#or if a good character is racist then they have a quick arc of ‘oh no racism is bad(tm)’ and then everything is better

[evie-doesnt-write]

Watching Dungeon Meshi

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Mel Medarda

she is the richest woman in piltover who left her family because she didn't agree with the way they did things (conquering and murdering). she sponsors jayce and viktor, and courts jayce, which makes people upset because, you know, jayvik. she and viktor are CANONICALLY parallels with much of their imagery mirroring the other's and they are literally the same height. and people are so weird and misogynist and racist about her. they argue she is manipulating jayce and doesn't actually love him. i am cognitively disabled and cannot explain things well, but, she is so fucking shouldered

Black woman who has a romantic arc with one of the main characters Jayce. Jayce has a best friend called Viktor and their relationship is pretty important plot wise, shown as a direct contrast to his relationship with Mel even though only one is canonically sexual/romantic. So naturally fandom as the transformative safe haven it is villainized Mel horribly coming up with theories about how instead of being a complex morally grey character she's actually evil and just wants to seduce Jayce for Evil Reasons. Since they couldn't use her as a supportive female friend with no personality, others just ignored her existence entirely or acted like Jayce would ditch her for Viktor. Majority of m/m shippers will reduce her down to her relationship with Jayce and an obstacle in the way of JayVik, ironically writing her as a far worse and less complex version of the character we get on screen. The misogyny reeks and combined with the racism? It's a pretty bad case. Only slightly mitigated due to the fact that the main characters of the show are women (and the lead is a lesbian) so thankfully the male focus of fandom is lessened as opposed to filling almost every inch. Still awful to try and search for good Mel content, godspeed girlies with taste.

She's one of the most interesting characters on the show, a rich politician, smart and beautiful and has a really complicated and intriguing relationship with the city's golden boy inventor. unfortunately golden boy has a sickly twink science partner so she gets sidetracked SO BAD

Nyota Uhura

She's Spock's canon partner in AOS, and I get it because they're not a great couple, but she gets villianized in fic so much. They constantly make her an asshole (which totally has nothing to do with her being black /sarcasm) and abusive just for the crime of dating a man headcanoned as gay. And I mean, I think Spock is gay and her being a love interest was unnecessary but still! She's cool!

Oh my god so in the Star Trek reboot she’s Spock’s girlfriend and the fandom has no idea what to do with her??? Like she is ALWAYS either such a bitch or like the mom friend? And there is so much more to her character than that? But they always break down her character AND find a quick and easy way to break up her and Spock. I’m not even mad at that but at least treat their relationship with some weight instead of just being like ‘it never mattered’. People can love multiple people throughout the course of their lives. You know that right? Just because you loved someone before doesn’t make your new love any less special. And even headcanoning Spock as gay… you realize he doesn’t need to be attracted to Uhura for their relationship to have mattered, right? Even if he confused friendship for romantic attraction, him feeling such strong friendship and openly expressing it is so monumental for him!!! 

she's dating Spock, who people ship with Kirk, so fans have decided that it's horrible writing and "really, they're just defending her, the movies turned her into just a love interests," which is not at all true. The movies do so much more for her to the point that the fans who have only seen the movies think that the main characters are Kirk, Spock, and Uhura instead of the Kirk, Spock, McCoy of the original series. Also having a black women being shown as being desired and loved in mainstream media, particularly by one of the most popular characters of all time, is a good thing, not making her "just a love interest"

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

As a non homestuck, what deos that mean👀

ough i wanted to be vague and quick but no i wasn't im so sorry fnsdmag tw for transphobia mostly i guess

homestuck ends. it's a somewhat open ended ending and they dont show the "proper" final battle, but it was implied in the comic already how it was going to go. a lot of people remained disappointed in that, but i personally think its a good one

people keep pestering hussie, creator of the comic, to continue the story

hussie, well known troll (haha) who more often than not both praised and made fun of the fandom directly in the comic, writes the epilogues. they're mostly awful and they're the umpteenth big fuck you to the fandom really; one is the "shipping" ending where everything goes bad bc everyone focuses only on shipping, the one is the "fighting" ending where everything goes bad and everyone fucking dies basically. it has some good ideas, there's more fourth wall breaking, but overall its an inconsistent sexist and misoginistic mess made out of spite by someone who clearly didn't want to work on homestuck anymore

it also features character assassination, be it "this character who's entire plot was about not wanting to be alone anymore is now a sex-crazed maniac who doesnt take no as an answer", "this character who was groomed all her life to be a dictator actually becomes hitler" or "this character who a lot of people hc as mtf is now ftm, but specifically in a timeline, in the other they still identify as female". you could argue it's bc the story is about one of the characters having a villain arc and managing to take control of the story and rewrite them, but he's also regressed to be someone who's obsessed with a character we were told he wasn't in love with anymore AND also says transphobic stuff so.

hussie actually opens the epilogues with one of the character saying pretty clearly that they're "beyond canon", and makes sure that everyone known that anything written outside of the comic itself, including sidecomics, videogames and the epilogues themselves, is as canon as you want it to be. unfortunately homestuck fans cant read and that + the fact that the epilogue end in a cliffhanger, homestuck 2 has to happen

hussie wants nothing to do with it and leaves the project to someone else. they give little to no details of the plot if not a few plotpoints, one of which being the fact that a character must be named yiffany

one of the people who was supposed to work on hs2 and the tie-in visual novel games "friendsim" starts fights with readers on twitter and is later on outed as a really bad person of the biphobic and ableist variety

on a minor note, some updates are patreon exclusive, and not in a "they'll eventually be posted" way, but in a "either you follow the patreon or you dont get the whole experience" kind of way

the story also has to follow the aformentioned sexist transphobic racist bullshit, to which they add terribly written "bury your gays" plot and also cheating!! no matter the timeline my girl kanaya gets shafted and cheated on and by now im gonna be real it really smells like lesbophobia in here

also futa jokes. like we all agree that the candy jade situation is fucked up right

in all of this, "what pumpkin" actually starts drama with a youtuber or something. idk. it's the team that sells the hs merch it's even more complicated. oh and also the videogame being so delayed that's a whole can of worms too.

anyway hussie actually says that they dont give a shit no more about homestuck and sell the rights to someone else. first thing we're told is that they're going to drop the 2 from the title of homestuck 2, turning it into homestuck: beyond canon. pretty much openly saying that no, this has nothing to do with homestuck, and it's officially Not Canon.

[gender-snatched]

explain EXACTLY how clara is a horrible way for moffat to try to rip off rose but didnt manage to take any of the things that made rose a good character. Do it.

oh BABEY lets go. Under cut because you know how I get. Also because I’m tagging this and I have basic courtesy for Clara fans.

Okay, so this will be formatted in a very simple compare and contrast structure. Rose will come first in most examples.

Okay, so Rose and Clara have a lot of major similarities. First is that they are both romantic companions of the Doctor (where the Doctor has requited feelings, so not like Martha) who don't have an explicit kiss/confession/etc scene. They also both oversee the Doctor through a regeneration and have to adapt to a new Doctor.

That's not all that Clara and Rose have in common, but this is a good starting point to compare and contrast.

Rose and Clara both are in love with the Doctor and the Doctor loves them back. This is explicit, even if there isn't some sort of confession or kiss (prior to the beach scene/the end of Clara's run). I personally, as someone who didn't originally ship 9Rose/10Rose, think that Rose's was much better. Until I started romantically shipping Rose and the Doctor, I was able to injest their seasons as a queerplatonic relationship. I also didn't watch every episode and feel like there were distinctly romantic overtones that tainted it.

Clara is the exact opposite. Despite there not being any sort of confession or kiss, her run with the Doctor is completely saturated with the romantic tension in a sort of will-they-wont-they way. And it's almost unbearable if you don't ship them, which is so valid!

They also both have boyfriends at home, Mickey and Danny. Both Mickey and Danny are treated in similarly racist ways, but that's an essay for later. Mickey is Rose's boyfriend, and their relationship is cut short by her travelling with the Doctor. Still, we don't see Mickey try to actively stop her, and he does eventually even travel with them for a few episodes. Also, even though he loves Rose, we also see that he's had affairs while Rose is away, dampening any sort of sense of "hey should Rose have been having an emotional affair with the Doctor?"

Danny, on the other hand, is gained after Clara starts travelling on the TARDIS, meaning the relationship was never formed on a solid ground - Clara was in love with the Doctor. He's also deeply controlling of her trying to get on the TARDIS and travel, to the point that Clara lies about travelling with the Doctor. It's a deeply problematic relationship (and it ends weird jfc). It's a parallel to Mickey, except Mickey and Rose both remain at least likable in their relationship. This makes Clara and Danny both worse to me.

They also both see the Doctor through a regeneration (9 to 10 and 11 to 12). They are the only companions to do this - Donna didn't see 10 to 11 and Bill didn't see 12 to 13. It doesn't surprise me that it's tied in with their romantic feelings. It’s an easy romantic conflict, at least where Doctor Who is concerned. He changes his face and personality, is it still the same man?

Both react with a bit of concern at first, and surprisingly I actually really like Clara’s emotional conflict! Rose accepts it fast, which is good, but Clara’s little arc is fun. But still, not only is it almost unnecessary romantic drama, it makes this whole thing of “the doctor is so old now, is it weird I like him?” Personally, I did have that qualm about 12Clara. But I wouldn’t really have if it wasn’t for the show pushing it as a sort of moral thing. The way Moffat used it as this romantic roadblock made it seem like this terrible terrible thing (although I didn’t like 11 so I was vibing). In the end, it’s just another “too much to be a mistake” connection between Rose and Clara.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way. Bad Wolf vs the Impossible Girl. Quick summary first: Bad Wolf is a symbol that appears throughout season 1, only for it to be revealed at the end that Rose takes the heart of the TARDIS in and becomes Bad Wolf, spreading it through time to signal herself. Clara is the Impossible Girl because the Doctor meets her twice before actually meeting her (once as Oswin Oswald in a Dalek and again as Clara Oswin Oswald as a Victorian nanny), and she split herself into fragments to go through the Doctor’s history and save him from a guy who was doing the same thing to kill the Doctor.

So, the obvious parallels are that they both get that foreshadowing, it has to do with being spread through time, it involves saving the Doctor, and there’s a funky little name for it. Great! All of the companions up until Bill had a funky little name! (Seriously though where is Bill’s funky little name). But that’s not the thing about it. The thing is those other similarities.

The thing is, I’m insane about Bad Wolf. I love Bad Wolf. I think it’s a great romantic declaration as well as just so cool and interesting. But part of what makes Bad Wolf interesting is that it isn’t a mystery from Day One. I’ll admit that maybe it’s my personal preference, but the Impossible Girl is going “wow what’s up with Oswald” from the second time she ever shows up. Conversely, Bad Wolf is hard to notice and could just be a cool Easter Egg until the Doctor points it out in Boom Town. The need to finish this mystery keeps its hooks in more than the actual content of the episodes.

Also Clara’s stint as the Impossible Girl is to save the Doctor at the expense of herself. I don’t want to make this all about Moffat’s failures (although I could), but this is a common theme I’ve seen throughout Moffat’s era. The women seem to be completely there for the Doctor - even when they disagree with him. Clara is willing to die for the Doctor in this moment.

But that’s not what Bad Wolf is. Bad Wolf isn’t Rose going “I’m going to die for the Doctor”. It’s Rose going “hey, I’m going to save the Doctor (and Jack) and I won’t be left behind to a normal life I don’t want.” She didn’t know she was in danger! She just wanted to bring the TARDIS back to Station what’s it’s number!

And that’s what I don’t like about the companions in RTD’s ears vs Moffat’s era. RTD women certainly have their 2000s misogyny, but they pass the Bechdel test much more and seem to have far more agency in their relationship with the Doctor than any of Moffat’s women. All of Moffat’s women depend only on the Doctor while Rose was an entity separate from the Doctor - another reason her romance with 9 and 10 feels much more organic and palatable than Clara’s romance with 11 and 12.

Like. When Rose yelled at the Doctor it felt real and genuine and he worked to earn her forgiveness and Clara was like “that sucks dude!!!” and then remembered the Doctor was the Doctor and stopped.

Okay I’m done complaining about that. Onto the next!

I think I’ve run out of comparisons. I know I have more but I’ve forgotten them (hell mind) so now we’re going to go onto why Clara is just... less compelling than Rose.

I’ve already gone over the Moffat women vs RTD women thing, and I won’t revisit that. So I’m going to go over character differences that Rose had that made her more interesting and compelling that Clara is missing.

First, Rose is lower class! She’s got a lower class accent, lives in a flat with her mother, and works at a department store. She’s happy, but she’s lower class and that impacts her character! For example, like that one “what’re your pronouns and do you want to join a union” post about her and the Ood! She’s way more compassionate because of this, and care is taken to make her character from this (she wears Jackie’s hand me downs, even on the TARDIS).

On the other hand, Clara is middle class (? I don’t know how these things work in Britain). She lives in her own house, she’s got privileges, she’s a school teacher. And even though I’m middle class and want to be a teacher, it makes her harder to sympathize with because we see so little character of who she is here. Yes, she’s one of the most fully developed Moffat characters outside of her relationship with the Doctor, but it still isn’t that human, because it feels like it’s the standard of what you expect. Contrast this with Rose, who has a very real and well thought out life outside of the Doctor.

Rose also has more friends - or at least some sort of social life. She drops names - Shareen, a few more I can’t remember - and she knows people! Someone from the shop, or some guy’s daughter. When she comes back, Jackie fills the flat with people. Because Rose has friends! It makes her seem so human!

And then Clara has what? A few people, and Danny. That’s it. She’s totally dependent on the Doctor. It doesn’t make her any more human. And that’s the problem. Rose is human first, and a companion second. Clara is a companion (and female) first, and a human second.

Also, Clara is hard to concentrate on because we have seen this before. This sort of “will they won’t they” “they’re in love but they don’t say it” was done with Rose. We have a vague idea of how it’ll turn out, and surprise! It does turn out very similarly.

Plus, Clara has two fun things of “being the Doctor as a companion” and “being the Hybrid”. However, these are not written incredibly well, because of the obsession with keeping her a companion. Compare them to Yaz in Flux and PotD, where they pull off the “companion as the Doctor” trick without even having Yaz describe herself as the Doctor. In comparison, Clara is only the Doctor and the Hybrid if the Doctor is close by.

In the end, Clara is fun! There are aspects of her run I love! Time Heist is one if my favorite episode! The “do you really think I love you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” line is so compelling! Heaven Sent/Hell Bent are amazing episodes! But their potential completely outweighs what they were. So, when I compare Rose and Clara, I not only see Rose as a much more compelling character, I see Clara as an echo of Rose.

[1eos]

Wanted to ask: how is Arise as a whole? I love the demo but when I started playing the actual game I thrown by the slavery plot (my fault for not researching). I want to give it another try but that pink is giving me a racist vibe. Does it let up?

oh no i get u 100% when i booted it up and it said 'slaves' i was like HUH? no way....like no way....but so far (im like 30 hrs in) its avoided every common pitfall of fantasy slave narratives. the slaves don't all look a certain way and the slavers don't all look a certain way which i was worried abt. and the enslaved ppl havent done anything to 'deserve' being enslaved which i was also worried abt. everyone reacts to the pink haired elite girl w a correct amount of suspicion and teammates are chastised not for not trusting her but moreso for arguing when theyre abt to be like bombed 😭😭😭😭and the game does a really good job hammering home that no matter how much the pink haired girl helps them the slavers are overall the enemy. and in the arc im in now i was surprised bc they made a 'good' lord and then revealed that his 'benevolence' at the time was purely selfish. its surprisingly nuanced. even in the realm where other enslaved ppl help turn in other slaves theyre painted as victims who deserve to be redeemed and only the slavers don't

as someone who has a LOT of complaints abt slave narratives in video games (see my beef w dragon age) i don't have much to complain abt w arise. which is shocking bc i was VERY wary. they even made sure to never look down on slaves who didnt fight back and a character tells the main guy that survival is all u can do sometimes and that's ok. its hella clunky at times but ppl who are racist fr get killed like w no exception

the only iffy thing is the pink haired girl. she is VERY off putting and i can tell she's just a tsundere for justifiable plot reasons but it does come off as her being racist which is uhhhh. but as u progress u realize she don't like anyone slaver or enslaved and i THINK the story is going to push her to address her implicit biases and open up so she doesn't come off as a cunt. bc she is the first one to swing on a slaver so its very clear that she's pro liberation even if she's a tsundere that makes it seem like she's only doing everything for herself and like i said other characters are quick to drag her. so that probably will be the main thing that bothers you but once u get past the first 1 and a half story beats that part of her personality takes a back seat for better parts of the narrative

im glad i went in blind bc if i had known i probably wouldnt have bought it bc of how wary i am abt slavery plots but so far? im not mad at it and ive been really pleasantly surprised at how well things have been handled???

[alirhi]

Loki ranting

Okay. I had this thought in my head of like just compiling links of all the Loki shit I've posted/reblogged so far so that when I get into a conversation about the show and how it fucking disgusted me, I can just be like "here. here's this masterlist post, go read all this shit. This is my entire argument, and not only mine, but a lot of stuff posted by people far more intelligent and level-headed and eloquent than I am, whom I happen to agree with." Because the alternative is constantly getting fired up all over again, and that is exhausting.

BUT! I'm stupid and don't know how tumblr works. Apparently I can't just be like "give me all the Loki-tagged shit I've got" I can only search all the Loki-tagged shit on all of tumblr. And I'm not scrolling back through all of my posts. I talk too fucking much for that shit 😂

So, I'll try to remember all of my grievances with how the MCU has treated Loki, and all of the excellent posts made by other, equally upset fans, and put it all together here under this nice, neat little cut for everyone else's sanity and scrolling convenience...

For people who actually read my shit fairly regularly - bless you, you crazy, patient people. I love you! - this is going to be a lot of repetition of shit you've already read. Probably at least twice. I'm passionate and I have a terrible memory lol. Sorry.

Anyway, first, for those who don't know me and haven't been following my explosions of rage for the past couple of months, some quick background: I do not read comic books, so Loki's Marvel comic canon means nothing to me. I know almost nothing about it. The reason I'm so in love with the character in the MCU is because I am an eclectic witch and the deity I've actively loved and worshiped the longest in my life (literally for as long as I can remember) is Loki. So when he was mentioned in The Mask, I squeed. When they named Matt Damon's character after him in Dogma, I cheered.

When Thor came out in 2011, I just about died from happiness. I was hungry for any representation of this underappreciated god, no matter what it was. I didn't even bitch about how underpowered he was, because at least he was there. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

I can hear anyone reading this going "Why Loki? Isn't he, like, evil? Like basically the Norse version of The Devil?" Because I heard all this shit irl all the fucking time. And no. So let me give you a quick rundown of who Loki actually is.

Loki is a Trickster God. He's often referred to as the God of Mischief. He is not and never was evil, simply chaotic and hedonistic. Loki Laufeyjarson was the son of Laufey (that's mama; they changed her to a man for some reason in the movie) and Fárbauti. Right from the start, from his name, we get a sign of how Loki goes against traditional norms of the time, because in Norse culture, families were patrilineal, and surnames were "son/daughter of father" (which would have made him Loki Fárbautitason), not the mother. But Loki's surname is matrilineal. Feminist icon woo! lol

Though he's a Jotunn, Loki is counted among the Gods (Aesir) in Norse tradition. Depending on his mood, he is alternately helpful or disruptive to the other Gods. I'm not gonna sit and teach a whole text class on him lol but I'll use my favorite example of Misunderstood Loki - the conception of Sleipnir!

So, get this shit. This is also part of why I DO NOT follow Odin and never fucking will (a very small part, but still part of the reason). So, the other Norse Gods are petty motherfuckers, and they wanted some shit built but didn't want to pay the dude doing the building. So they were like "okay, if you can get it done in X amount of time, we'll pay you, but if you can't manage it NO MATTER WHAT, this whole thing is free." And they made sure he had NO help, nothing but him, his materials, and his Very Good Horsey. And this guy and his horse were fucking BAMFs. So it was looking like he was definitely gonna get it done in time, and Odin was like "nah, fuck that shit. I'm cheap." and so he sent Loki to distract the work horse. Loki transformed into a mare and lured the horse away, got fucked, got pregnant, gave birth to the 8-legged (for some reason) horse Sleipnir. Odin rides Loki's son into battle. Um. Kay.

So Loki helped Odin be a petty mf, and Odin got himself a new pet out of the deal.

Oh, also, because he's smart af and a shapeshifter and a master magician and genderfluid, Loki "fails" to fit the super fucking toxic and narrow Norse/Aesir view of "a real man". He prefers intelligence and manipulation to solve problems rather than violence, he's not afraid to behave like a clown if it gets shit done, and that grosses the Aesir out, so they constantly ridicule him for being "less than a man".

Loki is the God of the outcast and the misunderstood. The marginalized people from all walks of life. He is the God of the LGBT community. In modern terms, he's pansexual, polyamorous (married to Sigyn and they are deeply in love, but boy gets around and I've never seen any indication that Sigyn gives a shit) and genderfluid.

Okay. Focus, Ali. This is part of why I usually post multiple rants instead of one big long one XD The longer I ramble, the more I get sidetracked and forget the original point.

So. Loki's awesome, and being a Trickster, is powerful as all fucking hell. There's not much he can't do.

And now we come to Thor (the movie, not the deity). Loki's there! 24-year-old Ali is spazzing! All is right with the world!

Oh lord, they've actually done him justice?! Amazing! He's complex and nuanced and emotional, just like the real Loki! I loved this movie. Loved. It. The climactic thing with trying to blow up Jotunheim never really made much sense to me until someone made an excellent point the other day about Loki being raised in a racist society that was racist against his own race, he just didn't know it yet, poor child. Baby Thor was never corrected when he pledged to commit mass genocide, so Baby Loki probably absorbed the lesson then that Jotunns=evil and killing them all will win his father's love. Anyway, 2011 Loki was a beautiful, heartbreaking portrayal of the God I've loved all my life and spent 24 years longing to see depicted on the big screen.

Then The Avengers happened. And I saw another Loki very close to Norse mythology - mainly, how he's treated. In the beginning of the movie, he's sick, exhausted, and in pain. He can hardly stand, he stumbles and needs help when he walks. He was very obviously tortured, and the sickly blue light of the scepter's control is in his eyes. That gets less and less pronounced as the movie goes on, showing Loki working his way free of it, but in the beginning, he's a mess. Because he was tortured and used by Thanos. Marvel directly confirmed this, and that he was under the scepter's/Mind Stone's control. Loki's actions are not his own in The Avengers. He's under both threat and Thanos' direct control. The movie actually shows The Other directly threatening him to keep him on task, because this is not Loki's plan. It is not what he wants. He's being used and villainized... Just like in real life. It hurt to see this done to him, but the accuracy was too beautiful to ignore.

Thor: The Dark World comes out. I've heard people complain that this movie is the weak link in the Thor trilogy. I disagree. I think that's Ragnarok, for a bunch of reasons, but we'll get there. (And for the record, I loved Ragnarok, too. It was a funny movie. Infinity War and the Disney+ series are the only portrayals of Loki in the MCU that I truly fucking hated.) Anyway, good, fun movie. Had its faults, as all movies do, but it still followed Loki's real-life arc in a way. How? By having Loki dragged back to Asgard in chains and imprisoned underground. Again, not super happy that this happened to my love, and having to see it on screen was painful, but at least in the MCU he's not chained to a rock with venom dripping on his face for eternity, so there's that. (poor Sigyn. how tired do her arms get, holding up that bowl? best wife ever, amirite?)

In TDW, we're shown Loki's love for Frigga, who favored him and taught him magic as a child. We see his bravado; his attempts to mask his true feelings, especially grief. We see him slowly coming back to himself after the events of The Avengers, and slowly mending his relationship with his brother. He accepts that Odin will likely never love him, but Thor just might, because they were close when they were young. "I didn't do it for him." No, no my sweet, you did it for your brother, and a little out of guilt for what happened to your mother.

At the end, Loki fakes his death and escapes, taking the throne, and I have mixed feelings about this. Not the writer's choices here; I love that completely! A natural progression in Loki's story. But my joy is tainted by how closely they're following the Eddas now. Because Loki's escape from his prison heralds the beginning of Ragnarok. And Loki will die in Ragnarok. I don't want to see that play out in front of my face. I won't be able to handle the grief (spoiler alert! IW broke me. I almost walked out of the theater. Loki's death was legitimately fucking traumatic for me. I don't even care how pathetic that is. That grief was real, it was intense, and I still shake and cry when I think about it.)

Marvel announces that Thor 3 will be called Ragnarok. The internet treats this as a shocking revelation. I roll my eyes and mumble "duh" to myself and move on XD

Then they say Ragnarok will be a buddy comedy. I throw up a little in my mouth and no longer want to live on this planet. If they're going to make something called Ragnarok, could they at least treat it with even a fraction of the respect they've shown these characters thusfar? Jfc. I mean, I'll see it anyway, because I'm a whore for Tom Hiddleston lol. But come on, people!

I hated that they made Hel the long-lost older sister and Fenrir her fucking pet/attack dog. Those are my favorites of Loki's children! Hel is such an incredible badass that the early Christians named their dimension of eternal torture after her! They were terrified of her, to the point of naming the place that terrified them most after her. That's awesome! And Fenrir's just the best. I love wolves. Those two details, and Odin's retcon of "we're not Gods! ...lol, except your sister. she's totally a Goddess. and def gonna kill literally everything, so... good luck! byyyeeeee" pissed me off royally.

The rest was great. I genuinely liked this movie. Still do. And they finally used The Immigrant Song! That was pretty cool. If they'd thrown in Bring the Hammer Down and Thunderstruck, I might've called this movie perfect. XD

I wasn't totally in love with their portrayal of Loki in Ragnarok. Yes, the falling for 30 minutes line was funny, as was "I have to get off this planet" and "YES! That's how it feels!" And "Get Help" was funny as hell. But also, like... There is no way Loki would have been the dumb one in that first encounter with Hela. Also, he can teleport and project copies of himself and shit, so... He would not have been that desperate to go straight back to Asgard and bring her right along with them. Loki's not stupid. But whatever. Movie's gotta movie.

What I did love was seeing the slow mending of his relationship with Thor continuing, and the badass fighting on the bridge. I also loved that, like Real Loki, Movie Loki helped when help was needed, was quick and clever, and while he was carrying out the main plan, he was also planning ahead and grabbing the Tesseract. Yes, that drew Thanos right to them, but that's a whole other thing. Loki never would have left that thing on Asgard to be destroyed or lost.

And now Infinity War. Hooooly fucking shit. You know what? No. I'm not going into this. He was killed, years of character growth were erased forever, my heart fucking shattered. The end.

Endgame. IW hurt me so bad I didn't see Endgame until this year. I actually watched Civil War first (for context: I had actively avoided all Cap movies until this year because I fucking hate Steve Rogers. I find him insufferable. Did not realize what I was denying myself until I watched CW and finally saw the charms of Bucky. When he appeared in IW, I was so lost. XD I was like "...who dis? Murder Jesus?" also I just... didn't care. I was numb by then from crying through most of the movie over Loki)

So, anyway. Endgame. Loki picks up the Tesseract in alternate 2012, escapes, fans go "yay! he didn't actually die!" I go "yes he fucking did. Five years of his life, gone. Five years of growth and change, erased. Loki is dead. This will not be the same."

I was more right than I could have predicted. Now we come to the point of this rant. Sorry it took so long, but you were warned lol.

The Loki series makes me so angry I actually get sick to my stomach. It was fucking TRASH. When I praised Marvel for following Norse mythology so faithfully earlier? Yeah. I DID NOT MEAN TREAT HIM THE WAY THE OTHER GODS DID. I did not mean paint him as a pitiful clown, a joke, a caricature of who he truly was, with his pain and suffering played for LAUGHS.

This is supposed to be 2012 Loki, newly freed from Thanos' control. The Loki we saw in the beginning of TDW - snarky, exhausted, nihilistic. The Loki who rolled his eyes and said "get on with it" expecting to be killed.

The bumbling clown flipping on a dime from posturing to calling himself weak is not 2012 Loki. That is not ANY Loki. That is Tom Hiddleston in a black wig doing what he's told by a shitty writer who had no fucking idea what he was doing and was salty about his (bad) original script (for something totally fucking unrelated) getting killed.

In Episode 1, Loki is mocked, imprisoned, stripped against his will, tormented, belittled, and given a flippant summary of all the trauma Actual MCU Loki suffered that this one skipped out on, with no context, no acknowledgement of the trauma he's already lived quite fucking recently, and with the narrative twisted to not only erase all the abuse he's suffered, but to make it all his fault. And this is supposed to make him want to help these people?

And worse, IT FUCKING WORKS. WHAT?! I CAN'T- FUCKING WHAT?! Remember when I said LOKI IS NOT FUCKING STUPID?! So why is he STUPID?

Episode 2, he's a child. Mentally, this Loki is a fucking child. Now we've erased all the growth and development of his entire adult life. He's dopey, impatient, impulsive, desperate for a pat on the back and actually shows it. Yes, abused and neglected children crave the positive attention we never received, and we often grow up to be a bit emotionally stunted. But not all of us, and not Loki. Not as we've seen him EVER in the rest of the MCU. Playful and a bit callous at times? Absolutely! But not a big dumb fucking puppy.

Episode 3, a ray of hope, despite Sylvie! (I hate Sylvie) Loki casually admits he's pan/bi; labels never come up, but he admits to being with both men and women! He sings! Not really relevant to whether I approve of his portrayal or not lol but Tom has a beautiful voice, Norwegian ("Asgardian" lol) is a gorgeous, entrancing language, and I could watch that one bit on loop for eternity and never get bored. And then, finally, we see a glimpse - a glimpse - of Loki's power! He stops a falling building and pushes it right back up! Are we finally getting to see what he can really do? Will the next episode bring us Loki in all his glory?

Nope. 4 and 5 we see him mocked and pushed around and utterly irrelevant. Again. We see tiny reflections of what he could maybe theoretically do in other random Loki variants, but the "main" (lawl. main. it was the Sylvie and Mobius show. Loki was never the main anything.) Loki? Nothing. He wears his heart on his sleeve for no reason, bonds with the man who imprisoned, taunted, and gaslit him, is killed, and continues to be a moron and a joke. Always the clown. Always the dumb one. The one with the bad ideas. The inferior Loki.

Don't even get me started on that finale. I can't. This already took so much out of me. Fuck Marvel. Fuck this fucking show. I just... I'm done.

[mashpotatoe]

There’s been a sort of pattern with Cartman doing things he normally wouldn’t do ... like talking to the Whites while they were grieving or sacrificing his wants for Stan’s needs .... dare I say character arc?

can i just point out how steadily better hes been getting ever since heidi ended things with him for good 💭 it mustve had a pretty major effect on him cuz you know how he reacted everytime she left him and since we never got a follow up episode i can only assume cartmans current behavior is the result of the breakup /yo quick shoutout to heidi turner honey that pink face mask looked ADORABLE mwah/ but his sacrifice yesterday truly left me shook... i totally expected him to throw the pangolin in the do-over machine like the asshole he is BUT,,, HE HAD A CHANGE OF HRART :') FOR FUCKING REALZZ SHDHD its weird how i see him getting healthier and more empathetic only in my hcs but when that stuff happens irl IM FUCKING BLOWN AWAYY ..........ahem ive been tracking his every good deed to help me live with myself ❤️ and to Think thats the same eric cartman from half a decade ago !!! he was mostly neutral and/or just sort of a dick (for cartman standards) in s22, even tried to save humanity from manbearpig buuut you gotta lose some points for the shit he pulled in buddha box :// like i wouldnt call it necessarily evil but still offensive. THEN (!!!) oh MAMA he was acting fairly civil throughout all of s23 and actually APOLOGIZED THREE TIMES 0_0 ... first in mexican joker //WHICH I KNOW.. is debatable... but i want to believe he was sincere in his apology after he realized his stupid 'pranks' on kyle have gone way too far the moment he saw how horrible the detention camps were. did he really not connect kyles heritage to the camps? who knows. all im saying is i havent heard the word jew being used against kyle in a while plus he did participate in the kiddush... goot times// then in let them eat goo then TO THE WHITES :o in season finale... was just trying to help which resulted in a Very Bad Thing but cartmans is just that. STUPID oh my god... i feel like if he did have bad intentions in that episode he wouldve done something much more catastrophic (?) and cartman like. but i was not prepared for yesterdays special at ALL... tbh i was expecting t&m to pull a world war zimmerman again go back to their old roots make cartman the most racist piece of shit on earth but to my surprise...! HE JUST DIDNT WANNA GO BACK TO SKEWLLLLDJSIDODOO;;+8OOFJSHSSHJE💅💅💅💅💅💅💅💅💅💅💅 THAT BOY IS OK SOME KING SHIT!!! STARTING OFF SEASON 24 WITH EARLY CARTMAN ESQUE BEHAVIOR BOOM GAYER THAN EVER SINGING BROADWAY SOUNDING SONGS ABOUT HOW NICE IT IS TO BE INSIDE.................. *shakes him* not only that but he. fucking did the right thing...... what i think happened was stans speech 50/50 half made eric rethink social distancing and agree with him half CARE FOR STAN... 👉👈 (and potentially didnt wanna get yelled at and lose his friends) he had NOTHING to gain from not killing that thing yet here we are. he looks so defeated when he hands the doctor the pangolin I LOVE YOU !!!!! IDIOT !!IDIDOSOSOSOAKSHEJSL :')))?) clears throat All i know is that someone answered my prayers. thanks xoxo

[paragonshep]

Happy N7 Day, friends and ememies, and welcome to an unplanned stream-of-consciousness thought experiment I like to call

The Bare Fucking Minimum

What is this, you ask? Well I am, once again, thinking about Jacob Taylor. Specifically, I’m thinking about the complete shitshow that was Jacob’s story arc. What were the themes, the overarching concepts? And were they deliberately trying to piss off everyone who romanced him? 

In honor of the announcement of a remaster that will almost certainly do nothing for him, I’m here to ask: if we assume that all the major story elements must remain the same, what’s the minimum that could be changed to bring all of his everything from a major shitshow to a minor shitshow?

Let me preface this by saying that 1) I am not a writer, and 2) I am not black. The scope of this post is fairly limited, and mostly relates to tidying up the themes and emotional arc while keeping the actual events largely unchanged. I’m fully aware that Jacob’s loyalty mission, for example, is absolutely steeped in racist tropes, and that a lot of people out there would prefer to just throw the whole thing out and start over. I get that, but that’s not something I’m equipped to do, so if that’s what you were looking for, this post probably isn’t the one for you.

This is also pretty much spun right off the top of my head. I didn’t draft this, I’m not really digging too deep. I’m just collecting and laying out some thoughts I had floating around in my head, so this is gonna get pretty disjointed. Feel free to throw out your own thoughts in the notes. I may or may not dive in and chat with y’all, since this is mostly just to get these thoughts out of my head and on a page. We’ll see once things get going.

Anyway let’s start at the top.

1. What’s it all about, when you get right down to it?

So, Jacob’s whole arc is a complete fucking mess and feels like they just threw a bunch of random shit at it to see what would stick, but ultimately I think it’s about masculinity and Jacob’s conception of what makes a man. I think the key to Jacob as a character is understanding what traits embody masculinity, and which people he thinks have missed the mark. There’s clearly things like strength and integrity, but follow-through, duty, and keeping promises seem to be major elements in his definition of masculinity. Put a pin in that, we’ll come back to that later. Unfortunately, it’s time to talk about...

2. The Loyalty Mission

Oh boy. Welp. Let’s get this over with, I guess.

So obviously this is racist and really shit and really Bioware should just throw the whole thing out, but again, that's not what we're going here. This is the part I've given the least thought to, so it will probably be short and not come to many conclusions. anyway let's grit our teeth and look for the theme that ties in into Jacob's greater narrative arc. Specifically, if Jacob's whole thing is "what makes a man", then we need to look at how exactly his father missed the mark.

Spoiler alert: it's duty.

Ultimately, his father was captain and it was his obligation to get the crew home, even if it was personally inconvenient. It was his duty as a father to try to get home himself for the sake of his family. It was about obligation, oaths and promises he broke. Can I get some uhhhhhhhhhhhh fucking themes. Dive into that shit more.

I’m too tired to get more into it bc I’m actually writing this section last, but it’s interesting to note that even afterwards Jacob’s feelings about his father are complicated. Like, he hates the guy and thinks he’s despicable, but he still feels a need to try to find that things he got even half right. He can’t bring himself to write off everything the man ever was. That feels like a rich vein they could have done something with, but they didn’t.

3. The Romance, ME2

This one is an absolute fucking mess.

So there are two threads running through the core of this romance arc: the kink/powerplay element and the time element, and a major problem of the romance is that it doesn’t really know which one it is.

So, I know a lot of people dislike the whole kink element just on principle, but I’m not here to do that. Not everyone is into soft vanilla stuff, and it’s a little irritating how much of the fandom (and the world) tries to paint kink as inherently evil or unhealthy. THAT SAID, the kink here is inefficient in terms of storytelling, it’s sloppy writing, and the whole time I played the romance I was thinking “What’s the point of this?”. The problem with that element, and the fact that the ME2 love scene focuses on it, is that it does not serve any overarching narrative, either in terms of romance progression or Jacob’s whole character. It feels slapped on. It’s just not good storytelling. (and while i’m generally for kink, I am also side eyeing Bioware for slapping this on ME’s first black character and only him. not offensive in and of itself, but feels like part of a greater racist picture)

I’m honestly shocked they didn’t lean harder into the whole theme of time, and specifically time running out, because it seems like the obvious choice. It’s built into the whole main plot of ME2, and it’s an element of multiple other romances. You’re all heading into a suicide mission, there’s a serious chance you’re all going to die, and you don’t have enough time. Like what the fuck! That would have been emotionally satisfying! 

Imagine if the final romance scene had featured Jacob coming to see Shepard and having this whole speech/rant about how he doesn’t like to rush into things, how he likes to take it slow and really get to know each other, but now there’s no more time and you both might die tomorrow, and he might regret this choice if you live but he knows he’ll regret not making it if you die!!!!!! That’s some real shit! it completes a narrative arc! It ties into shit we know about Jacob outside his romance!!! Why the fuck didn’t they go that route!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m still angry!!!!!

4. ME3

So Jacob’s role in this game is pretty minimal, so there’s not a lot to work with and not a lot to change. Good thing I can fix like 90% of its issues with one change:

It’s not his child Dr. Cole is carrying.

Like that alone you can use to fix a bunch of issues without changing the core themes of his character arc! It works in a romance and non romance playthrough! You can still do a fatherhood “doing better than my own father did” arc even if Jacob didn’t contribute the sperm, Bioware!!!!!

So here’s how I picture it: The stuff about meeting and getting to know Jacob can stay the same. The father of Dr. Cole’s child is someone we never meet who is generally out of the picture. Possibly one of the other scientists she was working with who were killed when their part of the project was complete. Her partner disappears, she goes to Jacob for help, and Jacob promises to help her and her coworkers get out and keep them safe. Remember that shit I said back under point one about keeping promises? Boom! Narrative arc complete. This would also serve as an excuse to keep Jacob from coming back the the Normandy, since he made a promise to Brynn and he’s going to see it through. This works even with a romanced Jacob, because he can love Shepard and also note that she’s not the person who needs him most right now! Is this a perfect solution that would please every player? By no means! But I bet a lot of us would be less absolutely livid about it!

In conclusion,

I realize actually implementing these changes would actually be a whole lot of work, and this is not, in fact, a simple quick fix. My point is mostly that this did not require changing any actual plot beats, just recontextualizing them, and that Bioware and the writer(s) responsible could have saved themselves a lot of angry players if they’d just picked a coherent theme for this character and stuck to it. There’s no excuse for Jacob’s writing being as incoherent and terrible as it is.

I could probably write a lot more about this, but since I’m basically illiterate this took me pretty much all day to write and I’m tired. Bioware Stop Being So Racist Challenge, and Happy N7 Day.

[lucidpantone]

Ooo the Elias confirmation is interesting but has me so torn. I wanna be excited for new spoilers but jeez I’m just still so unbearably bitter about S4. How do I shake the absolute bad taste it’s left about everything to do with wtfock...

The season 3 memory lane we’re all going down at the mo has me feeling some type of way...for all it’s flaws it was just so so good and remembering how good it was makes me love them again and then I remember all over again what they did this year and just ugh. Rah.

I’ve genuinely never been so cut up and confused about wanting/not wanting to support a series in my life. It’s so frustrating.

This is honestly is the hardest part about s4 to stomach. If wtfock just wanted a shitty season about a white protagonist who is a racist to just make some quick cash then why tf did they have to involve Moyo? Oh I know... because white people think well she is dating a black man she can’t be a racist anymore.What the fuck type of clownery is that?!?! I can tell by the writing that there is a serious lack of education on the wtfock writing team concerning race relations. I can tell that a young white woman in her 20′s wrote this season and actually thought this was really woke of her because its so naive and lacks real depth concerning the pain that Kato continuously dished out to Moyo with all her micro-racist acts. Also I have heard a lot of well Moyo did shitty things to Robbe. Yes he did and no one has forgot or has said that isn’t something he needs to work on every day because it genuinely hurt Robbe. However he wasn’t our main so in a narrative arc he is fulfilling the societal role of push back.... and also Aaron also wasn't super welcoming either I am pretty sure before he profiled a group of skaters as queer just for having long hair. Like Aaron you idiot 🤦🏽‍♀️. However Kato having racist tendencies wasnt even the biggest issue it was how mean and nasty they made her and as an audience we are meant to connect to her. She never really learned why the things she did were wrong she only “learned” they were wrong because they would cost her things but not why exactly they were costing her things. 

So in the end they sacrificed Moyo’s narrative arc to platform and forgive Kato but they never told us why and they never allowed Moyo to tells us why he was forgiving her. Uggghhh this is my biggest beef with s4. We used the black guy to prop up the “struggle” of the white girl but we completely stripped his agency away. It would have been more believable if they didn’t end up together and Moyo says they both of us need time to work on themselves. I know its hard to want to support a show that did such a horrible thing to their only moc character and trust me I get people walking away and telling wtfock to F-off but for me its more so not only sacrificing Moyo but by walking away sacrificing Yasmina. Honestly Kato season just fucked the arc for two poc characters and that makes me so damn mad. I guess am sticking around to support Nora because she doesn't deserve all the damage Kato’s season incurred but I don't blame you if you dont watch s5. The level of offense wtfock has committed is really hard to come back from. 

[popculturebuffet]

Hickman’s X-Men One Year In: Part 2: The Dawn of X

And we’re onto part 2. Since it took me a while to talk about Hickman’s Series outside of Giant-Size and the setup here, that’s in part one if your curious, I split this little retrospective into two parts, with this part here talking about the rest of the books. This isn’t to say they aren’t great, many of them are, it was just easier to do this as a two parter so with HIckman himself out of the way how did his hand picked batch of talented writers handle the lofty status quo he set up?Find out under the cut. Pax Krakoa baby. 

Mauraders Okay just to get this out of the way this is my second faviorite x-book running, after X-Men itself and it often equals it and far and away the best tile of the run and restored my faith in Gerry Duggan.  Duggan is not a bad writer and I blame the messy finish of his otherwise awesome guardians run with infnity wars on marvel trying to cram other characters into it and then a weird mash up idea that while cool, kept the guardians out of their own damn event and from confrting a now mad gamora, but that and deadpool made me forget the guy is a good writer and can do great things. Maruaders however won me back to him with intrest.  A unique concept, the x-men as pirates helping ferry goods to krakoan allied states and ferry trapped mutants from hostile ones, is fucking awesome. The only thing missing is nightcrawler and it’s clear hickman has other plans, though I still feel he shoudl’ve been on the boat as he has both the relation to kitty pryde and pirate pedgree that fit in perfectly.  Speaking of kitty after years of writers misusing her due to having a crush on her as a kid and shoving her into half baked romances with peter quill and her ex peter rasptuin, the latter failing so badly that marvel pulled the plug on their wedding because fans clearly didn’t want it, and battling my own reluctance ot see her front and center again, Duggan makes good use of her again: Kitty is given the unique hook of the portals not working for her and no one, even her old friend Doug after he gets back, being able to figure out WHY. Though I do hope Doug does show up here and explain it more, as him being kitty’s best friend once is rarely brought up since he got back and it’s silly it hasn’t been. But rather than take this on the chin Kitty strikes up a crew consisting of big sister Storm, first class graduate x-man, badass gay and kitty’s friend and ex iceman, bishop who reluctantly joins as her bishop more on that in a second and the best of them by a mile: Pyro. The original, finally brought back and given some intresting backstory: he was the first mutant brought back and felt good about it..t ill he realized that despite sacrificing himself to save a, if your familiar with the various cartoons this will be baffling but trust me, reformed senator kelly as Pyro himself was dying from the legacy virus, only to find out they did him first because they considered him expendable basically and naturally was upset over that, drunk a bunch of the liquor kitty smuggled in, for logan naturally, and passed out and then joined in on the rescue mission that formed the team because why not and stayed because it was a great offer.  Speaking of offers with a new purpose, Kitty accepted her old enemy Emma Frost’s offer to be red queen, which includes a seat on krakoa’s council and was basically emma’s way of saying fuck you to her old cohort who she was forced to bring back on to handle the seedier side of Krakoa’s dealings via his underworld connections, sebastian shaw. Emma is the fincical  backbone of krakoa, having the shipping connections to get the flowers in and out and now having kitty to handle the stuff she can’t and do some of the shipping, as well as again tell Sebastian, who naturally wants both gone and is pissy at Emma being so far ahead of him, wants gone. And while he’s seemingly succeded with kitty I not only have every expectation that while ressuection is failing to work on her she’ll be back, but that trying to murder one of the most beloved x-men whose consdiered family to among others three of krakoa’s captains, bishop after this series, four of their council, five if you include Doug whose best friends with both his left arm which is also a deadly space robot and the very place they live on. The only reason he’s not going to die 80 times in increasingily horrifying ways is because the five can’t take on that kind of workload and one murderous ass beating from half of krakoa and krakoa itself is close enough. 

Emma is easily one of the books best parts, being written back as she should: An anti hero who while quick with a cutting quip, truly cares for her charges, and mutantkind as a whole and has grown from the monster she started as or even the kind of person who’d use a therapy session from a desperate man having issues opening up emotionally after apocalypse used his body as a rental car to convince him to fuck her.  And yes that’s how things started with Scott and Emma and yes it’s really fucked up and yes the story treats it as such, though I still wish Scott would get actual therapy, but as Linkara recently pointed out in his House of M Review the Marvel and DC universes weirdly lack therapists for the most part and thus it was left on my mind the last two weeks.. and yes I know DC tried but when your final product at trying to serious tackle mental health is heroes in crisis.. I award you no points and god have mercy on your soul.  But while Emma and Kitty get the lions share of the focus the rest of the group is enjoyable, well done and intresting, if not given many arcs to themselves, but still have enough character moments to counterballance that. The standout of the rest of the crew is easily Pyro, taken from “why is he still dead despite being super popular and used in a heavy role in X2 that’s garnered fans of that version to this day and bafflement he became a foot note in the next movie and used in every adaptation” to fun side character with a skull on his face and a love of booze and setting things on fire. He’s finally given the respect he deserves sorta and while I hope more is delved into his ressurection angst, he’s a ton of fun and it again makes me wonder why it took 20+ years to bring him back, but i’m glad the right person did it. The rest of the crew are fun with Bishop being another standout.  That being said part of the reason there isn’t a lot of focus is simply because in additoin to our brave crew the book is juggling a LOT of characters.. the morlocks and calisto, both given a proper treatment after wya too long, jumbo carnation a minor character from morrisons run who was introduced in the same issue he died is emma’s designer, shinobi shaw and christian frost, the latter I question why a main relative of one of marvel’s a-list mutants who was one of marvel’s earlier gay characters hasn’t been used in a big way till now but no time like the present, Sebastian and the people he shares his big bad spot with Homines Verde aka those tweens who ran the hellfire club during jason aaron’s run because the man is nuts and who I only seemd to liked, brillinatly revamped as a racist replacemnt for the hellfire club and so far a clever threat. The book is just stuffed iwth good characters, beautiful art, and a great tone that combines spectacular humor with really good story and worldbuilding. It’s also a nice contrast to hickman’s stuff: don’t get me wrong I love hickman’s writing style but it’s nice to have something JUST as good.. but with a cheerier tone and less weariness to it, while still not lacking weight. I can’t wait to see where this goes.. it’s a pirates life for me. 

Excalibur:  Like most of the dawn of X-Line outside of fallen angels, more on that in a minute and even then that had an intresting new directoin for betsy braddock, I was pumped for this one. A team I loved: While I struggled to find a run I loved with Claremont’s run having Brian Braddock be a raging dick whose terrible to his girlfriend and gets away with cheating on her and Claremont not really bothering to explain Saturnyne or other characters and their history with Brian well to us yanks who never had the chance to read those tales.. though why stories by alan moore and chris claremont haven’t been republished properly or in epic collections is beyond me. Warren Ellis, who I now loathe for being a scheming weasel who treated women like garbage, had a decent run with plenty of warlock, in a weird phase where he thought he was doug, Moira and Wolfsbane stuff I loved.. but also had 30-40 something pete wisdom shacking up with 18 year old at most kitty pryde, with Pete at the time being basically Warren Ellis badass self insert character, and given recent revelations i’m pretty sure he damn well knew kitty was just 18 and even if he didn’t having his own fanfic character deflower her is just all kinds of EWWWWWW. He also had Colossus, fresh of being a villian for a while for understandable reasons, nearly beat pete into a coma in a jealous rage over the ex.. the ex he dated while she was still a minor, and left because HE , and editorial, was uncomfortable with it for damn obvious reasons. I can see why fans like to see her as bisexual and pair her with Illiayna.. I mean why the fuck not? They have better chemistry than most of he hetrosexual intrests and are paried because of that and not because the writer wanted to make out iwth kitty as a teenager and forgot “oh yeah she’s fictional and i’m 40!”  Christ thank god for Gerry Duggan.  But yeah moving on from that I was still pumped as a magical x-men book with Besty Braddock now captain freaking britan, and apocalypse on the roster. And rictor and jubille? nad rouge and gambit I guess.. I don’t knokw if they fit but whatever. Sign me up. The actual result is a mixed back. I do like Tini Howard’s work here to a point: Betsy gets good character stuff and theres actually good tension from the fact that the new captain britan is no longer primarily a british ctizen, and the book brought back a character I felt marvel needed to do more with: Jamie. if you don’t know, Jamie is betsy and brian’s, her brother and the former captain britian, older brother who went insane due to his powers and thus just goes around in his underwear convinced reality isn’t real and he can do what he wants and the tension with Jamie refusing to have anything to do with his brother for no good reason is really good. Rictor and Apocalypse are likewise good sensable additons: Rictor turns out to be a natural to being a druid which is a nice twist and makes sense given when he lost his powers the biggest issue with that was loosing touch with earth after having a connection to it be a vital part of him for years. Apocalypse as an ominus chess master slowly securing magic for mutantkind with some goal we’re about to get answers to is really investing and adds a layer to his character, that much like doctor doom he’s as much sorecer as he is scinetest and given the guy’s immortal, it dosen’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere.  The problem is the other half of the cast.. dosen’t really work. I fucking love Jubilee, a faviroite of mine as an xman despite not being a huge 90′s x-men cartoon fan, just feels kinda shoe horned in. Her son becomes a dragon and she worries about him constantly, but her worrying about her son possibly not being a mutant on mutant land could be done in any other x-book, and fraknly I feel her personality would fit better with the maruaders, and it’d be intresting to see kitty and her on the same team since both really haven’t interacted. Here she just feels like “well tini wanted jubilee and no one else did soooo I made her son a dragon to justify getting her”. I feel more could be done and hope Tini has better plans for her. Rouge is one of my faviorte x-men and All New X Factor and Kelly Thompsons work with him and Rouge made me like Gambit again, and I DO love their marriage and it was a way better idea than the one Guggenhiem had planned.. but while the idea of Rouge being reborn is intresting and all, she still dosen’t really get to do much and like Jubilee just feels weirldy out of place while Remy has that plus he’s annoying, as while he’s the only one rightfully supscious of apocalypse he also won’t shut the fuck up about it for five minutes. Ig et where he’s coming from  but it dosen’t make him less annoying. These aren’t bad characters, but sof ar they just feel weirdly out of place in a magic based book and unlike Rictor tini hasn’t made any of htem but Rouge feel in place. 

That being said I could ignore that more.. but the villians are also week. So far at least, as the return of Satyurne has given the book it’s first good antagonist.. but what I feel drags the book down the most from it’s potential is the bad guys; Morgan Le Fay is the first antaognist, being mad at apocalypse’s intrusions and corrputing Brian.. but her motives are just so boring: She wants power and to rule, she hates mutants... while “hates mutants” is a qualifier for every other antagonist so far, she just feels bland.. Tini just dosen’t make her feel like a good antagonist and it’s a shame as mutant hater or not she’s something DIFFRENT from the throngs of mutant hating conspiracies, mostly from russia in the other books... she’s just so bland it dosen’t work. And after her is Cullen Bloodstone who as far as I can tell is written out of character.. haven’t read his book but I had both a friend confirm it and having read his marvel wiki entry, it just seems like an odd turn to have him be a racist asshole. But even with all my problems and underwhelm here.. I still WANT the book to get from okay to amazing, and feel it genuinely has the potetial. I’ve seen books sharply improve after a rough first arc, Duggan himself showed me that with his Guardians run. Sometimes it just takes time for something to truly blossom and I have a feeling even with my issues, with x of swords coming up howard’s going to flip it all on it’s head and leave me standing there gasping like a moron. I have hope for that. And if nothing else the book is at least UNIQUE. And not in a trainwreck way: by giving mutants a piece of the magic pie and having them tackle far weirder threats, it’s at least doing something new and it probably lands for other people if not me, and if nothing else it does brian 80 times better than the claremont run did. not a high bar but I do like the character and it’s nice to see him take such an intresting path, and the same goes for Betsy. Tini’s still got magic to do, and I have a feeling it’s going to take me by storm very soon. 

Fallen Angels: Now for the other half of the coin as it were. Some fans weren’t happy about Betsy getting her old body back, and yes Psylocke wasn’t orignally asian but a white british woman bodyswapped iwth a japanese assasian and yes that’s as ludicrious and unteitonally offensive as it sounds, because horrible implications of said Body Swap or not, Psylocke was one of the few asian superheros of note. So to compromise , Hickman and co decided to split the diffrence: Betsy would come back and get a rank up to captain britan, while Kwannon, said assasian, would take over as Psylocke. Hence Excalibur above and fallen angels here and I was excited about it. The Body Swap thing went on a decade too long and this way fans got the character they knew as Psylocke in another book while the face they recognized would finally get some fleshing out. I was excited about that and while probably the least excited about this book of the intitial 5, it did have an intresting lead, two characters I did like (Kid Cable I grant was only under hickman who turned him from that brat version of cable who killed the one I really love to a good character in his own right), and an intresting antagonist in a sentient machine.  In practice it was okay. The best I can say is that writer Brian Hill DOES do a great job taking a mostly minor x-character and really fleshing her out and making her engaging and Kwannon’s quest to save her daughter is really compelling.. but the premise of those who don’t fit with krakoa dosen’t work with the roster given. Laura Kinney is not only sticking with the x-23 name after dropping the wolverine mantle for no reason previously, something Hickman fixed as soon as he realized how fans felt for her apperance in the main book, while Cable feels nothing like the far more fun version from Hickman’s X-Men and later Duggan’s Cable. Add in Husk and Bling who do deserve to be on a team but feel out of place here, and it just.. is okay. The book has an intresting angagonist and a great lead, but just dosen’t work as a team book and would’ve been better off being JUST about kwannon herself, who is far and away the best part about the book and i’m glad she got fleshed out. Not TERRIBLE but nothing special and it’s a shame given the antagonist, whose name I can’t even remember at this point, is intresting and ties into mutantkind’s greatest enmies being man and machine accoridng to house and powers.. basically a decent concep twith a flawed execution. Maybe hill’ sbatman and hte outisders run is better. I need to get on that. That being said the premise and idea is so far being done well in Hellions which we’ll get to, even if I’m being cautious really getting into the book with Zeb Wells track record. But more on that in a bit. 

X-Force: Time to make noise, bad guys leave us no choice.. you know the rest. But yeah X-force. The concept here grabbed me, having X-Force rather than just be the black ops squad but be literal black ops for krakoa, was really great and fit the brave new world.. what worried me was the writer, Benjamin Percy. Now a lot of x-fans probably knew him from the much beloved “Wolverine: The Long Night” podcast, which i’ve heard is utterly fantastic as is it’s followup.. but I hadn’t heard it, and had only heard of Percy from DC comics where under his belt was an okay teen titans run and a not very good and politcally unsubtle green arrow book. And i’m not against politics in comics it just wasn’t done at all well there and the “oliver queen looses hif ourture due to a shadowy conspiracy thing” was already done better by jeff lemire. So yeah I was going to give this a chance but figured like those books it’d start strong and then peter out.  I. Was. Wronnnnggg. X-Force is easily one of the best of the dawn of x and uses said premise well. It started a bit roughly, mostly becasue the first arc idnd’t make clear x-force didn’t exist yet but was a great origin story: a squad of military commandos working for a shadowy consirtum who become x-force’s big bad, plunge onto Krakoa and massacre a bunch of mutantas and assinate charles xavier. He comes back, though it’s trickier for obvious reasons, but it’s clear from this, and from wolverine and kid omega’s sucessful investigation and finding domino, that this can’t go on and thus X-Forces is formed; The intellegence and black ops arm of Krakoa and the one arm of it’s goverment exempt from the ‘dont’ kill humans rule”. What followed was nearly a years worth of fast paced adventures with good character stuff: Wolverine is in his element, kid omega, while I had my doubts due to quinten being way overused , turned out to be a perfect choice basically being a more compitent teenage sterling archer, cocky and loving this but also really good at his job, while Domino gets a great arc dealing with her trauma over her mutalation and having some of her power stolen by the shadowy masked dickheads while Colossus deals with his trauma over what went down when he rescued some Russian mutants, with the book slowly building up new threats and towards a showdown with Russia, something that’s also been built up by conflicts in Wolverine and Mauraders, which again makes the world of x feel more like an actual world instead a bunch of comics in one cast herd.  Jean Grey is good for intellegence, though by now seems to have noped out as she couldn’t take the toll, it’s not for everyone and most notably after 5 or 6 years of being treated worse and worse and written worse and worse and becoming a bigger and bigger piece of shit Beast is FINALLY put in the right spot: his darker turns aren’t ignored but he’s back to being an actually intellegent hero as X-force’s director, still a bit greasy but now for good reason and without a god complex or some such bullshit and with a tiny bit of his humor back. Not much else to say really, X-Force is well paced, enjoyable and gritty, getting the spirit of the team at it’s best down right while doing something fresh with it. 

New Mutants (Ed Brisson) Last one, New Mutants is the odd duck of the dawn of x line in terms of how it was launched. Fallen Angels ended up being a mini series both due  to Hill being busy and it’s cast being needed elsewhere but will presmibly get a follow up later, but it’s not the ONLY mini series in the line with Fantastic four/x-men, the giant sized one shots and now Empyre: X-Men all debuting in wave 2. New Mutants however is the first book to change writers and said writer STARTED in the middle of hickman’s run, partly due to scheduling delays but even before that it was partly by design and those issues haven’t been collected yet, with hickman’s short run being collected first. So you have a run that builds off what Hickman started but with it’s own ideas that started insidei t and suprisingly it .. really works.  While I do think there are better books in the line Brisson’s new mutants is enjoyable, combining humor and character work. New Mutants focuses on the sextant, which was first brought up in hickman’s run, the series of habitats for younger mutants on krakoa that the new mutants look out for, and while the original new mutants are in space, Armor decides to try and bring some old friends in to join in paradise with the help of Glob Herman, that big pink guy with a visable skeleton and eyes, and Maxine and Manon, who in the tradition of layla miller were created for an event and not great htere but turned out amazing under the right writer.. who I think also wrote that event but whatever, a pair of empaths and telepaths who have trouble grasping the right ethics for using their powers.  The four go to get one of my faviorite x-men back: BEAK! I missed him even if he’s weirdly suddenly repowered. Beak and his wife Angel only haven’t joiend in with their kids because his dad’s sick, and things soon escalate when a bunch of criminals try holding them all hostage and it’s up to boom boom, bored since everyone left her alone, to save the day! After that we deal with Magik rangling them and the team’s new mission statment: not wanting ot mess up again like she did with beak, who did join them but not without loosing his dad and then his memory of his dad thanks to the twins misguided efforts, Armor still wants to try welcoming new mutants in with the vetrans help, and thus we have our puprose: focusing both on how these younger mutant 20 somethigns of various ages from early to late work together to make a better world nad help their own get back to this world. it’s intresting.. I’m not in love with it like mauraders or x-force, but it’s still pretty good and their first big foe so far, DoX, a blog that well.. doxes mutants that haven’t arrived yet, seems to be intresting. Not much to say just pretty good and and better at mixing comedy and character stuff, and getting the cast right. Ed Brisson had already proven himself on old man logan, but this cements him as one of the hottest new x-writers around and i’m glad he was given a book here. He’s also succeded in making me actually like Glob Herman so that’s a plus. 

Fantastic Four/X-Men The first title of wave 2 and easily one of the best, right up there with mauraders nad probably JUSST behind it and ONLY because i’ts a mini series, giving the X-Men their first real step into the rest of hte marvel universe. Sure the 4 had cameoed in the first issue and there’s been mentions of krakoa in other books and one off issues but mostly Krakoa really hadn’t impacted anything.. but that first issue also set things up with Scott’s conversation with Sue Richards

Yeah and in case those who haven’t been aware of what’s going on with the FF lately and either remember franklin as a 6-11 year old or wondered why the hell he was suddenly a teen when they read this crossover, it’s actually simple; At the end of secret wars the Richards family was put on a bus, also so marvel could shove the ff as a proper team out the door due to the whole fox rights thing, and when Dan Slott had brought them back.. and cleverly had more time pass for the richards than for the 616 proper, so he could age Franklin up to his late teens and Valeria up to her early ones, allowing the richards children to actually age since Franklin’s age always had to stay vauge due to marvel’s vage and wobbly time scale. This way they get both consitant ages and more agency.  But the return also came with a price as Franklin, who if you didn’t know is so powerful he can create whole universe and shape the sturcture of the universe, had his powers break saving his family, and thus since he came back, he’s onlyg got so much of them left in the tank before they run out entirely, and it’s been an issue for him in Slott’s run as he worries about being the normal human in a fantastic family and comes to a head here, though rather than Hickman himself, who as mentioned last time has a marvelous track record with the family or FF series writer dan slott Hickman choose a wild card for this, though had both Hickman and Slott’s permission to do whatever he wanted: Chip Zdarsky, a modern marvel for marvel who’d writtne the four in marvel two in one but for some reason didn’t get the main book and this book makes me hope whenever Dan Slott bows out he gets his turn and while this is his first x-men work, Zdarsky proves he’s just as good here as is in most of his work on Howard the Duck, Jughead and Star Lord.. a weird selection I know but all classics. 

With this power outage, Franklin is worried his dad is, at least subconciously, not really trying to help him and to make matters worse teh x-men show up to offer their help.. and Franklin his birthright. The arguments made by both sides are great and I will be covering the series in full soon but in a nutshell the four dont’ want to give up their son/nephew, Reed dosen’t trust Xavier and feels he wants to use his son’s powers while the x-men feel it’s franlin’s choice and he’s old enough to make it, he belongs with them and he’ll be safer there. It also works because Franklin understandably isn’t swayed by either as neither is reallyt alking to him more at him, especially his parents .. and only tries the gate when Kitty Pryde, the two  bonded back in the 80s and a young franklin stopped her from comitting suicide long story but really moving, is the only one to tell him it’s his choice. This dosen’t go quite well though since Reed Richards, father of the year, decided to make a device to mask his son’s mutant gene and no one, including his own family, is happy about htis.  Naturally Franklin, with Val’s help, runs away.. and then as if it couldn’t get worse DOOM shows up wanting to help so now it’s a three way dance between them for hte fate of franklin. The series has gorgeous art form the dodsons a really damn compelling story and great setup for further stories for both lines and feels like the best of both franchises. It’s the x-men’s first huge impact on the rest of the marvel universe,a nd it feels like it with the ending showing that and showing this might not be the last time both sides crossover. It’s everything you could want from a crossover and i’m only being so brief because I want to review it soon as a huge fan of both groups. Easily one of the best x-men stories of the line and one of the best stories for both groups period. 

Wolverine:  We’re onto the final two, and Percy’s second book and the first solo.. and it’s logan again! Makes sense though: Wolverine only just came back from the dead, and while both is daughter and alternate future self carried the woverline banner for him, the original hasn’t gotten his own ongoing in some time. And so far.. it’s pretty good> the first issues a bit messy due to it’s lenght, but overall the book is intresting and has Logan graple with being the best at waht he does and if he can be better or if he deserves paradise while also delivering a compelling solo mission teaming Wolverine up with a federal agent who resents mutants. it also does some good world building, explaning why Krakoan drugs have things like wait lists (they want to control production closely both to avoid having the flower taken away and for quality control), and expanding the russia subplot while using Dracula of all people as a major antagonist, which is clever especailly since this isn’t his first rodeo with the x-men. Just a fun book wiht loads of promise.

Hellions: NOt much to say here as it’s hard to judge after two issues, buti f nothing else this series brought back the delightfully batshit Nanny, who just with last weeks issue offered to nurse Greycrow (who had his name changed from scalphunter because of course marvel did why wouldn’t they) and falling down. It combines humor with an odd but well thought out cast and makes Alex Summers intresting without making everyone else assholes, a hard but earned feet. If it continues to be good.. I dunno, especially since i haven’t been impressed by any of zeb wells other works especially his new mutants run, good god that one’s am ess, but so far he’s winning me over with a clever concept and roster full of deep cuts.  Final Thoughts:  I won’t be covering Empyre: X_men, though I did enjoy it and i’l save that one for next time. For now this has been a hell of a year of x-men comics, with even the weaker books still having something intresting and none being outright terribule and only one had a bad grasp on some of it’s cast and for a line this big and expansive, that’s a gold medal achivment. After YEARS of stasis the x-men have finally risen again better, bolder and stranger than ever. IS every book A+ gold star etc etc, no, but what’s important.. is that it’s all DECENT. There’s enough standout books to make it work but as i’ve made clear what isn’t the best of the best is still good or decent. There’s nothing bad, no one phoning it in or not giving an effort, everyone is trying thier hardest and succeding on SOME level even if not completely and that.. that’s truly amazing and I look forward to more of it as this line continues. Pax Krakoa and hopefully i’ll see you again. 

[conman167936]

So, I just finished Episode 4... (SPOILERS)

Um... what the fuck, DONTNOD?

I might be one of the biggest LiS2 fans out there, (I literally directed a Captain Spirit Fan Film) and even I was seriously underwhelmed by Episode 4. I love the first three episodes so much but this one was just... so problematic.

Okay, I’ll start by talking about the good stuff. Gonzalo Martin really gets to stretch his acting chops here, and it’s impressive. The scenery looks very good. The music, however, was surprisingly lacking.

So, the whole first third in the hospital was solid. Then, the scene with the racists was legitimately powerful, even if it doesn’t really amount to much. Later on, Jacob’s story of why he left is a touching scene, and the climax is actually pretty well done.

But where things start to fall apart is with Daniel’s arc in this episode. I wonder if Daniel being committed to being an ‘angel’ was DONTNOD responding to everyone who hated Emo Daniel. But the difference is, Daniel’s Episode 3 actions made sense given his circumstances. But here, I never understood how Daniel could possibly be happy in the church community, to the point where he would rather be with them than with Sean.

I guess that the idea is he’s suffering a massive guilt complex following the events of Episode 3, but we see so little of him in this episode that we can’t really explore everything he’s feeling. Surely once he realizes that Sean is alive, that would be more important to him than this stupid cult. (Which gave him an even stupider haircut, by the way.)

I also was not a fan of Lisbeth as a character. This game has done a great job of having conflict without any true ‘villain’. Even Merrill was just a guy in a tough position, and he never felt truly evil. But Lisbeth just felt irredeemably evil in a game of otherwise realistic characters.

Also, remember how at the beginning of the episode, Flores talks about how everyone’s looking for Daniel and no one can find him, and then later it turns out that Daniel is NOT keeping a low profile at all? I really think news would have spread faster about him.

And then we have Karen Reynolds. I thought she was written okay, and the actress who played her did a great job. But I thought Sean was a little too quick to forgive her. I think Sean should have yelled at her a lot more in the beginning, it just didn’t feel believable. You can still have the quiet discussions and them slowly understanding one another, but do that after a healthy amount of yelling.

Finally, I thought it was odd how everything seemed to wrap up nicely at the end of the episode, which begs the question, what the hell is left to do in Episode 5? It almost feels like this story should be over. And the teaser for Episode 5 did not instill me with confidence.

I really hope I’m not alone in this. I’m not just disappointed, I’m also really confused. DONTNOD was doing so well before and I don’t know how they could let this episode slide without a few rewrites. Maybe they were crunched for time, I don’t know. But at the end of the day, Episode 4 left a seriously underwhelming taste in my mouth.

...

Oh, and one more thing. The fact that you have access to a phone and can call Jacob but NOT LYLA really bugs me. Shouldn’t there at least have been a letter from her at the hospital? Did the game devs just forget about her? #JusticeForLyla please!!!

[gascon-en-exil]

Joining the Game Late: S1E3 “Lord Snow”

Synopsis

The Night’s Watch are for the most part pathetically incompetent but they and Tyrion continue to put Jon in his place. Jon’s older male relatives are all the proverbial two days away from retirement, sucks for all that exposition he’ll miss out on. Lots of quick intros for the king’s council that have assembled because Robert can’t manage money, no surprise there. Jaime plays the twisted knightly loyalty card for all it’s worth. Robert is a very visceral king in every way imaginable - no surprise too that his war stories include defecation. Two of King’s Landing’s biggest schemers head off Catelyn and reveal the former owner of the dagger used by Bran’s would-be assassin, which they do in a brothel because it’s funny secret. Cersei and Ned are both kind of bad at parenting but at least they’re trying. Viserys engineered his own impotence and only now realizes it, and also Dany is pregnant but that won’t last. Bran’s old nurse explains Westeros’s abnormal seasons, but not very well.

Commentary

As expected now that the bulk of the action in the Westeros storyline has moved to King’s Landing I’m getting more invested, as there’s a much wider range of characters and plot threads to take interest in. Granted some of the intros in this episode go by a bit too quickly to really appreciate them; of the king’s council I just had time to register the two schemers (one with balls, one without), the gay otter (yay!), and an old guy whose name I can’t even place after the fact. Of these only the schemer with balls, a.k.a. Petyr Baelish, a.k.a. Littlefinger shows some real early development through the crush on Catelyn he doesn’t bother hiding and his admittedly funny decision to bring her to meet him in a brothel - that he owns, no less - because it’s a safe location. Ned’s just a killjoy about it, and it’s hard to tell how much of that is basic prudery and how much of it is fear of being cuckolded. Ned strikes out with Sansa too, but he does get some good bonding in with Arya leading up to the episode’s ending scene where she’s allowed to learn from a sword instructor offering both development for father and daughter and combat-based worldbuilding.

Cersei’s own attempts at parenting are equally hit-or-miss, and you can get a feeling for why Joffrey turned out the way he did. Half her advice boils down to “when you’re king you can do what you want,” so when she follows this by trying to temper her son’s inability to understand any tactic other than adolescent aggression it doesn’t quite work as well as might have otherwise. I enjoyed more her scene with Jaime, as well as Jaime in general this episode. He reveals himself to be more than just an evil knight in shining armor, via an amoral opportunistic streak and a violent love (like that) for his sister. That last bit is especially noteworthy looking back on the show when one knows how it ends. Of the two of them Jaime is the one who undergoes a redemption arc only foiled at the eleventh hour, while Cersei becomes more solidly evil as the series progresses. Based on these early scenes though you’d be forgiven for expecting the reverse.

Taking a break from King’s Landing, Dany’s storyline fleshes out for the first time the Dothraki beyond abstractly racist stereotypes, with speaking roles for more of them and what looks to have been a real effort to craft a Dothraki language and use it realistically alongside the language rendered as English to convey a sense of the language barrier and where Dany and others are breaking through it. That’s more than can be said for the significant scene leading up to Dany’s confrontation with her brother, because the setup feels artificial. Dany asks about the slaves kept by the Dothraki, and this bothers her which introduces the hatred of slavery that becomes one of her defining traits and really muddles the message when she eventually becomes a Mad Queen. She then orders the horde to stop, dismounts, and wanders off the path alone for no apparent reason only to be assaulted by Viserys moments later. Granted the subsequent scene is pretty awesome (but for the fact that Viserys has never been much of a threatening antagonist), but what was Dany doing?

The Night’s Watch recruits got some screentime as well, appropriately since this episode is titled after the protagonist in their ranks. Tyrion and Benjen keep Jon from getting a big head though, and the two of them do some verbal sparring of their own that reminds us that while Tyrion is playing tourist up at the Wall he’s being implicated in Bran’s attempted assassination back in King’s Landing. Ooh, mysterious. At least Tyrion does follow through with his plan to piss off the edge of the Wall - priorities, you know.

Some bits of necessary exposition from the bedraggled men of the Night’s Watch and from Bran’s old nurse provide the first explanation for Westeros’s abnormal seasons, although at this point I’ve still got more questions than answers. It seems as though there are only two seasons in their world, and it’s universally assumed that summer = good and winter = bad which I’m calling foul on as someone who’s suffered a lifetime in the subtropics. Of course it must be awful for the temperate parts of the continent when the Night King is “Let It Go”ing all over the land for years on end, but what about climates where the winters are short and mild but the summers are a scorching, sweltering hell hostile to human life without the central AC that these people definitely do not have? That old woman ought to feel a Louisiana summer before she “oh my sweet summer child”s anyone. That line used to be a meme, right?

[redsandtemple]

Actually, I'm going to break down the response bc I'm bored and my personality is making drama apparently

Going in reverse order bc that's how I like addressing things.

Reminder to anyone watching this clown car that I'm talking about a real fucking person, and real fucking people here, in case the absurdity of the scenario was lost.

So, for the response given by @wy-oh-wy , let's get into it

Ableism part 2: electric bugaloo!

First I'm going to point out this paragraph:

"When they found out Scar was a disabled YouTuber (they did not know this, at first) they were amazed by how hard he worked and they were inspired to work harder, even though in my opinion, they already worked hard enough."

This is just, straight up disability inspiration porn thinking? I'm full willing to call this ableist, because this explanation just pedastals scar for being disabled. It's barely different from the barrage of youtube comments calling him "so strong and inspiring for being able to make content while wheelchair bound, haha, if I was in a wheelchair I'd die" lol?

“Recently, Rhayne had become physically disabled” so I AM right, this is internalized ableism? The fact that it is recent does nothing to further your point, and I could easily present this as something to further mine. Get better points lmfao

"The year before that, it was about autism awareness." Not my lane to be in, but since we've been in everyone else's already, I'm calling this one a red flag too considering the actual autistic community has been pushing for autism acceptance as how to present the scenario, but hey, I'm slicing cubed tomatoes at this point, so let's leave it at that.

"Their headcanon literally has nothing to do with disability or anything.  Scar is not the only character they hc as ace, either, like you have claimed.  It has nothing to do with disability.  ... You can cry internalized ableism all you want, but it’s not ableist to headcanon a disabled person as ace (which they aren’t, they’re talking about character Scar, not REAL Scar, hence why they talk about the characters with SCARS AND A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND when RYAN does NOT have scars and DOESN’T have a known criminal background)." I'll get to the latter half of this waffle in a bit but, for the record.

It is ableist to headcanon disabled "characters" as ace. I elaborated on it outside of the post, here specifically. I didn't call the other headcanons ableist bc it's not, it's in the fucking context lmfao. But here, I'll quote myself(quoting a friend) again:

“what you have to consider in all forms is the historical oppression and persecution of marginalized groups; this happens to be desexualization in case of this specific minority. yes, there is a “sexy cripple” mythos, i forget the word, but in general, borrowing from birdie’s analysis, is about autonomy.

real life people know if they are asexual because they are humans with free choice and thought, but headcanons are informed by the people who make them."

You! Are! Not! Exempt! From! Ableism! Because! You! Do! Charity! Work!

If you can't take criticism, you're also not a very good disability activist? If someone who's disabled (lika myself and the friend I'm quoting) says you're doing shit wrong then you're literally obligated to listen.

Most of this waffle you provided just is a mix of internalized ableism, regular ableism, and tangential points.

(Quick aside before I move on from this section: “I see joe as ace because i headcanon him as an android” is straight up fucking aphobia buddy. I don't even want to talk about the “It’s like saying that all villains cannot be minorities- it’s not homophobic or racist to have a gay or black villain” line because you clearly don't care about historical context anyways. You really wanna pull the race card? On an nbpoc? I can't even speak properly on the issue, why the fuck would you.)

Whatever. Continuing on

The argument on how the minecraft personas are not the person: this one is a fucking nuanced as hell discussion which I did not, do not, and will not ever get into the full semantics of but for consistency sake, I'm erring on the side of it mostly being an extension of the content creator, since you can't ever fully make a persona that doesn't at least partially represent aspects of yourself. Furthermore, I'm going to continue picking on the Scar example here and say that also holds true. The man literally makes wheelchair accessibility jokes in his hermitcraft videos (ie when he bought a chicken from stress and asked where the ramp was, then bringing up ADA compliancy before stress basically talked him up the ladder) but the fact that I have to do a deep dive analysis on some people who just want to have fun playing minecraft together is honestly really, really depressing.

I don't know who said it but forever ago someone once said "the hermits play scenarios, not characters." This is most of the reasoning as to why the end of "story arcs" on the server don't permantenly change the dynamics between the hermits. It's not meant to. This isn't mianite. If you want me to elaborate further, I'm willing to go through this in dms. But I think I've made my post clear.

What's left to cover

Well I think your credibility on this whole scenario is shit anyways considering you were willing to fake permission, your impatience in that regards shines through everything else about your character. You clearly haven't thought too hard about what's actually ableist since on behalf of rhayne you only managed to prove my point more, and the most difficult thing you managed to needle me on is a topic that everyone hates talking about. This whole response is sloppy and absolutely filled with logical fallacies, some which I didn't even bother with due to how little they had to do with the topic at hand.

Congrats, dm me for further conflict, I'm done.

[strawbewwysamurai]

Is one piece a good show? I haven't had anything catch my eye recently so I've got no manga or anime to watch :(( On that note, any recommendations?

HIYA!!!

Well for one, I'm biased to say it absolutely is! But if you want details then lemme give you some along with some warnings ! I’ll put them under the cut though to avoid a super long ask on people’s dash oh goodness,,, 

I’ll make this ask mostly about One Piece, but some quick reccs for you to look into will be:

- Mairimashita! Iruma-Kun!

- Natsume Yuujinchou

- Ao No Exorcist

- Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun [I DIDN’T FINISH IT YET CAUSE ONE PIECE GRABBED ME SO IF THERE’S ANYTHING WEIRD OUT OF THE BLUE IN THE LAST EPS  I’M SORRY BUT IT WAS VERY CUTE FROM EVERYTHING I SAW??]

- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

- Gakuen Babysitters [Again, haven’t finished, but super cute from what I have seen!]

And now it’s time for: Ashley Rants About One Piece ! There’s vaguing/minor spoilers since I’m warning about some stuff, but I’m gonna be as vague as I possibly can !

Good stuff [There’s a LOT so this is just notable things]:

- Found family is STRONG, main focus is more of finding a family you can love and protect and does the same back rather than romance for literally majority of the series. Adults taking in kids is also a huge theme and they canonly call them their kid/they're the parent. And once families are found and bonds are made, it is extremely impossible to break them again. From many events with the Straw Hats, to minor stories out of the main manga/anime with people like Law/The Heart Pirates, you’ll see the absolute most worst things trying to break their bonds apart, but it does not happen. Because the people who made them love and care for each other too much for anything short of a mutual decision to break it will break it. 

 [I could go on about other ways found family is prominent in one piece, cause it's THAT huge but i'll stop here. But it’s literally one of the main major themes!]

- The lore and story and world is one of the deepest and most engrossing I have ever seen. I used to watch and love Gravity Falls with my sister, and short of having actual ciphers in the show, One Piece is definitely similar in how much it makes you think. There are cameos and characters that pop up at the very start who are extremely important, and you don’t even know it until much further in episodes, by like, a lot. It’s extremely captivating, theories are everywhere for everything, not just what this grand treasure known as the ‘One Piece’ is, but also on so many other little things. And if you think something doesn’t tie together into the story, or a character isn’t going to be very relevant, give it some time, you will be surprised. 

- Heroics. The Straw hats are very adamant in the fact they aren’t heroes, despite the thousands of people they have saved and helped in their adventures. I personally love heroes and stories about helping people, so it’s a real attention grabber for me- They are literally just a rough and tumble group of kind people who will help anyone. And when I say anyone, I mean it. They have witnessed pirates they are trying to fight get mistreated by their captain, and their first thought is not to continue fighting said pirates- it’s to attack the captain for treating those who should be family to them so badly. But literally, every where you turn there is a kind act, whether large or small, by one of the characters. Even side characters do it, it’s just all very heartwarming. 

- Empowerment. The whole series is about following your dreams, no matter what it may be, and fighting for it. It can be something like finding a legendary ocean that everyone says doesn't exist, to even something minor. It’s about fighting for yourself and what you believe in and having the people who love you there to back you up, or finding people who will do so for you as you move to achieve your dreams. 

Bad stuff:

- There are a lot of heavy themes. We're dealing with pirates after all! Extremely sad backstories, especially Trafalgar Law's and Sanji's, kidnapping and destroying human trafficking rings/slavery, government corruption and grey areas- it could be a bit much if you're looking for something solely good times and goofy! I will say though, OP is very good at gags and goofs to balance out, and also inspirational moments that come from the bad- The Straw Hats may be pirates, but they're good people and will help anyone they can in danger even at their own risk.

- A few bad tropes. My fave, Sanji, is main victim to the 'pervert' trope, though at the starting half it's more hes a gentleman who likes ladies too much rather than actually weird for the most part. After a timeskip and dealing with a different bad trope, he's cranked up though so I mostly ignore it cause it REALLY doesn’t fit his character but I'm here to tell you the bad so!

The bad trope he had to deal with is what i can basically describe as trans gags. He ends up on an island full of drag queens/trans people who do nothing but make his life hell/assault him because 'hes not embracing his true self.' 

Its a much later arc, and only around for a few episodes really scattered here and there, but if that’s something you wouldn't like you could always skip the episodes and get a run down from me. Drag queens/Trans people are there again part of a different arc around the same time, but they're portrayed much kinder/chiller so it's less of a Deal than the Sanji one.

I will add though that in a recent arc, there is a main lady who we find out is trans, and from my perspective as someone who is trans, it was dealt with respectfully and nicely, much more so compared to the above, but no duh. 

- Racism: one of the main characters is victim to 'old media racist designs' and several background characters. The main problem besides that is their designs never got changed after the nineties, so Usopp- one of the Straw Hat’s and an excellent main character- and recurring background characters can be very- yeah, design wise, and even new characters pop up with racist gags inserted. Also after the time skip a lot of characters get lightened to fit their manga colors, which is kinda concerning to say the least.

-

Now again, this is all off the top of my head, so there could be more good/bad stuff I’m not listing simply because I just woke up and yelled here, so forgive me! But another thing I wish to say is despite the bad, it’s a really good show. Nothing has ever made me cry so hard as One Piece has [especially the Sanji arc I’m currently rewatching as it hits hard and close to home in a lot of ways], or feel so connected to or feel so Seen as One Piece. I relate extremely heavily to Luffy and Sanji especially, including some of the hardships and things they have gone through, so it’s an extremely comforting and inspiring piece of work for me to watch, to the point words can’t really describe how attached I am to it unless I go off on a tangent. 

I hope this post was helpful to you though! 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 220: My Villain Academia

Previously on BnHA: Shouto and Kacchan took on a purse-snatching gang led by a dude who could manipulate and control carbonated water. Katsuki blew a bunch of them up (but, you know... gently), but then Soda Sam knocked over a metal pole that almost killed some stupid lady. Thankfully All Might knocked her out of the way and Katsuki deflected the pole with another explosion. Meanwhile Shouto one-hit KOed the Soda Sam guy to wrap things up. Afterwards the two were praised for their quick and professional action, and All Might proudly headpatted them and it made my fucking day. We then cut to the Brotherhood of Destro, where the Detnerat CEO’s thugs brought in a “guest” they had just apprehended -- none other than the League of Villains’ favorite broker, Giran, looking somewhat worse for wear. DetCEO politely asked him for info on the League, and Giran told him to go fuck himself. So it looks like DetCEO’s gonna try to get this info from him via some unpleasant means. We then flashed back to a month and a half prior and cut to some cliffside where Gigantomachia was decimating the League of Villains (sans Dabi) and complaining about how weak they all are. Seems like AFO’s underlings have some issues to work out amongst themselves.

Today on BnHA: The series continues its streak of excellent chapters with a flashback showing what the League of Villains has been up to for the past however long. We open with Tomura and the gang crashing the secret meeting of some racist anti-mutant cultists to rob and murder them (which, can’t really condemn that tbh). Unfortunately they don’t wind up with much to show for their efforts aside from a sense of satisfaction. The thing is, they’re broke, and currently holed up in some condemned trash house in the countryside while Tomura sits around waiting for the plot to come find him. Specifically he’s on the lookout for a “great power” that AFO supposedly left behind for him, and also trying to track down AFO’s personal doctor -- the guy who developed the Noumu. Anyway, he seems pretty content to sit and wait, but the other members of the League aren’t quite so patient, particularly Spinner who only joined them in the first place because he was inspired by Stain. Fortunately for everyone, the plot finally does choose this moment to barge in on them all in the form of everyone’s favorite Goron, Gigantomachia. He literally rips the house apart, and then demands that Tomura prove he’s worthy of succeeding All for One. Fast forward to where we left off last chapter, and as Giganto laments that the League is too weak, Tomura suddenly hears the doctor’s staticky voice coming from the dude’s radio.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 226, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

so we’re starting with Tomura, who’s doing this

and then this

which I guess is only to be expected

oh shit hold up

feeling artistic today, were we Horikoshi? having some fun with that there fourth wall

“before we continue from where we left off, let’s see how we got to our present situation.” lol okay

so this appears to be a very nice house out in the woods somewhere. if I had to describe it, I’d say it’s the kind of house Detective Conan characters would get invited to only to find themselves caught up in a sudden murder spree (which they would eventually solve, but only after like three people were killed in a row)

but seriously, doesn’t it look like the power and phone lines are just waiting to be suddenly cut off at the same time that the only bridge back into town is conveniently blocked or destroyed, leaving them with no immediate way out and no way to contact anyone (because of course there’s no cell service either)?

by the way this is the best title Horikoshi has ever come up with, full stop

straight up thing of beauty, this

so anyways, apparently this is some weird cult meeting or something? and Tomura’s gone and crashed it

the examples he decided on, though. Horikoshi have you had some strange encounters with chocolate-hating cockroach fans lately or what

I see Spinner’s making do with just a regular dumb old sword nowadays. no more over-the-top Game of Thrones-inspired swordmalgamations. hey Spinner what is your quirk

holy shit

so basically they’re racist against people with mutant quirks. we had quirk supremacists, and now we have very nearly the opposite. this arc continues to be fascinating and Horikoshi’s worldbuilding continues to get deeper and deeper. this is so far beyond what I imagined we might one day get when I first started reading this series, and it’s amazing

also the Tomura-led LoV continues to somehow be inherently likable in spite of all the murders and whatnot. don’t know how they do it, but damned if they don’t pull it off

now all in favor of them killing off this entire gathering of racist shitbags and taking their mansion, say “aye.” I mean, why not. unless these people were all open with their family and friends about their secret Racist Society Gatherings, no one’s gonna have any clue where to start looking if they all suddenly disappear

anyway, so next page. is this Spinner’s narration, then?

holy shit does Spinner have an extra pair of eyes that I’ve only now just noticed or what. this is freaking me out

(ETA: it’s just his usual ninja turtles mask, but it seriously does look like there’s a second pair of slit pupils in this one panel and it had me second-guessing everything I ever knew for a moment.)

lol meanwhile Compress and Toga are digging through the CRC’s cabinets looking for shit to steal and sell

how are you guys so badass and so fail at the same time

wow and apparently these racists aren’t just racist, they’re fucking stupid as hell too

yes, a candelabra against the guy who can disintegrate people with a mere touch. you really pose one hell of a threat there

so Tomura’s dodging and he’s grabbing the back of the guy’s head!

show of hands, who thinks they’ll actually be smart enough to listen to him. ...yeah that’s what I thought

so now there’s some glorious carnage, and since we’ve thoroughly established that these assholes are The Worst, of course no one actually minds watching them all die horribly

and no one’s gonna mind when they finish off DetCEO at the end of this arc, either. because of what he did to that poor mouse. so apparently all you need to do to keep your audience rooting for the villains is to keep pitting them against Even Worse Villains for the rest of the series lol. plot twist, the League never actually faces off against Deku & Co. for the rest of the manga

I’m only half-joking, too. for me, it really all hinges on whether or not they’re actually responsible for the Noumus (because kidnapping and experimenting on children and turning them into your helpless minions and then getting them killed = Not Cool), and/or how much involvement they actually have in that. but if their hands are clean of that, I will gladly be Team LoV for as long as possible. it’s very easy to do just so long as they keep playing in a separate conference from my 1-A kids. not sure what I’m gonna do once playoff season arrives, though, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it

(ETA: and well, we now know that they have no idea where the Noumus come from! and that Tomura himself is a confirmed victim of Ujiko and AFO’s child abduction and manipulation games as well. so for now I’m perfectly happy to root for them. villains who are just doing their best.)

anyways, I guess it’s bad that I pretty thoroughly enjoyed that, huh

well you can always take the mansion as mentioned. you guys could use a more swanky hideout now that the Ol’ Villain Bar is out of commish

lol oh shit these guys really are broke

if only there was a company out there who recently branched out into the black market villain goods business and was looking to get in contact with you. but I guess we’re still a month and a half away from that. oh and also it’s a trap and they want to kill you (but you guys seem pretty capable of handling yourselves though, so)

also, this is easily the most attractive/least creepy Tomura has ever looked and it’s very strange. did you grow out your hair dude

lol what are you guys even doing

you had a sweet new mansion all to yourselves! just slightly bloodstained and possibly now haunted! but still a real steal considering you would have gotten it for free!

and now Spinner’s headband seems like a normal headband again. where did the eyes go. Spinner you’re starting to freak me out here

anyway, so Kurogiri was clearly the breadwinner around here. without him these guys have no clue how to go on. though Tomura seems to be perfectly content as long as he’s got a couch and a table to put his feet up on

!!! well LOOK WHO IT IS

hello Touya

so he says he’s the only one who’s been trying to gather allies, and Twice is pointing out that he’s yet to bring a single person back with him

and Tou -- I mean Dabi, says “that’s because they’re all trash”

is this how you talk about your good friend Hawks behind your back. for shame

ah okay, so now we’re getting a better idea of the timing here, as Tomura says it’s been approximately one month since Kurogiri’s capture. as you recall, that happened on the same day of the Overhaul raid, which was back in late September if memory serves. so this is now late October, which means that it won’t be long before the encounter with Giganto

(ETA: lol for real. in five... four...)

anyway so we’re flashing back to what I guess is the last conversation Kuro had with Tomura before his capture. I’m interested to see if we learn more about who he was planning to meet up with. probably was Giganto but we never confirmed!

“a great power.” interesting! well, Giganto certainly would seem to fit the bill

and now Tomura is staring at the Quirk-Be-Gone in his hand, and saying that Kurogiri failed in the end, and thanks to that “we’re having a real hard time searching for the doctor”

so now WHO IS THIS DOCTOR, THEN. I THOUGHT KUROGIRI WAS YOUR DOCTOR. WHY WOULD YOU SHATTER MY ILLUSIONS LIKE THIS YOU RAISINY SOB. CLIP YOUR FUCKING NAILS

also you expect me to believe that Giganto is a doctor? that Giganto? that one??

-- OH SHIT HOLD UP!!!

AHHHHHHHHH OKAY HOLD UP LET’S HAVE OURSELVES A QUICK BLAST FROM THE PAST HERE AS I GO AND SEARCH FOR THE PANEL FROM CHAPTER 59

okay, first of all!

I didn’t notice this my first time through, but it’s implied that this is the building where AFO is holed up and watching Tomura from afar. please note how this is not the Ol’ Noumu Warehouse. not even close

(ETA: hey guys is it just me or does Ujiko live in the fucking Chrysler building)

second, here are the two panels with The Doctor

and third...

okay, so this is something I’ve seen mentioned in Dad for One posts, and now that I look at these panels again... yeah. definitely a resemblance there. this is either the same guy, or his evil twin

and now add to that that Tomura just confirmed that this dude is the one who was in charge of the Noumu project. a project which we know most likely involves kidnapping children. and this doppelganger who may or may not be the same person is a fucking pediatrician. and not just anyone’s pediatrician -- Izuku’s pediatrician

which makes one consider two things. one, is it really a coincidence that AFO’s personal physician just happens to be baby Izuku’s as well? (although he might also be a quirk specialist that Inko took him to see.) and two -- presumably this means he would have treated other children in the Musatafu area as well, right? possibly including this boy here?

I mean, we all agree that this means this little guy was fated to be turned into this thing and subsequently get murdered by Stain, yes?

lol yeah so friendly reminder that this series has been pretty fucked up since long before we started dealing with kidnapped little girls and strangled mice and mansion cult murders

(ETA: okay so as of the Ujiko reveal I’ve gotten to read up a lot more about the good doctor here, and there’s one more thing which I feel should be added to this post:

this is from page 174 of the BnHA character book, and basically confirms that our lil winged buddy Tsubasa-kun here is the doctor’s fucking grandson. you know, because this whole Noumu plot wasn’t horrifying enough yet. let’s just see how fucking dark we can make it. holy shit.)

anyway! now that we’ve enjoyed that refresher, let’s continue and see where this all leads

lol Toga is poking fun that Tomura didn’t even deny the “you’ve been lonely without Kurogiri” part. and indeed, he still isn’t

and now Spinner is addressing Tomura directly and asking him “what the hell are we even doing?”

he says he’s here because he was inspired by Stain

apparently he was discriminated against as a child growing up in a bad area. people called him a dumb lizard man and he was used to things just being like that and he just accepted it as the way of the world

watch out kids, we may or may not be getting some fucking Spinner feels here oh shit

anyway, so that lasted until he saw Stain’s last moments on TV and was inspired by how he was trying to change the world all on his own

he says he realized for the first time how suffocating the world is, and he couldn’t sit still after that and that’s why he joined the League

wow Dabi

that’s all you’ve got to say dude?? don’t sleep on other people’s angst just because you obviously have your own horrific secret backstory that you have yet to share

so now Spinner is getting really bold and grabbing Tomura by the collar and shouting in his face that he doesn’t understand his lazy attitude

well Tomura? do you have a good answer?

the others are all watching, and Twice is the only one who seems anxious lol. Toga’s actually yawning and Dabi just seems mildly interested in where this leads. and Compress’s face is unreadable cuz of his mask

eh what’s this now

OH SHIT

ALREADY?? SO THEN WHERE WAS DABI IN THAT TWO-PAGE SPREAD FROM THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER

also wtf at Tomura diving to grab all his spare hands and (I presume) frantically scramble to put them all on before the wall comes busting down

oh, he looks very excited though

and not at all concerned at the fact that this dude just ripped his house apart. I guess because he naturally expects that AFO will be loyal to him if he’s someone that AFO left behind. remember how entitled he used to be about things like the Noumus? “I’m allowed to have whatever I want, right?” or something along those lines? no doubt he feels similarly about Giganto here and is probably in for a rude awakening in three... two...

anyway, so Tomura is explaining to the others that this is one of the “battle assets” that AFO left behind

oh boy here we go

“brat”? can the radio communicate his thoughts or something?? seriously, what’s up with that thing?

anyways lol

his face omgggggggg

that’s right Tomura, if you were waiting for shit to just be handed to you like how it always used to be, you got another thing coming boyo

anyway so now we’re finally back to the present! (which is still a month and a half in the past though lulz)

nah he ain’t weak he just needs to get up off his ass

so now Giganto is clutching his head and falling to his knees in despair as the others look on in confusion

!!!

DON’T TELL ME

WELL SHIT, O-FUCKING-KAY THEN

aggghhh you guys. so today is March 26 2019. as of my writing this, there is exactly one more chapter to go. and then that’s it. I’ll be all caught up. I am simultaneously excited and dreading that shit

but. here I go

[honeylikewords]

I am freaking out over all the Marvel news out of Comic Con. You?

Honestly, when I first got this ask, I was going to answer “no” because I legitimately hadn’t heard anything from Marvel at all. All I knew was that we were in for a bunch of Disney+ shows like Loki, which I wasn’t interested in, and Falcon and Winter Soldier, which I am interested in but concerned about.

But then I did a quick Google, and saw that there’s plenty of other stuff to be excited about, so here’s a listicle-style breakdown of what I am and am not excited for, as was released in the press junkets regarding the SDCC Marvel Hall H panel.

1. Black Widow: Nope, not interested. Way, way back in 2012, I might have cared, given that Natasha was LITERALLY THE ONLY WOMAN in the MCU with any agency or hero role, but now that we have significantly more women, significantly more interesting women, and women of color (who aren’t played by white women stealing roles from actual WOC lmao), I think we don’t really... need a Black Widow movie. I mean, cool that David Harbour will be in it, but, uh... yeah, count me out of that one.

2. Falcon and Winter Soldier: Yeah, I’m excited for this one! Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan have a lot of fun chemistry, and I hope the series plays up the fun buddy-cop aspect of their relationship rather than “doom and gloom, Steve is gone, boohoo” stuff. They deserve to be heroes in their own rights and to not live in Steve’s shadow. Also, I’m not hugely into Bucky Barnes (I kinda find him boring, sorry) so I hope the series will, at least a little, start to endear me more to him. But I am very excited to see Sam getting more screentime!

3. Eternals: Eh, can’t really say. I don’t know enough about the original Eternals, nor do I have any information about who the new Eternals will be to weigh in. Ask me again when we’re closer to the release date.

4. Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Honestly, some warning flags are popping up for me on this one. Much as I want more POC led MCU films (and just, fucking, like, any films in general), Marvel comics has a pernicious history surrounding Asian fetishism and mysticism. I’ve talked about it before with my hatred for Iron Fist, and the problems Marvel had during the big “Asian Craze” of the 60s and 70s, but I really do worry about re-adapting works based in and rooted in the comics made during those times. I don’t know enough about Shang-Chi’s origins to weigh in just yet, but I am on high-alert about how this could go wrong. Hopefully, though, with actual Asian and POC actors involved in the project, it will be done tastefully and respectfully. Hopefully.

5. WandaVision: Nah. I never liked either character to begin with so I’m not really gonna waste my brainspace on some TV show about a random white girl and her toaster boyfriend. I know that sounds mean but I have a lot of pent up anger about how the MCU depicted the Maximoffs, given that the Maximoffs were originally Jewish and survivors of the Hol*caust, but then somehow the MCU decided to make them not only white, but white people working with a literal N*zi organization. So I have beef with that, and I just... don’t care about Wanda or Vision. They haven’t been with us long enough for any of us to really, you know, see them have arcs or be meaningful people. They’re just kinda there. So no thanks. Maybe if the show turns out to be great, I’ll watch, but as it stands, I’m uninterested.

5. Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness: Eh. I never saw the original Doctor Strange because of the whitewashing issues and Benedict Cumberbatch’s, shall we say, history of anti-autism comments and classist perceptions about poor and undereducated people, so I just noped out of that. But I also didn’t like Stephen Strange from what I saw in the other MCU films I have seen him in, so I don’t feel like I’m missing much. If this movie turns out to be cool (apparently, it’s going to be the MCU’s first “scary” film, whatever that means?), I might see it, but for now it’s largely off my radar.

6. Loki: Nnnnnnnnnot especially excited. As I’ve said before, I like Ragnarok Loki, and that’s about it. 2012 Loki was, no joke, literally set up as a N*zi, and y’all know how I feel about N*zis. I’m not being hyperbolic. He is literally supposed to be equitable to a N*zi. So I’m disappointed that we’ve regressed all of his character development back in time to his worst stage, and we’re going to be seeing that play out in his show. Hopefully, the directors allow Tom Hiddleston to have more fun with Loki, because holy shit does Tom have great comedic timing, and I hope we get some redemption for Loki, because as it stands, I feel sad and hurt that they just threw away everything Loki grew into being. And if you’re one of those salty “Loki is a Classy, Intelligent, Sexy Villain, And Ragnarok Made Him DUMB, Give Us Back Our King” fans, please leave me alone. He was gross and greasy and weird and Ragnarok made him funny and likable, in me humble onion. Also, Loki is canonically not straight, not cisgender, and has been pregnant with horse babies, so, uh, let’s all just chill out and have some fun.

7.  What If...?: The What If...? comics can be really confusing and fun, alternatingly. So it’ll be interesting to see how this show manifests itself to match the wild, changing, freewheeling chaos of the What If...? storylines. Let’s see what happens!

8. Hawkeye: FUCK I AM SO MAD THAT THIS ISN’T AN ANIMATED SERIES BASED ON THE HAWKEYE COMICS THAT CAME OUT RECENTLY. FUCK. I would have loved that! But instead we’re getting Ronin Hawkeye (which sounds so dumb and also question-mark-y racist?). At least we’ll be getting Kate Bishop, I guess. C’est la vie. Not a fan of the Jeremy Renner Hawkeye, tbh, so I don’t know how this show will keep my interest, but fingers crossed.

9. Thor: Love and Thunder: BUCKLE UP BOYS I FINALLY HAVE A MOVIE TO CARE ABOUT YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW AMEN PRAISE GOD WE HAVE A GOOD MOVIE COMING YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FEMALE THOR AAAAAAAAAAAAA GAY RIGHTS YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

FUCK! I AM SO HAPPY OH MY G O D!

10. Blade: YEE FUCKING HAW! Mahershala Ali has been in the MCU three times now (1st as Cottonmouth in Luke Cage, 2nd as Uncle Aaron in ITSV, and now as Blade!) and I’m both pleasantly surprised and a little confused, since the MCU very rarely reuses actors. Oh, well! I’m so happy to see him back and I hope Blade does him justice. I worry that the original Blade (comics and movie alike) were a little, uh, Blaxploitation-y, so I hope this update will be more thoughtful and more progressive in its depictions. But at the end of the day, this is one I’ll be watching.

11. Fantastic Four: I’m worried but hopeful. The last swings at making a Fantastic Four film have been, um, mixed to say the least. Fingers crossed for a diverse set of characters this time! Although I do think that David Harbour being in the Black Widow movie does rule him out of being The Thing, as was previously speculated. Well, anyway, here’s hoping it’s good.

12. Black Panther 2: SHIT BOI DO I DIE I AM READY YES YES YES YESSSSS 

But please for the love of GOD bring back Ryan Coogler to direct. I don’t trust this story in the hands of, well, non-black people, especially because the story of Black Panther is so intrinsically tied to the black experience. That being said, I’m ready and excited for a return to Wakanda and to see what is next in T’Challa’s saga. Also, please, more Shuri, more Nakia, more Okoye. Honestly, Black Panther brought us some of the best women in the MCU so just... bring back all the ladies. Ramonda too!

13. Guardians of the Galaxy 3: I’m a little nervous about this one re: the issues surrounding the firing of James Gunn (which is, like, such a can of worms to get into), but fingers crossed. The GOTG films are really fun and such a great break from the rest of the dull, painfully self-absorbed MCU, so I hope that the light-hearted tone and center on found family comes back. I also hear that this one will be more female-centric (focusing on Gamora, I believe?) so that’s good to hear!

14. Captain Marvel 2: I didn’t see the first one, but, hey, my lesbian friends sure are happy to have Carol back so you’ve got my approval on that one, Marvel.

15. Mutants: DOES THIS MEAN...MCU X-MEN...I’M SCARED...SOMEONE HOLD ME

16. This one technically isn’t MCU but it’s what I’m most excited for...

THE SPIDERMAN 2099 COMICS ARE COMING BACK!

I’M SO HAPPY I GET TO SEE MY BOY MIGGY AGAIN I AM SO SO SO SO HAPPY OH MY GOD I WAS SO SCARED THEY’D PERMANENTLY CANCELLED MIGGY BUT HE’S HOME I GET TO SEE HIM AGAIN I COULD JUST C R Y AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

anyway, that’s just what I’m excited for. Y’all tell me if I missed anything or if there’s other updates or news! Or tell me what you’re excited for-- I’d love to hear!