#Status quo is god

[justmenoworries]

Yep, that checks out.

*sigh* You had me in the first three thirds X-Men '97, not gonna lie.

[guiltypart]

I want to state first that this semi-rant isn't exactly because of the release of X-Men 97 and all the posts on Tumblr because of it. I don't even have a Disney+ account to watch the show. Most of my comic knowledge is from reviews and thinkpieces to keep up with what is going on. But this is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while, and all the posts have brought it to the forefront. And hey, now that I have a sort-of-blog, I might as well write my thought out.

One of the things that I don't like about how comic books are written and published is the constant need to return to the status quo.Regardless of what happens in a comic, any change that occurs will eventually be undone to go back to the characters' baselines. Even character death is constantly undone to the point that it's become a joke. This happens for a lot of reasons, some good and some bad, I don't want to get into that here. What I do want to get into is how not every status quo is created equal.

A lot of these status quos are fine for the characters themselves, because the general premise of the book doesn't call for a lot of angst. Superman and Iron Man, for example, have a fair amount of respect and support in their daily lives. They don't have PERFECT lives, but Clark Kent has a strong support system of friends and family and Tony Stark is both wealthy and is happy to be considered a genius as far as I understand. But other characters don't get off so easy. Spiderman's status quo is that his need to be a superhero constantly wreaks havoc on his personal relationships while at the same time he is vilified by the press, so he continues to do a thankless job because it's the right thing to do. What this results in, though, is Spiderman constantly losing friendships and relationships to get back to this status quo. Batman, meanwhile, is the dark, brooding protector of Gotham, but to maintain that status quo, he is constantly angst-ing over his parents and keeping other people, including those close to him at arm's length so that he would never not be brooding and melocholy, and Gotham will never actually deal with the corruption and crime because then it wouldn't need Batman to protect it.

One comic book that gets really hit by this is the X-Men, because the basic premise isn't just "people with superpowers train at a secretive boarding school", but also people with powers that are constantly discriminated against at large, so that they both have to stop supervillains as well as protect each other from bigots, opportunists and mobs, trying to be recognized as people and not monsters. This is a good premise, but the problem is that this is also the X-Men's status quo that they keep returning to. Combined with the fact that Marvel doesn't do reboots the way DC does results in a situation where the X-Men are never going to make any meaningful progress and are constantly set back in terms of civil rights. To me, at least, it's gotten to the point where I can't really suspend disbelief anymore. To me, it's less "Magneto was right" and more "Status quo is god." There's always another hate group that doesn't have any resistance in the population despite how dangerous these have proven to be. There's always another sleezy politician with the same rhetoric, or making the same agreement with someone like Trask despite how they always spiral out of control. More importantly, there's never any progress, because status quo means we can't move beyond where we are, and where we are is hated.

And I know a lot of people could probably argue that just like the initial message of the X-Men, this too is reflective of the real world, especially now where I live where conservative politicians and organizations are still trying (and sometimes succeeding) in rolling back civil rights. But my problem with that is that this is not a realistic world. To borrow something once said by the reviewer Linkara, the worlds of superheroes have:

People with extra-ordinary and supernatural abilities constantly appearing and affecting the public for good or bad.

Technology that, if not commonplace, is still readily at hand and way more advanced than what it is in the real world.

Several non-human societies (Atlanteans, Martians, demons, genetically altered raccoons, etc.) constantly visiting Earth.

Magic as a provable and measurable existence.

To go a bit further, there are a lot of societal fantasies too, such as:

Billionaires that are ethical, albiet not perfect.

Justice systems that often function as intended, with corruption and villains getting off on technicalities considered not the norm for the world, to the point where being able to stay out of jail is almost treated like a superpower itself.

Cites and countries that just don't exist in the real world.

Despite the fact that all of these non-human societies have been interacting with humans, human society is still very much the same with very little influence of any non-humans.

The point is that these worlds are not realistic to start with, so there is no reason why they have to always act "realistically" except for the reason of "because Marvel/Disney/the author says so." Marvel could give the Mutants some permanently unalienable rights, but because they constantly return to the X-Men's status quo of "always prejudiced against", they never will.

I realize that all of this probably sounds whiny on my part and I probably didn't completely get my point across like I wanted to. It's just...Magneto doesn't have to be right within the context of Marvel's Earth. There could be actual societal change that permanently helps mutants. But again, since that would permanently change the status quo, it won't happen because of how comic book writing and publishing works, and I'm at the point where I can't help but see the hand of the author in it all.

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Thank goodness that the episode didn’t require padding.

Just a final scene to show the world returning to normal, with the Beatles recording ‘Love Me Do’ at EMI Studios.

[sweetm0uringlamb]

1 day until november 5th

[steal-this-idea]

Something tells me had this transporter accident happened to two previously unseen crewmates on Voyager, they would've left them blended

There's always debate over why Tuvix attracts so much debate compared to other episodes & I think a lot of it is down to the ending itself, and how it frames everything without any real closure

The ending closes with Janeway in the corridor, weighing the choice she made, but there's notably two voices we don't hear from. We don't actually find out how Neelix or Tuvok felt about being Tuvix, or about Janeway's decision. We see that they're back, we see that Kes is happy, Janeway goes out into the corridor. That's an intentional choice but TNG and DS9 tend to have more in the way of character wrap up and like, maybe there'd be less of a debate if Neelix or Tuvok said "oh we hated being Tuvix, thanks" or anything at all except "hi" (and I'm not saying this as a criticism, "Tuvix" is a great episode, just addressing why it's so much more of a debate). It'd provide more evidence if it was good or bad at least

People say "well they don't debate 'In the Pale Moonlight' like this" and they absolutely do, but also that episode ends with a big monologue from Sisko about how he feels about his choice. Compared to "Tuvix" having the choice happen and then whittling down the aftermath to one shot of Janeway's private reaction. Admittedly I think the writers wanted it to be a purely philosophical debate and not a character one but also: do Tuvok and Neelix secretly long to be Tuvixed once more or not

[essektheylyss]

It is still deeply unclear to me what the outcome of this whole plan is, but it's going to be so funny to me if the gods all just become consecuted mortals who otherwise do regain their memories every lifetime. They're still probably as clever and charismatic and in some cases conniving as they were, just with less firepower. They're reliant on being near beacons if they want to be reborn. Half of them are fundamentally terrified of the concept of permanent death and they've got millennia of experience avoiding it. I give it forty years before there are like seven warring Luxon cults a la the Dynasty just wreaking havoc on Exandria in their obsessive quest for beacons. The Bright Queen suddenly goes from being a fringe theocrat with an overzealous missionary agenda to a paragon of restraint.

[danwhobrowses]

Goodness this is like the third episode in a row begetting discourse among the cr fandom. For me this discourse has two perspectives where the division depends on whose perspective you're looking at;

For the armies it was 'We've been sent by the gods and are here to help you stop Predathos as we pla-wait, you're a vessel of Predathos? Isn't that just like Ludinus planned??' which yeah is valid from their perspective

For the Hells it was 'We just came out of 4 back-to-back battles with Ludinus and Predathos itself, we have a solution to save the gods but change the dynamic but we want to discuss it privately with the gods first and now you're trying to kill us!?' which is also valid

What puts me more on BH's side is that we have the context; BH are allowed to be terse when people try to kill them and fail, least of all allies who don't ask for an explanation before asking their god to come down and smite them. They're not villains because they snarked at the person who attempted to sic their god on them, and it's not as if Imogen sic'd Predathos on them in retaliation. Once again they are met with the thankless job and burden that they neither wanted or asked for, but was thrust upon them anyway. With all the times Bells Hells have been criticized for being aimless and indecisive it seems a little strange to criticize them now for being focused and decisive.

Could they have explained from the start? Maybe. Would it have caused a different reaction the moment they said Predathos is in Imogen? Probably not. I can't tell you why they didn't come out of the Cage and immediately explain because I'm not the players; perhaps they wanted to avoid the hysteria and conflict, perhaps they were drained from the fight and wanted to wrap up the episode, or perhaps it was just down to Bell's Hells, as with all CR campaign parties, being infamously bad at communicating, I don't know.

But it's times like these where it's worth reminding that this is a DnD show, nerdy-ass voice actors having fun, it can't always be clean and clear-cut storytelling every second. And sometimes as a fandom we need to take a step back so we don't get ourselves stuck, because we're probably making it deeper than it is and getting annoyed at each other over our interpretation of two groups from the same side getting annoyed at each other. Just, take a breath.

[jesterkoops]

"Why are people so interested in o!Mark and Helena?? She is the heir to the evil company that held his wife hostage and tortured her for 2 years!"

You have literally just answered your own question, buddy.

Mmm, I don't know. WHAT might be the more interesting and compelling story to tell and to watch?

How the man who's grieved his wife for 2 years only to find out she was alive in some basement gets her back, goes to the press/police, shuts down the company and that's all she wrote?

Or how the man who's grieved his wife for 2 years only to find out she was alive in some basement will deal with unwittingly feeling a connection for the heir to the company who orchestrated all this, who happens to be holding inside her the consciousness of the woman with whom the consciousness he created to escape that grief has formed a deep, meaningful, romantic relationship with?

Or how the heir to the company who holds people in a basement, who grew up in a cult, controlled and trapped within an inch of her life just like their workers, raised not to consider the consciousnesses they created as people, creates one of these consciousnesses as a desperate last attempt to gain her father's approval and has now to deal with both her consciousness and herself falling for the consciousness of the husband of one of their victims and challenge literally her entire worldview since birth?

Idk, man. One of these things is not like the others.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The fans: Ugh Sonic was just so preachy. I mean obviously he's supposed to be the good guy, so any uncomfortableness I feel here and any way I feel like Sonic's choices are framed as being why some other people have shitty lives is just bad writing because he is obviously supposed to be right always, but this characterization makes no sense. Isn't he right for the things he did?

Ian Flynn, using Kitsunami to say the (barely even at this point) quiet part even louder: Hey it's almost like ever since the Mr. Tinker event we've been purposely running with the critique of Sonic as being more selfish than he appears. Sonic is upholding a system of Eggman v Sonic that currently benefits him and shuts down talk of how to improve the current system because he likes his own personal enjoyment and he's attached enough to Eggman that he'd rather Eggman pretend to be a good person than be stuck in prison for life. He doesn't even quite practice what he preaches. We are trying to show that the current hero v villain system and Sonic's recklessness currently affects some people poorly and that Sonic isn't a perfect hero.

[narnia-dreamer]

I do think that people that say that BH decision to have the gods reincarnated as humans was selfish forgot that those same gods (with the exception of a few of them) wanted to start a war which would have destroyed Exandria and most of mortal life there (just like the Calamity did, or maybe even worse), had BH not intervened

Most gods don't care that much about mortals and that was made clear multiple times during the campaign, or, if they do care a bit, they still want to keep the status quo and don't want mortals to be free. Gods needed to go in order for mortals to decide about their future.

And yet, despite all of that, BH decided to spare them, despite having multiple reasons to hate them (at least some of them). They gave the gods the opportunity to live and gave religious people (who, are in fact not all good people - just think about what happened in Issylra and how the guards from Vasselheim were oppressing locals and their culture) hope for their future, despite what they represent to most of them

Saying BH were selfish and didn't care about others (when they spent 50+ episodes discussing this matter and showing that they cared about people above all else) doesn't sit right with me

[squeakyleftsneaker]

Colonialism Apologetics? In MY Space Mecha Kids TV Show? MORE LIKELY THAN U THINK

I will soon #discuss this but for now I'm just pissed off by it like really TV show? REALLY?

Wait also this is totally unrelated but I am still thinking about the Voltron Show episode where like I really do think they could've stumbled upon something interesting about 1: the fact that the Paladins suddenly become these like. Objects. Symbolically speaking. And then to the resistance movement there is a tension because they're not actually like. Doing shit. But then the paladins themselves feel objectified

Idk like there's so many things that you could do there that would be pretty doable to handle for the audience and keeping the tone of the show! Have Shiro feel uncomfortable with the Shiro The Hero [TM] persona because it reminds him too much of the Champion!

Have the rebels like in the Blade of Marmalade or Olkarion or other rebel outposts (which we barely even see because the show dgaf about the people fighting for freedom jfc) feeling some kinda way about it! A FUCKING MARVEL MOVIE DID THIS!!!! THAT'S HOW SIMPLE THIS IS TO DO!!! (I watched the first Captain America movie for the first time last night. It is extremely simple and very pro military. BUT IT UNDERSTANDS HOW TO DO WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO)

Like idk have Loverboy Lance be tied to Lance's own insecurities about what he brings to the team AND the war– have him feel some kind of way about being portrayed like that as MORE than just jokes!

Don't even get me started on Hunk this fucking show is so awful to Hunk

HAVE ALLURA REALLY GET TO GRIPS WITH THE FACT THAT SHE'S GOT TO PLAY A GUY WHO SHE IS BOTH VERY SIMILAR TO AND ALSO HE IS PART-GALRA, THE SAME GALRA WHO KILLED HER PEOPLE! IT'S A REASONABLE HESITANCY TO HAVE! IDK! IT JUST PISSES ME OFF MAN THERE'S SO MANY THINGS THIS SHOW COULD DO BUT DOESN'T

[diegeticdivinity]

Very glad that we have all agreed that Patty great god grove is the transfem ever

[circusk]

throws up. sorry its just so cutes.

[maxlovespigeons]

Genuinely hoping Peri's blowup will convince people to give A New Wish a chance honestly it's such a good show

[utilitycaster]

i just finished this week's episode and I'm so blown away by Celia's portrayal of faith in exandria and how deep her understanding is and firstly, god, it's just so beautiful to watch but, secondly, it is kind of creating this juxtaposition to me of this person who's been brought in for a mini series, given a lore primer, does seem to have watched SOME episodes, has such a grasp on worship and the role of the gods in exandria vs bells hells who had hundreds of episodes to learn about it

So I agree that Celia's performance has been an absolute highlight, and while I'm try to taper off some of the post-mortem C3 stuff I think a couple things were going on. Most crucially, as Divergence is a limited series with actors who aren't terribly familiar with Exandria, I am sure there was a lot more guidance with regards to character creation and series tone. I would not be surprised if Brennan and Matt wanted characters with a range of attitudes towards the Prime Deities, ranging from Nia and Garen being faithful despite it all, to Crokas and Fiedra's neutrality/apathy, to Erro's loss of faith, and who could show how all of these people, despite those different attitudes, could work together if they prioritized community and hope.

The thing about Bells Hells is again, the cast is aware of the role of the gods in the world, as we've seen in past campaigns. I think again this was a lack of guidance and people building characters who were not prepared to engage with the question of "what would you do if the gods - all of them, not just the Prime Deities - were threatened" in a meaningful way, and Matt did not guide the campaign when they began aimlessly circling that question and indeed simply threw more options at them. They - and their fans - consistently believed the worst not just of the gods but of those who worshiped them and their fellow Exandrians (we've already extensively talked about the breathtaking selfishness of "I don't know if I want to save someone who doesn't love me," but consider how Ashton assumed the gods would smite them down for knowing the true story of Aeor [something Bells Hells chose to suppress for reasons I actually don't understand, like, I don't mind that they did this but it feels like they nearly got Liliana killed simply to go against Ludinus, which wasn't even their ultimate motivation in the end] and repeatedly treated the gods-as-mortals plan as a punishment to humble them, even though the Primes very much did not see it as such). It is, as I said sometime last week, an aberrant party attitude towards the world as compared to Campaigns 1, 2, EXU Prime, Downfall, every canon or semi-canon one-shot (eg: Song of the Lorelei) and, I would even posit, not even in line with the portrayal of the gods within C3's main story (not even Downfall) itself. So I don't want to diminish the excellent work Celia's put in, because they've been fantastic throughout, but I really think it's just...Bells Hells had a bunch of character concepts that probably should have been further refined early on, and far more guidance was given re: Rei'Nia's development, and it shows.

[rookflower]

i know the knowledge is Not Secret and Pretty Damn Obvious but remembering the fact the wc writing team changed between oots and avos makes so much sense. like ohhh that's why mothwing is Like That now despite her previous characterisation being far less bitter and aggressive, along with other personality shifts or new directions for characters. that's why onestar's SE zeroed in on the darktail thing they came up with instead of older key scenes or points about his character that they may not remember as well if at all. that's why each arc is structured more episodically, repetitively, and self-contained now rather than having a lot of wee overarching character arcs and plot threads or messing much with the status quo. sometimes i wonder and then i remember the obvious answer. like. to both improvements and its degradations it explains a lot of writing switch ups between then and now doesnt it