#And I refuse to accept that it's my fault

[amarriageoftrueminds]

*Not sure this discussion belongs under this post but...*

Tony doesn't sacrifice anything in CACW... He's a billionaire with zero consequences at the start of the movie, and he is still that at the end of the movie.

gif 1: 'justice for the voiceless'

🤣 Mr Hyperverbal! Tony's whole MO is talking over and more than everyone else; he literally interrupts others advocating for themselves (because they're not capitulating to him) just to tell them to shut up. The only time he doesn't do that is because he can't out emotionally-blackmail a dead son's mother.

And why are all these 'people' voiceless, I wonder? Could it be because they are... mysteriously dead, somehow? I wonder how that happened. Does 'justice' look like somebody being jailed and put out of business, losing his precious money? No...? Funny that!

(I'm sure them being a billionaire has nothing to do with it though!)

Tony would sit in a room with a woman whose entire family and country have been destroyed by his weapons, and mansplain collateral damage to them (which suddenly matters because an American was hurt, right? Fuck them illegal immigrant kids, right?)

(Defining characteristic of the Stark family: take only credit, never blame. If you are personally to blame for something, describe that something as a collective fault; if someone else did something great, steal it and/or take all the credit for yourself!)

And the fact that it was always Steve, Nat, Clint, Wanda, etc. down on the ground at street level helping civilians... well, Tony never noticed that of course. As his own bodyguard said, Tony wouldn't remember someone unless they were a blonde with a big rack... Steve may be a blonde with a big rack, but he's not the right sex! 😂

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gif 2: Tony claims he stopped making weapons.

'Once I discovered my leopards-eating-peoples-faces company was causing peoples faces to be eaten by leopards, I stopped that!' -- Says Man who still runs a leopards-eating-peoples-faces company and never stopped. 🤦‍♀️

You have to wonder just what Tony thought weapons were for, exactly, if he thought his weapons weren't doing any harm before?

(Which he only suddenly deigned to notice because the person getting their chest blown open was- gasp! -an American!)

He decides his weapons were only bad because they were in the 'wrong hands.' 🙄 Implying that the 'right hands' exist, ie. his own. An American billionaire's hands. But then he criticises Steve for saying the Avengers' hands are the safest hands for world-saving?

(Which is true, in this universe, because the WSC's solution for world-saving was to drop a nuke on Manhattan. The Avengers already tried government oversight and it was Hydra, Ross's Hulk project, AIM, dropping nukes, etc etc. Bad writing alert!

Why the fuck would Tony of all people be in favour of that? He told Congress to go fuck themselves when it came to them controlling the Iron Man suits! Then the Vice POTUS turned out to be AIM, who had Pepper abducted and experimented on -- made into an enhanced person against her will! -- but suddenly Tony trusts governments to handle enhanced people? And he's fine with people talking shit about Bruce?? Since when?! Make it make sense!)

The Iron Man movies, Avengers, Cap and Spiderman movies, all feature brand new weapons Tony designed, built, and gave away... after claiming he wasn't in the weapons making industry any more.

Even IM3, when he temporarily lost his armour, had Tony personally making weapons, and handing a weapon off to a kid -- to use on other kids, at his urging!

This idea that Tony ever gave up being an arms dealer is just part of his own Iron Man mythology he's made up in his head.

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gif 4: Tony has never sacrificed any personal freedoms, nor accepted any limitations on himself.

(Despite sneering at ordinary people who refuse to sacrifice their personal freedoms in favour of authoritarianism. That 'for the greater good' line up there could have come straight out of Project 2025! 🤢)

Tony makes a mockery of Ross and the Accords, despite pushing for them. He never had any intention of doing as he was told, and that's one of his trademarks as a character.

Steve in CACW is anti- corrupt governments (which his films have given him good reason for; Tony's films ought to have given him the same ideology, too... but this is a Disney movie.)

Tony is pro / arguing in favour of handing over control to a potentially corrupt government. Specifically, handing over policing of a minority -- enhanced people -- who aren't like Tony... but he pretends he's in the same boat as them, when he isn't.

He even said government having an agenda is a good thing!

Yeah, how's that working out for you, America?

Subheading of the Accords document: 'The Registration of enhanced people.'

Tony is advocating for the exact same things that ICE and the Trump Administration are doing to immigrants in America right now, because it doesn't and won't ever affect Tony personally. The leopards were never going to be eating his face!

(It reminds me of what Magneto said about mutants working for the US in X-Men: First Class:

"Identification, that's how it starts. And ends with being rounded up, experimented on, eliminated."

Could have come straight out of Steve's mouth!)

The Raft (as Sam correctly clocks) is Guantanamo Bay for Enhanced People, and Tony idiotically argues in favour of that, and is then all shocked pikachu face when that is in fact precisely what they get. (Channelling Trump voters now crying about the conses quencing.)

He's an ignorant sheltered idiot who calls himself a genius but has no idea what life is like for non-billionaires, because he doesn't care to know. (Not surprising given that Musk was the inspo for Tony, as set out by RDJ himself, Jon Favreau, and the guy who wrote IM1).

Steve -- the one who actually goes to the Raft to break the innocents out, unlike Tony! --- is anti-authoritarianism... anti-ICE-for-enhanced-people. And he's been breaking out prisoners of authoritarians since CATFA!

So Tony does not embody what Steve stands for, and never could, because what Steve stands for is Antifa -- Tony embodies what Steve has always stood against.

(And, since never learning a lesson or taking blame for anything is Tony's trademark, he is back to nonsense Hydra monologuing and blaming the Snap on everyone else, in EG. 🤦‍♀️)

Steve isn't throwing away his persona in CACW, he's living up to it.

Being anti-authoritarian and protecting innocents from authoritarian bullies, deploying the 'I can do this all day' battlecry -- suffering personally in order to achieve the right thing -- is exactly what Steve would do even if he never knew Bucky at all.

(That he gets to do one good thing, and save Bucky (another good thing), is just a perk; it's the narrative's way of condoning Steve's moral stance.)

Tony Stark in CA:CW + the values of Captain America

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

Posting one Murder Drones meme a day until Episode 5 drops, Day Eight.

[anna-scribbles]

truest thing gabriel everrr said was that adrien had emilie's flair for the dramatics

[biblically-accurate-dca]

KILL!!!!!!!!!

[frumdyke]

need my dads support with something but hes way busy with grandparents and it really does make me feel like a burden. cus like i do kinda view my grandma as a burden and im doing the same shit shes doing. but what does that say about how i view disabled people. wough

[theartinmyheart]

🩵🩵🩵

[spidori]

I wish I believed they were going to be brave instead of trying to pull a soulless cash-grab. Because if they were brave, I honestly believe they could do something awesome with this.

I'm serious, hear me out.

These are apex predators, and they are not mammalian. They should be scary lizards that trigger an instinctual fear response if it weren't for marketing pressures.

More importantly, I think the message of radical acceptance, of both the self and others, could actually be strengthened by the dragons not looking cute or approachable.

I have thoughts, so I'll put those below the cut for anyone interested.

If they were brave, they could acknowledge that a lot of the fans of the first movie are adults now, and that they don't have to make the dragons less threatening to avoid scaring the intended audience of young children. I would love to see them really play up the terror angle instead. They could make the dragons not just dangerous, but unsettling, disturbing, the exact opposite of cuddly/approachable. Essentially, you should want to hit them with a shovel at first. Especially since most of them are being controlled, and none of them have learned any of the body language to communicate with humans yet; they should feel other, and that should feel dangerous, at least at first.

If they did that, and added a couple of tweaks throughout the rest of the story, all of a sudden Hiccup's empathy would carry a lot more weight; he's not just befriending what is obviously just a special dog with scales, he's truly looking beyond his deep- and socially reinforced- fear response to empathize.

It would take some extra dialogue tweaks as well, but I think the seeds are all there already in the original script. Honestly, I think it's true to the ideas the original movie script was presenting. The whole message was radical acceptance of the self *and* of others as they are. It's easy to see that message in Hiccup, and how his empathy was the answer even though it was looked down on by everyone around him. It's even present in pretty much all the human characters, with them being comfortable in their own skins, and that contributing to them having or finding a place for themselves. I mean, consider, Stoick isn't framed as wrong for his desire to protect his village, or for using his strength and leadership skills to do so. No, he's framed as wrong for not accepting Hiccup, or the truth about the dragons, and his continued refusal to do so even when it will harm the things he wants to protect. Crucially, it's his acceptance of both his son and Toothless for who they are that acts as both the turning point for the story, and the redemption of his character.

More to my point though, I think that same message of acceptance, including self acceptance, is also present with respect to the dragons. I just think it's easier to take it for granted when it comes to the dragons.

There's lots of little examples, but I think the best one is the dragons' instinctual inability to disobey the Red Death (the queen). It's the mechanism behind the conflict of the first movie. It's not their fault, sure, but it is at the heart of the problem even if it's not the root cause. And it's not like it goes away either since it's also behind the villain in the second movie in basically the same way.

The instinct is not framed as wrong though, and that's key. Acknowledging the instinct is a key step in fixing the root of the problem twisting it towards destruction in the first movie, and in the second movie just acknowledging it and trying to overcome it wasn't quite enough. Toothless couldn't win by overcoming the instinct to obey an alpha, he had to fully accept that part of himself, and that it could coexist alongside the more human bits he'd chosen to incorporate into himself, to achieve self-actualization as an alpha. And Hiccup instantly accepted that part of Toothless, further reinforcing the underlying message that no one is inherently wrong because of who or what they are.

But I digress from my rambling. I think leaning into the dragons looking reptilian and predatory could absolutely work if they were brave about it. If they made them look truly scary, and actively framed that as ok, as not inherently wrong, just inherently different, I think that could slot right into the message at the heart of the story and add nuance, depth, IMPACT to it. If they do that they would earn my praise, even if it doesn't quite end up landing. I just wish I believed, at all, that the people making the decisions were brave enough to do so.

But hey, maybe I'll be proven wrong the same way I was with Wicked. I'll be ecstatic if that ends up being the case.

the live action httyd movie is an insult to us all and should never have been made. how is this slop better than beautiful stylized animation

I want to hit it with a shovel

[bacchuschucklefuck]

but also literally the fact that jack manhattan stands up the hotel gift shop like right after/before she gets mad at liv. Paula baby be an adult. I love to watch them all spiral but i really do hope we get a liv confrontation moment

miss paula "slams screens down laptop style the moment she sees something she doesn't like to confront on them" donvaldson we can one day get there together I believe in you

[sophiethewitch1]

🫶 thanks for responding back! i appreciate all the hard work you’ve planned out for us 🎉 i can’t wait to see more of the darker themes fleshed out at the end of the first part, i will be waiting patiently LOL 👍 in terms of yandere, how bad do you think it will be? what do you have planned in that department?

also i hope you get better soon 😅 please take breaks and certainly take your time!

well ive said that its very mild on the yandere side even later on in the slowburn. its barely yandere more, like... obsession??... at least for the first while. the yandere part is more just there as a warning because I don't want to shock people with the small bit of dark content there will be. i really don't like yanderes that hurt reader (they just don't make sense to me. yandere to me is about having too much love, and you wouldn't hurt someone you loved??) and like,,,, spoiler cut here but like, these are all things that are in the tags/warnings/just information around

i need happy endings. i cant handle even the slightest bit bitter ending it hurts me physically. i am writing a happy ending. it will take grovelling, compromise, and probably fixing the universe but idc. i will uncritically romanticise toxic relationships. i can fix him he can fix me we will fix ourselves for each other. THATS ROMANCE BABEY!!! ITS BEING YOUR BEST SELF BECAUSE YOU LOVE SOMEONE!!! AND YANDERE IS ABOUT LOVE. ITS ABOUT LOVE!!!! ALWAYS LVOE!!!!

[lpsgirl109]

Strange thinking about the ways people have hurt you that they never apologized for when it's been like eons since those moments happened. Like should I still be angry about it or should I just let it go. Thoughts with Peg at 1 am. I need to sleep.

[skrimbloz]

My Atsushi design actually makes me wanna bash my head into a wall then explode into a million itty bitty pieces. HES SO SCRUNKLY. HES SO BLORBO BUT ALSO MIPY MOO!!!!!! I HAVEN’T POSTED IT AT ALL YET BUT WHEN I TELL U HE IS MICROWAVABLE. I HOPE HE BITES AN ELECTRICAL CORD AND DIES!!!!!

[talentforlying]

i've got stuff to do tonight but i am thinking about how it absolutely fucking pains me to see the joy and energy and love of living sapped from constantine's spirit over the initial run of hellblazer. like he goes from this spirited, wisecracking, life-loving, bully-punching, fastidious little guy to a man so disintegrated by decades of grief and being used and never being good enough for anyone that he was willing to be buried alive to serve a cause he didn't even care about. thank god they gave him back some friendly connections and some semblance of hope by the end of "red right hand", because that late-hellblazer constantine was utterly unrecognizable and it broke my heart.

[weather-entity]

yknow that feeling where everything that's going wrong in your life isn't directly your fault but it's all connected to you so its indirectly your fault and you're just caught in the middle of it all in order to not upset everyone even more. Yeah. that's how im felling right now

[dirt-str1der]

Love characterising nishikiyama as a booze hound drug hound meth addict high every day body mass 75% alcohol hands constantly shaking literally spacing out while driving fifty over the speed limit using elderly folk as speedbumps one hand on the wheel and one hand free to do more drugs and coming into work while functionally deaf and blind and he is still leagues more competent at his job than kiryu

[birt-art]

There's some great Elden Ring lore videos but where's my two hour long queer reading of Elden Ring you cowards !!

[irlnikeiyomiuri]

i wanted to yell about how evil trying to get into college is but i just genuinely do not have the words for how dismal this is