality, I think the Spectacular cartoon nailed exactly what I want. The show didn’t get to the really juicy stuff of a romance with Peter or her knowing his secret identity, but her every scene felt perfect to me and she really did add a nice dynamic to the cast. I think the Ultimate comics captured a good depiction of the character dealing with her background as an abused child from a broken household, but I think it missed the mark in the whole ‘Brainy Janey’ thing where she was supposed to be a nerd like Peter. It felt like little was done with that, and Peter still eventually emerged as smarter than all the other students anyway, so I’m not sure what the goal was. I prefer the idea of MJ putting on a facade of a Cool Extrovert to cover her angst.

Gwen

Gwen is odd to me in that I mostly know her as Dead Love-Interest Walking. The only times I feel like I’ve experienced her as a real character are the Spectacular cartoon and the Ultimate comics, and my understanding is that neither captures the character as portrayed in the comics. Comics Gwen was the acerbic rich girl who evolved in a sweet rich girl. Ultimate Gwen was a punk rock rebel with a sense of justice. Spectacular Gwen was a sweet nerd who pined after Peter. (I don’t remember much about Amazing Gwen, other than the moment of her death and her glaring dad.) All of those are a bit different, but I feel like the only thing they all have in common is that they’re a girl who Peter falls for before he eventually marries MJ.

To that end, though, I think that’s enough to define Gwen as something of a fantasy. She should be The Ideal Love-Interest, which is not to say that she should be some kind of flawless angel, but she should be what most people’s fantasy should be of a great girlfriend for Peter. She should be a smartie like him, and either be sweet enough for them to be natural buddies or else spiky enough for them to be rivals with romantic tension. Or, like Ultimate Gwen, she should be interesting and living an exotic lifestyle but Good in a way that makes her uncomplicated for Peter to love.

And, in the end, the romance with her should always fail. Perhaps due to her death, or perhaps due to other factors if we don’t want her to be Dead Love-Interest Walking. Either way, I think she should be the precursor to Peter’s true love interest, with whom he has a messier romance that eventually becomes a perfectly-fulfilling endgame. Gwen should be the person we all think we’re going to marry when we first start dating, but later comes someone else and a more adult connection where we end up with someone we never would have imagined when we were young and naive.

Felicia

I hate to say it, but Felicia should be Catwoman. She’s the naughty, slightly dangerous lady who’s super sexy and is always offering an exciting time. She’s the love interest for the superhero side of Peter’s life, a wild fantasy of leaving all the concerns about Peter behind and just being a fun adventurer all the time with a hot cat-chick by his side. But, because such fantasies are always false, there needs to be a problem with Felicia that ultimately makes her a poor match for Peter. Usually, it’s her morals, where she’s fine with theft or violent revenge or other compromises that Peter himself fights against.

Ironically, the version of Felicia I’m most familiar with is nothing like this. That’s the 90′s cartoon, of course, where she’s mostly a version of Gwen Stacy. There’s a bit of it when she becomes the Black Cat, but her grand romance was with Morbius, and my memory is fuzzy enough that I’m honestly not sure what the short-lived romance with Spider-Man was really like. Honestly, I’d look at the animated Felicia as more what to do if anyone wanted to give Gwen superpowers. XD

But as far as my ideal depiction, I like a Black Cat who’s a thief, but not a full baddie. She should walk moral line and sometimes cross over, but not in a big way. (I’m not really a fan of Dan Slott making her a full crime lord who wants revenge on Spidey, but I admit I didn’t read the storyline. I hear it worked pretty well in the Silk comics but didn’t otherwise make a whole lotta sense.) She should be flirty and sassy and clever. I like when she comes on so strongly and so quickly that she flusters Peter. And I also like when she has superpowers, because that more firmly puts her on that side of things, as compared to someone Peter could bring into his civilian life. Peter’s civilian life should always be in conflict with his life as Spider-Man, and his love-interest should always play into that dynamic.

[thewritewolf]

Inseparable Chapter 15: Animal Tendencies

Adrien struggles with his newfound knowledge.

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@ladynoirjuly2019

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

Marinette - Ladybug - had asked him what he wanted to watch. Somehow, Adrien agreed to a movie. He has no memory of doing so, but since they were laying side by side in her bed, laptop on her lap as the light from the movie illuminated them in the dark, it clearly had to have happened. He risked a glance to the side, aiming to get another look at the incriminating T-shirt.

There were probably other explanations. She was a personal friend of Jagged Stone. Maybe he sent the shirt to her, or maybe she got it because she was such a big fan of his. Adrien had found a way to get it early - it was possible she managed it as well.

Then his eyes traveled up to her face and he felt his heart flip as she laughed at a joke from the movie. Logic flew out the window. There was only one girl who could make him feel this way, even if he had been steadfastly ignoring how he felt around Marinette. A flicker of a smile came to his face when he realized he’d been denying that crush out of a sense of loyalty to her alter ego.

The smile quickly passed as the gravity of the situation crushed him, doubts hounding his every thought.

There was nothing he wanted more than to stay here like this forever. Close together, the space between them practically nothing. His hand was itching to grab hers, so maddeningly close… but he couldn’t do it. Not yet. He felt lost - confused. There were too many unanswered questions right now for him to make any kind of move. Which just left him beside her, yearning to reach out but paralyzed by uncertainty. One movie ended, another began. Just when he had nearly built up the courage to say anything, a knock on the door jolted him back into reality. The world suddenly became more than just him and her.

“Adrien,” Tom’s voice called through the wood of the trapdoor, “A, um, very large, silent man is standing outside the bakery. We think he is your… bodyguard?”

Relief poured down his spine like cold water even as a part of him was sad to leave. He was galvanized into moving for the first time in hours.

“I, uh… I had fun today…” Marinette fidgeted with her hands as he was halfway down the ladder. Even in his turmoil he stopped to smile softly at her shyness. “Maybe we can…” She waved her hand at the laptop, “...again, sometime?”

A long moment passed before he registered that he needed to respond. “Oh! Y-yeah, I’d like that.” Another pause as they watched each other, words hanging unsaid in the air between them. “I’d better get going.”

“R-right, of course.”

“The Gorilla is waiting…”

“Mmhm, yup.”

“...But I’ll see you at school. Later.”

“Yes! Later is good.”

“And probably after school. Since we, uh, we have a project to do.” He hated that he was rambling but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He didn’t want to leave her, but he couldn’t stay either.

“Lots of work to do on that project.”

“So… bye?”

“Y-yeah. Night good!” She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. “Good night,” she repeated, slowly.

He nodded and shut his mouth. He awkwardly climbed down her ladder in silence and left the bakery after a few words of thanks to her parents. The Gorilla was characteristically silent as he drove Adrien to the Agreste estate before leaving for home himself. There was no one to greet him when he got home, so he shambled off to his room in silence.

At least, until they reached the privacy of his room and Plagg emerged from Adrien’s bag.

“Well, well, well,” Plagg said while rubbing his paws together with a nearly malicious glee. “Looks like lover boy has made a discovery.”

Adrien sat down on the side of his bed. “Marinette is Ladybug.” Somehow, saying it out loud made it feel all the more real.

“Marinette is Ladybug,” Plagg nodded.

“I’m in love with Ladybug.”

His kwami sighed. “You’ve made that abundantly clear, kid.”

“...I’m in love with Marinette.”

���Because she is Ladybug? Or was there something there before?” When Adrien opened his mouth to speak, Plagg hushed him. “And be honest!”

Rubbing the back of his head, Adrien struggled to find a response. “Well, I… now that I think about it I guess you could say that I… but…”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, kid. Out with it! This isn’t that difficult.”

“I… love her.” He let out a wistful sigh. “I guess I always did.”

“Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how are you going to break the news to Pigtails?”

“I don’t know, Plagg… This changes everything!”

“Okay kid now you’ve lost me again. Didn’t we just cover that you definitely like this girl? What does this change?”

Adrien began pacing, nervously adjusting his ring as he did so. “Well, Ladybug was always kind of a long shot. She’s just so confident and courageous and beautiful. But I love her and I was hoping she’d be willing to give me a chance.” He stopped and looked at Plagg with a look of anguish. “But Marinette? She is definitely out of my league.”

“What.” Plagg stared at him incredulously.

“Marinette is kind, caring, creative. She could impress my father and Chloe’s mother with her work. There are lifelong designers that couldn’t do that! I can't impress my father! She’s personal friends with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. Everyone loves her - including me, apparently. And apparently she is Ladybug on top of it all. How can I possibly measure up to that?”

Plagg tried his best to face palm with his paws. “You’re a model? And the son of her favorite designer? And you’re Chat Noir?! Does none of this ring a bell to you?”

“I didn’t choose to be a model, or who my parents were. Besides, Marinette isn’t shallow - that’s not the sort of thing she would be interested in. And clearly being Chat Noir doesn’t matter since she… doesn’t…” His eyes widened with sudden realization. “She doesn’t love Chat Noir.” He crumbled onto the bed, hands buried in his hair.

“Woah, woah, kid.” Plagg landed on his shoulder. “Don’t sell yourself short - you’ve got plenty to offer.” Adrien sniffled and looked up. “You’re a sweet kid, and we both know that counts a lot to Pigtails. And you know Ladybug was turning Chat down for someone else - maybe that someone else was you all along?”

Adrien looked to the side, away from his kwami, as he felt the sting of tears. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“I mean, yeah. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” Plagg zoomed in front of Adrien. “Listen, kid. You can go ahead and keep this to yourself for now, if you want. But you’ve got a patrol with her tonight, don’t you? You’ve got to decide what you’re gonna do when you see her.”

He brushed aside his tears and laid down on his bed. “I don’t know,” he whispered into the vast emptiness of the room. “Nothing, for now. I won’t let her be disappointed in me just because of how I’m feeling. She deserves that much while I get my act together.”

“Kid, I can tell you that I’m sure everything will work out fine. Go ahead and take some you time. I’ll be over here, with uncomplicated cheese and no heartache.”

“Thanks, Plagg.”

------------------------

Marinette landed on a rooftop wholly unremarkable except for the view of the moonlit Seine. The patrol wasn’t going great. Sure, they were covering ground like never before, but only because Chat Noir was being uncharacteristically bashful and quiet. Everytime he caught her staring concernedly at him, he’d blush and look away. It was a far cry from the sly alley cat she’d come to know. The stark difference had almost made her think that there was some akuma nonsense at work.

Now, she was fairly sure she was just dealing with a sad kitten. While that raised questions all on its own, it was at least something that she knew just how to handle.

“Okay, Chat,” she said, putting her hands on her hips, “this looks like as good a spot as any.”

Hesitantly, he shot her a curious glance. “Good spot for what?”

“Training, of course.”

“Ah.” He settled back into his glumness, but took a defensive position.

Instead of taking out her yoyo like he no doubt expected, she kept her hands behind her back and took a few steps towards him. His confusion grew until she entered his personal space and he put both hands on his baton and leaned back, his face a red, flustered mess. She smiled and poke his nose.

“Tag. You’re it.”

And just like that, she had run away. Without looking behind her, she could feel Chat chasing her. It had been too long since they had fun on their patrols, and she knew that he could use the distraction. Besides, he wasn’t the only one who can stand to get things off their mind for a little while. She replayed her time with Adrien earlier that day over and over - whether it was in the comfort of her own head, or dissecting everything with Tikki, she felt like it was an important milestone with them. They might not have made much progress with their school project, but she’d never felt closer to Adrien.

Stolen glances confirmed that her plan was working. Worry had melted from his face, leaving only the joy of the hunt. It was just like when they had first taken up the mantle of superheroes, still exploring the boundaries of their powers. Not that there still wasn’t things they didn’t know - these recent… hiccups with their abilities proved that. But now Marinette felt the weight of her responsibilities on her shoulders, a weight she had only managed to bear this long with Chat’s silliness to keep her sane. If he needed a little of that now, then she was happy to help.

The chase lasted long enough that even her superhuman endurance was running thin. She landed and held up her hands in surrender.

“Okay, kitty, you got me. Can we take a break now? My legs feel like jelly.”

He flashed her a warm smile, her reward for a long run. “Heh. Same here.”

He sat down, leaning against a chimney. She found a spot next to him and before long, mutual exhaustion and the cold had them leaning against each other. She snuggled against him, resting her head against his shoulder. It worried her that he froze for a moment afterward, but soon his head was resting on hers and he’d snaked an arm around her waist. They’d grown close during their long war against Hawkmoth. Personal space had been thrown out the window ages ago, a casualty of cold winter patrols and the close calls of a fight.

Her eyelids became heavy as she got lost in her partner’s warmth. What jolted her awake was a strange rumbling coming from inside her chest. Instantly, she pulled away from her partner, who she noticed was gawking at her in disbelief.

That shock faded quickly, replaced by a wide grin. “Did you just… purr?”

“N-nope!” She lied, unconvincingly.

“That was adorable!” He scrambled closer to her, eyes sparkling. “Do it again!”

“I don’t want to,” she complained. Their little side effects of having their miraculous had been floating freely between them, but she thanked her lucky stars that it hadn’t swapped their powers again. She still needed to speak with Master Fu, but unless she found some time to speak with him outside their schedules, she wouldn’t be seeing him until next week. In the meantime, she’d just have to deal with it.

“C’mon, please? Just one more? You make me do it all the time.”

“Once. I had you purr on command once and you complained the whole time since you found it so embarrassing.”

“Yeah, so that means you owe me one, right?”

Rolling her eyes, Marinette took out her yo-yo. “Good night, chaton.”

“I don’t think I will now.” He crossed his arms and looked away, but Marinette could see his tail sweeping back and forth contently. He was feeling happier, at least. That was all she could really hope for.

“Oh? Is that what you want your last words to me tonight to be?”

There was a pause. He sighed and looked back at her, pouting. “Good night, m’lady.”

“There’s a good kitty. See you later!”

She was too far away to hear Chat Noir sigh under his breath. “Sooner than you think…”

[daresplaining]

A Re-Examination of That Scene in Daredevil #611

    This is me saying “aw, what the hell” and veering into full-on self-parody by re-analyzing a scene I already examined in-depth in a previous post. This is partly because I’m just... starved for Mike Murdock material, but moreso because I wrote that analysis right after the issue came out, when I was missing vital information: the fact that (spoiler alert) #609-612 was a dream sequence. Thus, I want to examine the iconic ending of #611 once more because, frankly, I’m kind of obsessed with it, and because that context creates extra layers that make it worth another look. 

    When I wrote about this scene before, I was treating it as a factual event. I looked at it in terms of character motivations-- Mike’s in particular, in the context of his developing relationship with Matt, his past “relationship” with Karen Page, and the angle he might be playing in choosing to save Daredevil’s life. Now, in hindsight, we know that that was a meaningless analysis, because this isn’t really Mike. This is a version of Mike conjured up by Matt’s subconscious... which is funny, because that’s technically what Mike is anyway. Thus, here we move out of the wonderfully wacky realm of Mike as a real, autonomous person with his own thoughts and ideas, and back into his original status: Mike as a coping tool and projection of Matt’s innermost desires. 

    One of our earliest posts on this blog was an examination of Matt’s dream sequences from a sensory perspective. I’m not going to go into that in-depth because it’s not hugely relevant here, but it’s always fun to think about what Matt is actually perceiving in scenes like this. The visual accuracy of the images within these issues suggest that they are more for our benefit than Matt’s, and that this dream is likely non-visual. On the other hand, I also love that Noto’s artwork in #609-612 has a foggy, blurred quality to it that indicates a dreamlike state to anyone astute enough to notice. What’s much more important here is the idea of dreams as narrative devices-- in this case as a projection of (as mentioned above) Matt’s desires. This isn’t the random type of dream people have in real life. This is a fictional dream with an intention behind it-- to present an incorrect-yet-believable idealized conclusion to the Mayor Fisk plotline-- which means we can treat it as an accurate representation of Matt’s psyche.  

    While dying on the operating table, Matt dreams himself up a positive solution to not only his current problem, but also to various concerns and regrets in his life. Some are more significant than others, and obviously it isn’t all-encompassing; a fully comprehensive wish-fulfillment dream for Matt would take a few hundred pages... But it’s a fantasy of things going wonderfully right, which is a luxury all on its own. Matt quickly heals from the truck accident. He finds irrefutable proof of Fisk’s corruption and convinces the D.A.’s office and the entire superhero community to back the conviction. He lays a beautiful beat-down on some of his other rogues. He has a casual, uncomplicated one night stand with Elektra for the first time since college. He imagines a whole army of Stilt-Mans (and really, who hasn’t?)! But on the edges of all this success and happiness lurks the specter of death as, back in the real world, his body begins to succumb to its injuries. This threat takes the subconscious form of the mysterious Vigil, who continually sabotages Dream Matt’s plans and threatens his life. But we also get the moment at the end of #611, when Matt finds himself at the mercy of Bullseye with little hope of escape. In the midst of a series of triumphs, everything suddenly goes horribly wrong. 

[ID: It’s nighttime. Daredevil is running across the roof of Madison Square Garden, alone.]

Matt (caption): “Go, Matt. You’re completely exposed out here. You idiot. You put yourself right in the middle of a killing ground. Fisk obviously reached out to every killer in New York. Did you really think he’d forget him? Move... or die.”

[ID: Mid-step, Matt is shot in the thigh. Blood spurts out.]

Matt: “Agh!”

    I’m a big fan of Phil Noto’s work, and I think that on the whole, he is excellent with fluid action sequences and suspense. (If anyone hasn’t read his Black Widow run from a few years back, go do that, because it’s visually stunning.) And I love the way he manipulates perspective and panel configuration to build tension in the above page. The fact that the “camera” angle moves up and back as Matt runs, so that he is nearly upside-down, running toward an edge of the roof that we can’t see, and the compactness of the panels and lack of open space, make it feel like a nightmare in which Matt is running and running without getting anywhere. It emphasizes how helpless he is in this moment, particularly since we have no idea where Bullseye might be hiding or when he'll strike. 

[ID: Daredevil is sitting on the ground with blood leaking from his leg. Bullseye is standing over him with a sniper rifle strapped to his back. He grins and spits on Daredevil.]

Matt (caption): “Should have known it’d be him. It was always going to be him.”

    This is a great little moment because, real or not, it’s in-character and memorable. Matt and Bullseye have been fighting for so long that their encounters threaten to become repetitive, but this genuinely freaked me out when I first read it. And while various What If?s regarding Matt’s death don’t bear out his assessment here (it’s usually Fisk who kills him), it’s still a logical one. Those alternate universes aside, I actually agree-- there’s a certain inevitability to Bullseye’s presence in Matt’s life. While Matt’s battles with his other foes have certainly verged on deadly, the only person who has consistently pushed Matt to the brink of either death or murder again and again is Bullseye. It really does feel like fate that one will kill the other-- and Matt has actually killed Bullseye before (more on that below). And so, everything else aside, part of what makes this scene so excellent is that it starts off with a genuinely great (if short) Daredevil/Bullseye confrontation. This moment feels significant, and in the context of this being Matt’s wish-fulfillment dream, it makes a certain amount of sense that Bullseye would show up. He is a believable challenge to Matt’s success, a permanent threat in his daily life. Bullseye’s presence makes the dream realistic, and surviving the encounter is another victory. 

[ID: A shotgun barrel is aimed at Bullseye’s back. The next panel reveals that it’s being held by Mike Murdock, who is missing his sunglasses and wearing a light blue shirt.]

Mike: “Hey, you’re Bullseye, right? Heard you killed Karen Page.”

[ID: Mike shoots Bullseye point-blank in the back. Bullseye falls forward off the roof.]

Mike: “I loved that lady.”

    I’m not going to repeat my previous post by freaking out about how good this plot twist is, but... man, it’s so great. “Matt is having an intense encounter with one of his most dangerous foes and then Mike Murdock appears out of nowhere and shoots said foe” is a winning formula, that’s all I’ll say. The habit of characters in this scene-- first Bullseye and then Mike-- of materializing out of nowhere bothered me when I read the issue, but in hindsight, it’s another nice, subtle indication that this is a dream. 

    And now we see another reason for Bullseye’s presence in this fantasy: catharsis. On some level, Matt still wants him dead. This is a longtime theme in their interactions. Matt has gone back and forth on whether or not to kill Bullseye since Miller’s run. He tries to kill him after Elektra’s death. During a daydream in Bendis’s run in which Bullseye kills Milla, Matt imagines himself chasing him down and breaking his neck. He actually kills Bullseye in real life during “Shadowland”. But it’s interesting to note that he didn’t try to kill Bullseye after Karen’s death... which may be partly why Karen is the central focus of this particular murder. It’s an indication that Matt is still mourning her, still-- on some level-- looking for closure. It’s notable that in the final issue of the run, in the moments before his death, Matt hallucinates Karen. 

    From a writing perspective, the Karen connection in the above scene is smart, because it hides the fact that this is a dream by tying it to a real event: Mike learning about Karen’s death in #608.

[ID: Mike and Foggy are sitting next to each other in the back of a taxi. Mike is smiling.]

Mike: “...How is Karen these days? Might look her up, actually.”

Foggy: “Mike... Karen’s dead. She was killed by an assassin called Bullseye. A... long time ago.”

[ID: Mike is no longer smiling. In fact, he looks super bummed. He looks away from Foggy, toward the reader.]

Mike: “Yeah? How about that.”

    Matt doesn’t know about this exchange (unless Foggy told him about it between issues, which is actually quite possible), but the reader definitely does, and it’s a deceptive way of linking the dream to the waking world. And I have to say, I’m not even mad, because the implication that Mike hunted Bullseye down with a shotgun to avenge Karen was incredible while it lasted. Clearly, it’s an idea that Matt loves too, hence it featuring prominently in this dream. And that in itself is notable, because why Mike? Why doesn’t Matt imagine himself killing Bullseye?

    My personal interpretation is that this ties back to “Shadowland”, which I consider a significant period in Matt’s recent life even if current Daredevil writers seemingly don’t (*cough* Zdarsky...). During “Shadowland”, Matt-- under the influence of demonic possession-- gives in to his darkest desires and stabs Bullseye through the heart with a sai in a symbolic and visual callback to Elektra’s death.

[ID: A panel from Shadowland. Daredevil, in his black costume, and Bullseye are on the roof of a building at night with a view of Manhattan in the background. Daredevil has bodily lifted Bullseye off the ground and rammed a sai upward through his chest.

Shadowland #1 by Andy Diggle, Billy Tan, and Christina Strain

    This whole experience is a nightmare for Matt, and it leaves him plagued with self-doubt and guilt about the lines he crossed. While in the past he was able to imagine himself killing Bullseye, now those thoughts would be tainted by the very real, recent, and traumatic memories of actually doing it. And so, in Matt’s dream, he can’t bring himself to perform that catharsis himself. Instead, he brings in Mike, his wish-fulfillment stand-in since 1967, the version of himself who is unburdened by his inhibitions and baggage-- to do the deed and cleanly, without angst, take Bullseye out. If I wanted to read even further into this-- to a degree that Soule maybe didn’t intend-- I would say that Mike’s use of a gun is significant because Karen tried to use a gun to defend herself in the moments before her death and failed.   

    So Mike is in this dream to act out Matt’s revenge fantasy, and that’s beautiful. But there’s something else going on here as well.

[ID: Daredevil is sitting on the roof after having been shot by Bullseye. Mike is standing over him.]

Matt: “Mike. How are you here?”

Mike: “Heard the Kingpin put out a big contract on you. Figured I’d get involved.”

Matt (caption): “So this is it. The end. He doesn’t know who I am. I wonder what he’ll think when he takes off my mask? Killed by my own brother. Killed by myself.”

    Having survived Bullseye, Matt is now convinced he’s about to be killed-- by Mike. And that is fascinating on multiple levels.

    We had three beautiful but too-short issues in which to establish the dynamic between Matt and his suddenly real twin brother, and it did not end well. This is their first “interaction” since Mike ran away after Matt tried to have him erased from existence. Because #609 starts right off with Matt’s truck accident, we have almost no time to explore his reaction to that final scene with Mike, beyond a brief reflection in #608 on why he decided to spare him:

“I don’t understand this, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But... he's my brother. Family. I chose family. I hope to God I don’t regret it.”

    Clearly, given this dream, he expects to regret it, and more than that-- he is experiencing remorse. The fact that Matt assumes Mike would want him dead indicates that he has come to understand the full gravity of what trying to erase Mike actually meant. He is extrapolating Mike’s point-of-view, and he seems to feel that Mike would be justified in killing him! While Matt wonders how Mike will react to the revelation that he has murdered his brother, he doesn’t even consider taking off his mask here, despite having revealed his identity to Frank, Reader, and Cypher earlier in the dream. He does nothing to try and protect himself from Mike, or to argue his case. It’s really upsetting, but it’s also an indication that Matt knows he did his brother wrong, and that’s a huge step forward from where their relationship was at the end of #608. 

    There’s also a deeper reading of this moment that I love as well: the idea of Matt being killed by himself-- or, more accurately, by his own choices and mistakes. Matt has a long history of self-sabotage, of slipping up in ways that put himself and others in danger. It’s telling that this moment comes right after his comment about how it was always going to be Bullseye who killed him. Because maybe not. Maybe he knows, on a subconscious level, that his death will be the result of his own missteps. And as much as I agreed with the Bullseye assessment, I’d say this one is pretty accurate too. 

    But Mike doesn’t kill him. Because this is a wish-fulfillment dream, after all.

[ID: Mike kneels down in front of Daredevil, rips off part of his shirt, and ties it around Daredevil’s injured leg.]

Mike: “Hm. Looks like Bullseye got you pretty good. I know a guy who can fix you up. Back-alley surgeon, but he’s smart as heck. Did like two years at Johns Hopkins Medical before he dropped out, he told me.”

Matt: “You’re not... you’re not...”

Mike: “Not gonna kill you? Maybe I should, after all that business trying to erase me a while back, but nah. You’re working with my brother, trying to bring down Wilson Fisk, ain’tcha? I can help you do it.”

    “Maybe I should, after all that business trying to erase me a while back...” As I was saying... Matt is self-aware now. For anyone who watched his behavior toward Mike in #606-608 with dismay, this is an excellent development. (Also, “a while back”... How long has it been?!) 

    Mike fixes him up and gets him to a doctor, even though he has no real reason to trust Daredevil. Mike gives him vital information that brings down the Kingpin. It’s a team-up and a bonding interaction; in the middle of Matt’s dream, he gives himself a moment of reconciliation with Mike. When, in #612, he wakes up enough to reflect on all of the victories he didn’t actually win, he doesn’t mention Bullseye’s death and Karen being avenged. But he does mention something else...

[ID: Matt (seen from the side) is lying with his eyes closed on an operating table. He has a neck brace on.]

Matt (caption): “No emotional reunion with my brother, no redemption for him. No redemption for me.”

    If his feelings at the end of #608 were unclear, this makes it blatant: Matt wants to have a good relationship with his new brother. He wants to make up for what he did. He wants an “emotional reunion” with Mike. Obviously, in real life, it won’t be this easy. Nothing in Matt’s life is ever easy, and things between him and Mike are pretty rough right now. But the fact that he wants this enough to include it in his dying fantasy is significant, and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to get some follow-through.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ant-Man (2015)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Four (22.22% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Fourteen.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

It’s delightful. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Maggie passes with Cassie as she puts her to bed.

Female characters:

Peggy Carter.

Hope Van Dyne.

Cassie.

Maggie.

Male characters:

Howard Stark.

Hank Pym.

Scott Lang.

Peachy.

Luis.

Dale.

Kurt.

Dave.

Darren Cross.

Frank.

Paxton.

Gale.

Mitchell Carson.

Sam Wilson.

OTHER NOTES:

Dave calls Scott a pussy, and Scott is not fussed at all about accepting the attempted insult.

Ah, the old ‘wish you’d call me dad’ cliche, the most worn-out lazy way to establish an antagonistic parent/child relationship. 

“a sustainable environment of well-being”, what an excellent fascist euphemism.

Maggie is very reasonable with Scott about the conditions for seeing Cassie; it’s refreshing to not have this played as ‘harpy ex-wife refuses to let man see his child because she’s just the worst!’ Maggie has a child to look after - and has been doing so for years now while Scott was in jail - and she has every right to impose rules on how things proceed, Scott doesn’t get to just march in and have things his way ‘because she’s my daughter!’ Children are not possessions or status symbols, and this movie does a nice job of recognising that and having the adult characters recognise that and behave in reasonable and understanding ways for Cassie’s benefit rather than their own egos. Other films should take note. Also, real people.

“Yeah man, it killed DiCaprio.”

Turning lambs into goo is worse than kicking puppies. What a monster.

They do a pretty solid job with the reason for Hope not being allowed to don the suit instead. It has strong potential for seeming like flat-out sexism, the idea that a woman can’t get the job done (in universe) and that a female hero won’t sell (out universe), and while that may indeed still be the core reason, they still pull off the reasoning as if it’s genuine.

Pym’s excuse for why he never told Hope the truth about her mother’s death, on the other hand, is pretty fuckin’ weak. Tell people to stop pretending ‘I was trying to protect you’ is a reasonable explanation for lies. It’s super-high - easily Top 5 - on my list of Worst and Most Tedious Cliche Lines.

Kurt suggests that the suit is the work of gypsies and it’s...not the best line they could have picked. Something less racist instead, maybe? No?

Cross is really fixated on Pym as a father figure. It’s different. I like different.

“That’s a messed-up looking dog.”

Scott and Paxton making peace is so great. Paxton peeing in all the corners and Scott being all jealous and threatened by Paxton ‘usurping his place in the family’ would have been such a predictable cliche for them to use, and this very palatable mature adult behaviour is sooo much better. This is how you stop normalising petty possessive rivalries. 

Luis is magical, and also, mad cultured. I love it, but I love even more that they don’t hang a lantern on it, they just let it be part of his character.

Ok, I confess, this is probably gonna be a weird sort of meandering review, because I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts for two months gathering dust while I deal with the mental and physical fatigue of the first trimester of a pregnancy (it’s FUN), and now the due date for this post (pun definitely intended) is right on the horizon, so...I’m just gonna get it done, and it’ll be whatever the heck it is in the end. This is not a complex film filled with deep nuance, it’s basically just an action-y heist movie with some hand-waved scifi on top. And there’s ants. It’s not a hard film to talk about, so you’ll excuse me if it doesn’t get my very best effort. I’m kinda busy growing a human over here.

I remember a lot of grumbling and even some outrage in fandom, back when this film was announced; a lot of people upset that the MCU was bringing in a comparatively little-known and perhaps little-loved superhero like Ant-Man when they still hadn’t bothered with a single female-led film yet, and various complaints about the problematic nature of the Ant-Man character from the comics (referring, I believe, to the Hank Pym version). And then, of course, there was the doubt about whether or not an Ant-Man story was just a fucking idiotic idea in the first place, what with the questionable application of science and the even more questionable appeal of a tiny little man running around playing with ants. Expectations were not high. And yet, Ant-Man pulls through, not just with a great fun romp, but with what I consider one of the more entertaining films the MCU has churned out to date.

I have made my fair share of sour comments about previous films in the MCU and their unimaginative paint-by-numbers plots, and so what I’d like to talk about with Ant-Man is how it manages to be such a success to me despite an essentially uncomplicated story that follows a predictable narrative arc the likes of which we’ve all seen a hundred times before. The basic tenets of a heist movie are all there; the basic tenets of a good vs evil story play straight, alongside a low-key but typical redemption plot, and some plight-of-the-regular-guy vs corporate greed and warmongering, and the leading man hooks up with the leading lady in the end and proves himself as a hero to his family and all that jazz. We know every one of these story and character beats. So. Why do they work?

Let me back this up a second to talk about a couple of major-league pet peeves of mine, the one a microcosmic version of the other: firstly, when people say ‘all Marvel films are basically the same’, and secondly, the Advanced Level Faux-Intellectual Douche version of that sentiment, when people declare that ‘there’s no such thing as originality anymore! There are only seven types of story in the world anyway! Everything is derivative!’ It’s an obnoxious absence of a viewpoint that betrays a lack of imagination and a use of such broad-strokes surface-level comprehension as to be essentially meaningless. Sure, if you break down story concepts to their most fundamental core drives, you can summarise their arcs in a relatively small number of ways, and familiarity with these core concepts can provide a degree of predictability in the way things play out. But that doesn’t mean that every single version of, say, the classic Hero’s Journey is the same damn story, and therefore a useless derivation from which no entertainment or message can be gleaned. If someone asks you to tell them the plot of a movie and you just go ‘oh, it’s a Hero’s Journey’ and leave it at that, you’ve told them almost nothing about what to actually expect. The Matrix is a very, very different Hero’s Journey to The Lord of the Rings, which is a very different Hero’s Journey to Finding Nemo, which is not at all the same as Iron Man. And which of them is closest to The Odyssey, anyway? One of the most obvious differences with all of those examples is genre, and the traditional trappings which often (but not always) follow from them. Sure, the MCU films tend to all fit superhero-comic genre conventions, and some of them (particularly origin stories, as with Iron Man and Thor) may employ a lot of the same tropes while they’re at it. But does anyone really, genuinely think that Ant-Man is ‘basically the same’ as Captain America: The First Avenger? Is Guardians of the Galaxy almost indistinguishable from Black Panther? Does anyone who says ‘Marvel movies are all basically the same’ actually believe the words out of their own mouth, or do they just hope it makes them sound smart if they imply that they’re ‘above’ enjoying mainstream popcorn action?

All of this is to say, what makes Ant-Man work where other trope-heavy films fall apart? The same thing that makes literally any story ever work, and be worthwhile, whether it ‘breaks barriers’ or ‘teaches something’ or is considered ‘high art’ or not: details. Some films are too light on details, which makes them boring because they never really bother to build anything on top of those core foundations we know so well. Sometimes, the details - numerous as they might be - are too generic to have an impact, and the dull result is the same. Sometimes the details are too absurd to land, or there are too many to keep track of, or they require too much extraneous qualification to fit into the flow of the rest of the story, or they’re irrelevant to the rest of the story anyway. The thing about details? There are countless options. People come up with new ideas all the time, through the exercise of imagination or through developments and innovations in the real world. Basic, core plot arcs may be distilled to a handful of options, but story details are limitless, and the possibility of fun new combinations is always there, whether you’re inventing something entirely never-before-seen or not. The idea that you have to be shocking and unexpected to be worthwhile is ridiculous, and shepherds illogical contrivances and gimmicks without narrative cohesion or purpose much more often than it achieves something genuinely surprising with merit (and storytelling that prioritises ‘shocking twists’ is usually so busy trying to look clever it forgets to actually be clever, but, that’s another conversation). The point is, Ant-Man being a delightful film isn’t rocket science. It’s as simple as just a little forethought in the construction of its details.

As noted back near the top, the whole Ant-Man concept and its wobbly science was something that drew some doubt regarding whether or not it could be pulled off in a convincing manner; the solution to achieving that is to do more than just lean in to the idea. The film throws itself whole-heartedly into its core conceit and its tropes, and it drags us along with it to gleefully delight in the act. The story is not embarrassed by itself, it doesn’t try to keep its distance; instead, it gives us a flying ant named Antony, and a dramatic death scene for that ant. What is the point of the Pym particle science conceit if we don’t enjoy the comedic potential of an epic battle inside a briefcase, or on a child’s train set? Relevant to this also is the subject of casting choices (as much a detail-of-interest as anything; a single casting choice can legitimately make or break a film). Paul Rudd has a perfect blend of leading-man charisma and affable comedic chops; he plays Scott as a beta-personality, which is always a refreshing change-up for a lead, and one which invites other refreshing changes around him. It avoids tedious masculine antics in his interactions with other men, while encouraging balanced and respectful interactions with women; Scott never asserts himself as the boss or leader in his relationship with Luis and the rest of his crew, allowing for a smoothly-cooperative dynamic; no time or plot is wasted on pointless jostling for control of the operation with Pym; the idea that Scott needs to prove himself to the three female characters in his life - Hope, Maggie, and Cassie, each for similar but different reasons - is given legitimate weight, instead of implying that Scott and his perspective is inherently superior and correct and the onus is on the other characters to realise that, rather than being on him to live up to other people’s reasonable expectations. It should come as no surprise that the latter element is especially interesting and heartening in the context of this blog.

This is particularly good news when it comes to the kinds of relatively minor details which can make a huge difference in whether or not one reflects on a film in a positive or negative manner; the fact that the narrative supports and validates Hope’s anger, her frustration and resentment and her all-business-no-fun attitude, is vital to keeping a viewer like myself on-side with the film. Hope is never presented as someone who should ‘just loosen up’, or ‘have faith in her father’s plan’, the fact that she is denied the Ant-Man technology because Pym ‘can’t bare to risk losing her’ is offered as a reason but not as an excuse for something deeply patronising, and Scott proving that he can get the job done despite Hope’s misgivings about him is not framed as her being ‘wrong’ - her concerns were legitimate, as all her emotions across the film are, and the story never compromises on that in order to bolster another character. Whether or not Hope is well-handled is not important to the operation of the central narrative plot in a technical sense, but it means a lot in terms of delivering strong characters with satisfying arcs, and a central plot can easily fall flat if the characters participating in it don’t work well, individually or together.

I’m trying to wrap this up coherently, but it’s just as well that I disclaimered myself in the beginning because all I’ve got are frayed pieces of, probably, five other paragraphs I could waffle about. It’s not a complex film, no, but it has a surprising amount of quality details, the more I think about it, even regarding aspects of the movie that I liked less than others (Pym, for example, I did not love, but I like that the movie never tried to pass off his ‘genius’ as an excuse for him being a significantly flawed figure in the lives of most people who encountered him, often with bitter consequences. I’m also a big fan of the fact that both he and Scott have complicated but loving relationships with their daughters, considering that Hollywood has a hyper-obsession with the idea of ‘A Man And His Son’ as the beating heart of family narratives). I’m going to close this out with what may be my personal favourite refreshing detail of this movie, and that’s the mature adult relationship between Scott, Maggie, and Paxton. I mentioned it already in the notes, but honestly, how many times have we seen that toxic cliche, with the shrewish ex-wife and the terrible new man in her life, where the main character (who is Doing His Best!) has to prove through [insert plot heroics] that ex-wife is WRONG and should have stayed with him, the father of her child(ren), because did we mention, her new man is terrible and the main character is always right and good and better! In the end, ex-wife almost certainly leaves her terrible new man to get back together with the main character, because he is Doing His Best and that’s more important than actually being a stable/responsible person! The American nuclear family is the ideal! Divorce is for heathens! Y’all know that toxic plot. I can think of three different examples of it in action right off the top of my head, with no effort required. Point is, the degree to which I was utterly thrilled by this movie subverting cliche at every turn of its family saga really cannot be overstated. Maggie is a reasonable person! Scott respects that Cassie’s needs are more important than his wants! Paxton cares about his family and genuinely wants Scott to land on his feet, for the benefit of everyone! There’s no jealous posturing and Scott acting all hurt about being ‘replaced’! HE LITERALLY THANKS PAXTON FOR EVERYTHING HE DOES, WHEN HAVE I EVER SEEN THAT BEFORE?! Honestly, you don’t have to tell the most original story in the world to tell a story that resonates. You don’t even have to avoid common tropes, you just have to think about what you want to do with them. It’s not rocket science. It’s just good honest storytelling.

With ants.

[literaryspinster]

Why I’m enjoying the casual yet not at all casual approach to  Dickkory so far

I’ve seen people upset about the fact that Dick has been presented as having other viable love interests (he hasn’t, but for the sake of argument and respecting other peoples interpretation of the story, let’s say that he has), and that his physical relationship with Kory just sort of happened without much conversation around it. But to me this is part of what makes it interesting. The show has appealed to me so much so quickly (yes, even the finale) because out of all of the superhero shows I watch on TV right now, it feels the most true to life. This doesn’t make it better or worse than the other shows, but it does make it speak to me just a little bit harder. With the exception of Donna, the characters have deep emotional issues, shaky moral codes, or difficult times navigating their world on an interpersonal level. They have superpowers, but aside from that, they feel like real people who’s problems are due to who they are on the inside as much as whatever danger they’re facing. It’s speculative without being a fantasy.

This is why I respect their take on Dickkory so far. My twenties were full of casual hook-ups and not knowing what I wanted, so I recognize Dick and Kory being drawn toward each other but not quite knowing where they stand. From what I’m seeing, they slept together because they’re attracted to each other, because it was something fun to do and because neither of them really have hang ups about sex. But I also think they slept together because they care about each other in a way they couldn’t really process with words yet, and kind of still can’t. Additionally, it’s significant that the only other time the show has referenced them sleeping together was after a traumatic event, it read like them offering each other comfort in the way that felt the most natural and uncomplicated at the time. As for the Dawn stuff, I remain unaffected by it. What he feels for her isn’t love, it’s a sense of “what if?” Dick remains in this headspace of regretting all of his life choices and wanting to find some shred of normalcy to counteract that feeling. This is why I think he dreamed about being married to Dawn, who signifies both that shred of (relative) normalcy and mending a past regret. Although at this early stage in Kory and Dick’s relationship, I don’t think a reason for why it was Dawn is that necessary. He knows Dawn and he doesn’t really know Kory. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that for me. Kory is just finding out who she is, while she may know her own heart, she has no knowledge of her past. She has no way of putting her emotions into the proper context for him or even herself. They can’t be good together yet because they aren’t even good on their own. And while there’s something there that neither of them can completely run from, it makes sense that they wouldn’t fully trust it yet, especially Dick, who is more closed off in general than Kory is. 

1x08 showed some growth on both of their parts, they admitted that they may want something more, but have to find themselves as individuals first. Not only is this a hopeful direction for their story to go in, it feels genuine, and I don’t see any reason why it would be cancelled out by Trigon’s fuckery. So yeah, they could already be expressing their undying love and forsaking all others, or they could be saving physical intimacy for that realization in a later season. But I don’t know if this would still be the show that I love if it gave me either of those alternatives.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

anonymous  asked:

Hello dears~ i just wanna ask if you have any crossover stiles fic there? any slash stiles x somebody in another show, because really crossover fics are like the greatest thing ever. Thank you for being a great page!

This was fun. I went all over the place. - Anastasia

It Ain't Easy by Rivulet027

(1/1 I 634 I Teen I Stiles/Connor I Angel)

After a hunt leaves Stiles shaken Connor does his best to take care of him. They both have pasts they’ve never quite shared.

The Ace In The Number 24 by Roachbugg

(1/1 I 999 I Teen I Stiles/Adam Milligan I Ace Combat)

Adam Milligan is a Bekan ace he can shoot down enemy planes in droves except for one. The Osean bastard in the Number 24 F16.

Said Osean bastard is none other than Stiles Stilinski an ace Osean piolt with a habit of escaping death.

As these two aces clash in multiple battles during the Blekan war they gain a mutal respect for one another. When the Belkan military asks Adam to do the unthinkable Stiles may be his only hope.

Call of a Siren by Rarity_2

(1/? I 1,979 I Mature I Stiles/Been I Baby Daddy)

Senior year of High School in Beacon Hills and everyone is paired up. Scott has Kira, Liam has Theo, Lydia is diddling Parish and even Jackson wound up with someone. To Stiles it just feels like he'll always be alone. One night he finds himself at the nematon he just starts ranting as a single tear falls and again awakens the nematon. Across the country Ben Wheeler feels something calling him as his chocolate brown eyes flash violet.

Ben Wheeler is a siren called by the nematon when Stiles' angry and heartbroken tear falls on it. But Ben isn't all that the nematon awakens, three sisters hear the call and are on their way to Beacon Hills to have some fun.

Fire Me Up by Inell

(1/1 I 3,923 I Explicit I Faith/Stiles I Buffy)

When Faith recruited Stiles to join the new Slayer Council, he hadn’t realized she had ulterior motives in mind. Fortunately, he has no complaints about becoming her personal boy toy because he’s got a kink for hot, strong-willed, older women, and Faith is all that and more.

Familiar by miss_grey

(12/? I 10,489 I Explicit I Stiles/Tate I AHS)

Stiles has been through a lot in the last year with the Nogitsune and his stint at Murder House, but he’s finally got his life straightened out and he’s headed back to Beacon Hills to be the emissary that Scott’s pack so desperately needs. It’s simple, uncomplicated. Really.

And then there’s Tate.

The Flaming Flash by jamesm97

(10/? I 21,987 I Teen I Stiles/Barry I The Flash)

The night of the particle accelerator explosion Stiles Stilinski fell into a coma, he awoke nearly a year later with not only super speed but the power to control fire. He tries to hide from his destiny and manages to successfully with the help of the batfamily who help train him for what's to come he never thought he'd need the training he was just happy to have a family again, An accident made him the impossible but it's the help of the various superhero teams around the US as well as on various earths that makes him into one of the most revered superheroes throughout history. 

I Know Your Scent by chadleymacguff

(10/? I 25,952 I Teen I Stiles/Eric I True Blood)

Stiles has experience with werewolves and that's enough for him. It never even crossed his mind that there might be more things out in the world that go bump in the night.

Owning It by wackyninja

(17/17 I 28,185 I Mature I Stiles/James I Blue Bloods)

All because Scott made all his decision with his dick and sided with Hunters over his friends and family the whole world went to shit. Once again, it’s up to Stiles to save the day…all he has to sacrifice is his mortality.

[literarilymanga]

Hi, all! It’s time for another webcomic feature! This week I interviewed Micah, creator of The Roommate from Hell! Read the full interview after the cut!

Me: Would you share a little bit about yourself as a creator? 

Micah: Sure! So currently I'm a student at University of Wisconsin Stout, in a program called Entertainment Design - Comics and Sequential Art. So it's basically a comics major. I've been drawing and creating things as long as I remember, and I started taking it seriously around middle school. Put out my first webcomic in high school. Creating comics is basically my life, I spend all my free time on it.

Me: Could you give a short summary of The Roommate From Hell ?

Micah: Up 'til this point it's been about a college student named Mary who moves in with a new roommate she met online. He's really suspicious and she starts investigating. Eventually she convinces herself that he's actually a superhero. He's not a superhero, but he's not exactly normal, either. If you like stories with supernatural elements that are occasionally high action but often focus more on the characters and their interactions, and how these supernatural elements affect their lives, you will like the comic.

Me: Could you introduce the readers to your characters? 

Micah: Alright. So there's Mary. She's rather high energy, I designed her to be rather relateable as she's very interested in anime, internet culture, etc. Very friendly and enthusiastic about life. Then there's Hugh, her new roommate. Short, shy, and really awkward. He is weirdly paranoid about everything and is obviously hiding some kind of secret.

Me: Who is your favorite character—and why?

Micah: So I really like Hugh, he's super fun to draw and temperament wise very similar to me. Way further out I'll be introducing a character named Samur who is probably my second favorite. He's super deadpan and plays off the other characters in funny ways.

Me: Who is your least favorite character—and why?

Micah: I'm not sure I have a least favorite, although there's a few characters that are harder to draw than the others. Or characters that are hard to write for. There's a group of characters coming in a bit later, Zane, Shatiq, Lael, and Gabe, who are relatively new and will be a bit of work to keep consistent and interesting in their dialogue. Shatiq is super fun to draw, though.

Me: Can you offer insight into how you’ve developed your story and your creative process so far? 

Micah: So, many of my story ideas, including Roomie, come from random dreams I've had. So I can't speak much on the ideation process. After that I start coming up with scenes and situations that would be interesting to see these characters in. Once I have that starting point, I try to string them together. Usually over-arching themes will develop and I’ll organize a story around those messages I want to convey. My primary goal is always to be entertaining and make the readers feel for the characters.

Me: What is your favorite part of the creative process? The least favorite part? 

Micah: Creating and developing characters is probably the best part. I do a lot of role playing with these characters with my friends and end up developing them far past the scope of their stories. My least favorite part of the process is stringing together plot points that I want to include but can’t figure out how to make it happen. Discovering plot holes and trying to fix them, and editing stories to try to maximize clarity for the readers, is also a difficult but necessary step.

Me: You mention on Roomie’s site that the comic is going to get spooky. What made you decide on a supernatural story?

Micah: It was the subject matter of the dream. It's not actually going to be that spooky, just, the subject is something generally considered part of the horror genre. 

Me: How have readers reacted to your characters and story thus far? Are there any challenges that you’ve had to overcome when working on Roomie?

Micah: So I haven't gotten a ton of feedback. Site stats say my site isn't entirely dead, but people don't seem to like to comment a lot. People have enjoyed it, though, especially my friends who know the larger plot and role play with me. There's this one guy who comments a lot who has actually been around since my older webcomic, Operation Reboot. Generally their comments are constructive criticism, which some people might find disheartening, but I think they enjoy the comic and I appreciate the opportunity to improve my work.

Me: What do you want readers to take away from your story? 

Micah: Really I just want my readers to be entertained and have something to look forward to. I try to write interesting diverse characters, so if they can identify with them, especially if the characters are of an underrepresented group, then that's a bonus.

Me: Who is your “intended” audience? 

Micah: Probably [readers in their] late teens to late twenties. The nerdier crowd, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, mostly.

Me: Do you plan to pursue other mediums for your story ?

Micah: I'd like to print it eventually? And actually I'm planning to expand the universe out into a different website I'm designing. It'll be fictional and about the supernatural element of the story, but made out as if it were real. It will feel like the website of a hospital or charity sort of thing. It's a bit hard to explain. I'm hoping to figure out a plot for it eventually and make into an ARG sort of thing? It won't launch for a year or two so it's up in the air.

Me: What drew you to the webcomic genre? What made you say, “This is how I want to share my story?”

Micah: I'm not really sure. I've been doing this for years and I kind of forgot why I decided webcomics were best. Probably because it’s free and accessible to people? And rather uncomplicated on my end, just have to pay for hosting and learn WordPress.

Me: Do you have any advice you want to share with other artists and writers? 

Micah: Write for yourself. That's probably my best tip. If you write for yourself, motivation will be easier to find. And if you like your story, it's very likely other people will too. Even if it's a story appealing to one in a million, there's 7 billion people on the planet so that's still a ton of people.

Micah: Also, prioritize life drawing. Even if it's just SenshiStock. Your characters will improve immediately.

Me: What are your tools of the trade? Any special software? 

Micah: I use a monoprice tablet and GIMP. It can bug out sometimes but I make it work. Roomie is inked on paper and colored on computer but I also do full digital and full traditional work on occasion. I am poor and cheap.

Me: When does Roomie update?

Micah: Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Soon there will be a side comic, exclusive to Patreon and voting rewards on TopWebcomics, which updates on T/Th/S/Su. So there will be something every day :) The side comic will be free and archives for the current issue free, but previous issues will be avaliable as Patreon rewards.

You can read The Roommate from Hell on its main site and keep an eye out for future updates on mirror comic sites. Roomie takes a hiatus every May and December, so if you are interested in sending in a guest comic, Micah will be posting more details on their site in April. 

Be sure to check out last week’s interview with webcomic artist J.M. Henry.

If you want me to interview you about your webcomic or you just want to share some input on the creative process, comment on this post, send a note, or submit an ask. 

Until next time, happy Saturday! 

(This post was adapted from a Twitter interview.)

[thehobbblog]

Entry #27

Maybe I should have kept watch We were infiltrated in the night, by some tortured form. A half-man, half television hybrid. It looked kind of cool, you ever see Videodrome? Metal cords going into flesh, and a remote fused to a hand. It wasn’t carrying a weapon, but it almost killed Lucas. It did some mind-control buisiness, and got Lucas to belive that he was in a happy land of everything being fine, and convinced him to eat a novelty oversized lolipop.  In reality, Lucas was being confused into sucking on his own sword, and cut himself up really bad. Avram took care of it, and neither of them seemed to want to talk about it after. There was a lot of blood. I decided it would be best to kick the corpse around a bit, and we packed up. We have a long day ahead of us. Weylinn was still totally out of it, so I guess I’ll have to wait to yell at him.  We travel, for just as long as it took our feet to hurt and reach the Jewel. Everyone’s gathered in the main square, as Rialto has killed the hero hunter. He was absolutely radiant, and was too busy shouting at Solar over his cell phone (Paladins have cell phones now) to notice us. When we finally did get his attention, he was apprehensive as always. We were informed that someone finally found what King was up to. A sorcerer found him, saved him from his assailant, King returned the favour by being baited with a set of wind chimes, and trapped in a mask. So now we need to track down this sorcerer, and take his lunch money. Just find the guy who can capture a genie for fun, and try and overpower him. Should be impossible. We didn’t have time to argue the point, really. We thanked Rialto for the information, and a sandstorm swept into town. We protected our stuff, and huddled off to a sort of shelter for the afternoon. It was dank, dark and sullen. Everyone crowded together and looked sad for a good long time. It wasn’t that we were miserable, just bored. Everyone was there, or at least anyone without a home. We just didn’t have anything to talk about. Now, we could have been in there for hours, or up to a day. So naturally I claimed a seat at the only table, by laying out a blanket, and working on my carving. I’ve been meaning to make a set of Liar’s Dice. Just a memory of home. I like games, and I like people. So having a game anyone can play, and anyone can wager on would be beneficial. I wanted them to be special, so I’ve come up with an Underground sort of way to distinguish the numbers. It was calming.  I needed to be calmed, really. Weylinn was lead into a corner and sat down, still in shock. Every time I looked up at him, I flared with rage again, and every time I looked to Stuart, I felt elated. It was a weird mixture of emotions. The silence was broken by Anna, who wanted to buy a brewery. That somehow lead into a conversation about Jules wetting the bed. Anna asked how Jules can even wet the bed, if she’s a doll and Jules responded in her classic childish way. It felt normal. I dunno, she felt normal. Like, despite everything that’s happened, and she’s been through. There’s still a child in there. There’s still someone’s innocent little girl in that doll, and she likes the same things she always liked.  But she’s also a kid. Which means she’s got to be scared. I mean, that was absolutely abhorrent what Weylinn did, and now he’s totally unresponsive. She’s gotta be blaming herself, or just confused. I don’t know what to say, so I put away the dice and started working on something for her. This part of her, that we found used to be The Tar. Basically, the part of Jules that liked superheros and anime became a force for justice, just like in her cartoons. That was why Weylinn could so easily get her to sign up to be a... whatever you call it. By saying she could fight for justice, be a Magical girl. and that’s the story she latched on to. Trying to convince her she isn’t a magical girl will get us nowhere, and it could be more useful enforcing it. Weylinn can’t use her to do anything hurtful, if she believe she’s a force for good. So I decided to encourage it, with a custom made Sailor Moon wand. It shouldn’t be too hard, I pulled up a reference and got to work. Asked her what her favourite colour was, to try and get a feeling as to who’s wand it was supposed to be. Her favourite colour’s pink, of course. Which lead to a discussion where everyone gave up their favourite colours. Suicide’s was White, which is interesting. He and Jules had an argument about it for a while. 

Goldie loves Yellow, Anna loves Purple, I’m partial to red. So I started preparing for a Sailor Mars wand, as red was all I could do. Goldie got me good on that one. Pulled out all the stops, to hurt my feelings. Asked me to like his roots, because my shit taste makes good fertilizer. I need to stress again how weird it is having a real conversation with people, like how friends act. Not talking about strategy, or how we’re going to die. Just “Fuck you, your favourite colour is terrible.” I like it. Lucas even did something nice. He heard me complain that Stuart didn’t have a leash, and made one out of silk. It was nice, to help me out like that. It’s just too bad I couldn’t get the guy to wear it. He just won’t be restrained. I guess I spoil him. After getting a couple scratches from him, I decided to back off. Stuart was still riled up, and decided to take it out of Lucas. He mightily took a stance, and charged off the end of the table at Lucas, but didn’t quite stick the jump and tumbled onto his belly. Lucas responded with belly rubs, and it sort of worked it self out. That guy’s going to be dangerous one day.  Both of them are The Pathfinder mummy came in from the sandstorm, and Anna went to go speak with him. I finished the base of the wand, and spotted Hoodie hiding in a corner. I don’t know anything about what he does, but I know he has a hand in everything magical around here. So I confirmed he knew what Weylinn was up to, and I got him to look into the sorcerer we’re after, and sat down again. Anna went and talked to the Pathfinder, who told us to go see the plasma skeletons. So I guess we’re going to go find Cortez, I’ll be honest, I was mostly focused on the wand. The head came together, it was sanded well. I built it sturdy, because there’s no way she wouldn’t use it as an excuse to hit people. I even managed to stain it, with the berry win. Of course, now it smells like alcohol, but I hope that airs out. It needed some bedazzling, to fit into theme. I cut out some silk strips from my veil, and tied them to the head of the wand, and asked around for glitter. Turns out, Suicide had glitter. He carried it to see how far drops go, since it’s useful. Never really thought of it that way, but it works out. It was funny to think about, suicide jumping off a cliff while holding craft supplies. He seemed to get some enjoyment out of it. We bonded over how silly it would be to turn to dust, and be covered in glitter. Anna stepped in, to remind us that suicide is bad and Suicide shouldn’t have done it. Suicide started back into his “Well I want to kill myself” routine, It was going somewhere bad pretty quickly. I had to turn it around, and quickly. We had such a chill going on, and now we were going to ruin it. So, I improvised. I looked Suicide right in the (Closed) eyes and told him to watch something undeniably good happen, as a result of him being around. And I gave the glittery, twirly, sturdy wand to the nine year old girl. She was ecstatic, truly happy. It was probably the most uncomplicated, joyful thing any of us have seen in a long time. It even made Suicide smile. Jules struck a pose, to show it off and I managed to grab a picture. It was heartwarming, we all felt a little better. Nobody had anything to say until the end of the sandstorm, and we all filed back out into the Jewel. I exchanged my carving tools for a better set, and met the party back at the wagon. Weylinn had come to, and was settling into his new life as a... whatever you call him. I had planned to rip him a new one, but after the touching moment with Jules I just wanted a break from everything. I started to work on my liar’s dice, to keep calm. But Weylinn wasn’t very interested in keeping me calm. He started a conversation, to clear his head. He apologized to me. He told me he knew how I felt about losing Paladin status, and that he was sorry he ignored me earlier. I’m not totally proud of how I handle the situation from her one out, but he was making a solid effort to piss me off in new and exotic ways. He promised to come clean about what he heard from the Ghul, and gave a shit excuse in under a paragraph as to how bad we should feel for him. I wasn’t having any of it. I was livid. It wasn’t a blind rage, or a hot fury. It was pure, cold anger. I need Weylinn to understand how badly he’d fucked up, and I needed him to hurt for it. So, I walked him through what had happened. I walked him through how he lied to us, for no reason. How something good came out of it, with Suicide joining us. I made sure to insult his intelligence a bunch. I never gave him what he wanted. I just made him sit there, burning up. While I walk him through each sin he made, one by one. SO that he clearly understands he is a bad person. Anna was actually getting upset with me. Just a few hours ago she called me a nice person, and now she was upset with how I was handling Weylinn. I carried on, to stuff he forgot to mention. Like how the scarf came from the Ghul, and how we don’t know what Violence did in his head. Weylinn started lashing out, with frustration. I made him start yelling at me, in the square.  I guess this is the most anybody’s questioned him, for a long time. It didn’t take much. I just denied him “We did good enough”, and he fell apart. I robbed the only excuse he had, and it angered him. We go through what it means for Jules to be a servent, or whatever she is. Basically, she’s connected to the negative plane, and can use that to travel to any plane for spells. Weylinn doesn’t have to do his own magic anymore, he can just ask Jules to risk her lfie stealing magic from an entity in another plane, and bring it back. Fucking great. Really, throughout it all I just pissed him off again and again. My goal was just to hurt him, because he was already vulnerable. As long as he understood what he did was a bad thing, I could feel better. And he did. Anna defended him, said he was only doing what he thought was right. And he corrected her. He admitted what he did was selfish It was a brekthrough, a moment of vulnerability. And I capitalized on it "Your situation is that you're a bad person. Given a second chance by an equally bad person." "You put all of us at risk, and tied a nine year old's soul to darkness for person gain." "And boo hoo, it cost the heavy price of being reminded what a shitty person you were." "or are, considering this is the second time you've used Jules for your own gain."  "Don't fucking tell me you know how I feel.” It’s probably the meanest I’ve been to anyone in a long time. And then communication broke apart. We both yelled at eachother for a while, and then Weylinn did the thing where you pretend to have the moral high ground by ending a conversation early, and walking away. We all felt bitter about the exchange, but I don’t know what to tell you.