#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

[yourfatherjustinmcelroy]

They killed and ate the artefacts When things had gone awry. They killed and ate the artefacts, And gnawed at their supply.

They held each other hand in hand, Sought refuge in the storm. They oft prolonged the final stand To keep on feeling warm.

They killed and ate the instruments From which their magic poured. They killed and ate the instruments- No more music to be scored.

And when it started drying up, And stomachs soon would ache, When all they had to cherish left Was all they could forsake,

They killed and ate the artefacts, The instruments and radicals And when their living use was done, They killed and ate the animals.

[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.

[circusk]

throws up. sorry its just so cutes.

[samasmith23]

Lol! That meme is both simultaneously hilarious and accurate!

Also, I once joked with my best friend that honestly, the more and more I thought about it, Harry Potter is easily the absolute worst embodiment of what TV Tropes refers to as, “the status quo is God."

Heck, given the nature of the plot of Hogwarts Legacy, you could easily just rename it to "Harry Potter and the Status Quo is God" and it would be the perfect descriptor!

My friend couldn't help but laugh and state that even though that clearly wasn't the intended usage of the phrase "the status quo is God," it still completely fits!

[maxlovespigeons]

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

[jerreeeeeee]

i don’t know if i’m ever gonna write the fic but i’ve been thinking abt like. the eternal stockade. the implications. lup, a lich who was trapped in a dark featureless cell for a decade completely isolated with nothing to keep her sanity but her own mind. she has to put people in the eternal stockade. how many liches does she see herself in. how many liches started out just like her. how many liches are truly too far gone. and the only liches we ever see other than her and barry are edward and lydia. they’re certainly evil, but mad? they seem pretty sane. they’re not, like, tattered echoes of souls, they’re definitely still people. even as much of a grudge as lup surely has against them, wouldn’t they remind her incredibly strongly of herself? do they deserve to be trapped just like she was? for eternity? isn’t eternity what turned john to existential despair in the first place?

[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

[demodraws0606]

Me : Okay so clearly this arc is focusing on training each of the character, before we head up to the 3rd most important location where the plot might start to pick up. Tsukasa's event might be an arc ender in this case a-

Colorful Palette : TSUKASA BECOMES A DETECTIVE !!!!!!

Me :

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

It’s rather rare when the programme demonstrates

that changes in the past alter the future (or present day).

‘Mum! You’re still you!’ — Joanna Martin to Vera Martin

[bonefall]

tall shadows line of "she was only a kittypet" kinda reminds me of the line "they were only slaves" from the prince of egypt.

What kills me about it is that like, at that point in the movie, the Pharoah Is Bad. Him saying that a billion babies where fed to crocodiles is A Bad Thing. It's the point where Moses realizes he can't be part of the royal family without being complicit.

But Tall Shadow says "calm down, Bumble was less than human anyway" and Gray Wing nods along (complete with the jiggly clicking noise that comes with shaking a can of spraypaint) and this is an example of them being reasonable. Level-headed, even, not getting swept away by the passion of the angry mob.

There are so many levels to how fucked up the Bumble Debacle is that you can't explore every floor all at once. It is an onion. It has layers.

[unlimitedbutchworks]

im not publishing the poly anon hate as it’s deeply pathetic and disrespectful towards the healthy and happy non monogamous erotic relationship I share with your mother