#I like that they used to get weird with the dc movies. fun weird.

[erb23]

Thinking about her again....

[wellzofyouth]

That one post of my mine predictably aged like fine wine. Never let somebody on comic twitter in the writer's room😭😭😭 Like imagine a 1 to 1 adaptation of literally any event?? -1b at the box office. "Who are these people???"

[devine-fem]

i am BEGGING you to make that jondami ship guide. not because i need anything to make me ship them more than i already do but because they deserve to have their good moments highlighted

Jondami/Damijon shipping guide.

A collective guide to any cute moment between Jon and Damian in DC comics or motion pictures. Any moment that could make a reader like them more as a ship will be put all here in one Tumblr post.

• Superman (2016) Issues #10-#11

This is the first time they meet each other and they immediately knock heads. Jon’s lighter than life personality clashes with Damian’s cold personality and they don’t seem to get along but you can tell there’s something growing behind the eye rolling and tongue clicking… a friendship?

• Superman (2016) Issue #20, #21, #25, #26 (mentioned), and #43.

• Super Sons (2017)

This is the first of the Super Sons series, the series is really short but gold nonetheless. No Super Sons comic that I don’t like but this one is my favorite. They still are knocking heads and refuse to call each other partners but they grow and learn to be heroes together.

• Adventures of the Super Sons (2018)

They slowly start to get used to each other and this comic shows that Damian isn’t just straight up mean but is starting to somewhat ‘like’ Jon.

• Challenge of the Super Sons (2020)

The last main Super Sons comics. This one is fine but I love the others so much. These comics are essential to know Jon and Damian period, it’s the main comics of each others story and in a way they are important to each others development.

• Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)

Now after all that reading treat yourself to a movie because Jon and Damian got their own movie. This is what started Jon and Damian for a lot of people and this is probably where a lot of you are from. This movie is great and fun. They made Damian wayyy nicer than in the comics and their friendship easier.

• DC Rebirth Holiday Special (2016)

Please find and read this. It’s so cute. I love it so much.

• Dark Nights: Metal issue #3 (2017 -2018)

They make a rock band in the beginning, its so cute.

• DCeased (2019)

• DCeased: The Unkillables (2020)

• DCeased: Hope at World’s End (2020)

• DCeased: Dead Planet (2020)

• DCeased: War of the Undead Gods (2022)

This is such a good series, and story in general please read it. DC peaked with this one and its so angsty. I don’t care what comphet was happening, Jon was there for Damian like no one else. I think Damian ends up with Cassie which is weird to me because Damian has never shown interest in anyone before but I excuse it since it’s not really gonna happen again since they were in a relationship just for the story to be more high stakes and sad. Jon and Damian’s relationship was at the forefront and for comic book readers DCeased made people see the potential in Jondami.

• DC’s Terror Through Time (2022)

This is so cute, please read this. It’s a halloween special and they switch uniforms <3!!

• DC Saved by the Belle Reve (2022)

They help a nonbinary person navigate school and it’s so damn cute.

• The age up incident.

(Disclaimer: You can pretend this never happens and I wouldn’t blame you for doing that.) A writer named Brain Micheal Bendis comes into the writers room for DC and ages up Jon in short. The story is that Superman goes missing (He travels to War World and gets stuck there) and Jor-El comes back to meet Jon and he takes him on a trip to explore space, then they get trapped in a wormhole, Jon gets stuck on Earth-3 and has to fight Ultraman. He’s stuck in a volcano for five or six years and becomes seventeen (we think) when he comes back. This was sad to me because it took away all the potential interactions for Jon and our ability to see him grow up, it was rushed and purposely so. Jon takes up the title of Superman somehow and starts to date some guy named “Jay Nakamura.”

• Superman: Son of Kal-El (2021) Issues: #1, #6, #14, and #15.

He does get a boyfriend here and I think it’s amazing the fact he simply gets a boyfriend but no one really likes his bf so… and the are real reasons why Jay as a character is problematic BUT if you just don't want to see him with someone else than every time you see a pink haired twink, quickly skip.

• Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent

• Super Sons (2017) Special

This is them reuniting after the age up and it shows how Damian reacts to it. I can’t actually find this and if anyone can please let me know where it is. I can only find bits and pieces of it scattered across the internet. All you need to know is that he doesn’t like the age up anymore than us since he says “I miss my friend.” which is really sad to me because the age up ultimately really hurts what people like about their dynamic as well as tarnish Jon’s character almost completely.

UPDATE: found it, it got attached to

• Dark Crisis (2022) till Issue #5

This is fine, after issue four Jon and Damian are not there anymore and if you read half the story just for jon and damian you might as well finish it.

• Green Lantern: Blackstars (2019) issue #2

They hug here. You’re welcome.

• Action Comics (2016) issue #1030

This is the best thing to come from the age up. This is so cute of them.

• Teen Titans (2016) Issue #43, #45, and #46

i didnt really like this, im not gonna lie but it has some damian and jon interaction worth noting with jon being protective over damian.

• Flash (2016) Issue #797

jon defending damian. this is such a cute moment for them. jon talks damian up and says how hes the strongest person he knows and how hes misunderstood.

• Legion of Super Heroes (2019) Issue #2 & #3

dont read this. its rlly bad but this is full of jon being the number one damian apologist, quality jondsmi moments over quantity. worth mentioning • Trinity Special: World’s Finest literally them raising a child together but their ages are a bit wonkey, i still dont personally know what age either of them are supposed to be there...

DC MEETS HANNA-BARBERA - Super Sons x Dynomutt

I’d say they aren’t exactly written right, well over all they are but their personalities are more relaxed and they care about each other a lot and will go out of their way to make sure the other is okay and protect them from danger, make them laugh etc, theres nothing wrong with this, its really cute but you can tell its not the typical jon and damian writers is all. I like it.

• Dark Crisis: The Dark Academy (2023)

• Wonder Woman (2016) Issue #800

- Fandom

Artist that draw Jon and Damian:

(I don’t know any of these accounts intimately so if they’re problematic in any way than I am sorry in advance)

Sheiya Vlad

Pechaghtlecha

Corinthianrm0

Hobiiiebrown

spider-jaysart

arunneronthird

Twitter

Hokke

Gozer

@_1209E

YouTube

Justice Lords Animation

Japanese Animation

Super Sons Meme Animation

- Fanfics

Trust fall by Ididloveyou_once

Those Who Wait by InsaneTrollLogic

moving in stereo by TheResurrectionist

Reasons to Not Fall in Love by nanami

Growing Pains

These are fics I read and liked, I don’t have much. I don’t read a lot of Jondami fan fiction so I insist that you recommend your own fanfiction in the comments. (Don’t hate me for the self promo)

- Music (A silly lil playlist I made for them)

END

[cheeseandbretboy]

JOKER (2019) AND JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX (2024) SPOILERS !!!

still trying to sift through my thoughts but i liked joker 2. i dont get how the ratings are so bad?? were people expecting a romance???? a fun movie? i mean even i was surprised by the depressing end but im really glad it happened because thats what joker 2019 was about too. arthur was never the actual 'joker' we see in dc films, and we knew that. his whole story is tragic but a lot of people missed that in the first movie. the second speaks on that to humanise arthur (even though thats what they literally tried to do in the first one?? didnt work i guess) and shame those who use him as a symbol for misogyny and incel stuff. i think what most people are mad about is how hes not as 'villainy' as the other jokers BUT AGAIN he was never the true joker and im confused as to how people missed that !! personally i loved how it shows that even after he's secured himself the identity of joker he's still repeatedly exploited as he was before that, and he has to come to terms with it. harleys character was really surprising for me because usually she's the one being manipulated by joker- in this case it was the other way around. especially interesting was how joker was the one who sung 'bewitched' about harley (the original song is sung about a man, so they had to change he/him to she/her) and the scene of joker and harley's show where she continues singing 'to love somebody' without looking at him, instead basking in the attention the audience gives her. people were expecting a twisted sexy romance between them but instead we were given something really uncomfortable and unnerving- like that sex scene. her character also gives insight into parasocial relationships and how weird and dangerous they can get. she never really knew arthur- she knew joker. the film starts with us finally happy that he 'for once in his life, has someone who needs him' and ends with us absolutely distraught. in the first movie, he says stuff like 'you dont listen' and 'i never knew i existed' and STILL after becoming an infamous killer, getting a show about him, EVERYONE talking about him, he's still not seen. there are just so many things the film points out about its fanbase (incels, parasocial relationships, identity, the glamourisation/sexualisation of violence, columbiners, exploitation etc etc) and i guess people don't like that. they want capitalism=bad, 'men have it so bad', and mm gore! which is fair- i loved it too- but it doesnt hurt to delve into the identity of 'joker' (whatever that is) and how that influences its viewers. its quite meta i like it a lot. they didnt care that the ratings would be awful because they had to speak on what the first movie did to people

oh also the intertextuality is just amazing. the songs are great, like i mentioned before with changing the female and male roles with 'bewitched', and even though i absolutely hate musicals this really worked fo rme. i think it's because musicals often have songs smack bam in the middle of realistic scenes and the singing just ruins it for me- but in joker 2 they're more often a part of arthur's fantasies so it was actually better. i wasnt sure about the musical element at first but after rewatching joker for like the 1000th time i realised how much its intertwined in the first movie- we just never really paid attention to it. the end of 'gonna build a mountain' was amazing (you have to pay attention to the lyrics), 'the joker' was great, and the few instances of violence we see from arthur while hes singing is really entertaining i love it sm. i keep mentioning 'betwitched' but i love it. 'she is cold, i agree, she can laugh, and i love it' ahh. i loved the intertextuality with nolan's the dark knight. a lot of people hate it, but i think people should be more flexible with inspiration and interweaving similar but different stories into films. just because it follows a similar story doesnt mean that it should either perfectly fit the mould of nolan's batman, but neither does it mean they should abandon it altogether either. harvey dent really surprised me, and even though he was a pretty minor character i loved the few references to nolan's batman they give (like his gory face after the explosion at court being a possible villain origin story). most obvious is the end though, where arthur is gutted by that inmate who admires him. the use of the joke was amazing and i was really surprised by how he got stabbed. you can see in this moment that arthur has been relieved of his identity of 'joker' and can finally rest as himself, just a mentally ill guy with a history of tragic abuse. when lee and his fans betray him (the real life ones too hilariously) we realise no one truly saw or loved him, and he couldn't deal with that. so, the identity of joker was passed on to that inmate- "ah, what a fine young son to take my place"- while he cuts a glasgow smile into his face. in felt this was sort of missing from joker 2019, so im really glad they used ledger's joker as inspiration for this inmate.

there's a lot more to talk about, ESPECIALLY gary's reappearance which im so so glad about, it really fleshed out his character. when he walked up to the stand, you can see people whispering and laughing at him- arthur never made fun of him. it really helps to make people question what constitutes a bad person. sure, these people didn't kill 6 people, but how easy would it be for them just not to laugh? it showed arthur's empathy, and how uncomfortable he was with admitting to it when trying to paint himself as the joker. "you were the only one who was nice to me" was said by arthur in the first movie when he kills randal and gary says something similar to him during court.

anyways wow that was great people are mad the 2nd movie is as depressing as the first (if not more). at the end ofthe first, arthur has a whole revolution loving him, and we did the same. at the end of the second we realise we never truly knew him, but exploited his character.

[bottombaron]

ranking the Thunderbolts characters by how likely they are Zemo in disguise

some context: a character being revealed as Zemo in disguise in a genuinely unexpected twist is somehow hilariously common for the character in the comics (if i had a nickle for each time i’d have at least four, and that's almost a whole quarter!). most notably however it’s in the very first introduction of the Thunderbolts team. the Thunderbolts are kind of synonymous with a Zemo related twist at this point. basically, with the DC not-alive-anymore-by-choice squad you can count on the team having their implanted neck-bombs and with the Thunderbolts you can count on Zemo being hidden somewhere like a murderous purple Where’s Waldo.

SO, while everyone is like “where is Zemo?” and “why isn’t Zemo in the Thunderbolts movie?”, i remain steadfast in certainty that he’s going to show up in the third act,,, despite there being literally no evidence to the contrary. also this is just for fun so don’t take it seriously unless i’m right then i told you so.

these rankings go from least to most likely

0 / 10

Ava Starr

-because Zemo knows better

——————————————————————

1 / 10

John Walker

-he would have to dress up in an American propaganda outfit

-Zemo might have to intimately deceive Walker's wife and child and that's creepy

-he has the Super Soldier Serum

-calls Bucky “Bucky”

-even Zemo wouldn't ignore Walker's crying child like that, comeon man

——————————————————————

2 / 10

Yelena Belova

+surprisingly not completely unthinkable???

+like maybe as a gag it could play?

+i think it’s because they both have that tiny stabby assassin energy

-obviously it would be super weird, confusing, and narratively unsatisfying for both characters

-Yelena and Florence deserve their spotlight and i wouldn't want anything to detract from that

——————————————————————

3 / 10

Alexei Shostakov

+only slightly above Yelena in believability simply for him being more expendable narratively (so the character not actually being himself in the movie wouldn’t be as much of a let down)

-he’s not particularly similar to Zemo in any way

-like Walker, he has the Super Soldier Serum, so it’s unlikely Zemo would disguise himself as Alexi by choice

-it seems exhausting just being Alexi for any length of time, even for Alexi

+bonus: in the trailer, Alexi b-lines for the bar the instant they exit the elevator in the former Avenger's tower. total Zemo behavior

——————————————————————

4 / 10

Taskmaster

+same height

+non-powered (if you don’t include mimicry but i think Zemo could fake it for a short amount of time)

+wears a mask and doesn’t talk much, making for easy impersonation

+scarred face is similar to Zemo’s scarred face in the comics

-their builds don't match up to a passing glance and unlike Yelena, with her more baggy clothes, Antonia is wearing a fitted outfit, making it more difficult to pass (i don't need it perfect mind you, just enough to suspend believability juuust a little)

-mostly it's just the vibes tbh

-idk man im not feeling this theory anymore and i used to be a Zemo in the Taskmaster suit truther

-maybe it's the suit redesign 🤷‍♂️

——————————————————————

5 / 10

Bob/Sentry/The Void

now we’re getting to the ones where i start to vibe with, but also would need a whole lot of exposition

basically, if you wanted to give a guy like Zemo brain scramblies, make him forget who he is, do some experiments (possibly à la Hydra on Wanda/Pietro? finally pulling on that dropped thread of Sokovians having a higher rate of manifesting powers -specifically Wanda’s reality warping powers- when exposed to the Mind Stone than the average human?) and try to corrupt him into an American branded superhero with a mild-mannered personality, you usually give him a three letter name. like Bob. or Jim.

turning to a comic that i can't believe more people dont talk about in relation to Zemo and the Thunderbolts: Welcome to Pleasant Hill

there's a lot in this comic that gives precedent to the twist of Zemo (and the audience) believing they're just a common, good-natured, all-American before finding out it's a lie in an elaborate supermax prison system. (this will definitely come up in almost all other thoughts and theories i have, including the character on this list that i'm most interested in. i'm kind of obsessed with this comic tbh) the story even involves Bucky, the Thunderbolts, the Cosmic Cube (which is the Space Stone in the MCU - related to the Mind Stone) and reality warping/memory altering similar to the Sentry’s own comic twist. and yes, it’s basically the plot of WandaVision before WandaVision except that the warden wasn't a grief stricken Wanda but a surprisingly Valentina Allegra de Fontaine-ish Maria Hill (put a pin in that similarity). there's also the fact that the MCU loves to merge characters into one, like the upcoming Doom-Stark combo.

so how does this work? hell if i know. Zemo could be forced to change his appearance with that Black Widow spy mask thing? maybe the only ones who see Bob as Bob are the ones who don't really know him + Walker who's easily deceived?? idk. it's a pretty big stretch (but not as big the next one on this list!) the most probable scenario of this one happening is Zemo somehow being tied to Bob’s alter, The Void. again, not probable at all unless the movie does some trippy stuff, but it’s fun to imagine the possibilities.

+the trailer seems to suggest said trippy identity/mind stuff, which you would need to pull this off

+Loki’s staff that once housed the Mind Stone in Sokovia could be a reference to Kobik/the Cosmic Cube that creates Pleasant Hill in the comics

+uhhh Bob and Joe are both three letter names??

+in the Pleasent Hill comics Zemo kind of looks Bob/Sentry like?

-a major thing that holds this theory waaaaaaay back is the fact that Steven Yeun was going to play the part of Sentry first and its highly unlikely they would Plot Twist him into a white man (or god i at least hope not)

-ultimately, there's just not a lot of places this reveal could go imo so /shrug

——————————————————————

8 / 10

Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

look ok hold with me here bc we both know that when those heels started clacking outside the Senate hearing in TFATWS everyone was thinking that it was Zemo rocking them for a whole hot second. I KNOW. I REMEMBER. I WAS THERE.

does this make sense? no, not really. should comedy legend Julia Louis-Dreyfus unmask as Zemo in drag in the third act of a big, multi-million dollar franchise movie made by The Mouse?? absa-fucking-lutly.

i even think it would go over with audiences for the most part. they’d see Zemo, Zemoing about, and go, oh yeah ok that tracks.

+Bucky kind of looks like he’s playing the role of Val’s bodyguard/muscle and his demeanor reminds me so much of TFATWS when he was playing the same role for Zemo

+Bucky knowing this whole time that Val is Zemo and is reluctantly going along with his grift for whatever reason is so funny to me idk why

+Bucky saying “what's the plan” in the trailer just feels better if he is saying it to Zemo

+Bucky is wearing some of his old WS gear and who put him in that last? Zemo

+her line about there being bad guys and worse guys is very on par with Zemo’s pessimistic mentality, maybe justifying an Avengers team up as a necessary evil?

+there should only be one unpowered, tiny, bitchy, manipulative, mastermind serving cunt in a purple jacket in the MCU and Val is crowding Zemo’s throne. solution: Zemo uses Val as his public identity (you know, because of all the war crimes. Val has almost certainly done similar war crimes but they were for the U.S. government so she’s safe to masquerade as) and leads the Thunderbolts with nobody being the wiser

+this also means keeping Julia Louis-Dreyfus around and thats worth like, a hundred '+'s

+the purple. the royal titles. oh, it’s all coming together

+totally think that JLD and Daniel Brühl could pull this off i’m not even joking

+it would delight and entertain me

+Zemo would be leading the Thunderbolts team as he should be

-i fear a shadow of transphobia looming around this idea (with a female character being revealed to be a man in disguise) and that instantly sucks any fun out of it

-Zemo’s ideology would have to do a complete 180 hairpin turn or be a very elaborate plan to sabotage things from the inside, kind of making it difficult to buy into the whole thing in the first place

-its never going to happen

——————————————————————

8/10

Bucky Barnes

ohhhhhhh kkkk

here we go

here’s all that twitter stuff abt how there’s reason to believe that the person shooting at the limo isn’t Bucky at all or that he’s being brainwashed again:

personally, i don’t feel WS here but maybe that's because Seb is doing a little bit of his Judge Dredd scowl and there’s too much going on behind the eyes? it still feels like Bucky still imo, even if his actions are like, a bit extreme. it’s that whole “i had to go to work today” energy that Bucky perpetually puts out lol. basically i didn’t get the vibe that he’s Winter Soldiering, or even that he’s trying to kill the team, i just get the vibe he was tasked with rounding up and escorting the group back to Vale and he’s doing it his usual undelicate way. of course, this is only 3 seconds from a teaser so all those details could be right or wrong in the film, only time will tell.

BUT this reasonable talk is counterproductive to this crackpot theory, so…

The Zemo being brainwashed or otherwise manipulated/reality altered into believing (or pretending to be) he’s Bucky/WS theory:

+if i had a nickel for every time Zemo in the comics was brainwashed/tortured into believing he was Bucky/Bucky adjacent and/or the narrative obfuscating which one was which, i’d have at least two nickels

+and that is purposeful btw, in the comics Zemo and Bucky have a strange thematic connection. it’s not a coincidence that when Steve was still grieving Bucky, here came a guy with ties to his past (specifically the son of the man who ‘killed’ Bucky) that would have been roughly the same age as Bucky if he didn’t ‘die’. Steve then commits to saving Zemo time and again, dispite what a complete fuck-up he is. so, Zemo hating Bucky but also kind of having this deep inner desire to be him at least has thematic presence in the comics

this motherfucker literally keeps a shrine of Captain American memorabilia, including putting Bucky’s old costume in a lit glass display case

-on the other hand, MCU Zemo is almost nothing like his comic counterpart and certainly doesn’t hate Bucky or want to be him

+on the other-other hand, there’s far too many similarities to MCU Zemo and the MCU Winter Soldier to ignore and the text of the movies/show seem to continuously remind us of that in little ways

+so in this theory Zemo wouldn’t be impersonating Bucky Barnes per se, he’d be the Winter Soldier

+who, conveniently, has Sebastian Stan’s face so Daniel Brühl wouldn’t have to be on set as much nor have to do any stunt work. good for him

means, motive, and opportunity:

+Val most definitely has access to the raft (and by extension Zemo) as the head of the CIA

+we also know that Val must have access to some form of the Super Soldier Serum if the Sentry is involved, and the clutter of Sentry related branding in the trailer seems to indicate Val/OXE/the U.S. government has been trying to create their own superhero, Homelander style

+Val also has access to all sort of means of manipulating Zemo's sense of identity. chemical memory alteration, use of off-world artifacts, the old fashioned WS programming way, or even all that Stark tech that was confiscated by Damage Control…remember B.A.R.F.?

+the whole choice to use Zemo could even be out of convenience. he’s already had extensive military training, was a successful black ops commander, he literally has nothing left, not even citizenship to a country

+nobody would look for him or wonder where he is or if he’s even still alive

+even if they did, would they care? to most people, he's a super villian. even people who might object morally, like Sam or the Wakandans seem to be too busy with their own shit rn anyways

+Bucky is literally the only one left who might object and if they're using his identity to carry out clandestine missions then they have leverage. keep quiet and you have a job, prestige, perks, etc. without having to actually do any of the dirty work. don't, and we spin this like you went off WS style and there's nobody to keep you from being locked up anymore. plus Bucky hates Zemo right? why would he care if he's America’s Winter Soldier

+this also allows for a built-in deniability for Val/the government if Bucky!Zemo was ever caught on a mission. that can't be the Winter Soldier doing assassinations in Europe if you can see Bucky Barnes at a Congress meeting on public tv at the same exact moment

+as to motivation, other than all the reasons stated above, it's clear that Val doesn't want a Captain America. she said as much to Walker in TFATWS. while it might work to her advantage to have a controlled Avengers team for her public image, it helps her far more to have someone reliable to do her dirty work

+creating a black ops assassin à la the Winter Soldier, but for America, would be her goal

+and sure, she had Walker and Yelena under her payroll already (and we assume Ghost and Taskmaster as well) but they don’t have that living action figure, perfect soldier rizz. in various ways im going to assume they've disappointed her, questioned orders, or just generally was too human

+so why Bucky's identity? easy. he's already got a whole brand. i can hear the sardonic lines out of JLD mouth about how hard it is to create something new when you can just reboot it. Bucky has a legend as the Winter Soldier, one that still carries a lot of clout. she wouldn't even need to deploy him for assassin reasons, just use him for negotiations and fear tactics. the Winter Soldier is already a verified threat at an international level, you can't buy that kind of marketing. using Bucky's face and WS identity would be essential to her

+wouldn’t just brainwashing the real Bucky again be easier? well, other than the advantage of having Bucky and the WS be separated people as mentioned above…the last two times Bucky Barnes was brainwashed to be the Winter Soldier and otherwise held against his will, an empire fell (S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra and The Avengers). so, while i’m sure Val has a fondness of the Rule of Three as much as i do, i also think she’s smarter than that

+i’m sure she’s even approached Bucky directly and has probably tried to manipulate him with a job that looks legit on the outside and gets him a nice private house. but Bucky isn’t going back to the WS role, it’s not going to happen. and he’s already side-eyeing Val pretty hard in that trailer so her perfect soldier he won't be

so Val has means, opportunity, and motivation to take Zemo and turn him into her very own super assassin. but lets take this a step further.

this post by magnitothemagnificent brings up a great theory that Bucky here could actually be Jack Monroe, more importantly brings up one of Jack's alter egos, Scourge.

this same guy from the comic page above

(for my theory, obviously, instead of Jack, it would be Zemo as a Scourge-like character)

+we know that there is a version of the serum going around to create the Sentry, and that the Sentry's #1 personality trait in the comics is his mental instability

+we know that, in the comics, Jack Monroe was driven mad specifically by the Super Serum he was given. it messed with his sense of reality and identity in big ways including making him believe he actually was Bucky, instead of just taking up his mantle

+possibly, this version of the serum is responsible for the mental instability of everyone who takes it, creating delusions and hallucinations and this is what affects the Sentry’s mental stability and warps this hypothetical Bucky!Zemo/Scourge's sense of reality

+this could even tie into Walker's story, as it seemed like he escalated in his instability after taking the serum (you know, there's actually a fairly large connection between Walker/US Agent and Monroe too hmm…)

in the comics, Monroe is being controlled (through nanites, so idk maybe Stark Tech?) by a very Zemo-type motivated guy who hates supers and even works for the Commission on Superhuman Activities (basically the same people who created the Sokovia Accords in the MCU, led by Ross and the UN). being controlled by this man, Monroe, as Scourge, is forced to attack and kill super powered people and targets the Thunderbolts. Comic Zemo is literally beheaded by him in a page that definitely tries to make the reader think that it is Bucky Barnes attacking Zemo (this was before the Winter Soldier Brubaker run that brought back Bucky Barnes, so at the time Bucky was still thought to be very dead for over 50 years)

and the Scourge suit would explain other parts of this theory, such as why is that literally Sebastian Stan’s face?

+the suit comes with a camouflage feature and image inducer so looking just like Bucky wouldn't be a problem (in the comics, previous versions of Scourge, one who i actually believe was Jake Monroe, just used latex masks, even disguising himself as a woman more than once -go Val=Zemo theory!- but the most important detail is that Scourge has always been a master of disguise, so that element is already built into the lore of the character)

how would Zemo be able to mimic the Super Soldier Serum?

+if he's not being dosed by Val with a version of the serum, the suit has various means of mimicking increased strength

but unless they really committed to amputating an arm and have a Wakandan prosthetic laying around, how would Zemo have the metal arm?

+from what i can tell, we don’t actually see Bucky’s metal arm in this scene? i believe it’s covered up with a jacket. and even if some of it shows, that could be a CGI misdirect. otherwise the Scourge suit would answer this too, specifically the metal-looking high-tech gauntlets that he wears could be made to at least look like Bucky’s arm and do the same things Bucky’s arm can do

but what about real Bucky?

+we have to first buy into the two Bucky’s theory, which i don’t actually hate. there’s Bucky trying his best in the trailer and then there’s an impersonator out there doing his best Winter Soldier. this way we don’t run into the same problems of a third act reveal like with the others (not actually following the real Bucky Barnes). we would be, hopefully with a confrontation between the two in the climax, getting almost an out of body visual of Bucky’s inner turmoil. him vs the winter soldier identity and everything that represents to him

even having Bucky wearing the Winter Soldier gear would have a cool call back to the Scourge suit:

+the suit in the comics has two gauntlets that can access various tools and weapons by simply voicing a code. they appear as if from thin air but in reality it is a clever use of pym particles

+these weapons aren't even just regular ‘ol things but rather he has a whole arsenal taken from other heroes and villains

+so a suit that carries the whole Winter Soldier arsenal, despite us having every reason to believe Bucky wouldn't have those things anymore, could be a fun way to reference that

speaking of the WS arsenal:

+I know its just a coincidence, but its worth noting that, as others have pointed out, Bucky is predominantly carrying the Škorpion vz. 61 (also known as the Sa vz. 61 Skorpion) in the trailer and in the poster. which was the gun that used to attach to the harness on the WS suit

+Zemo's paramilitary team from Sokovia, EKO Skorpion, was, at least partially, named after the Serbian Skorpion paramilitary force. the real life Serbian Skorpions named themselves after their favorite gun, you guessed it: the same Škorpion vz. 61 that is used by the WS

+additional fun(?) fact: the real life Serbian Skorpions had a secret relationship to the CIA and the CIA might have had a hand in the Yugoslav wars (shocker). if we follow this trajectory, it's possible that Val could have had connections to Sokovia and Zemo as early as the 90s/early 2000s, working as a CIA agent involved with the Sokovian Civil War

+if Hydra was involved with instigating the civil war in Sokovia (as they almost certainly were as it gained them a great advantage in establishing their base there) and Val truly is Madame Hydra, then that would establish pretty strong connective tissue between Val, Sokovia, Zemo, and the WS/Bucky

taking us to Pleasant Hill again:

i love this panel in relation to the Thunderbolts bc this is everything that Yelena is struggling with and seems to be the central theme of the movie, these broken people finding purpose in a world that they’ve been alienated by

+now the major twist in the comic wasn’t just that Zemo is really mild-mannered Jim, but rather the readers were manipulated through various means into believing that Jim was actually Bucky until the end reveal

+combining these things (the Pleasant Hill comic run and the Jack Monroe/ Scourge comic run) creates a story where the audience is led to believe Bucky is Winter Soldiering about, attacking and possibly trying to kill the Thunderbolts team

+but in reality it is actually Zemo, being manipulated and controlled by Val thru various sci-fi means to make Zemo just appear as Bucky

some other things:

+the last person to imitate the WS specifically? Zemo

+and he literally did it with just some prosthetics and theater kid energy

+their height difference is concealable with some heels and Zemo would know how to run in them

+this might even explain Bucky's bad hair:

+like ok hold with me here but Daniel Bruhl had this same exact hair cut for his role as Karl Lagerfeld

did he keep the hair during Thunderbolts filming? i have no idea. but its fun to imagine

and finally,

+the popular Bucky/WS left hand theory. while i’m not necessarily convinced just by this trailer (even tho i really like the theory and the visual importance of Bucky using his metal/left arm), this would gain added legitimacy if it’s actually Zemo impersonating the WS

+because, while Bucky may not be left handed,

+Zemo is

——————————————————————

10 / 10

this gerbil

+100% Zemo, he’s not even in disguise here that’s just Daniel Brühl on set

[hood-ex]

Rip Damian’s ability to mimic people voices,

like seriously do DC not know the potential that could have? THE COMEDY POTENTIAL?!

Bats!Dick and Batgirl Steph could have had a game with Damian by introducing as many people to Damian as they can and get him to mimic their voices.

Dick can show Damian memes and famous clips from movies and Damian could perfectly repeat them in the actors voice.

We could have Damian using his ability to mimic voices as a way to either gain the overhand over an enemy or to psychologically torment them.

Rip DC you did nothing with ability along with Damian’s ability to apparently DO SURGERY

Which was Ngl kinda insane. How does he keep steady hands??????? At least now it was sort of believable when he attempted to disarm a bomb because I know he has steady hands and precision but like bro he’s like ten

Anyways sorry about that rant, does Dick have any werid abilities or talents that comic book writers either forget or underuse?

Like I know when he was younger apparently he was like a mathlete or something and he knows a lot of languages.

I don't know why this made me want Damian to mimic Patrick having the, "It's not my wallet" convo with Man Ray. But yeah or the fact that Damian plays the violin. Unless that's been brought up in his series with Bruce, I haven't been keeping up with it. According to Damian himself, he can quickly master musical instruments, so I'm just waiting for him to challenge Steph to a piano duel. Or she could play piano, and he could play violin. Either way.

Dick can also do voice mimicry thanks to Alfred. And yeah, he used to be a math tutor. I like whenever he does any kind of mechanic/engineer/welding work. I wouldn't mind it being a bigger focus. As for weird abilities... he's good with his thighs lmao. Either tossing people or holding on to things with them alskdja. Oh and Dick can also use a slingshot. That's a fun weapon. And this is more of a hobby than a talent but skydiving.

[bekolxeram]

I always roll my eyes when I see people be like "well tommy HAD to have been flying the plane" cause like. all you were doing is talking about reality vs the show like why r people so pressed about that. like I'm an emt and I do that all the time cause I think it's fun to talk about the realities of ems care vs tvs depiction of it. I'm not saying the show is bad or whatever i just like talking about emergency medicine and how tv gets it wrong alot. anyways I appreciate u talking all about aviation its really interesting and I hope ur not too disheartened by people being weird cause I love reading ur posts about it <3

Hypothetically, the show decides to film an emergency where a huge chunk of an airliner's roof tears off. The whole plane is basically hanging by a thread, one engine fails and the landing gears are not secure, but somehow the pilots manage to make a successful landing. What is it? An open top plane instead of a bus? The writers are running out of ideas.

Or what if it's an Airbus with a faulty auto-throttle that needs constant monitoring by the flight crew. When the captain is holding onto the throttle, he just happens to have a heart attack and lets go, now the plane is banking to one side because the malfunctioning auto-throttle has rolled back one of the engine. Oh wait, the first officer is more used to flying Soviet planes and their altitude indicator has a completely opposite mechanism comparing to the western one. (Western ADI shows you the horizon, Soviet ADI turns with the plane) So the first officer turns the wrong way and crashes the plane. Wow, really? A Final Destination parody?

Or maybe a FedEx employee tries to commit insurance fraud by hijacking a cargo plane, killing the pilots with a hammer and a spear gun then crashing it to hide the evidence. The first officer, suffering from brain injury due to the attack, decides to fly the DC-10 like a fighter jet to help his equally injured colleagues subdue the hijacker. He first makes a sudden steep climb, then a sharp roll to the left until the plane is flying upside down, and finally dives so quickly it's approaching the speed of sound. Somehow they manages to land safely and the attacker is arrested. Did the writers get the wrong memo and wrote an action movie instead of a plane emergency?

Except I didn't write all these to mock the show, these are actually Aloha Airlines Flight 243, TAROM Flight 371 and FedEx Flight 705. (The FedEx DC-10 was later repaired and it flew until December 31, 2022. Amazing.) Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction, and it is fun to talk about, I think you understand exactly what I mean. We all get to learn what works, what doesn't, and what is surprisingly realer than we thought.

Even the shark on freeway call people keep bringing up to prove how crazy, how unrealistic the show is, well, there is a place called Florida, and everything that can happen has happened there.

This shark didn't bite anyone though, it didn't survive the crash. :/

I actually started writing about real life pilot training and how hard it is to fly a helicopter because of the discourse going around back then claiming Tommy didn't deserve a medal because he did nothing. "It's not real, it's a TV show where anyone can do anything, anyone can drive that helicopter lol." I wrote about the difference between helicopter pilots and fixed wing pilots because I found the contrast between them interesting, and Tommy's characterization is aptly appropriate for someone who flies helicopters professionally. I even worked that into a little headcanon of my own, about Tommy dating an airplane pilot in the past and the difference in lifestyle and attitude that broke them up. I've never forced anyone to accept my explanation as absolute fact, it's always about my interpretation of Tommy's character. People can ignore top/bottom debates, D/s discourse, KINKTOMATO, right? Yet I say Tommy doesn't fly a 4 engine air tanker (but he's still super badass as a helicopter pilot, I wrote a 3 part series just about how dangerous and difficult the cruise ship rescue mission in 7x03 is), people just feel the need to tell me I'm wrong, to express their displease of me obsessing over tiny details, or simply "shut the hell up". Adding a disclaimer and creating a whole tag for people to block wasn't even enough. It's just... discouraging.

I don't know, I just hope the show never goes full Fire Country (2022-). It misrepresents real life firefighting so bad that CAL FIRE chief publicly condemned the show. The president of CAL FIRE's union even made an unsuccessful attempt to sue the show and later released a statement basically saying "we can't force them to do anything, but know that we have nothing to do with the show." I just think real firefighters spending the whole afternoon talking to the news about how dangerous and impractical it is to dump bunch of water over a crowded urban area, then immediately after that 911!LAFD, a fire department for the city not the surrounding woodland, showed up with the exact air tanker Trump suggested, that would be kinda... goofy. I've seen a retired firefighter praising the later seasons of 9-1-1 for striking a good balance between dramatization and authenticity. I hope they keep it that way.

[thestargayzingheroine]

My Adventures With Superman - A Rambling Set Of Thoughts

Okay, I know I don't USUALLY make posts like this and I especially hate getting cynical and nitpicky about these sorts of things because I just don't wanna contribute to all the negativity on the internet... But this is something I just couldn't shake.

So last night I watched the first season of My Adventures With Superman and... I have a lot of mixed feelings about to be brutally honest which is a shame because I know SO many people really loved this show.

Spoilers for season 1 obviously

For the most this show is great and it has a good foundation for Superman and gets him and his relationship with Lois so right. I love how Clark is this big, soft himbo twink dork who really reminds me of Adora from She-Ra and Lois is this fun tomboy who falls head over heels for him. And to be honest, all of their moments were genuinely the highlight of the show for me. SERIOUSLY ITS LIKE CLARK AND LOIS BUT MADE FOR SAPPHICS LIKE ME AND I ADORE THEM

I love the art style and animation too and really does put a very fresh new aesthetic on DC stuff. Sure, it's a bit too much like She-Ra and Voltron in places, but for DC, it's a really good breath of fresh air. Seriously, look at the designs of Deathstroke and Livewire!

But sadly, that's not all the show is and this is where I have to sadly talk about my negatives with it.

Sooooo… this show was written a lot of the same people who wrote She-Ra and it seems to be a big fan of various anime things too, especially Dragon Ball Z and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

To that end, the show has basically... turned Superman into a mixture of Adora and Goku, not just in terms of personality traits and in Adora's case, her relationship with Catra (Seriously, if Clark was a woman and blonde, I would swear she and Lois would just be Catradora)

This sadly does apply to how this show portrays the Kryptonians, who are implied to MOSTLY be a race of evil conquerors who tried to attack Earth only for Krypton to be destroyed. This is VERY similar to how the First One's were depicted in She-Ra, as well as how the Saiyans were in Dragon Ball Z. One could also argue that their attack on Earth is a weird mashup of the movie Arrival and the Second Impact from Evangelion but that's me getting very nitpicky.

So naturally, we have Adora and Goku's traits being applied to Superman. And…. those traits don't really work for Superman, at all. Now I should be clear, it seems to be that Jor-El and Lara were actually like rebels fighting the evil Kryptonians (which is ironically Mara's whole deal... you seeing the She-Ra pattern here yet?) but like... I don't like this idea at all. Poor Clark even has a fucking breakdown later on and thinks he's actually some evil weapon meant to conquer Earth AGAIN just like Adora from She-Ra being used as a weapon by the First One's. And I just feel bad for him because he's trying to be the good decent Superman we all love... but he's getting dragged into this plot that pretty much breaks him... and I don't really like it.

And then there's a whole subplot about Lois meeting alternate versions of herself and discovering alternate versions of Superman who are evil (which is bizarrely how Kryptonite is introduced in this show) which.... yeah I don't like that plot either. Nor am I the fan of Task Force X pulling the whole "the Government is treating clark as hostile because they think he's an evil alien" plot which I have gotten kinda tired of seeing in a lot of modern Superhero media. It's either Superheroes being hated or hunted by the government or being made to work for them.

And you know where this all probably came from for this show in particular? Fucking Zack Synder and Man of Steel. It's kind of ironic because a lot of this show feels like its in response to the Synderverse, like it feels obligated to comment on how people see Superman now because of those crappy movies, something that I know James Gunn is probably gonna do as well with his superman movie basically a live action version of Superman vs the Elite.

And just…. no, none of this shit is really necessary nor is it a good idea. Because it kinda takes away some bits of Superman that I like. I know the show isn't done yet but… I can already make a good guess of where it's going to go. And where it's going… idk if I'm gonna like a whole lot.

It is clearly a show wanting to be different from all that has been done before with Superman…. but by being different for the sake of it, it's doing a lot of stuff I just don't like.

I just want there to be a day when we get a Superman thing that doesn't have to justify the man's own existence and role in a story because some objectivist edgelord made a bad movie with him in it eleven years ago.

So yeah, by turning Superman into more or less mostly Adora from She-Ra... I think they might have messed him a bit in my eyes. I hope season 2, whenever that comes out hopefully pushes things in a more hopeful direction and I could genuinely call this a good adaption of Superman. Because there is so much potential with just from the relationship of Clark and Lois alone that tells me that these creators just GET how Superman's character is.

So yeah, I hope that long rambling thought made sense.

[unsleepingtales]

Oh boy those content warnings look fun. Mismag episode four time?

(Excuse the lack of excitement please I’ve had a shit day and this promises yet more emotional damage) (I know I’m choosing to watch this I promise I’ll turn it off if it feels like it would be bad for me to keep watching)

Not the long back

Oh god

He has every right to be saying this but ouch

Okay so this is reasonable and devastating

SAM

That’s the thing that gets Brennan to break

Oh god Sam is a child of divorce and her saying that HITS

K. K. This is not it? Maybe?

Where’s Brennan’s mic bc it sounds a bit weird

Ooooh cool shadow stuff

Oy.

Disturbing!!!!

Is there a conspiracy about my ass happening in the group right now?

Yeah Evan there is 100% a conspiracy about your ass

Cool cool. So that was jokey but definitely implied K is still into Evan

His BODY

Uh

Maybe it’s the book he picked up?

UH

Hmm! Upsetting.

This is not great for my mental health 😐

Is Carlos doing this live or did they have him record new stuff in between episodes?

I mean that’s fair you did earthquake him

Aabria looks surprised so I am gonna guess Carlos was doing that live

There’s a lot of rules for sleeping outside

That is disturbing buddy

LEVITY THANK GOD

Are you gonna do a scrubbbbb

I love the editing on this

The face dropping the minute you get off the call is SO real

Oops oh no

UH OH

ERIKA WHAT

The very model of a modern chipmunk animal 😭

Awwww them

This is fun

Oh nooooooo

I love him SO much

That is. An ADHD symptom.

Hey babygirl what are you doing

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Ok so maybe that was prerecorded because they just had that projection ready to go

You’re gonna shoot a cocaine spell into your MIND

They can help now!

What’s a fun cocaine movie 😭

I just watched Aabria’s eyes light up at challenging Erika lmao

Okay her art is pretty

I love table acting. I think every actor should have to play a ttrpg and learn how to act and communicate within the confines of a table and it will be helpful!

Well at least she’ll have something in common with Tabby

GET FUCKED sorry that was a gut reaction to a British person using the American version of a word because I have been slowly infecting my British partner with Americanisms and our friends and their family never let them hear the end of it lmao

Cocaine!

Hello?????

Oh my GOD how did we get here

What?

A skrillion!

Lemli! Hi!

Brennannnnnnnn

Incredible. Five questions. You rock.

Evan!

That’s soooo unsettling.

Discomfort is a great place for everybody here to be and we can all bump up the paranoia by one!

Iconic tbh

HI!

I don’t have the strength to explain skibidi toilet 😭

Ooooh boy oh boy

The matrix crossed with Glinda’s bubble that’s really cool

Oh for fucks SAKE

Another dc 40 for Erika whyyyyy

Oh god

Oh FUCK HER

Holy shit that’s hot. Sorry but. Oh my god that’s hot.

What’s the smallest most efficient effort that makes a living person a dead body? I’m sorry but that? Is hot.

Evan immediately no hesitation snapping his wand to kill the person who attacked someone he loves. HOT.

Oh my GOD that’s terrifying. Hot. A silent custodian walking through the halls of her mind turning off her lights.

Art!

FUCK.

Listen I didn’t claim to be okay ever.

Oh this is interesting also

Sorry I’m. Fine.

Oh this could go so wrong.

Hey nobody look at me for a minute I’m gonna be in the corner processing my reaction to Brennan’s facial expressions just now.

This is FINE I’m not gonna rewatch that scene what are you TALKING about.

We’re fine we’re moving on we’re processing.

Sam not to be weird but yeah why the fuck would you put yourselves through that again for someone who did try to kill you and also just tried to break your shit and hurt your friend.

Attacking someone I love around me gets you dead. Yeah that’s it.

The bad part of cocaine!

Oh god. Oh that’s so horrifying. Oh Aabria you’re so good at what you do.

That’s heartbreaking and terrifying oh god.

Fuck.

A moment of peace. Okay.

Yeah Jammer hasn’t said anything in a While he doesn’t look like he’s having a good time

Glad I’m not the only one who thought that was fucking TERRIFYING

They’re friends!!

God. This is why he left.

Aabria. FUCK.

So next episode looks. Fun.

[mrawkweird]

Sometimes I still can't comprehend I live in a world where Sonic has a film franchise. Hell, just doing good in general.

I'm not kidding it is so hard to comprehend cause when I was growing up Sonic was "big" but still super niche compared to mr Jumpman, early youtube the only people really talking about Sonic were people who already liked him and poked fun lovingly when they weren't making something just inspired by him.

Then the 2010's happened, all of a sudden youtuber's all collectively came together to the consensus that "Sonic was never good" or "you're all just nostalgia blind" while claiming anyone who considers themselves a Sonic fan to be hyper weird creeps.

Not helping was the flip flopping in quality, the disaster that was the launch of the Sonic Boom brand (The Wii U game especially), and the brand essentially doing it's best to please both a more casual audience. Truly dark times for fans.

Then THIS happened

THIS. This legit in retrospect feels like it could have killed Sonic. Some mid to bad games? He could live through that shit like it's nothing. The only people that affects are the people who play games. But a movie? Especially when they do the bad movie thing of changing the iconic look and removing anything likable about it? That feels like a death sentence. And there he was

With his fucked up lips and everything. And everyone trashed on it, not just fans, not just haters, everybody thought it was bad, sensationally bad.

It could have all been over right then and there, but they got themselves a second chance and locked in immediately.

And after that everything's just fallen into place. It's just been W after W after W. Even something like IOS game is considered to be a dub now.

And he's everywhere. Back in my day I would have to leave my small ass town and find the nearest form of moderately big mall or town that had Toy's R Us for some Sonic merch but these days you can just find it at damn Walmart. And he's getting shit like music tours.

Eating establishments

And official crossover with DC Comics

Not to mention the fan content that's better than ever both because of the ease of access to better tech and the ever growing amount of inspired artist.

We got fan games

Fan music

And of course fan art and animation, many of which get's spotlighted on twitter. Hell to promote the last game they basically sponsored one themselves.

Really couldnt be a better time to be a sonic fan.

There's a moment where it really feels as if fate had to be on Sonic's side and it's that the first movie came out and managed to make enough of an impact financially right before shit went all the way south in 2020. Imagine if the pandemic just instantly destroyed its theater release and left the studio unable to see the success they had on their hands. It would have almost been Sonic's luck too but they made it. To be here right now in this time where Sonic has reached these newfound heights almost feels like it should have been impossible but maybe it was always meant to be.

Also, funny you bring up Toys "R" Us because I had to go to one outside of my city as well to get this Sonic game watch.

I loved the hell out of this thing.

[wallbeatjournal]

Have you ever noticed there are loads of surface level plot similarities between the pilots of riverdale and dawsons creek. Also mr honey is the actor who played jack and greg berlanti worked on both projects. Just a topic i used to like to think about a lot….

yes yes yes omg yes!! sibling shows!! and this is intentional for sure, i was looking at articles about riverdale from pre-series (circa 2015-16) yesterday to cite the perks of being a wallflower movie as a core inspiration for s1 and roberto mentioned dawson's creek regularly, too. actually way before the twin peaks pastiche started getting promoted, dawson's and perks were coming up.

it's really really wonderfully apparent if you're into the gay-auteur genre of teen dramas or the intersection between teen dramas and gay horror media. dawson's creek ran so riverdale could soar (lean in even harder on genre-archetype-and-trope-as-social-construct, not be hung up by don't-ask-don't-tell era tv writing restrictions...except by choice for queerbaiting fun and spite). and even failing to soar, dawson's creek season 2 might remain a perfect season of television for me.

(note for the readers who aren't operating in the 5th dimension like me and anon, yet: kevin williamson made our favorite genre-aware homoerotic slasher movie, scream, and dawson's creek both, and the only functional difference between them is what genre conventions he was allowed to play with to make it. in scream he got to have his repressed closet cases do murder. in dawson's creek, dawson must pick up the camera and make his friends into Characters, instead.)

dawson's creek and riverdale are suuuuch spiritually similar shows, at least the parts of DC that williamson was involved with - so for sure seasons 1-2, and then his comeback many seasons later for the finale (which i think the riverdale finale also riffed on heavily. mwah). you've got:

the original controversial "teenagers don't fucking talk like this omg cringe" ft. heightened theatrical hyperstylized dialogue full of movie references

comphet camp. no character is truly coherent unless you pepper in the fact that they're lgbt and repressing it as hard as they can. barchie, meet dawson/joey. it sucks here sooo bad but it's certainly in the social script and legacy expectations. might try to make it last a lifetime!

meta plot about the whole show possibly being the creation of the most repressed and judgmental (and asexual) control freak main character. plus many in-universe metaplots where said character makes autobiographical work romanticizing/projecting all over his friends

titular location (riverdale, the creek) is both a story setting AND a narrative mousetrap that the characters are trapped in.

there are tons of direct DC<>rvd plot and character riffs and web-weaves. like anon mentioned, principal honey really does play like a later-in-life continuation of kerr smith's role as jack in dawson's creek, with dawson creek jack's values and beliefs. most of the s1 rvd characters make more sense in the context of dawson's creek archetypes, too (especially jughead, veronica, kevin imo). many plots seem yanked off a teen drama tropes bingo card that dawson's creek filled out for them (complimentary!!!!).

they also both just have a really similar character writing approach to their campy genre pulp. the shows are very arch and into their coding games and doublespeak, the text is a fluid thing never taken too seriously or held too dearly. but the characters are nearly always treated earnestly and with love, we're allowed to grow so fond of them as an audience bc the narrative is one of love (sometimes an oppressive love full of meta-projections from its unreliable narrator-creator, but LOVE!!). it's a priority that while the weird tropey shit is happening, we still really are allowed to care about how it feels to be archie or pacey or jen or betty, and the emotional repercussions of any weird tropey happenings are carried through fairly consistently*. dawson is THE WORST. but he's beloved. he's vivid. he's coherent. his feelings are wrong but they're real and we do care. we do!! we must!!

anyway. you made me go back and look at posts from when i went back and rewatched dawson's creek in 2022. here's an assortment of random hot takes and fawning fond adorationisms, if you even care. look at my closeted friends from the creek. they're stuck like this!

PS: i made a list one time of the 6 essential dawson's creek episodes (i would add the 2-part whole series finale to this list in retrospect, so 8 episodes total) that one could watch out-of-context to open their <understanding gay-auteur camp teen drama comphet-lamenting queer-coding tropes and conventions> third eye. it's here on my personal blog! most recommend the daddy/mommy issues fishing trip ep (parent<>child dynamics and gender...riveressentials) and the gay two-parter (principal honey!!).

PPS: @kevin-keller-artistic-director used to post about rvd and dawson's creek semi regularly and probably would have great thoughts about this topic beyond what i just dredged up <3 also interested if anyone else wants to riff on the topic of riverdale as a successor/sibling to dawson's creek 👀

*pacey's CSA plot (DEROGATORY) a notable exception to this. but that's because dawson's creek isn't trying to depict abuse, it's trying to do a queer closet metaphor, where "being in high school but dating an adult woman" is the same as "having a same-sex relationship with a peer" in terms of secrecy and shame and social impact...just NO thought to power dynamics or trauma AT ALL. it's basically the kevin/moose plot from riverdale and pacey is impacted by it like kevin is. gross!!!!

[your-royal-villainess]

Presenting my socially inept non-superhero DC OC, Letrexa Ashton.

In DC Comics style (age may vary depending on the timeline)

Originally, I had thought of her only as a DC Super Hero Girls (2019) OC, but then I decided to expand her existence in other DC universes. Does that make sense? Hopefully you guys are getting it. I’ve tried drawing her in a comic art style before, but I’m more used to cartoons (yay! Cartoons, haha!). I just love how versatile DC characters are.

Speaking truthfully, I don't think she'd be a part of any serious storylines with regards to any of the leading characters (other than just being one of the students who gets to go to school with Bruce Wayne when he was younger, obviously)—because I've probably mentioned this before: as much as possible, I don't want my OC to bend an original storyline just so she could fit in, but I'm aware that's far-fetched for an OC. Let's just see how it goes.

Her GA uniform is a little different in here because I got inspired by a completely unrelated movie, but it just reminded me so much of this character that I had to do it.

KEY DATA

ғᴜʟʟ ɴᴀᴍᴇ: Letrexa Faerlein Ashton

ɴɪᴄᴋɴᴀᴍᴇs: Trexa (commonly used by Vicki), Ellefay (her initials coined by Harvey), Ash, Faerlein, Lashes (coined by Bruce for the reason that he observed she has long eyelashes and, well… the letters of her name).

ʜᴏᴍᴇᴛᴏᴡɴ: Coast City, California (Hal Jordan's hometown in the comics, but since I've based it mostly again on DCSHG, I considered it as John Stewart's).

ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ: Chanter ~ Ashton

ʟɪᴋᴇs: (if not forced...) reading, thinking, adequate alone time, philosophizing, poetic things etc.

ᴅɪsʟɪᴋᴇs: crowded places, irrationality, herd mentality, cheesy romance […]

Additional Info:

- Doesn't talk that much might come off as aloof; but she's just really shy and reserved

- The weird youngest sibling

- Likes golf and conspiracy theories

- Member of GA's Equestrian Guild and Theater Club* (during her sophomore year only).

- Oblivious to her own feelings

- Quite fun if you get to know her.

- Born on a Black Friday 1990 (yeah, I meant it like the day after Thanksgiving)

- She was sent to Gotham Academy at age 14 to attend her second year of high school and forth; upon graduating, she was set to return home.

[plasticmans-plasticfan]

what do you suppose your top fantasy is

Ok this one I had to mull over for a while, I assume we mean fantasy for a plastic man project, and there's a lot of things I'd love to see.

For a start I'd love for DC to acknowledge plas again, bring woozy back as he's fun AF. I always joke DC are just intimidated by the raw power of Wolfgang Woozabald Winks XD but let be fair the probably see him as outdated when I think personally the lil man is timeless.

For plas to get good writing again would be another one, to be fair I didn't hate his recent portrayal in the Valentine's comic that bad, I've seen him written much worse and in the drought plas fans have been having from DC I'll take what I can get. His writing in the JLA was hit or miss, with all the perv jokes getting a bit too out of character for my tatse, I don't mind him being a dumb flirt but I felt they took it too far sometimes. It's more funny if the weird shit he does is just accidental or him not understanding social queues.

Another dream project would be if they decided to take that animated pilot and make more with it, or just any animation projects with plas, a movie or a show I'll take what I can get.

i also think it would be nice to just get some more domestic scenes like we used to get in the early comics, really get to know plas more, it's one think I loved in the Kyle baker run was getting to see those little bits of him being the best housewife he can be XD,

Also Big Important thing, I wanna see plas and Luke interact more, him stepping up as a father and helping teach Luke how to use his powers and maybe even some day helping his son become a hero like him if that's what he wants. Plas being proud of Luke and Luke looking up to his father, ease plas can be such a good dad and I wanna see more of that.

Long story short, just more plas would be nice I'm not too picky , and more woozy and luke too.

~(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

[livsoulsecrets]

people id like to get to know better

Tagged by @delphissoracle thanks!!

Last song: Maria, Maria by Elis Regina

Favorite color: purple. Every person who knows me knows that. It’s concerning, I’m wearing purple pajamas rn and typing on my phone with a purple case and using purple flip flops. It’s that serious !

Last book: Se a casa 8 falasse (If house 8 could speak). It’s this super fun Brazilian book about a house telling the stories of 3 of its inhabitants over the years. I loved it

Last movie: Ainda Estou aqui (I’m still here). A masterpiece based on the true story of the family of Rubens Paiva, specially his wife Eunice. He was a former politician who was killed by the Brazilian dictatorship. I went to the movies and cried like a baby and felt soooo proud of all the work put into this

Last tv show: I was watching Tapas e Beijos (Slaps and kisses if I translate but that’s just weird lol). It’s this super funny comedy show that I’ve loved since I was a kid. Ironically, it also stars Fernanda Torres, who plays the main character Eunice in I’m still here.

Sweet/savory/spicy: savory all the way (I don’t like sweet and can’t handle spicy)

relationship status: perpetually single

Last thing I searched: a lot of searches for batfam fics and comics in general

Current obsession: dc comics, if the way it took over my blog is anything to go by

Looking forward to: Visiting Buenos Aires this December !! It’ll be my first time outside Brasil

Favorite drink: orange juice or Coca Cola, I’m a simple woman

Song playing on a loop in my head: labour by Paris Paloma

Current favorite character: Dick Grayson too

Fun activity you’d like to get into: swimming. I miss it, but is just so expensive to take classes

Last video game: was probably Mario when I was little, don’t really play normally

Last comic: Batgirs Vol 2 (which was so fun) and Absolute Batman #2

I’ll tag @ae-azile @that-bl-bitch

But no pressure :)

[rwbyfan1999]

Justice league X RWBY pt 2 thoughts

I know I’m late to the party but I’ve finally got around to watching the second JL X RWBY movie and man did I love it, I loved it so much that after watching it I watched them both back to back and I’m not gonna do a review this time I’m just gonna give you my impressions on what part 2 brought to the table.

There will be spoilers so you’ve been warned in case you didn’t see it.

So time on remnant work’s differently then earth 3 days on earth equals 3 weeks on remnant so the time gap on remnant makes sense especially to get some V8 and V9 stuff thrown in

Great to see Black Canary thrown in I just wish Green Arrow would have appeared he’s mentioned but I would’ve loved seeing these married dorks together again

It was awesome to get a taste of Vacuo even if it’s super brief

Ruby is confident again which is awesome but she was also being insanely reckless while Yang’s protective instincts are not making her fully trusting of her leadership, given everything that happened in the ever after it makes sense for Yang’s character

Dc villains helping the league against a common enemy is pretty awesome

Man I feel sad for Weiss losing Atlas in this movie

Cute seeing Jessica ask about Jaune really wish JNR could’ve gone to earth

Man team RWBY’s super hero costumes look awesome, still weird seeing Blake without her cat ears but i quickly got used to it

Weiss not having powers is interesting and makes her little arc with Batman interesting sense now the roles are reversed

So Watts helped Kilg%re super surprised to see that

Blake gets 5 points for the reference to Dr Merlot and giving us some Grimm Eclipse representation (still love that game)

Love Ruby and Clark’s talk in the training room telling her that it’s ok to honor your family just don’t be in a rush to join them

Weiss and Bruce will alway’s be fun to watch and he helps Weiss realize where her true home was by the end, in his own way of course

Flash’s PTSD from being controlled by Kilg%re in part 1 plays a big part in this movie and Yang steps in to tell him her struggles, without directly talking about Adam or Raven, just to tell him to not let kilg%re consume his thoughts

The idea of the league using the digital world against Kilg%re and Watts was an interesting twist

Ruby and Yangs heart to heart moment is sweet, Ruby just telling Yang that she can’t protect her from everything and that she’s not gonna leave her

Having the end be at the Schnee manor felt full circle for both Weiss’s arc in the movie and the Atlas trilogy in general

Kilg%ore controlled Yang was crazy and Blake new like instantly, god she knows her girlfriend crazy well which is super cute

Trapping Kilg%re and Watts in the digital realm for good was an excellent way to cap the dualogy up

Another bee kiss need I say more?

All in all I’m very satisfied with this one and can see the development done for Ruby, Weiss, and Yang carry over into V10 especially Weiss

Stay awesome

[shirefantasies]

Thank you for the follower acknowledgment! I just followed you in the past few days and had looked through your work more than anything else and when you thanked us I felt kinda bad because I thought it was so so so nice of you to do but I hadn’t put much thought in the person behind it. I was so wrapped up in learning about a new character from a universe I loved that I’ve never noticed before and I took an effing Tolkien humanities collage class. 😅😂

But yeah I had never heard of the elf Feren before you or at least paid attention to him in the hobbit movies I went back and rewatched them to find him 🤣 so thanks a lot man, smh, now I have a new hot elf mans to simp over (I’m joking it actually renewed my interest and I started looking at more backgroundish characters I hadn’t noticed before which is normally my forte being an Infp. I’ve been slacking man.)

Also hello fellow Libra ♎️ I also enjoy dnd I’ve never played but have read a few of the older books, read the Drizzt comics, and haven’t played but watched the play through a of Baldurs gate 3 (Astarion and Sorn Orlith omg 😳) Also have you heard of chuckles the clown? 😂 my favorite race from dnd is half-elves (I was a gifted adhd kid so I can relate to the being picked on and not fitting in) and Drow they fascinate me.

Also Star Wars (there’s a comic from like the 1970’s with a character called Taikotelai who was a one and one like feral so I’m writing a fic to fix that I love him he didn’t deserve to die. Harry Potter too (Ravenclaw is my house, my collage professor also did a Harry Potter humanities class and sorted us into houses and kept score. It was awesome especially since he dressed as snape one time since he’s the same personality type and a Slytherin. (Ravenclaw won, Hufflepuff in second, Slytherin, and Gryphandor had negative points 😂 they kept saying the name Voldemort and he penalized for that.)

Star Trek (depending on the series), transformers especially tfp and tfa prowl (he loves organic nature and quiet which I get). Bluey don’t judge me I’m 20-25 (not comfortable with publicly sharing true age) I’m allowed to like children’s shows and books with some adult themes occasionally, life doesn’t give us a happy ending why should fiction. 😂 marvel, some dc, A-team. MASH klinger is the original Disney Princess 🤣 change my mind if you don’t know who that is you must google him.

*sorry for the ramble 😅 I was just shocked at the amount we had in common the rest is me seeing if there’s anything else 😂 but yeah always up for discussions. And really thanks again for all the hard work and creativity you put into your writing! I know it’s a lot of times thankless but discovering your writing really brightened up my week. Especially getting back into the hobbit like that it was almost like seeing it anew because I made it my mission to notice things and characters I hadn’t paid attention to before. Also I can tell you put a lot of thought and care into the characterization of the different characters in each one shot, story, headcanons, you do and that’s awesome! I hope you have a great rest of your week!

(I’m doing anonymous cause I’m shy 😓 and some social anxiety sorry if this was weird. I can message you later if you want to know. Or you can ignore me, like I said I went on a rambling tangent it was cool to find out we had so much in common and I’m like ‘that’s why I’ve liked SO much of her writing and not a select few!’ that’s so cool!)

OMG IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE 🅱️LS 🅱️LS 🅱️LS MESSAGE MEEEEE!!! Among so much other cool stuff you mentioned one of my favorite fictional characters EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR one Mr. Maxwell Q Klinger and my eyes just saw MASH Klinger and hyperzoomed and I got so excited that someone else loves this amazing guy I could talk about for hours!!! M*A*S*H is my favorite show E V E R!!! I don't have to google him, but maybe I will anyway just cuz I like lookin at him 😌 fun fact: My dad and I both share a birthday with a M*A*S*H and LoTR cast member! Dad's January 28th which is Alan Alda and Elijah Wood, while I (October 20th) have William Christopher and Viggo Mortensen! My dad also gets John Banner AKA Schultz from Hogan's Heroes! Have you seen HH too?

Don't worry you can clearly see I go on tangents too 😂 I totally get feeling shy and stuff, so up to you! Background characters are the BESSSST though I too have an obscure Star Wars blorbo who popped up in a handful of expanded universe novels (and the comic rendition) and I just love him even though he's nowhere near major. I am not familiar with Taikotelai yet but I wanna read that fic! SW is the best fandom for the coolest small time blorbos I swear! I'm the opposite of you because I've played D&D but never BG3 even though I post about it on my personal a lot 😅 (it's @spacemanxpaninis if you wanna chat there too! That's where you can see all my fandoms and insanity hehe) I just don't have anything that can run it so I have to live vicariously through the playthroughs too 💔

do NOT be worried about me judging you for anything that seems cringe to you, cartoons/animation is a big special interest for me and I love most things animated! I am almost 25 and have been wanting to watch Bluey myself! Comfort content FTW! I hate things that have no happy ending BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🍅🍅🍅 I don't pay to feel bad! Real life gives me enough negative emotions!!! 🍅🍅🍅 To help relieve any feelings of cringe: lemme let you in on a little secret: you know what I watch after the most heartrending draining breakdowns? Family Guy. I fucking watch Family Guy because it's the best turn your brain off mindless entertainment simple amusement with no big emotional stakes 9 times out of 10. If you ever feel bad about Bluey you can picture good ol shirefantasies sitting there post-breakdown tear-streaked watching Peter Griffin dance to Surfin Bird.

That class sounds like fun! Teachers bringing themes or fandoms into classes >>>> I need to watch more Star Trek! My dad started watching the original with my brother and I but we stopped because my brother didn't like it and bitched about 'every episode just being something getting on the ship' :( but I've also heard great things about Deep Space Nine and whichever the one with Patrick Stewart is (New Generation?????)! Love me some scifi. Usually I'm more of a Star Wars girlie but A. I don't discriminate B. I know how pretentious I sound specifying pre-2015 and expanded universe only even though it's true 💀

Bro (lmk if you don't like bring called 'bro' or 'girl' or either, I use those pretty indiscriminately of gender unless people don't like it or get confused, also feel free to tell me your pronouns and a name/nickname/even just emoji if you'd rather in your next ask or if you do message 🫶🏻) I will NEVER ignore you 😤 Legit this is the most exciting ask I've ever gotten on here because you're super cool and we have a lot in common and raaahhhh I wasn't that excited to get on here but E N E R G Y S U R G E I hope we can be friends!