#because this is not a hostile and i'm not looking to battle over interpretations of a character

[scaryspears]

Coming from a card-carrying Kitana stan who also thinks Jade is super dope:

You forgot the part where Kabal accuses Jade of torture and we have no reason not to believe him.

Seriously, you are the second person I've seen hold Jade accountable for anything. Kitana deserves every bit of condemnation she gets (and possibly more) for how cruel she can be, but Jade gets off easy because people only see the Super Chill Bestie and not someone with very low regard for Tarkatans and their lives.

Having said that, what /do/ you admire about Jade and Kitana? I'm not sure what would be more dope than "at least somewhat racist" and "despot in training" are crappy. (Personally, I think it's super badass that Kitana defeated Shao Kahn, gained a masculine title, and led armies into battle. And Jade, well, who wouldn't want Jade as their bestie? Other than a Tarkatan, obviously.)

This is a mouthful, I know, but it's been driving me nuts and I'd be remiss not to address the seamy side of my favorite dynamic duo.

P.S. God tier username. Britney Spears and the Spice Girls were my jam as a kid, and I'm glad to see someone else remembers them. My sister and I had the Scary Spice doll with the tongue piercing lol

Thank you for the compliments on my user name, I listened to them a lot growing up.

When writing the headcanons I had to try my best to not be distracted by the fact that I'm a Mileena stan, and even then I will hold Mileena accountable, so Kitana and Jade do not get a free pass.

There's many occasions where they've shown that they are pretty terrible, and even though they are cool characters, they are unlikable people. Golly, I'd even say that they are hypocrites. They call everyone else out for their ego when they themselves are egotistical. To be fair, it's not just them that have a holier than thou attitude, but quick reminder that Sonya beat them both one on two in MK9 and they both continued showing hostility towards Earthrealmers and a sense of underestimating others.

Kitana is more Outworld than she is Edenian regardless of blood, and if she grew up thinking her father to be Shao Kahn then how did she even know she was Edenian? How did Jade know?

Edenian supremacy is just wild because their realm got conquered and are living in servitude to Shao Kahn or any big bad that comes along. Jade's parents literally gave her away for their own skin.

I pictured the alliance Kitana had with the Tarkatans not going well because she clearly still holds some discriminating views against them. It doesn't help that the Tarkatans are only shown to be servants meaning they (Kitana and Jade) grew up with the mentality of looking down on them.

The only thing I admire about Jade and Kitana is that they are fun to play as and have nice wardrobes, but that's it. I'm supposed to be rooting for her, yet she has a poor attitude. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the good guys have flaws that I can't look over. It's hinted that Sonya abused Cassie by randomly attacking her and Jacqui with arm bars (what the...), and she also looks down on people who don't have similar interests as her (from what I've interpreted). She's also terrible at parenting. I also headcanon that Cassie joined the special forces in order to impress Sonya, not because she actually wanted to.

I could say a lot about the characters, not just Kitana and Jade. And don't get me started on Kotal Kahn, he is such a clown. He and Jade deserve each other, honestly.

[kudosmyhero]

Daredevil (vol. 1) #99: The Mark of Hawkeye!

Read Date: February 22, 2023 Cover Date: May 1973 ● Writer: Steve Gerber ● Penciler: Sam Kweskin ● Inker: Syd Shores ● Colorist: Stan Goldberg ● Letterer: Artie Simek ● Editor: Roy Thomas ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● oo, crossover time! I'm excited! ● this is my first time reading Hawkeye in the comics and I am not impressed by him so far. I hope there's a reason for him acting like this--a reason other than 1970s male writer syndrome. ● at least Natasha is sticking up for herself… though sometimes her words don't align with her actions ● Natasha's hair isn't quite so big this issue. It looks better. The past several issues, I had "the bigger the hair, the closer to god!" in the back of my mind every time she came across the page ● Clint, STOP with the grabby-grabby ● oo, the shading of Black Widow's hair looks amazing in this panel:

● heh, I like how Daredevil finally subdues Hawkeye--by trapping him with his own bow ● he gets out of it pretty quickly though and fires an arrow at DD that wraps him up with some sort of rope ● Hawkeye is moping around San Francisco and bumps into a member of the "Hellbirds" biker gang ● he fights off the biker gang, then Daredevil shows up to try to talk to him. Hawkeye uses a sonic arrow, which of course totally incapacitates Daredevil because of his hypersenses ● the reader learns that the sonic arrow could actually kill DD, but its motor shuts off after a couple more seconds ● DD snaps Hawkeye's bow over his knee (he deserved it) ● DD and Hawkeye finally stop with their dick-swinging contest ● they go back to Natasha's house to find the Avengers waiting for them. The Avengers say they need help against Magneto ● Heh, Thor says it best (to Hawkeye): "…thine unprovoked hostility doth sorely try my patience!" That's how I've felt through this entire issue. And I was so excited for the crossover, too, dammit ● DD agrees to join the Avengers in battle this once; Hawkeye has stormed off to pout somewhere ● whines Do I wanna read Avengers #111 or just have one of the podcasts I listen to synopsize it for me? Yeah, I think I'll do that. ● 👏👏(saved from being a 1-clap by Black Panther, Natasha sticking up for herself, and DD emphasizing to Hawkeye that it is Natasha's decision)

Synopsis: Returning home from their battle against the Dark Messiah, Daredevil and Black Widow are greeted by Hawkeye, who had just recently quit the Avengers, and has shown up in San Francisco to rekindle his romance with the Black Widow.

This doesn't go over very well with Daredevil, who tries to get involved in the conversation, which further agitates Hawkeye. It finally gets to the point where the two end up fighting it out. The brawl ends when Daredevil pretends to be "blinded" by Hawkeye's phosphorous arrow, at which point Hawkeye calls off the fight and leaves the scene. Daredevil then goes off to track down Hawkeye so that the two of them can "talk it out." He finds the avenging archer just as he has defeated some bikers and swoops in to talk to him but Hawkeye interprets this as if Daredevil has come to continue their fight. The two heroes duke it out again, fighting to a standstill at which point they then decide to stop fighting and let Natasha decide who she wants to be with.

Returning to Black Widow's home, they soon find that they're going to have to wait for Natasha's answer as the Avengers, Thor, Vision and Black Panther have arrived to recruit Daredevil to help them save members of the Avengers and the X-Men from Magneto. Hawkeye thinking the Black Widow called them to get him to leave storms out of the house. While Daredevil listens to their proposal. He initially declines but the Black Panther informs Daredevil that he owes him one due to previously assisting Daredevil in his time of need.[1] Daredevil accepts and so he, the Avengers, and the Black Widow depart in a Quinjet back to New York.

This story continues in Avengers Vol 1 111.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil_Vol_1_99)

Fan Art: Daredevil found here

Accompanying Podcast: ● Josh and Jamie Do Daredevil - episode 14

[crystalelemental]

I've got one more for tonight, with another either tomorrow or this weekend. But this one had to go up because listen, I can't keep up this charade, I did not return to writing starting with Volo, it was Caitlin, it's always Caitlin. I may not have as much attachment to Kieran as I do Carmine, but listen. This one clicked. And on that note, Blueberry Academy is in Unova and I now have some Demands.

(I'm going to be spoiling stuff in the story below the cut)

Kieran! He's a pretty neat character! As mentioned, I like his sister better, but this should surprise no one who knows me. That said, his whole focus being around lacking strength and not taking losing well aligned pretty well to how I consider Caitlin's history to have gone. And since Blueberry is in Unova, and Caitlin's family is super wealthy and would likely contribute to the academy...the connection was made.

I just think she'd get it. Maybe not the same level of anger specifically, but the sense of not being strong enough and how that eats at you. Canon never actually specifies why Caitlin's emotions were running wild, but I like to interpret it as frustration intolerance when it came to defeat, or even being put on the back foot. I know the manga sets it up as her being too battle crazed, but listen to me. That's boring. It's Pokemon, they're literally all like that. You can't just have battling as your only character trait, in the series entirely made up of autistic trainers. They're all over-invested in battling.

I did want to focus on Kieran's internal sense of things, kinda building up that frustration and sense that people look down on him, and part of that was trying to emphasize his own refusal to really...engage with the people around him at this point? I tried emphasizing that by having her name not show up their entire battle. Viewed from his perspective, her name never even registers until she starts talking to him and empathizing; prior, it's all indirect. Not in a hostile, dehumanizing way, but in a way that suggests he doesn't really care who she is, he's fixated on what he wants out of things.

Meanwhile I like to think in Caitlin's mind, she's recognized that this is a boy who's struggling with himself and his need to improve, and is fearful of losing, and saw herself in him. Realizing that, she thinks about how she started to heal, and is like yeah, sure, I'll kick this kid's ass. Then we talk, and everything improves! Just like Cynthia would do.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. Just a little friendship establishing fic that I may or may not have a part 2 for once the second half of the DLC comes out. Fingers crossed for some shenanigans!

[sylvieons]

I need an explanation of why it's widely accepted that Loki never did anything wrong (and finding out that Odin lied to him =/= excuse for any of his actions).  Right off the bat in Thor 1 he was the reason the Frost Giants got into the vault (getting them killed).  He was a prince of Asgard, he had to know how the security system worked.  This was before he even found out he was lied to. He lied to Thor and was going to keep him in exile. He killed Laufey. He tried to destroy Jotunheim.

Why is none of this addressed?  It feels so inconsistent?  That line he uttered in the last episode about "all these people are going to die" as if his heart was bleeding for them when my man tried to blow up a planet.

I’m not touching his actions or personality in The Avengers since people are split on the mind control thing, but the things he did in Thor were very much just Loki.

This is not a post about whether he’s good or bad or OOC or deserving of redemption etc etc this is just me asking why Show Loki looks nothing like Thor Loki and maybe somebody has an actual answer for that and I’d love to know it!

AND ALL OF THIS IS ALSO TO SAY

that YES Loki could have done all of these things and ACT EXACTLY THE WAY HE IS IN THE SHOW

BUT

why is the narrative not addressing his darker side then?

It's the narrative I have a problem with, ultimately, because it feels like the writers just ignored all of that (which is really summed up in that “all these people are going to die” quote from him. By making him say that, you are portraying him as someone who has a soft heart. That’s the point of the line.  You can’t just ignore that the same character was shown to indiscriminately kill others in another movie.)

If the whole "Thanos mind-controlled Loki" thing is true, it has never been addressed  either.  Why is this not a sub-plot of Loki trying to come to terms with shit.  We went straight to “Loki is having a manic break but we’re not giving you any background”

[october-renaissance]

I'm surprised that there's such a strong consensus that Jiang Fengmian was totally irredeemable as a parent. Like, was he perfect? No. Did his behavior contribute to a lot of Jiang Cheng’s issues? Certainly. Was he the father JC needed? Probably not. But I would really contest the idea that he was a god-awful father who openly favored Wei Wuxian and didn’t love JC.

Disclaimer: these are all just my opinions. Obviously JFm can be interpreted as he popularly is, I'm just surprised it's so widely accepted as the One Truth.

When I watched the show, JFm struck me as generally reserved, gentle, forgiving, and passive. In his scenes with WWx and JC, both the narrative and his actor's choices indicate to me that he regards them with quiet pride and affection. I mean, when WWx and JC return to Lotus Pier after running off to do who-knows-what, he doesn’t scold them or even look angry. He’s not interested in punishing them, he only wants to know if they had a safe journey. And I do mean they – both WWx and JC – because he's addressing them both and pretty much does treat them the same way, as he does in most of the trio's scenes together. There are only two differences in his treatment of them throughout the show that I can see.

JFm is obviously portrayed as having a stronger connection with WWx. They have more in common ideologically and personality-wise, and WWx embodies their sect’s teachings in a way that JC simply does not. JC also inherited his mother’s personality, and Yu Ziyuan is someone JFm struggles to get along with, despite how much he clearly cares about her. JC clearly notices that he has a weaker connection with JFm than WWx and is naturally hurt, but it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault. Some people just vibe with certain types over others, and this is true even within family units. In all but one of his scenes, it's not like JFm is excluding JC or otherwise neglecting him.

JFm corrects or reprimands JC more often than WWx. A few times, he says things along the lines of “watch what you say” to JC, but not to WWx. The thing is, JFm’s not wrong for correcting JC in this way, especially since saying things in anger is an established pattern with him. As a future sect leader and just as a person, JC should learn to speak thoughtfully and tactfully. I’m also inclined to accept WWx’s argument that JFm is less strict with him because he’s not going to become sect leader (meaning he doesn’t need to be held to a higher standard) and because he’s not actually JFm’s kid. This is a great way to inspire feelings of inequality and insecurity in children, but I don’t think JFm has to be interpreted as malicious or negligent because of this behavior. He’s simply not perfect.

In addition to this, while these two problems are present in several of the scenes JFm has with WWx and JC, there are really only two scenes I can point to where JFm unambiguously messed up.

The dinner scene. JFm sits the Yunmeng trio down for dinner, YZy swoops in, makes everyone feel terrible about themselves, and accuses JFm of favoring Cangse-sanren over herself and therefore of favoring WWx over JC. JFm does… practically nothing. He doesn’t try very hard to stop or contradict her. This passivity allows YZy to hit everyone right in their sore spots.

The sickbed scene. WWx has just woken up after passing out in Lotus Pier. JFm praises WWx’s accomplishments and coldly ignores JC. JC scolds WWx for playing hero by... helping his allies in a battle that he didn't even start?? JFm tries to explain to his son why this is a no-good perspective to have, then, when told that JC didn’t mean it, tells him that he still can’t say whatever just because he’s angry. YZy comes in to pick a fight, JFm once again fails to do anything about it, and JC concludes that JFm hates him. If we take the scene as it is, this whole interaction was very uncool of JFm. He was cold to the point of hostility towards his son and should have done more to dispute the accusations YZy was throwing at him. But the thing is, it feels out of character for the JFm of earlier appearances to glare at and ignore JC just because WWx acknowledged his accomplishments. It kind of feels like the writers sacrificed character consistency to frame JFm as the bad guy in that scene. Besides that, JC was 100% in the wrong when he scolded WWx and he deserved to be corrected. Whether he meant what he said or was just venting anger, he was in the wrong.

It's easy to see how his parents' behavior fed JC's fears and insecurities, and I think people tend to take YZy’s claims of favoritism at face value at least in part because JFm doesn’t do much to correct her. It's taken as an indication that JFm doesn’t correct her because he can’t, because she’s right. I interpret it more like he's so incredulous or so sick of having the same arguments that he just waits for them to blow over. This clearly causes lots of problems, but it also doesn't make JFm an uncaring or irredeemable father.

In fact, I think it's frankly unlikely that he's uncaring towards JC or that their relationship is all bad. I think it's telling that, in their scenes together, JC is unusually gentle towards JFm and doesn't put up that prickly front like he usually does.

So yeah. I interpret JFm and JC’s relationship to be more along the lines of “bad communication worsened by difficult circumstances and clashing personalities” than “terrible father to unfavored son”.

[gunnerpalace]

Thanks for being kind to my wallet man. Anyways, I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway by saying "you Ichirukis". I just came by your blog and you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable dude and thus I asked you a question. Hostile little shit? Really? I'm being called a godamn hopeless imbecile here. Maybe you've just read my msg in a different tone as there is an absence of non-verbal communication here. I didn't say anything about you owing me shit man, you just interpreted that way.

And when you are referring to normal people, there tends to be cross cultural differences sometimes. So whatever you consider as being a normal person might not be the same for somebody else. In your terms I sound and act like a hostile IH so I’m not considered a normal person right? I wasn’t paying too much attention to the Bleach media from start to finish so I don’t know all the nitty gritty details such as sales and such. But yeah you’re right. If you don’t want explain you don’t have to.

Oh my god, an apology. Well, now I’ve seen everything.

Alright, look. I’m having a bit of an experience at the moment, perhaps most accurately summarized by Jules from Pulp Fiction going “The truth is…you’re the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men. But I’m trying, Ringo. I’m trying real hard to be the shepherd.” So I’m going to accept your apology, and take it for granted that you didn’t mean to come across nearly as condescendingly as you did. 

Given that, I too will apologize for my behavior. When I see aggression, I get aggressive. It’s just habit. Trigger-happy IFF. So, I’m sorry for insulting you with gratuitous ad hominem. Let me advise that you consider your tone more carefully in the future.

With that said, let me attempt to answer your original question sincerely in a compact fashion without writing a goddamn thesis, because I still don’t want to put in the time to do that. Bleach had exactly three things going for it:

The uniqueness of the IchiRuki relationship and their individual characters. Ichigo and Rukia are unique because they are somewhere between being deuteragonists and Rukia being a supporting protagonist. I would say that she is a “hidden deuteragonist,” in that her influence is constantly felt, even when she isn’t present. Ichigo is not a normal shounen protagonist, like Gintoki, Luffy, Naruto, Goku, or Kenshiro. He doesn’t have a vision or a goal, and he’s a terrible tsundere. Rukia, however, does. Rukia sets Ichigo on his way and enables him to do what he does, and she repeatedly keeps him in check when he flounders. She is what enables him to function. He is what enables her to influence things. They are two parts of a whole, and neither is operational or very effective without the other. This “split soul” phenomenon is unique to them, was a hallmark of the early manga, and echoed on throughout. Although its promise was by no means always lived up to, it was there, and it’s a major part of why IR is a thing.

Character design in general. I’ll give Kubo this: he’s usually good at fashion and drafting relatively memorable characters. (Even if he starts to recycle faces after awhile; it’s not like Dragon Ball/Z/GT/etc., One Piece, and so on don’t.) They tend to have unique designs, if not wholly unique or fleshed out personalities. He’s very good at creating the illusion of depth using them. Over the run of the series, pretty much everyone was able to find a character they liked, if not several.

Mystery. A lot of the shit that happens in Bleach is unexplained, or was kicked down the road for as long as possible before being explained. A lot of it was never explained, stuff like “What was Yoruichi’s bankai? / What was her zanpakutou? / Why can she turn into a cat?” “Who were the other two Great Noble Houses?” “What was the deal with the Soul King?” “How did Soul Society really get started?” “What was up with Komamura?” “What was up with Don Kanonji?” “What was up with Ururu and Jinta?” The list goes on and on. Mystery is alluring, as the writers of Lost quickly figured out.

You will notice what I didn’t mention: fighting, worldbuilding, and plot. So let’s go over those quickly.

Fighting: Bleach’s fights suck. Someone dramatically teleports behind someone else leading to a shocked expression. Someone slices someone else’s arm off. Whoever reveals how their powers work first loses. Everybody gets new, “hiddener, worser” powers. It wasn’t so bad through the Soul Society arc because it was still fresh, but the more power-creep set in, the worse it got. Bleach doesn’t use powers in interesting ways like One Piece or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It doesn’t handle a constant ramping up of the stakes as well as Dragon Ball/etc. It doesn’t have the technical interest of Naruto. It’s extremely boring and repetitive. As a battle manga, it’s shit.

Worldbuilding: Bleach’s worldbuilding is a shadow puppet show. It’s literally Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: the illusion of depth and meaning which you only process as such because nothing calls it into question. This isn’t to say Kubo didn’t plan some things (I would say that the theological essence of Soul Society and its cycle of reincarnation makes more sense than most organized religions, since it answers a lot of basic questions like “Where do new souls come from?”) but there were many things he simply couldn’t be bothered with.

Plot: It’s rather apparent, and has been for a number of years, that Kubo reshuffled the plot on the way to the conclusion of the Soul Society arc. That said, the plot was still good up until then. The Arrancar arc was serviceable, Hueco Mundo was bad, and things went downhill from there. The reappearance of the Quincy in Thousand-Year Blood War was a massive retcon and plot hole that makes no real sense.

Now here’s the thing. The Mystery aspect of Bleach was bound up in the Plot and Worldbuilding. The more the latter two fell apart, the more the former became threadbare and could be clearly seen as an effort to string readers along. So much of Bleach’s “promise” turned out to be a polar bear on a tropical island.

The Character design also became wrapped up in Worldbuilding and Fighting, as characters often had no other means to advance, grow, or define themselves, and were relegated to bit parts other than to turn up every two years in some insignificant tussle. The continuing cast bloat only made this worse, as did the dramatically skewed nature of fan favorites.

What didn’t change was IchiRuki. I would argue it didn’t advance as it should have, and rather more objectively, every effort was made to push them into the background in favor of the other five elements, but they were at least consistent throughout, which is why so many people looked forward to their interactions, no matter how fleeting. It was solid all the way up until the final 5 or so chapters, once Kubo had clearly decided to implement his subversive “ending” (what with Tsukishima taking Rukia’s primary role, and so on).

Anybody who wasn’t around for that reason was holding onto vain hope about the Mystery, because of sunk cost fallacy, or were just trying to support their favorite characters or other ships. That’s the god’s honest truth. Bleach’s numbers started to tank after Soul Society and were abysmal by the time of Lost Substitute Shinigami. The sudden end of Bleach was Shueisha finally pulling the plug and disconnecting life support.

Now, you can say that nothing I’ve said here is proof, and that would be true, this is all summary. The proof is out there though (although I cannot be bothered to assemble it all for you), and I think any honest reader would admit the truth of my analysis even without it.

tl;dr IchiRuki is the only consistent positive of Bleach, which is otherwise a subpar fashion manga which never deserved to be counted among the big three on any other merits.