#also I quoted your post a bit more heavily in this because of the fact that I made a new one

[choicesficwriterscreations]

April Creator of the Month: Aallotarenunelma

Each month, CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers or artists, and this month’s creator of the month is the lovely @aallotarenunelma! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page. Past COTM's can be found here.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog My Masterlist

How do you want to be known on Tumblr? 

Aallotar is fine. I am agender. My pronouns are they/them.

More below...

1- When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played? 

I saw the app being highlighted a lot in Google Play in 2017, but it was only at the end of February-beginning of March 2018 that I downloaded it. It was when Perfect Match 1 started releasing and shortly before Bloodbound 1 began releasing. Time is flying!

There were already a lot of books, and it was a bit overwhelming. I chose the series that was being heavily advertised: The Royal Romance.

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the Choices sub-Reddit in July 2019, then the Tumblr fandom in April 2020.

I first joined the sub because I wanted to discuss the books and the characters, and hopefully befriending other players. It was lonely to read the books, and having no one to share my opinions and theories with. Then, I took a step back from it and after lurking a bit, I joined the Tumblr community. 

3- How did you pick your blog name? 

When I joined Tumblr, in April 2020, it was initially to be a Writblr. I was writing a story about a heroine named Aallotar. Its title gave my blog’s URL. My blog’s title is its English translation: Aallotar’s dream.

In the end, my blog turned into a bit of everything.

4- Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!  

This is my very first post. This is my original writing, conveniently mentioned right above. :)

5- Do you write fanfiction, create fan art, or are you one of those really gifted people who do both? 

I define myself as an artist because I create. This is how I express myself. It doesn’t matter if the pencil I use is to write or to draw as long as I create. Before I started learning how to draw, I was always saying that I was drawing with words. To me, this is what writing is. I draw and paint with my words to depict stories that my characters want me to tell.

I mostly write, but I also create fan art, such as sketches and various kinds of edits: quotes, sprites, moodboards, etc. 

6- How long have you been creating for Choices and for any other fandoms?

For the defunct app Lovestruck, from December 2020 to October 2021.

For Choices, since April-May 2020. 

7- What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to create for?

My all-time favourite Choices book is Veil of Secrets. I adore it!

I heavily create for the It Lives Anthology - the three books - and also for Immortal Desires. I love these books so much that I made a crossover, and most of the characters from the Anthology and from ID have met and even befriended each other.

8- Share your first Choices fanfic or fan art that you posted with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were creating it today?

My first Choices fiction is a Blades one: Of Stardust and Light.

I still love it and I wouldn’t change anything - except the typos and the clumsy grammar/syntax, due to the fact I am not an English-native speaker.

For a long time, I thought it was my masterpiece, that I wouldn’t write something as good or even as better than this. But I proved myself wrong in the end.

The other reason why I wouldn’t rewrite it now is because I have definitively stopped writing for my Blades pairing, Tyril x Soile. I made it official a few months ago, and this decision is final.

9- What is your favorite piece of fiction or art that you created? 

It’s really hard to choose only one, but I do have a soft spot for Répondez, S’il Vous Plaît ! #3 because this is where I tell about my OCs’ Ash and Skylar’s meeting. It was a story I wanted to write for a long time and I love it.

Chronicles of a Crimson Summer deserves to be mentioned as well. This is the longest story I have shared here, and it’s a real balance of angst, fluff, and funny moments. Also, because its birth was extremely painful, so for all of these reasons, I am glad I wrote it and shared it.

10- Do you have a fic/art that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to do well but found it could use a little more love?

I never expect anything I share to be well received, whether it’s a fiction or a drawing. I’m only sharing it, hoping that at least someone will find it and enjoy it. Even better if it helps the person in any way.

That said, sharing my art remains a lot more difficult than sharing my writing, so any art reblog is leaving me a bit confused, due to my imposter syndrome.

Most people here who are familiar with my stories have read some of the funny stories I have shared, as well as the fluffiest stories I have ever written - sometimes too fluffy for me. 

However, this isn’t only what my writing is about. Darker Than Night has generated so much indifference that it saddens me.

This series really shows what my writing is, minus the layer of humour that you can usually expect. It truly deserves better, just like In Joy and Sorrow, that actually gives a good idea of what my writing really is.

11- (WRITERS) If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? 

I usually share a lot of fluff here, because the world outside is hard, so I want to uplift people with sweet and funny stories. However, my original writing is usually angsty with some funny and fluffy moments to alleviate all the angst a little. So, I’m choosing angst. Definitely. To me, writing angst is comforting.

11a - (ARTISTS) If you could only draw one style or type of art for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? 

I could easily do oil pastels for the rest of my life. It’s an easy technique to learn, it’s very forgiving, it’s calming, and I love how it looks.

12 - Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

I am agender and aspec, so in any non-binary and/or aspec MC / OC of mine can be found parts of me, regardless of how they define themselves on those large spectrums. Representation is highly important to me, so this is one of the recurring themes in my writing.

Also, the witty/sarcastic and playful characters are easy to write because I know them too well!

13 - What element of writing/art do you struggle with most?

Finding the right word is difficult, either in English or in my native tongue. I always want to capture the emotion, the feeling, the landscape with the perfect word. I’m still learning in my daily life.

Regarding my art, at the level I am right now, that would be shadows. Sometimes, they look great, but they often don’t. Practice makes perfect, so this is what I do whenever I can.

14 - Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

I tend to have only one WIP that I see to end. One reason for this is that I usually write my stories in a notebook, before I type them down to share them. The state of the notebook is not always great; I even sometimes struggle to re-read what I corrected!

If it’s about my original work, then, yes, I want to finish that one novel’s second draft.

15 - If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to see your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you show them first? 

It has actually happened with one of my siblings. At that time, I was only writing for Blades and had maybe like five stories posted. I let my sibling read them because we are close. For other people, I think it would be on a case-by-case basis, but most likely not. I'd rather make them read my original writing, if my shyness isn’t getting in the way.

16 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing or art? Are there any artists that influence you?

Émile Zola and Arto Paasilinna are my all-time favourite writers.

I am learning from every fanfiction writer I am reading. First, because I read in a foreign language. Second, because I believe you learn from everyone every day.

In terms of art, I don’t think I have a particular influence. I am still exploring my style.

17- (WRITERS)  Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series? 

It would be In Joy and Sorrow. I created this It Lives in the Woods AU series to give a life to my first MC, Riikka. The one she couldn’t have. In this series, I talk about close friendships, coming outs, being bilingual/bicultural, how to navigate a romantic relationship as an aspec*, how to deal with bullying/harassment, etc. I talk about timeline collapse and time-travelling as well.

And because there’s the most delightful OC ever, my all-time favourite: Ash. He truly is one of a kind and his friendship with Dan is really something special.

*aspec: a person on the aromantic and asexual spectrums.

18 - (ARTISTS) Which one of your creations would you like to see a fiction written about? 

I don’t have any yet that would justify the honor of having a fiction being written about.

19- Do you write original fiction or create non-fandom art? 

I started writing when I was 10 years old. It was thanks to an assignment for my native tongue class when we were studying the structure of a fairytale. I really enjoyed writing one, so I kept writing over the summer. Little stories about everything and nothing.

I wrote my first novel when I was 13, but never dared to send it to a publisher. I kept writing novels - and not sending them, I have a nice collection, now! - and branching out in other forms of writing, in hope to develop as a writer: rpg forums, poetry, (fan)fictions, creative writing course, etc. I took a ten year break from writing (fan)fictions before returning to them.

I am working on the second draft of a novel about grief, and I have three other different novels already outlined.

Regarding art, I mostly create non-fandom art.

20-  What other hobbies do you have?

Except writing and drawing; I paint murals and do oil pastel; I do theatre; I design and crochet my own clothes.

I enjoy watching old films, Hollywood era and silent ones included, but modern films as well, if they are excellent.

I love learning foreign languages, listening to music and going to gigs.

I am also a true race car enthusiast, preferably Formula races - F1 to F4, Formula Regional included.

I also enjoy going for walks in nature and travelling.

21: Tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).

I want to thank CFWC for highlighting me, and giving me the chance to talk more about my characters, my stories, my writing and my art. This means a lot, especially as this month is also when I’m celebrating my 4 year Tumblr Anniversary.

Thank you for your support throughout these years!

I want to thank so many people, but I’m also scared to miss any of them!

Thank you to my friends, old and new. 💛

Thank you to everyone who has read and reblogged my stories and left kudos and comments on them. It has been helping me so much in believing in myself and my writing.

Thank you to everyone who has reblogged my art and my edits and left comments on them.

Thank you to every talented person who has gifted me a piece of their beautiful art, written or not, anonymously or not.

Thank you to everyone who has asked about my characters and my stories.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me positive and uplifting messages.

Lastly, thank you to every single person who has supported me these past months, in many different ways. Your kindness and your presence have made a difference, and I am grateful for those and for you all.

And a special shoutout to my fellow rainbow creators! 🌈

[tkdrawz]

Some of the TMNT fandom (and, frankly, society) really ain't shit.🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️

[From left to right: Princess Fiona (Ogress Form) (Shrek) Eep (The Croods) Gloria (Madagascar) Dijonay Jones (The Proud Family) Luisa Madrigal (Encanto) April O'Neil (TMNT Mutant Mayhem)]

These ladies are female protagonists in their respective franchises. All of them have different body types that contrast from the default thin, petite body type that we're used to seeing. And all of them are BEAUTIFUL! 💖

Three of these ladies became love interests that ended up in healthy relationships with partners who love them for who they are. Also, four of them are women of color. (idk if Fiona counts. While she is green, she started off white so... 50/50? 🤷🏾‍♀️) That part is especially relevant to this post because Twitter got me EFFED UP. I'M ON ONE, ON TWO, ON THREE TODAY!

So the concept art of Mutant Mayhem's April O'Neil was revealed by James A. Castillo, an artist who worked on the movie.

And people are DRAGGING HIM LEFT AND RIGHT! Being disrespectful to both him and April's design. I can tell you right now not even a third of those quotes aren't positive! There is a vast difference between criticism and insults:

💛"I do not like this design. Besides the color yellow and her red/ginger hair, she simply doesn't read as April O'Neil." That's criticism. This expresses disproval of the design without any vulgarities.

💔"Rethink your entire career. "Artist" my ass! This shit is garbage! She looks like she sleeps in a van and smokes so much weed she reeks of it. You failed." That's disrespect. And I don't think I need to tell you why.

Normally, I tend not to discuss such sensitive topics on my blog (religion, politics, discrimination of ANY kind, etc.) for my sanity and out of respect for others with opposing views. But today, I will make an exception.

I would love to include Luisa, who alongside April was mocked and disrespected heavily for her appearance, but I wanted to speak on this matter from the perspective of a plus-sized African American woman. Luisa comes from an completely different background whose culture and standards I am not entirely familiar with. I can't speak on what I don't know. Respectfully.💜

In the black community, women are faced with colorism, texturism, constant comparison, and body image negativity on a daily basis. And a good amount of it comes from our own community! Our shade, our 4C hair, our weight, our attractiveness, our lifestyle! It's brutal out here!😭😭😭

However, in terms of media a plus-sized black girl is seen as ghetto, loud, and undesirable with a side of attitude. The best example I can think of is Dijonay from The Proud Family.

This is the show I grew up on! The theme song, the characters, the Suga Mama, ICONIC! I love Dijonay to pieces, but as I grew up I realize that she was, in some aspects, a negative portrayal. She was always chasing instead of being "the chase". She was a horrible friend to Penny. And she sucumbed to a lot of negative stereotypes with barely any redeeming qualities. And this was very disheartening considering that she was the darkest one in the group. And the heaviest. And as a little chubby wubby in the 2000s with THIS as my representation? I have to give the writers a bit of the side eye. Was she any better in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder? To that I would say.... meh. I love her in the reboot, but they could do so much more with her in my opinion. I still haven't seen them address the issue of colorism. 👀

While she is not a human, Gloria is voiced by a black woman (Jada Pinkett Smith) and imitates the sass of a black woman so... yeah. She's included. Gloria was persued by two men. One was the suave, flexing hippo Motto Motto. And the other was her friend/neighbor from her childhood Melman. She chose the latter for good reason of course. Now in Madagascar, Gloria wasn't mocked or criticized for her weight. In fact, hippos are known for their weight. However, she was seemingly fetishized for it. By Motto Motto to be exact. And being fetishized is NOT better than being ridiculed.

Unlike Dijonay, April was the chase, a love interest for Leonardo. I admit, I was SHOCKED that she was gonna be persued. Let alone that the writers wanted to try another Turtle/April pairing considering how April and Donnie went...😬. Now her backlash was on a completely different level. One that I wasn't even prepared for....

While Gloria and Dijonay are original characters, Mutant Mayhem's April O'Neil is a different interpretation of the character that has existed since the 80's. The same can be said for the Turtles, Splinter, literally everybody else! Every show and movie for that matter! And with every story, she changes. Design, motivation, relationships/dynamics, even race as of lately. All of it changes. And change isn't bad. In my opinion, it keeps things fresh and interesting instead of spoon feeding us the same story and concepts over and over again. Change challenges us. Change motivates us. However, some people don't like change nor want to accept it and adjust. And that's life. That's just the way it is. But change is necessary in order to progress.

She wasn't bad in the movie AT ALL. I absolutely adored her! And the dynamic between her and Leo wasn't akward or uncomfortable at all. It was handled really well. Ayo Ediberi did an incredible job bringing her to life! (GOD, I loved her in The Bear! Shameless plug lol)

That being said, I understand some of the sensitivity that fans have when a character changes so drastically you can barely recongnize them anymore beyond the bare minimun. (See also Sonic Boom's Knuckles) But the blatant discrimination, rude comments, and the boldness, THE AUDACITY, that some of these nasty Twitter fingers with their dirty fingernails have to type such disrespect to the artist that I can't repeat up here was wild af. Like, I can't believe we have to share a planet with some of them! Uggh!😷(But that's Twitter 24/7 so what's new?) Her and Rise April don't deserve the hate they get. You don't have to like them. Art is subjective. But to insult and harrass the artists and the people who look like the characters, then mask it under the umbrella of "tHaTs mY oPiNiOn" is 🐱. I said what I said. And I will say that shit again.

Also, just because she's black doesn't mean we can't have another white April O'Neil ever again. We know goodness well they could make another iteration of TMNT and make her white if they wanted to. Heck, I encourage them to explore other races and cultures too! New York is full of them! And it's not like all the other versions of April up and vanished. You can watch them anytime on Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Plus, etc.

One more point I'd like to make is that I am an African American woman who is currently on a weight loss journey. As a plus-sized girl, I had incredibly low self-esteem and picked up toxic, unhealthy eating habits from starving myself to overeating BECAUSE I starved myself. Also, I have experienced both sides from being disrespected and made fun of to being complimented and persued. I was at my biggest weight 2 years ago and I have made incredible progress to lose weight since then. People can lose weight. It is achievable! I went to school with some people who were way bigger than me that lost the weight by senior year! Just because she's big in this movie doesn't mean she can't lose weight by the sequel. Like I've said before, it's not wrong to encourage health and fitness!💪🏾 In life, they call this a glow up. A "remember how you treated them in high school" type of comeback. People can, and are allowed to, change. And it's not wrong to embrace your body and the skin you're in. It's all relative!💖

This post isn't to convince you to change your mind. And it won't make the bullies go away. I can't change the world overnight, nor am I trying to. At the end of the day, you're the consumer. It's your choice. Your prefrence. I can't tell you how to think.

I just wanted to spread a bit of awareness that plus sized people exist. And they will always exist. Everyone is deserving of representation in media in all facets. No matter their shape, size, shade, or sexuality. There are so many people from different walks of life who deserve to be seen and on screen. And the amount of visibility for black girls this year alone is amazing! And I want the same for other women of color, too!

Don't let this trash ass society and the people in it who prefer AI/robots over human beings, fake over real, and bad over good tell you otherwise. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. YES I AM TALKING TO YOU. YOU ARE AMAZING! YOU DESERVE ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE AND MORE. YOUR STORY CAN CHANGE LIVES. BEING A GOOD, HARD WORKING PERSON DOES PAY OFF IN THE LONG RUN! YOU ABSOLUTELY MATTER IN THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. WE SEE YOU. I SEE YOU. AND I ADORE YOU. RAISE YOUR SELF ESTEEM, ADJUST YOUR CROWN, WEAR IT PROUD, AND DO YOUR BEST!

Be good to one another. Take care.

💙 -TK

[strykingback]

My Reply to Stop The Hate 2.0

Okay so I know I prompted to stay quiet about this one anti/RWDER but you know what screw it. When I saw what they were posting yes it left me a bit disturbed, but also the fact that he was liking some incredibly wild shit. But one post caught my attention the most and it was and I quote: "Stop The Hate 2.0." So I took a read at it and little to know surprise in the words of Genji from Overwatch.... I'm not impressed. and surprisingly this person needs no introduction I'll just get right into the nitty gritty of this poor individual who has entered the Thunderdome. papitimefire177.

Before I continue with this, I just want to immediately say this: Please for the love of god and all things holy. DO NOT WITCHHUNT Do not send any anon hate just do what I did. Block and Move On. Anywho lets get into it.

This individual here first off says things such as calling people who criticize Jaune (ala Jaune Haters) as fucking stupid and categorizes them all as he quotes: Fucking Morons and how we bitch about "made up stuff that is not true."

Okay, first things first is Jaune has basically stolen a lot of screentime from RWBY. How much? Over around 5,489 Hours of Screentime. Which is one hour thirty-one minutes and twenty-nine seconds (Counting from Volumes 1-6) And oh do please use this chart here. Special thank you to Emotional-Feed 5489 on the r/RWBYCritics subreddit for going through hell and back to get these results.

Further note- This is only going from Volumes 1-6, Seven is not included since he did not get any screentime until Volume's Eight and Nine.

Secondly, Jaune really began to grind my gears when Volume six had to reinforce the fact that Pyrhha is gone. Okay. We get it already Pyrrha is dead and Jaune is literally mourning her still. At this point lets just get it over and done with and move on. Yes, I am fully aware that Pyrrha's death has lingered heavily for him but at the same time it does not take you three entire volumes to take a deep breath in and a deep breath out to carry on.

What really set me off was in Volume nine after, Ruby who had one of if not the MOST SATISFYING mental breakdown scenes and calling out her teammates (Especially Yang) for being horrendous teammates when throughout that whole volume Ruby was going through the shitter, only for Jaune to steal it all the way cause "I suffered more than you have."

Yes Jaune as if you have the whole world on your shoulders? Like dude grow the fuck up. Because you are also talking to someone who is fifteen years old (once again this could be the case of time goes forward but the characters don't age trope.)

Then right after Ruby literally "Ascends" by drinking the tea. It's time for more Jaune angst cause he's going through it more than Ruby did?! It took Weiss, Yang, and Blake almost the entire volume to care about Ruby but it took them just a few minutes in an episode to hug Jaune for his "angst" fuck that.

Now moving on. Of course lots of people do write him out of their stories but some people do keep him only for him to have atleast one or two arcs depending on the writer of course and have him die or keep him around to develop him better than what RT's writers could do. Once more his historical allusion is to the legendary female knight Joan of Arc and I have spoken with a few friends of mine who did have plans for their RWBY Re:Write to have him transition into a woman to better fit the allusion and have him die a hero.

Gee it's not like I have MADE A POST ABOUT THIS.

Also furthermore I did do some research trying to find that "Jaune Arcless" video paptimefire177 talked about in their Stop The Hate 2.0 message. Instead I didnt find jack diddly shit at all. So I can only assume they pulled that out of their ass to try and get their point across as they go on to say that Who wants that because Removing Jaune is fucking stupid.

Which as my counterpoint. Lots of people do want Jaune to be out of the picture whether if relegated to side-character status for him to not be so damn annoying where he wont step in whenever characters like Oscar for example who in Volume 6 got a wardrobe change and some development only for it to be stolen away for a fucking statue sequence.

Or how at the end of Volume eight he could have healed up Penny and got her across the gate to Atlas so that way she could also have the relic with her. Nope lets have him kill her so he can have angst in Volume nine!

And lastly he goes off on a rant stating how Jaune Haters are pathetic along with the hate for Jaune and stating how people who hate Jaune need to wear diapers and go back to the basement we have come from.

Okay Papi. since you wanna ball. We're gonna ball. You are the pathetic one seriously do you really think people are going to follow you? You who have used ableist language against someone calling them a slur in DM's no less. Want proof?

Or how you claim to not be a race fetishist but at the same time you liked this.

WARNING RACEPLAY BELOW

(When I looked back in there again to find this man in the likes section of this post I could not find his name but earlier when I did my first post of Jaune Arc A Horrendous Example of A Knight. I did see his name amongst those likes)

Lets also not forget that you would happily block evade through your other accounts as well. Now then are you listening there amigo? Cause I can keep this shit up if you arent too busy. Oh wait, whats that?

You claim RWDE has made as you quoted yourself: "Sends Death Threats, Suicide Bait, False Accusations, Being general assholes, Bitches about everything"

Really then? Where is your evidence? What is your source where made those bold accusations from?

So papitimefire177 do me a favor and go outside, touch some grass, walk around take in nature itself. Instead of trying to start fights with your raceplaying ableist ass... cause guess what. Ain't nobody got time for that.

And if you do plan on replying, you aint gonna be sayin' shit so whats it gonna be!?

[madphantom]

hiyaaa, hope you dont mind, but super randomly just popped into my mind, but how's your hair doing? i remember you bleaching it and how it turned blue or green or sth from it and i kinda had a crisis over it on your behalf, and then you had red like back in march, you still rocking that? also how much breakage are you fighting on a scale from one to ten?

not asking in a werid way, u just quit fashion colour due to employment™ and a lack if confidence against people judging®, so now I'm just invested in strangers' hair as a replacement

also please feel free to ignore me if you want !!

Aiiii I love asks remembering things about my personal posts!!

After the big bleach nightmare my hair was damaged as fuck, so I cut it shorter in the front, but then I kinda wasn't satisfied with how that looked so I just gave myself a bob. I immediately proceeded to regret this because cutting your own hair without a mirror during what could best be described as some sort of manic outburst never goes well and it looked bad, so I dyed it neon green.

The green was fucking gorgeous and long lasting so I ended up keeping it for a record time of three months while I was trying to grow back the unlucky bob, however I was in a movie in February and the director asked me to go blonde for it, so I went back to blonde.

Unfortunately my roots just looked incredibly yellow in contrast to the white hair I'd given myself previously ("like piss on fresh fallen snow" to quote my friend who soon after this quote became my boyfriend, do not make any judgement about my taste in men based on this fact), so immediately after the shoot I went to my trusty hair care store five minutes before closing time and grabbed some red dye.

The red was super cool? One of my top colours. It had this orange hue in the sun and gave off major Ziggy Stardust vibes. My hair had also grown out a bit again so I gave myself a rockstar shag and vampire bangs. However, it faded at crazyyy speeds and the faded colour was just this vague salmon and did not look good, so I switched to a more bluish red.

Well, at least according to the package. The shade was called poppy red. My bestie described it as venomous milipede pink. Cool colour, undoubtedly, but not quite my vibe. I did however briefly rock the faded pink with some bold red highlights. That looked cool.

Then I switched to turquoise! I had that colour last summer and got rid of it because I was photographed at a protest by a nazi with it and got scared to be easily recognizable. Back then I got this faded red hair because I wanted a colour that felt safe and the guy comforting me after the bad experience had faded red hair. My future boyfriend by the way, hi :) I currently have that turquoise hair and it's cool, but I'm heavily debating going lavender again. We'll see what my impulse control says:)

As for breakage: I religiously use conditioner at the moment, and as long as I stay in my hometown my hair is in perfect condition. I'm not sure what happens when I visit my boyfriend, the humidity is probably different in his hometown or something but it tangles like hell there. But all in all, 7/10, good hair:) thanks for your ask:)

[1moreff-creator]

Happy Birthday, Veronika Grebenshchikova!

I have a confession to make. Despite my account being themed after Min and having made several posts analyzing her... I may like Veronika just as much, if not more than Min. Ever since her introduction, this Horror Fanatic has brought a smile to my face every time she comes on screen. Literally. Whenever I see her, my face immediately splits into the dumbest grin, I just adore her far too much. There's a lot we still haven't seen about her, but in honor of her birthday, I shall give a few of the reasons I love this freak to the death, and make a sort of birthday playlist as a gift.

+The main motivation for everything she does is boredom, as stated in her conversation with Teruko on Ch 2 Ep 7. Her profile states she took on her talent to seek thrills.

+This obsession with entertainment twists her personality quite a bit. “I don't care about morals. I don’t care whether people get hurt or whether they die. I just need to be entertained”. She’s honestly such a queen.

+Her twisted morals lead to her hanging out with people based on how entertaining they are instead of, like, normal standards for hanging out with people. Arturo is example number one.

"If you become more and more irredeemable, then I'll only love you more. I want to hear all about those horrible things you did with no justification".

She would be a standard Danganronpa fan, is what I get from this line.

+She has claimed she “used to be an outdoors person”, but apparently isn’t anymore. Whether she simply got bored of the outdoors, or there was something more traumatic at play, is still unclear.

+Her profile states she likes skateboarding. I adore this fact. Why there aren’t piles of fanart where she’s skateboarding, I don’t know. Get on it, people! /j. Unless?

(Also, I like to headcanon that she used to skateboard with Whit in their time at Hope’s Peak, but she was actually really bad at it. She constantly fell on her face, but always got back up laughing her ass off)

+The upper part of her dress is black and white, colors associated with the Tragedy and horror in the DRDT universe. This is stated by Veronika herself in Ch 2 Ep 2. However, this color scheme also kickstarts what I like to call:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mastermind Bingo! Ft Veronika

>She wears black and white, like Monokuma and MonoTV.

>She gets bored easily, and it drives her actions, like Junko and especially Izuru.

>She constantly psychoanalizes people, again like Junko.

>She has childish tendencies (read: likes the playground), which can be connected back to the Warriors of Hope and Monaca.

>"If I wore contacts, a wig, and different clothes, would you recognize me?"

So, thinking a bit like Tsumugi there.

>"That's why I liked horror for such a long time. The genre seeks to elicit base, negative emotions out of you, like fear, disgust, or sadness... That's exciting"

She is one step removed from outright claiming she likes despair! What is this?!

Also, liked, horror? As in, past tense? Is that implying she doesn't feel satisfied with horror anymore?

>"But after a while, fiction is only fiction..."

You look me in the eyes and tell me that's not something Tsumugi would say. She has aspects of every main-line mastermind! I wouldn't be surprised if she starts taking notes from other fangans, I'm half expecting her to start talking about "the resurrection of Divine Luck" or something.

>And that's not even mentioning things like her quote for Mai; "A girl who didn't foresee the consequences". Right, because Veronika would be the one to get the most ominous quote after MonoTV's "It's all your fault".

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be clear, I don’t actually think Veronika’s the mastermind. I just find it funny how incredibly suspicious she is, to the point of not being suspicious in the slightest.

+CW for self-harm for this one. It is heavily theorized her secret is "You only took on your talent to distract from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun". After all, she is one of the only remaining characters who covers her wrists and most of her body, and doing something like that "for fun"... sort of only fits Veronika, as far as we know.

+Her secret quote is: "Once something is broken, it can never be pieced together in quite the same way again. The same goes for people." Whether she's talking about herself or someone else is unclear.

+The recent Q&A confirmed the following:

•Veronika is pansexual! Congrats on getting her, pansexual community! A true win for you.

•The earing she wears (a small green triangle) was given to her by her “dearest friend”. This friend's name is apparently Alyssa Belyaeva, taking the dubious honor of having a weirder last name than even Grebenshchikova.

•Her favorite color is white with other colors, since it makes the others stand out more, and her least favorite is white by itself, since it’s “soulless”. That’s… huh. Is that meant to mean anything? Could it be she sees herself as the color white; uninteresting and boring on her own, but helps other people seem more interesting by association? Am I reading too much into this? Probably, but that’s sort of my shtick at this point.

•Her favorite ice cream flavor is funfetti. Based.

•She smells strongly like women’s perfume. I guess, why not, right? Notably, Hu smells like women’s perfume as well, but it’s apparently fainter. Doubt it means anything, but it’s there.

+Veronika can do no wrong. This is an objective truth. Slay queen (but, wait to like, chapter five. I really, really hope you don’t die at three).

And finally, like I did with Min, here's a few songs which remind me of Veronika! And as you're gonna see, my music taste sort of really aligns with the kind of songs one would assign Veronika.

CW, some of these can include topics like murder and extremely disturbing imagery.

-The Chattering Lack of Common Sense, by Ghost & Pals

-End World Normophaty, by Ghost & Pals

-Hide And Seek (English cover by Lizz Robinet), original by Ho-Ong-i

-Corrosion, by Riproducer / RIP

-Chronic Wasting Disease, by Riproducer / RIP

-The Spider and the Kitsune-Like Lion, by MASA Works (CW for this one in particular, it's really fucked up. Cannibalism, torture, necrophilia, etc)

-Hi-fi Evolution Theory, by Keu Studio (probably her character playlist song)

-What Gave it Away, by Riproducer / RIP

-Matryoshka, by Hachi

-Honey I'm Home, by Ghost & Pals

-Entomologists, by Ghost & Pals

-The Experiment, by Steampianist

-The Boy who Went to Hell, by SHUDDER

-Secrets of Wysteria, by Steampianist (CW, this one is based on real events of violent crimes)

-The Dismemberment Song, by Blue Kid

-Mad Hatter, by Melanie Martinez

-Uncanny, by Ghost & Pals

-God-ish, by PinocchioP

-I Can't Fix You, by The Living Tombstone (Veronika loves FNAF, you can’t convince me otherwise)

-Always Wanted, by MiatriSs - SayMaxWell

-The Red Means I Love You, by Madds Buckley

-Already Dead, by KittenSneeze

Alright, I'll stop there. With the final song:

-Happy Birthday! (but, like, a creepy cover or something)

[ryuichirou]

Reply

Replies! About ships, about past drawings, about Vil, Neige and Rook, and about Jamil (AzuJami, KaliJami), about some random hcs. And one about AzuIde Marriage AU!

I also wanted to note that we have some asks related to the way I draw things, and I feel like it requires a tutorial, so it’ll probably take some time until I reply… sorry.

Anonymous asked:

🫙 + 👻 + 🏹

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

sdfihsduh THE SECRET CODE… 😭 so confusing yet so meaningful!! Long live Rook’s special jar

Anonymous asked:

I have seen you draw Greenviolet before but have you tried Redwer?? (Redmond x Bluewer)

We like these two, but not as much as we love Greenviolet; so even though I have nothing against the idea of drawing them together, I haven’t done it, and I don’t know when I’m going to.

I’ve mentioned it just the other day: we’re not in Kuroshitsuji mood right now, and while it could change very suddenly and I might feel the urge to draw our faves from there out of nowhere, the chances of us drawing Redwer are kind of low…

But when we revisit the manga (idk when), I’ll most likely sketch them together at least once – it’s a shame that I haven’t drawn them as a pair even once.

Anonymous asked:

Day 1 of asking you to draw Edgar Redmond x Lawrence Bluewer

I’m going to stop you right there, Anon, I’m sorry, although I understand your feelings. Please don’t ask: I don’t take free requests, and the more you ask, the less likely I am to draw them.

Anonymous asked:

Lol, Silver looks so done with Lilia in your Touhou art

Heheh he’s just a little sleepy 😌 As always.

Anonymous asked:

The bit about the sextant reminds me of ed, edd, n eddy’s big picture show

(referring to the cursing hcs post)

Yes! It’s kind of a sneaky reference, Anon, I’m glad you got it! lol

The fact that it’s a quote from a kids’ show… EEnE is special.

Anonymous asked:

Wait, if it follows the story and it was the boar's heart and not Neige's, that's kinda heartbreaking if you don't pay attention to how messed up it is.

I can imagine Vil being both outraged and saddened if/when he finds out it's not Neige's. (if it follows the original storyline)

(related to this Vil drawing)

Yeah, he might even snap and decide to get rid of Neige himself! Nothing could be trusted to his trusted hunter, it seems >:C

But if we’re going with rkvl angle, it is also easy to picture Rook protecting not only Neige but Vil’s soul that way: of course Vil isn’t the one doing the killing, but it’s his decision; and wouldn’t Vil start to regret this decision after going past the point of no return?

The answer is no, Snow White needs to die, that bitch >:c

Sigh… sometimes betrayal is beautiful~

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

So I heavily love the headcanon/idea of Neige being all sweet and innocent but then when he's alone he's more "mature" than what the public assume, and VERY vulgar about his admiration/maybe crush on Vil. The dwarfs are the only one who know his actual personality and accepts him. What are your thoughts if Vil saw Neige's side when they're alone?

I think Vil would be shocked because Neige must be an amazing actor to pull something like that off – Vil is a good judge of character, and if he didn’t clock him being a fake person, he is genuinely impressive. But Vil would also feel kind of pleased at first, because of course no one is that much of a saint and a good person, and it feels good that the bitch you hate is actually vulgar and unlikeable (subjective and caused by Vil’s own bias lol). But even then, after that first “heh” emotion ends, Vil will likely feel disappointed… I guess he really wanted Neige to really be that good and that innocent deep inside.

But then he’ll learn that Neige is super horny and outspoken about what he would do to Vil’s body, and start avoiding him like a plague lol It will create weird tension between them, that’s for sure. It’s not like Vil can reveal Neige’s secret to anyone either, because he would also get attention like that…

Anonymous asked:

I notice you said that Idia wasn’t really in love with Azul. If so, why did he marry him?

Anon! I’m sorry but I’ll use your ask to note that there is another asks related to this AU, but I can’t post the reply just yet because it requires some context (a comic that we haven’t posted yet). I thank both you and that Anon for your patience and your interest in this AU <3

To answer your question! In terms of benefits, it’s true that Azul has more to gain from their marriage than Idia (Idia is aware of that), but Azul actually makes Idia’s life easier in a lot of ways! He keeps Idia’s human interactions to a minimum and does all the talking for him, he is his representative in every affair that would require Idia to actually go out and communicate with others. Azul organises anything that needs to be organised, he basically does all the thinking for Idia. This is pretty much how Azul pitched this whole thing to Idia: imagine if you didn’t have to think about anything other than doing your thing? Imagine if no one bothered you? Of course, Idia still has stuff to do as the future director of S.T.Y.X., but being with Azul is… comfortable. It’s like Azul always makes sure that Idia’s environment is perfectly conditioned for him.

But in a lot of ways, I think both of them have some feelings for each other. For whatever its worth, Azul gives Idia some comfort. Aside from Ortho, he is probably the closest person to Idia, at least in terms of understanding how each other’s brains work. He knows Azul, he knows his flaws and knows where it is and isn’t safe to trust him. Idia wouldn’t open up completely (Azul wouldn’t either), but hey, if he has to pick someone to spend the rest of his life with while slowly getting tired of each other and starting to feel resentful (funny how Idia views marriage considering his parents seem to love each other), he would rather allow Azul to sign up for that role than someone else. He wouldn’t get any better option than Azul anyway.

Underneath all that rational reasoning could hide the fact that Idia genuinely likes Azul, but doesn’t want to fall in love with him.

Anonymous asked:

Jamil being into powerplay porn feels so right! I sometimes wonder if he would enjoy acting like a brat, if he ever found someone he actually likes and feels comfortable with. I can't really see current Jamil doing it, since he seems like the kind of guy who thinks love and trust are for kids. Even if he suddenly went insane and admitted this, his most likely partners would be awful as "tamers".

Azul wouldn't need to have the details explained to him, but he might take the punishment too far a bit too quickly at the first act of disobedience. Also he is physically unable to turn off the smugness (at least with Jamil), even when he's supposed to act stern. At that point it becomes more like humiliation than "disciplining". Jamil can work with that too, it's just not quite what he's looking for.

Meanwhile Kalim wouldn't even understand (You want to be scolded???). It wouldn't even be entirely Kalim's fault, I think Jamil is worse at explaining things to him, and gets embarassed a lot faster than normal. To his credit, Kalim would figure it out on his own eventually (Oh, so it's like acting in a play!), but he still wouldn't be able to put it in practice. Time to ask the Film Research Club for acting tips!

Anyway essay over, but do you guys have these kind of headcanons where you're like "I could see this character being into this, but only in specific circumstances"?

Oh Jamil would make such a wonderful brat, if only he was comfortable enough doing that and had people around him who could handle him lol Both Azul and Kalim are simply horrible!

I agree that Azul would unintentionally turn disciplining into humiliation, and he would always go too far. He prides himself on his self-control, and he is very good at it usually, but it’s Jamil we’re talking about. Azul is just a man… Ironically, I can picture these two having a fling during which they kind of start arguing/aggressively bickering/flirting/fighting, which always leads to them having sex somehow. It’s very raw and unusual for both of them, and Jamil wouldn’t be comfortable admitting that he likes putting up a fight and being unapologetically rude just to get overpowered by Azul. It’s steamy, and it tickles the bratty bone, but like you said, this isn’t exactly that, and Azul’s face is way too punchable for it to be the perfect deal for Jamil.

Film Research club would be SUCH A GOOD HELP for Kalim! It also made me remember how Rook helped him to work on his wolf roar for Halloween, and Kalim ended up being quite good at it. It’s not impossible for him to learn! But it is difficult because scolding Jamil and punishing him feels so weird to poor Kalim :(

As for headcanons, it’s a bit difficult to tell, because there are a lot of characters, and there are a lot of kinks that they may or may not be kind of into but just a little bit. But answering in yes/no manner, yeah that happens a lot! I think you can see it while reading our hc posts about specific kinks. I think I do the “he wouldn’t be into it BUT” thing a lot lol

Anonymous asked:

Real question: Who would do the dick in a box present prank? Who would do it completely nude? And who would open it?

My first instinct is to say Ace, but unfortunately I think even he would think that it’s kind of immature lol Floyd wouldn’t though! Well sometimes he would, but I could still picture him thinking that this is a hilarious idea and do it completely nude because he misunderstood the assignment a little bit.

Riddle would still open it… I don’t know what he expected.

Lilia could also do it, but neither Silver nor Malleus would want to open it because they know exactly what they’re going to see. Maybe Silver will do it not to upset Lilia…

Idia would also open it, but because he would feel like he’s being held at gunpoint lol Open the box, Idia 🔫

[laf-outloud]

https://www.tumblr.com/laf-outloud/729317893590990848/you-would-see-for-yourself-i-think-if-you-ever

Sorry, I don’t know the whole context of this, so forgive me if I’m missing the point a bit. I’m doing some inferring on what the OG quoted post might have been, but it made me think of something.

I think there is some truth to actually being at a con to understand the atmosphere there, like CE cons (or Comic Cons, to be fair). Different cities gave different atmospheres for sure and some are worse than others, but for the most part, people treat the actirs fine in ops and things.

It’s definitely true that Jared gets some shitty people wearing insulting shirts or giving him the cold shoulder on their ops. Utterly unacceptable, and this kind of thing should be squashed, but that requires having workers who pour over social media because some insults are more obscure (while others are obvious). But then we also see that Jensen gets insulting morons, too, only many of them are too dumb to realize they are insulting him, or no one taught them not to be creepy weirdos. Anyway, my point with this is that both a Jared and a Jensen get some shitty interactions, and both seem to get them from Jensen fans. But, despite these examples, most people are nice at cons, the dicks are the exception. Things often look miles worse on Twitter or wherever than they were in person, so I agree with the idea that someone has to be at a con (like CE) to fully get what it’s really like. Again, not excusing bad behavior.

On the other hand, those people who deliberately cut Jared out of answers at panels, while dicks, I guess unless they actually insult him, there isn’t a rule that you have to ask both actors a question, it’s just common courtesy. However, for the attention whores who use their time to gush over Jensen ("I worship the ground you walk on" 👀), or who monopolize the actor’s time by trying to have mini convos (people asking Food questions or ask them for food recommendations at local places tend to do this a lot) or who tell whole ass stories about themselves (or stand on chairs to literally show of their stalker-level tattoos) need to be stopped by CE Staff or volunteers. If this is too uncomfortable for " the volunteer" con workers who aren’t really permanent fixtures at each con, then they need to hire people running the mics who are permanent abd who aren’t afraid to shut people down on the spot.

I’m glad your con experience seems to have been very good, and that they made the rules for questions explicitly clear from the start. And people respected them.

I think one problem with CE is the fact that they just have the band play between panels when a staff member should actually introduce the guests and remind the audience of what is not allowed. CE seems to rely too heavily on the actors, or band, to do the heavy lifting like transitioning between panels, and that can put them in awkward positions if they are supposed to lay down rules for the audience.

Anyway, sorry fir the ramble. I guess in short, I just wanted to chime in that most CE con-goers are either nice, or at least mind their own business, but I agree something needs to be done about the shifty ones. And CE really needs to get more serious about informing their own rules.

Oh yeah, I agree! I don't think I ever mentioned that there were a ton of people doing crappy things at CE cons, just the minority who do exactly what you talked about. If it wasn't clear, I just think that having only Jared at a multi-fandom convention weeds out the few who do make it a point to be rude towards him because they are there to see the other guy. (I don't know what Jensen's going to do when he's on his own. Hopefully, there are enough GA fans to drown out the AAs.)

"CE seems to rely too heavily on the actors, or band, to do the heavy lifting like transitioning between panels" I would say this is a cost-cutting measure on Creation's part, but I suppose if the contract with the band includes managing panels, then there's not much that can be done. And it wouldn't really be that hard for Rob or Rich, or any other band member to address the audience at the beginning with the rules, but apparently no one likes to be seen as the disciplinarian.

As for Creation, I would love to know if they've actually enforced any of their rules in recent years, particularly the ones listed below.

[shallowseeker]

Love yourself, love your child

I'm going to add the quotes later, and this is SO rambley it probably belongs in @shallowtakes where it can be properly hidden away, but I LOVE my three un-wise men (king, god, and death) as parents and I adore where they go wrong with Jack Kline, because they're all in such in varied states of arrested development due to growing up as child soldiers.

I have a lot of SPN parenting takes like this, so it's a bit of me saying what I always say, but boy is it fun to think about! When I see other posts talking about this, I have to revisit it. I love #spn parenting and I trouble myself with it so often.

///

Because, I mean, Cas didn't protect Jack, not at the end. No one did. He let him eat angel hearts and went along with Death's plan, for starters, using Jack as the primary weapon against God. Cas did that, and Dean was actually a little wary / disapproving of the eating-hearts at first, remember? This is because Cas has a toxic, angelic relationship to destiny, fate, and the cause. He's spinning it like overcoming God is a beautiful, good thing. (And who knows? Maybe it is?) But the point is that, while Cas is not motivated by revenge, per se, the end result IS the same. That's how angels do. They're righteous.

That's Cas in a nutshell, dressing the authoritarian good-king-fallacy-mission up in lovely words and declarations of goodness, but what he's really doing is imposing a new child king onto the holy throne and calling it, "good for the world." Ultimately, that's too much to put on yourself, or anyone, especially your kid. Chuck had similar expectations of Lucifer, remember? With Amara and the mark. It's heavily implied that he thought Lucifer was bright and good enough to withstand that burden!

<Insert Cas and Dean conversation about defeating Chuck, but one is motivated by destiny and the other by revenge; both result in doing terrible things to win the fight>

///

But what does Jack want? He wants:

14x07 (Unhuman Nature), Dean and Jack discuss his dying wished

///

Cas partially comes to his senses when Jack tells him the depth of Billie's plan, but the devastating truth remains that Cas was marshalling him as super-soldier in the first place. It's not until after Jack explodes via rib-bomb that Cas more completely comes to his senses. That is, he gives the wonderful, "we love you for being you," speech, but, like Dean's fretting and care in 15x19, it's technically too late for it. (But wait! The overarching point of SPN is it's never too late. You can start being good any time.)

Anyway, Cas loves Jack dearly, and he tries his best, but he is completely shaped by being an angel, and Jack absorbs the self-hating parts of being an angel, too, I'm sure. Cas woobies humanity and puts it up on a pedestal because of the nature of the devastating moral injuries and disillusionment Cas suffered as Heaven's solder. Cas becomes the dreaded blue-collar soldier loyal to family instead. Still, power and the use of it is this awful phantom specter embedded within Cas and Jack's relationship. "This child must be born with his full power."

<Insert Cas quote about Jack being okay as-is from 15x18>

Cas, like Sam, is genuinely horrified when he finds out about Jack's suicide, and indeed, he goes off to look for another way. But the fact is, prior to being faced with Jack's suicidal plan, he wholly submitted to Jack's BIG DESTINY the same way Dean submitted to REVENGE and Sam propped up INDEPENDENCE.

///

By the eleventh hour, Jack has wholly absorbed the toxic heroism and penance-making of all three of them. There's also quite a lot of self-hatred that goes unsaid, especially after he regains his soul, because he loved Mary. (Mary called Jack Sweetheart. She loved Jack.) But she is heavily implied to choose to use him as weapon in Game Night.

<Game Night quote about Mary choosing to use Jack to defeat Nick, despite the danger, "even if she knew...she'd still do it">

This is due to all of them being shaped by constant, neverending war their entire lives. :(

///

While Sam verbally disagrees with Jack wanting to sacrifice himself, Sam values INDEPENDENCE so much that he doesn't fully step in to block the move, until it's too late and Jack is already in countdown mode. He won't override Jack's autonomy to protect him (even though arguably, THIS is a lot of what parenting and family support is: trying to walk that line of independence vs safety).

<Sam quote from 15x17 about sacrificing yourself being wrong>

///

Season 15 is beautiful in some ways because it showcases all of their individual neuroses wrapped into one. They all over-prioritize the mission, and heartbreakingly, maybe they have to in order to stay alive / on-the-air. (Audience are the monsters demanding sacrifice, perhaps.)

Dean treats Jack like Dean often treats himself, as a weapon to complete revenge. He allows Jack to go off and be a bomb (Amara-callback; no one stopped Dean then; he brutally dissociates Jack from the concept of family in order to do it because unlike Sam and Cas, Dean can't as easily allow familial sacrifice; so, Jack becomes weapon).

Cas wants Jack to rise up and meet his destiny and become the new God (that bit's implied, but wrapped in pretty "good-for-the-world" language). Cas has said of himself, "I overestimated my own (military) importance" and he does the same to Jack. Jack is going to be the merciful, purely-good human-angel-god that Cas could never be. Jack can withstand the corrupting forces of power because he's good.

Sam is overall a very safe role model, even if he at times expects to "mold" Jack (13x01) and laments that "Jack is who he is, not who Sam wants him to be" (14x20). Sam also falls prey to the "I and I alone can fix this," mistake that is somewhat penultimate to SPN, except that he applies it to Jack, with "You're the only one who can (defeat Chuck)." Ultimately, in 14x17, Sam over-prioritizes independence at the expense of safety, verbally disagreeing but ultimately allowing Jack to do the heroic sacrifice; Sam is thus also treating Jack like he treats himself.

THESIS: The tragedy of it all is...they love their son as they love themselves; that is, HOW they love Jack reflects their individual FAILURE to love themselves as they are.

[saetoru]

Hey, I think I sent in ask by accident. It said have you seen lady parts, but there was more I was going to say, apologies! This is what I meant to say.

I am not Muslim so I really hope I am not overstepping but about your post about wanting representation for hijabi women that isn’t questioning her faith, We Are Lady Parts is a British about an all Muslim punk rock band - two of the members are hijabi and the band manager wears a niqab but I don’t think their actors do.

This is a quote from the creator, Nida Manzoor “I was slightly frustrated with the kinds of representation I've been seeing, especially with Muslim women as being oppressed, as being these victims, and I wanted to show them like I knew them, with all the joy and warmth and silliness”

hello !! it’s ok ur not overstepping !! but i have not seen this—although if you say it’s good representation i will look into it bc i rly would like to see something with rep that doesn’t make me want to fold into myself 🥲 so ty for telling me ab it <3 i definitely agree w the creator on the fact that muslim women are often portrayed as oppressed or even just seen that way outside of media rep too and it’s simply not the case—which even if there are clear instances where you see oppressed women who are muslim, it’s always a result of culture not religion. culture can be very toxic, i know mine is, and a lot of the views ppl have are often misogynistic but it has nothing to do with religion. a lot of the misconceptions ppl have ab islam are almost always a culture vs religion thing that they didn’t bother to look more into. which is a bit frustrating bc if u just look into islam a bit, as in read the guidelines and the values—doesn’t matter if you practice or not—you’ll see it gives women a ton of rights. a lot of it also doesn’t have to necessarily do with the cultures of muslim ppl specifically—some of it also just what western culture and the media has adopted. like for example people always ask me if i “was free to make the decision” would i show my skin instead of dress modestly. which is honestly a rather rude way of asking if i wish i could dress less modestly from time to time because it is my choice to dress this way, and women’s rights are not directly correlated with how much skin they show. a women who does not show her skin is not automatically oppressed—but in a way social media conditions a lot of ppl to think that way bc feminism has more or less been heavily pushed as this concept of wearing clothes as revealing as u like bc it’s ur body. which is true, you are well within ur rights to dress revealing if that’s ur choice—but the opposite also holds true where wearing clothes as modest as u like is ur choice as a woman and choosing not to show skin is not a sign of oppression

anywayyyyy ramble aside bc i could go on about this all day fjsjfjshf at the end of the day it stems mainly from like white savior complexes where white ppl just feel the need to a) not understand minorities and their values and traditions but also b) feel the need to erase them and portray them as wrong in order to “save” them. like 9 times out of 10 the muslim girl is written to take off her hijab and the white people are the ones that influenced her to do that and it makes her “happier.” i speak for myself and for a LOT of other hijabis when i say the best thing a white person could do is stop making a scarf on someone’s head seem like an abnormal concept and leave them alone—that’s the realest way they’ll be “happier” bc usually we just mind our business until they come along. i promise we don’t sit and stare longingly at their hair like “if only :(“ 😭

[toastofthetrashfire]

Oh I love this! Wonderful meta and attention to detail! I just wanted to add that left handedness was also heavily associated with deviance in proto-eugenic and eugenic frameworks.

Cesaere Lombroso (father of criminology but also the concept of criminal atavism...sigh) associated left handedness with women and non-white people, while the right was associated with the masculine. In this light perhaps we can see the way the show is criticizing gender norms, especially in the scene with Dan's father, where he claims men shouldn't embrace other men. Dan rejects his father's version of masculinity, perhaps another reason he's tied to the left.

Eugenicists in general viewed criminality, disability, queerness, and non-whiteness to all be interconnected and in need of removal. Lombroso and later eugenicists would also associate left handedness with these traits, especially criminality and mental illness, which you've already noted are traits that mark characters like Trin and the One Armed Man.

Then there was psychoanalysis which dabbled in this thinking in its own ways. Some psychoanalysts had a tendency to associate left handedness with queerness. One of them, Wilhelm Fliess, argued that any man who was too feminine or woman who was too masculine must be left handed. While another, Wilhelm Stekel, apparently wrote: "The right-hand path always signifies the way to righteousness, the left-hand path the path to crime. Thus the left may signify homosexuality, incest and perversion, while the right signifies marriage, relations with a prostitute, etc.”* Gender and sexuality were pretty clearly implicated in left handedness at this time (though some folks like Freud would reject the interpretation).

(*as a side note, I've not found this quote in context, but I'm curious as to the fact that "relations with a prostitute" is included in the right. This seems like something that would be frowned upon (prostitutes were often targeted by eugenicists and moral reformists), but perhaps because it is not being a prostitute it's fine? Though it also aligns well with the idea of the death drive vs life drive that I wrote about here)

Then in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, some psychologists would associate lefthandedness with behavioral disorders, schizophrenia, and neurological disorders.

Whether Shadow is using leftness with all this history in mind or not, it's hard to say. But the show definitely seems to be engaging with psychoanalysis on some level (which I discuss a bit in the post I mentioned above). But even at a very surface level they're bringing in rorschach tests. And as you point out the way characters get marked as deviant/defiant aligns well.

On one last note, there's also a tradition in western education of training left handedness out of children and trying to suppress it. This aligns well with the choice to set this in a school and focus on themes of suppression. Of course this being a Catholic school ties in to your point about how left handedness gets caught up in religion as well.

This is all western history, and I'm not well versed in how these ideas and practices impacted Thailand. I'd be super curious to hear from folks who know more about Thai cultural and religious practices on this topic. Cause I get the sense that there is a dialogue happening between western ideas of deviance (represented by Brother Anurak and catholicism) and Thai cultural values. But I don't feel like I know enough to speak on it.

The Left Hand of God

OKAY! SO!

I know I said like, literally two days ago that I was as of yet unable to write meta for this show. Because there is so much mystery and we don’t have the answers yet. 

BUT! 

There are benefits to talking about this show with friends, especially friends who are not watching Shadow, and are only seeing patterns based on what I tell him. Because my dear friend @so-much-yet-to-learn heard about the gay boy (Nai), the boy who was fighting the system (Trin), and the boy who has completely rejected filial piety (Dan) and immediately came up with the theory that the Shadow or, rather, the ghosts that all these boys can see are visible because they are breaking from tradition. 

And in conversation with @slayerkitty earlier about the preview for the second half and the trailer for the show, and arms and hands (are we surprised this is where I am going?) I realized a pattern that I hadn’t quite picked up on. 

Left Hands. 

Now, depending on your level of involvement in religion, you may be more or less aware of where I am going with this. I was not raised religious, I had minimal knowledge of the significance of left hands in religion. But boy oh boy do I now. (If you are better versed in religion than I am, I invite you to please read me for filth and make and let me know what mistakes I made in writing this).

ANYWAY. To sit at the right hand of God is an honor, and there are a few references to sitting at God’s right hand in the Bible. According to Vexen Crabtree, there is a right hand path in religion that is associated with goodness, while the left hand path is considered evil. In certain cultures the left hand is considered to be unclean. 

Essentially, the left hand is considered to be Satanic and can be associated with the occult. Why is this important? 

How accurate is all of this? Idk, but I’m rolling with it for the sake of the argument! 

Because in Shadow almost all of the Shadow and ghost shit happens on the left. In fact, every single injury that occurs in the show (so far) occurs on the left-hand side. @so-much-yet-to-learn’s theory about the Shadow is that Dan, Nai, and Trin can see ghosts/are being pursued by ghosts and shadows because they are breaking societal norms. Therefore they are evil, they are deviant, and they must be saved from continuing down The Left Hand Path.

Anyway, shall we look at some instances of left hands in Shadow? Of course we should!

Episode 1

Episode 1 starts out immediately with the first left-arm related injury of the series. It is hard to see, I completely missed it the first time I watched (and to show it clearly, I had to up the brightness in this image), but Trin’s left arm is bandaged. We do not yet know what the injury is, or how he got it. But, he is wounded nonetheless. 

Things we know about Trin that could tie him to the “deviant” left-handed path: 1) Trin is queer, 2) Trin was fighting for institutional change at his school, 3) Trin was (apparently) using narcotics to treat his (extremely stigmatized) mental illness. 

Left Hand Injury Count: 1

When Dan enters the pool for the first time, the Shadow, a Shadow? grabs a hold of him and he drowns. Where was Dan grabbed? His left ankle.

After Dan nearly dies in the pool, and Nai sees the Shadow that tried to drown Dan, Nai pulls Dan aside for a conversation about ghosts. Nai confesses to Dan that when he was a child, he listened to a voice in his head that asked him to play with it, and he wound up with a scar. It is an old wound, we can assume how he got it, but when he shows Dan the scar, it is a cut on his wrist. Which wrist? The left. 

What do we know about Nai that could tie him to the “deviant” Left Hand Path? 1) he’s queer.

Left Hand Injury Count: 2

Episode 2

There are no left hand injuries in Episode 2, but there is still a lot of left-sided imagery

When Dan is telling Nai some of his backstory after they finish cleaning the chapel, Nai puts a comforting hand on Dan’s left shoulder. Dan tells Nai “You’re making an excuse to wipe your hand on my shirt as well. You got it all dirty” (not necessarily the strongest argument, but I wanted to note it because the left hand is considered unclean. Nai may be using his right hand, but he is adding dirt to Dan’s left side).

Dan gets in to his first fight with Anan and winds up having his wounds treated by Nai. Again, it’s not a left hand, but when Dan gets punched by Anan, he is injured on the left side of his face. (again, I understand this makes sense because Anan is right handed, but this is part of a trend, okay? hush.)

Left Side Injury Count: 1

We see Nai’s old injury in the flashback where he tells Dan his backstory and Anan ends up falling asleep on Nai’s left side. 

When the Shadow appears at the piano, it appears on Dan’s left.

Episode 3 

Dan sits on the left side of the monk when he is getting help navigating his lucid dreams and his connection to the Shadow. 

When Dan first starts using that Lucid Dreaming Stone, he wears it on his left hand. 

Episode 4

When Dan first arrives at the hospital to visit his father during the day, with Brother Anurak, Dan is standing on his father’s right side. Dan has spent a not insignificant amount of time this episode being told by Brother Anurak that he should visit his father, being told by Brother Anurak that he should forgive his father, and with the right side being associated with goodness, it makes some sort of sense, to me at least, that when he is under the supervision of the Brother, Dan would maintain appearances. But, in the evening, as he is waiting for his father to die, Dan sits on his father’s left. 

In the evening, when Brother Anurak is not around, Dan slips in to a memory and winds up at a table with his father. His father asks for forgiveness and Dan does not give it to him. Dan confronts his father, makes his disdain for his father and his actions abundantly clear, calls his father by his first name, and beats the ever living fuck out of him. At this his father laughs, makes a comment about how Dan is just like him, and then dies. Interestingly, when Dan is grappling with engaging with his anger and beating up his father, it is his right hand that is bloody. (Again, this is not surprising because Dan is right-handed so naturally he’s going to throw punches with his dominant hand). 

Dan wakes up, still on his fathers left just in time to watch him flatline. Coming out of this scene, what do we know about Dan that could tie him to the “deviant” Left Hand Path: 1) he does not engage in filial piety. Dan does not do what the adults, what his society expects him to do. Dan does not forgive his father. Dan disrespects his father. Dan denounces him. Dan does not honor his father’s dying wish. That is a huge deviation in my eyes from other shows I have watched with complicated, harmful family dynamics. 

Episode 5 

In the theater, Nai sees Trin following behind their teacher. Nai and Dan follow their theater teacher back to his office, where Nai promptly makes direct eye contact with Trin. Nai’s reaction is to  grab Dan’s left hand, until Dan covers Nai’s eyes. 

Nai is knocked over and he falls. This time it is Dan’s turn to tend to Nai’s wounds, and lo and behold, what do we have here? Another left sided injury, this time the knee. This one is notable to me only in the sense that left sided facial injuries can easily be justified by the fact that the person doing the punching is right handed. But Nai falls, so he didn’t have to skin his left knee. But he did. 

Left Sided Injury Count: 2

Also, something that I did notice, (and I have not been keeping track of positionality of the living breathing characters and where they stand cause then I’d be here for a million years) is that in the flashback where Trin meets up with Nai at the lake and Trin reveals himself as Nai’s chat friend he is sitting on Nai’s left.

Episode 6 

IT’S MONSTERFUCKER TIME!!!!!!!!!!! *air horn noises* 

Dan smokes some weed and then falls asleep, only to be confronted by the Shadow. He sits his ass down, spreads his legs open, and has a lovely little wet dream. But when we see the Shadow engaging in some incorporeal sex stuff, the camera is focused on Dan’s left side. And hey, while we’re at it, let me just point out that every single time the Shadow appears to Dan at night, when he is sleeping? The frame we get where the Shadow looms over Dan and slowly sinks down to meet him? Always shot from Dan’s left side. 

Now, we don’t know what Dan’s past experience with sex is like, but you can bet your ass that getting fucked by a Shadow would put Dan solidly in to the Sexual Deviancy category in the eyes of society. (I feel the need to state that only because this is the monsterfucker website, so I know our reaction to Dan and the Shadow doing some foolin’ around would not necessarily be the same). 

When Dan wakes up in the morning, he notices some scratches on his arm and shoulder. 

Which arm and shoulder? You got it! His left! 

And it doesn’t have to be his left arm, right? Like, just because the scene before he wakes up showed us Dan’s left side, does not mean the Shadow, which is incorporeal, and has on more than one occasion wrapped two arms around Dan (left and right), has to have scratched up only his left arm. We can potentially add two more types of deviancy to Dan’s roster by the time he wakes up: 1) drug use, 2) sexual relationship to the occult

Left Hand Injury Count: 3

The story continues, and Dan at one point uses the restroom. He wipes his face with a cloth, it comes back stained black, and he looks up to see, who? Trin! Standing on which side of him? Left!

Episode 7 

We open with Dan in the Funhouse, staring at a three-paned mirror. We know that when he looks in this mirror he will see two different people on either side of him in the mirror. But he is only shown in close up looking in one direction…his left. 

Dan gets beaten up by Anan and sent to the infirmary where he is once again sexed up by the Shadow while being shot from his left side. Under SMYTL’s theory about the people who can see ghosts and shadows being those that are deviating from societal expectations, we have Dan going deeper in to a potential sexual awakening here. 

Because of his fight with Anan, Dan once again ends up with wounds on the left side of his face. 

Left Sided Injury Count: 3

Flashback to a similar scene with Trin, where Anan is being forced to apologize for fighting. I am assuming at this point I don’t need to say it…

Left Sided Injury Count: 4

(Side Note: Anan has a lot of fucking anger in his heart, idk fully what his problem is but I’m guessing abuse from his parent [I mean we do see him get slapped] and/or the #tired approach of internalized homophobia being externalized as violent homophobia against Known Gays). 

Dan sees the Shadow again during rehearsals for Hamlet, and once again, the Shadow appears on Dan’s left, and I have to believe by this point that it is intentional that we see so much of the Shadow and Dan’s reaction to it from the left side, because Dan is standing on a stage right now. The film crew could have easily had the Shadow appear on the right. But they didn’t. 

Dan has lost his lucid dreaming stone, and then gets shunted in to some sort of dream, vision, or other form of communication with a Shadow that is the most corporeal and condensed it has ever been, looking far more human than smoke. There he finds some drawings, and sees a man locked in a dungeon, handcuffed to a table. 

He wakes up, goes about his day, and he ends up in the village listening to interviews of villagers talking about the wild ghosts that haunt the town. Where he learns about…

The One Armed Man. (you know where this is going).

The One Armed Man lost his left arm (I’ll use an image of the drawing, rather than the image of his bloody stump for people who are more blood averse).

We learn from the villager that the One Armed Man was a boxer, he joined the Navy, and one day when he was aboard the ship, the chain from the anchor…

“Tore his left arm right off.” 

Left Hand Injury Count: 4

What do we come to learn about the One Armed Man that may tie him to the “deviant” Left Hand Path? 1) he sells himself to homosexual millionaires, 2) he starts working on a party boat and giving people narcotics 3) he maintains contact with “sexual deviants” after he is jailed [potentially 4) he uses narcotics himself, I say potentially here because the villager only says he gave others narcotics, but the vision flashbacks we get from Dan show O.A.M. cooking opioids over candle flame]

Promo for Episodes 8-14 

According to the promo for the second half of this show, Dan will get yet another left arm injury bringing the (future) Left Hand Injury Count to (at least) 5. 

Original Show Trailer

Now, based on the clip that follows, I am like 99% confident that this is Trin, so I think we find out how he ends up with an injured arm at the beginning of Episode One.

All of this to say that I think @so-much-yet-to-learn is on to something with the shadows and ghosts being seen by societal deviants and that the show is trying to indicate that with it’s strong use of left handed/left path imagery. 

Alright, I’m off to watch all of Brother Anurak’s scenes again, because for some reason this visual of the One Armed Man looks like Brother Anurak to me, and I want to see if he actually uses his left arm.

[umbrify]

Okay @bluest-of-bells I’m making a new post, hope that’s okay :D

For anyone who’s happening to see this, me and Blue are having a really long discussion about c!Dream and the staged disc finale. This is all /dsmp /rp. If you’d like to catch up on the discussion, you can find part one here and part two here. Warning, it’s really really long, and you probably should read the whole thing if you wanna know what we’re on about. Good discussions though. Anyway Blue, here we go

“With Enderboo being almost certainly clued in to staged finale that has a lot of really funny implications. Like say, Dream doing stage rehearsals with Punz and Ranboo in order to perfect his Disney villain speech there.”

The concept of Dream doing stage rehearsals of his evil Disney plan is honestly quite funny?? Mans out here dramatically monologuing to Punz and e!Ranboo and that is funny to me. But assuming everything was planned, it also means he had to rehearse him being killed and pleading for his life. Which may have been a bit upsetting to his stage partners, especially Punz, whose been with him a long time.

The clip you included is actually from the very same vod I sent you, just a few minutes after the timestamp I left. Ranboo kind of half Enderwalking to the vault and realizing everything that happened there. I think it’s interesting, and I’ve just now clocked this rewatching it right now, that Ranboo almost seems to be following the path of Tommy. From walking kinda tight to the corner into the vault area, to going down the hallway and looking from the right wall to the left, and then ending standing near Friend’s cage and looking right where Dream would’ve been standing. Then he stands close to where Tommy stood after killing Dream the second time, before walking over and looking up the elevator, then walking up the stairs, before turning around to face the portal. Perhaps I’m looking too closely into things that don’t need to be looked into, but perhaps e!Ranboo played the part of Tommy in their stage rehearsals.

“even in such a situation where Dream has knowledge of where things are, his goal being primarily the axe still makes more sense than his goal being primarily Tommy.”

While Dream’s terrorizing of Tommy in that moment may have not been his primary goal, I still pretty firmly believe that he definitely jumped at the opportunity. He didn’t just decide on a whim to terrorize Tommy cause he happened to be there. Dream wanted to harass Tommy anyway, and planned to do so at some point. The fact that he was able to do it while also getting the axe of peace may have been a convenient coincidence for him, but he was definitely very deliberate in his actions with Tommy in that moment. I guess my point is that Dream definitely meant to terrorize Tommy there, as opposed to him just going for the axe and seeing the whole Tommy thing as just an afterthought. If that makes sense at all? It happening at that exact time was a coincidence that worked out for Dream, but he was gonna do that anyway at some point, is what I’m saying basically.

I think I just said the same thing like four different ways in that paragraph. Hopefully one of them made sense.

“[Dream] says he wants the armour for sentimental reasons, so I think we can confidently conclude the armour has some practical purpose other than being a set of good armour. Who knows, maybe all those theories about it being cursed have some merit to them.”

I’m a firm believer that something is up with Dream’s armor. Not only would he not care that much if it was just armor, everyone who has worn it has had something to say about how it makes them feel. Such as Tubbo saying he was scared to wear it, and saying it made him feel different, to the point that Ranboo makes him new armor because he wasn’t comfortable with Tubbo using Dream’s armor (saying that the armor has some sort of effect and making Tubbo lock it away again). Then of course there’s Sapnap saying that the armor feels good on him, which I’m sure you know about. There’s gotta be something up with the armor, I’m sure of it.

“The problem with this kind of character (which isn't really a problem so much as a matter of personal taste), is that [Dream’s] actions can seem nonsensical unless you get seventeen layers deep into his motivations.”

Honestly I think having to go seventeen layers deep into a characters motivations is part of what makes the Dream SMP such a fun story. Like yeah there’s something to be said about stories that are just fun to watch for the sake of it, but I like having to think about everyone’s actions and having to really think about motives and goals and intentions to really have a solid understanding of the characters. I do think part of that enjoyment comes from a certain love of the cc’s themselves though. This story wouldn’t be the same if they were all just actors that we never saw outside of the DSMP setting. We care about these people, and as such, care about putting the same effort into understanding their art as they put into making it for us. It’s one of the many things that makes this story so unique, I think. I’ve never really been in any sort of fandom where discussions like this are ones I see or take part in, and perhaps that’s just because this is the first fandom like this that I’ve really deep dived into, but I think this community has something special going on. Especially here on Tumblr where we’re able to have long form discussions like this.

“[…] everyone is an unreliable narrator and each pov is working with incomplete information and no character's word can really be trusted. […] the viewer needs to watch the events unfold and create their own understanding of things, separate from that of the characters, in order to get the full picture.”

The concept of everyone being an unreliable narrator in this story is honestly one of my favorite things about it, I think. Everyone has the chance to look back on all the actions throughout the story and really think about what it all means. It leaves a lot of room for theories and analysis and discussion that I feel can be harder to find in some other medias, specifically because other medias have a definitively correct answer. In this story, there’s so many different angles that you can take to look at certain actions and events, such as both of us having different interpretations of the intent behind Dream’s line of questioning to Tommy, with both interpretations not necessarily being right or wrong. It just leaves so much to think about. Every character can be looked at through multiple different lenses, and through each one you can see different motivations and intentions behind them.

(Things like this are what really make Sam one of my favorites, now that I’ve thought about him more. On the surface he just seems to be the unforgiving prison warden that’s kinda shit at his job, but then you look deeper. And you can see just how much Sam has lost of himself to the prison. How hard he tries to do the right thing, how much he plans everything out to the most meticulous details, but then fails to account for one little thing and his entire plans fall apart. How deeply he truly cares about people, especially about Tommy, and how he does his best to do what he can to protect everyone, but his best was never enough. He hoped the ends would justify his means but now he’s left in a world where he’s failed. Dream’s escaped and he’s left a shell of himself now, without the prison. Without that purpose, and with the knowledge that his means weren’t even good enough to reach his end, despite how far he took them.)

“The question of Punz is a really interesting one.”

God, Punz. I love thinking about Punz. He really does seem to trust Dream a lot, and I think he’s riding on that in putting his faith in Dream’s plan. I highly doubt he knows all the details; Dream is a secretive bitch and he likes to make sure nobody knows too much about what he’s doing, and I think Punz probably understands that. Being a mercenary as he is, it’s probably not too unusual for him to have people keep random secrets. He trusts Dream, so it’s okay. But I have to wonder if he’s realized just how extreme Dream’s means have become, to the point where psychological manipulation and torture are just a casual thing to him. I have to wonder if Punz is aware of just how far gone Dream is about his ultimate end goal. I wonder if Punz would still find it worth it if he knew. I wonder if knowing would make him start to question Dream a little bit more. If Punz would start to wanna know what secrets Dream is keeping. I wonder if that would drive them apart.

Can you tell I’m a big fan of emotional characters and moments?

“And isn't that a whole new shade of awful? Where so much of the abuse Tommy suffered at Dream's hands wasn't even really about him? Just cold calculation about how to get what he wants.”

Honestly the lens that everything Dream’s done to Tommy was just purely for Dream’s own means almost makes it worse? Like he really just saw this kid and said “what if I make your life just the worst thing possible. As a treat for me. Nothing personal man, don’t care about you.”

Like I can’t really describe how exactly that’s worse? But it feels worse. Like he doesn’t even care about Tommy in a twisted fucked up kinda way. He’s just doing what’s good for him.

But then again we get to the question here: what even is Dream’s main big goal? What is he even trying to achieve anymore? Is it still to have the server be a big happy family? How does terrorizing Tommy help him with that? How does any of what he’s doing help with that at all? Or has his goal changed by now?

[ad-hawkeye]

Hi! So, I haven’t been able to read all the asks regarding Artem’s 2nd anniv card so forgive me if I end up repeating some stuff others have said already. I was admittedly excited when i first saw the pv and when the translations came out, and then while I was watching it, I was mostly going “???” I really thought that Artem with the bouquet meant that he caught it during your typical bridal bouquet toss where they mean “oh, you have it so that means you’re going to get married next”, and then he just gets the idea to propose from there. BUT NO. I personally find it to be the worst context??? On one hand, I’m glad that Celestine and Jeremy were so supportive. I just… hate that that’s how the proposal happened. I mean, I don’t know if proposing at someone else’s wedding is a big social taboo everywhere in the world, and I guess it’s okay because the bride and the groom wanted it to happen but… I just wouldn’t have wanted to be in Rosa’s position.

I find it really ironic that both of Artem’s anniversary cards are just so public because he does advise against public romantic gestures in Xmas Partyland, but I thought it was forgivable in the first anniversary because it was preceded by episode four, of his personal story where they’ve heavily implied to each other that they’re both ready for a relationship. This time though, they haven’t even talked about getting married, which threw me off so much because they talk about everything (his birthday SSRs and his recent personal story event on CN)!!! This could have easily been solved if they just… added a scene (flashback or whatever) where they talk about the possibility of getting married and whether or not they’re on the same page. That’s one issue down.

I’m also just miffed that this card doesn’t really tie in with his previous cards. Maybe it’s because Eternal Yearning fed us so much with the red beans and the callback to Entwined Fate, but I was at least hoping that they would do the same in this one. They did a great job characterizing him with so much of the precious Artem-centric content, and they just threw it out the window. To be fair, I do think it was very in character of him to plan the proposal so early on and to go through such an extreme means to avoid making it obvious that he had a plan, and also I think to reassure her through the phone when she was nervous. But other than that??? It just doesn’t make sense for him to be a tad inconsiderate about about proposing and for him to pounce on her like /that/ at the third part.

I just think that narrative wise, it would make more sense that after confirming that she does, in fact want to get married, he proposed instead at Cloudbreak Temple, or the amusement park, or the film center? Then maybe the dialogue can allude to them shouldering each other’s weight for the rest of their lives and finally entwining their fates because of their own efforts, and then maybe they can reference that bit from About Time that he quoted from his first birthday event. Sorry, I’m just thinking out loud here. And then, I don’t know. Maybe they do sleep together after, but it has to be as awkward and earnest as it is steamy instead of… whatever it is that we got.

Sorry for this long rant dnsbs. I just wanted to hop in and say my piece because I do think it was a wasted opportunity that they have this character whose words and actions were husband-coded (if that makes sense???) from the beginning only to do him dirty through this card.

so i've been trying to figure out how to respond to this ask and convey just how much i agree with everything, so i'll settle on this: it feels like someone split me in two and then had the second me send an ask with all of my thoughts on the second anniversary card. i am not even kidding. holy shit anon, this was scary but in the best way ever HAHAHA

like, for anyone stumbling upon this post, give this ask a read, it literally nails everything. not even a single part where i’m like ehh yeah, i guess, just-- pure, full agreement. gonna ramble below.

i’m actually laughing because i thought i was the only one who remembered artem mentioning that in the xmas partyland event?? i’d kill to know the writer breakdown for this game. because i swear the writers for the main story, artem’s personal story + cards, events, and this second anniversary card all feel so different.

and like you say, first anniversary was totally fine because it was not only discussed beforehand, but because the amusement park was a last minute location change to cheer mc up.

this is also what i mean when i say i was even more baffled with the second anni card after watching his newer cn server cards and events. his birthday ssrs and his personal story event are sooo good and have them talk about serious life matters and what the future holds and i just can’t believe ?? they didn’t talk about MARRIAGE? they talked about how their workaholic natures might be the downfall of their future relationship... in the context of helping a married couple.... but they have NEVER talked about marriage? ALRIGHT!

his personal story event also has him mention how his parents want to have dinner with mc, and how mc asks if it’s too soon (after like 8 months of dating might i add, this event dropped in the cn server in march-ish), so he immediately says he can tell his mom not yet. i just. how is this the same guy who sprung a public proposal on her without her knowledge? months later? artemrosa is kinda the “slow paced” relationship of the four boys, so i just............

also totally agree how this second anniversary card felt detached from his other cards. im still working on responding to an anon who asked how i’d want the card to go, and one of my first thoughts was that the proposal had no ties to anything special to them. you mentioning about time made me GASP because i was literally thinking that. i was kinda expecting him to quote it when i watched the card. like a reference to a movie they both love? reference to the beans? ANYTHING. but no???

gosh im sobbing bc ive always loved that line about shouldering each other’s burdens. and that would have fit so well for a proposal.. it was originally said in the context of them being work partners, but now “partner” is taking on a new meaning, and yet. their thoughts on shouldering each others burdens hasnt changed and UHGHHHH WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL ANON!!!

i ALSO agree that artem spending forever planning the proposal and then avoiding eye contact for half a month were like, the two things i liked. it was the one thing that made me think, oh yeah, there’s the artem i know. i just wish it was in better context ugh :((

AND THE THIRD PART OF THE CARD. can i put “as awkward and earnest as it is steamy“ in a frame and put it up on the wall. that’s all i was expecting. seriously. i feel like some ppl have been pissed at me and have been assuming im a prude for disliking the card, or something. but. NO? holy shit, i just wanted it to be in character. artem has always been awkward but endearing, but GENUINE and passionate. i feel like any sort of nsfw would be self explanatory but i guess not??? ughhh im mad again HAHA

[teebarnes]

✨ | I'm Fallin' For You, Darling.

Click [100 Followers Fic] for the rest of the 100 follower fics :)

Pairing: Chris Evans x female!reader

Summary: Both you and Chris have quite the relationship, it all started the day you gave him a marker.

Word Count: 3.5k

Warning(s): Fluffffff, Angst for sure, talk of anxiety (not a lot but also a lot).

A/N: Thank you guys so much for 100 followers! It means the world, I hope you like this one as much as I do. (Sorry that's a lotta words).

⤑ Click here for my taglist so you can be notified when my new fics are posted.

Any Likes, Comments & Reblogs are super duper appreciated :))

When Chris Evans is nervous, there is only one thing that calms him down. And that one thing is you and the fact that you allow him to doodle on your hands all the time.

The premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the first time you saw Chris so nervous. Him constantly rubbing his hands together or bouncing his leg underneath the press table and the times when he'd fiddle with the hem of his shirts. These were things you noticed Chris did when he got nervous, and it seemed that you were the only one who witnessed them.

The third day into the film's press tour, you decided to take matters into your own hands. You knew what it felt like to be anxious, the feeling settling within the depths of your stomach or the constant avoidance of looking out to an audience. Sometimes you'd excuse yourself a few times throughout interviews just to catch your own breath.

~

The whole TCA: TWS cast sat along the stage of the comic-con panel. The hosts introduced you all, crowds cheering loudly when they saw everyone.

You took your seat next to Chris, who was already fiddling with his plastic water bottle that he'd been gripping so tightly on, you could already see the indents on the bottle. You smiled, looking out to the audience waving back to some of your fans that you could see holding signs up for you in the crowd. It was, in fact, times like these that your anxiety shot right out the window, replacing that anxiety with happiness and admiration of your fan base.

Five minutes into the panel talk and questions were directed to Scarlett and RDJ. You knew you wouldn't be talking anytime soon as, of course, like all other press tours, the interviews were heavily coordinated. So before you'd have the chance to speak, Sebastian, Anthony, and the Russo brother would go first. Sitting back in your chair, you took a sip of your water, your eyes following down to where Chris was bouncing his leg. Then, setting your water back onto the table, you pulled yourself and your chair closer to the table, reaching over across Joe Russo, who observed what you were doing.

"Could you pass me the marker, please, Joe?" you whispered to him; he smiled, nodding handing you the marker. "Thanks", you whispered again.

You returned to the comfort of your seat, Scarlett and RDJ still bantering. You look forward to the audience and give a tiny little smile to the fans who were waving at you. Your eyes looked down to your arm; you wrote a little message on your forearm, so he knew what the pen was for.

You scooted a bit closer to Chris just enough so you could hand him the pen. You lightly looked over to him; your hand went underneath the table and across to rest on Chris' lap. It was right there when his leg stopped bouncing. You held the pen in your hand, waiting for him to take it from you. Chris looked up turning his gaze to you; you gave him a smile nodding.

His eyes directed back down to where your arm was. He read the note you had written for him, 'Use my arm to doodle. It helps with anxiety :)'. He let out a smile, all the while letting out the breath he'd been holding in.

You looked back up and over to Sebastian, who was now talking; you felt the pen slip out from your grip, the marker clicked and the coldish ink embracing the surface of your skin.

One of Chris' hand rested firmly on your forearm to keep it from moving, and the other used to doodle. That was the first time in the history of you knowing Chris to be calm and content. No bouncing his leg or fidgeting. He was completely aware of everything instead of his growing anxiety.

~

It was after that moment Chris slowly began to fall in love. He never expected someone to notice his worries and do something about them. But, the way you sat there while he doodled on your arm didn't phase you at all, you wanted to support him, and you showed him that you did.

Years later, It became a force of habit, the tiny hugs you'd give Chris just to slide a marker into his pocket before going on stage. The small slight movements he'd make before he took your hand into his so he could draw.

You'd become someone who knew him better than he knew himself. The many dates he took you on lead to you moving in with him. The small moments you both had messing around on set and loving him in the silliest of moments meant eternity to the pair of you. You knew that you had fallen in love with Chris Evans, and so was he. You both just didn't realise that the moment would be a forever moment. If you hadn't offered him a marker that day, where would you be?

It was now the premiere of Avengers: End Game and the last press tour you'd have for a while. Today's interview consisted of a comic-con panel, the same panel you happily let Chris doodle on your arm five years ago.

You both sat together, his hand protectively on your thigh. You were speaking into the mic as a fan had just asked you a question about possibly seeing your character in the future of the MCU. Chris sat there attentive to your voice while he drew on the top of your hand. It was a little duck with a Boston Red Sox hat holding a heart.

Once you had finished answering the question and someone else began to speak, you looked back down to see what Chris was drawing. You squinted in wonder; looking back at Chris, you wondered why he was drawing this. Coincidentally, you had drawn a duck on him one day in between an interview—a duck holding a heart wearing a NASA cap. Chris looked at you with his cheesy smile. Oh! he was up to something, you thought. Chuckling, you watched him colour in the small heart with a red marker. He was, in truth, quite a good artist; you managed to take a photo of all his doodles over the years. But this one, this doodle was a bit different; it meant something more to you.

After you had both finished the panel, you were set on getting a new tattoo. Kissing Chris' lips, you told him that you'd see him at home. Chris had asked you where you were going, so you said you were going out to dinner with your mum in town, which was true you just left out the part of you going to get another tattoo. Your parents were in for the weekend for reasons unknown and wanted to see you before they left, so you had already planned to see them. He nodded, kissing you once more before departing ways.

You both were always so sentimental, and you knew as soon as you saw that duck in a red sox cap holding a heart on your hand that you wanted it to be a forever doodle. That day, when you had drawn a duck on him, he went and got it tatted on his hand the same day. The first tattoo visible on Chris' body, the only tattoo that wasn't hidden under his shirts. In contrast, most of your tattoos were on your arms and wrists; this was another tattoo among the few others you had on your hand, others being the original six symbol and some writing of your favourite quotes.

Before you knew it, you were sitting on the chair in your private tattoo artist's studio, getting the duck tattooed on you forever. The tattoo was a reminder of memories both you and him had experienced together.

~

The red sox hat, being where he took you on your first date five years ago. To a Red Sox game, of course. You didn't have anything to wear to represent the team, so Chris kindly offered you his Red Sox cap to wear; five years later, Chris had to purchase a new hat because you kept his one. Of course, he didn't mind; he loved to see you dressed in things that were his; the hat was one of them.

"I don't have anything to wear", you sadly pouted at Chris, looking at him in his Red Sox jersey and cap.

He looked down to you as you stood next to him, holding his hand softly, looking out to the stadium. He smiled, taking his cap off and placing it over your head.

"Now you do", he smiled, leading you down the stairs to your seats. You weren't really a fan of baseball. Still, once you had experienced your first game, oh man... it became a routine for both you and Chris to attend every game the Red Sox were playing at.

~

The duck, the furry little animal you had brought home a few months after you had first moved in with Chris two years ago. In all honesty, you wanted to get a turtle, but as soon as you saw that slight yellow fluff waddling around at the pet store, you wanted nothing more than to take it home with you. Chris couldn't say no to you, so the duck became your baby.

"y/n?" Chris came around the corner where you'd sat yourself talking to the little duck... Chris had been looking for you for almost fifteen minutes when he found you sitting there with the pet shop worker.

The excitement in your eyes told him that you had forgotten all about the turtle. You looked up at him smiling, patting the empty seat next to him. He sat watching you pet the small baby duck with your thumb lightly. "I'm naming him Alfie" you smiled brightly, looking back at Chris.

He took the duck out of your hands and chuckled, "Alfie, it is".

~

The red heart...

A reminder of how much you both loved each other. Something that had never gone away, the love both you and Chris had continued, it grew stronger over time, of course with a few hiccups here and there but never enough to break that love. But this, the tiny little heart being tattooed onto you, was one similar to the heart that homed your middle finger on a ring. The rose gold ring he gifted you when he asked you to be his girlfriend four years ago.

You rested your head on Chris' shoulder as both of you watched the office. A new series you'd been watching together, it was a few months after your first date with Chris, and you both were head over heels with each other.

"Hey y/n", he whispered.

"Mh?"

"I'm fallin' for you darling."

You lifted your head from his shoulder, looking up at him, "You're what", you whispered softly, you heard what he said, but you just needed to hear it again.

He brought the small box out, opening it to reveal a rose gold band hearts making up the band. "I said I'm falling in love with you", he smiled before continuing ", Be my girlfriend?" he sweetly asked.

You chuckled, letting him slide the ring onto your middle finger. "Of course", you whispered back to him before cupping his face. You both looked at each other, you saw it, you saw the life you'd been wanting. It was with him.

"I love you".

~

Sitting at the dinner table with your parents, you briefly looked down at the now wrapped tattoo on your hand. You had thanked your tattoo artist for another fantastic job; the new ink was precisely how Chris drew it on you earlier today. Your parents were eating away and so were you.

"It's great to see you again, Hunny", your dad spoke.

You smiled, nodding. "I've missed you guys so much."

"What's on your agenda for this weekend?" you spoke again, taking a bite of your food. Your mum and dad took one look at each other before your mum stopped to talk.

"Your dad and I are going to old friends party", she smiled at you. "party", you chuckled. "Since when do you guys party".

"it's an engagement party, I mean... do you have some parties we could go to" your dad joked.

"First of all... no." you laughed, cringing at the image in your head of your parents dancing and drinking. "But that's nice. I hope you both have fun, wish whoever a congratulations for me" you smiled.

"Oh, we will", your mum outwardly said. You took a second to squint your eyes in curiosity to your mum's tone. "Mhkay".

~

It was the end of dinner, and you had parted ways with your parents, taking a Cab to the home you shared with Chris. "thank you, driver," you smiled, hopping out of the cab walking up to your driveway. You giggled, seeing Dodger patiently waiting for you at the front door. "Hey buddy", you smiled, opening up the door for him to jump all over you.

Closing the door behind you, kneeling down to cuddle your pup. Dodger wagged his tail giving you kisses. "Shhhhh", you chuckled lightly, "were you waiting for me, huh?" you watched Dodger roll around on the floor. You stood up, taking your shoes off, leaving your keys on the hook. "C'mon, baby", you whispered, gesturing for Dodger to follow. You both walked down the hall, Dodger by your side.

You could hear the snores coming from your room and knew Chris was already sleeping. You opened the door, looking down at Dodger "go keep my spot warm for me, please", you sweetly asked your pup, who did just that. You watched him gently jump up onto the bed and curl up on your side of the bed.

Walking further down the hall, you went to take a shower. Changing into the PJs you left on the warming rack in the bathroom, you followed back out to check on Alfie, who would be sleeping in your office. Once that was done, you head into your and Chris' room. You took off your slippers and ushered Dodger to sleep in his bed. You kissed his head before he left. "night, bubba".

You slide in next to Chris, who had his back to you. Covering yourself with the blanket, you slide one arm around his bare torso pulling yourself closer to him. He was so warm, and you loved it. Chris groaned, turning over. He smiled sleepily. "Hey hon, how was dinner?" "It was good", you kissed his lips, "That's good," he said, pulling you into his arms to cuddle.

"Hey babe"

"mhhh", he mumbled in a sleepy voice.

"I love you."

"I love you too".

~

The next day you were doing a panel with the marvel cast. Like any other day, you answered questions, so why did you feel this one would be different. You were a bit nervous today, like you had woken up wrong, or you were waiting for something to happen. You didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

You were talking to your audience. It was a large panel today consisting of the MCU cast, if not all of them. Maybe that's why you were so nervous; the bigger the cast panel, the bigger audience to speak to. "Make eye contact and hand gestures y/n," you thought to yourself right before you begun to answer the fan's questions. You start to use your hands gesturing when a fan had asked you about your character's personality.

Chris smiled, watching you intently; fans noticed. But as you were gesturing, he noticed the tattoo. He had to double-take when he saw your hand, leaving a small on his face. After you finished your question, he leaned in. "I love your tattoo, babe", he whispered; his comment calmed your nerves a bit as you chuckled ", just following your lead."

You both lean back into your seats as Joe and Anthony Russo began the next half of the panel. You were already forty minutes through... only another forty to go.

Anthony spoke, "As you may know, this will be the last you'll see of your favourite actors and actresses for a while..." Joe turned to the entire panel. "So we put together a little something of your time over the last decade" Joe turns back to the audience. "So sit back and relax."

The panel turned their chairs to watch the big screen, the lights dimmed, and the video rolled. It was a decade gag-reel of everyone in the MCU; Chris had pulled your chair closer to his; he knew you were nervous, for what reason? He didn't know, and neither did you. He should've been the nervous one; he was about to do something in front of the entire audience he had been planning for months.

Your head rested on Chris' shoulder, laughing with everyone else as the embarrassing footage rolled through. There was more footage of you and Chris than anyone else, but again, you were too clouded in worry. You didn't overthink about it.

Then there it was, a clip you didn't know existed—a video of you dancing with Scarlett and Jeremy on the infinity war set. You were being videoed from afar, but Chris comes into the frame making funny faces before pointing at you. You blushed a bit, laughing lightly.

"You see her", Past Chris spoke to the camera. "One day, I am going to marry her" he wiggles his finger over to your past self, who was still dancing around like an idiot. You swear your heart stopped, so ultimately, you started bouncing your leg. The video stopped, and the lights came back on. There were hushed voices; you knew they were looking your way, but you couldn't tell why.

You turned your chair, trying to avoid whoever was looking at you. Not noticing anything, nobody was talking. You had turned your head to look down to the end of the panel where The Russo brothers were. They were all looking in your direction, including the whole cast panel. You jumped slightly when Chris caught your leg mid-bounce; you turned to look at him, his eyes dazzling before you. Oh, that smile, you knew that smile all too well. Chris was smiling like a little kid.

Chris tapped you on your thigh, which caught your attention, so you looked down. This is it; this is the same feeling you felt when he first asked you to be his girlfriend. You burst into tears after reading the message on his arm; Chris' forearm rested in your lap while holding a black marker in his hand. You sniffed, looking softly at him. He was now in tears too. Taking the black marker from his grip, you clicked it; resting your hand on his forearm to steady yourself, you answered his question.

'Will you marry me, y/n?' the question written in his bold writing stared right back at you.

You always had your answer 'of course.'

You closed the lid on the pen, and Chris opened his hand; your engagement ring sat in the nook of his palm. He slides it onto your ring finger right next to your rose-gold one. You smile blinking through the tears, you turn to him, and Chris had already stood with his arms in the air.

"SHE SAID YES"

The whole audience got up cheering; he leaned in, cupping your cheeks, both of you laughing through your kisses. He had lifted you into his arms, spinning you around. He set you back down; you wiped the tears from your face laughing while wearing your t-shirt. At that point, you knew everyone was in on your proposal; you turned to your cast members, who were all clapping.

"Give a round of applause for the future Mr and Mrs Evans!" Joe spoke.

You went around hugging everyone who had gotten up just to congratulate the pair of you. One by one, your friends embraced you in their arms.

"Congratulations", two-voice spoke from behind you, "oh my god, you idiots", you chuckled, pulling your parents into a big hug. Chris stood next to you as your dad pulled him into a hug. "Your fiancé sends her congratulations", he laughed, referencing the conversation you had with them last night.

Chris looked down at you, "They had texted me last night what you had said. I'm surprised you didn't catch on", he laughed. "I- I didn't know... I was curious after mum said it so suspiciously but didn't think," you mentally face-palmed yourself.

And like that, the panel was concluded. Everyone congratulating you and Chris before leaving. Chris had set up a little engagement party back at your house; everyone was enjoying their time having fun. You sat on Chris' lap still in shock, his arms wrapped around your waist "you didn't see that coming, did you?" he smirked, looking up at you.

"No... no, I didn't" you laughed sweetly. Your hand ran over Chris' forearm where it still had both his and your writing on it. "That was the best proposal ever" you looked at him, smiling, "I'm glad, darling" you both leaned into each other, lips connecting softly.

"I've fallen deeply in love with you, Mr Evans".

"I'm still falling for you".

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris Evans Taglist: @buckyswintersoldiermask @lharrietg @buckyfan12 @afraid-to-be-me @fairityretro

[stuckasmain]

What are your opinions on the other Crow films?

I’ve made reviews for them and little posts as I watched- a lot of rambling but I’ll try to summarize here.

All of them have some sort of value to them. A interesting concept or a bit of added lore that I find beyond interesting and would LOVE to see expanded. (Like in city of angels it heavily implies that crows (the birds) are Crows that failed? That shits tragic and amazing) however … for the large part they’re kinda? Bad. Which I think a large part of it is not the concept itself but the studio meddling and the fact it was the early 2000s and the suffer from everything that made most early 2000s movies pretty bad.

City of angels was decent, again it had a bunch of concepts that? I wanted to be expanded but oh no “but sex cult look at the sex cult let’s spend more time with them than the main charecter” there was a LOT they could’ve done and it’s really interesting because it was his son instead of a lover? And his kid was 5 which is a whole other layer on top of it. As much as I want him to be with his son. I like the original ending where he fails and is a wandering spirt a whole lot better. It makes sense, wonderful tragedy and they really shoehorn fixed the ending literal last minute so it suffers because of it. (Also his face paint being his sons paints is everything)

Salvation is hands down the worst of them, it had a LOT going for it? Like a man’s wrongly killed by the state instead of a gang it’s a whole other layer, but it suffers the same weakness of to much focus on the villains and how fucking bonkers they are? It’s like they just wanted to make them more insane(the orignal goes out of irs way to show they are bad people but still?? Human at the end of the day, Funboy in the comics  specifically. Salutation also had the weakest love interest? I cannot for the life of me care about Lauren. She’s- there’s nothing there besides the mystery  surrounding her and it sucks? Espically seeing how much it tears Alex apart and how much pain he feels but- it’s weakened by remembering how - plain she was, you know?

It is the weakest movie but a strong concept some of the stuff I like is that he has no makeup it’s literally just the scars on his face and how - a way of getting the power is making them willingly give it up. Tricking them into thinking they’re done. I also love this moment where Alex talks with the bird over the police files “I guess there’s nothing under crow” you can see the annoyance in a literal birds eyes and it’s hysterical. I love how Alex is the youngest of all the crows and he acts like it! I keep calling him “bird boy” he genuinely acts like one- and has the eyes of a bird it’s not even funny.

I may sound insane by saying this but wicked prayer is my favorite of the sequels. Now it suffers the WORST by being in the 2000s and by focusing on the villains WAY to much (seriously they get more time then Jimmy, the main fucking charecter, because they got David Boreanaz). However Edward Furlong goes WAY harder then he had to. His performance is so raw, honest and just wonderful the whole movie and it sucks that it gets overshadowed by the wack ass writing of everyone else. The movie turns to comedy half way through and he’s the only one still playing it straight… it’s kinda sad because his performance and Emmanuelle’s are so good but the writing went to shit. Its love story is the strongest since Eric and Shelly. I genuinely feel for Jimmy and Lilly. Espically considering the layer of their murder and the fact he may loose her forever- without her eyes she’d be damned to the spirit world and it’s the fact he’d rather be damned to then anywhere without her and it’s - ah - it’s great. While the comedy part and cartoonish villains do suck and really don’t fit the film or the point they did get a genuine laugh or two out of me, I religiously quote “is it really you?! The original Ganster?” Because it ducking- it’s great. It’s so bad it’s a great line.

Jimmy is also just great. Emotionally and his sarcasm carry half the movie

None of them are really….good. Or carry half the punch of the original movie or comic. Because the reasons above but also because they don’t come from the same pain? They don’t come from the genuine pain and loss James wrote the graphic novel from- they aren’t personal or  vulnerable in the same right. You can tell it comes from Hollywood, from a team of writers trying to strike gold again but failing to see the point isn’t action or violence but the fact at its core it’s a love story. It’s sad because I genuinely think they all could’ve been great if it wasn’t for everything. I don’t know.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Read this article by the Washington Post (use NoScript extension to bypass the paywall) regarding why News Media is broken and how to fix it. It's enlightening because it explains why a lot of them tend to just drive me away or start not wanting to deal with them.

The gist of the three main points that cause news media to not be engaged with are:

1) Lack of Hope: People need to have a sense of possibility, a sense that things can get better. A lot of articles and projects kept on posting about how doomed we are, how much damage is being caused while offering no sense that we can do anything about it. A climate change project showed how much damage was being done to 193 countries, with a lot of wording that leaned heavily towards the damage and such. Well intended, but not great. The contrast was one article where 25,000 homeless people were able to get homed, with the point made about how it doesn't solve homelessness, but that progress could be made. 2) Lack of Agency: The feeling that you can do something about the problem. "Of all the climate stories aired on nightly news and Sunday morning shows in 2021, only a third discussed possible solutions, according to a study by Media Matters for America. What would agency look like? It might look like The Post’s April article detailing six ways to halt climate change." 3) Lack of Dignity: The quote explains it better:

“To me, it’s the feeling I have that I matter, that my life has some worth.” In journalism, treating people like they matter means, most importantly, listening to them — maybe the way WBEZ’s “Curious City” listens to its audience to decide what to investigate, for example. It can mean inviting viewers to talk to each other, with civility, like Atlanta NBC station 11Alive did, enlisting local parents skeptical of critical race theory to interview school officials and historians on camera. And it means writing about people as more than the sum of their circumstances, as journalist Katherine Boo did so famously in the pages of this newspaper.

There is a way to communicate news — including very bad news — that leaves us better off as a result. A way to spark anger and action. Empathy alongside dignity. Hope alongside fear.

There's also quite a bit more about how journalism in the past was about bringing the darkest evils to light with the belief of accountability soon following, but that not really applying anymore, and journalists in response trying to be louder and more shrill about it which results in people becoming turned off. And how Journalists are sinking so deep into the darkness that it's negatively affecting how they convey the news to us.

Basically, the news isn't being made for human beings, and it's making us less willing to read it.

Quick disclaimer: I don't have NoScript so I'm going off your notes, but while I agree with the article mostly I don't like the way it's being presented.

Well intended but poorly executed, because the "solution" is no solution at all. Do not mention any problems that are systemic or not easily solved. Mentio what's being done to fix them, run feel-good stories about how people are getting rehomed, but don't mention the underlying cause. Heartwarming story about how 200 orphans are rescued from the orphan crushing machine.

The lack of discussing possible solutions is also a bad thing. That's a genuine, valid point.

Lack of dignity: No actual solutions are offered.

Finally, all of the solutions except 1 redirect to The Washington Post as the example of "good" news media. Don't trust other news media, trust us instead. We won't be "loud" or "shrill" about the bad things happening.

There are a lot of good points being made in this article, but it's overshadowed by the fact that it's an opinion that's acting like an ad. I'd trust it a lot more if it completely redirected to other sources rather than constantly referencing itself. People need to see hope, they need to feel like they make a difference and that they matter and the constant doom and gloom is bad. But it's hard to listen to that over the whine of self-advertisement.

[sineala]

Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you  would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good. 

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference. 

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!