#most of his role has been about providing motivation to steve and he only really got some plot of his own in tfatws

[maybeimissu]

If bucky don't appear in the movie There will be no factors for the success of the movie. Do you think anyone is waiting for a Falcon movie or Anthony? No one is waiting, not even me And if Bucky does not appear, the movie will fail because everyone will enter the movie for Bucky, no more or less. You have to thank Bucky and wish his presence because he will be The credit for the success of this film For a silly star and a bad director

it's been a while since i heard such a rancid and stupid take. i'm only replying so others can see what an idiot you are. but it's currently 5am and i'm not in the mood for going into the details of exactly why you're wrong

[danwhobrowses]

MCU: 10 Ways WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier are the Same

So now we have 2 of Marvel's Phase 3.5 shows in the books, and both have been pretty great. In the 7 week wait for Loki though we'll have time to mull things over.

When watching the Falcon & Winter Soldier finale though, I started to notice that there were some patterns between it and Wandavision. While two completely different stories they did share some similar beats, so here's 10 I spotted and thus 10 to look out for when Loki comes around.

Spoilers for WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier, give it a watch before you give this a look

10 - Villains become Memes

While one can contest that Zemo acts more as an antihero in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he still provides an antagonistic edge in the story. However, both he and Agatha became villains that had charisma to charm the audience, and their actions brought about multiple memes. On Agatha's side there was the wink, Agatha All Along and her in the fitness outfit, while with Zemo there was the 'it captures the experience', his iconic dancing and Turkish Delight. While not a story beat on the shows, the writers must've known that fans would gravitate to these characters to give them such content to use. Also add a hat tip to John Walker who got his own memes too with him about to embed the shield into a dude's chest, and Wanda herself for her nose scrunch being used as a meme alongside Thor's 'is it though?'.

9 - The Government aren't exactly helpful

While the Government aren't entirely the enemy in the show, they don't do well to stay on our heroes' good side. In WandaVision, they enhance Wanda's grief in the fact that she can't even lay him to rest, SWORD instead deciding that her lover is government property and they are harvesting his 'organs' and vibranium skin as a resource to use for weapons. On Falcon & Winter Soldier, the US Government deliberately deceive Sam by having him hand over the shield to put in a museum, only to then take it out and give it to John Walker without even telling Sam or Bucky about it. In addition when they disavow Walker they try to reclaim the Shield - which, as the Contessa does reveal, isn't technically their property either. While Falcon & Winter Soldier delved deeper into the government's lack of help through the GDC subplot motivating the Flag Smashers, there were still similarities found with how SWORD - which is quite different to its comic version - antagonizes Wanda. In the end all this escalates because of them, and in the end neither of them get to keep the Vibranium.

8 - 'Good Person' is Bad Guy

Although there's a more supernatural threat in both stories, the characters end up having their trust betrayed by people they believed to be decent. For WandaVision it is current Director of SWORD, Director Hayward, who appears adamant in silencing Wanda after using her as a means to power up White Vision as a programmable weapon. For Falcon & the Winter Soldier, it's Sharon Carter - descendant of Steve's beau who he also made out with - the discarded agent who gave up a lot for the heroes only to not get it in return, remaining enemy of the state and becoming the Power Broker. The shows can also have this reserved for 'Agnes' and John Walker but in the end people expected them to break bad from day 1. You could make a statement for Wanda since she looks to be an antagonist for Doctor Strange 2 though.

7 - The MCU add a little history

Marvel has had a habit of changing Wanda's (and Pietro's) origin on a whim, the MCU deciding to source their powers on an Infinity Stone. Doing this however left a gap in the fact that Wanda is a Witch, which they cleaned up in WandaVision. Treading back on the Scarlet Witch being a mantle (though cutting her mother being a Scarlet Witch before her) as it is in the comics, they changed Wanda's powers from being latent and amplified by the stone rather than gifted to the stone itself. Falcon & Winter Soldier added to their history with the impactful Truth: Red, White and Black story, adding Isaiah Bradley into the MCU to further layer the conflict and tragedy Sam faces with being Captain America. Both are welcome additions to the MCU timeline, setting up for newer things to come in Phase 4 Movies.

6 - The hero wins the fight, but not the day

Winning isn't always winning, as Wanda and Sam would discover upon the finale of their respective shows. Wanda defeats Agatha and Hayward is forced to face his crimes, but she has also come to terms with the face that the Hex must go, and in turn her family with it. While the Hex has freed all its residents, Wanda knows that she's not on anyone's good side either with the people she subconsciously enslaved. Sam gets it a little better, he's recognized himself as Captain America and given a patented 'Cap-speech', but he was unable to save Karli Morgenthau from being killed, someone who he was once so close to reaching and sympathized heavily with. Although the Super Soldier threat is neutralized, the Flag Smashers' ideals will live on to further radicalize itself, and its vision will further sow conflict and division.

5 - (Mostly) Bigger Roles for old MCU Side Characters

Never one to shy past their crossovers, Wandavision and Falcon & the Winter Soldier both brought back side characters - some more obscure than others - from older films to gel into the plot. WandaVision brought back Darcy from the Thor franchise and Jimmy Woo from Ant Man & the Wasp to great comedic effect, fans already wanting a spin-off with them and possibly Monica - who may also count but technically not the same actress, the same can be said for 'Pietro' too. Falcon & the Winter Soldier stayed primarily in their lane of Captain America movies; with Batroc and Sharon both debuting in Winter Soldier and Dora Milaje's Ayo debuting in Civil War, while it was less comedic, the story was more interwoven with them since they all had ties to the main two characters.

4 - [Person] is obviously [Character]

Possibly a bit of a narrative backdrop, or maybe years of MCU has clued us in on a plot twist a mile away, but both shows also were unable to hide well that Agnes from WandaVision and Sharon from Falcon & Winter Soldier were in fact Agatha Harkness and the Power Broker. It's not to say that knowing ruined the story, it just felt more of a 'when' rather than an 'if'. The main difference though is that Sharon managed to keep her villainy secret, and remains that way, while Agatha went too far in trying to take Wanda's power rather than help her with it and has now become stuck as Agnes instead.

3 - New Blood coming on the Hero Scene

While the shows already did their job in setting up Wanda and Sam as big league heroes, they also looked a bit more in establishing new blood too. WandaVision established the potential for the twin Maximoff boys to grow into Wiccan and Speed - once Wanda finds a way to re-canonize them, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also made sure to introduce Elijah Bradley, Isaiah's grandson, which may also aid in establishing a Young Avengers team - what with Kate Bishop also soon to appear in Hawkeye. WandaVision also created the origin for Monica Rambeau, having her body altered by the Hex, which will likely be furthered in Captain Marvel 2, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also established John Walker as the US Agent to leave a potential for Thunderbolts, as well as introducing Joaquin Torres - opening the possibility to have a new Falcon. While not a bad thing to set up for the future, it is interesting that both shows had exactly 3 names that could become future heroes.

2 - 'Villain' character partly redeems themselves after a Grief-Fuelled Mistake

Make no mistake, technically speaking Wanda is still a villain in WandaVision: she enslaved an entire town and suppressed them as side characters of a tv show. But the thing is that she didn't really intend to cause pain, it was an impulse action triggered by her grief. The same can be said for John Walker in Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he was already pressured by the standards being Captain America would entail and he was feeling the stress of a string of failures, a Dora Milaje humbling and a frosty reception from Steve's two close friends, juiced up on Super Soldier serum, and then his best friend just got killed because he didn't back him up, in a rage he killed a Flag Smasher with the shield - even though they were fleeing and not the one who killed Lemar, which he would lie about to Lemar's family. Despite this though, they managed to find some form of redemption, even if it was small. Wanda released the Hex and stopped Agatha from going haywire with her chaos magic, John gave up on his revenge seeking to save a truck from falling. Even though it doesn't entirely make up for what they did, it was at least a sign that they had not completely gone off the deep end...yet.

1 - Comic-Accurate Costumes

Comic costumes are always a tough one because some of the older costumes were borderline atrocious. WandaVision at the very least managed to poke fun at it with them dressing up most of the Maximoff/Vision family in their comic-accurate costumes, Speed getting a few more nods in the finale alongside Wanda's revamped and quite on the money look. In Falcon & Winter Soldier, there was accurate costuming for John Walker's US Agent look and Sam's Captain America costume, not to mention Lemar's Battlestar outfit, Zemo's mask and Batroc's jumpsuit.

Overall, it's not a bad thing that they kept these story beats, but it may be worth trying to avoid some of these in later tv show plot points so that it doesn't appear repetitive and formulaic. These shows have been great, so let's keep that momentum going.

[wrestlingisfake]

Hard to Kill preview

Kenny Omega & Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Rich Swann & Chris Sabin & Moose - When Kenny Omega won the AEW men’s world title on December 2, he completed a long-simmering heel turn by forming an alliance with Impact Wrestling executive Don Callis.  Omega and Callis began showing up on both Impact and AEW programming acting like Omega is “the real world champion,” which irritated Impact world champion Rich Swann.  Omega also reunited with Impact’s men’s tag team champions, Gallows and Anderson, who had already been having issues with former champs Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.

This match was originally booked as Omega/Gallows/Anderson vs. Swann/Sabin/Shelley, but the day before the show Impact announced that “unavoidable circumstances” prevented Shelley from traveling to the show in Nashville.  Shelley’s last-minute replacement is Moose, who has recently been feuding with Swann.  For over eight months, Moose has been calling himself the “TNA world champion,” presumably to set up a “who’s the real champion?” match with the Impact world champion.  But that seems kind of silly now that Omega and Swann are kind of doing the same thing, but with more credibility.  So I was hoping they’d get Swann vs. Moose wrapped up before Swann vs. Omega got going.  I certainly wasn’t expecting Moose to be involved in this match.

Because of Omega and the AEW interpromotional angle, this may well be the biggest show Impact has run in years.  So Impact is motivated to deliver the best they can for whatever new audience this match will attract.  The big question is whether AEW is invested enough to send a few of their guys to appear on this show for a hot angle.  Any unadvertised AEW wrestler causing any kind of ruckus on this show will get people talking.  But AEW and Impact seem to be taking their time with this storyline, and they may not think now is the time to drop the next bombshell plot point.

To me, the likeliest finishes are a) Omega’s team dominates and wins to get more heat, or b) Swann scores the winning fall to set up an Omega vs. Swann singles match.  The best setup for that match would be Swann pinning Omega, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  But if they sell it like Omega’s team are the heavy favorites, and that Omega’s ego is bruised by an upset even if he didn’t lose the fall, then that can still work.  But then again, that was my gut feeling before Moose was added to the match.  Now it feels far more likely that Moose will turn on his partners or walk out on them, which could change the entire complexion of the match.  That uncertainty has me pretty interested in how things unfold.

Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan - This is billed as a “barbed wire massacre” match, so the ring ropes will be replaced with barbed wire, and objects wrapped in barbed wire will be provided at ringside to use as weapons.  Obviously, in this sort of match nobody is going to be disqualified or counted out. 

I can’t say I understand the storyline leading up to this.  Edwards and Callihan had a vicous feud following a 2018 incident where Callihan botched a spot and hit Edwards in the face with a baseball bat.  Then they seemed to go down separate paths, and then recently Sami and Ken Shamrock started picking on Edwards and his wife for some reason.  The idea now appears to be that these two will never be able to settle it, except that they both clearly put it all aside for the better part of a year.  In any case, they’ve run out of hardcore stips to use in their matches, so here we are.

I believe this is the fourth “barbed wire massacre” match Impact has booked.  The first two were on pay-per-view in 2005 and 2008.  The third was taped for television in 2018, but was only streamed on Twitch because it was “too violent for TV.”  I remember watching the first one (Abyss vs. Sabu) in 2005 and being too squeamish to enjoy the performance.  In matches like this you have to hope the wrestlers know what they’re doing and don’t go too far just to create a “moment.”  But with Callihan and Edwards, that doesn’t apply, so I just have to hope the match was taped in advance, so that if one of them was gravely injured we’d have seen reports about it by now.

Both of these guys are pushed as top acts in Impact, but Callihan always seems to come up short in big matches like this.  I can’t see either guy accepting defeat and letting the feud end.  But if this is really the final chapter, then I think Edwards needs the last laugh more than Sami does.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Taya Valkyrie - Purrazzo is defending the Impact women’s championship. Valkyrie held the title from January 2019 to January 2020--the longest single reign in the title’s history--but after losing the belt she spent 2020 preoccupied in comedy stuff with Rosemary and John E. Bravo.  So Taya’s doing the whole “you’ve only done so well as champion because I haven’t gotten around to facing you” bit.

I haven’t been able to get into Impact’s women’s division.  I suppose it’s because so many of the characters seem superficial and unserious.  Like, Purrazzo is presented as a solid in-ring performer, but outside the ring she’s the kind of self-absorbed chicken heel who plots with her sidekick to devise ways to duck upcoming challengers.  Impact is full of characters like that, but the women’s division in particular has almost nothing else.  Hell, Taya was playing that role when she was the heel champion.  So I can’t say I’m very motivated to see these two fight.  I also don’t really believe we’re going to get a title change at this point.

Manik vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju - This is a three-way match for the X division championship, so whoever scores the first fall over any opponent will win Manik’s title.  This story started with Bey as champion and Raju as his crony, but Raju was the one henchman in wrestling history who managed to manipulate his boss to his advantage, so Raju won the title from Bey in a three-way with TJP.  Raju was so worried about losing his belt to TJP that he arranged a stipulation where TJP could no longer challenge him.  Then Raju issued an open challenge answered by Manik...the masked man character originally played by TJP.  So now Manik is the champion and definitely not TJP, but Raju and Bey aren’t buying it.

I don’t really care who wins this.  Every time they do a multi-man match for the X title, they demonstrate that multi-man matches don’t settle anything, because there’s always somebody who’s like “Well I wasn’t pinned, so I should get another match!”  So if, for example, Bey pins Raju, you know it’s just going to lead to Bey vs. TJP and/or Manik later.  Except Raju is going to weasel his way into the situation, for another three-way.  (Unless Crazzy Steve is free that weekend, and it’ll be a four-way.)  There’s no direction here. The best thing that could happen to the X title (aside from retiring it as an obsolete relic) is if some AEW guys came in to fight for it.  And I don’t expect that to happen soon.

Havok & Neveah vs. Tasha Steelz & Kiera Hogan - This match is the tournament final to decide which team will be awarded the Impact women’s tag team championship.  The title was originally introduced in 2009, but a lack of interest in booking it properly led to ODB teaming with Eric Young to win the belts in March 2012.  The last title defense I can find was in May 2012, although it took over a year for Impact to officially abandon the championship.

I can see why Impact was motivated to bring the title back, since throughout 2020 most of their women’s roster was paired off in various alliances: Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary, Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee, Kylie Rae & Susie, etc. But just because most of the women on the roster have a natural partner doesn’t mean there are enough women to fill out a tag team division.  I suspect these two teams are going to end up rematching a lot for the tag belts, while the teams they eliminated in the tournament go back to focusing on singles action.  If just having women’s tag titles automatically meant expanding the women’s roster and pushing more women, then that would be great.  But we’ve seen that it doesn’t work that way, not only in WWE, but also the last time Impact tried it.

My gut feeling is that Steelz and Hogan have more future potential, so I’d probably prefer to put the title on them.  But Havok and Neveah have the edge in size and meanness, and I could easily see Impact wanting them to dominate as the champions a la the Road Warriors.

Eric Young & Cody Deaner & Joe Doering vs. Cousin Jake & Rhino & Tommy Dreamer - This is being called an “old school rules” match, which is Impact’s way of saying “ex-ECW guys are in this so we want to say ‘extreme rules’ but WWE trademarked that.” Basically there are no count-outs or disqualifications.  Cody and Jake were a tag team until Deaner became obsessed with proving himself against Young; when he failed, he turned on Jake and joined Young’s group.  Rhino tried to help Jake out, but it wasn’t until Tommy Dreamer got involved that they were able to even the odds.  I’m pretty sure Young’s faction is just getting started and they are going to destroy the babyfaces here.

Ethan Page vs. The Karate Man - Page is one half of The North, which spent most of 2019-2020 dominating the men’s tag team division.  Karate Man is the alter ego of...Ethan Page.  So he’s fighting himself.  That’s always fun.

The backstory here is that the North struggled to recover from losing the tag title earlier this year, and Page grew increasingly desperate to convince Josh Alexander that they could regroup. The tipping point was when Alexander was wrestling Brian Myers and Karate Man interfered, causing Josh to get disqualified.  Page did a skit where he tried to get therapy from Karate Man, before they decided to fight instead.

The bigger story behind all this is that Page’s contract with Impact Wrestling reportedly expired at the end of 2020, so he’s technically not even with the promotion anymore.  Reportedly, this “match” was taped weeks ago.  Just because Page is a free agent doesn’t mean he won’t simply re-sign with Impact at any moment.  But this looks to be his swan song before he moves on...or the pivotal angle that sets up how he’s staying.

Obviously this is going to have to be pre-taped with Patty Duke Show special effects.  I’m not sure if that means it’ll be a ~*~cinematic match~*~ though.  They could do a weird brawl in a weird location like the Boneyard Match or Stadium Stampede, or they could just do it on the normal set in a normal ring and not do anything weird except the split screen effects.  I honestly don’t know what to expect.

Rosemary & Crazzy Steve vs. Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K - Rosemary and Steve used to be in The Decay together years ago, and occasionally Impact remembers that and has them interact.  Tenille is formerly Emma from WWE, playing a stuck-up Instagram influencer gimmick with Kaleb as her personal assistant.  Rosemary already beat Dashwood in the setup to this match, and I don’t think Kaleb is going to last long against Steve, so I guess the weirdo babyfaces will triumph.

Josh Alexander vs. Brian Myers - This is scheduled for the pre-show.  As noted above, Alexander and Ethan Page had some issues that came to a head when Page caused Alexander to lose a match to Myers.  So Josh wants to avenge that loss.  It’s kinda funny to me that the serious match about wins and losses and professionalism is on the pre-show while the “Ethan Page beats himself up” comedy is on the main show.  But anyway, it seems like Alexander is headed for a singles push, so he might as well get that started with a win.

[tasteslikepepsicola]

Somebody Else (Sodapop Curtis x Reader. Part 1)

Sodapop Curtis, Y/F/N, and Steve Randle have always been best friends. Now, one Summer, and a messy love triangle might threaten that friendship.

Word Count: 2,500+

Warnings: none, just slight make out scene? kind of? lots of fluff. no cursing except ass lol

Authors note: Hey guys! I’m back. I’m so thankful to all of you who liked my recent fan fics about the Dolan Twins. I’m new to writing fan fiction and have had a hard time finding motivation to write sometimes. I’m on Summer vacation now though, and I have so much sitting in my drafts I no longer have any excuses. So I’m gonna try to be more active! Writing is truly one of the only things that brings me joy so I want to do it a lot more. Anyways, I’m planning for this to be multiple parts if successful. So please show it some love! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work <3 it truly means the world. Love you guys! p.s you’re amazing and a glowing goddess and i love you. remember that!

*****

There was nothing quite as enjoyable for Y/N then a Summer night in with her gang. Two-Bit would always be cracking stupid jokes, Dally would usually be causing some sort of trouble, and when Darry wasn’t too tired, he was always there to try to keep everyone under control. Ponyboy and Johnny were like the little brothers Y/N never had, and Steve and Soda were her best friends. 

Being the only girl in the gang, it was inevitable that most of the guys would take every opportunity to flirt with her. Y/N was pretty, that was something everyone around her could see from the moment they laid eyes on her. Despite her being a greaser, the Soc boys still hit on her at school, whistled at her when she walked by, but she just ignored it. Even the Soc girls respected her to some degree, occasionally stopping her in the halls to compliment her skirt, or partnering up with her on assignments when they didn’t know anyone else in the class. However, Y/N understood her role in society, she was a greaser, who might have been a soc had things been a little different for her family. But she wouldn’t trade what she had now with the gang for anything, especially not to become some stuck up rich kid who thinks she’s better than everyone.

Johnny and Ponyboy were young and shy, and although sometimes they would definitely blush when she complimented them, or brushed their arm, they never made a move. Darry, was a couple years older than Y/N and just a little too mature for her. But Two-Bit, Dally, and Steve really enjoyed messing around and flirting with her. Sodapop, despite being the biggest flirt of the gang, hardly ever flirted with Y/N, making her suppress her feelings for him. Truthfully, she had always had a crush on him, but she knew it was pointless. He had groups of beautiful Soc girls throwing themselves at him everyday, why would he choose her? 

Tonight, everyone was hanging at the Curtis house, preparing to watch a scary movie that was about to play on the television. The gang sat spread out across the floor and couches, Johnny, Ponyboy and Dally settled on the floor, Darry had taken the armchair in the corner of the room, on the shorter side of the couch Two-Bit had sprawled his whole body across it, leaving Y/N to squeeze in between Steve and Sodapop on the other side. 

Everyone was still joking around and yelling, as it was still a few minutes before the movie came on. An argument had broken out about who needed to get up to make the popcorn.

“Excuse me, I worked all day, to provide for my kid brothers, Dallas Winston you don’t even attend school!” Darry quipped.

“Oh, fine Darrel, you shouldn’t have to get it, but I worked a whole day at the DX, and I do not find it fair that I should have to, either...Two-Bit should!” Steve replied.

Knowing this would not end soon, nor well, Y/N once again acted as the stand in mom for the group, getting up without complaint to retrieve the popcorn.

“You guys are children,” she rolled her eyes as she stood up and began the short walk to the kitchen. 

A chorus of, “Thank you, Y/N” rang out from the other room. With an additional, “since you’re up would you mind getting me a beer?” from Two-Bit, and a “and could I get a coke?” from Dallas.

“Yeah, if you get off your lazy asses and get in here to get it yourself.” Following her remark, laughter erupted before Y/N heard someone else enter the kitchen. She was still making the popcorn when she glanced over her shoulder to see Two-Bit heading to the refrigerator. 

“Aww, Doll, I don’t want you to think were trying to take you for granted, I know we make fun of ya but we really are mighty thankful you stick around.” He softly says with a sincerity in his voice that isn't typically heard.

Y/N sighed then smiled, “I know, grab me a coke while you’re at it?”

A few seconds later he comes up behind her, placing the drink besides her and lightly pinching her ass. Y/N turns around blushing, giving him a slap on the shoulder. “Two-Bit!” she giggles, embarrassed. 

“That’s my name.” He gives her a grin and a wink before returning to his seat.

*****

Once the movie starts, Y/N returns to the living room, passing out small bowls of popcorn for each group to share. When she reaches Dallas, he takes the popcorn with one hand, immediately passing it to Johnny, then using his other hand to grab onto Y/N’s. 

“Come on, Doll, sit with me for just a second? It’s actually quite comfortable when you’re resting on my shoulder.” 

Y/N rolls her eyes, knowing he's too proud to admit he just likes to cuddle her. 

“Fine, just for a little bit, but then I’m going back to the couch cause the floor gets too cold.” She gives in, knowing Dally doesn’t often feel human contact or affection.

Everyone settles in to watch the movie, and Y/N hates to admit it, but Dallas does make a nice pillow. She places her head on his shoulder, unbothered by the film in front of her, which hasn’t gotten scary quite yet. 

“It’s really cold, isn’t it?” Y/N whispers to Dally. He smirks, pulling her into his lap, and covering her with the blanket, holding her with his arms around her.

“Better?” he asks smugly. 

She resists the urge to roll her eyes, yet again tonight, instead she turns her attention back to the movie, mumbling, “a little, yes.” He smirks against her skin, placing a light kiss on her temple. They stay in this comfortable position for about half an hour, and just when it begins to get scary, Y/N nuzzles her head into Dallas’ neck, hiding from the scary screen. She picks up his smell of cigarettes and leather and finds her mind drifting off to Soda’s scent of gasoline and roses. Y/N can feel the eyes of most of the boys in the gang staring at her and Dallas, possibly getting a little too close for comfort.

Out of nowhere, a piece of popcorn sails through the air, hitting Y/N and landing in her hair. She and Dally both turn to see a pouty Steve, looking quite annoyed and somewhat needy. 

“Okay, Winston, you’ve had Y/N long enough, learn to share a little why don’t you?” He outstretches his arms for her to come into them.

She shrugs a little, “sorry, Dal, the floor was getting a little uncomfortable anyways.” She walks over to where Steve was seated, placing her head on his chest, letting her legs dangle off the couch, with his arms wrapped around her middle, his head buried in her hair, as he gently plays with it.

Sodapop sits next to them, avoiding looking at the two of them. He looks annoyed, and Y/N can’t figure out why. When it's clear to her that Steve is focused on the movie, she taps his foot with hers to get his attention. 

“What’s up Pepsi-Cola?” she calls him by the nickname she gave him so many years ago, in hopes he will perk up a little.

He glares back, “I’m trying to watch the movie, Y/N” he folds his arms over his chest, turning his focus back to the television. 

Y/N was confused, Soda never talked back to her like this. She couldn’t understand what she did. Mentally, she ran through a list of things she could have done to piss him off, but couldn’t think of anything. She finally settled on that maybe he was just really into the movie and didn’t want it interrupted. She tried to let it go and just forget about it.

*****

It was now nearing the end of the movie, and at its most scary point. Y/N covered her eyes and Steve chuckled at her. His hot breath fanned against her neck as he pulled her close and whispered in her ear, “it’s alright, I got you.” He kissed her temple, but let his lips linger. He trailed a couple kisses down the side of her neck. She and the gang had always been touchy, that’s just how they showed their affection towards her, but none of them ever took it this far. Y/N was stunned, but also didn't want him to stop. As much as she had wished that this was her and Soda, he had made it clear by now he didn’t think of her as anything more than a friend. So if Steve was making a move, why shouldn’t she go for it? Especially since he got his teeth fixed, she has noticed that he actually is quite attractive. She liked Steve, he was a good pal, and now she was realizing, a good kisser. Was he just being a flirt? Or was he trying to show her that he had feelings for her? Before Y/N could ponder this anymore, there was a jump scare, causing her to let out a small shriek, making everyone's attention turn towards her. Unfortunately, this meant they caught her and Steve in a compromising position to say the least. Steve immediately removed his lips from her neck, turning away as if he hadn’t been touching her at all. They both tried to act as normal as possible, although they knew they had been caught. It was silent for a couple of heart wrenching moments.

Two-Bit was the first to point it out, laughing, “You’re joking. You two were seriously making out? When we’re three feet away from you? You kids make me sick.” he joked.

Y/N and Steve made awkward eye contact, each looking to the other for what to say next.

“Uh-” Y/N stumbled over her words, as everyone sat there waiting for an explanation. “We- well we weren’t exactly making out.” 

“Oh so he was just kissing your neck, you know, as friends?” Dally teased.

“Yup, pretty much.” Y/N tried to reason, realizing how silly she sounded. She covered her face with one hand, rubbing her forehead in frustration before continuing. “Look, I know how this looks but we didn’t even kiss kiss, we were just cuddling cause I was scared of the movie and- well, I guess we just- I don’t know, a little help here Steve?” she turns to face him.

“Yeah- uh, like Y/N said.” he trails off. She facepalms. Darry just shakes his head in disapproval.

“Okay, Y/N and Soda, switch places, because apparently these two can’t learn to control themselves.” Darry says, sounding like a teacher scolding a pair of friends for talking during class. 

Sodapop stands up quickly, annoyance in his voice, “actually, I’m going to bed.” And that’s all he says as he storms off.

Everyone stands there for a moment, dumbfounded.

“Okay, then Ponyboy and Y/N, you guys switch spots so we can finish the film.” Ponyboy obliges, and Steve and Y/N exchange an apologetic glance before separating.

*****

A few days after that night, Steve and Y/N hadn’t talked about it, or even seen each other. It had become kinda clear to everyone in the gang that the two were avoiding each other in fear of it being awkward.

Ponyboy and Darry were in the kitchen when Y/N walked into their house, stopping by to drop off a book Ponyboy had lent Y/N.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Y/N called, hoping to hear a response from Soda, who she also had not heard from since that night. She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was mad at her for some inexplicable reason. 

“In here!” Darry called back.

Y/N walked in to see the two of them eating a late breakfast, it was a Saturday so it wasn’t unusual for Darry to be home or the boys to be out.

“Hey guys, I’m just dropping by to return the copy of Gone with the Wind you lent me, Pony.” Y/N says, sliding the book across the table to him.

“Oh, cool thanks. What’cha think of it?” he inquires.

“Really good, thanks for recommending it.” Y/N smiles, standing there, curious, arms behind her back, teetering back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Um, is Soda at the DX?” she asks looking down at the floor, brushing a peice of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah, he is. Him and Steve both are, I think. What's going on with you two?” Darry replies.

“That depends on which two you’re wondering about. I think Sodapop’s mad at me and I don’t know why, and Steve- well, I actually don’t know what is going on between me and Steve.” Y/N bites her lower lip, waiting for any sort of advice.

“Well, this is something you’re gonna have to figure out on your own kid. Only you know how you feel about those two. But if you want my advice, I’d tell you that you guys have been friends a long time. All three of ya. Don’t let some stupid teenage love triangle get in the way of that.” Darry states.

Y/N feels slightly dizzy. “I’m sorry, did I hear you correct? Did you just say love triangle? That is definitely not what's going on here. I- I don’t feel that way about them. At least I don’t think I- you know what, nevermind.”

Finally, Ponyboy pipes up, “I don’t think he was talking about your feelings.” Just then Darry covers Ponyboy’s mouth so he can’t speak anymore.

“Oh shoot, I think we’ve probably said way too much. Just uh- go visit them at the D.X, I’m sure this whole thing will blow over soon.” Darry adds.

Y/N sighs, it feels like her whole world just got turned upside down. Was that why Soda was acting so cold to her? Was he jealous? No, it couldn’t be. There just best friends. And Steve, well, he probably just got caught up in the moment and wasn’t thinking clearly. There was no way he felt like that about her. This was all just a big misunderstanding, it was completely impossible.

“Uh, yeah, maybe I’ll do that.” Y/N starts to head out before adding, “thanks guys, I really appreciate the uh- advice.”

Y/N shuts the door on her way out, taking a deep breath. It had been three days since she last saw them. She couldn't remember the last time they went that long without seeing each other. She needed to handle this, she knew she did. Truthfully, she had been avoiding it, but it was eating away at her. She had to start to unravel this mess, and so she started her walk to the D.X.

[noonmutter]

Mun Dash Game

Rules: Name your top 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

Editor’s note: These are in no ranked order or anything like that, they’re just ten favorites as I could think of them.

Bismuth - Steven Universe. You may notice a theme here; I like my characters complex, their motivations valid, their decisions misguided, and their actions questioned by everyone, often including themselves. I loved Bismuth’s entire concept and I’m sad that she hasn’t had more time front and center to develop beyond her introduction as both a plot device and as a catalyst for Steven’s advancement. Same story with Jasper, though she got a few more appearances. I want to see these people grow and for the people they hurt to grow with them, damn it. Even if that growth is downward into an even worse state, I want to see it because positive or negative, emotional fallout is awesome.

Demona - Gargoyles. There was going to be a Gargoyles character here and I am basically legally obligated to pick either Demona or Thailog because I am a sucker for great voices and tragic villains. Demona’s story wins out by a decent margin because her suffering was entirely borne of her own poor decisions, many of which she felt were right at the time. She just refused to accept that she was wrong or that she could try to make things better at any time, and I was fascinated by that from the first time I saw it. This shit was in a kids’ show that predates Steven Universe by 19 years.

Baby Doll - Batman: TAS. She only showed up once (in the original animation style, anyway) but good god damn did it count. She was angry, hurt, belittled, and so unbearably lonely that when everything fell apart and the dust settled and she couldn’t kill all her problems away, she just broke down. “Why couldn’t you just let me make believe?!” is still crystallized in my head, and it still gives me little pangs when I think of it. And at the end of it all, she sobbed “I didn’t mean to” as she hugged Batman’s leg. And he comforted her. Also in a kids’ show that predates Steven Universe by 21 years.

Scanlan Shorthalt - Critical Role, Campaign 1. I bet you thought after those first three it’d probably be Vax or Percy, but... Look, the character was fantastic and the player made him that way and frankly made that campaign. He’s my go-to for when I need a good cry, and he’s why I learned to build a bard. The same man who started the campaign by asking his bestie what the worst race/class combo was and saying “Okay I’ll play that,” at the end of the campaign made the word “Nine” hit his fellow players and viewers in the chest like a sledgehammer, and nobody has topped that since. His second campaign character, Nott, has also got one of the most poignant backstories I’ve heard in a while, and man will it twist yer gut. Meanwhile both of those characters provide some of the best goddamn comic relief you’re liable to find. Emmy Winner Sam Riegel, ladies and gentlemen.

Francis - Left 4 Dead. I love this grumpy asshole biker. I love that Steam took his “I hate everything” (except vests) schtick and ran with it. I love that the trailers for the second game included him and Rochelle meeting up and commiserating on their hatred of everything, up until Rochelle says she hates his vest and he short-circuits. I miss Francis and I miss playing Left 4 Dead all the time and I yearn for a remaster or rerelease that works better with current setups cuz the original one has uh... not aged well, technologically. Francis and Zoey made life worth livin’ in that game.

Jogurt - Shining Force. This is probably the most obscure one on my list but that’s because Shining Force is an old-ass Genesis game/franchise that is, I admit, pretty generic as far as the plot goes. I love it to pieces regardless because it had some fun with it, and the character designs were wierd and some of the interactions were downright silly. Jogurt was the easter egg secret character in this game, and he’s a little hamster thing with a football helmet on. At the time you get him, most of your fighters have stats in the 20s or potentially 30s and their level is 9, 10, or they’ve been promoted to a new class; every single one of his stats is one and he had not been promoted. If you are able to keep him alive long enough to get him the XP necessary to level up just once, which takes some doing since an enemy can be unarmed and as long as they don’t miss, they kill him, you’ll get a ring called the Yogurt Ring.

When worn, it makes a character look like Jogurt. In the remake for Game Boy Advance, the image for the character shows that it’s a costume with a huge visible zipper up the back. That’s all it does. That’s the joke. And I adore it.

Freddy Krueger - A Nightmare on Elm Street series. I have a love-hate relationship with Freddy. On the one hand, creativity in horror movies--especially in the kills--is something to be embraced, and no matter what else you think of them the Elm Street movies got real fuckin’ creative most of the time. On the other...there have been nine (official) movies with Krueger in them, and only the first three were good. The remake in 2010 was disappointing because it tried to both play to nostalgia and ignore it at the same time and also made Freddy darker, which made him less fun to watch.

Still, I enjoyed the hell outta Freddy’s concept, for much the same reason that I love Chucky the Good Guy Doll so much: they’re both snarky monsters who really enjoy the horrors they’re inflicting and they have incredible presence because of the actors who brought them to life. (Mark Hammill worked with what they gave him for Chucky but uh...what they gave him sucked).

Lorewalker Cho/Margeaux - World of Warcraft. The first, because he’s voiced by Jim Cummings and he’s a knowledge-hungry panda who Blizzard has not been stupid enough to kill off thus far. In the middle of an attack by what is basically Cthulhu, he wants to you bring him research notes on Cthulhu’s fishmen. I love him and I would commit war crimes for him.

The second, because she was a bit character that had me fully invested in her and her story within ten minutes. And then Blizzard ripped my fucking heart out. And I yelled at Questifer about it. Aaaaaaaa.

Granny Weatherwax/Sam Vimes - Discworld. They’re both staggering badasses who have neither time nor tolerance for the bullshit trappings of men, while at the same time harboring a deep and abiding love for their fellow beings. They also approach that from completely different ends. They are also both unquestionably the most noble characters I’ve ever read. They are the sum of their principles and their refusal to budge. Steve Rogers could learn from them. In D&D, they’d be paladins to their core, and they’d absolutely hate that.

Spawn - Image Comics. I have, admittedly, read exactly one Spawn comic book, and mostly love him because of his design, his backstory, and the fact that he’s voiced by Keith David in all animated iterations including video game appearances (and only the animated ones were ever good--the 90s movie was fucking horrible). I am hoping the rumored new movie will make things a bit better for the live-action version, but until that actually comes out, I’m not holding my breath.

Tagged by: @safrona-shadowsun and @ourcollectivefantasy

Tagging: Have you done it? Then you’re it.

[princeasimdiya12]

“Get ready, wake your psyche up, Gooch！

Get ready, dig your anger up, Gooch！

Get ready, wake your psyche up, Gooch！

Get ready!” 

So this happened during the weekend on a road trip where I decided to create another AU featuring the CU cast in the world of Mob Psycho 100. But as a twist, instead of revolving around George and Harold, the story would instead focus on unlucky oddball Steve “Gooch” Yamaguchi. 

Starring

Gooch as Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama. Along with having the same hairstyle, they’re both awkward, blunt and soft spoken boys who have difficulty with reading the room or understanding social norms. They still try to be good people but often get taken advantage of by other more domineering personalities. For this AU, Gooch is gifted with incredible powers that ordinary people could only dream to have. But Gooch isn’t interested in them since most people in his life only want him because of his powers. He wants to be recognized for his other traits and talents that don’t revolve around making cars and people float into space. 

Krupp as Reigen Arataka. They’re both highly similar since they’re stingy, overreactive, self-absorbed glory hounds who often take advantage of others if it means satisfying their own personal goals. The main difference that unlike canon, Krupp will be an actual Jerk with a Heart of Gold for this AU. Over time, he learns to care about Gooch as he becomes his master by providing him genuine life lessons for him to use in his life. He also realizes that there are consequences to going too far with his selfish ways and that he won’t be as happy if he continues down the same path. He runs a spirit and consultation office where he takes on supernatural themed cases if it means bringing him cash and popularity. 

Bo as Ritsu Kageyama. Both of them are dependable, kind hearted and have a close relationship with the main protagonist. In this AU, Bo would be more like a childhood friend who grew up with Gooch and cherishes his friendship with him. However, an incident involving some bullies made Bo insecure over the fact that he wasn’t able to protect Gooch. What’s worse is that Gooch was the one who ended up saving the two of them while also discovering his psychic powers that very day.  It’s because of this that Bo is desperate to awaken his own powers so he can be the guardian he was meant to be.

Smartsy as Dimple. Along with being floating blobs of green gas, they also started out as villains who wanted to take control of people but decided to let go of their schemes and become good. His initial cult was dedicated to healthy living by eating as many beans, broccoli and apple juice as possible.

Melvin as Teruki Hanazawa. The cocky, talented rivals of their respective series. Just like Teru, Melvin starts out believing himself to be something of a god while everyone else are inferior life forms for him to boss around. It isn’t until he has a chance encounter with Gooch does he realize that he isn’t the only big fish in the little pond called life. While he’s still arrogant and sarcastic, humble is something that Melvin can never properly learn in any AU, he does show genuine respect for Gooch for his abilities and a willingness to cooperate with his social circle. Also he does end up bald during his fight with Gooch and resorts to using an 80s wig.

Jessica as Tome Kurata. While this is a weird choice because of their different social standings, I chose them based on personality types. Just like Tome, Jessica is overly dramatic, obnoxious, conceited and is prone to giving orders to other students. For this AU, while she did create the Telepathy Club to be lazy and goof off, she does have a genuine interest in alien life and wants to make contact with them. Mainly so she can share her fabulous haar secrets with the rest of the universe. And in case you’re wondering about the aliens in her haar, those aren’t decorations. Those are the real thing. But just like Tome, Jessica needs to be motivated to achieve her goal and she’ll easily obtain them if she actually puts the effort into it.

Dressy as Ichi Mezato. A junior reporter at the school and a close acquaintance of Gooch. I picked her mainly for her role rather than personality. The reason she begins to investigate Gooch is because she’s seen his powers in its fullest when he defeated Smartsy’s Health Cult which in turn resulted in a secret following of people dedicated to the mysterious savior. Dressy desires to learn more about him so she can use his information and powers to promote a new world order that inspires peace and harmony among the rest of the Earth. So in a way, she wants to create her own cult. Cult!

Erica as Shou Suzuki. Both of them are talented, athletic and tend to snark when given the opportunity. Despite their cocky attitudes, they are truly aligned with the good side and want to make things right. For the AU, Erica has been keeping tabs on the Claw organization and has been providing the heroes with information needed to help take them and her wicked godmother down. 

Nurse Offstill as Tsuchiya. I decided to go with Offstill since I wanted a female Faculty member who could work as a reformed Claw member. Offstill works with Tsuchiya since they’re both kick butt ladies who treat kids with respect and pretty cool in their own ways. Also to keep the record clear, Nurse Offstill belongs to @guilty-as-battery-charged. 

Mr. Ree as Yusuke Sakurai. They’re both serious and dedicated to their careers. Ree would be exceptionally talented when it comes to using weapons. And while he does start out as a villain, he ultimately switches to being a good guy and proves to be a reliable ally.

Mr. Meaner as Banshomaru Shinra. They both have a sorta weird friendship going on with Krupp/Reigen, especially when it comes to their banter. Both Meaner and Shinra also believe themselves to be exceptionally great at their talents but the results say otherwise as they end up becoming Butt Monkeys.

Professor Poopypants as Ishiguro. The main antagonists of their respective series who intend to conquer the world and live above everyone as superior beings. They cannot be swayed into stopping their evil agendas and refuse to accept logic. Also they’re both tiny and have violent temper tantrums.

Mister Rio as Shimazaki. I went with my OC Rio since he fits with Shimazaki as a confident, agile and dangerous threat. They’ll beat you to a pulp with a smug smile on their faces.

Ms. Anthrope as Toichiro Suzuki. Regarding personalities, Anthrope can work for Toichiro since on the surface they’re presented as calm-minded, serious and somewhat generous to those around them. (Toichiro offered to help Serizawa control his powers and Anthrope is always reaching out to Krupp as a friend). But beneath the surface, they prove to be egomaniacal and dangerous as they intend to conquer the world to satisfy their own egos. I based this on how Anthrope was super expressive and power hungry when she became Clogneta. 

Edith the Lunch Lady as Serizawa Katsuya. Just like Serizawa, Edith is an awkward but friendly person who wants to do what’s right. They have difficulty speaking up for themselves so they often mumble their words and drop the issue. For this AU, Edith was a social outcast because of her out of control powers and was afraid of hurting people. It isn’t until Ms. Anthrope arrived did she learn not only to control her powers but that she can be of use to create a better world order. But eventually she realizes how harmful and dangerous Anthrope’s agenda really is and switches sides. Once the battle is over, she decides to work at Krupp’s spirit office to use her powers for good. Also, Serizawa is considered to be Reigen’s love interest so it felt appropriate to have Edith here considering how Reigen is. *insert hubba-hubba-buububaba*

Other characters that I wanted to include were Lavator Ree as Murashi Gouda the leader of the Body Improvement Club. In this AU, Lavator would be a gym teacher instead of a student but he still leads the club with pride and goes the extra mile to ensure that Gooch is getting the right amount of training. And for George and Harold, I feel that they would share an unofficial role of being the Emi of the AU. They ended up having a rut with their comics since they feel that it doesn’t have the same heart like the old ones did. What’s worse is that they feel that maybe they’re outgrowing making comic books. But it isn’t until a chance encounter with Gooch who provides meaningful words to the boys on how their work does have meaning and they should cherish not only the talent they have but the time they spend making it together. This rekindles their spirits and the boys decide to make a comic dedicated to their new friend called “The Paranormal Heroics of the Prodigious Psycho Helmet”. And I also wanted to include someone for Tsubomi but I didn’t know which student would be fit to be Gooch’s love interest.

And that is Gooch Psycho 100. Thank you for taking the time to read all this. If you have any thoughts on this AU, or would like to share your own ideas, you’re more than welcome to like and/or reblog this with your thoughts.

[sineala]

Hi, first of all, I admire you so much!!! Second... Can you find some similarities between Stony and Spirk? Between ReedSue and Stony? I think there are many among them, but I can never order my head enough to answer this.

Aww, thanks. And, wow, it’s Star Trek night in my askbox tonight, I guess. I’m gonna have to pass on the Reed/Sue part because literally the only FF run I have read is the current one (someday I’m gonna read Hickman’s FF, yes, I swear) but I can definitely talk about Steve/Tony and Kirk/Spock because oh boy my OTPs. (Disclaimer: Am pretty much talking only in reference to 616 and prime-universe Trek, respectively.)

So obviously the main points of similarities here would be Steve and Jim, and then Tony and Spock. And not just the hair color thing.

Steve and Jim basically fit the role of The Captain in an almost archetypal way -- the character who is good at being in charge and knowing what the right thing to do is. Seriously, a lot of Steve’s Captain America speeches and a lot of Jim’s TOS speeches about the Federation’s values and ideals could basically be swapped and they’d still sound great coming out of the other person’s mouth. And, yeah, they are both really good at being in command, and in inspiring their fellow Avengers and/or Starfleet officers. Which is not to say that the people around them can’t also be great at leading people, but if you had to pick one character in each group of people to be in charge, it’d be them. They’re both charismatic, I think, in that inspirational sort of way, and even if you put them in a situation no one has ever been in before they’ll come up with a solution. Which is basically their job description, so, hey, that’s good.

You might think of a character like that as essentially law-abiding, but you would be wrong. :D They are both deeply ethical people and that means that they’re willing to tell their governments and/or superior officers to go fuck themselves if they think they’re being asked to do something that is wrong, or to obey a law that they feel is unjust. With Steve you’ve got Nomad, The Captain, Civil War, et cetera. Over on the Star Trek side you have, uh, every Prime Directive violation ever, and also the entire plot of Star Trek III.

Tony and Spock are a little harder to pair up, because when you think of Spock the first thing that’s probably going to come to mind is his Vulcan heritage, and meanwhile Tony will be over here feeling All The Feelings whether he wants to or not. Tony would be a terrible, terrible Vulcan. (Then again, by Vulcan standards, Spock is also in many respects a pretty terrible Vulcan: he rejects the Vulcan Science Academy to join Starfleet, he doesn’t end up marrying his arranged betrothed mate (granted, she didn’t want him, but he still ended up not doing it, which I gather is unusual), and he bailed on Kolinahr at the last possible moment to go back to Starfleet. Also, as we are seeing in Discovery currently, he clearly has... many personal problems.) So I would argue that Spock actually has a lot of very deep and strong feelings -- it’s just that for cultural and species reasons that’s a little harder to see than with a human. Tony, meanwhile, is very aware of his feelings and also naked and crying in alleyways. And then, depending on the time period, possibly drinking. It’s not like he deals well with his feelings.

Certainly both Tony and Spock fit the mold of a character motivated by their love of science and general joy in the workings of the universe. And I think they’re both happy to be in second-in-command support roles, giving advice to, uh, their favorite captains. This isn’t to say that Tony can’t be the Avengers team leader because he often has been and he does great at it, but, I mean, when you think of the 616 Avengers, prototypically you probably think of Steve as team chair and Tony as the guy there building the gear and providing a bunch of backup and teamwork and second opinions, and I feel like Tony is very happy to be there. Similarly, Spock clearly, clearly wants to be on the Enterprise, oh man, there is no discussion necessary there.

And if we can set aside the part where Marvel keeps thinking it’s great to make Steve and Tony try to kill each other every few years, I think it’s obvious that both Steve and Tony and Kirk and Spock... well, they love each other. They’ve known each other for years and they’ve grown to become the best of friends and comrades and clearly they love each other. It’s hard for me to explain, but I’m drawn to both pairings in the same way, because I feel like they have the same dynamic, where to me it’s basically irrelevant whether you think they’re romantically involved because it’s clear that they’re the most important people in each other’s lives. And I think you can see this most clearly in the parts of canon when they don’t have each other. I mean, come on, if you read “The Confession” or if you watch the glass scene in Star Trek II -- that’s love, right there. You know it. And Tony then spends... well, years... being extremely grief-stricken and depressed and missing Steve, and Jim gives up literally everything he has and everything he ever wanted (his ship, his Starfleet career) on the chance that Spock could still be alive on Genesis and that he could find him and bring him back. (And if Tony could have done that for Steve, he would have, and if I were Marvel I would have put him in the Cap Reborn arc.) So to me both pairings feel very similar because of that... intensity, and the epic nature of their feelings. It’s hard for me to put into words.

I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for in an answer, anon, but this is just what comes to mind for me.

[imsfire2]

Marvel asks: All of them! Sorry, can't choose! ^^'

AAAAARRRGGHHHH!!!  Well that’ll larn me!

Marvel asks

Tony Stark: favorite movie? 

Close call; I’m very fond of “Avengers Assemble”, “Thor” and “CA:TWS”, but the one that has wowed me the most of all was “Black Panther”, which took everything to a new level of brilliance.

Drax: what character would you wanna be friends with?

I’m going to make this “characterS” and say Jane Foster, Aunt May, and General Okoye.  A lot of my other faves probably wouldn’t be so easy to be friends with (too prickly, messed-up, hyper-focussed, downright dangerous, etc) but I would love to be mates with these three!

Valkyrie: favorite director? 

Ryan Coogler, no question!

Pepper Potts: top 3 fave characters

Ugh, very hard to choose!  Most of our protagonists are pretty cool, in their different ways.  Let’s pick three of the women; Okoye, Gamora, Natasha.  But I could just as easily have said Nakia, Hope and Hawkeye.  Or Rocket, Groot and Shuri.  Or...

Yeah, very hard to choose.

Sam Wilson: funniest scene?

Unlike a lot of people I loathed the relentless humour in “Ragnarok”.  So I’m going to say, Sam and Cap’s first meeting in TWS, which is gentle and kind, and character-driven. 

And (although it’s rather sick humour) “He’s adopted” is very funny.

Bucky Barnes: most heartbreaking moment?

The bit in TWS when the pilots try to take off and provide air support and are shot down before they can get to their planes.  Reduces me to tears every time.

Nakia: character you wish had a bigger role?

I want to see more of Shuri!

Rocket Racoon: best nickname?

I don’t think I know the scripts well enough!  “Legolas”, possibly?

Natasha Romanoff: favorite ass kicking scene?

Another one that’s very hard to choose. 

Natasha’s first scene, maybe, when she’s barefoot and unarmed and still beats the shit out of half a dozen brawny guys.  It’s such a great use of an action scene to establish character.  I also love her fight with possessed!Hawkeye. 

But on the other hand, the Dora Milje’s team fighting style is unbelievably awesome...

Ned Leeds: favorite villain?

Killmonger, no contest.  He’s rounded, believable, well-motivated, and even though you know he’s wrong you empathise with him.  Masterclass in how to write a top-notch antagonist.

I also really liked Toomes/Vulture in “Spiderman Homecoming”.  Again, because he had good motivation and was an interesting rounded character, not a cardboard “I wanna rule/destroy the world >snarl snarl

Bruce Banner: guardians or avengers?

For sheer fun, Guardians.  But I’m enjoying seeing them all meet up!

Thor Odinson: most attractive character?

Still Hawkeye.  Give me those Renner arms.

Gamora: favorite pairing?

As in Ship?  T’Challa/Nakia, and Gamora/Peter Q.

As in Best mates?  Rocket & Groot, Peggy & Jarvis, and Peter P & Ned.

Mantis: what do you think will happen in Avengers 4?

I’m with @hanorganaas on this; it’ll have to involve time travel in some form, to bring back at least some of those lost.  Also I have it on good authority from @spectralarchers that Hawkeye will come back as Ronin.  And clearly a certain Carol Danvers is going to be involved.

There’ll be an opening section where the traumatised survivors are trying to regroup in a shattered world.  Somehow or other the script will have to contrive another “lowest ebb” moment even lower than the end of “Infinity War” (& I don’t envy the people tasked with that!) because that’s how script dynamics work.  But ultimately the big purple knob-head will be defeated.

Shuri: most rewatched movie?

Either “Avengers assemble” or “Guardians of the Galaxy”; I haven’t kept count, but they are the ones I go back to for a happy evening slobbed out in front of the telly with a big bag of tortilla chips.

Peter Parker: best outfit/suit?

As a Superhero Suit, I love the Ant-man suit! 

As actual wearable clothes, I’d like to have Gamora’s leathers, especially the red coat; practical and sexy.

Happy Hogan: what ‘superpower’ is the coolest?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be able to fly, so any of the superpowers that give you that would be great! 

I also love the way Mantis’ abilities take something that culturally is just expected of “nice good girls” (being empathetic, reading others emotions and reactions, being able to soothe down even the most aggressive person) and make it a fucking superpower!

Aunt may: most painful death?

After those brave pilots in TWS?  Pietro.  Really didn’t see that one coming.

Pietro Maximoff: Peter Quill or Peter Parker?

Aww, don’t make me chose!  Quill is so cute! 

I was never a Peter Parker fan until Tom Holland but now - ok, Peter Parker.

Heimdall: would you like a Deadpool crossover?

Properly done, then hell yeah!  But it would need a very, very good script to juggle the emotional/tonal switchbacks required.

Steve Rogers: who resembles their role the most?

From what we get to see as fans?  I’d have to go with Chris Evans.

Rhodey: who resembles their role the least?

Karen Gillan certainly doesn’t sound much like Nebula!

T’challa: favorite non-romantic pairing?

I’ve already suggested a couple of Best-mates relationships; so how about some siblings?  Gamora and Nebula; so much tension, so much anger and yet so much torn, blood-soaked loyalty.  It’s just as interesting a dynamic as the one between Thor and Loki, with a lot less screentime than that has had. 

I also liked the sibling loyalty and love between Wanda and Pietro.  Always good to see a happy sibling relationship, when Screenwriting 101 would have it that only sibling rivalry is interesting...

Peter Quill: favorite place in the mcu?

That’s going to be a tie between Know-where, for the visuals, and Wakanda, for - well, everything really.

Loki laufeyson: best line/quote?

Ugh, there have been a lot of great lines.  Right now, I’m going to go with Okoye’s “For Wakanda?  Without question.”  Such a fantastic use of a single line to cement how her character is the embodiment of honour. 

Scott Lang: do you think you’d have died in the snap?

Hmm.  I kind of hope I would, to be honest; life afterwards is going to be spectacularly hellish until they manage to fix it.

Stephen strange: favorite song used?

The opening of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, with Quill slogging through the rain and then putting on “Come and get your love” on his walkman and starting to dance.  Just gorgeous; as a sequence, as framing, as a way of telling us something about him very economically, as a device to show us this is going to be a hell of a fun ride...

Phil Coulson: the moment you fell in love with your favorite character?

Seeing as I find it impossibly difficult to pick a favourite in the first place, this is one I can’t answer! 

Okoye: which movies did you see in cinema?

All of them bar the first two “Iron Man” films.

Maria Hill: favorite special credits?

What, as in “Mr Evans’ marmalade sandwiches made by” kind of thing?  I’m not sure I pay enough attention to the credits to have ever noticed one (I made that one up, needless to say). 

Or are “special credits” like cameos?  A nod to the mourners for Yondu, then.

Erik Killmonger: favorite press moment/interview

Way back during the press tour for “Avengers assemble”; a journalist asked RDJ in-depth questions on Tony’s motivation and development, and then only asked Scarlett Johansson some ridiculous thing about her diet; and instead of answering with a patient smile she called him out on it. 

It was only, what, five years ago, yet it was almost unheard-of then for a female actor to bite back publically like that.  And the good thing is, that already seems pretty extraordinary. 

Wanda Maximoff: favorite relationship of the actors?

I don’t know enough about their relationships to have one, really.

Nebula: favorite minor character?

Luis.  An “ordinary person” character who is highly likeable in his own right and who does the right thing even when he knows it’s bloody dangerous & could get him killed.  For similar reasons I’m also very fond of Cameron Klein and Dr Helen Cho.  

Vision: Steve with or without a beard?

Without, definitely.  Not a great fan of beards to be honest.  There’s the odd face that looks great with one (thinking of a certain Mexican actor and rare fern collector) but mostly they’re just fashionable face-fur. 

Nick Fury: what actor would you like to see join the mcu and for what role?

On one level, I’m content to wait and see what they come up with.  I’m not a comic-reader, so I know almost nothing about any of the characters until they appear in the MCU, which makes dream-casting any of them pretty difficult.

On the other hand, I did read a rumour that John Boyega is in line for a future role; and as I’m a huge fan of his I would love for that to be true!

Hope Van Dyne: expectations for ‘Captain Marvel’?

As a non-comics person, I don’t know anything about the character or her story.  Hopefully we’ll get an interesting, well-rounded female lead with solid motivation and her plot-line isn’t primarily about a) a man or b) not being able to have children.  Or c) her children being dead.

Groot: I am Groot?

We are Groot.

Grandmaster: which characters would you like to see interact more?

Shuri with all the scientists!

Peggy Carter: Hulk or Banner?

Both.  Both is good. 

Luis: favorite Chris?

I’m sure they’re all lovely chaps.

Michelle Jones: would you like a Black Widow movie?

I’d like to see lots of the female characters get stand-alone films.  So, yes please to a “Black Widow” movie, but also, hmm, let’s see; how about a “Shuri and Jane Foster Science the Shit Out Of This Mess” movie?  A “Peggy Carter and the early days of SHIELD” movie?  A “Nakia the Super-spy” movie?

Sif: long hair Thor or short hair Thor?

Long hair.  Markedly more appealing with long hair.

Jane Foster: favorite character development?

I love the way Steve Rogers’ story kind-of goes in cycles of effort and hope and bitter experience, and always comes back round to situations where he affirms who he essentially is.  It’s good to see a non-liner pattern of development like that, which is much closer to how real people deleop and change, instead of the standard narrative “A to B” model like Dr Strange (”was a jerk, learned to do better” - okay, he saves the world, so that’s good; but as for development, pish).

Yondu: favorite after-credit scene?

The Shawarma joint. 

Also Hope seeing the Wasp suit for the first time.

Wong: favorite marvel intro?

Not sure I pay that much attention to the intros, tbh.  I’m just sitting there thinking “Give me the story, folks!”

Thank you for asking! - and thank you, if you’ve had the patience to slog through all this, for reading!

[aion-rsa]

Was Captain America: Super Soldier Almost Part of the MCU Canon?

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If you’re anything like me, you probably haven’t thought about 2011’s Captain America: Super Soldier in years (if you remember the game at all). While a decent enough action game in its own right, Super Soldier is perhaps best remembered as a remnant of a very brief time when MCU films were adapted into video games that were often released the same week as the movies.

However, I recently heard an interesting rumor that I haven’t been able to shake. That rumor suggests that Super Soldier isn’t just based on an MCU film but at one point was meant to actually be part of the MCU canon. The only reason it apparently wasn’t added to the canon is simply that plans changed somewhere along the way.

It’s the kind of rumor that is easy to dismiss as wishful thinking crafted by internet trolls. Yet, much like we saw when we broke down the rumors that Link and Zelda are brother and sister, there are certain truths to this rumor which don’t necessarily confirm or deny it but instead reveal fascinating possibilities regarding what the MCU could have been if a few things had gone just a little differently.

Captain America: Super Soldier is Set in the MCU Universe but It’s Not Entirely Clear How it Fits

The first question that needs to be answered about Captain America: Super Soldier has to be “Is it actually based on Captain America: The First Avenger?”

It’s a surprisingly complicated question. At first glance, Super Soldier seems to be a fairly standard video game tie-in. Many of First Avenger’s main actors reprise their roles in the game, and Super Soldier was even released the same week as Captain America’s MCU debut. That all suggests that the world of the game is roughly meant to be the same as the one seen in the film.

However, the wording of this section of Super Soldier’s official announcement creates some confusion regarding the exact relationship between the game and the movie:

“[Christos] Gage wrote his original story for Captain America: Super Soldier so that the setting exists within the same world as the upcoming movie of the same name, but he infused the game with immersive twists designed to enhance gameplay with all-new cinematic action sequences.”

That statement certainly seems to be trying to carefully avoid the implication that Super Soldier is a direct adaptation of the film, which is an oddly prudent move given that the events of the game’s story happen during a time period that the movie doesn’t specifically cover. It’s certainly not hard to walk away from it with the impression that the intention was for Super Soldier to tell a First Avenger story that happened but just wasn’t shown in the movie.

One other interpretation of that statement to keep in mind is that Sega was trying to suggest that they were essentially creating a “What If?” scenario or some other kind of situation wherein they could justify having so many connections to the movie without strictly being based on it. The biggest problem with that idea, though, is the implication that the game is somehow arguing that there’s an MCU multiverse where the characters from that universe exist as we know them in the films but are going on entirely different adventures. That’s obviously hard to believe given the nature of the MCU’s structure as we know it today.

Mostly, though, that statement is just the first piece in what proves to be a larger puzzle.

Super Soldier Oddly Helps Set-Up Major Winter Soldier Plot Points

The most interesting quality of Super Soldier is how it almost accidentally sets up plot points that would appear in Winter Soldier and future MCU movies. There are few examples of that concept more intriguing than the game’s portrayal of Arnim Zola.

There’s a fascinating moment in Super Soldier when we see that Captain America has been captured by HYDRA. While he’s being restrained, Zola informs him that he has taken samples of Captain America’s blood in the hopes of recreating the super serum that gave Steve Rogers the abilities he needed to become the legendary hero. 

While Zola is stopped before he can deliver the completed version of that serum to Red Skull, we later learn that he had intended to use it on one of Captain America’s friends, James Montgomery Falsworth, in an effort to turn one of Captain America’s closest accomplices against him and give HYDRA a living weapon as strong as Rogers.

Strangely, that’s basically what happens with Bucky. In fact, the idea that Zola previously captured Captain America and used his blood to create a super-soldier serum goes a long way to explaining how and why Bucky turned out the way he did in the films. Zola was able to take what he learned from those experiments and simply fashion a new serum that was used to help create the Winter Soldier.

Another interesting “coincidence” involving Zola occurs later in the game when we learn that Zola has transferred his mind to a machine in order to battle Captain America. While that’s clearly a way for Captain America to have a more traditional video game boss fight against Zola, the entire process is oddly similar to how Zola eventually transfers his consciousness to a series of computer servers (as seen in Winter Soldier).

It should be noted that both of those stories were previously seen in Marvel comics and certainly aren’t the sole property of Super Soldier‘s writers and creative team. Still, it’s fascinating to consider how well those concepts gel with future MCU events.

Equally noteworthy (if certainly not as impactful) are the similarities between the HYDRA helicopter Captain America must battle at the end of Super Soldier and the design of the devices we see in the climactic aerial battle of Winter Soldier. In fact, the two designs are so similar that this is one area where you’ve really got to wonder if Sega was working with rough design sketches provided by Marvel or if Marvel Studios was perhaps intrigued by the way that Sega animated and designed those vehicles and decided to borrow them for future films.

It should also certainly be pointed out that one of Super Soldier’s core plot points involved an attempt to awaken an ancient force known as the Sleeper. Well, in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we see an army of robot soldiers known as “Sleeper Mechs.” It’s hardly a 1:1 reference, but it’s another of the fascinating ways that later MCU works at least utilized basic terms and concepts that we previously saw in Super Soldier. It’s not even that hard to imagine a world in which the names of those soldiers have canonically intended a direct callback to HYDRA’s failed plot in the game.

While those similarities are undeniably fascinating, the most interesting thing about Super Soldier may just be the way it differs from what comes next.

The Mysteries of Baron Zemo, Wolfgang Von Strucker, and Madame Hydra’s Super Soldier Roles

Much of Super Soldier takes place in Castle Zemo: the home of Baron Heinrich Zemo. Comic book fans will no doubt recognize that character, but the name “Zemo” may only ring a bell with MCU fans who recall Zemo’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War and his involvement in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

Well, Super Soldier follows the Zemo characters of the comics a little more closely by portraying Henrich Zemo as a Nazi/Red Skull/H.Y.D.R.A. sympathizer who is eventually betrayed by forces who largely wish to use him for his resources as well as access to the Sleeper. In many Marvel Comics stories, Helmut Zemo is portrayed as the son of Henrich whose hatred towards Captain America is based on a desire to get revenge for his father. Obviously, the MCU version of Helmut Zemo could not possibly be the son of a man who died around the time of World War 2. 

Interestingly, though, the Civil War writers mentioned that they were, at one point, at least intrigued by the possibility of portraying the MCU’s Helmut as Henrich’s son. Ultimately, though, they felt it was too much of a stretch to suggest that Helmut would be so motivated for revenge over something that would have happened over 70 years ago in the MCU timeline. 

Still, you could interpret that statement to mean that there may have been a point when the MCU producers and creative team members were at least considering the possibility of portraying Helmut Zemo closer to the version of the character commonly seen in the comics and that Super Soldier could have been an early attempt to get the Zemo name out there.

There’s also the strange case of Wolfgang von Strucker. Strucker isn’t introduced in the MCU until Winter Soldier’s mid-credits sequence, but he ends up becoming a fairly important piece of the MCU in Age of Ultron (despite his relative lack of screentime). His eventual role in the MCU makes it that much more interesting that the first piece of any MCU adjacent media to introduce the character was Super Soldier.

While the version of Von Strucker we see in Super Soldier is certainly different than his eventual MCU counterpart (he sports the iconic Satan Claw from the comics, for instance, and he’s…you know..alive during WWII), it’s fascinating to see Von Strucker oppose Captain America years before the two would share the screen in Age of Ultron.

Then you have Madame Hydra. While not a part of the MCU films, she was a character in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series who was, again, first utilized in this Captain America game that at least suggests it was supposed to be related to the universe of the pivotal MCU film Captain America: First Avenger.

While all of these characters were of course previously featured in the comics, Marvel obviously could have turned to any number of characters from the Captain America comics over the years when expanding the roster of their future films. Instead, they turned to a few characters who were all previously prominently featured in this Captain America game that isn’t technically canonical but certainly starts to feel as if it easily could have been part of the MCU if just a couple of things went differently or a couple of lines of dialog were added to the films and shows that described those characters as “ancestors.”

How did all of these coicidences happen? The answer may lie in the other Sega MCU games. 

Read more

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By Mike Cecchini

Sega’s Thor and Iron Man Games Featured Other Fascinating MCU Connections

The massive Marvel Cinematic Universe began with 2008’s comparatively humble Iron Man movie. It was, at the time, little more than another blockbuster superhero movie. Given the standards of that time, it’s only natural the film was adapted into a video game pretty much right away. 

“Standard” is a fairly good way to describe Sega’s first Iron Man adaptation. Nearly everything about it is forgettable, including its story which largely follows the plot of the film. The game was touted as the start of Marvel and Sega’s relationship, and it certainly feels like something closer to a trial run.

It wasn’t until the release of Iron Man 2 that things started to get more interesting. That game featured an original story inspired by the events of the film but clearly separate from them. Once again, though, the most important thing about that story is how it (perhaps inadvertently) featured plot points and characters that would be seen in future MCU films.

Ghost is featured in Iron Man 2 years before the character appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp. A.I.M. is mentioned before the organization’s appearance in Iron Man 3. Ultimo is even featured in the game in a way that recalls certain plot points later seen in Age of Ultron.

All those characters and plot points are different in the game than how they appeared in future MCU films, but it remains fascinating that the sequel’s original story utilized concepts that Marvel would later revisit. The same is true of Sega’s 2011 Thor game which takes place before the first Thor film but features characters such as Surtur and Hela who wouldn’t appear in the MCU until Thor: Ragnarok.

All of these appearances could be dismissed rightfully so) as coincidences. Yet, when you add all of them together, you start to wonder what the long-term plans for these games were and whether or not there were ever any intentions of eventually making either them, or any future titles that may have been planned at that time, part of the MCU.

There’s very little official information to suggest that was ever the case, but the ways that Sega and Marvel changed how they talked about these games over time is certainly noteworthy. While the first Iron Man game was described as little more than an adaption of the movie it was based on, Sega started to create a little distance for themselves by using phrases like “same universe” in the PR statements that often announced these games.

The more you look at the history of these adaptations, the more you get the feeling that the relationship between Sega and Marvel also started to change and that the plans for these games changed along with it.

Was Captain America: Super Soldier Ever Supposed to Be Part of the MCU Canon?

While it’s easy to buy into the idea that there was once a time when Super Soldier was developed with the MCU canon in mind, the fact of the matter is that there is no evidence to support the idea that any video games based on the MCU films were ever supposed to be part of the MCU canon or were intended to directly set-up future films.

The genesis of that rumor seems to be both the early relationship between Sega and Marvel Studios as well as the fact that there are so many elements of Super Soldier that do lead into Captain America: Winter Soldier in their own strange way. In fact, it’s been said that an early draft of Winter Soldier featured more WW2 flashbacks. That has only given rise to the theory that there was a point where Winter Soldier would have tied into the events of WW2 a little more closely and that Super Soldier could have represented an early draft of those events. 

What you have to keep in mind, though, is that the MCU was in a relative state of chaos at that time. Netflix was a few years away from debuting Marvel-based shows with a loose MCU relationship, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would generate significant confusion regardings its MCU relationship, and as we’ve discussed, these games confusingly existed within the universe of the Marvel films yet feature significant differences that put them in conflict with the stories and characters of those films.

Those games were seemingly little more than a symptom of a time when Disney and Marvel Studios either didn’t have as much control over the narrative of the MCU or were otherwise less interested in exercising that control and dictate everything the MCU touched. Of course, Disney and Marvel Studios would eventually “trim the fat” in terms of both their direct involvement in video game development and their willingness to spread the MCU beyond the big screen in a way that opened any room for ambiguity regarding the status of the canon.

If anything, the idea that Super Soldier was once meant to be canonical and help set-up both Winter Soldier and future MCU projects is a wish from those who always felt that the lack of notable MCU video games denied us the chance to live out some of the best theatrical experiences of the last 15 years. There’s always been a feeling that so much more could have been done with MCU games.

At the same time, Marvel executives had previously stated that they at least once considered certain comic issues to be canonical within the MCU. More importantly, Marvel Studios’ Creative Director of Research & Development, Will Corona Pilgrim, tweeted in 2012 that Marel Studios’ views towards those early games were best described as “Film Agnostic.”

@wyokid in a sense, yes. @cbake76 and the fellas over in Marvel Games like to use a term coined by TQ Jefferson as 'Film Agnostic'

— Will Corona Pilgrim (@willgrem) February 6, 2012

That statement suggests that Marvel may have, at one point, been working much more closely with the designers of those early MCU-based games and were perhaps even sharing resources and preferred source material. It also makes it much more likely that Marvel Studios members could have been inspired by certain ideas they saw in those games. After all, the Marvel Studios team didn’t necessarily acknowledge the existence of these games in a canonical sense, but they stopped short of outright denying their existence either. Still, the idea that they ever intended for any versions of these games to represent definitive MCU plans remains a very loose rumor, at best.

If nothing else, Super Soldier stands as an interesting look at an alternate timeline. No, I don’t mean the one where Winter Soldier’s story is based on the timeline where Super Soldier is part of the MCU canon. I’m talking about the one where Marvel continued to allow game developers to explore the MCU universe a little more freely. It may have been chaotic, but it certainly could have been fun. 

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[melvinfellerstuff]

Melvin Feller Looks at How You can Create Million Dollar Business Ideas

Melvin Feller Looks at How You can Create Million Dollar Business Ideas

 Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group in Burkburnett and Dallas Texas and Lawton Oklahoma. Our mission is to call and equip a generation of Christian entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. We provide workshops and resources that help companies discover how to do business God’s way. When the heart of a business is service rather than self it can be transformed into a fruitful business ministry earning a profit and being of service to the community and their customers.  Melvin Feller is currently pursuing another graduate degree in business organizations.

  Big companies like Apple, super successful websites like Facebook, and bestselling books like The 4-Hour Workweek all have one thing in common:  They begin with a million dollar idea.

 The big question is how did their creators come up with these ideas?  Did they sit around waiting for an inspirational flash or a mystic spell of luck?

 The answer is spontaneity and luck had little to do with it.

In this discussion, we will take a brief look at several tried and true techniques that some of the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs have used to generate million dollar ideas. They then have go on to create jobs and incomes for several thousand people while helping to donate to various charities across the country.

Generate many ideas. – The more ideas you create, the more likely you are to create an idea worth a million bucks.

 Fail a lot. – All of the ideas that do not work are simply stepping-stones on your way to the one idea that does.  Sometimes you have to fail a thousand times to succeed.  No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who is not trying.

Consume information consciously. – Some of my friends think it is wasteful that I spend so much time reading books and blogs.  It is not.  It is what gives me an edge.  I feel engulfed with new ideas and information.  Moreover, I have actually used what I have learned to launch a few successful websites.  When you read things and interact with people, take off your consumer cap and put on your creator cap.  There are million dollar ideas (or at least some good ideas) all around you waiting for discovery.

 Focus on topics and ideas with large markets. – A million dollars is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly is if you are trying to earn it in a small market with limited opportunities.  Even if you put Steve Jobs in the role of CEO for a new venture with a maximum market size of 100 people, he would not make more than a few cents.  ‘Big bucks’ result from high demand in a substantial market.

 Make sure there’s money in your market. – Bank robbers rob banks because that is where the money is.  Before you become emotionally attached to an idea, do a little market research.  Make sure the idea you are pursuing is where the money is.  Who are the clients and consumers?  How much disposable income do they have?  Etc.

Keep your eyes, ears and mind wide open. – Oftentimes one idea’s failure will open a door to a new idea.  Do not get so hung up on one failed attempt that you miss the opening for many more.

 Test variations of the same idea. – Think about the iPhone and the iPad for a second.  One is just a variation of the other.  Both are multi-million dollar ideas.

 Figure out what works well in one market and tailor it to another. – Find an idea that is already proven and think about how it could be applied in a different context.  Take a formula that works in one niche and apply it to a new niche.  Alternatively, take the best aspects of one product and combine it with another product.

Put the pieces together. – YouTube’s creators did not invent Flash.  They did not invent modern digital cameras that can record computer-ready mpeg video.  In addition, they did not invent broadband Internet connections, cheap web hosting, embedded website content, or one-click website uploading technologies either.  What they invented is a technology that takes all of these existing pieces and combines them into an online video sharing portal.

 Spin a new twist on a previous breakthrough. – A new twist on an old idea can still be a million dollar idea.  Take Facebook for instance, it wasn’t the first big social networking site, but Mark Zuckerberg and company added twists and features the others did not grasp.  How can you take an existing million-dollar idea, or even a common idea, and give it a new twist, a new direction and journey?

 Systematize a popular service into a reproducible product. – A service is productized when its ownership can be exchanged.  Think about Alienware  and Dell back in their infancy.  Both companies simply systematized the service of building IBM compatible PCs and then sold them as a packaged product.  If you can convert a high demand service into a scalable, systematized, efficient process and sell it as a packaged deal, the million appears.

Play with opposites. – When something becomes extremely popular, the opposite often also becomes popular as people turn away from mainstream.  When WordPress , Blogger and Movable Type exploded in popularity by giving anyone with an Internet connection the ability to share long, detailed blog posts with the world, Twitter and Tumblr came along and started the micro-blogging revolution – for people grasping to share extremely short content snippets.  There are hundreds of other examples.  Just remember, the opposite of a million dollar idea can paradoxically give birth to another million-dollar idea.

Look for problems and solve them. – There are many real problems in this world.  Like a business owner wondering why his profits are sinking.  Like a golfer worrying about his slice.  Like a young man who is growing bald at 26.  Like a mom whose child is suffering with allergies.  Like a new dog owner who is unsure what to do about her puppy barking all night.  Solving problems like these can make millions.

 Design new products that support other successful products. – How much money do you think iPod, iPhone and iPad case manufacturers are making Millions Billions?  What about companies that jumped into the market of manufacturing LCD and Plasma TV mounting brackets eight years ago?  You get the idea.

 Keep it simple. – Don’t over complicate a good idea.  Business marketing studies have shown that the more product choices offered the less products consumers typically buy.  After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices.  If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up.  So if you are designing a product line, keep it simple.  

Exploit the resources and skills you already have. – It is not as much about having the right resources as it is about exploiting your resources right now.  Stevie Wonder could not see, so he exploited his sense of hearing into a passion for music, and he now has 25 Grammy Awards to prove it.  If you pursue a new venture that involves leveraging your resources and skills, you are ahead of the game.

Surround yourself with other thinkers. – You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with.  If you hang with the wrong people, they will affect you negatively.  However, if you hang with the right people, you will be more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.  Find your tribe and collaborate to make a difference in all your lives.  Bounce ideas off each other, etc.

 Be enthusiastic about what you’re doing. – Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of creativity.  Big ideas blossom when you are passionate and enthusiastic about what you are doing.  It is nearly impossible to pioneer ground-breaking solutions in a domain where there is not passionate intensity.  However, when your mind is stimulated by a fundamental curiosity and interest in the subject matter, your creativity will run rampant and your motivation will skyrocket.

  Accept constructive criticism, but ignore naysayers. – When someone spews negativity about your idea or product, remember, it does not matter how many people do not get it, it matters how many do.  No matter how much progress you make there will always be the people who insist that whatever you are trying to do is impossible.  Alternatively, they may jealously suggest that the idea or concept as a whole is utterly ridiculous because nobody really cares.  When you come across these people, do not try to reason with them.  Instead, forget that they exist.  They will only waste your time and energy.

Actually, do something with your ideas! – A million-dollar idea is simply a good idea given the chance to grow.  On paper, Google and Facebook sprung from ordinary ideas: ‘a search engine that’s accurate’ and ‘a website where friends connect with each other.’  Remember, neither of these companies were the first ones in their market.  Their ideas were not groundbreaking at the time.  Many people had the same ideas even before Google and Facebook existed.  However, Google and Facebook’s creators did something with their ideas.  They worked hard and gained an advantage over the competition.  Their initial success was in their execution.  Remember, it is not the ideas themselves that count; it is what you do with them. With the right execution, a simple idea can evolve into a million dollar idea.

Melvin Feller Business Consultants Ministries Group in Texas and Oklahoma. Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Consultants Group Ministries in the 1970s to help individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes. He has extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management, organizational development, training, and customer service. He has coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many workshops nationally and internationally.

[shenzhenblog]

3 ways to become a learning machine

I smile whenever I look at my university diploma hanging on the wall, because everything I learned then is no longer relevant now. Does it means that we should stop wasting all this energy, time and money on university? Not really: rather, as soon as we complete our “formal studies”, we need to become learning machines. I’ll rephrase it: we must become machines of continuous learning. We have no choice or we will be out of the game, left behind like cavemen after the Stone Age.

For a period of 25 years, as a HR executive, I began interviews with candidates by asking: “What have you learned in the last six-twelve months?”. Unprepared for this kind of question, many candidates weren’t able to answer: the interview was over.

If you have a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s, do you consider it as the point of arrival, or the beginning of your journey? If you consider it the point of arrival, you’re deceiving yourself. Our long-term success and fulfillment relies on us constantly cultivating our minds. Do not think of your abilities as something immutable, but as something that you can develop over time.

I am convinced that we must have learning agility. By this I mean the ability to remain open to new ways of thinking, to learn continuously in an innovative way, to reflect, to go into unknown territories, and to leave behind our complacency and our torpor. Someone, somewhere is learning faster than you. To become machines of continuous learning, we must not forget three important rules:

Rule 1: Don’t be too much of a specialist.

Let’s start with a question: if you think of Leonardo da Vinci, what word comes to mind? Painter? Scientist? Writer? Inventor? Architect? He was all of these: as the embodiment of the term “Renaissance man”, he roamed between disciplines, avoiding the kind of excessive specialization that stops us being able to think and understand in terms of systems.

So the first rule is not to limit our learning to a single subject. Steve Jobs once explained why Apple products were so stylish, clean and perfectly designed: when he was a student, he attended a calligraphy course and wanted to translate this aesthetic into his company’s products. The design of Apple products is now iconic.

Returning to Leonardo da Vinci, the polymath once said: “Learning never exhausts the mind”. While few of us can aspire to his dazzling achievements, his appetite for learning is something we can all embrace. And learning is not something that happens uniquely at university, at night school, or at a professional course in your office. What we do in our spare time can provide lessons to energize our working life.

You coached an amateur sport team? You started to learn how to manage a team. You tutored students? You learned how to motivate people. You sold something, whether putting a piece of furniture on eBay or by doing an odd job for cash? You grasped the psychology of buyers. You took on an advisory role in local politics or volunteered in a campaign you believe in? Then you understood the complexity and dynamics of a group. You took visitors around a museum or showed them the sights of your city? Well, you learned how to capture people’s attention. You worked as a bartender? Kudos, you mastered a formidable skill: managing difficult (in this case, drunken) clients. You were a babysitter? Well, you fostered a sense of responsibility. In other words, many seemingly trivial jobs can still be key elements in your work experience.

Try to eat food that you cannot pronounce the name of, to learn 50 words from a foreign language, to mingle with people outside your usual tribe, to learn to read music, to memorize poetry, to get lost in a city you do not know (my advice: try Venice), to volunteer in a project you don’t really understand, to read a book you would not usually read, to switch off TV at least five days per week, to listen to music you would not normally listen, to watch a movie without volume to understand by observing body language: in other words try to get out of your comfort zone and dismantle the way you usually think. Learning will occur in a mysterious and magical way.

Looking out: A boy stands in an archway in Venice

Image: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Rule 2: Failure is part of success, if we learn from it

I have a serious problem in accepting that the opposite of success is failure. On the contrary, I believe that a key element of success is failure, provided that we learn from it. Over the course of our lives, we collect many successful failures, those experiences which may be galling at first but which ultimately teach us not to repeat the same mistakes. You learn by making these mistakes. As the Chinese philosopher Confucius wrote: “I hear and I forget. If I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” To this one could add, “if I’m wrong, I do not forget, I learn and I can explain it to others.”

As reported in the book “Work Rules!” by Laszlo Bock, head of the innovative People Operations at Google, the United States spent $156 billion on employee training in 2011, a staggering amount. Like Laszo, I do not think much of traditional learning methods, in which one person speaks while others listen and take notes; in a corporate setting, this is better known as “death by PowerPoint”. You learn a lot more by actually trying to do something new and considering failure not as some kind of fatal disease to be avoided at all costs, but rather as a healthy step in our learning process. Let me share some examples.

Who missed 12,345 goal attempts in his basketball career? Michael Jordan, who scored on “only” 12,192 shots, is arguably the greatest basketball player of all times. Thomas Edison created almost 10,000 failed prototypes of his electric bulb, before succeeding.

In the business sphere, what do Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They all failed several times before succeeding in their endeavors, as this intriguing article explains.

Henry Ford wrote that failure is the best opportunity to begin again more intelligently. If we are never wrong, we have never learned anything of substance. Learning really means getting out of our comfort zone; in some cases, it can mean suffering before our ideas take off. Johannes Houshofer is a professor of psychology and neurobiology at Princeton. He posted a version of his CV on Twitter that was a long list of failures, explaining that failures are part of our learning experience, not something that we have to hide. If I were to write the list of my own failures this blog would be at least 30 pages long and, as my career progresses, my list of failures becomes truly impressive. So, I have invented a terms for myself. I have collected successful failures, and learned a lot from them.

Rule 3: Learning never stops

You never stop learning. In 1938, Ingeborg Rapoport had just finished writing her thesis in medicine and was about to become a doctor but, because of the odious racial laws passed by the Nazi regime, she was denied the qualification because of her Jewish heritage. She emigrated to the United States, where she continued her studies in medicine, working in many hospitals as a paediatrician and neonatologist before returning to East Germany in her fifties, where she founded the first clinic of neonatology East Berlin. In 2015, the University of Hamburg decided to remedy the injustice and, after 77 years, she defended her dissertation of 1938, and obtained her Degree at the age of 102 years. For her commitment to learning and fighting this injustice she is one of my heroes.

So: become a learning machine, enjoy successful failures and don’t stop learning even when you are 102. Let’s invent the future by investing in our learning. It will be – most of the time – a joyful journey to freedom, as nobody will ever take away what we have learned and our choices as people.

Note : This article was originally posted on Weforum

Paolo Gallo

Over the last 30 years, Paolo Gallo has been Chief Human Resources Officer at the World Economic Forum in Geneva; Chief Learning Officer at The World Bank in Washington DC; and Director of Human Resources at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development in London.

3 ways to become a learning machine was originally published on Shenzhen Blog

[theticklefox-blog]

Snatch the Series: My Review

Note: this will contain spoilers, so read no further if you haven’t watched the series yet. It will also contain negative opinions on some issues, so if the show was everything you ever wished for... this isn’t for you and I don’t want to upset you. Just enjoy the GIFs (which betray my biases) and skip the rest.

I really, really wanted to like Snatch.   Honest I did. I keenly anticipated it from the moment it was announced, despite my not being a huge fan of Guy Richie or the film version. The previews made the show look energetic and fun and most of the actors are consistently good, and playing types of characters they’re not necessarily known for, which I always appreciate.  Also, fans of the other actors, Luke Pasqualino and Rupert Grint in particular, were very kind and helpful in providing news, BTS video and rare photos as the series filmed, and were-- mostly-- good about not posting spoilers without a warning.

So it saddens me to report  I found the show more annoying than involving. A large part of that is due to the slipshod writing, underwritten characterization and reliance on jarring edits and often “WTF?!” character motivations and action that made it difficult for me to care about the protagonists (or even perceive them as protagonists, really... let’s say The Young Pretty People The Writers Clearly Wanted Us To Like.) 

Mostly I’m upset Marc Warren’s considerable talents were wasted on such a grand scale. So much could have been made of Bob Fink in the hands of a more creative writing staff... every week on Fargo and Better Call Saul, to name just two current examples, corrupt cops and wannabe gangsters (who are often the same characters) have rich, unpredictable storylines which give talented actors a broad canvas on which to showcase their talents and play off one another. But the Fink charter is merely insulted by everyone in his orbit from the beginning (which, frankly, just made me sympathize with him), marginalized in most of the plot and never given enough to do. 

I suspect Ed Westwick fans are also somewhat frustrated that Westwick, who was front and center in most of the promotion,  was too easily dispensed with in episode four, and that most of his colorful momements were actually given away the commercials. 

I'm still baffled by Marc’s treatment in that promotion. His name was literally never mentioned once by other actors or by the show’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, though he’s the closest thing to a main antagonist the show has. (Photos of his character appeared, but Marc was never named.)  Did Marc want to avoid being part of the publicity? Was it some sort of misguided decision by the marketing staff because Marc is relatively unknown here, or even because a handful of people keep whining about how much they disliked his character on The Good Wife? I just don’t get it. I’d like some answers about this.

But the promotional absurdities wouldn’t  matter if Marc had been given a decent role to play, and he was shorted in that department too... Fink could have been a great villain or a great tragic character, but, despite some great acting moments from Marc, he wasn’t allowed to be either. The character is bullied, deceived and marginalized by both his gangster friends and corrupt police associates, yet  the writing kept implying he deserved this without ever providing proof. 

Then there was the Vic Hill character, who the writers clearly intended to be charming, but I saw only a thuggish man-child who continuously jeopardizes his family and bullies his perceived underlings. I hated him from the beginning and he only got worse. Dougray Scott’s hammily overdone performance didn’t help matters. I was on Bob’s side pretty much from the start... if only the writers had a clue about nuance and a willingness to challenge their audience or divide it, but... no. There was no character depth to speak of anywhere.

As for the young leads... the old kiddie ganster musical Bugsy Malone kept popping into my head. i couldn’t take them seriously as adults despite the fact these actors are in their late 20s-early 30s and more than capable of playing bona fide adults if they’d been given a decent script. Instead they were given hoary paint-by-numbers plot cliches cribbed from every gangster movie since the 1920s, padded out by clumsily-executed heist sequences and flashbacks that played like music videos.  

In some ways it seemed like the series had two or three episodes worth of material, and the rest was filler, leading to a number of pointless tangents and inexplicable actions. The backstory about the gold was goofy at best, and nice coincidence about it resurfacing exactly when and where Albert, Charlie et al were planning to hijack Sonny’s cash (in an identical truck, no less). The show is full of such cartoonish improbabilities, though none delivered with the verve of an actual cartoon.  

There are repetitive flashback’s of Vic’s original heist (yeah, let’s show Bob getting heaped with more abuse... ), loony side-stories filling in for character development (ie Billy’s whole backstory... what a wasted opportunity that was. Though Lucien Laviscount did a great job with the few subtle dialogue moments he got between having to beat people up and listen to crazy yarns about his parents), repetitive scenes of Charlie getting impaired in various ways, an out-of-nowhere love triangle that seems to be there just to divide the main group, female characters who have too little to do in general except be feisty and supportive (or, in the case of Dwyer, feisty and cuntish)... I get the sense the scripts were all written in the weekend before filming began, and that no one really scrutinized them closely. 

Yes, I’m a Marc Warren fan and am biased. And I knew going in that he was probably playing an antagonist and that he’d get iced in the final episode... I’m used to all of that. Pretty much every actor I’ve ever admired from Lon Chaney Sr onward got typecast as villains or outsiders and got killed onscreen more times than Steve Buscemi does throughout the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. I don’t have a problem with that. Conventional heroes and the squarejaws who play them bore me. I love complicated characters and character actors who seek out such roles.   

But I don't appreciate youth-obsessed deck-stacking, treating bullies as heroes, and writing which both wants our protagonists to be “bad-ass” or at least risk-taking, yet continuously lets them off the hook, either through miraculous escapes or through having the older characters or one-note side characters take bullets for them or do the dirty work. Full disclosure: I haven’t bothered with the last two episodes because I was so disgusted with what went down in episode 8. I’m pretty sure the Young Pretty People prevailed and that Albert redeemed the sins of his father and finally said something nice to Charlie according to schedule. I can’t say I really care. 

As in The Musketeers, Marc played a bullied, mistreated character who I couldn’t help but care about, both because Marc is such an exquisite actor even in marginal roles, and because I tend to side with complicated or oppressed characters, not with self-described “heroes”.  In both shows, despite being the nominal villain, his character was shunted to the sidelines for too much of the duration, then suddenly given a lot of screentime just before being ganged up on and killed off.  So yeah, the worst kind of deja vu... in The Musketeers at least Rochefort had some fun or powerful moments, and I understood that the show’s episodic structure hindered a more nuanced character through-line. 

But Snatch has no such excuses. Also: couldn’t Bob and Charlie have had a sustained sequence or conversation without annoying cutaways to more trivial matters, like Vic torturing Charlie’s butler (which was played for laughs! God how I hated Vic...)? And why did Bob keep leaving the apartment? Apart from more plot-padding I mean? Why didn’t Bob shoot Vic when he had the chance? Because he really should have. Why was the whole tiresome side trip to America necessary, given how easily Billy got the diamonds back? Much of the plot strains on like that, making no sense. 

The Snatch showrunners keep comparing their efforts to Fargo, Noah Hawley’s brilliant offshoot of the Coens’ film (of all their films, really)... they need to stop doing this. It does them no favors and it makes me pine for Marc to get cast on Hawley’s show (or anything by Vince Gilligan) instead. Yes, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, because the writers on those shows know something about ambiguity, character development, unpredictable plotting, creative musical cues, and, most essentially, how to hire great character actors and write roles worthy of them, then give them room to breathe onscreen.   Hawley or Gilligan would’ve known what to do with Bob Fink. They could’ve done for Marc what they’ve done for Giancarlo Esposito, Bryan Cranston, Jonathan Banks, Bokeem Woodbine, Alison Tolman... even established stars like Ewen McGregor  and Billy Bob Thornton have shown new capabilities on Fargo. I would donate my left kidney to see Marc on one of those shows, whereas if the Snatch crew had created Breaking Bad... I'm sure Walter White would’ve been killed off in season one while the balance of the show went on to document the hijinks of Badger and Skinny Pete.   

I know I’ve gone on long enough, but I'm still bitter. ;) Marc Warren has really scaled back his acting commitments in recent years. I have no idea why, whether his priorities now lie elsewhere (and it’s none of my business to guess where), or whether he’s just not getting the calibre of role he’d like... if Snatch and Audible “Audio dramas” are the best he’s being offered, it must be very frustrating, but I don't want to judge his choices when I have no idea why they were made. Marc rarely gives interviews these days.  He has said in the past that Mad Dogs arose from the poor quality of roles offered him at that time. If he and his actor friends wanted to crowdfund something along those lines I would do everything in my power to promote that or help. If Marc simply wants to focus his attentions elsewhere and not act so often, that’s perfectly within his rights as well. Of course he owes me nothing. I hope that when he appears at Birmingham’s Collectormania fancon to do signings next month (June 3) he’ll give us a hint of some kind. (Don’t worry, Marc, I won’t be there... I only do the fangirl thing from a distance.) 

Anyhow... with Marc doing so few projects lately, it’s incredibly frustrating to wait months for something like Snatch, that so consistently fails to deliver. Marc does the best he can and has some great moments in spite of the limits he’s working under. As I’ve said, there was the potential for a great, messy, complicated character there. He deserved so much better.

[saturdayam]

Saturday AM Movie Review: WONDER WOMAN

So, last week...I peeped a pre-release for the WONDER WOMAN film.

It's a major event for several reasons not least of which it's the first major female heroine in this latest generation of big budget, inter-connected film universes, the first blockbuster planned film directed by a female director and the latest film in the critically-panned DC Extended Universe (aka the DC Vs. Marvel movie challenge) which is positioned as the SAVIOR of that potential multi-billion dollar franchise gamble.

So, you know, Wonder Woman is a BIG DAMN DEAL.

No pressure or anything...

The movie is directed by Patty Jenkins and stars Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Chris Pine as Steve Trevor and a diverse cast of men and women representing both World War 1 era soldiers and citizens as well as the mythical AMAZONS. In fact, it's the women of THEMYSCIRA that just OWNS this film. While I was glad to see the diversity (both ethnically and orientation-wise) of these warrior women was pulled from George Perez's remarkable run - I still wish they had gone even more ethnic GREEK (Perez preferred the idea that Diana was not an American nor native English speaker).

That is a minor issue because as I said, the AMAZONS are literally the BEST PART OF THIS MOVIE! Connie Nielsen is serviceable as a pensive, mother to Diana (aka Wonder Woman) and former Warrior, Queen Hippolyta but Robin Wright as the grizzled aunt to Wonder Woman and still a bad-ass warrior, Antiope just OWNS this segment of the film. Everything right with Wonder Woman as a film deals with this portion. Not only does it give us a young Diana as an isolated yet seemingly happy (thankfully angst-free) figure who simply wishes to protect everyone as the sort of warrior she idolizes amongst the strong, beautiful women she calls sisters but we get a cool 'animated' sequence that demonstrates the history of these women complete with Greek Gods (something I thought DC/WB would certainly shy away from to protect the middle-American Judeo-Christian sensibility). For the hardcore comic nerd like me, there is such a joy that this is the first time that this legendary group of characters is on the BIG SCREEN and with a sizeable budget so that the island, Themyscira, looks as gorgeous and as historical as I'd have hoped (something I've never both with Marvel's Asgard)!

When the story sets up its' second act with the battle breaking out between Man's world and that of the long-hidden Amazons, it's a pretty epic moment and makes me very excited for Justice League's rumored depiction of a previous war between the Amazons and the New Gods of Darkseid's Apokolips.

So, I LOVED the AMAZONS and honestly, the film is worth the price of admission for the first part alone. Afterward, it's hit or miss and this is where the film is fascinating to me because despite the film being a very paint by the numbers experience with one or two strong performances -- nothing in the rest of the movie is exceptional and yet it is EASILY DC'S BEST MOVIE SINCE THE DARK KNIGHT. Don't take it from me -- literally, EVERY REVIEW from most of the major Geek sites is saying the SAME THING.

This would seem to be high praise but folks...the reality is that the film is decent, not GREAT. The plot is relatively contrived, acting is passable in most cases without anything being transcendent, and the special effects run the now-familiar look of computerized cut-scene level graphics impersonating the actors during the more superhero-ish action-sequences. Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Suicide Squad were so GOD-AWFUL that a competent Ambush Bug movie would DC's best film since Dark Knight. 

What works in WONDER WOMAN is what eludes the other DCEU films...simplicity. The film is not attempting to be some teenager's version of high-octane, action-melodrama ala Zach Snyder nor is it trying to posit scholarly philosophical vigilantism theory ala Chris Nolan. This is a story in a nutshell about a woman who truly cares about people and who must confront the idea that cynicism has driven the rest of the world in violence that cannot be solved just from punching something.

When she meets Chris Pine's Steve Trevor, (his intro is pretty accurately depicted from the comics), the film shifts tone a bit more into a comedic-action fantasy. Pine is fantastic in his role. He has the looks, the charm, and the heroics to properly deliver on the idea that this Spy is tough but focused on the lives that will be lost if he takes no action. While one wonders if a grizzled spy wouldn't seem more realistic, Pine's charm brings the character an everyman quality that provides the appropriate response (one of awe) to Gadot's Wonder Woman. One could argue that it's a thankless role as none of the characters in Wonder Woman are written with more than a one-note personality and motivation but still, I found it worked more than not.

Likewise, Gadot is pretty fantastic. I have to admit that I found her physically unimpressive when she was first announced for the role during BvS. I felt weird as my commitment to diversity is pretty clear and yet I found an online "body-shamer" meme popping up occasionally whenever folks questioned Gadot's very slender frame. I think the idea of a toned and muscular woman warrior on the screen for everyone to appreciate especially as a major hero is not only obvious but profound. Think about it...how little do we get to see that style of physique profiled on the silver screen? Hell, Melissa McCarthy's body type has done more to normalize the non-model thin frame and with success and yet with Gadot it's kind of back to the status quo. That said, she clearly wants this to work. She's fully invested in the role and really brings the "warrior for peace" aspect of the character to life.

These two have real chemistry and it plays out in some of the film's best moments with great comedic scenes (Diana and Gadot are at their best when they are taking what Trevor says LITERALLY without subtext) as well as some cool action moments (the alleyway, bracelets scene is aces!). There is no denying this relationship is believable for the most part and smartly written. 

In fact, the second act which features Diana's introduction to "Man's World", is a solid continuation of the excitement from the 1st act. Many folks are going to really enjoy the first big action sequence during "No Man's Land" - an area of trench warfare that forces Diana to action once she sees man's depravity. While the sequence is pretty awesome, I couldn't help but feel a bit been there done that as well as the costume change for Diana coming across a tad cheesy. Many reviews make this moment seem like some religious experience but perhaps it's my age but I can honestly say that aside from excitement for seeing WONDER WOMAN in her costume in a battle for the first time (in this movie) - this scene seemed more mildly entertaining more than revelatory.

That said, it played well and the CG interludes while obvious were more than serviceable but it ultimately established my most disliked aspect of the film. The villain(s) were underwhelming, cheeseball, and lacked the menace that would have allowed Diana's earnest commitment to peace so profound.

This is not a DCEU problem, mind you.

As entertaining as the first IRON MAN film was the villain and the ending were every bit as lame as this film. Still, the acting and minor twist to the ending of WONDER WOMAN really elevate the film's writing to something rather enjoyable.

Simply put, I can't wait for a sequel. Seeing this crew, with the shackles off and more experience, and the CHEETAH??? Awww yeah!

WONDER WOMAN frankly works and when it's really firing on all cylinders...it's a JOY!

Is this DC's best superhero film of their new DCEU film slate?

Unquestionably -- YES!

Is this better than Bruce Timm's DC ANIMATED MOVIE Wonder Woman film?

NO -- NO and NO! Folks, if you've not seen THIS version then you're missing out. More GOD's, better writing (especially the Steve Trevor scenes), and some brutal, BRUTAL action scenes. Wonder Woman in that film is more feminist and bad-ass than hopeful as she is in the live-action.

Is this better than Marvel's Cinematic Universe movies?

Not really. I mean, it's nowhere close to Civil War, Iron Man 1, Winter Soldier and/or the first Avengers film, however, it certainly can live with the rest of Marvel's nearly dozen films.

I recommend folks see this movie for many reasons. We need more DIVERSE superhero movies (hell and more comics/ manga/ anime - but that seems to be a trigger nowadays to young folks who don't know any better) and this film could be the catalyst for such. I can only imagine the scenes in the film that showcased Diana's empathy and strength (both literal and figurative) will truly speak to young women and inspire them in much the same way that I hope Black Panther does in 2018 for young men and women of color.

WONDER WOMAN OPENS IN THE USA on JUNE 2nd, 2017

[venezuelablog]

Venezuela and the OAS Democratic Charter: Reply to Weisbrot and Ellner

David Smilde 

[This response was published yesterday on the Venezueladialogue.com blog as part of a discussion of the question: “Is the OAS Playing a Constructive Role on Venezuela? What Should It Be Doing Differently?”]

I appreciate Mark Weisbrot and Steve Ellner’s replies to my response to the forum-organizer’s question on the OAS role in Venezuela. I highly value spaces such as this one because I think progressives should feel a special sense of urgency to analyze and debate a left-project-gone-wrong like Chavismo. Not doing so allows the right-wing to control the agenda and stamp what is going on in Venezuela in a way that will complicate other left projects in the future.

The disagreement between Mark, Steve, Miguel Tinker Salas and me is an interesting one because we agree on most of the basic facts, but work with different political and theoretical perspectives and so frame them differently. For instance, Mark says, based on Miguel’s recounting of the history of the OAS:

“We are arguing that the OAS is at this moment controlled by powerful interests who are using it to help topple a government, for political reasons, not to improve the human rights situation in Venezuela.”

I could actually agree with this sentence if it were edited in the following way to give it a little more realistic view of the situation.

“We are arguing that the OAS is at this moment AND FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE controlled by powerful COMPETING interests who are using it to help CHALLENGE OR SUPPORT a government, for political reasons WHICH INCLUDE IMPROVING the human rights situation in Venezuela.”

First, of course the OAS is the site of powerful political interests. The idea that that there could somehow be “neutral,” “honest,” or “well-intentioned” mediation is simply naïve and uninformed by a century and a half of critiques of rationalist, foundationalist philosophy. What would “neutral” mean? Actors without political interests? Actors without cultures? Actors without histories? Who will designate these neutral actors? From what criteria? The same can be said for the demand for “honest” and “well-intentioned” actors. These are to be determined by which criteria? Judged by whom? There are no self-evident criteria, nor are there judges speaking Esperanto that will fall from the sky to resolve our conflicts. There are only human agreements based on arguments, consolidated into institutions. These institutions have histories and are inevitably the sites of struggle among unequal actors.

But in most cases, and certainly in this case, these political interests are competing. In the OAS discussion on Venezuela there is a bloc of countries that includes the US and with whom we can assume the US is engaging in power politics using its economic, political, and military resources to generate support. And there is a group of countries over which Venezuela has a large degree of influence: the Caricom countries that have benefitted from Petrocaribe and the countries that form part of the ALBA strategic bloc.

In terms of resources with which to influence allies, the US clearly has the advantage over Venezuela. But in terms of the structure of the OAS, it would seem Venezuela has the advantage. The one country, one vote OAS system gives small countries an amplified voice. So St. Lucia, with a population of under 200,000 people, has the same voting power as Brazil, with a population of nearly 208 million. And St. Vincent, with a population of 110,000, has one vote just like the US, with a population of more than 321 million. As a result of the OAS rules, the pro-Venezuela block has been able to hold off the Venezuela-critical block, despite having a fraction of the population and resources.

Indeed, usually when I have this discussion it is with right-wing supporters of unilateral US measures like sanctions. Their argument is that the OAS is structurally flawed and will never act with respect to Venezuela because of its petro-diplomacy and therefore unilateral measures are justified.

And that is really what is at stake here. Despite their inevitably flawed and uninspiring histories, multilateral spaces with clear rules and obligatory, public debate, are always going to be better than bilateral conflict that depends simply on guns and money. It is unlikely that the OAS will be able to come up with any sort of consensual plan of action. Even if it does, Venezuela will simply reject it. However, the diplomatic process, discussion and debate are extraordinarily important. They force the US to engage in diplomacy with countries in the region, make their arguments and listen to others. They force Venezuela to do the same. The process of diplomacy, discussion, and debate bring out new information, new understandings and new areas of consensus.

All of this could lead to some other multilateral initiative among a “group of friends” that could be key in facilitating negotiation in the Venezuelan conflict, as the Contadora Group did in Central America in the 1980s. The Contadora countries had a variety of interests of their own, not all of which were noble. But they succeeded in forming a counter-hegemonic bloc, that developed a strategy at odds with the goals of the United States. If we were to follow the criteria promoted by Weisbrot et al, we would have to reject the Contadora initiative because the motivations of these countries were not completely honest or well-intentioned.

It is good to be clear on what we are talking about here. The OAS does not have the power to “topple” Venezuela. In fact it does not even have the power to “intervene” in Venezuela. It only has the power to withhold its legitimacy. States become part of multilateral institutions not only to have spaces to engage their peers, but because these institutions provide them with added democratic legitimacy vis-a-vis their populations, competing authorities, and competing states. Venezuela forms part of the OAS of its own volition, signed on to the Democratic Charter in 2001, and even supported the candidacy of Luis Almagro for Secretary General. It is only now, when it is the focus of criticism, that the Venezuela’s government has decided to withdraw.

None of this obliges an uncritical backing of Secretary General Luis Almagro. As I mentioned previously, in my view he jumped the gun by about a year, and failed to do the groundwork necessary to develop a consensus. More recently, his statements regarding Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López being guilty of “crimes against humanity” were not only unstrategic, they were criticized as inaccurate by the Venezuelan human rights groups in best position to judge. Almagro successfully put Venezuela on the agenda of the region, but in my view his handling of the Venezuela case has impeded the formation of a consensus in the OAS. In any case, at this point his role is secondary. He put the issue on the agenda, but it is the Permanent Council and the General Assembly that can actually make decisions about Venezuela and the Democratic Charter.

Nor does supporting the current OAS discussion oblige one to regard the OAS as the preeminent multilateral space for discussion of the Venezuela crisis. I had high hopes for the CELAC discussion, thinking that without the presence of the US, discussion of a solution might take off. But CELAC member-states seemed to prefer the OAS as a space for this problem. UNASUR has made some noises, but does not seem to have any plans. It is the OAS that is in position to hold a discussion and form consensus in a relevant time frame.

Whatever forum the discussion takes place, it will inevitably be political. But that does not mean it will not include human rights advocacy. Seeing “the political” as purely instrumental and cynical is an old-fashioned fiction. Seeing sincere human rights advocacy as non-political is just as naive. Most politics contain a mixture of self-interest and moral interests, and the moral interests are often determinative. Political actors can be politically interested in human rights insofar as they think it requires power to actually defend them. There is no contradiction there. This will be true of the OAS, CELAC, UNASUR or any other imaginable forum.

On a final point, I am glad to hear that nobody in this discussion is arguing against the idea that “basic democratic rights are ‘universal’ human rights.” However, let me point out that my friend Steve Ellner’s most recent comment begins with the idea that invoking the Democratic Charter on Venezuela “would be justified in the case of a clear-cut systematic and flagrant violation of human rights,” but that this is not now the case in Venezuela.

How is it possible that a government that has postponed two elections and is now violating the Constitution by aiming to rewrite that Constitution without first asking people if that is what they want (polls show they don’t), is not engaging in “systematic and flagrant violation of human rights?” What is more, the electoral bases of the Constituent Assembly are so stilted that they will deliver Chavismo a majority of the delegates with just 20-30% of the vote. This Constituent Assembly is not based on any popular demand, but on the Maduro government’s desire to change the rules instead of facing electoral defeat. This isn’t a flagrant violation, it’s an obnoxious violation of democratic rights.

In Steve’s statement we can see the left’s long-term willingness to cast a blind eye towards violations of electoral rights as long as these violations are part of a supposedly progressive project. The same tendency can be seen in the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales statement that came out at the end of April, which is concerned about violence, but does not even mention elections. The truly unique historical achievement of Chavismo con Chávez was that it pushed forward with a leftist revolution through electoral democracy, threading the needle not once, but time and again. Chavismo con Maduro has betrayed that achievement, turning the movement into a crass power grab oriented more towards the well-being of governing elites than the well-being of the popular sectors whose hopes for a better world have been dashed once again.

[aion-rsa]

Shameless Season 11 Episode 6 Review: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good…Eh, Screw It”

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This Shameless review contains spoilers.

Shameless Season 11 Episode 6

“It’s the end of an era…”

Shameless widely advertised that this is the series’ final season, but this episode is the first time that it’s actually felt like the end of the show and that it’s getting ready to say goodbye. The first half of Shameless season 11 has been very messy and it’s even often felt careless at times. This is a season that’s been about change, both in respect to the Gallaghers and Chicago as a whole, which is a theme that’s been explored in many different manners, some of which have been more successful than others. 

Past storylines haven’t necessarily complemented each other, but Shameless’ final season starts to connect some of these dots as it prepares to head off into the sunset. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good…Eh, Screw It” is still a flawed episode, but it’s responsible and succeeds in a way that the rest of this season hasn’t.

Shameless finds itself at a turning point in its final season as it approaches the halfway mark and has characters in search of atonement for the radical decisions that are made in the previous episode. “Do Not Go Gentle…” begins with several Gallaghers in freefall mode and in a position where they can work towards redemption or just continue to enable their mistakes. This is hardly new behavior for the Gallaghers, but every mistake resonates more as the series gets closer to its conclusion. Lip glibly remarks that he only fell off the wagon for “just one night,” and it’s this mentality that’s a destructive note to leave the Gallaghers on. 

Lip drives the majority of the conflict in this episode and it’s seriously disappointing to watch him resort to robbery after coming so far. It’s major regression on his part and even though he leaves some racially motivated subterfuge to cover his tracks it still feels like he’d be the primary suspect in such a crime. It’s equally difficult to watch Lip skirt the truth while around Tami and deflect on important topics that he should be approaching with her as a team. Lip has screwed up plenty throughout Shameless, but he’s earned a happy ending at this point and it’s tough to watch the fragile life that he’s built for his new family continue to receive abuse. He gets pushed into a difficult corner that might affect the rest of the season. 

Lip is the worst offender in this episode, but Debbie comes in a close second when it comes to her relationship with Sandy and her future in general. This season should be about embracing the relationships that these characters have built rather than resorting to the same melodrama that polluted the earlier years of the show. Shameless eventually reaches this point, but it takes the season too long. This “surprise husband” twist feels like artificial conflict and it’s not even original considering that Shameless has covered all of this before with Jimmy/Steve/Jack/Rumplestiltskin. 

Extraneous drama may be Shameless’ expected routine, but all of this feels misguided, especially once Debbie seems ready to wipe the slate clean and reinvent herself through a new gig working at a gay bar. The majority of this rift is handled in a frustrating manner, but it’s resolution works well and helps provide some clarity to what’s been a very unfocused relationship. This story still would have worked better in the first or second episodes of this season, but hopefully the two will be stronger in what’s left of this season. Debbie has hopefully learned something from all of this, whereas it’s not clear that Lip has. 

Additionally, Debbie repairs things with Sandy, but her relationship with her daughter is still a disaster. It’s genuinely shocking that every episode has featured some despicable act from Debbie to Franny. It’s heartbreaking to see the damage that Debbie’s reckless behavior with Sandy has had on Franny, but also how Debbie pours salt in this wound in an unsuccessful attempt to use her daughter as a bargaining chip in her relationship drama. Franny is not in good hands.

Franny’s future is questionable, but Liam continues to prove why he’s become the beating heart of Shameless. He’s consumed with guilt over inadvertently shooting, and paralyzing, Terry Milkovich, which sends Liam down a spiritual tailspin where he worries over the fate of his eternal soul. Liam is such a pure, sweet presence in this series that it’d be tragic to see this random event cloud his future and send him down a dark path. His journey for absolution here is mostly played for laughs, but he at least feels like he’s properly repented by the end of the episode instead of accepting that he’s bound for hell and becoming worse. It’s also really endearing that Carl is the one who is able to soothe Liam and give him the right message after Frank’s advice only triggers existential dread.

Carl also does plenty of good outside of his family and it’s truly nice to see him use his new position of authority to selflessly help others. An earlier version of this show wouldn’t have been ashamed to have a Gallagher abuse their cop status to pressure someone into a date and so it’s extremely satisfying that the opposite is true with Carl. He’s a strong example of how much some of these characters have grown, as opposed to the destructive actions of Lip and Debbie.

“Do Not Go Gentle..’s” other major hurdle involves Frank and his dementia, which finally gets confirmed. Shameless honestly deserves some credit for the subtlety that it’s applied to this material. The hints that Frank has been mixing up names and events have been minimal and spread across several episodes. This is really the first time that Shameless draws some concentrated attention towards it. Frank’s ailing health is likely the big event that will frame the series’ final episodes and it’s enough of a catalyst for Shameless’ goodbye. Frank has often been an insufferable character in the past, but it’s been impressive to see how this year has carefully made him perhaps the most entertaining and enjoyable Gallagher so that this emotional blow will have as much impact as possible. 

Frank’s storylines and William H. Macy’s work in the role remains a highlight of this season and he’s already giving an impressive performance. However, it feels like Shameless is about to move into more somber territory on this front. There are small moments where Frank is around the rest of his family and earnestly smiles at their antics and the people that they’ve become, and they’re just so sincere. His family actively berates him, but Frank begins to value and take stock of what’s important to him in life and it really resonates.

It’s shocking to get a speech about cowardice and integrity from Frank to Terry Milkovich of all people, and that these two individuals are able to hang on while others like Lip are ready to cash in their chips. Frank and Terry’s resolve is over the frailty of their physical conditions, but it connects to the larger issue that Lip wants to sell the Gallagher house and leave Chicago behind. Lip tries to push the idea that selling the house is a positive change for everyone, but he’s the only one that literally needs this to happen and he shouldn’t get to be rewarded for his mistakes. 

This subject is far from resolved, but it begins to draw a line between the Gallaghers that have worked hard to rebuild their lives and those that continually tear down their own accomplishments. This decision might help everyone reach common ground, but it also has the potential to tear everyone even further apart.

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“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good…Eh, Screw It” provides the clarity that this season has otherwise lacked and this hopefully means that the final batch of episodes will be just as focused and reflect the higher level of quality that Shameless is capable of achieving. There’s definitely the potential for what’s to come to devolve into sappy and saccharine storytelling, but this greater sense of urgency will hopefully aid these final episodes. Shameless is often needlessly vulgar and juvenile, but there’s also a real sensitivity to the program and it’s the right approach for these final episodes to begin to embrace that.

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[glenmenlow]

10 Brand And Business Book Recommendations

Every year I am sent hundreds of brand and business books to review. Collectively they cover the most important concepts shaping the business world today. With help from my colleagues at The Blake Project, we dive in and take a close look at each of them. The most useful quickly emerge and we read the entire book.

Prompted this week by a client looking for book recommendations, here are ten of the brand and business books I recommend for Digital Strategy, Brand Strategy, Brand Management, Brand Storytelling, Innovation, Behavioral Science, Brand Purpose, Customer Experience, Marketing and Finance and Business Strategy.

I think you will find that each offer a great deal of actionable insights and are well worth your time.

1. Digital Strategy: Think Like Amazon By John Rossman

“What would Jeff do?” Since leaving Amazon to advise start-ups and corporations, John Rossman has been asked this question countless times by executives who want to know “the secret” behind Amazon’s historic success. In this step-by-step guide, he provides 50 ½ answers drawn from his experience as an Amazon executive―and shows today’s business leaders how to think like Amazon, strategize like Bezos, and beat the competition like nobody’s business. Learn how to:

•Move forward to get back to Day 1―and change the status quo. •Become a platform company―with the right platform strategy. •Create customer obsession―and grant your customers superpowers. •Experiment, fail, rinse, and repeat. •Decentralize your way to digital greatness. •Master the magic of small autonomous teams. •Avoid the trap of past positions. •Make better and faster decisions. •Use metrics to create a culture of accountability and innovation •Use AI and the Internet of Things to reinvent customer experiences.

In addition to these targeted strategies, you’ll receive a rare inside glimpse into how Jeff Bezos and Amazon take a remarkably consistent approach to innovate, explore new markets, and spark new growth.

Get your copy here: Think Like Amazon, 50 1/2 Ideas To Become A Digital Leader

2. Behavioral Science: The Behavior Business By Richard Chataway

If you are in business, you are in the business of behavior – and unless a business influences behavior, it will not succeed.

In the last 50 years we have learned more about how we behave than over the previous 5,000. This book shows how behavioral science has revolutionized our understanding of how people really think (or don’t) – and how we can use those insights in our businesses to influence behavior and gain competitive advantage.

Get your copy here: The Behavior Business

3. Brand Management: The Brand Bridge By Jerome Conlon

Marketing’s role is to create a brand out of the product, and transform it into a symbol. By translating the product’s tangible and intangible benefits into symbolic meaning, images, and feelings, marketers create a brand bridge that is loved and wanted, one that is willingly traversed to get to “the other side.” The meanings, images, and feelings that advertising attaches to branded products create the attractive (or preferably irresistible) symbolic identity as experienced by consumers. This is the brand bridge.

Get your copy here: The Brand Bridge – How to Build a Profound Connection Between Your Company, Your Brand, and Your Customers

4. Brand Strategy: Brand Hacks By Emmanuel Probst

Brands that succeed are the ones that help us find meaning. In this process, the brands become meaningful in and of themselves. Brand Hacks takes you on an exploratory journey, revealing why most advertising campaigns fail and examining the personal, social, and cultural meanings that successful brands bring to consumers’ everyday lives.

Most importantly, this book will show you how to use simple brand hacks to create and grow brands that deliver meaning even with a limited budget. Brand Hacks is supported by in-depth research in consumer psychology, interviews with industry-leading marketers, and case studies of meaningful brands, both big and small.

Get your copy here: Brand Hacks: How to Grow your Brand by Fulfilling the Human Quest for Meaning

5. Brand Storytelling By Miri Rodriguez

Despite understanding essential storytelling techniques, brands continue to explain how their product or service can help the customer, rather than showcasing how the customer’s life has changed as a result of them. Brand Storytelling gets back to the heart of brand loyalty, consumer behavior and engagement as a business strategy: using storytelling to trigger the emotions that humans are driven by. It provides a step by step guide to assess, dismantle and rebuild a brand story, shifting the brand from a ‘hero’ to ‘sidekick’ mentality, and positioning the customer as a key influencer to motivate the audience.

Written by the award-winning storyteller Miri Rodriguez at Microsoft, Brand Storytelling is a clear, actionable guide that goes beyond content strategy, simplifying where to begin, how to benchmark success and ensuring a consistent brand voice throughout every department.

Get your copy here: Brand Storytelling: Put Customers At The Heart Of Your Brand Story

6. Brand Purpose: Grow The Pie By Alex Edmans

What is a responsible business? Common wisdom is that it’s one that sacrifices profit for social outcomes. But while it’s crucial for companies to serve society, they also have a duty to generate profit for investors – savers, retirees, and pension funds. Based on the highest-quality evidence and real-life examples spanning industries and countries, Alex Edmans shows that it’s not an either-or choice – companies can create both profit and social value. The most successful companies don’t target profit directly, but are driven by purpose – the desire to serve a societal need and contribute to human betterment. The book explains how to embed purpose into practice so that it’s more than just a mission statement, and discusses the critical role of working collaboratively with a company’s investors, employees, and customers. Rigorous research also uncovers surprising results on how executive pay, shareholder activism, and share buybacks can be used for the common good.

Get your copy here: Grow The Pie, How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose And Profit

7. Business Strategy: Connected Strategy By: Nicolaj Siggelkow And Christian Terweisch

What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships–while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost?

This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity–involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions–mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency.

In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways–respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution–for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies.

Get your copy here: Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships For Competitive Advantage

8. Marketing And Finance: Financial Dimensions Of Marketing Decisions By David Stewart

Long overdue insights for the marketing community are found in this book about linking marketing activities and their outcomes to the financial performance of the organization. The theme of the book is that the marketing function must justify its activities and use of resources in terms of its financial contributions to the firm. More specifically, the book focuses on how marketing activities generate cash flow, growth, and other financial benefits for the organization. This perspective provides a framework for long-term investments for purposes of evaluating and ranking the funding of proposed projects.

Get your copy here: Financial Dimensions Of Marketing Decisions

9. Innovation: Costovation By Steve Wunker And Jennifer Law

Costovation solves the dilemma of how to spend less and innovate more. The book’s revolutionary approach broadens the definition of innovation beyond products to the business model itself. With Costovation, you let go of assumptions, take a fresh look at the market, and relentlessly focus on what customers really want.

Packed with examples and interactive exercises, the book explores cost innovation strategies that work for big and small companies alike. From open innovation and cost-sharing to simplifying products and turning waste into new offerings-readers learn how rivals are carving out niches, protecting positions, and dominating industries.

Innovation and cost-cutting are not opposites. Combined, they expose untapped opportunities to outsmart and underspend competitors.

Get your copy here: Costovation

10. Customer Experience: Building Brand Experiences By Darren Coleman

Retaining brand relevance is fundamental to organizational success, and an increasing challenge that high-level marketing professionals now face. In the past, many have responded with product or price-based competition, yet this can only propel a brand so far when it comes to retaining long-term relevance. Research shows that consumers are in fact driven by emotion and positive brand experiences have the power to drive engagement, while simultaneously offering countless options for competitive differentiation. Building Brand Experiences enables managers and executives to realize this and create tailored, relevant experiences that will appeal to consumers and drive brand performance.

Practically structured around The Brand Experience Blueprint, Building Brand Experiences provides a step-by-step guide to the process of building effective brand experiences based on tried-and-tested tools, templates and informed research. Combining expert insight and real-world examples in an anecdotal and digestible way, Building Brand Experiences is the essential guide to crafting relevant experiences that consumers will love, to improve brand engagement and drive results.

Get your copy here: Building Brand Experiences

At The Blake Project we are helping clients from around the world, in all stages of development, redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change through online strategy workshops. Please email us for more.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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