theoneandonlyocelot

[theoneandonlyocelot]

Unexpected Austen

I am having unexpected Jane Austen feels tonight.

Austen is one of the very few authors I reread habitually, and mostly Pride & Prejudice. And I’ve read commentary that criticizes Mrs Bennet for her extreme silliness, and a few that point out that she’s the only one who takes her daughters’ predicament seriously, and one who pointed out that even Lizzie, for all her cleverness, seems remarkably blasé about it - even naïve, for insisting that only love will persuade her to marry.

And it hit me tonight: we don’t give Austen enough credit. This woman was once in love with a man she expected would propose to her - a man she expected to accept. A man who apparently changed his mind at the end of a summer and who left her without, as near as I can tell, any explanation whatsoever. Later in life she was proposed to by another man, a man she liked well enough to accept - and then she herself changed her mind the next morning and refused him.

Lizzie’s refusal to marry for anything less than True Love is not the opinion of a wide-eyed idealist - it’s the stance of a woman who has had a front-row seat to all the ways love and marriage can go wrong: parents who are wildly, temperamentally unsuited to each other; a suitor who willingly dropped her because she wasn’t rich enough; a best friend who married purely for mercenary reasons; and a sister whose suitor’s affections withered under other people’s opinions. Lizzie’s declaration that “only the very deepest love will induce me into matrimony” isn’t starry-eyed romanticism, it’s an acknowledgement that she would rather walk wide-eyed into the hell of old spinsterhood than sacrifice her dignity, her autonomy, and her self-respect for a man who doesn’t measure up, and a declaration that she deserves nothing less than his absolute devotion in return.

As I said, Unexpected Austen Feels, tonight…

[theoneandonlyocelot]

They could wax him while he was under, Pierce knew. They had done it often enough. Some things were just easier that way. But sometimes he would get wooly while he was out on a mission, the chest hair would get caught in the straps of his uniform, and he would growl at an underling, whoever was most pissing him off. Razor, wax, depilatory cream - he didn't care. But he'd make the grunt do it.

Pierce himself had been the unfortunate, once, back when he was new, and almost pissed himself with terror. The Winter Soldier had stared him dead in the eyes the whole time. But he would swear there was a shred of James Buchanan Barnes in there too, laughing at him. "Afraid you're gonna hurt me, punk? I dare you."

It was his punishment, for them all being Hydra.

God help the guy who nicked him.

It had been his superior's idea, a few years later, to make the Winter Soldier hand over his gun whenever he was alone with an agent. Pierce had never rescinded it. They all knew the Soldier couldn't hurt them. They all knew he couldn't break his training. But some nights Pierce woke up in cold sweat, dreaming the ghost was still in there. Still laughing at him.

There was a rumor that Natalia Romanova, The Ballerina, had shaved him once, with nothing more than some cheap soap and a straight razor. They said she hadn't even flinched. They said she'd sat on his knee, and hummed a Russian lullaby, and the Winter Soldier had grunted like a happy bear when she was through. Nobody quite believed it, except for Pierce. If she had flirted, that was her job. If it had worked, more agents lived. It had stopped being an issue, when they went out on missions together. And when they didn't...

They could always wax him while he was under, Pierce knew. Some things were just easier that way.

one of my favorite things in the world is that Bucky clearly has chest hair in the CATWS flashbacks but the Winter Soldier is completely bare-chested, which means that at one point some unfortunate HYDRA underling had to wax the Winter Soldier

like nothing will ever take away the joy I feel when I picture fresh-faced Hydra intern Greg getting shoved into a room with the world’s deadliest assassin and a Nair at-home waxing kit

[theoneandonlyocelot]

CA: CW - or, Why I Don’t Trust Tony Stark

Okay, so I’ve read a lot of MCU and CACW stuff, and I noticed a couple of things that nobody else has addressed, so here goes:

I’ll say right up front, I LOVED Iron Man 1, okay? Like, I STILL think it’s one of THE BEST superhero movies ever made. The fact that they took what could have been a very fluff  character, and took the time to take him back to square one, hold him responsible, make his transformation MEAN SOMETHING to him, I was, and still AM, VERY VERY IMPRESSED. RDJ’s performance on top of that just made that character MATTER, when by all accounts he’s not much in the comic books. When he tells Pepper he needs her help because “You’re all I have,” and a few minutes later in the conversation she reminds him to be careful because “You’re all I have too, you know,” that kills me. Be still my heart!!

BUT.

And this is a big, painful “but.”

Throughout the first movie, Tony has two or three basic character flaws that he DOES NOT address:

1) He is reckless and impulsive and DOES NOT THINK THINGS THROUGH. He is also breathtakingly egotistical. Driving 90+ mph through twisty canyon roads in a sports car when he could end up over a cliff? Not a thought. I cringed in the theater, knowing how easily that could have ended in disaster. I don’t care how good a driver you are, you are not immune to unforeseen road conditions. When he discovers, on the battle field, that he’s being shot at by his own weapons, is kidnapped, and eventually decides to make the Iron Man Prototype, he LITERALLY does not stop to think that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, the bad guys are going to want this piece of tech, too? Like, he LITERALLY makes zero plans to make sure that his designs for the suit won’t end up in the wrong hands?? And I completely CANNOT believe that he couldn’t rig up a fail-safe mechanism to destroy everything should they have been discovered or their escape plan had failed.

And the company dealing under the table? It never seems to have occurred to him “Hmm, maybe I should go home, lay low, and do some quiet snooping UNTIL I FIND OUT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?” No. He goes home, IMMEDIATELY ANNOUNCES TO THE WORLD THAT HE’S HALTING ALL WEAPONS PRODUCTION, and tells Obadiah what he knows. Not only does he not seem to realize that this level of double-dealing probably goes VERY, VERY HIGH up in his organization, he never takes steps to protect himself from the possible backlash. That is a level of naivete and self-absorption that would have been drilled out of most people upon being kidnapped, but one Tony clings to throughout the series.

On top of that, he never gives a thought to the people who work for him (who are now temporarily laid off until his plants can be converted). He never gives a heads-up to Rhodey, his military liason and best friend. And no matter what you might think about the military and their involvement, Stark Ind. was still under contract, and could have been sued up one side and down the other for halting production and failing to deliver, putting even more people out of work for even longer and potentially endangering soldiers. It very likely boiled down to Rhodey’s personal friendship with him that kept the military off his back for as long as it was.

And this complete failure to think things through leaves him so shockingly vulnerable that even after Oby admits “I’m the one who locked you out [of the board],” Tony never bothered to lock Oby out of his house. It leaves him so frighteningly vulnerable that he sends Pepper into the office to get evidence without giving a second thought to what Oby might do to her - and with no plan at all to keep her safe.

And this carries over into IM2, when he sees that other scientist’s name on the blueprints and doesn’t stop to think that maybe this other guy deserves some credit? Like, maybe he has family or something that Tony at least owes royalties to, because hey, THIS GUY HELPED INVENT THE THING TOO??

It carries even further in IM3, when he gives Mandarin his home address and dares him to come get him. And then he seems so baffled when his home is attacked. Like??? What did you think would happen, Tony?? This guy showed you he was a major badass, and you called his bluff cuz... why?? You thought you just had to look tough at the cameras and he would back down? (MCU’s treatment of Mandarin later in the story is another rant for another time.) And you did it when Pepper was home too. Cuz you forgot the lessons of IM1 and you didn’t think far enough ahead to ask yourself what you would do to protect her if he DID attack.

Like, I get why Pepper was pissed at you, man.

2) Tony wallows in guilt and self-pity. Like, bathes in it. Takes long, hot soaks in it like it’s a friggin’ therapeutic spa.

He was in captivity for how long? clutching the car battery to his chest and feeling sorry for himself before Yensin convinced him to fight back. It was three months total before he escaped - I get that he needed time to build the suit, and time to recover from the injuries he sustained in the attack. I give him a full six weeks, the standard recovery time for open heart surgery and a full half of the time he was gone. But the movie makes it pretty damn clear he didn’t even THINK of fighting back until WELL AFTER he was healed physically. Yensin’s pep-talk amounted to “You’re Tony Freakin’ Stark! At this point you’re only in captivity cuz you want to be, so get off your ass and DO SOMETHING!!”

And this carries over into the rest of the movie, leading partly to his instant halt in weapons production (see above), and to his whole broody-in-the-basement montages in both the first and second halves. It’s why he abandons Pepper at the party (thanks, reporter with photos!), why he takes on the Ten Rings by himself, and why, again, he didn’t see Oby coming.

It carries over into IM2, when he spends the entire, what, first third-to-half of the movie wallowing in self-pity because the arc reactor is poisoning him and it doesn’t occur to him that Nick Fury of friggin’ SHIELD might know somebody or something that could help? (That’s some next-level self-absorption right there, my friends, to believe that you are so damn smart that NOBODY could possibly know ANYTHING more than you.) And we know most of his “creative block” was self-pity, because the moment Coulson takes his toys, alcohol, and friends away, grounds him, and forces him to go looking at his stuff, and his father’s old SHIELD stuff, logically, he finds the solution rather quickly.

But he doesn’t learn the lesson in this movie either, apparently, because there he goes again in IM3, wallowing in self-pity again. Pepper’s mad at him at the start of the movie because he tries to sidle out of responsibility for stuff, and rather than own up to it, he pouts and buys her a giant teddy bear (Seriously, Tony? How old is she, four?). And when she calls him on it again, he keeps wallowing. He wallows through his fights with Mandarin and the other dude. And when he goes on the run, hiding out in the kid’s garage, he spends most of that time wallowing in self-pity as well. I really don’t think it would’ve have taken him that long to fix the suit and find Pepper, if he hadn’t been enjoying feeling sorry for himself. I give this movie credit, though: like IM2, it gave him a villain who mirrored his self-pity - both Whiplash and whats-his-name felt that Tony owed them something (in Whiplash’s case, rightly so; in the other guy’s it was pure self-pity and bruised ego, same as Tony’s).

And this is why I can’t get behind him in CA:CW:

Viola Davis’ character has ALWAYS felt sketchy to me. She showed up at Tony’s speech, giving him a story about her son who died in Sokovia (or Africa, I forget which) helping refugees when he was killed by a falling piece of debris during an Avengers fight. But she lets it slip that she works for a US Senator. That, right there, was a huge red flag for me. WHAT SENATOR? That’s the first question Tony should have asked. Why? Because we know there are Senators who’d do anything to bring him, and the Avengers, down.

Tony doesn’t ask that question, though. Why? Because he doesn’t think that through. And he doesn’t think it through because he’s too busy wallowing in self-pity that he might - MIGHT - have caused that kid’s death.

Look, I GET IT. I GET that him and the rest of the Avengers should be more careful. I GET that Tony has been through a lot - he has trauma, PTSD, etc, etc.

But look at it this way: Tony has more resources available to him THAN ANYONE ELSE ON THE TEAM - to get therapy for his PTSD, to get surgery on his chest (which he FINALLY got in the end of IM3). But I think it’s telling that the traumatic situation he recreated during his speech, showing off his holo-tech, wasn’t any of that. He didn’t show being attacked in Afghanistan and held prisoner. He didn’t show the Battle of New York. He didn’t show catching the nuke and going through the portal. He didn’t show his battles with Whiplash, when Mandarin destroyed his house, or when he fought Guy Pierce on the ship.

He showed his last argument with his parents.

Let that sink in. 

The implication at the end of IM3 is that he dealt with his physical trauma by getting the shrapnel, and the arc reactor, removed from his chest. The post-credits scene, where he’s talking to Bruce, implies that he’s willing to get treatment for his PTSD. There’s NO REASON to believe in later movies that he HASN’T DEALT WITH HIS PTSD, or is at least getting therapy for it on an ongoing basis.

Let that sink in, please.

It means he’s not reacting to everything in CA:CW because of battle fatigue.

I GET that he looked up to his dad, he loved his mom, he felt guilty cuz their last conversation was a fight. This is all very normal, guilt-inducing stuff.

But tech he was marketing for recovering soldiers did not show a military fight.

And to equate the two is, once again, some next-level self-absorption.

It also means he carries blithely on in his lack of tactical thinking and self-pity for the whole rest of the movie BECAUSE HE CHOOSES TO.

Sokovia Accords? He is wallowing so deeply in self-pity that he MIGHT have caused V. Davis’ son’s death that he never asks if she’s telling the truth. He never asks if he’s being manipulated. He never asks if the Avengers are being manipulated. He never asks if there’s another way to handle the chain-of-command, the who’s responsible and holding-them-accountable questions.

These are all questions that Steve DOES ASK.

Steve who, DESPITE HAVING GONE THROUGH JUST AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE, personal trauma, JUST AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE BATTLE TRAUMA, who has JUST AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE PTSD, WITH FAR FEWER RESOURCES TO COMBAT IT, DOES STOP TO ASK WHY THIS IS HAPPENING SO FAST.

You’re tellin’ me Wanda genuinely had to be under house arrest “for everybody’s safekeeping” rather than going upstate to the Avenger’s compound and practicing with live ammo and explosives until she could safely contain an explosive AND keep it away from humans? You’re tellin’ me Tony couldn’t rig up a skeet-shooter to fire at her, and a safe-room where she could practice without hurting anybody? I don’t believe it. If he’d stopped wallowing for two minutes, it probably would have occurred to him, too.

But, unfortunately for the entire team, Tony continues to wallow for the rest of the movie - he wallows in grief over his parents, guilt over V. Davis’ son (tho he never seemed to show that level of care over Wanda’s and Pietro’s parents), fails to question whether or not Bucky MIGHT be innocent (what happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? guess that doesn’t count if you’ve been brainwashed by Hydra, so maybe Nat should have seen that coming too?), wallows in his anger at Bucky during the finale (iirc, he doesn’t get any proof of, or make any connection between, Bucky and his parent’s deaths until deep into the finale), and then, during the finale fight with Steve, wallows in self-pity that Steve turned on him, like Tony’s somehow not responsible for anything.

Like, I GET that you LIKE the guy. But give him the consequences of his choices. TONY CHOSE, at every possible moment, to wallow in self-pity, to take on blind faith what he should have questioned, to doubt where he should’ve trusted, and failed to consider the consequences of his actions.

He completely fails at all three, and has throughout most of the MCU.

I find it horribly, horribly telling, to compare Tony with T’Challa, whose father was also freshly murdered in the last three days and before his very eyes. Both men raised in privilege, both men crazy smart, both men react, at first, with gut-level rage. But T’Challa eventually has the presence of mind to step back and ask himself “Is my rage justified? Is my rage directed at the right target?” And when the answer is “No,” he backs off. Tony never reaches that level of awareness. He is hit, he hits back, without thought. Even when Cap’s got him on the ground beating the crap out of him, Tony never stops to ask “Did I maybe contribute to any of this? Is my rage justified? Is Cap’s?” Even when he lashes out at Cap - ”He’s my friend.” “So was I.” - it’s as if, for Tony, it’s all about himself, as if there’s no possible room for two victims, or even three (counting Steve).

Look, I LIKE the guy. The way RDJ plays him he’s charming, and brilliant, and I think most of the time he’s at least trying to keep his heart in the right place. RDJ’s portrayal is, quite frankly, the only thing keeping me from hating Tony right now. But I don’t TRUST Tony farther than I can spit because HE IS so easy to manipulate.

And with the brain, and weapons, at his disposal, that is truly terrifying.

[theoneandonlyocelot]

The New Girl Code

1) If a guy makes you uncomfortable, tell someone.

2) If a girl tells you that a guy makes her uncomfortable, listen to her. Believe her. Do your best to make sure she’s not alone with him. Tell other people you trust to look out for her too.

3) If you feel like a guy is creepy, talk to other girls and do your homework: does he have a reputation for this? If so, avoid him like the plague.

4) If you see a girl with a guy and she looks uncomfortable, you are hereby authorized to barge over to her and act like long-lost friends until he is gone/she is safe. 

5) If you feel uncomfortable around a guy and no one comes to your rescue, you are hereby authorized to BE the long-lost friend and approach another girl. Pretend to hug her. Whisper what’s going on.

6) If a strange girl approaches you and gives you a hug and whispers that she’s scared of or being bothered by a guy, play along. Someone else’s safety is more important than your plans or your image. And trust me, as someone who is ALWAYS down to be the pretend friend, anyone worth knowing will not only respect you for it (because it’ll make them feel safer around you, too), but they’ll quickly learn to play along. And bigger groups are even more off-putting to predators than someone alone.

7) Don’t make a pass at your friend’s guy. I don’t care how cute he is, or how much you “feel something,” he’s your friend’s guy. Respect her.

8) If your friend’s guy makes a pass at you, reject him. I don’t care how cute he is, or how much you “feel something,” he’s your friend’s guy. Respect her. (Guys need to deal with their own shit. If he’s in a bad relationship, make it clear he needs to deal with it HIMSELF, not use you as an excuse. You are not his therapist.)

9) If your friend’s guy makes a pass at you, tell your friend. BUT YOU ARE CHARGED NOT TO ABUSE THIS. You CANNOT use the Code to steal your friend’s guy. That’s disrespectful.

10) If your friend tells you that your guy made a pass at her, believe her. ESPECIALLY if she seems uncomfortable about the whole thing. Haul his ass to the carpet and make him explain himself. Don’t blame her. (Guys like to turn girls on each other for a variety of reasons. Girls look out for each other.) (Again, DO NOT ABUSE THIS. Causing drama isn’t cool. It’s disrespectful.)

I hope that, with the #MeToo movement, this all becomes moot, but I have a feeling that it will take some serious legislation, and several arrests and convictions with “teeth” in order for guys to get the picture that being creepy/predatory is no longer an option. Until then:

Be smart.

Be bold.

Be safe.

[theoneandonlyocelot]

NASA space probes have detected a human-made barrier surrounding Earth

NASA space probes have detected a massive, human-made ‘barrier’ surrounding Earth, and tests have confirmed that it’s actually having an effect on space weather far beyond our planet’s atmosphere.

That means we’re not just changing Earth so severely, scientists are calling for a whole new geological epoch to be named after us - our activities have been changing space too. But the good news is that unlike our influence on the planet itself, that humungous bubble we created out in space is actually working in our favour.

A certain type of communications, called Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio communications, have become far more common now than in the 60s, and the team at NASA confirmed that they can influence how and where certain particles in space move about.

In other words, thanks to VLF, we now have anthropogenic (or human-made) space weather.

The research has been published by Science Space Reviews.

[theoneandonlyocelot]

It keeps getting better!

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