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supersaiyanjedi14 · 2 years ago

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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: SUN WUKONG

“You think you're being selfless, but you're not. […] You can make your own choices, sure. But you don't get to make ours. When your friends fight for you, it's because we want to. So stop pushing us out. That hurts more than anything the bad guys could ever do to us.”

PHYSICAL

Sun Wukong is a male Faunus, and as a contemporary of Team RWBY, he is likely in the same age range, at most 20 years old. Originally a native of Vacuo, Sun followed in the footsteps of many of his peers and chose to attend an abroad Huntsman Academy instead of the local Shade. In his case, he enrolled at Haven Academy in Mistral, taking leadership of Team SSSN alongside Neptune Vasilius, Scarlet David and Sage Ayana, a position of responsibility that occasionally clashed with his free-spirited personality. This trait was more pronounced by his general ambivalence towards anti-Faunus prejudice, shrugging off slurs and dismissing the White Fang as little more than violent thugs. As a Faunus himself, Sun’s animalistic genetics manifested in a prehensile monkey tail, a trait that distinguished him alongside his blonde hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin. The tail was remarkably strong and dexterous, able to function as an additional limb in certain situations. Notably, it was strong enough to support Sun’s full weight on multiple occasions and casually spin Blake Belladonna bodily around, though she was caught off-guard at the time. Despite obviously lacking fingers, the tail still possessed enough fine control to manipulate simple objects, casually removing his Scroll from his pocket and pouring a cup of tea. Despite this, the tail had its share of natural limitations as well. The length of the appendage making it a potential target for grappling, and although Sun has never been seen suffering from this, it is still a significant risk.

Regardless of how well the tail has served Sun for utility purposes, he has never been seen applying its properties in combat, and he is otherwise a baseline humanoid. Standing at 6 feet exactly and boasting a toned, athletic physique, Sun displayed exceptional athletic ability throughout his career. A speed and skill based martial artist, Sun’s athleticism is best seen through his use of energetic parkour and the handling of his demanding weapon set. Sun’s agility has allowed him to traverse treacherous terrain on multiple occasions, ranging from civilian traffic to rooftops to rocky landmasses, using powerful jumps to cover distance and nimble acrobatics to dodge obstructions and dangers. When he found himself on the ground, he switched over to the use of intensive evasions to avoid attacks and outmaneuver his enemies. He has functionally speedblitzed White Fang agents on several occasions, and though occasionally tripped up by Ilia Amitola, he was still able to keep pace with her when squaring off directly. Sun’s weapon settings necessitated highly developed reflexes and dexterity, seen through his ability to wield both his quarterstaff and shotgun-nunchucks with equal proficiency. Though Roman Torchwick was able to defend himself from the gunchucks, the fact that Sun was able to make this weapon set workable, let alone with his degree of finesse, is simply immaculate. Regarding physical strength, Sun is the type of fighter I would describe as a heavy hitter but not a heavyweight. He was able to casually stagger Roman Torchwick’s White Fang enforcers with the force of his blows and overpowered Ilia Amitola several times, but his strength wasn’t truly tested against either of them. Given the practical demands of his fighting style, strength and bulk were definitely the least prioritized attribute compared to his agility and dexterity. This isn’t to say that Sun was weak, as he was still able to catch a falling Blake without trouble despite the crater left behind by the impact, but he wasn’t really capable of jockeying for dominance with raw might.

Though Sun was not the strongest monkey around, his stamina and endurance more than made up for it, proving his ability to deal with pain and injury in the heat of combat. Growing up in a Kingdom infamous for its harsh conditions, Sun’s upbringing and training went a long way towards hardening his body. Against Roman Torchwick’s Atlesian Paladin, Sun was thrown through the air and collided with Neptune before falling off the side of the highway, yet was seemingly uninjured. Sun’s exceptional stamina was put on display during the Fall of Beacon, where he was one of the first on the scene, fighting off a swarm of invading Grimm and rouge Atlesian drones over the course of at least several hours. Despite many of his classmates nursing injuries and exhaustion, Sun was still spry enough to help with the evacuation. The only time Sun has been seen succumbing to fatigue and being overcome by injury was during his time in Menagerie, when he exhausted his Aura trying to restrain Ilia Amitola with his Semblance. Sun regained his feet almost immediately, only to be blindsided by Ilia, who used her Lightning Lash to impale him through the shoulder, a catastrophic hit that that combined a deep stab wound with electrocution and knocked him unconscious. While Blake’s panicked reaction points to the severity of this injury, Sun was able to make a quick recovery after at most a day of treatment and bedrest, and he proceeded to help Blake root out White Fang agents very soon afterward. Despite appearing to be a goofy smartass, Sun clearly boasts the discipline of a trained warrior, maintaining his composure under fire and rolling with the punches.

Despite coming from arguably the harshest of the four Kingdoms, Sun maintained a laid-back jovial attitude, approaching life with enthusiasm and taking things casually. This relaxed attitude was reflected in his choice of casual civilian clothing, preferring to fight unencumbered. He preferred a white shirt that was almost always unbuttoned, blue cargo pants, and simple sneakers as his go-to outfit. His only armor was a pair of padded red gauntlets and gloves, likely included to mitigate injury from any accidental mishandling of his weapon.

RANKING: Tier 1.5, Partially Augmented Human

Youthful and energetic, Sun Wukong’s athletic performance level certainly qualifies as peak human fitness, displaying feats of strength, speed and fortitude that one would expect from any Huntsman of his caliber, in fact better than average in all areas. However, he does have additional capabilities by way of his tail, effectively an extra arm, that has served him to great effect as a utilitarian tool and improves his ability to maneuver within his environment. While Sun has never used his tail for combative purposes, it is still an additional tool that he can use to make use of his surroundings, while the potential risk of someone grabbing it is mitigated by Sun’s exceptional agility. It does not affect his fitness enough to classify him as superhuman, but he still has a major situational edge.

MARTIAL

Sun Wukong wields Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang as his primary weapons. This weapon set consists of a pair of red and gold nunchaku made of lever-action shotguns, the firearms conjoined at their handles by gold chains. In addition to being nunchucks, the weapons can also connect into a quarterstaff, maintaining a comfortable length of about seven feet and collapsing into a folded section when not in use. The weapon was strong enough to be used as a regular bludgeon without causing damage to the firing mechanism, while the rotary spins Sun used for defense were sufficient to block an explosive shot from Roman Torchwick’s Melodic Cudgel. Additionally, the gun function of his weapon was not limited to when the sections were divided, seen when Sun was able to channel a gunshot into the ground during his battle with the White Fang in Vale.

As a native of Vacuo, arguably the most unkept and dangerous of the Kingdoms by virtue of its harsh terrain and rampant Grimm population, Sun clearly needed to learn quickly in order to survive. These traits fostered his growth as a combatant and fed into his formal training at Haven Huntsman Academy, where he and his team made a name for themselves as one of the school’s premier units. Although Sun’s free-spirited personality led to difficulties in his leadership of his team, he remained committed to his friends and mission, clearly making a point of keeping his skills honed. Like the bulk of his peers, Sun’s skill set was developed with the battlefield in mind, though his performance against Roman Torchwick and the degree to which he outclassed Ilia Amitola demonstrates his mettle as a duelist. Sun’s personal fighting style was heavily influenced by the features of his weapon, his approach ranging from conventional to radical depending on which setting he was using. When fighting with the staff function, Sun was direct yet fluid, leveraging the reach of the staff to keep opponents at arm’s length and dismantle their defenses. He favored wide body shots to stagger, static blocks with the belly, flourishing spins as deflection parries, some binding techniques, and tip strikes and thrusts to target joints and deliver takedowns. In his footwork and postures, he was quite mobile, covering ground with acrobatics and executing nimble evasions to avoid injury. When forced to break out the gunchucks, Sun adopted more grounded postures, using the rapid, flexible spins of the nunchucks to build momentum for elaborate, hard-hitting attack sequences while using the flourishing spins to dazzle and confuse them. Though seemingly random, Sun could execute his strikes with great precision, triggering bursts of gunfire in the middle of his assault to unload on the opposition with everything he had. Considering that this weapon set presents a huge risk to whoever uses it, Sun would have had to develop extremely high levels of dexterity and timing to make it workable. This unorthodox yet refined technique was reinforced by his exceptional skill in unarmed combat, fluidly incorporating punches and kicks into his sequences and using grappling tackles to subdue individual targets, even having no qualms about pursuing and engaging Ilia Amitola while completely unarmed. Additionally, while he has never utilized his Semblance in single combat, he made quite liberal use of his powers on the battlefield, bringing out the monkeys to attack his opponents and reinforce his allies.

Though cocky and somewhat airheaded at times, Sun was still a capable tactician, his means of battle demonstrating his adaptability and talent for improv. Despite the high technical demands of his fighting style, Sun was a very go-with-the-flow individual who preferred to keep things simple and to the point, pursuing a straightforward method to resolve problems as quickly and efficiently as possible. As such, while clearly intelligent and capable of forward thinking, Sun can be more accurately described as a freeform fighter, his approach dictated by the needs of the moment. He is more concerned with executing his own style and overcoming the enemy than he is about what the enemy is bringing to the table themselves. While this made him somewhat reckless, it also allowed him to mold to a variety of opponents with little in the way of prep time, mostly by way of leveraging his offense to seize the initiative. He would open aggressively to force the opponent on the back foot, yet he maintained his control. Instead of simply tearing through their defenses with brute force, he targeted openings in their guard and struck where they were weakest. If his conventional staff technique was insufficient, he would break out the gunchucks and switch to the wild and unconventional, pressuring the opponent by unleashing a whirling blitzkrieg assault. Though not one to play mind games, shock and awe clearly had a role in Sun’s strategy, using his radical style to get his opponent backpedaling in bewilderment. In Vale, he capably subdued most of Roman Torchwick’s White Fang backup with his standard staff-fighting style before separating his weapon to fight Torchwick himself after Blake Belladonna was subdued. Though incapable of overpowering Torchwick’s defense, Sun’s abrupt shift and sheer output was still enough to catch the crime boss off his game and force him to retreat, leaving him exposed to Blake’s follow up strike. However, this instance also demonstrated Sun’s vulnerability to sneak tactics, as Torchwick turned the tables by blasting a storage crate off a cable and separating the Faunus, leaving the monkey at gunpoint before Ruby Rose and Penny Polendina arrived. Sun later participated in Team RWBY’s investigation into the White Fang’s operations, infiltrating a recruitment meeting with Blake to gain intelligence on Torchwick’s plans before being forced to flee. The subsequent battle with the Atlesian Paladin saw Sun unleash his semblance to attack it directly, but he was subdued when Torchwick threw Neptune at him, leaving RWBY to fight alone.

During the Vytal Festival, Team SSSN faced off with Team NDGO in the qualifiers, and though their efforts were hindered by Neptune’s hydrophobia and Sage’s early elimination, Sun managed to turn the tables by personally removing Octavia Ember from play, staggering her with a flying kick before striking at her joints to whittle away at her. Unfortunately, Sun’s attempt to attack Dew Gayl with thrown coconuts backfired when one struck Scarlet instead, leaving him to avoid Gayl, Nebula Violette and Gwen Darcy’s combined assault before Neptune could electrocute them with an environmental hazard. Sun would go on to fight in the Doubles round and was SSSN’s chosen representative to the Singles bracket, and when the Fall of Beacon kicked off, Sun fought on the front lines, engaging a massive swarm of Grimm with his classmates before being forced to evacuate. Misinterpreting Blake Belladonna’s abandonment of her team as a revenge mission against the Fang, Sun went rogue and shadowed her for several months, revealing himself when their ship was attacked by a Sea Feilong en route to Menagerie. During the fighting, Sun manhandled the Grimm’s tendrils and later deflected a blast of energy with his staff before coordinating with Blake, using his Semblance to propel them into the air and give Blake an opportunity to clip the Feilong’s wings. When chasing Ilia Amitola, Sun was tripped up twice yet managed to keep pace, briefly subduing the Chameleon Faunus with unarmed combat and later his Semblance, though the latter exhausted his Aura and left him exposed to a severe stab wound. When the White Fang tried to assassinate the Belladonna family, Sun saved Blake from Ilia’s ambush by attacking Trifa and later teamed up with Ghira Belladonna to fight off Corsac and Fennec Albain. Their battle eventually took them to the lecture hall, where Sun disengaged to attack Ilia. Just as with Torchwick, Sun’s gunchuck assault caught her off guard and forced her back, pinning her against a wall before Blake urged them to stop fighting. The failed assassination and Ilia’s subsequent defection proved to be the catalyst to galvanize the Menagerie population to oppose the White Fang, and two weeks later, Sun helped lead the Menagerie militia in opposition to Adam Taurus’s attempted bombing of Haven Academy. After the foot soldiers were dispatched, Sun and Blake confronted Adam personally, the disgraced High Leader resorting to a guerrilla retreat after their combine might put him on the run. Only Blake’s caution stopped Sun from falling into Adam’s trap.

RANKING: Tier 4, Advanced Application

Sun Wukong easily stands as one of the most proficient combatants of his generation, easily being an equal to Team RWBY, but his skill is not on the level of the true master-level greats. Despite Sun’s impressive track record, few of his opponents have been too far beyond the standards for trained Huntsmen, and his success in battle is largely determined by his intensity rather than tactical considerations. Sun is by no means unintelligent, but his approach is straightforward and isn’t prepared for deception or clever tricks on the opponent’s part. While his calm under fire makes intimidation tactics virtually useless against him, his tussels with Roman Torchwick and Ilia Amitola prove that he can be distracted and blindsided, while his brief engagement with Adam demonstrated he could be be goaded into overextending. That being said, his ability to force back Torchwick and defeat Ilia is still a very impressive showing, and while I am certain that he would have lost if forced to fight Adam Taurus on his own, he was clearly undaunted by him and would have posed a serious threat to him regardless. Sun may not be one of the great masters of his era, but he’s not far off and remains a force to be reckoned with.

SPECIAL

Sun Wukong’s Semblance, Via Sun, gifted him with the ability to create duplicates of himself by channeling his Aura. By projecting the energy outwards, Sun can project several constructs that take the form of tangible shimmering golden light. Sun holds complete control over these clones, directing them to walk, run, jump or move in any way he sees fit. In combat, Sun has used his clones to directly attack his enemies, influence his environment by bracing against moving objects, and safeguard and reinforce his allies. The maximum number of clones he can create at any given time has never been confirmed, but he has been shown to comfortably create four at once, demonstrated when he created an effective springboard for Blake during the fight with the Sea Feilong and later when he dog-piled a quartet on top of Ilia Amitola. The clones appeared to be able to replicate Sun’s own physicality, demonstrating exceptional agility by traversing the traffic in Vale against Torchwick’s Paladin and a pair of them having the strength to stop a runaway cart in Menagerie when chasing Ilia Amitola’s informant. In arguably Sun’s greatest demonstration of power, he summoned two clones to support Ghira Belladonna when he was nearly crushed underneath a falling balcony during the attack on Belladonna manor, this piece of debris weighing several hundred pounds at minimum and the elder Faunus only barely holding it up on his own. Though the combined lifting strength of Ghira and the clones was insufficient to fully throw the platform off, it was able to support Ghira long enough for Blake to pull her father to safety. While the combative maneuvers the clones have demonstrated have been generally simplistic, as their attack on Ilia amounted to little more than a dogpile, I view this as more a situational impulse on Sun’s part, and he would have been able to more skillfully utilize his clones if given time to focus.

However, while a potent power, Sun’s Semblance also comes with its fair share of weaknesses that limit its effectiveness in combat. The first and most obvious is his needing to remain still while the clones are active. Every time Sun has utilized his Semblance, he has had to rely on the clones themselves or his allies to drive the action, while he must remain stationary to maintain his concentration. While he was able to propel himself into the air during the battle with the Sea Feilong, I see this as more a reflection of Sun’s ability to ride the momentum of the clones’ throw, as they had all disappeared by the time we next see him physically move. Furthermore, the clones themselves are both somewhat fragile and cannot be maintained indefinitely. Roman Torchwick’s Paladin was able to casually dissipate the pair of clones Sun siced on him as though they were nothing, and when they supported Ghira with the balcony, the copies were clearly straining themselves, indicating they could not exceed what Sun himself was capable of, something Fennec Albain learned the hard way. The time limit was much more significant, as extended periods of activation placed a heavy toll on Sun’s Aura levels and bruned through his physical stamina. When Sun and Blake chased Ilia across the Menagerie rooftops, Sun pinned Ilia to the ground with a pile of monkeys, yet had to devote all of his concentration to the task while Blake retrieved Ilia’s Scroll, eventually causing him to collapse and leaving himself vulnerable to Ilia’s counterattack. Given this labor intensity and lack of sustainability, Sun likely refrained from utilizing his Semblance in single combat due to the practical limitations, seen in his far heavier emphasis on physical combat.

In battle, Sun’s Semblance served as a polished support tool, providing him with a sudden numerical advantage that most aren’t prepared to deal with. Against the Sea Feilong, Sun used two clones to manhandle the creature and redirect its energy blast before moving in to literally take the reins, and later coordinated with Blake by using four clones to launch the two of them into the air, giving Blake an opportunity to clip its wings. When chasing Ilia’s informant in the Menagerie marketplace, Sun brought his distraction tactic to a screeching halt by sending a pair of clones to stop a runaway cart, allowing Blake to continue the chase unimpeded. He emphasized utility and subversion, exploiting circumstantial factors to turn situations to his advantage and manipulate the flow of the engagement. Failing that, he fell back on overwhelming force, unleashing his power to off balance the enemy with unexpected volume, reflecting the consistent strategic approach be brought to all of his skills. Appropriate for someone who values the importance of friends and support, Sun’s powers provided him with all the friends one could need, his takedown of Ilia and save of Ghira being perfect demonstrations of him bringing others together to achieve a greater strategic goal. However, he simply wasn’t a dedicated ethereal combatant, and had next to no experience using his Semblance as a weapon in single combat. While creative when he has to be, Sun is known to overextend his powers by dedicating his clones to too spcialized tasks, potentially leaving him vulnerable to alternative forms of attack.

RANKING: Tier 4, Reinforce Combat

Sun’s special abilities do have strong applications in single combat but are optimized for the on-the spot decisions of the battlefield. His semblance is a potent tool that he can and has leveraged in battle to great effect before (magically summoning extra bodies to throw at people is nothing to scoff at). However, the clones cannot be maintained indefinitely, and his inability to move while summoning them means that he is vulnerable to attacks from other vectors. Much like his martial arts, Sun’s skill set is designed to undermine and pick apart the threat when he has time to focus, and failing that, escalate and keep the opponent on the back foot with sheer force. His success is tied to magnitude rather than precision, and he hasn’t developed these talents to their nth degree yet. While his Semblance can be applied to combat, it is very much a calculated risk on his part, as overcommitment to a primary objective can and has left him exposed to a secondary factor. This weakness was less prevalent when dealing with the Grimm, as their low intelligence made it difficult for them to do two things at once, but against intelligent skilled opponents, Sun runs the risk of going too far, too fast.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 4, EXPERT HUNTSMAN

Sun Wukong’s final placement is determined by his martial skills and special abilities. While his robust Faunus anatomy provides him with several utility advantages beyond a normal human, it doesn’t bring him much in a contest of fitness and he is otherwise just another squishy meatbag, albeit one that hits hard and fast where it counts. As a fighter, Sun’s skills and tactics very high performance and surprisingly refined, but he is merely a respected name, not one of the all-time greats, and his relaxed tactical outlook can leave him vulnerable to surprises on the part of the enemy. With his Semblance, Sun can support combat in a way unfathomable by most people, and is demonstrably quite talented with his powers, but these applications are very limited when he is operating on his own, while their practical limitations mean they aren’t particularly viable in single combat. Like Team RWBY, Sun is still a young student who is still learning and growing with his experiences and could very well be a great master in the making. For now, he is merely an expert in his trade instead of a true master, a challenge for the greats of his era, but ultimately manageable.

However, for all his shortcomings, Sun’s traits mark him as an exceptional supporting player, both in life and in battle. His free-spirited appearance belies a caring and compassionate young man who will follow and support his friends come hell or highwater, and his approach to battle reflects this. He may not be the greatest fighter in the room or possess a semblance that can sweep aside opponents, but he is an extremely talented adept who can pack a serious punch where and when it is needed. While we haven’t seen him clash with many of the big names of his day, I do feel that he would still be a threat to many professional Huntsmen even if he can’t win. Like Morning Follows Night, Sun is one step behind the vanguard and has all the tools to turn the tide, combining courage, skill, and power to provide his allies with all they need. While not a great strategist or tactician, he is still an experienced and skilled warrior. While not a true master huntsman, he is certainly a master in his own right, a flexible and hard-hitting combatant, and a fierce ally for whoever finds themselves alongside him.

*originally posted 01-23-21 on the RoosterTeeth community page*

*all images taken from the RWBY Wiki*

RWBY Combat Analysis

#rwby #rwby combat analysis #sun wukong #rwby sun #team sssn #haven academy #partially augmented human #advanced application #reinforce combat

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cryptic-stimz · 3 years ago

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welcome to my stimboard kin blog !!

about the mod:

hey, i'm mod raven! my pronouns are he/him, i'm 16 and i'm biromantic, asexual and transgender. i have depression, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, paranoia, add and insomnia, so i'm really sorry if i'm not always super active-

my favorite stims are crystals, dice, knives, soap cutting, pokemon cards and slime stims !!

you can find more bellow the cut~

rules:

-please be patient

-i have the right to deny any request

-read everything before requesting, please!

-do not repost/claim my stimboards as yours

-please only send one request per ask. feel free, however, to send as many individual requests as you want/need, just don't spam/send the same request over and over again!

-don't send any requests if they're closed! /gen /nm

-respect my blacklist and dni, please

-i won't do outside sources, sorry!

before you request:

-please tell me the colours/theme and which stims you would like me to include.

-if there are any things you specifically don't want to be included (for example hands, knives, etc.), please tell me so as well.

sources i'll do:

-danganronpa

-death note

-fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood

-ghost eyes

-hooky

-i'm the grim reaper

-it (2017)

-lalin's curse

-lumine (webtoon)

-my hero academia

-omori

-otherkin/therian

-pjo, hoo, toa (rick riordan's book series)

-pokémon

-she-ra

-stranger things

-studio ghibli

-the promised neverland

-tokyo ghoul

-vocaloid

-voltron: legendary defender

dni if you are/support:

-anti lgbtq+/exclusionists

-anti neopronouns

-map/nom*p (a)/pear/p*do (e)/etc

-factkin

-anti-kin

-t*rf (e)/r*dfem (a)/sw*rf (e)

-ab*se (u), inc*st (e), ped*phillia (o), etc

-r*cist (a)

-s*xist (e)

-transm*d (e)/tr*sc*m (u, u)

-super straight/super gay/etc

-trump supporter

-pro-shipper/anti-anti

-yandere

-chihiro fujisaki gender discourse (i'll be using they/them!)

-discourse in general

-kink/nsfw main blog

-cg/l, cg/lre

-any other basic dni criteria i might've missed

(i'm censoring some of the words so they don't show up in tags or something-))

whitelist:

~danganronpa: (characters) kokichi ouma, korekiyo shinguji, maki harukawa, rantaro amami, shuichi saihara, nagito komaeda, chihiro fujisaki (ships) saiouma

~death note: (characters) l lawliet, light yagami, mello, near (ships) lawlight, meronia

~fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood: (characters) edward elric, alphonse elric, ling yao, lan fan, mei chang, envy (ships) edling, almei, lan fan x winry

~ghost eyes: (characters) tobias schneien, mattias schneien, emilio murkmere, rudolph richardson, francis delacruz, dwayne londi, luther schneien, simon louis (ships) tobias x emilio, rudy x carmelo, dwayne x francis

~hooky: (characters) damien wytte, dorian wytte, dani wytte, william, monica, nico, mark, carlo (ships) damien x william, dani x nico, dorian x monica

~i'm the grim reaper: (characters) brook, scarlet, chase

~it (2017): (characters) richie tozier, eddie kaspbrak, beverly marsh, georgie denbrough (ships) reddie

~lalin's curse: (characters) david, felix, cody, (ships) david x cody

~lumine: (characters) kody, lumine, calla (ships) kody x lumine

~my hero academia: (characters) tsuyu asui, denki kaminari, eijirou kirishima, kyoka jirou, shoto todoroki, izuku midoriya, tamaki amajiki, hitoshi shinso, eraser head, hawks, tomura shigaraki, dabi, eri, kota izumi (ships) tododeku, kiribaku, erasermic, kamishin, tsuchako

~omori: (characters) sunny/omori, basil, mari, hero, kel, aubrey (ships) sunnflower (basil x sunny), picnic basket (hero x mari), baseball bat (kel x aubrey)

~pjo, hoo, toa: (characters) percy jackson, nico di angelo, will solace, hazel levesque, leo valdez, meg mccaffrey, grover underwood, thalia grace (ships) solangelo, percabeth, frazel, caleo, theyna

~pokémon: (characters) ash ketchum, gladion, lillie, drew, max, hau, allister, mallow, lana, pikachu (ships) ash x gladion

~she-ra: (characters) double trouble, catra, adora, glimmer, bow, lonnie, kyle (ships) catradora, glimbow, repkylonnie (kyle x lonnie x rogelio)

~stranger things: (characters) eleven, max mayfield, mike wheeler, will byers, dustin henderson, kali prasad, robin buckley, steve harrington (ships) byler, harringrove, elmax, mileven

~studio ghibli: haku, chihiro ogino, satsuki kusakabe, mei kusakabe

~the promised neverland: (characters) norman, ray, emma, gillian, lucas, mister/yuugo (ships) norray, yuucas, gildemma

~tokyo ghoul: (characters) ken kaneki, ayato kirishima, touka kirishima, hide nagachika, juuzou suzuya, hinami fueguchi, uta, kuki urie (ships) ayakane, touken, mutsurie, uta x yomo

aesthetics:

-adventurecore

-arcadecore

-cottagecore

-cryptidcore

-fairycore

-gremlincore (don't use the term g*bl*ncore (o, i) on my blog, please, as that term is considered ant*sem*t*c (i, i, i))

-kidcore

-lovecore

-starcore

-witchcore/witchy aesthetic

blacklist:

~danganronpa: (characters) korekiyo shinguji's sister, haiji towa, hifumi yamada, teruteru hanamura (ships) kokichi ouma x girls, nagito komaeda x girls, tenko chabashira x boys, saimatsu, oumeno

~death note: yagamane

~fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood: (characters) father (ships) edroy

~ghost eyes: lucas schneien, mr. edburt, bennet issac

~hooky: (characters) hans wytte, angela wytte, hilde wytte, will's father (ships) mark x dani

~it (2017): pennywise, oscar bowers, alvin marsh

~my hero academia: (characters) minoru mineta, endeavor, overhaul, all for one (ships) bakudeku, kacchako, kirimina, todomomo, kamijirou, izuocha, eijirou kirishima x girls, shota aizawa x women, shota aizawa x ms. joke, eri x anyone

~omori: something

~pjo, hoo, toa: (characters) octavian, nero (ships) lukabeth, perachel, perlypso, romantic meg x apollo

~stranger things: (characters) martin brenner, lonnie byers (ships) stancy, will byers x girls, robin buckley x boys

aesthetics:

-yanderecore

-traumacore

-medicalcore

-religion-based aesthetics (witchy aesthetic is okay, so are holiday-based ones like christmas or halloween {i'll only do holidays when it's close to the date they're happening, though - like,, i won't do samhain at easter, you know?}, but christcore isn't)

other: spiders, blood, corpses

★ ★ ★

may i have a promo, please? thank you!

@electro-kins @primrose-rondo @catte-kins @teabookedits @fairyhimiko @tricky-kins @twisted-lies @lou-edits @cassahina @scftkitti @kinafe @allys-edit-cafe @kin-of-the-sheep @the-local-manga-library + anyone else

feel free to ignore and/or if you don't wanna be tagged, tell me and i'll untag you !!

#introduction #intro post #not a stimboard #kin blog

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headinthestaticsky · 3 years ago

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The Dusk Comes for me: Jasper Hale x My OC Fleur Swan, Chapter 4

Warnings: Moments of violence, cussing

AUTHORS NOTES: None of the characters in Twilight belong to me. All rights go to Stephenie Meyer.

Sorry if you find anything misspelled or out of place. I proof read these chapters 3 times I still find things wrong with it.

“I'm alone, look at the sky, my dear. I am not every falling star make a wish every time I leave so we can love until infinity.” I'm Waiting Here by Lykke Li and David Lynch

One minute I was I sleeping with Jasper in my room and the next it seemed I was in a unfamiliar location. My movements were not at will, my feet pounded against the steel floor. It was as if I was chasing someone, I soon caught a glimpse of who it was. It looked like a security guard as I was running I noticed a sign on the wall “Grimsham.” Grimsham, that’s in Mason County. What am I doing in Mason County? Two men had ran ahead of me eager to catch the man. The two men looked unfamiliar to me, I was sure I had never seen them before. The security guard had made it outside just about to get out of the area when the man with long blonde hair caught him taking him down to the ground. They then began to feed on him, They were vampires that explained the speed. But why was I moving so fast though? My uncontrolled movements moved toward the man about to start feeding on him. It was then that I noticed that I was not in my body. My “hands” looked far to pale to be my own. Before I could see who the woman was I jumped up, gasping for air. I looked around the room, Jasper was gone.

For once I was thankful about him not being there. I didn’t need him stressing out about something that I was a dream. I stretched and got up quickly getting ready for school as I slept in a bit too long. I went for a white lace long sleeved shirt and black jeans with the same ankle boots that I've owned for 4 years. I grabbed an apple since I didn’t have much time to eat. Just as I had closed the door I saw Bella slips on a big patch of ice. I held in a laugh wanting to be a little nicer today. I saw dad pull up in her truck and quickly help her up.

“Geez are you okay Bells?” He asked.

“Yeah, ice doesn’t exactly help the uncoordinated.” She replied.

“Well I put new tires on your truck since the old ones were getting pretty bald.”

“Oh thanks dad.”

“I’ll put the chains on your tires tomorrow okay Petal?”

“That’s fine dad, thank you.”

“I’m gonna be late for dinner today. I’ll be working overtime.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, a security guard that works at Grimsham Mills down in Mason county got attacked by some animal.” He explained.

“Oh.” Was all I could say. My heart dropped down into my stomach I didn’t know what else to say. This couldn’t have been a coincidence, no way it couldn’t of been. But, I wasn’t a vampire how could I have predicted this. My mind was racing. Dad seemed to have noticed my distant look on my face.

“Are you okay Petal? You’re looking kinda pale there.” He asked

“Oh yeah I’m fine sorry my mind wandered. Be careful down there dad.” I replied.

“Yeah be careful dad.” Bella said.

“I always am. love you guys.”

“Love you too.”

These past few days have been pretty tense. Bella was of course on even more edge than usual as Edward hadn’t been showing up to school. Every time I pulled into the back of the lot and joined the rest of the Cullens I could feel Bella’s eyes burn at the back of my skull. I didn’t dare to look back, thinking I might combust into flames if I even glanced at her for a second.

Today seemed to be one of those days. Jasper and I began to walk up the stairs toward the school. He suddenly stopped and turned around glaring back at her. Bella faltered and turned around quickly, seemingly intimidated by his harsh glare.

“You didn’t have to do that you know that right? I can handle my bony twin sister.”

“I felt like I had to darlin, her emotions were starting to give me a migraine.”

“Aww, I’m sorry love.” I said I then pecked his lips.

“Edwards suppose to be back to though right?”

“Yes, he is he’s just running late.”

��Oh okay. Maybe him being back will calm her down.”

“Hopefully, now come on, we have a history test to take.”

“Ugh, why would you remind me about that now I got a migraine.” I said.

He chuckled before dragging me to class. As much as I wanted to focus on my test I just couldn’t. That dream kept filling my head after every questions I read.

“Who was America named after?”

“Where is the Hudson River located at?”

“Name differences between federalist and anti-federalist.”

I just couldn’t formulate a full answer without drifting back to the dream. The three people ravaged that poor security guard and I was in one of those monsters bodies. Am I connected to them in someway or was this really just a dream? For my sanity and racing heart I just came to the conclusion it was. I just barely finished that history test before the time had run out. I finally lifted my head to see Jasper looking at me, worry etched all over his chiseled face. I couldn’t be helping his migraine at all. I grabbed his hand and led him out of the classroom. English and Calculus went by quickly and I was soon back at lunch. Bella hadn’t been glaring at me from across the room today. Jasper must’ve of scared her a bit. It was nice to get a break from the constant looks of pure hatred. I was working on an essay about the Scarlet Letter for English and Jasper had left to take a quick walk. As soon as he left Rosalie had tapped my shoulder.

“Hey are you okay? You’ve seemed kinda off this morning, Jasper’s starting to notice it too. She asked.

“No, I’m not.”

Alice and Dean’s interest had peaked and listened in on our conversation.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen to you?”

“No, not exactly. I just had a really bad nightmare. It was like I was in on the attack, It wasn’t me me though I was in someone elses body. I helped with the attack I was chasing that poor man with two other men.”

“That’s strange, no wonder you’ve been out of it all morning.” Rosalie said.

“But it gets even worse, dad told me today he had to go down to Mason county because a security guard got attack by an animal. It was the same place in my dream.”

Rosalie, Emmett, Dean, and Alice looked shocked not exactly knowing what to say.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’ll drive yourself crazy.” Rosalie said.

“Yeah don’t worry about it short-stack.”

“Yeah, you guys are right I need to stop worrying. I just can’t help it. It felt so real to me.”

“We’ll check out the area if that makes you feel better.” Alice suggested.

“I couldn’t ask you guys to do that but, thank you for the offer.”

“It wouldn’t be much trouble.” Dean said.

“No really I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rosalie asked.

“Yeah it’s okay, can we just keep this between us for now.

“Don’t worry, We won’t tell anyone else.” Rosalie said.

“Thank you.”

Jasper had returned to the table putting his arm around my should and kissing my head. I noticed he had someone else with him, that person being Edward.

“Been a while Edward, are you feeling better?”

“Yes, I feel a lot better.”

“Good.”

I then took Jasper’s hand feeling more content. It felt nice to tell somebody else about my dream. It was like a weight fell off my shoulders and my heart had returned to it’s normal pace. After Art and Calculus I made my way out of the building ready to head back home. Hopefully Bella would be in a better mood I didn’t want to fight today. I felt my arm being tugged on to turn me around... I of course knew who it was I guess him being back didn’t help he much.

“Yes, Bella?” I asked in a calm tone.

“Look I know you’re around the Cullens all the time what’s going on with Edward!? She demanded.

“I don’t know.” I lied.

“Don’t lie to me! How stupid do you think I am? Everything was going fine in Biology and then when I asked about his eyes he freaked out again.”

I held in a comment I didn’t want this to escalate.

“I am not lying Bella I don’t what is going on we never talk much.”

“Oh don’t give me that load of crap! Tell that freak of a boyfriend of yours to stop glaring at.”

“He can look where ever he wants to and he is not a freak. Don’t start something you can’t finished Bella. It won’t end well for you.” I said and started to walk away.

“Oh no your not, you’re not going to walk away from me again!.”

Before I could say anything else I heard the screeching of a van. It was heading right towards us. I pushed Bella out of harms ways as much as I wanted to rip her head off I wouldn’t let her get crushed by a van. But I didn’t have enough time to move myself. I put my hands up knowing that it would help the impact but, my instincts just told me to do that. I was suddenly knocked down hitting my head on the pavement. I looked up with blurry eyes to see Jasper holding me and stopping the van. My breath was stuttering I didn’t know what to do.

“Are you okay darlin? I feel pain.” He asked he amber eyes filled with worry.

“I’m fine. You need to go though you can get caught. We don’t need anyone getting suspicious about you guys.” I said.

He nodded, kissed my head then left. I was suddenly surrounded by students all of them shouting to call 911.

“Oh my gosh Fleur!”

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m calling 911 now.”

“I’m sorry Fleur I tried to stop!” I heard Tyler say, he had a cut on the side of his head

My head started spinning so I laid down before I closed my eyes though I saw Bella's face for once she didn’t look at me with hatred but, shock and worry.

#jasper hale x oc #jasper hale x reader #jasper hale #rosalie hale #emmett cullen #alice cullen #esme cullen #carlisle cullen #bella swan #twilight #twilight saga

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80s4life · 3 years ago

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Character/Movie List

Below is movies and TV shows I like personally and are lsited as a reference. If you don't see something you're interested in, it is not that I don't like it, it is because I most likely forgot it because I love so many movies/shows tbh. Just ask, and I'll answer! And, from the Rules and Regulations page, what I had meant by "mostly" is that I can dabble outside of the acting world and into actors/actresses themselves and/or singers, popstars, etc.

{Another side-note, I am not so much into shows, but mostly movies! Although, there are some exceptions that I love beyond belief!}

MOVIES

Back to the Future Series:

Biff Tannen

Griff Tannen (Maybe, he wasn't the best of the Tannen's imo)

Buford Tannen

Marty McFly

George McFly

Doc Brown

Lorraine Baines

Match

Titanic:

Rose DeWitt Bukater

Jack Dawson

Caledon Hockley

Brock Lovett

Rabrizio De Rossi

Thomas "Tommy" Ryan

Karate Kid Series {1/2/3}:

John Kreese

Mr. Miyagi

Johnny Lawrence

Daniel LaRusso

Tommy

Dutch

Bobby Brown (not so much; don't know him too well)

Ali Mills

Lucille LaRusso

Chozen

Kumiko

Terry Silver (duh lmao)

Mike Barnes (also duh)

Jessica Andrews

Stand By Me:

Vern Tessio

Billy Tessio

Gordie LaChance

Chris Chambers

Eyeball Chambers

Ace Merrill

Teddy Duchamp

Goonies:

Brand

Mikey

Chunk

Mouth

Data

Andy

Stef

Jake Fratelli (he was kinda hot ngl)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off:

Ferris Bueller

Jeanie Bueller

Cameron Frye

Sloane Peterson

License to Drive:

Les Anderson

Dean

Mercedes Lane

Charles

Toy Soldiers:

Billy Tepper

Joey Trotta

Snuffy Bradberry

Ricardo Montoya

Hank Giles

Derek/Yogurt

Scream Movie Series {1/2}:

Billy Loomis

Stu Macher

Dwight "Dewey" Riley

Ghostface

Randy Meeks

Tatum Riley

Sidney Prescott

Gale Weathers

Cotton Weary

Derek Feldman

Mickey

Predator:

Dutch

Blain

Yautja

Escape Plan:

Emil Rottmayer/ "Victor Maheim"

Ray Breslin/ "Anthony Portos"

The Expendables:

Barney Ross

Lee Christmas

Toll Road

Tool

Gunnar Jensen

Bao Thao/ "Yin Yang"

Hale Caesar

Trench

Church

Divergent Movie Series {1/2/3}:

Divergent-

Beatrice "Tris" Prior

Caleb Prior

Peter

Tobias "Four" Eaton

Christina "Chris"

Eric Coulter

Will

Insurgent-

Marcus Eaton

Allegiant-

Matthew

Terminator Series:

T-100/"Uncle Bob"/Terminator

T-1000 "Austin"

John Connor

Sarah Connor

Grace

Dani Ramos

Dazed and Confused:

David Wooderson

Fred O'Bannion

Randall "Pink" Floyd

Ron Slater

Don Dawson

Mitch Kramer

Benny O'Donnell

Rocky Series:

Rocky Balboa

Apollo Creed

Captain Ivan Drago

Zombieland {1/2}:

Tallahassee

Columbus

Berkeley

Witchita

Little Rock

Madison

Lethal Weapon Movie Series {1/2/3/4}:

Martin Riggs

Roger Myrtaugh

Rianne Murtaugh

Leo Getz

Goodfellas:

Henry Hill

Jimmy Conway

Tommy DeVito

Karen Hill

Marvel:

Avengers Heroes-

Iron Man/Tony Stark

Thor

Ant-Man/Scott Lang

Hulk/Bruce Banner

Captain America/Steve Rogers

Hawkeye/ Clint Barton

Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff

Black Panther/T'Challa

Vision/Victor Shade

Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Mantis

Spider-Man/Peter Parker

Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange

Avengers Anti-Heroes/Antagonists:

Yondu Udonta

Loki Laufeyson

Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

Whiplash

Thanos

Mysterio

Kaecilius

Ronan

Hela

Ultron

Wolverine/Deadpool:

Wolverine/Logan Howlett

Sabretooth/Victor Creed

Bolt/Chris Bradley

Gambit/Remy LeBeau

Cyclops/Scott Summers

(Younger!)Professor X

Deadpool/Wade Wilson

Cable/Nathan Summers

Colossus/Piotr "Peter" Nikolayevich Rasputin

Dopinger

Weasel

Negasonic Teenage Warhead/Ellie Phimister

DC Universe:

Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill)

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Affleck, Bale versions)

Aquaman/Arthur Curry

Wonder Woman/Diana Prince

Harley Quinn

Joker (Leto, Ledger, Phoenix versions)

Deadshot

Captain Boomerang

Enchantress

Rick Flagg

Bane (Tom Hardy)

TV Shows

Stranger Things:

Mike Wheeler

Nancy Wheeler

Will Byers

Joyce Byers

Johnathan Byers

Maxine "Max" Hargrove

Billy Hargrove

Dustin Henderson

Lucas Sinclair

Robin Buckley

Jim Hopper

Steve Harrington

Sex Education:

Erric Effiong

Aimee Gibbs

Adam Groff

Ola Nyman

Rahim

Otis Milburn

Maeve Wiley

Hannibal (Show):

Hannibal Lector

Will Graham

Dr. Alana Bloom

Jack Crawford

Abigail Hobbs

Orange Is the New Black (OITNB):

Piper Chapman

Nicky Nichols

Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren

Galina "Red" Reznikov

Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson

Dayanara "Daya" Diaz

Gloria Mendoza

Lorna Morello

Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett

Alex Vause

Joel Luschek

Big Boo

Maritza Ramos

Poussey Washington

Yoga Jones

Gina Murphy

Brook Soso

Sophia Burst

George "Pornstache" Mendez

Larry Bloom

Polly Harper

Stella Carlin

The Boys:

Billy Butcher

Starlight/Annie January

Hughie Campbell

Homelander

Kimiko Miyashiro

Queen Maeve/Maggie Shaw

Mother's Milk "M.M."

The Deep/Kevin Moskowitz

Frenchie

Stormfront

Becca Butcher

The Walking Dead (TWD):

Daryl Dixon

Merle Dixon

Rick Grimes

Carl Grimes

Lori Grimes

Maggie Greene

Beth Greene

Glenn Rhee

Negan Smith

Michonne Hawthorne

Carol Peletier

Shane Walsh

Paul "Jesus" Monroe

Eugene Porter

Sgt. Abraham Ford

Outer Banks (OBX):

Sarah Cameron

Rafe Cameron

Ward Cameron

John B

Topper

Pope

Kiara

Shameless:

Frank Gallagher

Fiona Gallagher

Lip Gallagher

Ian Gallagher

Debbie Gallagher

Carl Gallagher

Kevin Ball

Veronica Fisher

Mickey Milkovich

Mandy Milkovich

Svetlana

Jimmy "Steve" Lishman

Karen Jackson

Cobra Kai

Miguel Diaz

Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

Robby Keene

Demetri

Carmen Diaz

John Kreese (baby version & old version)

Terry Silver (baby version & old version)

Tory Nichols

Samantha "Sam" LaRusso

...AND MANY MORE!

If there is something or someone you like not on this list, feel free to ask or direct message me! For movies like the DC Universe and Marvel, if there is multiple actors of that character and you want a certain one, please make sure that you add that detail!

Rules & Regulations

Masterlist

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gelatomesomeironqrow · 4 years ago

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My favorite Marvel/Xmen families.

Let's start with Charles Xavier. Who here knew he has a son? Because he sure didn't.

Charles Xavier met Gabrielle Haller and the two had an affair. Long story short, he left while she was pregnant and didn't find out about it until Legion accidently on purpose kills Charles Xavier and accidently jump starts a whole new mutant universe that exists entirely in his head. Oops. I mean spoilers.

Legion aka David Haller. Is an Omega level Mutant who basically doesn't realize he is a mutant because he has dissociative personality disorder in which case he legit has a different ability for every one of his many and I mean many personalities. His main ability is telepathy, like father like son am I right? But his ability goes even further than basic telepathy, any one who dies near or around him gets sucked into his mind and he gains new abilities. But unlike his superhero father. He is an anti hero because every one of his personalities is fighting inside his head to get out. As a result, bad things happen around him, he gets new abilities and he has no idea what the heck is going on. I highly recommend watching Legion (an Fx show), trust me, he is such an unreliable narrator that you, as a viewer, also have no idea what is real and what is in his head.

Moving on. Let me talk about Magneto.

He is my favorite omega level mutant but much like his frenemy Charles Xavier. He also has no clue he has children. But unlike Xavier. It's not because he left while the girl was pregnant, more like the mother ran away because Magneto is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. His children also having a few screws loose.

Now Magneto has shit luck with family. He lost his original family during the Holocaust, and literally every single one of his relationships either dies or runs away from him once they learn of his powers. That being the case of Magda, who gave birth to Anya (who dies due to their home burning and collapsing with her inside), Magda runs away once Magneto seeks revenge on the officers who had prevented him from saving his daughter, thus revealing his powers and frightening Magda who was pregnant with twins and Magneto didn't know it at the time. Now the comic books are a fickle thing. For a time it was believed that Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch were the twins Magda had run away with but it was later revealed they are not. Now. I am a firm believer that they are related to Magneto because we have never seen or heard from these missing twins. Hence why I am including them in the Magneto family that I adore.

So let's keep diving into this family lineage.

Quicksilver has no children, but Wanda does. She creates twins, Billy and Tommy, after she suffers a psychotic break. It's believed that with the help of Mephisto and/or Agatha Harkness, she was able to have children with her synthezoid husband, the Vision. Quicksilver, who has always disapproved of their relationship tries to intervene, shit happens, Mephisto steals the babies and reabsorbs them back into his body to gain more power (Wanda having unknowingly used apart of Mephisto's soul to create twins out of nothing), Wanda collectively loses her shit once again, briefly becomes a villain because she cannot handle losing her makeshift family, goes insane and eventually seeks solace on a mountain. Unbeknownst to her, her twins had been given souls of their own, and as such were resurrected into Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd. They become part of the Young Avengers superhero team as Wiccan and Speed. Wiccan having greater witch powers than his mother and Speed having similar abilities to his uncle. Billy has a boyfriend turned husband Teddy (a Kree/Skrull hybrid born from the Princess and Prince of the Kree and the Skrull respectively).

And that's where we are currently at. I love the family lineage of two of the greatest mutants the world has ever seen

I don't pretend to be a comic book expert but like it just fascinates me how crazy the offspring are. Even Billy goes through a period of hysteria when he learns his boyfriend is a shapeshifter and goes through a sexuality crises as Teddy could be a girl if he chose but Teddy chooses to be a guy, an alien guy, but a guy. And then Teddy is needed to help put an end to the Kree-Skrull war and as a result, Billy, much like his mother, goes a little depressive/crazy when the anchor/love of his life is not near him. But that's much later and I hope Disney doesn't screw up a great LGBTQ couple.

UPDATE: Thanks to lazykcdoodler, I've been informed that Quicksilver does in fact have a daughter. Meet Luna! She's so cute, see lazykcdoodler's comment to my post for details on Luna!

#magneto #charles xavier #wanda maximoff #pietro maximoff #billy kaplan #tommy shepherd #teddy altman #vision #xmen #marvel #comic book series #legion #gelato blogs #could be slightly wrong with my general understanding #I'm in idiot who knows nothing about Quicksilver's daughter #Luna Maximoff #Forgive me Luna #I did not know of your existence until today

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plounce · 4 years ago

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do u have any reccomendations for how to read only comics involving rictor and shatterstar?? i used to be into marvel comics so i am immune to the usual comic shenanigans but i would like to learn more about these boys

here is a guide to reading xmen comics for rictor and shatterstar, my favorite canon comics couple! they were the first on-panel gay kiss in a marvel comic! they’re very special to me!

OKAY SO... ok. for anyone else using this, here’s a standard disclaimer that obviously there’s gonna be a lot in these that just absolutely sucks because 1. the 90s, 2. comics are an extremely cishet white male dominated industry. i do not vouch for everything written in these comics, but i think the gaycoding that eventually gets canonized is worth wading through a lot of stupid bullshit and very ugly art.

quick backstory on these two: rictor is a mexican teenager who was kidnapped by an anti-mutant terrorist group and was rescued by x-factor (the original 5). he hung around their auxiliary teen group the x-terminators for most of x-factor, being a delightful little punk (wearing a sleeveless leather vest a lot of the time!) and hanging out with boom-boom (who i love) and then got put into the new mutants for a very short time (where he had a thing with rahne/wolfsbane), before it was dissolved and transformed into x-force when rob liefeld took over the title. rictor hates team leader 90sdude cable because he thinks cable killed his dad in front of him. he tends to be the snarky asshole on the team.

the first part of this article has a lot of little rictor moments i’m not covering here. if you want the full rictor experience, check out x-factor (1986) and !x-terminators! x-factor starts very slowly but it picks up and improves when the simonsons take the helm.

rictor left the team. shatterstar was introduced by liefeld - he’s an Emotionless Warrior Guy Who Loves To Fight from mojoworld (a planet run by a despot who produces tv. it’s Commentary), where he was forced to be a gladiator from birth and doesn’t know a lot of earth customs and doesn’t have emotions (or rather, he represses them).

x-force (1991) feel free to read through all of it, but in case you just want to skip to these two, all of these issues have one or two good little Moments - just do some skimming. i tend to focus more on rictor than star in this era because star is made more interesting than Emotionless Warrior Guy by butting up against rictor:

13-16 (rictor rejoins his old new mutants friends)

19, 21-26 (the first phase of their relationship where they don’t really get along. in one of these issues rictor stares at star’s ass. big moment of star being autism-coded in here too)

29-30 (rictor drives shatterstar around and they seem to get along better, you get to learn a bit about star’s past, adam-x the x-treme is there)

32-33 (just some little moments of them hanging out, a couple good rictor lines)

34 (VERY IMPORTANT - rictor backstory issue! AND this has the first big Subtext moment: shatterstar reveals he learned spanish from tv so he and rictor can have “conversations of a highly -- personal nature” HELLO?)

35 (some little moments where you can see star and rictor are now Friends and star is affected by that friendship)

39-40 (more good friendship - rictor asks if star has been watching dating shows and they just seem close. rictor also has gotten a haircut! we learn shatterstar’s mojoworld designation! they ride some motorcycles!)

43 (VERY IMPORTANT - the two go to a club. rictor tells star he’s a virgin then asks him if he has a dick. i am not kidding this literally happens. star learns what sexual attraction feels like and says ‘i don’t know what emotions im supposed to attach to that’, and rictor tells him he’ll help him learn.)

44 (VERY IMPORTANT - rictor leaves the team because he doesn’t want to have the team communicate telepathically (VERY interesting for a character who is eventually revealed to have been a closeted gay man). shatterstar begs him not to leave - “you’re my best and only friend.” rictor tells him that if he ever needs him, he’ll come back.)

cable (1993) #22 (follows up directly on rictor leaving the team - star accompanies rictor to the airport and has a lot of Feelings and has great hair. “julio. one last time. please, change your mind. what am i going to do without you?” oh so you’re dependent on your best friend who you’re in love with? oh?)

45, 47-48 (star’s weird biology, star brings up rictor as his emotional touchstone in a situation where he isn’t relevant at all. also, a plotline where tabby gets treated terribly by her friends and the narrative!)

49 (VERY IMPORTANT - star wanders around at night wondering why rictor hasn’t contacted him yet. he goes to the club he and rictor went to in #43 and turns down a girl who hits on him. he thinks “i miss julio...” (in an earlier issue, rictor tells cable not to call him by his first name - “only my mom calls me that”), then beats up some homophobes in an alley. I AM NOT KIDDING.)

51-52 (51 has more weird star biology. 52 has two pages of star and james talking that is a nice look at star’s developing emotional state - the rest of 52 is a fight with one of marvel’s extremely fatphobic villains, just a warning to skip the rest of it. although the letter page of 52 has someone go HEY ARE RICTOR AND SHATTERSTAR IN LOVE? thank you roeland looman from the netherlands)

54-56 (the start of shatterstar’s weird bad benjamin russell backstory that is quickly forgotten, disregarded, and uncared about by everybody. BUT in 54, there is some extremely loud subtext where star’s feelings for rictor are explicitly compared to a het romance subplot!)

58 (star is very chill and flamboyant for like two pages, it’s great)

59-61 (VERY IMPORTANT - rictor returns because star Needs him in the midst of his identity crisis!! it’s so joyful and sweet for them both, and the subtext is so LOUD here - there’s just. so much going on, i won’t describe it all, but it’s very good content and their emotionally intimate relationship is very apparent - really excellent gaycoding. the weird shatterstar backstory wraps up circuitously and to no great effect, but the art in the last issue is very nice, and rictor’s plain and uncomplicated concern for star is great.)

63-65 (some little moments - shatterstar and rictor time travel and beat up some nazis, star has a lovely conversation with siryn,)

x-force/cable ‘97 (the team goes to asgard! the important thing is that star says some goofy “ah... warriors...” things, and then rictor teases star for liking delivery pizza. it’s very charming)

67 (they hang out with tabby in a van. shatterstar has pigtails!)

70 (VERY IMPORTANT - rictor and shatterstar exit the team together to go take down rictor’s crime family in mexico! they seem very devoted to each other. shatterstar’s hair is all the way down!)

post leaving x-force:

76 (VERY IMPORTANT - ricstar return for one issue - rictor gets held captive to force shatterstar to fight domino!)

x-force annual 1999 (VERY IMPORTANT - ricstar get their own story about what they’re doing in mexico! shatterstar has an ugly little goatee, but rictor looks great! they choose to share a room rather than sleep separately and then it kind of feels like they shared a bed! rictor has learned star’s alien language! they genuinely just seem so close and comfortable with each other, it’s incredible.) (if you’re using RTO, it’s within the rest of xforce’s issues)

they’re both in comics limbo for the first half of the 00s besides a couple random flavorless appearances. shatterstar at some point goes back to mojoworld to help with the war against mojo. then we hit peter david’s x-factor run in 2006, known as x-factor investigations (xfi). this directly follows the “house of m” event - what matters is that the vast majority of mutants have been depowered by the scarlet witch. rictor is one of them.

rictor is a main character of the team from the first issue (the series opens with him about to attempt suicide), so if you wanna read the run you can start from the beginning. x-factor is... well, there are worse-written comics. it’s an okay read, but i find PAD’s writing insufferable a lot of the time (he writes multiple man as a pretty blatant self insert, and literally every girl on the team wants to fuck him at some point or another). i read the whole thing and it’s decent comics, but you might want to skip to the ricstar.

PAD canonizes ricstar, which is great! but unfortunately: 1. he writes star as “slutty bisexual just can’t stop wanting to fuck people besides his partner who is uncomfortable with that!”, which is biphobic and sucks hugely, especially since it feels so different from xforce original shatterstar (see this post). rictor also just seems so annoyed with him all the time, which also sucks - they’re best friends!! let rictor like his boyfriend!!

anyway. if you choose not to read all of xfi, here are the ricstar highlights:

first issue of xfi for rictor's horrible mental state after m-day

14 (jamie implies that star would be jealous of rictor hanging out with quicksilver)

43, 45, 49 (star reappears!! he’s mindcontrolled, but it gets fixed, and he and rictor have the first ever on panel gay kiss at marvel!! yaaaay!! then they talk about their relationship a little)

after issue #50 it changes the numbering, so if you’re using RCO youll have to go to xfactor (1986) #200 to continue

200 (SHATTERSTAR FIGHTS THE THING!)

continue to read between here for star apparently being unable to stop kissing people. sigh. star sleeps with adult layla, which... sigh. whatever

207-208 (rictor and shatterstar semi-resolve the stupid biphobic plotline, resolve to work on their relationship, rahne discovers them (she and rictor had been sleeping together earlier in xfi), rahne is pregnant and homophobic, rahne and star fight, star is a delightful bitch)

209 (shatterstar on a pirate ship. that's it)

210 (rictor confirms that he is gay and it wasn’t legit when he’s been with women. there’s a moment where it's like "oh star makes rictor laugh" which is epic)

211-212 (star is said to be frustrated about rictor and rahne, rahne’s baby’s actual dad is revealed)

213 (rictor and rahne mostly resolve their shit)

216 (star and monet hang out, star thinks monet tells him to pee on rictor, spiderman is there)

217 (there’s a joke about the longstanding theory that longshot and star are related, monet is revealed as muslim in a very dumb way)

220 (star and rahne have a pretty nice conversation about their relationships to rictor and rahne’s faith. rictor does an offscreen internalized homophobia)

221 (star and rahne continue to hang out but it’s not as good as the previous issue.)

222 (oh my god, rictor cares about shatterstar being hurt! rahne owns up to how she kind of treated rictor like shit!)

pop over to avengers: the children’s crusade (a young avengers miniseries with good ol’ billy/teddy and i like it! but if you don’t want to read the whole thing - rictor and shatterstar appear in #6, and rictor is the first mutant to be repowered! they’re more tender with each other over their five page appearance than they are in xfi, so it’s a balm)

225-226 (PAD decides the first thing rictor does with his powers is be a scab [DEEP SIGH], rictor and shatterstar discuss rictor getting his powers back, the biphobic plotline is resolved again kind of in a very PAD-y way)

235-236 (shatterstar gets to be the main character of a mini arc. fights a mojo guy)

238 (ricstar go with rahne to help her find her son)

242 (they find her son. not as important imo)

248 (oh my god... they joke together :) they like being around each other :) also shatterstar goodboy moment. then in 249 rictor’s life is spared bc of shatterstar’s goodboy moment)

259 (SHATTERSTAR’S CRAZY CONVOLUTED BACKSTORY THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS TO HIS CHARACTER! YAHOO! and star has a cute little bob)

after xfi wraps up, there’s a couple years of limbo before they appear in secret warriors (2017) #2-3 (end of #2 and most of #3), which is a big crossover event or something. i don’t know, it’s an inhumans comic, and as an xmen person i am contractually obligated to roll my eyes at the inhumans. ricstar both have mustaches, star doesn’t speak, and rictor has the ugliest costume ever (green tracksuit with no socks??) (tabby also has a terrible costume). it’s just more inhumans trying to be a match to the xmen and utterly failing to not look & act like total jackasses (except, of course, for kamala and moon girl). rictor’s jokes that daisy johnson should get more original powers (she also has seismic powers - rictor predates her!), and then daisy blows up the xmen’s jet. while it’s in the air. this is a very neat summary of most mutant-inhuman relations.

now we enter the current era of “on again off again” relationship limbo.

rictor appears next in iceman (2017). in #9 he states that he and star have apparently broken up offscreen! and then he hits on bobby! sina grace is a cool person but this writing decision is so... aghhh. the next issue he and bobby go out on a date and he’s immediately like “yeah i only have my eyes on star”, so it seems to be more “it’s complicated” than “we’re broken up for good.” he sticks around to help out with a mission in #10-11.

they’re on again in new mutants: dead souls, where rictor is a part of the team and he’s hilarious and has so many great lines! shatterstar also makes a couple cameos throughout and they’re all super sweet! they seem very domestic and comfortable and happy, i love their dynamic in this. my favorite shatterstar panel ever is in #6, where he is making rictor pancakes and is only wearing an apron. please ignore all the big plot things that happen at the end of this, especially everything with karma. they are stupid, dumb, and do not matter.

related to nm:ds, rictor appears in multiple man #1 as part of that team and looks very very cute. and he isn’t whitewashed like in nm:ds!

off again in the shatterstar (2018) miniseries. i have a lot of mixed feelings about this because i LOVE all the rictor stuff, the first issue codes shatterstar as autistic in a very characterful way, it doesn’t whitewash rictor for once, and the covers are GORGEOUS! but it also attempts to retcon a ton of star’s emotional backstory AND arc set out in xforce, casting a black woman as his emotionally manipulative ex. also star is a landlord (ew). my advice with this one is to treat all the flashbacks as not-really-canon since they suck.

star appears in extermination (2018) #3-4 and gets mind-controlled into trying to kill the time-displaced teen o5 (timetraveling baby cable is trying to put them back where they came from), and the art looks great and i feel really bad for him. rictor makes a follow-up cameo in uncanny x-men (2019) #9-10, where you can see that he’s at the school in order to visit shatterstar since he’s with cecelia reyes. he then goes to fight nate grey/x-man, where he gets sucked into the age of x-man pocket universe/event.

around half the xmen get trapped and brainwashed in that pocket universe where there is no love or family, merely friendship and comradery (it’s an attempt by nate grey to ‘fix’ the xmen by getting rid of all the soap opera stuff - it’s a bit meta wrt how xmen are the soap opera superheroes). there are a couple different titles for this event: rictor appears in age of x-man: x-tremists #4-5. people have mixed feelings about this title due to the gay characters (northstar and iceman) enforcing no-romance laws that very intentionally parallel anti-gay laws from real life, but rictor is just chilling and running an illegal romance movies theatre, and then he gets drunk and then starts a riot and he’s just delightful in this.

everyone outside of the pocket universe thinks everyone who disappeared was killed. shatterstar is part of the team in x-force (2019) (there are two 2019 x-forces: this is vol 5, written by ed brisson) who are trying to track down young cable (baby cable, or “bable”), who killed older cable, who formed good old 90s xforce. boom-boom is the best part of this entire run, hands down. the art is expressive and interesting but i Hate how they draw warpath (the one time he’s free from comic book limbo!). shatterstar is in full “i only like fighting please let me fight i am a difficult asshole” mode, and talks about grieving rictor in #7 and #10. this is never really resolved since age of x-man is thrown over for hoxpox (BIG status quo changes & current era of xmen comics), but aside from my little ricstar heart i can’t really mind.

rictor is currently appearing as part of the team in excalibur (2019), and has been very... cozy... with apocalypse. at the time of writing (halloween 2020), it’s very heavily ambiguous what exactly their relationship is besides “intense” and i still have no clue what to think about it. he and star have been stated by the writer to be exes, but i also know tini howard is a ricstar fan so im holding out for good things! and it’s cool that rictor is getting a ton of focus and a lot of powering up. i remember reading xfi #1 and being amazed at how rictor described how soul-deep his earth powers were and wanting more of that, and excalibur has that for him in spades. (i am still withholding a lot of judgment wrt rictor’s writing in excalibur until i see how things pan out)

after reading to excalibur #12, switch over to x-factor (2020). read the first three issues because i love northstar and prodigy and rachel. please ignore a couple cringe comments towards poor daken. shatterstar appears in #3, trapped on mojoworld, getting traumatized, and breaking my heart as i write this. that last data page... free my boy!!!!

after x-factor #3, read x of swords: creation. more rictor and apocalypse being Close. after that, read x-factor #4 for apocalypse being very Attached to rictor, and then rictor looking very good and freshly resurrected. then continue reading excalibur. in may, x-factor is going back to mojoworld!!

that’s all there is so far! i think within the next year there will be even more content for us, and im very eager to get to that content. i will update this post as things come out.

#ricstar #xmen #rictor #shatterstar #julio richter #chirps #anonymous

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years ago

Text

LUCY SHUNS AUDITIONS

July 21, 1950

[In the below article, reprinted verbatim, Johnson writes using a lot of imagery and insider jargon. This sort of article was common in trade papers like Variety, but seems odd in a daily newspaper.]

Hollywood—(NEA) Lucille Ball slipped me the lowdown on her failure to pin to the canvas the dumb chick role in “Born Yesterday” and make it holler uncle. (1)

She’s got a touch of Francis the mule in her when it comes to auditions. (2)

Instead of scrimmaging for the role with Evelyn Keyes, Judy Holliday, Marie Wilson, Shelly Winters and Jan Sterling, (3) Lucille went bolting the other way.

The “let’s-see-if-you’re-it” boys pleaded and cajoled.

But Miss Anti-Auditions wasn’t having any of the competition, thank you.

“I figure if they want you, they want you,” Lucille plainspoke it. If you’ve got to read and test for it, to heck with it.’

She isn’t chronicled in Hollywood history, but once, badgered by her RKO bosses, Lucille went tripping over to David O. Selznick’s office for a whack at the Scarlett O’Hara role in “Gone With the Wind.”

That’s what curdled her in the first place.

“It was awful,’’ Lucille shudders. I was shaking all over when I hit Selznick’s office. My knees gave way. I did the whole audition in scrubwoman position. Selznick laughs and says thanks a lot. (4)

Judy Holliday landed the junkman’s doll role and Lucille grabbed a railroad ticket for a personal appearance tour with hubby Desi Arnaz. She strutted to Latin rhythms, swung a glittering purse in a manner dear to runaway girls and wisecracked for the customers. (5)

MIMICS OSCAR WINNER

At the last moment she nixed a dancing and singing routine. The star with the forest-fire hair shrugged:

“I decided it would be silly to compete with Grable.” (6)

A lot of movie queens laid in fresh supplies of smelling salts, ice beanies and copies of “Release From Nervous Tension” when word got around that Lucille was about to whoop it up on the six-a-day circuit. (7)

She’s a blister-raiser from way back and the air was shrill with ouches about a year ago when she whipped up an impression of an Academy Award winner.

But the girls can go back to worrying about other things—like shrinking from larger-than-life to television screen size.

Lucille didn’t let any “furriners” see the routine.

“It's for Hollywood only," she said. “I should take radio-active material on the road?”

Her Oscar-grabber routine is strictly for unreal anyhow, she says. and no blood relation to Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman or any other Screen Duse. (8) She insisted:

“She's any movie star, even me. This character has to go up on that stage and act surprised. She’s only been rehearsing what she's going say flor eight weeks. So she says, ‘Ye gads, me? But I’m so unprepared. Really, I didn’t dream...” Lucille is generally is as unflinching about the movie queen business as Pearl White was about onrushing trains. (9)

But her knees executed some wobbles that aren’t in Arthur Murray’s rhumba dance book when she checked into her first vaudeville dressing room. (10)

“Those stages—they’re so big.” she gasped. “Hey, I’d hate to get caught in the middle of one of those stages without bread and water.”

Lucille didn’t take any chances with out-of-town press interviews, either. “I once did a personal appearance tour with Maureen O'Hara and had to show up at a press party,” she grinned. (11)

My sinus - I just die from it - was acting up. The reporter next to me didn’t understand my puffed eyes and cold sores. He called Maureen a lady in his story. But he referred to me as a whisky tenor with red-runny eyes.”

Lucille’s brain cells work on direct current and she’s not one to make with the figure eights when a straight glide to home base would get her there quicker.

They still laugh about her exit line to Louis B. Mayer. (12) Mayer always referred to her as a thoroughbred and sometimes compared her to his famous horses. "Yes, and like your other nags, I'm leaving your stable," Lucille said when she decided to bow out of her contract.

She has high hopes for her new picture “The Fuller Brush Man.” Not that she enjoyed it: (13)

“Honey, this ones that I don t enjoy turn out be the best ones. This one put me in the hospital. My feet are still bandaged up. I’m a mess. No more physical-type pictures for me.”

# # # FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) The 1946 Broadway hit comedy Born Yesterday by Garsin Kanin was bought by Columbia Pictures. Things got complicated when its stage star, Judy Holliday, swore she would not do the film version. Columbia used this as fuel for publicity about who would win the role. Naturally, Lucille Ball was considered a top contender. As the article states, she was not eager, however, to prove her worth to the ‘let’s-see-if-you’re-it’ boys (aka producers). There was talk of Lucille performing the play in London, or summer stock, but her film contracts would not allow her time off for a stage run.

(2) Mules are supposedly notoriously stubborn animals - just like Lucy. Francis the Talking Mule was the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel Francis by David Stern III, adapting his own script for the first entry, simply titled Francis. On “I Love Lucy” Fred Mertz sometimes called Ethel “Francis” to indicate she was being stubborn about something.

(3) These were some of the Hollywood stars looking to play the part of Billie Dawn in the film Born Yesterday. Evelyn Keyes (1916 – 2008) was best known for playing Sue Ellen, Scarlett O’Hara’s kid sister, in Gone With The Wind (1939). Judy Holliday (1921-65), changed her mind about playing the role she originated on Broadway, but by then the casting net was cast, and she was just another performer on the short list. She eventually got the role, which defined her career. Marie Wilson (1916-72) was a zany comedic actress in the style of Gracie Burns. She was widely known as the star of radio and TV’s “My Friend Irma”. Shelley Winters (1920-2006) would be nominated for an Oscar the year after this article. She was adept at playing drama and comedy, and had a long-lasting career in Hollywood. She appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in 1968; Critics raved about her Jan Sterling’s portrayal of Billie Dawn in the Chicago touring company of Born Yesterday and Columbia brought her out to the West Coast to test for the film. At one point, she was actually announced to play the part but the role ultimately went to Holliday.

(4) Lucille Ball did indeed read (not screen test) for the role of Scarlet O’Hara, just like nearly all of the women in Hollywood in 1938. Ball told the story several times on television, each time with varying details, but probably most completely on “Bob Hope’s Unrehearsed Antics of The Stars” (1984).

(5) This is a vivid description of the “Cuban Pete / Sally Sweet” portion of Lucy and Desi’s nightclub act to convince sponsors to buy them as a couple.

(6) Betty Grable (1916-73) was considered one of the most famous pin-up girls in history. In addition to her million dollar gams (legs), she could sing, dance, and act, too. She guest starred with her then-husband Harry James on “Lucy Wins A Racehorse”, an installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” aired on February 3, 1958.

(7) “Release from Nervous Tension” was an actual best-selling book by Dr. David Harold Fink, published in 1950. Vaudeville and Burlesque shows were often known as the ‘six-a-day circuit’ because sometimes there would be as many as six performances of the same act in a day. Naturally, this did not apply to Lucy and Desi, who were big film and radio stars at the time.

(8) These were some of Hollywood’s top-line dramatic actors. Bette Davis (1908-89) had won two Oscars, and was nominated for several others during her long career. She was supposed to guest-star on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in “The Celebrity Next Door” in 1957 but dropped out after a horse-riding accident, leaving the role to Tallulah Bankhead; Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020) had also won two Oscars, the second the year this article was published. She was best remembered for playing Melanie Wilkes in Gone With The Wind (1939); Ingrid Bergman (1915-82) was a Swedish-born actress, who, by career’s end, had scored three Academy Awards. When Johnson talks about “any other screen Duse” he is referring to Eleonor Duse (1858-1924), an Italian-born stage actress known for her grand, dramatic style.

(9) Pearl White (1889-1938) was best known as the silent film actress who was tied to the railroad tracks in “The Perils of Pauline” (1914).

(10) Arthur Murray (1895-1991) was a ballroom dancer and businessman best known for the chain of dancing schools that bear his name. Murray was often a punchline on “I Love Lucy,” especially when the subject of dancing came up. The Rhumba was a Latin dance that took America by storm in the late 1940s and 1950. Desi Arnaz often called his orchestra a ‘rhumba band.’

(11) Maureen O’Hara (1920-2015) and Lucille Ball had starred in Dance, Girl, Dance in 1940. As a result, the two went on a promotional tour that took them to several US cities, including the nation’s capitol.

(12) Louis B. Meyer (1884-1957), along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, had formed a new motion picture company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1918. Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, and one of the country's most successful horse breeders. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951, just a year after this article was written.

(13) Erskine Johnson gets the title wrong. Lucille had madeThe Fuller Brush Girl, a sequel to The Fuller Brush Man (1948). The film was released in mid-September 1950.

#Lucille Ball #Erskine Johnson #Newspaper #Fuller Brush Girl #Born Yesterday #Judy Holliday #MGM #Louis B. Mayer #Pearl White #Olivia DeHavilland #Bette Davis #Ingrid Bergman #Release from Nervous Tension #Eleonor Duse #Betty Grable #Desi Arnaz #Gone With The Wind

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feigeroman · 4 years ago

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Thomas Headcanons: James

When James was first built, he carried the standard L&YR tender, in common with his fellow 28s. This was later upgraded to a slightly larger tender of the same design, to accomodate his experiemental modifications. This tender was itself damaged beyond repair after his accident on his first day of NWR service, and replaced with the Fowler-style one he carries to this day.

That original tender, incidentally, still survives as well, as part of the NWR’s departmental stock. It’s seen all kinds of uses, from carrying weedkiller or boiler sludge, to forming the framework for a snowplough.

While James’ outward air of pride and vanity has always stayed the same, his internal reasons for it have constantly changed over the years.

To begin with, he felt insecure about being such a non-standard oddity, and so tried to twist that into the more positive connotations of simply being special (1912-1925).

Then, following his initial accident, and subsequent incidents, it was to prove himself a capable and competent worker. And possibly he was trying to earn favour with Gordon, whose shadow James was constantly in (1925 onwards).

James doubled down hard following the War, most likely in a bid to try and repress some of the effects it’d had on him. Nationalization may also have had something to do with it, as James tried to assert his own individuality in what was now a much bigger state machine (late 1940s to early-50s).

The publication and increasing popularity of the RWS books meant that fame inevitably went to James’ smokebox, hence his slightly more dickish nature around this time (1950s).

Then it was the looming threat of Modernization, and later scrapping, which caused James to once again try to prove that he was special, and therefore worth keeping around (late-50s to late-60s).

Finally, once his future was more secure, James started to relax a bit. However, as with Percy’s facade of simple-mindedness, James ended up going slightly too far with his own facade of grandeur, to the point where it was rare for him to show any other sides to his character (early-70s onwards).

James’ role in the Big Engines dynamic changed considerably over the years:

To begin with (1920s), he was very much an outlier, as Gordon and Henry were too busy dealing with each other to take much notice of him. And even when they did, it was more as a two-against-one thing.

Eventually, though (1930s to early-60s), James did become part of the clique, and the trio as we best know them was formed. Depending on the circumstances, they could act either as a proper trio, or two engines against one, or even all three engines set against each other.

Much later on (mid-60s to early-70s), the dynamic shifted, as Henry became the outlier, and the trio became just the duo of Gordon and James.

Later still (early-70s onwards), the trio regrouped, but was rather less consistent. Sometimes James was in command, sometimes he was just an aide, and sometimes he returned to being the outlier.

Finally (1980s onwards), it was back to to the duo of Henry and James, with Gordon being the outlier.

For many years, James was both the NWR’s only red engine, and the only engine specifically designated as mixed-traffic. Therefore, he was more or less directly responsible for the NWR adopting red as its official livery for mixed-traffic engines. Presumably the decision went like this: “Well, we’ve decided that blue means express passenger, green means local passenger and black means freight...“ “But hold on. What about mixed-traffic? That doesn’t really fit any of those categories.“ “Ah, right...Well, what mixed-traffic engines do we have?“ “Uh...just James, I think. And he’s red, so...“ “That’s settled, then! Red means mixed-traffic!“

As much as I enjoy James as a Scouser, I’ve always imagined him sounding like Toad from Wind in the Willows, as voiced by David Jason in the stop-motion adaptation of that story. He just perfectly captures the same sheer manic, chaotic energy as James, with all the personality quirks to match. Just listen to him in an episode or two, and you’ll see what I mean.

Having said that, I still think James would have had the Scouse accent early on, only to later repress it as part of his self-important image. He’s still prone to lapsing back into it now and then, which amuses the other engines no end.

In the early 1980s, the NWR’s first ever woman driver was assigned to James. At first, it was feared that he wouldn’t take kindly to such a drastic change. Fortunately, though, once he was assured of his new driver’s competence, James had no issues accepting her whatsoever - except, of course, for the fact that most of her previous driving experience was on diesels. Even then, this problem didn’t last long, as it was only a short while later that James finally managed to shake off most of his anti-diesel prejudices.

Blatantly stolen from @mean-scarlet-deceiver, but what the hell, it was just too perfect not to include. Find the full details here.

On a similar note, once James gets over his new driver being ex-diesel, the two of them actually end up becoming quite a double-act. Inevitably, his driver (name undecided as of yet) ends up as the straight woman, constantly battling to reel James in when he’s getting too far up his own tender - which is most of the time.

#thomas the tank engine #the railway series #sodor #island of sodor #north western railway #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #ttte james #james the red engine

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dragynkeep · 4 years ago

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Can we talk about how utterly offensive Scarlet David is? They literally made their first ever gay male character an effeminate, bitchy twink who is literally based on a guy who hangs with fairies (with fairy being a derogatory term against gay men) as well as a K-Pop star (who are very often fetishised by K-Pop stannies). It comes off as very sus. Oh, that isn’t even mentioning what an absolute creep his VA is. They really got the most heterosexual man they could find, who stalks woman for fun, and made him the VA of the gay character. 🙃

Pilot Boi and Clover may have potentially been Bury Your Gays (if they were canon gay), but at least they were hot and weren’t offensive stereotypes.

I hated Scarlet when I first saw him, and I hate him even more to this day, almost as much as I hate his sleezy VA.

#rwby #rwde #anti scarlet david #answered #luke.txt #Anonymous

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kitkatopinions · 3 years ago

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Since only 1/2 of CFVY and SSSN actually matter, my guess is come v10 only Sun, Neptune, Coco, and Velvet will have voiced roles and appearances. The absence of the others will be explained as being spread out elsewhere on Vacuo or killed off in the presumed timeskip.

Not gonna lie, this is kinda the preferred solution for me, or at the most having the side characters of teams CFVY and SNNN shown once or twice, but never really speaking or interacting with others. It's not because I hate them... Okay, well, I hate Scarlet because of the books. Fox is terrible and a sadistic bully, but there is interest to his character for me, so idk if I can say I hate him, and Yatsuhashi is on thin fucking ice but I at least don't hate him either, and as for Sage, he's pretty much a nothing character but I have been inventing him from the ground up and like my headcanoned version of him, so yeah. It's not because I hate most of them. And I also want Coco out of here immediately, too, because of her allusion and the fact that I hate her (seriously, Coco is quickly becoming one of my absolute least favorite characters in the whole of RWBY right up there with Port, Hazel, Cardin, and Cinder.) But I doubt she's gonna get cut.

Really, it's a character bloat problem. With main characters like Ruby, Nora, Blake, and Oscar still needing development, plus side characters who are more currently relevant who arguably deserve more plot relevancy like May, Whitley, Mercury, and Robyn (I don't like Robyn, but she is more relevant,) and probable new additions from Vacuo like Theodore... There just isn't a lot of room to bring in very niche side characters who haven't been in the show since their very minor volume three appearances who got only a few lines each if any lines at all.

In my opinion, Velvet, Sun, and Neptune are the only ones out of the group we should be seeing past a brief cameo appearance, and Neptune and Velvet should both only get minor roles. Sun's the one who was just as much if not more of a main character than Nora from season two to season five, he's the one who should still be treated as significant to Blake, he's the one born and raised in Vacuo but would have reason to trust Team RWBY JNOR right away and could therefore have an easy narrative role. That's not to say that I'd hate it if Neptune and Velvet got storylines, because I do like them and if they were done well, that'd make me happy. But trying to look at what the show needs, I already feel like they need to quickly scramble to eliminate some of their bloated cast, and giving a spotlight to minor side characters - even if they're more featured like Velvet or Neptune - feels like a step in the wrong direction.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby criticism #light rwby crit #rwby critical #anti scarlet david #anti coco adel #coco adel hate #anti coco #anti fox alistair #anti yatsuhasi daichi

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theliterateape · 4 years ago

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The Subjectivity of Historical Revisionism

by Don Hall

The game was simple but difficult.

My first wife was an orchestra clarinetist. I had played in countless orchestras with my trumpet. I never really fit in with the academically inclined orchestra crowd but she did so she would have small gatherings to eat and drink at our home.

I could only handle sitting and chatting with them for a short time before I either started throwing verbal bombs in the mix to keep things interesting (which inevitably set the stage for a fight with my wife after all had gone home) or checked out completely (a different but similar sounding fight later). I finally came up with a game that they could play so I could go into my office and write or drink or drink and write.

I was a middle school music teacher and my curriculum for eighth grade included some college music history.

“OK. I teach a class on the Romantic Period of music for my kids. I get forty minutes to cover composers from 1770 to 1850. This includes Brahms, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Verdi, Wagner, Sibelius, Schubert, and scores more as well as over 5,000 known pieces of music of all genres. Forty minutes. I have to boil the whole period down to roughly six pieces of music at three minutes apiece to encapsulate all of that.

Here’s the game. You have forty minutes to teach a class on the music of the Twentieth Century. You get ten pieces and composers. Go!”

After around thirty minutes, I'd come back in, get another drink, and they'd inevitably have their ten. I'd look at it and comment, "So. You guys don't think jazz should be included?" They'd all growl and go back in to it.

Keep in mind, this game was about determining what specific art would be included for a limited attention span and, in the most subjective way, indicate what art you value first and foremost.

Were I to play that game today with someone my nephew's age, an additional criteria would be added. It would not be enough that the music was important or influential or even good. The addition to the type of person the artist was (or is) has become a part of the game.

It's all revision by exclusion.

Assessing the merit of art or historical significance is more than a popularity test. There have been plenty of popular artists, scientists, statesmen, and entrepreneurs in our history who have become unpopular and even unknown over time and who have been weeded out of curation.

Why are we exposed to the art we are exposed to? We certainly aren’t the kind of creatures who, when seeking out information, go to a library index file and pour through thousands of entries to find the hidden treasures any more. No, we now have a screen which we type in “What were the best novels of the 20th Century?” and are fed a result.

According to Goodreads.com, there are 164 books listed under the heading The ACTUAL 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.

As soon as you start to apply the Woke Metrics (you know, the yardstick that dismisses the accomplishments of Winston Churchill because he was a bigot) these lists start to narrow significantly. Using that criteria (which in the newspeak of that progressive cultmind must come before merit, quality, or theme) the only list that exists is The 100 Best Novels No One Has Ever Heard Of by People No one Has Ever Read.

As I wrote, this sort of assessment can't simply be a popularity test. If it were, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Harry Potter books would top the list.

When I play the game, I’m looking for a few things to merit inclusion in the tiny lists:

How influential was the work on those that followed?

How indicative of the time and place is the work?

Is the work limited in scope or more universal in theme?

There is a scene at the beginning of the Amy Poehler film Moxie where the new student challenges the teacher on the assignment of reading The Great Gatsby.

The scene is fun and pointed. Ike is a hoot as the teacher. Had I been her teacher I would have responded by asking what she thought was a better choice. She might have a novel written by a black woman that encapsulates the American response to the 1918 pandemic in excess and mystery. She might have an example of a novel written that explores the notions of class and the very essence of the American Dream following the horrors of WWI. If she has a suggestion of a novel written by someone not white and not male that deals so eloquently about justice, power, wealth, betrayal, and several classes of Americans who have assumed skewed worldviews, mistakenly believing their survival lies in stratification and reinforcing social boundaries, let's read that!

The issue at hand with much of the faddish push to classify certain artists and historical figures as unassailably evil and worthy of complete erasure is that the most strident either have nothing with which to substitute for the thing they deem canceled or they have replacement art that is not up to the challenge. It isn't that they don't have every right to express their grievance. History (and not merely American history) is littered with people passed over for reasons beyond merit or time as well as people lauded and magnified for rationale limited to race, sex, and religion.

Anger and grievance is not a replacement for a solution.

✶

For much of the past year I've been incredibly frustrated with this push for revision in our history. San Francisco schools voting to replace Lincoln with someone more influential historically on the rights of African Americans? That's fucking nuts, man.

An English teacher in Massachusetts successfully convinced her school's administrators to remove Homer's The Odyssey from its curriculum because of its alleged sexism. Another English teacher in Seattle said he would "rather die" than teach The Scarlet Letter in class. Mark Twain is suspect because of his portrayal of black people in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

To Kill a Mockingbird, once the City of Chicago book of the month, is now considered a no-go because it glorifies "white saviorhood" through the character of Atticus Finch. The novels featuring Sherlock Holmes should be tossed because author Arthur Conan Doyle included racist language. The author of the Little House on the Prairie books, Laura Ingalls Wilder, was stripped of a literary honor because of the "anti-Native and anti-Black sentiments in her work."

Throwing the shade of accountability on someone like J.K. Rowling seems excessive but more legit because she is still alive and reaping benefits from the sales of her writing. I may disagree with the rationale behind the call-out but it is only slightly different from Major League Baseball boycotting Georgia for re-enacting Jim Crow voting law.

Homer? Lincoln? Twain? All dead. No accountability to exact and all we have is the work left to speak for them.

For much of the past year, this stridency has driven me a little crazy but I realized recently that, especially in the digital age where so much art has been transposed into bytes, no one can prevent me from reading To Kill a Mockingbird or watching the Gregory Peck film. No one can prevent me from enjoying a Woody Allen film or a Harry Potter novel or celebrating the heroism of Churchill and Lincoln.

I love the music of David Bowie because it's great music. Does the fact that he had routine amounts of sex with underage girls dampen my enjoyment? Nope. Will it trigger someone else? Maybe. And it is their choice to avoid his music if they choose. It is not within their power to limit my choice as it should not be within my power to force it upon them.

History, as is art, trends toward subjectivity. History, after all, is just a series of stories we tell each other and stories are always told from a lens of the teller. History is less fact than it is an interpretation of existing facts and illusions. Do I believe, as the authors of the 1619 Project suppose, that America was founded in slavery? No. Do I believe that this means I can learn nothing from the stories they tell? Again, no.

Placing things into a larger perspective is as easy as acknowledging the horrors of the Civil War and still being able to comfortably have an Honest Abe Burger at the now closed Lincoln Restaurant in Chicago.

Now I'm going to go curl up and watch The Purple Rose of Cairo, then read The Great Gatsby while listening to Michael Jackson.

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andrewmoocow · 4 years ago

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Steven Universe: The Fantastic Mutants chapter 5: Never Again (originally posted on November 16, 2020)

AN: Good to see you all again my dear readers! How have things been? Am I being too intrusive? Well, doesn't matter! It's good to be back in business after a few weeks, so let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

"So how much of this show is actual camping?" HYDRA Bob asked Peridot as they, along with Deadpool & Lapis, watched Camp Pining Hearts together at the X-Mansion while surrounded by massive amounts of snack foods and garbage. "A fair bit, but pretty much everyone comes for the romance," Peridot answered. "Yeah," Wade stated. "like your crippling yaoi addiction."

"What is yah-oy?" Lapis asked while mispronouncing this new word just as Pearl came in with a broom. "You really should learn how to pick up after yourselves as guests." The Gem grumbled while sweeping up crumbs off the carpet. "Hey, wise up Pearl, I'm basically an honorary member!" Deadpool remarked. "Hey, Flat-Top, gimme a refill on my coke here!"

"And you should also treat the people housing you like friends, not your servants." Colossus reminded them, just as disgruntled as Pearl, while he gave the Merc with a Mouth another bottle of pop when suddenly, Xavier came in. "Ah, Professor! Would you be so kind as to help us teach Wade here some manners?"

"It's alright, Piotr." Xavier calmed the metal mutant down. "Although Mr. Wilson here can be a bit of a nuisance, we do need all the help we can get to rescue Steven and Kitty."

"Thanks for the save Cap'n." Wade grinned at the aged mutant when someone knocked at the window. "Hey, anyone in there?!" the voice of Spider-Man called from outside, latching upside down onto the glass. "Peter!" Pearl exclaimed. "Long time no see. How are the other Avengers doing?"

"The big six are off in space right now, and the reserves are holding down the fort for now." The web-slinger answered as he opened the window and leaped through it. "When your message reached us, I was the first to take it and brought along a few pals who might be useful."

As Peter finished talking, a silver and blue blur burst through the front doors, stopping to reveal itself as Quicksilver. "Pietro, good to see you!" Colossus exclaimed. "Must mean Wanda isn't too far behind, da?"

"You are correct." Scarlet Witch answered as she followed her brother. "Hello again Crystal Gems." She greeted the Gems. "Hello to you and Pietro too, Wanda," Garnet replied as she stepped into the room. "It certainly has been a while since Thanos. I hope you both are well."

"Oh, never better Garney!" Quicksilver responded as he sat down between Peridot & Lapis to watch Camp Pining Hearts with them. "Ooh, I love this show! I always felt Pierre & Percy have really good chemistry."

"Thank you for agreeing with me good sir." Peridot added pridefully. "Oh, quit with the shit already!" Wade interjected crossly. "No one ever talks about Pierre and Paulette!"

"You take that back, you crimson clod." Peridot snarled threateningly at the mercenary and soon, an intense shipping debate between the two began. "Oh, this could take a long while." Pearl sighed in exhaustion.

"I just watch for all the crazy shenanigans these campers get up to." Spider-Man gave his opinion while snatching some snicker-doodles from the ottoman.

"Come on, work!" Kitty groaned in frustration as she continuously tried and failed to break her and Steven from their imprisonment without using her mutant powers. "If only I could find a way to break this collar, then we'd get outta here easier."

"Why don't I give it a shot?" Steven suggested, deciding to use his shield to cut the bars apart. However, that failed as well. "It's hopeless. If I didn't come, then maybe we wouldn't be stuck here."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up like that Steven." Kitty comforted her fellow mutant. "I'm sure the Gems are already on their way to save us, so try and keep your chin up until then." She implored Steven, but he remained downtrodden. "Let's face it; we're here because of my mom."

"Oh, mother issues?" Kitty realized. "I get it. That's perfectly normal. But you can't always let the sins of the parent bring you down." She assured him. "Yeah, sins like taking part in universal genocide before realizing that wasn't good and instead doing things far worse than that." Steven grumbled, much to her surprise. "Whoa okay, didn't see that coming!" Kitty exclaimed. "Far worse how? Did she actually murder someone?"

"She deliberately left tons of Gems and other races to die for her just because she was bored of being Pink Diamond, let two of my friends to be imprisoned for thousands of years, forced Gems who cared for her to suffer from her faked death and who knows what else!" Steven complained. "And then there was that whole thing with Magneto."

As if on cue, the aforementioned leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants stepped into the brig to interrogate them. "I see you've been making yourselves at home while you could." He declared before grabbing Steven by the shirt collar through the cell bars. "Tell me boy, why do you have her gemstone? Was it passed down to you?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Steven answered. "When I was born, my mom died to give birth to me, and I got her gemstone and all her powers as a result. She also left me with all her baggage from ages ago, including when she was once a member of the Great Diamond Authority."

"Great Diamond Authority?" Magneto wondered, and Kitty seemed just as confused. "Yeah, I have to agree. There are more Diamonds out there?"

"That's not important right now," Steven said before Magneto set him down. "Still, why go after me in particular? We're both mutants. We should be on the same side!"

"You already know about how Rose abandoned me at Auschwitz, but the Gems only told you half the story," Erik revealed, turning away from Steven & Kitty in the process. "My part of this tale is far more complex than you realize. Like many a Jew during the war, I was prosecuted by the Nazis for my religion and sentenced to death. But I was a special case."

Heavy rain poured upon Poland in 1944 as a large group of imprisoned Jews marched sorrowfully through Auschwitz, their world nothing but drab colors aside from the bright yellow Star of David on their clothes signifying their religion. All around them, more of their people were forced to perform possibly lethal jobs for their superiors and be treated horribly should they fail to work or try to resist.

One young man in particular named Erik Lehnsherr watched just as miserably as his fellow Jews and began to notice that many of the other prisoners had brands on their arms. As soldiers began coldly leading their prisoners away from the group, Erik's parents Edie & Jacob were forcefully separated like the rest from their son, with Edie being particularly hysterical about having to leave her child.

Erik raced after his parents in an effort to see them one last time, but the gates closed before he could get a chance, and another Nazi grabbed the boy to keep him under control. However, something miraculous happened. When Erik fruitlessly reached out towards the gate, it began bending towards him. Another Nazi aided his fellow soldier in detaining the boy, and two more raced towards him as the fence began twisting more and more.

Erik's mutant powers awakened that day as the gates were ripped open with a mere stretch of his hand, but he was quickly stopped with the butt of a gun to his head from a fifth soldier. "Bring ihn zu Dr. Schmidt." that soldier commanded his subordinates. The four Nazis nodded and dragged the unconscious boy away, to where his destiny would soon be realized.

"And that's where you first met his mom, right?" Kitty asked her captor. "Yeah, I don't think we need to hear how she ditched you again."

"As I stated, the story is much deeper than that," Magneto said. "Allow me to continue."

Soon, HYDRA had come to assist the Nazis in stopping the Howling Commandos and the Crystal Gems from instigating the Auschwitz breakout. As Rose began fighting off soldiers, she began counting off the fleeing Jews. "Let me see how many we got," Rose muttered while trying to do a headcount. "Agh, there's too many of them! I can barely keep count when I'm surrounded like this!"

"Less than a million!" Garnet counted for her leader with her future vision. "However, there are still a few that we were too late to save, namely the Lehnsherr family. Klaus Schmidt is holding their son Erik."

"Klaus?" Rose soon came to a realization. "That was the boy in the office! I have to go ba-" Before Rose could finish, a HYDRA enforcer took advantage of her letting her guard down and fired with an anti-Gem weapon, poofing her form.

"Rose!" Pearl exclaimed while rushing to the deactivated gem lying on the ground. While Captain America covered for them with his shield, the Gems made a hasty retreat. "But what about those other Jews?!" Amethyst exclaimed. "A few prisoners should take this from here." Garnet answered, just as the Sonderkommando charged at their captors with guns, knives, axes, and grenades.

Inside the building where Klaus Schmidt was stationed, the mutant Jew slithered around the hall to avoid being caught again. Nazis raced outside to combat without once taking notice of the boy making his escape. Taking a moment to peek outside the window, he noticed the Gems escaping the concentration camp and furrowed his brow angrily. "Sie haben mich verlassen."

As the warfare continued, Erik quietly made his getaway with his newly awakened mutant powers and used a wrecked chain fence to fly himself away from Auschwitz.

Many years later in 1963, Magneto was holding a demonstration in New York to make a speech about the superiority of mutants when she showed up again. Rose Quartz had decided to show her face to him again after leaving him to rot all those years ago in Auschwitz, and only now, she shows up with an excuse to try and make peace.

"You can try to rope yourself into my good graces all you want Gems," he growled, preparing to fight the Crystal Gems. "But nothing can ever change the past!"

Ripping a nearby water tower off its supports, Erik prepared to smash it on top of Rose, Garnet & Pearl, but then came a loud shriek coming from the Irish mutant Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee. "Top o' the mornin' to you ladies!" Banshee exclaimed and let out another scream that brought the master of magnetism to the ground. "Now Neal!"

"I got you!" the Indian pyrokinetic Neal Shaara, or Thunderbird to his teammates, boomed while turning his body into plasma and landing a few hits on Magneto, but the German fought back by expanding a force-field that pushed him back. "Longshot, Angel, Mimic, it's all you now!"

"You got it!" Longshot replied while standing on a rooftop with Mimic and Angel Salvadore and preparing to throw a large knife at Magneto. "Just got one shot at this." He muttered to himself just as Amethyst hopped up behind him. "Hey, what you guys doing?" she asked the three mutants, catching Longshot off-guard. "Do you mind squirt?!" Longshot barked, but then he noticed her gem. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know those three, right?"

"We can discuss it later!" Angel said while sprouting fly-like wings and flying off. "Hey, wait for me!" Mimic exclaimed, copying his teammate's power by growing insect wings of his own and soaring after her.

"You guys wouldn't happen to be like ol' Maggy over there?" Amethyst continued asking Longshot, who harshly shushed her while trying to keep his concentration. "Okay, sheesh!"

"Now Longshot!" Banshee exclaimed as he let out a loud shriek at Magneto to knock him off-balance, allowing Longshot to fling his knife at the evil mutant. But Erik stopped the blade before it could reach his face with his powers and threw it right at Pearl with a wicked grin.

"Pearl, no!" Rose cried out as she dove in front of her confidant, letting the knife stab her instead, causing her to ultimately poof and retreat into her gem.

"Rose!" the remaining Gems shouted, racing to protect their leader's inactive gemstone from Magneto. "Well, that should do nicely for now." He snidely muttered. "But know this Crystal Gems, we shall meet again someday soon. Even if we have to wait years to do so!"

With that, Magneto zoomed off into the sky and left the Crystal Gems & the X-Men below. "So, sorry about letting your boss end up like this." Longshot nervously apologized. "That was my knife he threw at her after all."

"It's alright. Rose will recover soon." Garnet assured the mutant. "By the way, I didn't get your name."

"Call me Longshot, leader of the X-Men!" Longshot proudly replied. "These are my teammates; Banshee, Mimic, Angel Salvadore, and Thunderbird. We're all mutants."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Thunderbird greeted, extending a hand to Pearl. "Mutants? I think I remember meeting one, centuries ago." Pearl replied, shaking Neal's hand. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone named En Sabah Nur?"

This revelation caused the X-Men to gasp in shock. "Wait, you met Apocalypse?!" Mimic cried. "Let me guess, you guys know him as a real bad guy?" Amethyst quipped. "Yeah, he's about yay tall, superiority complex, total Darwinist." Angel replied. "Come along. We can tell you more about him."

"And maybe we'll introduce you to the professor too." Banshee added happily. "We'd be glad to meet your professor." Pearl agreed, and Garnet & Amethyst nodded as well.

"So that's how the Gems met Xavier!" Steven realized. "But how come you remember that last bit happening? You left after poofing Rose."

"Don't think about it." Magneto assured him. "And now that I have you in our clutches, watching Doctor Doom experiment on you will be so satisfying."

"But still, you can't just vent your vengeance on a kid!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Yeah, this isn't what Xavier would want!" Steven replied, forcing Magneto to drop his stoic façade. "He knows you can be better than this, barring the terrorism. You're both on the same wavelength when it comes to protecting mutants, but kidnapping one of your own for your own sake is just wrong!"

"Y'know, that does seem like something Charles would say. Though he would've said it better." Magneto relented, pressing a button on the cell to let Steven and Kitty out. "Fight them off while you still can children. I shall take the blame myself."

"Okay Steven, let's get outta here!" Kitty declared excitedly. "And no matter what happens, I got your back!"

"Actually Kit, I think I got yours." Steven replied, just as another door opened, and Mystique stepped into the brig. "Erik! Why have you let the prisoners out?" she asked Magneto. "It was the boy who convinced me." Erik revealed. "As it turns out, he's quite good at turning people to his side."

"Well, you're too late child." Mystique said to Steven. "We have finally landed in Latveria."

The Crystal Gems, X-Men, Fantastic Four, X-Force, Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver all marched to the Blackbird, ready to go out to Latveria and save Steven & Kitty. Human Torch and Cyclops were in charge of piloting the plane while Xavier planted his wheelchair in the back.

"So tell us what we're in for Reed." Garnet asked Mister Fantastic, who gave a sharp sigh of regret. "You should know by now that Doctor Doom is our family's greatest adversary. Intelligence on par with my own, mastery of the mystic arts, psionic abilities, the works." Reed explained. "But what I'm sure you probably don't know yet was that we knew Doom long before he turned out like this."

"Victor, have you gone mad?!" a younger Reed yelled at his college classmate Victor, who was standing in front of a large machine generating an unstable portal. "This machine is highly unstable and could explode at any moment!"

"I do not care what it takes, Richards!" the man who would be king of Latveria cried as the machine was on the verge of self-destructing. "This is the only way I can see my mother again!"

"Hey Stretch, we got everyone outta here!" Ben Grimm, back then a normal human being instead of a large rock creature, called for his classmate while he, Johnny and Sue burst into the laboratory. "You gotta come with us!"

"No Reed, we can see our mothers again, together!" Doom tried convincing his rival. Reed hesitated for a moment, weighing his options between escaping with his friends or getting to see his late mother Evelyn again. But as he made his decision, he turned away from Victor. "I'm sorry Vic. But I've moved on."

"How dare you?!" Victor screeched, while his four contemporaries fled the scene. "Don't you dare run away! We could've been something more!" Just then, the portal machine has just about reached its boiling point, and caused the lab to explode with Doom inside. The last thing he said before the room collapsed on him was a scream of "RIIIIIIIIICHAAAAAAAARDS!"

"Never saw him again after that incident. Ol' Iron Mask got expelled, then he just vanished offa the face of the planet." Ben regaled in the present day. "That is until he re-emerged as some young upstart billionaire named Victor Domashev, who funded the space flight that made us into the Four we are today."

"Hey guys, less backstory, more blasting off!" Amethyst snapped her fingers. "Pretty sure Steven might be on his way to being dissected by now!"

"Yeah, and a certain author friend of ours wants to get this out as quickly as possible." Deadpool agreed, his medium-aware comment inciting odd stares from the others. "Can we move onto the next scene already?!"

As Mystique had declared, Steven was now in the European country of Latveria, famously ruled by the Fantastic Four's arch-nemesis Victor von Doom. He and Kitty were led through the aesthetically medieval capital city Doomstadt, where its citizens whispered in German, Hungarian and an unknown third language reminiscent of the latter dialect.

"Victor, we have brought the child. And an unwanted guest." Mystique announced in front of Doom's castle as they crossed the drawbridge. The castle was guarded by numerous robot soldiers that bore Doom's face, all of them giving Steven cold and unfeeling glares as he was finally brought before the man who's face the robots bore.

"Steven Universe." Doctor Doom boomed, resting on his throne while the boy was handcuffed in front of him. "I have heard much about you these past few months child. Erik, I must commend you for getting the job done, although I've heard of your possible betrayal and won't tolerate it." Then Doom turned to Mystique. "Thank you Ms. Darkholme for alerting me of this before you arrived.

"You are most kind Doctor." Mystique thanked him with a bow. "We hope you return your end of the bargain and grant us mutants sanctuary in Latveria."

"Raven, you must listen!" Magneto cried to his second in command. "This boy calls himself a mutant, just like us! We can't just let Victor experiment on him like this. What if he has something else planned?!"

"SILENCE!" the king of Latveria roared. "It seems this child has made you soft Mr. Lehnsherr. No matter." He rose from his throne and stepped towards Steven & Kitty to give them a good look. "He shall become useful to me soon. And as for the girl, take her away."

"Yes your Highness." Mystique complied, snapping her fingers to have Juggernaut take Kitty away.

"Hey, put me down!" Kitty hissed, struggling to break free from the massive mutant's hands, which was easier said than done since her powers were still restrained. "Don't worry Steven, I'll find a way to save you!"

"Ah shaddup!" Juggernaut groaned loudly, stuffing a big finger inside the smaller girl's mouth to keep her quiet when Mystique put a hand on his bicep. "And what do you want Bluey?"

"It's about Erik. We may resort to terrorism to fight for mutant rights, but I think allowing a child to be experimented on may be going a bit too far." Raven whispered to Cain while they moved farther away from Doom. "Besides, he is a mutant much like us."

"So I've heard." The Juggernaut muttered. "But shouldn't he count more as an alien because his momma was one?"

When the Brotherhood mutants left the throne room, Steven was left all alone with Magneto and Doom. "What do you want with me Doom?" Steven asked the king. "Was it really necessary to have the Brotherhood kidnap me when you could've had your robots do it?"

"Why I couldn't have just sent my Doombots doesn't matter." Doom declared. "But what does matter is what I want to do to you. You see, you're special Steven, as you probably know. A being who's a mixture of human and alien DNA, and that alien DNA might prove very important to me." He explained to Steven. "I wish to use those genes for my own ends. Perhaps make an army of similar beings, or perhaps become part-Gem myself to gain ultimate power! Which is why I chose you in particular."

"Doctor, an invading ship is approaching Doomstadt." A Doombot announced as it walked into the throne room. "Shall we send out the reinforcements you selected?"

"You may, #1961." Doom replied, pressing a few buttons on his arms that opened a door, and behind it were four supervillains.

Trapster, a man in goggles with a container of glue-like substance on his back, attached to a hose with a gun at the end.

Mole Man, a deformed midget in a green suit with a blue visor who was holding a staff in his hand.

The Puppet Master, a bald, dark-skinned man accompanied by a pair of human-sized marionettes in the shape of the Human Torch and the Thing, that he controlled with a special remote.

And the Wizard, a purple armor-wearing supergenius who floated in the air with special anti-gravity discs.

"Frightful Four, it seems we have some uninvited guests." Doom revealed to the four villains. "I insist you deal with them at once, while I make my little guest here at home."

"Yes Doctor." The Frightful Four said in unison, then the marched out of the throne room to battle. Once again Steven was alone in the throne room with Victor & Erik, and the former was all too eager to get things started.

"Now then, shall we begin testing?" Doom asked Steven maliciously, and Steven replied with a very nervous gulp.

After three months of work, it's finally done! We're getting close to the end of this guys, and I couldn't be more excited. But for now, I think I'm gonna take a little break to focus on college stuff for a bit, and I'll be back soon with not just a new chapter, but also a brand spankin' new Steven Universe tale I've had on the brain for a while. It's an AU rewrite of Steven Universe Future aptly named Steven Universe: Alternate Future. If you want to know more about this upcoming series, I've already got an entire episode list on my DeviantArt page along with drawings of some original characters created for it. Until we meet again, toodle-oo!

In Loving Memory of Sean Connery

1930-2020

& Alex Trebek

1940-2020

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animeman08 · 4 years ago

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The Flash

The Flash (or simply Flash) is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (cover date January 1940/release month November 1939). Nicknamed the "Scarlet Speedster", all incarnations of the Flash possess "super speed", which includes the ability to run, move, and think extremely fast, use superhuman reflexes, and seemingly violate certain laws of physics.

Thus far, at least four different characters—each of whom somehow gained the power of "the speed force"—have assumed the mantle of the Flash in DC's history: college athlete Jay Garrick (1940–1951, 1961–2011, 2017–present), forensic scientist Barry Allen (1956–1985, 2008–present), Barry's nephew Wally West (1986–2011, 2016–present), and Barry's grandson Bart Allen (2006–2007). Each incarnation of the Flash has been a key member of at least one of DC's premier teams: the Justice Society of America, the Justice League, and the Teen Titans.

The Flash is one of DC Comics' most popular characters and has been integral to the publisher's many reality-changing "crisis" storylines over the years. The original meeting of the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick and Silver Age Flash Barry Allen in "Flash of Two Worlds" (1961) introduced the Multiverse storytelling concept to DC readers, which would become the basis for many DC stories in the years to come.

Like his Justice League colleagues Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman, the Flash has a distinctive cast of adversaries, including the various Rogues (unique among DC supervillains for their code of honor) and the various psychopathic "speedsters" who go by the names Reverse-Flash or Zoom. Other supporting characters in Flash stories include Barry's wife Iris West, Wally's wife Linda Park, Bart's girlfriend Valerie Perez, friendly fellow speedster Max Mercury, and Central City police department members David Singh and Patty Spivot.

A staple of the comic book DC Universe, the Flash has been adapted to numerous DC films, video games, animated series, and live-action television shows. In live-action, Barry Allen has been portrayed by Rod Haase for the 1979 television special Legends of the Superheroes, John Wesley Shipp in the 1990 The Flash series and Grant Gustin in the 2014 The Flash series, and by Ezra Miller in the DC Extended Universe series of films, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Shipp also portrays a version of Jay Garrick in the 2014 The Flash series. The various incarnations of the Flash also feature in animated series such as Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice, as well as the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.

> Powers and abilities

All incarnations of the Flash can move, think, and react at light speeds as well as having superhuman endurance that allows them to run incredible distances. Some, notably later versions, can vibrate so fast that they can pass through walls in a process called quantum tunneling, travel through time and can also lend and borrow speed. Speedsters can also heal more rapidly than an average human. In addition, most incarnations have an invisible aura around their respective bodies that protects them from air friction and the kinetic effects of their powers.

On several occasions, the Flash has raced against Superman, either to determine who is faster or as part of a mutual effort to thwart some type of threat; these races, however, often resulted in ties because of outside circumstances. Writer Jim Shooter and artist Curt Swan crafted the story "Superman's Race With the Flash!" in Superman #199 (Aug. 1967) which featured the first race between the Flash and Superman. Writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Ross Andru produced "The Race to the End of the Universe", a follow-up story four months later in The Flash #175 (Dec. 1967). However, after the DC Universe revision after Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Flash does successfully beat Superman in a race in Adventures of Superman #463 with the explanation that Superman is not accustomed to running at high speed for extended periods of time since flying is more versatile and less strenuous, which means the far more practiced Flash has the advantage. After Final Crisis in Flash: Rebirth #3 the Flash is shown as being significantly faster than Superman, able to outrun him as Superman struggles to keep up with him. He reveals that all the close races between them before had been "for charity". In the Smallville episode "Run", Flash is not only able to run faster than a pre-Superman Clark Kent but can match Clark's top speed while running backwards.

While various incarnations of the Flash have proven their ability to run at light speed, the ability to steal speed from other objects allows respective Flashes to even significantly surpass this velocity. In Flash: The Human Race Wally is shown absorbing kinetic energy to an extent enabling him to move faster than teleportation and run from the end of the universe back to earth in less than a Planck instant (Planck time).

Speedsters may at times use the ability to speed-read at incredible rates and in doing so, process vast amounts of information. Whatever knowledge they acquire in this manner is usually temporary. Their ability to think fast also allows them some immunity to telepathy, as their thoughts operate at a rate too rapid for telepaths such as Martian Manhunter or Gorilla Grodd to read or influence their minds.

Flashes and other super-speedsters also have the ability to speak to one another at a highly accelerated rate. This is often done to have private conversations in front of non-fast people (as when Flash speaks to Superman about his ability to serve both the Titans and the JLA in The Titans #2). Speed-talking is also sometimes used for comedic effect where Flash becomes so excited that he begins talking faster and faster until his words become a jumble of noise. He also has the ability to change the vibration of his vocal cords making it so he can change how his voice sounds to others.

While not having the physical strength of many of his comrades and enemies, Flash has shown to be able to use his speed to exert incredible momentum into physical attacks. In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Flash uses these kinds of attacks as many of his special moves.

The Flash has also claimed that he can process thoughts in less than an attosecond. At times he is able to throw lightning created by his super speed and make speed vortices.

Some flashes also have the ability to create speed avatars (i.e. duplicates) and these avatars have sometimes been sent to different timelines to complete a particular mission. (Barry Allen exhibits this ability in the live action series "The Flash").

He can also be seen negating the effects of the anti-life equation, when he freed Iris-West from its control (probably due to his connection with the speed force).

It is said that Wally West has reached the velocity of 23,759,449,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (about 24 tredecillion) × c (the speed of light) and he could only do this with the help of every human being on earth moving so the speed force was joined through everyone.[18] With that speed he was able to not only run from planet to planet but different galaxies and universes at what would be considered a blink of an eye.

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