#but srsly i just love the role reversal here lmao

[oatmealcrisp-freak]

i dont remember if its supported in canon but i like the idea of victor being a sweets fiend largely because of this promotional image

where victor is 100% more focused on that cake as opposed to his beautiful husband who is

uh

not.

[misterbitches]

some thots. having a bad time so this is rougher than usual. oh well

....

i guess he really does know hiim best cos if that was my mans (man specifically cos if anyone else did that id take it more srsly) i would be like oh my god ur singing me a love song? i would love it but i woudl SCREAM in embarrassment. UNLESS it was a really deep love song that's about us dying together.

like i want to eat ur skin type of thing (drain u nirvana) lmaoa but i really like this song it reminds me of that velvet underground song (the only one i know cos of juno lmao) and nico or whatever 'i'm sticking with you)

my adhd would be out of fucking control i had to spend my time listening to this looking around i kept getting distracted by a tissue and thinking "wow this song is nice but i wish it would end bc i am getting distracted" and lo and behold i paused it and i have to pee and i know it's gonna take forever to undo this

ok about 12m later i turned it back on and they kissed and then he bit the corn then that night li chen also lost his virgin teas after watching gay porn and being like "hm interesting" and he'll be like "i see, ur dick is not medium sized"

i'm honestly gagging i cannot at this 12 year old marrying his mom

beautiful theyre beautiful

ayea you fucking psycho we do too because he was 17 and we had to witness it (or well, other people did cos i didnt watch the show even tho wayne song is [BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEP] and i want him to [BEEEEEEEP] and ppl even liked it which is fine like i get it in theory but they put this in my eyeballs so i'm gonna make fun of it bc it's fuckin DUMB lmao like i can't I CANNOT and he said "u were so persistent" BITCH UR 30??!?!???!?!?!?)capi hve it on mute and i tried to get a screencap of li chen and mu ren like together and not just his face but i cant find the timestamp and seeing their faces as they get married is literalyl traumattizing i'm like scremaing at my screen going "HE'S 5 HE'S 5 HE'S 5" and every time theyre like "we acn live forever together" like no bitch ur bones rae creaking

also is the officiator white? if anyone knows why or if that's common i'd love to know more. EDIT: HE ISN'T I JUST THOUGHT HE LOOKED LIKE MOBY FROM THAT ANGLE

anyway here

i'm almost done with this fucking bullshit and i am in a really ould mood and usu they make it a bit better but imo it's kind of....annoying i guess balancing all these story elements and introducin gother couples (even in the periphery) since the story in itself can't focus. i feel like all in all the time spent with these two is a lot more limited and we get the feel for the rship because of their chemistry as actors, irl chemistry as friends and colleagues, and hopefully being happy and working on a good set. so it isn't the strength of the writing or production.

for some reason they get like less dynamic ways of being together which i think is part of their charm, they do things their own way, but the writers really should have substantiated this more. it's really just the way everyone in the show has managed to deliver these AWFUL story lines and production decisions (like seriously who the fuck was on costume? lighting?)

like maybe hot take but all the moments that are cringe and insane in the show are not pleasant, per se, because they aren't thought out clearly. so they're not a joy to watch in the normal sense but the actors are good enough to pull it off. i didn't cringe at the talks they had because it felt like actors like acting these lines out instead of us being embarrassed for it and you CAN TELL theyre embarrassed.

this is a huge kudos to the casting director and the actors and whatever crew that actually did a good job. i don't particularly like watching bo xiang and his grandfather husband not because of the content but because i feel like, to me, they're so awkward even though they have chemistry. i don't have that issue with xing si and his rapist brother boyfriend because watching them is actually really pleasant, it's intimate. this isn't to do with the story though because when it hits you how devoid this other person is and how stupid the situation is it changes (for me, for me, for me, this is all my opinion think whateverrrr u want im not telling u 2 ok!)

so truly kudos to this cast. idk if i'm misremembering here but imo the most cast appropriate series in this was crossing the line and close to you. one is a decent atmosphere and execution (yes even with that brother story line, notice the major key differences though because that's a sincere false equivalence. they try to execute power imbalances soooo badly and then fail every time but here's one meant to shock too and it was just likelmao ok girl?)

it may not make sense to say either in a writing way or for the character to do it but i believe that whoever the characters these people are supposed to be especially those super not well written on the page still get that message aacross (yong jie's actor is a good ex. not sure if i should ccongratulate him for having the worst job on earth and the worst character and his character is flat but. ostensibly they should let their actions speak for themselevs but what they do is they back themselves into a ccorner with unsuretyabout their characters or a dilemma that pops up they just want to excuse it. well guess hwat u couldnt do enough legwork. but to some extent the disposable side couple works here on a um "our eyes see them and get it" way

also to me it seems like they chose this story just to have this specific wedding. like it's a timely topic and i'm pretty sure like another provision? (correction? idk) was made WRT taiwanese same-sex marriage so it's topical but it isn't like a "papa and daddy" situation where they're interacting in it and there (for ex: the pride parade) and there being like real life terms and consequences. here it seems like they were like ah yes wedding ah yes dumb couple from modc bc we kiled off the other one sooooo (then outsource them to life love on the line u__u) then hamfisting in some fucking message which is funny bc

- despite the hints peppered in and the clear attraction they both acknowledge ur like ~not gay just him~ even tho...i mean i just. again they dont read over what they write i don't think considering. but wahtever.

- the only gay dude (verbally said) is with his rapist brother with an awful power dynamic oh or IS a rapist (gao) (or his brother but i think it was just a "im a psycho so it's him" thing unless they said it. in which case idc cos i wasnt paying attn but that's also not great) or i guess the wedding but like....that's also a ridiculously inappropriate and dumb relationship taht it's built on. i mean i don't really see much respect her so i dont particularly want to hear abt gay weddings being important when they didn't even utilize it in the story beforehand and have we ever. this is a huge indication to me that it was a reverse engineered chosen story beforehand (if it was one) or thought of

soooooo

so reversal of that....it didnt give us enough time to breathe with these two at all but for both of the actors they can capitalize what's on the page and the writers didn't. like their dynamic is very i give/you give like taking car eof each other etc that's why

again, no artist worth their salt will ever say their work meant nothing. that's a cover up. i'm sick of lazy production and then getting away with it claiming being subversive or attacking an issue by not doing anything. we show crazy shit all the time but it has a POINT and ur point is "i like the gays" then girl.....i mean it's not great

but the acting really carried it. i have a feeling if this series continues it might continue to use more experienced actors cos maybe the budget goes up but they also have less inhibitions now when it comes to acting. i like the way li chen expresss himself and teng teng too. i like anson a lot and there's some angles that did not do any favors and i think eh has to get more control of his body movements (bc he's SO LARGE and thin) but he wasn't bad at all and there were real human tears. of course i, personally, favor charles tu. he has more control over his body because he has...less to work with and he's a bit bigger and he was really great in this role. he's a himbo a bit of a meathead but you like him. you like them. there's some things i think they had them say and do that they wouldn't let happen if they stuck to the characters and the story (mainly liking that dumb idiot rapist)

what i notice is that the reprehensible actions people criticize others for in the show and in real human life lalways gets turned around. teng teng being surprised that this boy's grandfather boyfriend met him when he was a junior in high school and he's 12 years older and him apologizing for being shocked and then whatshisface going "ur better at it than most people" and then the convo about gao with whatshisface and then rapist brother comes to pick him up. they are admonishing gao but thinking that rapist brother is noble for doin gwhat he did (and oh rapist brother shows up) like the hypocrisy and the decisions are immense. so now it's like "guys see he's a great guy" like girl STICK TO SOMETHING but whatever so i live in this universe where muren and li chen do everything right and have lots of different interesting fun seex with all their friends. i would write this but i cannot i am dying

[bigskydreaming]

Had a chance to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp finally, and I don’t have enough time to post my thoughts in full now, so making a note to come back to it later:

Scott Lang is Valid. All Scotts are Valid. Scott Lang, Scott Summers and Scott McCall should start a We Are Valid club.

Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne can both go jump in a fucking lake. Yeah I said Hope too, and I meant it. While nothing new, what this movie obliviously shows about how insidiously ingrained classism is, at the  most fundamental levels of our society and entertainment, is....something.

Like, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Hank and Hope’s passion to rescue Janet. What IS fucked up is how at every turn, their need to do so and restore their family is upheld as sacrosanct and justifying everything done in the name of that mission, while at the exact same time they have absolutely no regard for Scott’s desires to do the exact same thing with his family. Because they are the wealthy ones, the upper class, the patrons of the equipment Scott uses. He’s just their lackey, his heroism conditional on whether or not they even deign to grant him access to their toys, their mission of Family Over All must always be the priority, and when this conflicts with Scott’s own mission of Family Over All, this is either an obstacle or an annoyance in their eyes, or an outright betrayal at other points.

With the insidious part I was talking about being that the narrative supports their assertion that their needs are more important, the writers oblivious to the fact that their own unconscious biases in this regard (Upper Class equals Better or at least More Necessary) have them throwing their own titular hero under the bus in defense of this basic premise...a premise so basic they don’t even REALIZE their story is crafted to make this argument. (And srsly, another thing all these Scott protags have in common, lmao, like wtf is it with main characters named Scott who are treated as the villains of their own story for daring to stand up for their own needs and wants and not being willing to sacrifice everything they care about for the sake of people who would never sacrifice themselves or their wants for them??? Again...Scott McCall, Scott Summers, now Lang. Weeeeeird. Anyway).

But like, Hope literally abducts Scott in order to obtain his help rescuing Janet, waving off every objection he has as to how this could jeopardize his freedom and ability to y’know...RAISE HIS DAUGHTER, because her mission to save her mother, missing from her life for 20 years, is Valid, but his mission to NOT spend 20 years missing from his daughter’s life....she’s like, meh, can’t relate....okay wtfever. Everything Scott says about his concerns regarding potential consequences for his own life are dismissed as trivial and inconsequential. It’s covered and taken care of, he’s repeatedly assured, thanks to their arrangements that they put very little time and effort into crafting...and thus fall apart at like...the slightest provocation, like the very second anything with the rest of their plans starts to go wrong, it all unravels there. So like....his fears and worries are NOT trivial, the narrative even bears that out, it just also tries to at the same time defend their position of treating them as lesser than their own concerns.

Like Scott tells his trusted friend, the person HE values and has every faith in (faith that is born out by the fact that Luis only revealed their location via truth serum), where to find them so he can help Luis with their work plans they need to salvage their own careers and keep their business running, and Hank and Hope AND the narrative are like wtf dude, this is the worst thing you could ever do, and of course now the bad guys found us, what a bonehead move this was.

Even though, again, Hank and Hope literally drafted Scott against his will over his objections and gaining his full cooperation only after making promises to handle his concerns, promises that ARE NOT MET, because they are not infallible....but this doesn’t get acknowledged. Instead its emphasized that the guy who had the least agency here is the fuckup, for daring to prioritize his own needs and wants and job and livelihood and friends and coworkers and family over theirs, when they show zero actual empathy for any of his. Like, its textbook classism, Hank and Hope sniping at Scott all movie about how bad off they are because they’re on the run after what he did in Germany, their lives and careers are tarnished....but because Scott’s job isn’t as important as the things they do, its literally treated by them and the narrative itself as being irrelevant, not worth prioritizing. Scott’s ‘mistake’ in trusting a friend that under normal circumstances absolutely is trustworthy, is spotlighted, while their mistakes, relying on contingencies that aren’t actually able to support how much they rely on them, once things go south....are swept under the rug.

(And for the record, in regards to Scott’s going to Germany with their tech resulting in Hank and Hope’s reversal of fortunes....I mean, Hope basically says to Scott’s face her real issue is just that he didn’t ask her to go along. That its not even his actions or motivations they object to, so much as just his not asking their permission first. Using their tech under his own power, not as an extension of theirs. Even though elsewhere in the MCU, heroes are celebrated for following their consciences rather than upholding obligations they made to the persons responsible for empowering them in the first place - look at Steve defying the wills of those who gave him the Super Soldier serum, look at Dr. Strange defying the wills of his teachers who told him to keep his hands off the Time Gem, etc, etc. But the ex-con given size-shifting tech for the sole purposes of whatever the hell his ‘bosses’ tell him to do with it does the same, and the narrative’s like WHAT WERE YOU THINKING. And Hope’s final parting shot on the Germany matter again isn’t even that he was wrong....its that if she’d gone with him, he’d never have been caught. Like lol wooooow writers, way to obliviously lampshade your awareness that the rich will always have a get out of jail free card that the struggling single father literally does not).

And then back to what I was saying about how the writers throw their own hero under the bus for the sake of Hank and Hope’s wants (and yes I’m aware this is supposed to be Hope’s movie as much as Scott’s, but Scott was very clearly the protag of the movie this is a sequel to, so I’m not attempting to diminish Hope’s significance to the franchise, because again, none of this is me saying that Hope’s motivations aren’t valid, just that them always being elevated ABOVE Scott’s, her co-protag, is not)......like look at the convo Scott has with Cassie after they fake out Woo and Scott has what’s supposed to be his Come to Jesus revelation about his own actions. He literally tells his daughter that he’s a fuck up and he hurts people even when he tries to do the right thing, when like....source????

That framing only works if you, like the writers, take for granted Hank and Hope are in the right when they view Scott ‘ditching’ them/their mission in order to go make sure Woo doesn’t catch him out of the house and lock him up for twenty years as some great betrayal. IT’S NOT! It’s literally just him doing the EXACT same thing they do the entire movie! PUTTING HIS FAMILY FIRST. Every single time Scott talks about his status as an ex-con and his fears about being locked up, its NEVER about his own personal freedom or about all the things he wants to do that he can’t while on house arrest, etc. It’s always, ALWAYS centered around one thing and one thing only - making sure he’s able to be there for his daughter. This is his ENTIRE motivation through the entire film, the movie itself acknowledges it, and THEN it proceeds to INVALIDATE this by saying Scott prioritizing THIS over helping Hank and Hope rescue THEIR loved one is SELFISH.

A refusal to self-sacrifice for the sake of those unwilling to do the same IS. NOT. SELFISH. It’s just not! And the only way to make the argument it is, is by doing exactly what this movie does with its classism - take for granted that the lower class character is EXPECTED to sacrifice for his betters, while them doing the same in return would be deemed exceptional or proof of their selflessness, but it is certainly not something anyone should or would expect them to do.

But nah. The writers just do not even GET that they’ve elevated Hank and Hope over one of their own story’s protags to this degree, so they don’t think twice about making Scott’s prioritization of his family, his daughter, a FLAW he has to learn to overcome, IN A CONVO WITH THAT VERY SAME DAUGHTER, in order to be a true hero, and put others ahead of himself (and his daughter). As long as they’re like, richer or smarter than him, at least.

I mean.....lol.

And let’s not get into the fact that Janet literally engineered a way to HIJACK SCOTT’S ENTIRE BODY AND MIND when ‘necessary’, and the movie just...rolls with this. Hank and Hope don’t even feel a need to point this out to Scott when it happens and he has no idea what just happened. LOL. It’s so taken for granted that his role in all of this is to do or be whatever they want or need him to do or be, that like....the writers literally write his entire body being used without his knowledge or will...being something unremarkable. Not even worth noting. Unlike the incessant way any time Scott uses their tech without their express permission or for his own purposes, this is him having no respect for their genius in making it or their generosity in allowing him to use it.

Course, let’s also not get into the fact that body hijacking as a trope needs to diiiiiiiiiiiie omg, or at the very least NOT be treated as an opportunity for comedy and levity. It’s not. Stop it. Can we please kill it with fire? I know we’ve been doing this for decades, but it doesn’t change the fact that the idea of someone else literally using a character’s body for their own ends without that character having any agency in this whatsoever....like, that is an idea that certainly is worth exploring, has merit as a story....WHEN TREATED AS AN ACTUAL VIOLATION. NOT AS A JOKE. Oy. But I digress.

Moving on, since apparently I lied when I said I didn’t have time so I was just making a note to do this later, lol wow who could’ve predicted that WHOOPS ME....Ava and Bill Were Right.

Isn’t it interesting how Hollywood spends so little time and effort making white antagonists and villains sympathetic....because they know they don’t need to! Audiences will do the work for them! They’ll bend over backwards looking for ways to justify any and everything a villain does as long as they’re hot enough, or charming enough, or smart enough....as well as white enough.

No, Hollywood these days saves the effort of crafting sympathetic backstories and motivations for villains when those villains are marginalized characters. Because they’ve at least figured out that much. That there’s too much backlash in ALWAYS painting black characters like Ava and Bill as villains with no motivation other than greed or a desire for violence or whatever. They get that at least. 

So when they make villains of color - and make no mistake, Ava and Bill were very much framed as the villains of this movie even if they were actually more just antagonists, with the technical villain being that white dude who is so irrelevant who even bothered LISTENING to his name? Like, the entire point of having Ava ramp up from her introduction as antagonistic but sympathetic to increasingly hostile to ‘our heroes’ to outright aggressive and violent at every turn (even though her motivations at no point changed, merely her desperation, as the very situation she was written as being in to make her sympathetic in the first place was actively worsening in a very real and tangible way)....like that’s fucking deliberate. The only point of that, narratively speaking, is for the writers to make the case like, this is WHY Ava does this, but see, now she’s gone too far, her reasons are an explanation but not an EXCUSE, this isn’t defensible at this point.

Y’know, kinda like I pointed out Hank and Hope’s motivations are perfectly understandable and an explanation for their actions, but not an excuse for the way they prioritize them over Scott’s motivations and concerns. Cuz just like Hank and Hope are essentially the villains of Scott’s story in my eyes, for that, the deliberate shift from focusing the spotlight on Ava’s motivations to focusing it on her increasingly ‘unhinged’ actions happens solely to ensure audiences SEE Ava as the villain even if technically there’s a worse, ‘true’ villain and we’re reminded by the end of the story to be sympathetic to Ava’s situation - once Janet has deigned to make that argument in her support. An argument that never would have needed making, mind you, if the narrative had kept the focus on how understandable Ava’s motivations were the whole time, instead of shifting that focus to the effect it had on the heroes, the ‘good guys’ ergo how could anyone hurting them be anything but the bad guy.

But my point here is like, Hollywood at least gets that when they have villains of color or other marginalizations, they have to at least make an effort to make them sympathetic....so long as its implicitly understood that no matter how sympathetic their actions, they’re still misguided. Still WRONG. Still not in the right. Like the good guys. The heroes.

Except....lol. AVA AND BILL WEREN’T WRONG. EVER. AT ANY POINT. THEIR MOTIVATIONS WERE EVERY BIT AS UNDERSTANDABLE, RATIONAL, AND JUSTIFIABLE AS HANK AND HOPE AND SCOTT’S. THE ENTIRE TIME.

And that’s the NEW (not new as in recent, just new as in latest) problem with how Hollywood writes marginalized villains....they put just enough thought into seeing things from their eyes that they’re able to craft sympathetic origins and motivations at all....and then they very firmly and deliberately slam on the brakes the second they’ve done that. REFUSING to go any further, to take that one step more...and not even because they can’t, but because they KNOW....that has the capacity to outright FLIP who is the villain and who is the hero in the story.

Because its literally all just about the framing. Scott and Hope and Hank aren’t the good guys because their needs and wants are better or purer than Bill and Ava’s. They’re the good guys for the SOLE reason that all of those characters have equally human wants and desires, and THESE are the ones the writers chose to present to their viewers as the good guys. To single out and say via their contexts and framing and the choices they WRITE every character making....in comparison, relative to everyone else in the film, THESE are the characters who are MOST right. MOST valid. And thus who you’re expected to support.

You could have written this EXACT SAME STORY from Ava and Bill’s POVs, called it Goliath and the Ghost (Goliath is comic book Bill Foster’s superhero code name)....and Ava and Bill would have been the heroes, while Hank Pym was the villain.

THE. EXACT. SAME. STORY.

Because the thing about Ava and Bill’s actions being understandable, the thing the writers and director KNEW and thus took actual, deliberate steps to COUNTER, so Ava and Bill DIDN’T end up stealing the designated ‘hero’ roles of the film....is that by virtue of their motivations being sympathetic, understandable....THEY WERE AS RIGHT AS ANYONE ELSE IN THE MOVIE.

We are all the heroes of our own stories. We are all the villains of someone else’s. That’s not just a cliche, a platitude. It’s like....a writing lesson. It’s literally JUST about the framing. JUST about who you focus on, who you CHOOSE to uphold as right and wrong, or right and more right.

Ava and Bill weren’t wrong. The movie just put every effort into making sure audiences were left with the takeaway (effectively speaking, not nominally)...that Hank and Hope were MORE right. 

I leave Scott out because again, he was just kinda along for the ride here. His motivations remained as static as anyone else’s....he wanted to help, but as long as his daughter always came first....and thus Scott got pulled along in any direction those with more power and agency than him pulled on those particular threads. Characters can be just as influenced by the focus they’re exposed to as audiences. Scott’s exposure was to Hank first and foremost, thus just like the audience’s exposure was more to Hank than to Bill and Ava, Hank got more chances to explain HIS side of the story, HIS motivations, HIS reasons to Scott than Bill and Ava did. Just as is true of audiences. If Scott had met Bill first, for instance, if Bill had given Scott Goliath tech instead of Hank giving Scott Ant-Man tech, if Bill was the one Scott had more history with, personal investment in, and reasons to hear out...its every bit as likely Scott would have been on Bill and Ava’s side all along. Just like, again, is true of audiences. If every scene where Hank got to explain his version of events, his reasons for doing what he did back in the days of SHIELD and his associations with Bill and Ava’s father....if those scenes had instead been giving to Bill doing exactly the same thing, again.....audiences would have been just as likely to land Team Bill and Ava than the team the writers WANTED them to land on. 

Because when everyone has a reason for doing what they’re doing, especially when everyone has a GOOD and understandable and SYMPATHETIC reason for what they’re doing...and these reasons lead to choices that put them in conflict with each other....

For all intents and purposes, its all the same at that point. Which means the ones who end up being the good guys, the heroes of the story, is PURELY the result of the intentional, deliberate choice writers make as to WHO they push forward and support as the ones whose motivations and choices we’re MOST meant to sympathize with, to identify with, and thus cheer for.

And that’s where Hollywood keeps failing time and time again with marginalized villains. Racism has literally written Hollywood into a corner where they obstinately INSIST on staying cuz racists gonna racist. That’s ultimately what it boils down to. As uncomfortable as it makes people to hear, even something like this film is inherently as white supremacist as any MAGA-hat wearing propaganda spewer.

Because along with the deliberate choice to make marginalized villains sympathetic and not alienate marginalized or socially conscious centered audiences that way......Hollywood continues to make the equally deliberate choice to KEEP those marginalized characters as the villains. Instead of ever pushing that exploration of their motivations, that focus on their choices....just a little bit further....just far enough to tilt the scales, flip the frame, and make them the heroes of the story instead.

And when you’re talking about black villains in particular, like with this story, yup, sorry not sorry, that’s white supremacy. Even if its not the particularly obvious, ‘ugly’ aggressive kind....that’s still a deliberate upholding of white motivations as Most Valid, for no other reason than to keep the white characters the MOST sympathetic...and thus the heroes.

When your black villains are ONLY villains because you literally refuse to LET them be the heroes, if it comes at the expense of white characters you yourself have written to be as not any more or less understandable than them, just that you’ve made the decision to be more personally invested in.....that’s literally upholding the white characters as ‘supreme’, narratively speaking, because they’re white, and you’re white, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

*Shrugs* Anyway, ultimately my take is there’s a lot to like about Ant-Man and the Wasp, from certain angles. Scott’s a likable protag with a solid and relatable characterization, when the narrative chooses to uphold and support him. There’s funny bits, there’s nice, soft moments. I like that it was a superhero story where the inciting events and ultimate mission had a smaller, more contained focus than saving the world, that it was ultimately about saving family, using superpowers and superpowered stakes to go above and beyond in rescue or defense of individuals rather than only justifying such powers and stakes in defense of society or civilization at large....I think that’s a good note that a lot of superhero movies moving forward can benefit from. Tighter focus works just as well as broader focus so long as you use either appropriately.

But all that said....nope. Not good enough. Because also at the end of the day, IMO, like I said, its still a racist, classist movie singing the same old song with Hollywood and Marvel/Disney specifically, just willfully refusing to switch to another channel.

Because it didn’t need to be Scott’s story and it definitely didn’t need to be Hope and Hank’s. It could’ve just as easily been Ava’s story. It could’ve just as compellingly been her heroes’ journey. Self-empowerment, saving yourself from what others have done to you, is just as valid and defensible as saving a mother.

And the second they wrote Ava, who they initially had take off her mask to stand revealed as an exhausted and frightened young woman who went and curled up alone in some high-tech chamber to sleep....the second they took that same young woman they’d CHOSEN to write and introduce as sympathetic and understandable, that they’d introduced in such a way WITH INTENT....and then had her threaten Scott’s innocent daughter, with her own ally and father figure Bill then WRITTEN, with intent, as calling her out for this and threatening to abandon her if she does it, literally saying the words that she was going too far and thus signalling the writers’ clear stance that this made her now unsympathetic, this was a choice that was bad and thus she was now less valid and sympathetic than the heroes the writers still stood behind and supported, she was now less likely to ‘upstage’ them and steal audiences’ sympathies and support from them for herself instead....

That’s the second the movie fucked up and went just from uncomfortably classist but nothing new to just full on Nope, Fuck This Addition, IMO.

Because that was a conscious choice on the part of everyone involved. Willful intent. That was a giant Bat signal advertising that at least on some level, not even that deep, the writers were AWARE of how sympathetic they’d made Ava (how they’d intentionally made Ava)....and them then literally pulling back from that, BUILDING brakes for whatever train of thought Ava’s storyline had people heading down until then. Keeping her, narratively speaking, in her place. As a villain. Where they wanted her to be, and to stay.

And that’s just as fucking evil as any number of movies where the black character dies first or the gay character dies in their lover’s arms or any number of other more focused-on tropes known for their racism, homophobia, transphobia and the like.

When you set out to make your marginalized villains sympathetic and then put a CAP, a CEILING, on how sympathetic towards them you want audiences to be, when you say “I want you to understand them, just not enough to root for them,” when you make every effort to advertise “I see this character’s humanity, that they’re fundamentally no different from me, from any of these other heroes, they’re all the same....I’m just choosing to keep the white ones the heroes anyway”....fuck you. Honestly, that’s as bad as any other more obvious racism. That’s as much propaganda as any other instance.

I want people to care, just not care too much....because they still gotta care about the white character most....

Nope. Fuck ‘em. Burn it with the rest of the MCU’s trashiest takes. Scott Lang is Valid and Cassie Lang is precious, I really truly adore any focus on a single dad whose entire world honestly revolves around his kid, and I’ll read all the found family fic where its the Langs teaming up with Bill Foster and Ava Starr, but  this narrative was bad, These Are Not the Heroes You’re Looking For, and Hank and co. can go fuck off to the quantum realm where their irrelevance can finally be equal to their ego.

[channiekyun]

slip-up//bts//namjoon

pairing: kim namjoon/reader genres: fluff, drabble, bullet point list, high school au! word count: 1302 summary: namjoon+dancing+partner assignment=what a/n: i got a good response from ‘assigned’ so this came out of my mind. also, this ended to be longer than expected

you had this dance class you had as an extra thing you could put on your college resume

bc, obvs ppl really like dancers so lol why not ??

ok maybe you weren’t just the best at dancing

and maybe this was all just an excuse to not make a fool of yourself at your older brother’s wedding

you didn’t really know anyone in your class

you were practically a loner

everyone was a loner actually

of course, you have friends irl tho

but yoongi chose debate as an extra and jimin decided to just do some type of community service

jimin was the one who told you to take dance

you can’t believe you actually took his advice

because now you’re looking at your grade and it’s like OH SHIT-

actually wasn’t that bad

and that’s only bc you lowered your standards, a C wasn’t bad, not anymore

ok, back to the story, last assignment of the semester was a partner assignment

you had to do formal dancing together and basically not screw up

screw up, you fail

again, y’all a bunch of loners so y’all screwed

so when the teacher was calling out partner names you were shaking

you ended up with a ‘kim namjoon’???

who is he

well you certainly don’t know

the class was over and you were putting your items in your bag when you saw someone out their hand where your shoe bag was

you look up to see that boi/a very tall tree

and he’s tall so it was all just weird tbh

‘here you go’

you took your shoe bag out of his hands and narrowed your eyes

attractive dude, but who is he

‘we never met, have we?’

‘i’m afraid we haven’t yet.’

‘well hello, i’m kim namjoon.’

‘oh, so you’re my project partner, i’m (f/n) by the way. is there any specific time you want to practice.’

yeah i know the dialogue lacks comedy but just you wait

so basically you schedule plans over some tea at the popular cafe across the dance building

everything was nice

he was just a big meme just like everyone else 

and you even got a free cake 

the reason being was the person working thought you were dating

she legit just placed it on the table and said ‘here you go’

and you’re both srsly confused and have this silent eye convo with each other like ‘wth, we didn’t order this, but we’ll still take it lol’

‘it’s on the house guys’

‘but why’

‘oh, are you guys not dating, it looks like it’

*cue tea spit*

‘wait wHat DID YOU JuST SAY. We ar-’

‘we are dating, thank you, you can leave now’

you two ended up eating the heart shaped cake anyway in silence regardless of how you got it

you were pretty much infatuated with him

the way he gazed off when the conversation died off was somehow enchanting

also, the way he came up with the weirdest subjects to talk abt

like srsly

how to survive shark attacks, philosophy, sodoku, seagulls, the big bang theory, martin luther, ducks-ok u name it

this man was interesting

and interesting men are hot cute

i can’t stop laughing lmao

anyway, you fell hard fast

so when you got his number before you parted ways you internally fist pumped

anyway, you realized he was very clumsy

i mean, he’s very lanky so.?

you tried to do the waltz and somehow he drove you into a table

ow

everything that could’ve gone wrong, went wrong

now you were actually scared for your grade

that didn’t mean you didn’t stop falling for this man

you changing certain things to make things go smoother

‘okay, so i think when we do the 4th turn your foot should go like this’

‘(y/n), i have no f-ing idea what you’re talking about but show me again’

him trying to make his own revisions and comments

‘i actually think that we should turn this way bc-’

‘namjoon, i know you don’t know what you’re saying’

‘dammit, you’re right’

earlier the day of the presentation, you both went out for coffee

shaking off the bad vibes

and he said the most inspirational thing while you were just looking out the window, watching the snow fall

‘whenever i think of snow falling i think of stars falling. but let’s not fall today, let’s rise into the new world like stars and do our best, right (y/n)?’

and you don’t know how to respond cause that was deep

‘fighting?’

‘fighting.’

so when you hopped into the dance studio you were sweating

and you realized the tension was in the air

also, you realized that the dance teacher decided to be extra and invite an audience and get people to help her grade

like, oh man holy shit

actual ppl

and even your friends were here

like wtaf how

when you were called up, you shook his hand

the music started 

it truly was oddly magical

you looked so graceful and effortless, a perfect combination

then guess what?

HE STEPPED ON YOUR FOOT

out of the corner of your eye, you saw your teacher’s eyebrow raise

you panicked

but you managed to cover it up

you gave namjoon that stare

and started making your own tweaks to the choreography

you dipped namjoon and spun him, and he was supposed to do that

so it was a very interesting moment for the both of you

it didn’t matter, you soon ended smoothly-

-with you hugging him from behind

BUT I SAID THAT DIDN’T MATTER

you were so fidgety after but you stayed for the final results

when they were posted on the board you pushed everyone out of the way

ft. a poor dragged namjoon

guysguysguysuysguysguysguys

YOU DIDN’T FAIL

you got an A+

and a comment that reversed gender roles halfway through the performance was interesting and such a new concept for some reason wth

you were jumping everywhere

you both decided to go get dinner with your new accomplishment

and by dinner, i mean the most expensive meat ever just bc

there were so many appearances of his dimples when he smiled like holy fuck

my heart

is weak

dinner went obviously nice

and when the night was settling

you asked

‘hey, since we got an A+ on our partner project, do you want to be my +1 to my brother’s wedding?’

he just blinked

‘is this your way of asking me out’

‘no, it’s my way of asking you to be my +1′

‘sure (y/n), anytime’

your relationship was still going strong after that

hanging out at his apartment trying to put a puzzle together at 3am

‘(y/n) i love you but where is the missing puzzle piece’

‘i love you to namjoon, but maybe if you didn’t try to put the puzzle together on the toilet we wouldn’t have to ask this question’

‘ok, i love you, but you should stfu rn’

manjoon™

and on the day of your bro's wedding

your bro and your boy hit it off

‘namjoon, this is my brother, jackson. jackson, this is my boyfriend, namjoon.’

he gave the disapproving brother look

but they still hit it off well

i hope the bride did not feel as left out as you did

jk

at the reception, you hit the dance floor

this time nobody stepped on any feet

but ofc there were the moments of swapping roles

and everything was just

‘swell’

and that was your type of love

[sitaaronkepaar]

Daily Rikara Ramblings

Aww, Gauri looks so qyut. 😍😍😍😍

Aww, nah, my bby so sadddd. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

Richa’s yapping is annoying me. Like gurl, stfu for a sec. Mausam ka taqazza kuch hai bhi ya nahi?

“bhagwan na kare hamare jaise kismet kisi ki bhi hi Richa!”

Poor Gauri. 😭😭😭😭😭

Srsly though, Omkie is garbage and doesn’t deserve our chirriya. 🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️

That horrible, no good, terrible flashback is back ugh 😭

“Karwa chauth ka vrat rakha hai humne, woh bhi us pati k liye jo hamein patni tak nahi manta”

Stop feeling bad cause of that human pile of trash Gauri. He ain’t worth your tears or your fast. Throw him in the dustbin where he belongs 🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮

Oho, Omkie ki OTT entry. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Lol address bhi tadi dikha k pooch raha hai 😂😂

The voiceover is so weird  🤔🤔

Okay, but how bitch? Like I really want to know how you’re going to make it up to her. 😔😔😔😔😔

Awww, Queenie is sajhing dhajing. 😍😍

With tears in her eyes! 😭😭😭

She’s looking real pretty though. 😍😍😍

She took a bindi from what looked like a packet of white bindis and then put on a black one. 😐😐😐😐😐

Omkara ko pagdi banani aati hai? Mad Skills brah!! 👏👏👏👏

Why does Gauri have the same jewellery and those ropes thingies as Annika, and everyone else? Like, do people really prepare for karwachauth months in advance?

Lol, Shivika be so qt! 😍😍😍

Jhanvi and Gauri’s suit looks the same. But Jhanvi’s hotter? God, Jhanvi’s such a milf tbh 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

Awww, Shivaay stole a kiss from Annika!! So QYUT!! 💝💞💞💞💞💞

Okay, but how are women even able to walk and talk and do all humanly things during karwa chauth? Like if I miss a single meal toh I end up feeling like Frankenstein’s monster. Kuch bhi khane ko chalega.

Oh man, Gauri recalling Omkara’s words makes me cry. 💔💔💔💔💔

Aagayi iski useless maa. I swear she’s the most useless character in IBverse. Is se bekar aur kaun hoga. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Ugh, he doesn’t deserve your love Gauri. Srsly, fuck him. 😡😡😡😡😡😡

God, why do these people just walk in andhera? Ab toh phones me bhi torches hoti hai. 🙄

Okay, if someone pulled that trick on me, I’d slap first and ask questions later.

Ngl, it is adorbs though. But I don’t like no surprises.

Yeh tanya bhi psycho lagti hai.

These rassis on Annika’s dress are annoying me. Like why?

Why doesn’t someone tell Annika who Shakira is already lmao.

Is it just me, or is Shivaay being extra adorable these days? Man, he be so QYUT!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Gauri’s mom has some weird ideas of Shubh and ashubh. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Lmao, this is so cliched! 😂😂😂😂😂

Lol aa gaya Sardar Singh Oberoi. 😂😂

Dafuq, why is the editing all over the place in this show? 😓😓😓

Okay, not digging these channi wale parallels for RuVya too. Rudy doesn’t even deserve to lick Bhavya’s feet. Omkara doesn’t either, but god, at least there were no malicious life ruining actions there. At least not intentionally.

Also, dafuq kinda name is “Stilist”? Ew. No one karchaoed their brains here apparently!

Guys wtf, all the other couples are married! RuVya ain’t married, neither should they be. Like ever. Rudy’s the worstttt!! 😡😡😡😡😡😡

OMFG! Oh God. That role reversal thing I wanted is happening but with Shivika!!! Omg so qyyyuttttt. Now, I know why my friend said Shivika scenes were the best today lol. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

But tell me Omkara ne vrat rakkha hai ya nahi? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Shivika’s cuteness is making me want to ship them over Rikara. Rikara bas angst hi angst hai. Ugh.

Don’t kill me pls, but I really don’t like “O, Jaana”. Rikara’s song is pretty much half the reason I ship them tbh. Such a soulful beautiful song. 💞💞💞💞💞

“Mujhe lagta hai Gauri mujhse bahut naraz hai, ise manana aasaan nahi hoga, muje mehnat karni padegi”

No shit, Sherlock. Like he really thinks she’s just naraz. Matlab hadd ho gayi. Koi normal person hota toh they’d have drowned in guilt thinking the wronged party hates them, but wow MahanKara still thinks she’s just naraz. Wow 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Like you didn’t spill coffee on her fave shirt Omkara, you basically called her a characterless adultress, and you still think woh bas naraaz hai? If Queenie didn’t love you so much toh she’d be hating your guts right baout now. 😡😡😡😡😡😡

Also, Sardar Singh Oberoi isn’t looking that bad. BUT HE STILL LOOKS LIKE OMKARA. Gauri would really have to be an oblivious idiot not to recognize him. Also, it’s so improbable, cause Gauri’s a legit chantomai, who fooled people into thinking she was a boy for months on end. She observes people and knows what makes them tick. So it wouldn’t make any sense if she failed to recognize her (badly in disguise) husband of 8 months. Pls God, I’m begging you, don’t pull RNBDJ shit on me plsss. If it made me hate fuckin srk and made me quit watching his movies, then I dunno if I’ll still be able to love Gauri anymore. 😧😧😧

Oh my god, yeh punjabi me bhi shuru ho gaya.😲😲😲 Bas kar yar, no one wants to hear your ghatiya shayri. Least of all Gauri. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Gauri’s like Dafuq!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

“Dilpreet Singh” lmaowtf. Omkara you’re so lame, I’m dying. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Omg call out to my faveeeee, Diljit Dosanjh 💓💓💓💓

Gauri’s like yeh kaun pagal hai. 😂😂😂😂

Lol, 2 mins bhi nahi hue and Gauri already recognized his voice. Yeah, SardarKara ain’t gon last long, thank fuck. 😌😌😌😌

He’s literally recounting all famous Sikh singers and being like meri awaaz sabse milti hai. wtf 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

“multipurpose aawaz”

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Gauri’s like yeh kaunse pagal khane se bhaag aya hai. Bua maa ne toh nahi bheja hai apne mental hospital se badla lene k liye? 😂😂😂😂😂

Oh my god, phir se iska main main shuru ho gaya. 🙄🙄🙄

Like, sardar ban ne k siva aur koi plan nahi tha? Such an amateur! 🙄🙄🙄

Oh god yeh mithai dekh k mujhe bhi bhook lag gayi and I don’t even like sweets. Ugh, I’m hungry af. 🤤🤤🤤🤤

Shivika’s cuteness is Goals though! 💓 💝💝💝

Wtf, is tanya going to commit suicide? Dafuq. Yeh Oberoi pagal khane me rehke ye bhi pagal ho gayi hai kya? Bitch, no guy is worth your life. Least of all this chooza.

Literally not interested in this bakwas though. But I’m guessing Abhay is the one who sent gundas to Gauri’s house? Lmao. Kya khichdi pak rahi hai? 😂😂😂😂😂

Aaj ka epi was legit bakwas besides Shivika cuteness. I hope we get some better shit tomo. 🙄🙄