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studiopeachz · 3 years ago

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Task Brainstorm & Research

What am I passionate about?

Food

Cultures

Traveling

Music

tattoos/illustrations/designs

art/painting/drawing

Mental health

Self discovering/acceptance/explorations/expressions

What do you wish more people understood?

I wish people understood more about the different forms of self expression through different ways such as art, design, fashion, literature, etc.

I wish people understood more about human rights, or general personal choices without judgement

What do you feel strongly about?

I feel strongly about self love and acceptance because the factors of accepting ourselves can be hard but can make us flourish, and gives us opportunities to express how we feel

What makes you feel good?

Art in different forms makes me feel good has it drives my curiosity to learn and dig deeper for meaningful things

Beauty and self acceptance, embracing our imperfections

Wise words/sayings that inspire and impact me and others in a positive way

What makes me unhappy?

As an empathetic person, I feel unhappy for the one who also feels unhappy or any certain unstable emotions.

Making mistakes also make me upset as it is hard to admit our own wrong doings

Stereotypes, because it gives us an invalid label to individuals which do not define us as a whole

I don’t like when people judge you right away without knowing you

If you could fix something, what would it be?

I would want to fix the past mistakes i have done, wishing i could of done better

I would of want to fix the moments that I wish i could of done or fulfilled which leads to present regrets

What would you like to see in the future?

I would like to see everyone in the world to be kinder, and more understanding towards each other as it gives opportunities to get to know individuals truly, without having to judge them right away.

I would also like to see people normalizing natural and imperfect things and different creations of forms of self expression without any judgement, but curiosity instead.

What would you like to shine a light on?

I would like to raise awareness about the beauty of differences and self expression, even in peculiar artistic ways

What do you see that others don’t see?

As an optimistic person, I like to see the good in everything, therefore I have this willingness to listen and to understand situations, stories, and journeys of others.

I find the most imperfect things to be beautiful.

Things about Gen Z

https://www.livingfacts.org/en/articles/2020/meet-gen-z

https://danschawbel.com/blog/39-of-the-most-interesting-facts-about-generation-z/

Demographics

Gen Zers are also the most diverse generation. Research by the Center determined that nearly half (48%) of 6- to 21-year-old Gen Zers are racial or ethnic minorities, compared with 39% of Millennials in that age bracket in 2002 and more than double the percentage of early Baby Boomers in 1968.

Attitudes

In many instances, the youngest generation’s views follow Millennials’ social attitudes, and are in stark contrast to the oldest group, the Silent Generation, with Baby Boomers and Gen Xers falling in the middle.

For example, 70% of Gen Zers say government should do more to solve societal problems, rather than leaving it to businesses and individuals. By comparison, 64% of Millennials and only 39% of Silents say government should do more. Similarly, roughly 6 in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials say increasing racial and ethnic diversity is good for society, compared with about 4 in 10 Silents.

Gen Z’s as consumers

55% of Gen Z would rather buy clothes online and 53% would rather buy books and electronics online. [JWT]

Their favorite items to spend money on are food and drink (36%), going out with friends (32%) and clothes (18%). [Visa]

66% want to own both houses and cars in their lifetimes. [Deep Focus]

Gen Z’s most used tech devices are the smartphone (15.4 hours/week), TV (13.2 hours/week) and a laptop (10.6 hours/week). [Vision Critical]

50% would look on their phone to look for a better price while shopping at a retail store. [Gen HQ]

63% are concerned when it comes to protecting their identity when paying with a debit or credit card online or in a retail store. [Gen HQ]

Gen Z values

76% are concerned about man’s impact on the planet. [JWT]

79% of display symptoms of emotional distress when kept away from their personal electronic devices. [University of Maryland]

90% would be upset if they had to give up their Internet connection while only 51% would give up eating out and 56% would give up downloading music. [JWT]

84% multitask with an Internet-connected device while watching TV. [Forrester Research]

They have more than 10 apps on their smartphone with 10% having more than 40. [Visa]

60% of Gen Zs say “a lot of money” is a sign of success. [Deep Focus]

What are some general Gen Z issues/behaviours/values:

Social anxiety (mental health)

Racial equality

Gender identity

Self esteem

Political and social issues

Technology/ social media content

Personal beliefs and values in comparison to older generations

Speaking up/inner voice

Stress response

Optimistic attitude “it is what it is”

Three Campaign Ideas relatable to Gen Z demographic In Aotearoa:

(self expression)

gender identity / fashion & style / art & design / illustration / ink / skin art - tattoos

(self acceptance & confidence)

Body Image & Positivity / cultural roots / growth / well-being /

(cultural diversity)

Culture / tradition / ethnicity / foundation /

Research Gen z with self expression, self acceptance, and cultural diversity

WHAT DOES SELF-EXPRESSION REALLY MEAN TO GEN Z?https://www.havaspeople.com/project/what-does-self-expression-really-mean-to-gen-z/

We always knew that Gen Z would be distinctive. They are the first true digital natives, and grew up during times of uncertainty (the wake of the last financial crisis and Brexit in the UK). But over the last year the identity of this generation has been further shaped in a profound way as some of their most formative years are taking place against the backdrop of a global pandemic, with the significant interruptions that has wrought to school, university, and early working lives, as well as social connections. Gen Z were on the precipice of progress when COVID hit “pause” on life. And yet many Gen Zers are emerging as resilient, energized, and eager to express themselves and have their voices heard.

Rinsta (real) and Finsta (fake) social media accounts, often to keep certain aspects of their life hidden from family, potential employers, and others outside of their close social circles). Yet – on the whole – they trust the technology brands and platforms themselves.

69% of Gen Z believe that brands should make their stance on social and political issues known publicly. I believe this is what Gen Z mean by brand authenticity.

showing us that authenticity does not just mean having a clear point of view, but also using your clout as a brand to share and amplify the causes that matter to you.

showing your own alignment with the purpose and intent of a brand. Gen Z see the brands who they follow, ‘like’, and buy as a personal reflection of them as individuals, which is why they are prepared to pay more for brands that they believe support sustainability. If that’s how profoundly Gen Zers believe the impact of their consumer choices can affect the way they express themselves, it stands to reason that this will cut even deeper with regard to career choices, which is one of the reasons

This seems an important aspect of self-expression. Gen Z share a willingness to discuss issues in an open reflective way, and to seek out different opinions, which is one reason social channels are increasingly viewed as credible sources of news. To give another example, Gen Z are more comfortable talking about mental health issues than previous generations. While this can be attributed in part to the overall rise in awareness and acceptance of mental health issues over the last fifteen years, it is a noticeable shift from previous generations.

https://extremereach.com/blog/for-gen-z-consumption-is-about-self-expression/ “Consumption for this generation is an expression of individual identity.”

“Some people are angry and resentful because they feel like their voice isn’t heard, so clothing is a space where they can be self-governed.”

They’re experiencing brands in every corner of their online life and so these same “brands need to beware this generation’s discernment because they have a bloodhound-like nose for inauthenticity.”

We’ve been more empowered than ever, so why are Gen-Z the least confident generation yet? https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/gen-z-least-confident-generation

Indeed, statistics show that, instead of a defining feeling of hope among Gen Z, there is a groaning sense of pessimism - of hopelessness. Long running research from University College London, revealed earlier this year that depression levels are two-thirds higher than millennials. The study found 14.8 per cent of 14-year-olds in 2015 said they were depressed, compared to 9 per cent in 2005. While 14.4 per cent of young people said they had self-harmed, compared to 11.8 per cent a decade ago.

“I feel like Gen Z and millennials occupy a really interesting place in politics,” says Nogia, 20 “- we’ve only known austerity, we’ve only know casual work, we’ve only know life long sentences of debt for getting an education and we’re living in an age of populism and hatred in politics.”

So, is this having a detrimental effect on a generation’s mental health and personal confidence? Pretty much.

Youth Engagement Officer at YoungMinds, “Young people today have to navigate a huge range of pressures, from school or university stress, to worries over their career and housing prospects, to the rise of social media, which can make problems like bullying or body image issues more intense than they were in the past.”

Social media is - predictably - a major cause of generational anxiety. Not only is it connecting us to the world’s most depressing news stories, it is also connecting us to a plethora of airbrushed, Facetuned accounts making us feel terrible about ourselves. No wonder confidence is low.

Gen Z demands more diversity and inclusion from brands https://www.campaignlive.com/article/gen-z-demands-diversity-inclusion-brands/1705491

Gen Zers made clear throughout the study that they want brands to step up their efforts around representation. For example, 76% of Gen Zers said they feel diversity and inclusion is an important topic for brands to address, compared to 72% of millennials, 63% of Gen Xers and 46% of Baby Boomers who felt the same.

“Consumers don't want to see brands making an effort to be inclusive just for means of publicity,” said Jenna Stearns, researcher at quantilope and lead on the report. “They want to see something that's authentic and consistent.”

But brands that resonate most with Gen Z consumers are consistent in their support of social justice. Target, for example, has been vocal around LGBTQIA awareness and Pride month for years, said Steph Rand, senior research consultant at quantilope.

“These brands are rising to the top because they are sustaining and consistently making [these issues] a priority, either in their communications or around the content they produce,” Rand said.

Responses regarding representation also varied by race, gender and sexual orientation. Individuals responded they feel their gender is more represented in mainstream media (70% male; 66% female) and brand advertising (71% male; 68% female) than their sexual orientation or ethnicity.

In 2021, consumers hope to see more individuals with disabilities represented in advertising and media, as well as more authentic PR backed up by action.

Integrated Awareness Campaign Examples:

Self Expression Campaign example: https://www.lsnglobal.com/youth/article/24865/a-kombucha-campaign-that-celebrates-self-expression

Los Angeles – Health-Ade Kombucha’s latest campaign targets a new generation of health-conscious drinkers.

The campaign, You Brew You, introduces the brand’s new flavour and packaging concepts, as well celebrating the popularisation of kombucha. Diverging from traditional drinks advertising, it features a series of young models in bright clothing with colourful, neon-lit backdrops.

While kombucha brands tend to communicate in a way that focuses on health, wellness and fitness activities such as yoga, Health-Ade Kombucha is on a mission to change the image of the beverage and target a new generation of digitally-native consumers.

As the younger generation look to the future and consider how drinking impacts their health, they are turning towards soft drinks with additional health benefits. For more, explore the insight section of our macrotrend Anxiety Rebellion.

Self love/acceptance Campaign Example: https://fredandfar.com/blogs/ff-blog/banksy-made-me-do-it-transforming-everyday-ads-into-self-love-campaigns

This stunt can have multiple meanings, as Banksy often uses his art to comment on such structures as capitalism, power imbalances, and corruption.

Wrapped up in the Banksy frenzy ourselves, we started questioning art and its subjective worth. What makes art valuable? What qualifies as art? In what way can art be used or manipulated to impact our everyday lives? We live in a world saturated by advertisements, media and marketing targeting and manipulating us to be passive consumers. Thinking about what we are subjected to daily by multimillion dollar companies is eye opening, as is Banksy’s take on copyright laws and advertising.

Banksy urges, “any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.”

So let’s take back the power. We got the ball rolling by taking some campaigns and slogans you might recognize, and turning them into campaigns for self love and acceptance.

Join us by creating your own better slogan and use the hashtag #banksymademedoit. What we need is more self love in the world. Let’s saturate the world with our mission.

Cultural Diversity Campaign Example: https://www.refuelagency.com/blog/examples-of-brands-who-got-multicultural-marketing-right/

Rihanna’s brand, Fenty, is all but synonymous with authentic inclusive marketing, created on the foundation that everyone woman is beautiful and should feel included. In 2017, Fenty Beauty launched 40 shades of foundation, and that has since grown to 50. Chaédria LaBouvier wrote in Allure that Fenty Beauty’s sheer number of foundation colors is “a statement that women of color deserve complex options”.

Rihanna shared that, “It’s important to me that every woman feel included in this brand.” Once this campaign launched, it had a ripple effect called “The Fenty Effect”, a movement calling for brands to challenge the status quo in advertising.

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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The Legion of Super Heroes Reviews: The Legion of Substitute Heroes or Unsung Heroes

Happy 29th Birthday to Me! Yes it’s my birthday which means it’s time for reflection, griping about getting older and cake. And after an exausting weekend of grappling with a growth, i’m not going to go into anymore detail, I can finally, relax celebrate and get back to reviewing. And since i’ts my big day, that means I decided to dedicate today’s reviews to things that mean a hell of a lot to me and in one way or another shaped me as a person. A self indulgant way to reflect on my past, look to the future and show y’all some stuff I really like. So with that out of the way let’s talk about the Legion of Super Heroes.. and their oddball sub team I love dearly.

This is also my first chance to talk about DC Comics on my blog. I’m honestly shocked that in the year i’ve been reviewing stuff regularly, the other half of the big two superhero comic publishers hasn’t come up. While I do tend to lean towards marvel, in part because Marvel is simply better at collecting their stuff and putting it on sale more often, it’s still the home of some of my faviorite properties: Justice League International, The Green Lanterns (Minus Hal), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Oracle, Batgirl (All of them, particularly Steph and Cass), Young Justice, Supergirl, my personal boy The Martian Manhunter.. the list dosen’t go on by much but it indeed goes on. I”ve been reading dc comics since I was in middle school, and I haven’t stopped since and don’t intend to stop now and maybe in the next year I can get around to tackling some of their awesome cartoons and comics more eh? But yeah among these titans, including the actual titans, are the Legion, one of the most unique and awesome super team concepts in my humble opinon and , even for DC, one of the teams with the most tangled up histories.

First created in the Silver Age by writer Otto Binder and Artist Al Plastino, The Legion of Superheroes is DC”s first successful teen superhero team, predating the titans by a few years, though I dearly love both wildly diffrent teams. The Legion is defined by their high concept: A thousand years into the future, three super teens from diffrent worlds who happened to be on the same ship with billionare RJ Brande, saved Brande from some goons hired by his crooked buisness partner.

And exposed him. Inspirired by their courage, heart and skill, Brande latter called the three together to form them into a super team, one inspiried by the legends of teen hero Superboy.

No not Conner though it was nice to get to show off my poster of him. While he was part of the second continuities legion, we’ll get to that, he’s not the superboy we’re looking for. He is damn great though and it’s good to have you back bud.

Not Jon either, though I do miss this kid’s pre-bendis version and he was the inspiration.. for another version of the legion. (SIGH). Try. AGAIN IMAGE SEARCH.

......

No not the cool bad boy turned troubled good boy, not the child who was inexpciably aged up by that bald smeghead, and not the great idea turned into a editiorial mouthpiece. I”m talking about THIS superboy.

This is where the name came from: From the silver age till crisis on infinite earths, Clark Kent was active as a kid in smallville, and thus was Superboy, superman when he was a boy. He dealt with similar stories just with Lana replacing Lois, and Luthor as a ginger teenager. And it was these deeds as a teen hero on his own, one of the first honestly, that inspiried the legion and brande and forged the team.

And it was naturally a super boy story where they were first introduced as the legion’s founders went back to recruit Superboy after putting him through some trials, and were intended as just one of many silver age one off concepts.. but caught on with the readers so much they were brought back, and had their ranks expanded and eventually not only added supergirl, yes the one your thinking of this time, to their ranks, and yes sometimes she and superboy were in the same place at the same time, Clark willingly had founding member and telepath Saturn Girl put a mental block in his head for any info he’s not supposed to know yet so it’s cool . But yeah not only that but they eventually became their own feature in Adventure Comics, where Superboy’s stories were published, but overtook him in popularity with time. Over time a number of distinct aspects were established: The roster eventually got as large as 20 plus legionarres, almost all from diffrent worlds, and they eventually set up bilaws. Some are silly and dated such as ��Legionarres marrying means they retire” which was eventually done away with in the 70′s, but others were simple logic: each member must have a unique power, no using weapons and such which rather than be super power snobbery is so said tech dosen’t fail and the legion later fully allowed Karate Kid, a martial artist, to join, no killing.. just common sense stuff that adds to it. And one of those is the centerpiece to today’s story, which we’ll get to in a moment. Obviously given they’ve been around since 1958, there is a LOT more to the Legion’s history I will dig into at a later date: The short version is that Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dc’s first big reboot, fucked the team up badly by retconning superboy out of existance and dc editorial made it worse by shooting down EVERY solution the team came up with to fix the issue. So eventually things got so messy they nuked the whole thing during the event Zero Hour and rebooted fresh with Mark Waid taking the helm and updating the concept for the 90′s and being a more lighthearted, if still not without weight, comic in the sea of 90′s edge. Waid would reboot the team again due to sagging sales, a far weaker reason this time, with a more rebllion slant, the original team would be reinstated, and then ended for a while before recently being rebooted by Brian Micheal Bendis... who sadly is long past his creative prime from books like Ultimate Spider-man and alias and is instead stewing in his own toilet dinner these days and thus it’s not pretty.. well okay art wise i’ts VERY pretty, it’s just story wise it sucks dirty ass in thunder storms. There was also an awesome cartoon that sadly lasted only two seasons that I will DEFINTELY be digging into, especially since unlike x-men evolution, it’s not you know 50 some episodes and me biting off way more than I can chew but a slim 26 that still has fans to this day. I”ll get into ALL OF THIS, some ohter time hopefullly and I mostly outlined it since some of you might be familiar with another version or “Sigh” the reboot and this helps clear things up. So yeah with all that out of the way we’re going back to the silver age and the first story I ever read of hte team, how I met them with “The Legion of Substitute Heroes” and a later subs story I genuinely love. I first read this story in one dc’s old expensive archives collections I got from the library. Oh how I miss the library. Your probably wondering who the legion of susbstite heroes are.. but since the first story covers that we can jump right in after the break!

So we open with a teen in a parka uniform disembarking from a spaceship from another planet, which a passerby notes is just like the airplanes people used to ride from country to country.

But we meet our hero, Polar Boy, whose in a winter themed outfit and has come to try out. This is the tradition I was saving for now: The Legion Tryouts. Like a club or sports team would, but I like it because it makes sense: The Legion NEEDS to be as big as it is because while their headquartered on earth, their mission scope is anywhere in the united planets which spans GALAXIES. They could be called on any time and need their full force or need to have severa l members on a smaller mission and frequently having members away on a mission was cleverly used to reduce the cast to whoever was needed for the story.

So it only makes sense to frequently look for new membbers to help strengthen their ranks... but given their teens and are recurting teens they need to be careful and need a logical way to reduce crowd flow. I mean you saw how many people used to line up for american idol before that died a justified death, people will do anything to be famous and they need to weed out those whose powers and skill just aren’t up to snuff yet, or those who are just dicks as, unsuprisingly, several stories have been built on assholes who applied and were rejected turning evil and attacking.. even though the Legion wasn’t even paticuarlly harsh. They also are more than fair as applicants CAN try again or if they prove themselves in other ways can be let in, as Bouncing Boy, my favoirite legionarre, was intially rejected for his power of .. well...

Yeah.. on paper inflating like a ball and bouncing around is kind of silly. In practice he can ricochet off enemies, walls, and obstacles and is fairly durable in that state. It’s why I don’t really brook mocking the guys power: yes it’s goofy.. but say that again when he hands you his ass. It’s the same with matter eater lad who yes is an actual character: While being able to eat anything is gloriously goofy.. it means he can chew through ANY substance and digest ANYTHING. Hell in the cartoon episode intorducing the subs they used both of these guys to great efffect: Bouncing Boy, who in the cartoon had to try out multiple times in his backstory, encouraged the future subs while Matter Eater Lad got in by EATING A FUCKING BOMB. He also had shades which I dind’t know he was missing but now I do. My point is the process is fair and well thought out and leads to some really fun scenes.

But yeah joining the legion is naturally Polar Boy’s dream, as he walks down the avenue of heroes, basically a series of statues honoring the legion and hopes all his hard work paid off. We then cut to the auditions, where he apparently waited all night. What I like about this story is that unusually for the silver age legion where it was mostly a sea of powers attached to a bunch of cardboard, really the dc silver age in a nutshell and why marvel broke out so much for having more dynamic and realistic characters, Polar Boy has more of a personality. It’s not MUCH but he’s a dedicated, hard working kid who just wants to join his heroes and seems really in awe of htem, a feeling we can all relate to. We’ve all had people we’ve looked up to, admired, and we’ve all had groups we wanted to join as kids, teens or what have you. And of course.. we all know what it’s like to be rejected by someone or something you badly wanted to be a part of. And that’s what happens to poor polar boy, who comes from a world with an intense sun thus his people developed super cold powers.. but he can’t control them well so while their impressive, they also freeze the legion. HIs powers are good... but due to their strength and radius he’s also a liablility. They give him an consolation anti-gravity belt.. they had these before eventually compressing them into the much cooler flight rings.. which I still desperatly want one of. I have the flash’s costume ring and a green lantern corps ring, but still no legion ring.

Naturally this devistates the poor boy and he wonders around dispondent till nightfall, convinced he’ll never be one of them. He soon meets Night Girl, a fellow reject with super strength given to her by her dad’s formula.. but only in darkness as she’s from a world without sunlight. She also faces a “hopeless future” but it’s then Polar Boy’s true strength reveals itself: he decides screw giving up on their dream and if they can’t be in the legion they’ll start their own Legion.

Though not to compete but to serve as a subtistute, in case the legion is ever incapacitated. So Night Girl gathers the other rejects the next morning. Cleverly one of them, Chlorophyll Kid was seen with Night Girl herslef at the tryouts behind Polar Boy. We soon learn about them and each of their origins: Stone Boy can turn himself into an immobile stone statue, as his world has half a year long nights and thus his people hybernate, Fire Lad who can spit hot fire literally and set anything combustable on fire and Chlorphyll Kid who can make plants grow rapidly. Each were rejected for resonable powers: Stone Boys powers too static, Fire Lad’s is too dangerous and Chorlpyl Kids toos pecific. But upon seeing all of this Polar Boy says they STILL have fantastic powers and still can help people and the legion.

Thus the Legion of Substittue Heroes is born. And I love them as much as the originals. As a bit of a misfit myself I relate to these guys: They have strange specific powers, got rejected by the big team.. while that trope is nothing new at the time it was unique and even now it’s a nice and inspiring message. Instead of giving up they form their OWN team to do what htey can anyway. They might not be the best like the legion but they can still help and still do what’s right even if not on their scale. It’s a great concept and really makes them endearing. Again I have a thing for the underdogs but I still really like these guys. It’s why it annoys me they got kind of spat on with time: While I love Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz run on the legion, and feel it’s the best of that contnuinty it’s not without fault and the two basically spent a full issue mocking the team and split polar boy off from them before making their own subs with only ONE of the originals. It just felt.. disrspectful. And so far no continuity has used them again until the recent bendis run, which has them announced for the Future Slate special. It took BENDIS, who dosen’t get how to use the team properly and is up his own ass, to bring them back in a new continuity and I find that obnoxious. The subs are a great concept and deserve to be honored as such and as such are one of my favorite superhero teams.

But their careers don’t start well as they doubt themslves, except for Polar Boy who boisters them along, and constnatly just end up going to missions the legion already has covered and when the legion go to fight some robot ships, they refuse the subs help.. which is fair though, as Brainy puts it they can’t risk putting untrained volunteers in harms way. Their about to just quit, in a really sad moment.. when CK, because I can’t spell cholophill and hate having to use spell check notices some odd seeds spread about.. and when he grows one a horrifying tree man shows up. They struggle with it till the setting son finishes it’s job, meaning Night Girl is at full power and whollops it and the subs spend the night destroying the seeds. They find out the next day the seeds came from the same planet as the robot ships, meaning the ships are a distraction for whoevers doing this and since they can’t just call earth, as the full force of the legion is needed with the robots and all it’d do is cause a panic, it’s down to them. Night Girl however is scared.. and I like that. It shows that while their regaining their confidence.. it’s sitll risky. Their a bunch of barely trained fanboys, and girl, going up against an alien invasion, with it down to them. They CAN save the world but it’s alright to be entirely terrified when your thrust into it this fast.

They make their way to the planet, having built a ship earlier and lie low, finding out what’s going on: The plant men are fully intellegent, and grow themselves..though how they know to attack and go to the bathrom and what not out of the seed I don’t know but I assume it’s a genetic thing or they might be some form of hive mind. point is the seed plan is to grow troops all over the world via rockets for an invasion, and it’s a brilliant concept for one too. Aliens who simply GROW the troops right into battle, born with the knowledge to do so, and right where they can ambush them. It’s down to our heroes and Stone Boy, whose been the most pesemistic, valiantly dives in to provide a distraction so they can destroy the factory and the seeds. Turns out he is useful as the most the treeple have is a space lead pipe.. yes really. I love the silver age. But they’ll bring ray guns soon, so Stone BOy knows it’s a suicide mission and now our heroes have a timer. But luckily.. our heroes are stronger than they think. Night Girl punches a way in till Night passes, while Polar Boy and Flame Lad use their powers in concert to make an opneing.. but with time running out Polar Boy finishes things by having CK grow all the seeds now they have acess.. thus exploding the planets population, destroying several cities from the number of bodies, and thu discourguing the treeple from trying again. Stone boy is able to flee with the rest of our heroes and the day is saved.

The heroes opt not to tell the public, as to take away glory for the Legion. It’s a noble gesture.. they do DESERVE credit, but they choose not to take it, preferring to let the legion get theres for stil lsaving the world from the robots. They stand firm, now confident they may someday make it to the big leagues.And it’s this that really makes me love them: Thier not the strongest or best, but they try anyway for the reasons a hero should: to help people, and not for the glory. THey remain unsung heroes and are fine with that. Eventually the Legion WOULD find out about them, but naturally instead of being dickheads about it, fully accepted them, even offering them some contests for membership, but that’s a story for another day. THey’d remain stalwart allies and valuable backup in crisis situations for years to come until the bollocks outlined above. But they’d never leave my heart and thanks to them.. the legion never left either.

Final Thoughts: While I do love the story for it’s personal signifigance to me, It’s stilll a really good story for the time. A bit stilted as was the style, but still good, well paced and with an endaring cast of underdogs who prove themselves in the end. It’s something diffrent from the usual clean cut ahead in life wasps these stories usually followed at the time. While the team’s still all white and all that, their outcasts and misfits who just want to help and have trouble beliving in themselves. Their a good standard to live up to.. and a good inspiration for me and my constnatly self hating self doutbing self. And I hope you enjoyed htem too. If you’d like to comission your own review, just dm me. It’s 5 bucks for individual issues. Later days.

#the legion of super heroes #the legion of substitute heroes #polar boy #fire lad #night girl #chorophyil kid #stone boy #silver age #comics #comics reviews #birthday

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nikyri-art · 5 years ago

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After so long the first “chapter” is finally here! :’D This will hopefuly be a short illustrated novel series. The story takes place before the events of Borderlands 3. I would never be able to make this without the help of my sweet friend @border-spam who provided my with so much support, great ideas, inspiration and with her help to rewrite this. Actually it’s kind of colaboration of me, my man and her. Since my man helped with rewriting too. Huge Thanks to them because without them editing it, I would never post it. <3 . . . Usually, this would have been resolved in just a few minutes. Having a team of his own technicians to take care of streaming issues was surely one of his greatest ideas. He still has to check up on them directly every so often, mostly for his own assurance that everything is running smoothly, but today, what should have been a quick check in was taking longer because some idiot meat sack follower had damaged some streaming equipment. Because of that dumbass, Troy has been left trying to get this tech repaired and the stream online before Tyreen loses her patience with the delay. Luckily, one of his most trusted editors was around to help him with cable replacement.

Troy sits in front of the monitor array, nervous as time ticks on, bouncing his leg while impatiently watching the little symbol on the monitor in front of him, waiting for it to signal the connection is back ON. His ECHO’s screen next to him updates with new pings so quickly it’s constantly lit, that’s how often his Godly sister is messaging him, and each new blip and ping from the echo makes him even more frustrated.. but he tries his absolute best to keep it inside, and not to aim his inner anger at the girl that has offered him help.

She’s the one currently sat under the desk beneath him, expertly fixing the cables running under it. A hugely welcome help, considering he’d never be able to fit under it to try himself.

Tinkers are best for these kind of repairs, smaller hands able to quickly handle finicky tech, able to get into places he can’t because of his height. His editor isn’t exactly a Tink, but you could easily mistake her as one due to her small size.

Just as he feels himself ready to snap, Tyreen’s constant pings and the delay on the stream causing his frustration to reach boiling point, a victorious laugh erupts from her under the desk. “AH-HA! YESSS!”

The symbol on the monitor finally turns green, and his scowl shifts into a genuine smile. “Helllll yeah, we are live baby!” His left arm quickly works the keyboard, testing the stream tech and getting it set up, until a gentle tap on his knee breaks his concentration.

��Umm, it’s not like I don’t enjoy the fabulous view from between your legs… but could you please let me out?” Her soft voice pleads from under the table.

He smirks, and pushes his chair back just enough to make her think she is free, but instead hunches down, looking under at her with his trademark shit-eating grin.

“I don’t know Ari, can I? Honestly, I really like you being down the-” he is interrupted as his face is gently pushed away by a really small hand. As soon as he shifts backwards, she crawls out and dusts off her jeans while giving her God a playful smile.

Any other cultist would pay with their life for daring to touch the God King like this, but she’s somehow special to him. Maybe it could even be called a friendship of some kind. Or at least, that’s how he sees their whole relationship. They’ve worked together almost every day for three years, and as the years passed he’s found himself talking to her, enjoying her company, choosing to be around her.. but Troy is too busy running the cult to have time for real friendships, and the only people he spends any time with besides his sister are the people in his editing team.

It’s a rare thing for him to find someone like her, someone who isn’t just a bloodthirsty idiot screeching psychotically. Someone who actually has enough brain cells to have a real conversation. That what drew him to his little friend over time. She does, of course, respect him as a God, but she does treat him.. differently. Something that feels almost like those fleeting nice moments he shares with Tyreen sometimes, facades forgotten every once in a while. His God King persona really dislikes that this woman dares to treat him like anything less than a deity, but the lonely man inside of him secretly wishes she’d do it more. It’s a kind of closeness he craves desperately.

He returns the grin and stands up, ready to leave. “Nice! Now we can finally start the stream!”. His Echo lights up one more showing Tyreen’s name again, and he curses under his breath and picks it up, bracing himself to answer the onslaught of messages. While he begins to text his sister, he notices his friend silently standing to his side, staring. Staring at his chest, to be exact. Staring so intensively she’s paused in her tracks and not left yet.

Many people stare at Troy, and for many reasons. Cultists stare in adoration and respect, the “civilised” assholes he spends unwanted time around stare in disgust, but she’s staring in a different way, and that’s why it’s sparked so much curiosity in him.

She doesn’t notice he’s completely aware of her awe as he breaks the silence. “Heh, I know it’s really hard not to get a good eyeful sweetie, but don’t forget to blink every once in a while.” he purrs.

Again, just as before, his attempt to fluster her doesn’t work. Maybe that is why he enjoys being near her so much, she isn’t as easily controlled as everyone else, and he’s noticed over time that she actually does have a couple of similar tricks as his up her sleeves as well.

She looks up at him and he’s almost insulted by her perfectly controlled expression, feigning complete boredom, like his last line hadn’t even landed. “I wasn’t staring, I was wondering.”

“Where.. did you even get those tattoos?”

Now she really has his attention. “The guys who tattoo the psychos are really terrible at it, but yours look actually, well, professional.” His ECHO keeps beeping and flickering, frantically alerting him that he should have left and been on stream, but this little rascal just hit a real sweet spot, and there is no way he’s going to leave right now.

The urge to smile was too strong, and he lets out a soft laugh as she continues to look up at him, so confident and relaxed in his presence despite being barely taller than his navel. Even without realising it, she just appreciated his work. He’s the artist behind the iconic Calypso tattoo on his chest. It was a long process he’d taken his time with after coming to loath the shitty arm tattoos he got from some jackhole years ago. He’d stopped trusting others to tattoo him and taken up the craft himself. The skull on his shoulder was the only older one that looked at remotely decent even before the siren tattoos burned right through it, and he was grateful the rest had been burned through badly over time.

He puts his hand around his hip and pushes his coat aside, leaning back to stretch the taught lines of muscle across his inked abdomen and chest to give her a better look.

“Well that’s because they were done by a professional, not some scumfuck idiot. Why so curious about it anyway, sweets?” He croons, enjoying the way she shifts on her feet slightly. “You fancy on gracing that little body with some art yourself? Maybe something to honor and please your God?”

Using this moment to her advantage, she dares to take a step nearer to him to get a better look at the tattoos. From a closer look, it’s clear that it’s been a while since he’d gotten them, the ink slightly faded against his warm coffee toned skin. The most interesting design is of course the skull that’s hidden behind the hanging chains around his neck, and she wants a better look at it.

Pushing her boundaries yet again, she slowly reaches towards them and carefully shifts them out of the way, gently brushing her fingers against his skin in the process. It would be easy to miss how his breath hitches a little when she touched him, or how goosebumps blossom across his chest, but she was way to close to not notice. He glares intensely at the top of her head, glare burning right through her, and even though she doesn’t look at him, she feels it.

When she finally lifts her head to look into his sapphire eyes, she swears she notices a hint of blush on his cheeks above the wolfish grin. Against her will, the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile. God King Calypso is a very interesting mess of a man once you start to see past the act he plays for most people. Though he is extremely confident and intimidating on the outside, she’s started to suspect that inside hides a shy little boy. Even still, regardless of those slightly red cheeks, he never loses that aura of danger, and she’s nervously aware that she is playing with fire right now..

Why is he so proud of this tattoo? She’s only seen him act like this around something he’s responsible for. Maybe it’s the skull and the rest of the design… He is the creator of almost all of the propaganda art the COV uses, so it wouldn’t really be surprising if he had designed his own tattoos, would it? She crosses her arms in front of her chest and perks an eyebrow as she considers how to respond.

“Yeah… I would love to get some nice tattoos as well, but I don’t trust any of those psychotic bastards to get remotely close to me, let alone touch me…”

“Maaaybe the artist that tattooed you could give me a hand and help me out with mine?“

It’s not a secret that the God King despises bandits. They are below him, and many of the bastards had been killed just for getting too close to his liking. The only reason her and the Tinkers aren’t ever reduced to steaming piles of viscera for daring to interact with him is because they are useful, smart. Of course he wouldn’t let any of those bandit idiots do this tattoo… which means the person tattooing him has to be someone at least modestly sane, someone she could trust. Thats exactly what she’s looking for, since avoiding bandits in general is the best decision regardless.

She notices how much her last question has pleased him… His smug smile grows unnaturally wide, the amount of teeth starting to show is giving her a bad feeling in her guts, and she swallows nervously before be finally replies.

“You want the artist to help out with yours? Oh surrrre I can.” he rumbles triumphantly, and she feels her stomach drop as she realises what’s just happened.

“Finding the right canvas for my art is never easy, but I’m very interested in working on yours.” Her eyes widen further as he leans down to her so that predatory grin fills her vision, just so he can enjoy her surprise from up close.

Now she finally understands why he was so pleased. So eager to discuss this. So happy to play along. Not only did he design his tattoos, he tattooed them as well.

This wasn’t what she wanted at all. It was fine to chat with him about some tech or shared interested when he was in a good mood, but the God King was still a power she did not want to play with. She could get burned, badly, even when she knows he doesn’t hurt anyone from his team as long as they are obedient and respectful.

She desperately tries to get out of this fast. “Ah.. um.. well.. I didn’t really decide on any design yet, I really need to get that right first!” Convincing as that sounds, he navigates around it instantly, too clever to let her slip out of his grasp so easily.

“Oh no problem, I can design something great for you, that wouldn’t be a problem at all.” She swears his eyes are burning through her as her cheeks redden. “Oh, um, I was actually thinking about getting a piercing first, for a start?” his smile grows wider. “After all these years spent here, I don’t even have my ears pierced. The holes grew back together, maybe that would be a good start..”

This is exactly why she doesn’t like being alone with him. He’s so good with words, twisting situations to his own benefit. A sly snake, he does anything he can to get what he wants, and he always gets what he wants…

The ECHO in his hand beeps again, giving her a moment of hope, but he ignores it completely, all attention on the shaking woman he’s got trapped in his coils.

“Well lucky you! I’m really experienced with both tattoos AND piercings!” Now it really is too late, he has her trapped, cornered by her own words. He’d picked up on her twisting and changing her opinions just to try and get out of this, and made sure he was a step ahead of her each time.

“Come to my workshop tomorrow morning the same time you normally start work, we can… hmm… map out some ideas together.”

“See you later Ari.”

A cocky wink later and he finally leaves the room, leaving the poor girl standing there hopeless….

#troy calypso #borderlands 3 #borderlands fanart #Borderlands OC #fanfiction #(kinda)#borderlands fanfiction #Ari #fanfic #oc #original character #bl3 #short story #au #borderlands #Ariana-Serino

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years ago

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So let’s say you’re now in charge of creating a Spider-Man TV Series, as many seasons and episodes you want, as long as it remains genuinely faithful to the comics; Peter gets his powers when he’s 17, only Flash and Liz are with him in high school, ect, and ending it all with a Revelations like series finale. You’re allowed to streamline some things now that there’s the benefit of hindsight. You’re also allowed to be as faithful to the comics as possible. What do you create?

Lol I’ve been planning this for like 15 years. Currently I’d do this. 12 seasons 26 episodes each, and 3 movies.

I’d play it as a biography of Peter’s life from the day he became Spidey to the day he stopped, with a mind of making a version of the MC2 universe the canonical future for this version of Spidey. I’d set it in the 1960s as depicted by Ditko but have the technology and fashions change to broadly speaking reflect the time periods that Peter spent parts of his life in. In other words his high school episodes will be set in what looks like the 1960s, Gwen would die in what would look like the early 1970s and he’d get married in what would look like the late 1980s. But cultural references would be kept to a minimal. Effentivly it’d be set in a world where fashions and technology happened to occur way more quickly thanin the real life, so 1962-1998’s fashions and technologies all happened but across like 12 years.

Also I’d have Peter’s look change. He’d start out with the Coke bottle glasses and keep them throughout season 1, and he’d have a black and red costume, complete with a big blue spider on his back and web pits. The idea being this is a rookie spidey who’s awkward and not yet become the Spidey we perhaps recognize. He’d sell his glasses in the final episodes and get his costume wrecked in the finale, requiring him to make a new one, the classic Romita Senior outfit minus the web pits. He’d keep that until he got his black suit which would be modelled on Frenz’ take upon it. the cloth Black suit would have more of a McFarlane influence with huge eyes. MJ would make him a new red+blue costume before his first big showdown with Venom which would resemble the McFarlane/Bagley 90s look. Obviously Scarlet Spider’s look would be modelled on Bagley’s design, Spider-Ben on Romita Jr’s and his final outfit would be modelled on Romita Jr’s too. And Sal Buscema’s take would be the outfit worn by Flash when he pretends to be Spider-Man.

Movie 1: Amazing Fantasy: The Birth of Spider-Man: The origin, MAYBE rounded off with ASM #1’s plot.

Season 1: Basically everything up to when he graduated with every issue serving as an episode. I’d omit guest appearances like the F4, the Torch, DD, the Circus of Crime. I’d supplant the ASM #5’s plot with one about Jason Macendale armed with tech abducting Flash when he’s dressed as Spidey. He’d be a stand in for the Headman from Untold Tales and the episode would end with his mysterious boss speaking to Spidey remotely through a camera. This would of course be the Goblin who I’d have debut in what was his second appearance hijacking the Spidey fan club. I’d have Doc Ock unmasking Spidey end that episode and have most of it dedicated to Betty Brant’s origin told in flashbacks as she’s abducted. I’d do Spider-Man No More here, combining it with ASM #18’s plot line as it’d redundant to have him quit in big ways twice. So one episode would be ASM #18’s plot with bits of ASM #50 mixed in, ending with him throwing away his suit. Then the next episode would be about his Spidey free life before he triumphantly returns. The Molten man episodie would end with Aunt May collapsing rather than Spidey graduating.

This would lead directly into the MP Trilogy’s main storyline but to spice things up the Master Planner would hire some of Spider-Man’s villains as extra obstacles in his way, thus we’d adapt the original Sinister Six story too. The last episode would end with Peter graduating and then sitting alone to make a new suit. Also Betty would leave town.

Season 2: It’d kick off with a recovered Peter starting college and someone hiring Kraven to go after Spidey like in ASM #34. The key difference here being that Kraven dons Spider-man’s old costume and when Spidey finally shows up to deal with him he’s sporting his new red and blue Romita Sr threads. Then we’d get the Robot Master stuff, the first Rhino story and a few other stories before around episode 6 or 7 getting to the Goblin unmasking Spider-Man and revealing himself as Norman. I’d have Norman seriously injured to the point where Spider-Man has to save him or else he’d die. He’d sweat about Norman knowing the truth like in Spider-Man: Blue before finding out Norman has amnesia and that most people don’t recover their memories. Seeing how happy Harry is, he decided to let it go and give Norman a chance. The rest of the season is basically adapting the big Romita era stories (sans Spider-Man No More of course), with an emphasis on Kingpin and fewer Doc Ock stories. POSSIBLY I might do Doc Ock’s origin from Unlimited #3 here, I dunno. It’d either be here or next season though. The season would wrap up with George Stacy’s death and with Gwen leaving.

Also I’d foreshadow a little that Norman has a healing factor via his speedy recovery.

Also, also, rather than space spores creating Colonel Jupiter, I’d have it be the Moon Gem that actually turned him into man-Wolf. It’d be an artefact he’d bring back from the moon and it’d increase his strength and affect his mind so that he’d desire to have the gem for some unknown reason (we’ll find out later).

Season 3: This would be half a team up season, introducing characters from the Marvel Universe who’re relevant to Spider-Girls’ stories, so the F4, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Spider Woman, Arana, Julia Carpenter, the Avengers, the X-Men, etc. It’d begin with Peter heading to London to find Gwen and inadvertently winding up in a team up, I’ve not figured out with whom yet (maybe Ice Man and Firestar for funsies, MAYBE Excalibur so we’d get Spider Phoenix????), anyway it’d adapt ASM #95 in any case. Then we’d go to the drug trilogy but I’ve not yet decided how to handle this. On the one hand it’s iconic. On the other it’s questionable by modern standards to have Peter see Norman remember the truth and then just let him go on, hoping he doesn’t remember. Maybe you could play it as him being worried that turning Norman in could trigger his memory, I dunno. I feel you could swap out the action part of the story with something else, provided you kept all the Harry drug stuff the same, and maybe had the story be about Norman STARTING to remember and unravel. When peter goes to him for a job though he’d catch a glimpse of a weird painting, depicting the Scriers and Norman would give a little background on their alleged history.

I’d also have the Six Arm Saga and debut of Morbius happen here, but link it in with some illegal genetic experiments someone within ESU is doing on the side for the mob. These experiments would lead to the creation of Vermin who owns Spidey’s ass until he’s saved by someone at the end of the episode. After Vermin beats a retreat, that someone helps Spidey up and it’s Captain America! Cue an ep of Spidey and Cap on the helicarrier with Chameleon using Artificial Life similicra to infiltrate it. Cap is abducted at the end of this episode and the Avengers show up accusing Spider-Man of it. Cue the next 2 episodes where Spider-Man teams up with the Avengers to take on the Hulk in Canada and Seth, the Serpent God of Death. This would then lead into the final 2 episodes which I’ll get to in a moment.

Also in this season I’d have a two part team up with Spidey and Spider Woman. Madame Web would summon them and reveal she is a member of the Spider Clan. Her granddaughter Anya Corazon, has been abducted by the Tarantula clan and Peter and Jess need to rescue her. This would allow Spidey to meet Madame Web, Jessica Drew and Anya of course and foreshadow the Black Tarantula. The Tarantula Clan’s outfits would resemble Julia Carpenter’s Spider Woman and Arachne outfits. This would lead to a ‘filler’ ep about Spider-Man fixing his suit and daydreaming about other costumes and powers he could have. This would be an excuse to pay homage to the Spider Armour, Captain Universe and a few other classic outfits for Spider-Man. the episode would end with him tossing away a doodle of the black costume inspired by his previous adventure. Later we’d get Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut but the story would end with the X-Men showing up. The episode after that would be a Spidey/X-Men team up but Mastermind would mind control them into fighting, thus we’d get Spider-Man vs. the X-Men like Secret Wars #3

The final 2 eps would be the Death of Gwen Stacy. I’d keep this pretty much the same but with the exception of having Gwen awake and trying to escape. The moments just before she’s knocked off the bridge Peter would try to earn her trust by starting to unmask.

Season 4: It’d kick off with the Jackal hiring Punisher to take out Spider-Man. Apart from that it’d be basically ASM #123-149, all about Peter grieving Gwen, falling in love with MJ, etc. I would cut some of the dumber stuff out though and condense some multi-parters into single stories. I’d whack in some team ups for good measure too as MTU was around at this time. One major change I’d make is that I’d have Man-Wolf show up as a result of similar experiments that created Vermin and ditch the moon gem stuff. However, Man-Wolf would eventually go after the Moon gem but it’s energies would in fact revert him to normal. The clprit behind Man-wolf and Vermin would be revealed as Miles Warren.

One smaller change I’d make would be to omit ASM #150. It’s a great issue but it’s not a great season finale like ASM #149 would be. BUT I’d keep the MJ scene from it by simply moving it to the events of ASM #149. The idea is that when the bomb hits zero, everything fades to white, Peter would wake up amidst debris, when Gwen asks how he knows he’s the real one, he’d respond that ‘he just knows’. Later as he’d be approaching his apartment we’d get a flashback revealing that he was thinking of MJ as the bomb hit zero and so he couldn’t be the clone. Cue him finding MJ in the apartment, end season.

Season 5: Basically the Len Wein run with a dash of Marv Wolfman. It’d wrap up with a combination of 3 Wolfman era stories. MJ proposing to MJ, Spidey vs. the Burglar from ASM #200 and finally Peter graduating. A major change would be that MJ would literally leave town immediately after rejecting Peter, and it’d be a break up not just a rejection. But we the audience would see a private moment with MJ where we can tell she wasn’t nearly as casual about it as she let on.

Movie 2: Mayhem in Manhattan: Mid way through the season I’d adapt this Spider-Man novel into another animated film.

Season 6: It’d kick off with Spider-Man meeting Black Cat. The season really would be about Peter dating different people casually and more seriously. Deb Whitman, Cissy Ironwood, etc. He’s work for the Daily Globe and start Grad school. The season finale would be the Owl/Octopus War ending with Felicia seriously injured and Peter ripping out Otto’s arms as a result. The season would end with Spider-Man and Black Cat now an item. But I’d omit the events of Spec #77-79. Also at the Daily Globe Peter would meet and work with Eddie Brock.

Season 7: It’d start with the debut of the Hobgoblin, cover Felcia’s recovery, gaining new powers (from other people continuing Warren’s experiments with animal DNA), MJ’s return, Peter dropping out of Grad school, MJ’s big reveal and origin, and culminate in Peter and Black Cat breaking up and Kingpin leaving NYC. The Kingpin battle would be taken from Wolfman’s run moreso than Spec #100 because that’s just a better fight.

Of course the Alien Costume Saga would happen. I’d keep the canon stuff but add in the elements of it corrupting him, with the extra spice of Felicia actually preferring this darker Spider-Man.

Peter would get the costume differently though. Instead of Secret Wars, criminals would try and obtain the Moon Gem, which was being hosted as ESU. The fight would culminate in a Kinglsey clothing factory and as a last resort Spidy would smash the gem by throwing it into one of the machines in the factory.

Licking his wounds afterwards he’d be leaning against the conveyer belt when a tiny black ball would emerge from the shards of the Moon Gem, enlarge and when Spidey noticed it we’d recreate Secret Wars #8.

BTW, to give readers clues to the Hobgoblin’s identity I’d have him record a voice journal but with a voice changer so we get his inner thoughts sorta.

Also Jason Macendale would show back up but not as jack O’lantern.

Season 8: It’d start with ASM #260-261, the Rose/Hobgoblin story where they abduct a pregnant Liz Allan. The season would omit a lot of irrelevant stuff like the golden notebook subplot, the Beyonder, etc. But it’d keep stuff like Crusher Hogan, When Commeth the Commuter, Web #13 and other classic stories. The three central subplots of this season would be the Ned/Flash/Betty love triangle, Peter and MJ’s ‘will they won’t they’ romance and the Hobgoblin mystery. However instead of Lance Bannon, Eddie Brock would be one of the suspects. Brock would be threatened directly by Spider-Man when he starts writing Sin Eater articles and that’s just about the only thing I’d change from the Death of Jean DeWolff storyline. Most of the real important stuff from this era (sans Doc Ocks mental breakdown) I’d keep the same with the exception of not making Jason Macendale the new Hobgoblin. After Peter and Felicia break up I’d have Betty go all Cult of Love from later in the comics before the finale being yet another way later story: Hobgoblin Lives. It’s just more logical to wrap up the Hobgoblin mystery here rather than end it badly and wait years to fix it.

Season 9: This is kind of the least accurate season but hear me out. Okay so we start off with Peter proposing to MJ, her rejecting him, then her agreeing, just like in the comics. BUT...we don’t have them then get married. Something as huge as your protagonist’s wedding should be the first or final episode of a season, not episode 3 or 4 or even the mid-season finale. So I’d grab a load of post-wedding stories and tweak them to be about Peter and MJ as an engaged couple. The stories would be selected to somehow tie-in with their relationship. The idea is to have the couple gradually develop doubts. So we’d have Jonathan Caesar. We’d have the Drunk Spider-Man issue but with Jason Macendale now the Demogoblin (it’s just a costume no demonic stuff) instead of the Hobgoblin. MAYBE we’d even have a heavily rewritten Jason Jerome subplot. We’d have Felicia turning back up to stir up trouble as she did in the 1990s. You get the picture. Because the finale is the wedding, which is obviously light on action, the episodes before the wedding I’d finally do Venom. Venom is great at generating dynamic action set pieces so he’d kind of compensate for no action in the actual finale. Venom is also an ideal choice because this whole season is about a romantic relationship, and Venom is in a sense an ‘unholy union’ between two entities. We’d draw upon the fact that Brock’s wife left him and ASM #300’s climax happening in a church bell tower is just too perfect for the wedding theme of this season. One element I’d throw in though would be for Spidey to have his ass handed to him by Venom once only to get away. MJ makes Spidey a new red and blue costume. The idea being that in wearing Venom’s colours the colours Felicia preferred him in, the colours that don’t represent his true self, he won’t win against this dark version of himself. But the red+blues are Mj’s preferred suit, MJ’s colours and reflective of who he really is.

The season finale would be the wedding but split over 2 episodes. The first ep would end with Peter going to see Felicia the night before his wedding and MJ going off with Bruce (or maybe Jason Jerome).

The actual final episode would be them vocing their doubts and insecurities to Felicia and Jason/Bruce and through talking with them, and reflecting on the events of the season and their lives in general they realise they’re just getting jitters. If they weren’t going to go through with this they would’ve walked away a long time ago. In fact their hardships this season prove they can handle it and make it work. So they get married but in typical Parker luck fashion their ride gets caught in traffic en route to the honey moon, so they gotta web swing their way there into the sunset.

Movie 3: Fearful Symmetry: Kraven’s Last Hunt: I briefly considered making this the opening of the next season, the season finale of the last season or the mid-season finale of the last season but it just didn’t work. It’s too iconic to change up like that it HAS to happen shortly after the wedding. Making it a movie would help sell the fact that for the first time ever we’re suddenly hearing Kraven and Vermin’s inner thoughts which would be weird to happen randomly in the middle of a season. A movie though can sort of be it’s own thing.

I wouldn’t change anything beyond adding a kind of prologue chronicling Kraven’s history up until now, who Vermin is, Peter and MJ’s marriage, Ned’s death, just some stuff that’s a small story unto itself and can allow the movie to stand on it’s own a bit more.

Season 10: Basically this is the Harry Osborn Saga from DeMatteis’ run. I’d cut down on the Vermin stuff. Maybe I’d cut out Peter’s parents from Child Within. I dunno because I would totally do a rewritten Robot Parents story arc in this season because I think that story could be compelling if done properly. I’d just have it happen BEFORE Harry dies, which naturally would be the season finale. Also in this season we’d introduce Carnage, Tombstone, the Joe Robertson/Tombstone subplot and the Return of the Sinister Six. One thing I’d add into the latter story would be the character of Carolyn Trainer who’s quite taken with Doc Ock. Spidey and Ock would have a huge showdown adapting their battle from Spec #79 since that’s probably the best Spidey/Ock fight ever. I might also do an adaptation of Soul of the Hunter and/or Torment, both because it’s a famous Lizard story and because it’d set up Kraven’s death withint he context of the show and thus give Chameleon motivation for the Robot Parents stuff.

Season 11: A heavily abridged and rewritten version of...the Clone Saga!

I’ve actually plotted this episode by episode. The gist is Aunt May has a stroke, Ben shows up, we introduce Carrion who busts out Carnage in exchange for some of his symbiote. Spidey fights Carnage but when they’re both affected by a poison Carrion tests out, Ben steps in to help. Venom also escapes, leading to Ben becoming Scarlet Spider. Peter is dying of the poison leading into the Web of Death story where Doc Ock cures him and Kaine then kills Otto. Web of Death could’ve been the ultimate end for Doc Ock so in a show that’s finite it makes sense to end him with that.

Anyway, Peter learns MJ is pregnant, he and Ben reunite with the Jackal, Carrion and the Gwen clone. They learn Carrion is a clone of Warren and was in fact the Warren from Shea stadium, he’s got telepathic powers and is using them to keep Gwen’s clone (Joyce Delany) under Warren’s control. Warren sows doubt as to who the real guy is.

Aunt May dies, Peter goes to jail, a third Peter Parker shows up. But instead of being Spidercide I’d make him a human/symbiote hybrid, and he’d be this show’s version of Toxin.

Peter becomes Scarlet Spider to clear his own name, learns who Kaine is, finds out he’s a clone, DOESN’T hit MJ but he does run away distraught, etc.

I’d have Maximum Clonage happen but very, very differently. No army of spider clones, no Punisher, no nonsense like that. Warren is going to unleash his virus but wants to keep MJ safe as her baby could be interesting to study. So he abducts her and gives inoculations to the virus to everyone. MJ refuses so he asks Gwen to do it as she’s MJ’s friend. Gwen’s clone is kind of not all there due to the mind control so when MJ breaks her own dose of the inoculation, Gwen simply administers her dose to MJ. Ben shows up to save MJ and knocks out Carrion. Carrion as it turns out was keeping Toxin under control so he freaks out, grabs MJ and Gwen, asks Ben to choose between them and tosses them both off the roof, but then he pins Ben so he can’t save either. Peter shows up to save MJ, Warren instinctively jumps after Gwen to save her but out of nowhere, a new Green Goblin shows up to save her and Warren dies. The Goblin, Kaine, Ben and Peter fight Toxin who’s gonna be losing until he bonds with Carrion and is now too much for everyone else. Gwen meanwhile would be trying to defuse the device that’d be administering the virus, but starting to degenerate due to the stress.

Her last ditch effort would be to implore Carrion/Toxin to save them all. He’s a clone of Peter and Miles Warren so he loves her and since she’s not inoculated she’s gonna die. Carrion/Toxin smother the virus and absorb the poison into themselves, dying.

Kaine takes Gwen’s clone away as he understands the pain of degeneration and Peter retires, making Ben the new Spider-Man.

The second half of the season is a condensed Spider-Ben era but with Lady Ock, Spider-Carnage, Green Goblin V and Blood Brothers as the central storylines. We’d do some flashbacks to Lost Years and wrap up with Revelations. As a final little change I’d have Peter’s new Spider-Man costume be one created by Ben before he decided to make his own one.

Season 12: Basically the post-Clone Saga era. This final season would be wrapping stuff up, giving a lot of characters their swan songs, but the focus would be on Peter and Norman’s rivalry, Norman owning the Bugle, etc.

We’d introduce Black Tarantula, have a final gang war storyline in which Kaine is hired as a mercenary, Daredevil and Richard Fisk would die, and Kingpin would finally go to jail for good.

I’d also sort of adapt the Revenge of the Green Goblin storyline. I’d have Mysterio on Norman’s orders create a ‘dream’ for Peter Parker where he imagines MJ dies in a plane crash and everything goes wrong, Norman would torment him and try and tempt him into becoming his son and heir. Peter resists and escapes the nightmare.

The season/show would wrap up with Peter reclaiming baby May and a final showdown with the Green Goblin. Norman would be rocking his Marvel Knights armour and be juiced up with Phil Urich’s strength enhancing Goblin mask. Also Phil Urich will have been black mailed into becoming the Goblin on Norman’s behalf so he could clear his own name.

I’ll spare you the details, but essentially Norman’s plan involves murdering billions of people, taking control of the world and potentially endangering the life of baby May. He’s ultimately killed when his identity is revealed to the press, his glider decapitates him and triggers a gagillion explosions. Said explosions would wreck the Bugle leading to Spidey lifting it up like in the Final Chapter. Before he died though, Norman would try to beat Spidey by administering an antidote to his powers that he would’ve tested on Scorpion. He’d not give Peter the full dose though.

When all is said and done, Peter’s got an injured leg (but he’s not lost either of them) and his spider powers are gone, maybe forever, so he retires to be a family man.

This then leads into Spider-Girl where we learn over time he regained some of his old powers but they amount to allowing him to crawl on walls, have a vague reading from his spider sense and render him fit for his age. His leg injury still plays up though. Basically he’s got power but not so much that it’d be reasonable for him to go back to heroism.

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404pennamenotfound · 5 years ago

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Photogenic, Part 1

Arriving on set for your next shoot was no problem. Neither was doing a morning coffee run or filling in as stylist when yours ended up giving birth three weeks early and receiving the call last night. The last minute model swap wasn’t either. What was a problem was your hairstylist, Jon, calling to say he was stuck in New York and couldn’t find a flight out in time to make the shoot. Your boss, Diana - who was her usual chipper, high energy, eccentric self today- took it all in stride, although your eyes about popped out of their sockets at her brilliant suggestion,

“You want me to do his hair?!” Your shock was clear. On top of everything else she wants you to handle this?! Clothing you could manage; Liz had everything prepped and ready to go, until her contractions started intensifying. But hair? You could only manage yours on a good day. Diana simply shrugged it off.

“Well, you’ve already got wardrobe under control, the set’s a simple scene and you know what product does what. I think doing some guys hair would be a simple feat for you.” Diana answers, fidgeting with her camera. “Just use that blue bottle we used on that Men’s Health issue last week. You know, with that gorgeous guy from Wisconsin, what was his name again? Darian? Dustin? No, Dusty! That’s the one!” She continued to ramble as you glanced at your watch.

The rose gold band gleamed in the studio light as you read the time, 7:39 am. Your model was due to arrive no later than 8. Surely you could handle a little product and teasing some guys hair, right?

“Excuse me, are you Y/N?” The rumble of a deep voice startles you out of your thoughts. With a slight jump in surprise, your left hand flies up to your chest, trying to stop your startled heart from jumping out in a panic.

“Son of a nutcracker, you scared me!” You admit as you turn in your heels to find a tall, gorgeous man with bright green eyes staring back at you. “Yes, that would be me.” You voice as you rake your eyes over his frame. No matter what you come back to his eyes. ‘So brilliant’, you think to yourself. He smiles. ‘Damn, even his smile is gorgeous.’

“Great, I’m Charlie, your model.” He lifts his hand and you follow, taking his with your free hand not still pressed against your heart to shake his. Strong, warm and lightly calloused, not too rough. A professional handshake, you smile back at him and meet his eyes.

“Pleasure to meet you, Charlie. I’ve set up a personal space for you until we’re ready to begin prepping for the shoot.” You turn and start for a private room just off set before continuing. “Our hair stylist is caught up in a storm at the air port, so I’ll be filling in for him today, as well as doing your wardrobe. We’ve had a lot of surprises today. If there’s anything you need or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.” You turn back to him as you talk before motioning him inside the open door to his personal space just past wardrobe and hair.

You watch as he sets down a black backpack that was slung across one shoulder. Placing it on the side of the blue sofa, he starts to remove his black leather jacket next. “Thank you. I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other today then...” You watch his movements as he continues on, unintentionally tuning out as you focus on his blue shirt as his muscles contract underneath it.

You let your eyes fall to his rear as he tosses his jacket over the arm of the sofa, unzipping his backpack. You never considered yourself a butt lady, but here you are being proven wrong. His black jeans fit perfectly as they lead down to fit snuggly over his athletic legs before stopping at a pair of black and white accented Pumas. You finish admiring him and let your eyes lead you back up his frame to see him holding a box wrapped in yellow paper with ducklings on it. ‘What’s with the box?’ Your eyes flicker up to find his eyes set on yours. Your breath catches. ‘Caught.’

“I’m sorry?” You feel your cheeks redden at the realization he caught you checking him out. ‘How unprofessional of me! Get yourself under control!’ He grins as he looks down at the box.

“For Liz, the stylist? I’ve worked with her before and found out she was supposed to be on set today. I was planning on giving this to her but I guess it’ll have to wait.” He finishes, setting the present on the coffee table. You feel your heart do a tumble in awe of how sweet and thoughtful he is to get Liz a present.

“We were very surprised to find out she had the baby yesterday. I’m sure she’d love it if you stopped by to see her, she’s excited to show off her little boy and keeps begging for everyone to come see her.” You reply.

“Y/N! Diana’s locked herself out of the computer again and Ron’s throwing a fit over it.” You turn back to find Trey running over, his lanyard swinging around him with every step before he comes to a stop just behind you. “And we’re having problems with the studios air conditioning and can’t get ahold of their maintenance team.” He adds.

“I told Diana not to touch Ron’s tech and she doesn’t listen!” You vent, turning back to Charlie. You place a pleasant smile on your face as you excuse yourself. “I’ll be back in a few and we’ll start prepping for the shoot. Feel free to wander the set. We have a snack table and beverages in the next room. The restrooms just down that hall.” You point to your left, excuse yourself and start for Diana with Trey trailing behind you, listening to your swears with a grin on his scruffy face.

With a late start your shoot begins. You’ve managed to gain access to the computer systems, remind Diana why she needs to not touch Ron’s precious baby of a computer, calm Ron, adjust lighting and style Charlie. But to everyone’s disappointment, the maintenance crew has yet to fix the air conditioning.

You look on as Diana and Charlie work in the heat. You check the outcome of photos whilst settling background crew issues. You pulled fans to help keep the space cool in the L.A. heat, but it’s hardly making a difference in today’s conditions.

You watch as Charlie models a jacket without a shirt underneath, a concept you never truely understood. ‘Why bother with just a jacket? No one goes around with a jacket and no shirt?’ You may not understand the point in the advertinsing, but it makes for a hot, much appreciated shot. And you quite enjoy watching Charlie work with the lack of a shirt. You almost fan yourself when he ditches the coat all together and stands in a pair of jeans only. ‘At least if I did fan myself it could be blamed for the weather.’

Diana focuses her camera before freezing. A minute later she pulls away from the camera and turns to you looking displeased.

“What is it?” You ask, uncertain. Your eyes wander in a panic. ‘Did I say one of my thoughts out loud again? Did I forget spare memory cards? Is it the lighting? Surely it isn’t the lighting?’ You think, eyes returning to her face.

“Nails.” She whispers, lifting a hand and wiggling her fingers. “I need nails.”

Your eyebrows draw in as you ponder her line of thinking. “Nails? Diana, I don’t think now’s the best time for a manicure.”

“Not for me!” She yells, pointing back behind her to a half n*de Charlie. “Him!”

“What’s wrong with his nails?” You ask, walking over before grabbing his hands and turning them over in yours, inspecting.

“No, no, no. Not his nails.” Diana calls as she looks around her. “I need to see every woman’s nails!” She calls as she grabs the closest female and evaluates her hands. “Nope.” She moves on to the next. “No.” And the next, “No, no, no.” On and on. You drop Charlie’s hands and head over for Diana.

“I can call for a model if you-“ Before you can finish she cuts you off.

“It’ll take too long. I have pretty ladies here, surely one of them has pretty fingers.” She interrupts, moving down the line as you back up to clear space.

“Diana, this is a fashion shoot, I don’t see why we’re veering off c-“

“I was inspired. I want the shot. I’ll personally pay whoever extra for it. I need it.” She flits from woman to woman, never slowing but to cast a glance at their hands. ‘Okay, I guess we’re changing direction.’

“What if we edit them to-“

“No.” Diana states firmly. “No faking it. I want real. I always do real. Give me your hands, Y/N.”

She yanks on your wrists before you can object. Your freshly manicured nails reflect the light above. Diana stops a moment to wipe sweat from her brow before nodding, patting your hand and straightening her back.

“Those will do. Come, Y/N.” She commands. She returns to her post behind her camera. “Loose the shirt, missy. I need bare arms for this. Pull your hair back too. I can’t have those locks disturbing my shot.” She instructs. You come to a stop beside her as she adjusts the camera.

“I have no modeling experience.” Your excuse causes her to tsk. You try again. “I think we should get Clara to do it. I can have her nails ready-“ she stops you with a pointed look.

“I want your hands on Charlie’s chest, now.” Her firm tone makes you realize this is a battle you cannot win. A glance over your shoulder shows a crew member patting away sweat from Charlie as he watches you and Diana. He’s calm, relaxed. You bite your bottom lip as you admit defeat and mentally prepare yourself to touch him. ‘Dont be nervous, he’s a professional, he’s used to it. It’s not like you’ve never touched a man before.’

“Okay.” You turn and strip off your blouse. ‘Let’s get this over with. No shying away.’ You think as you pull your hair back, slightly glad to be just a touch cooler in your black bra, though a little bit self conscious.

After blotting at Charlie’s sweat and checking over you to see if you need any coverage, you both are free to take your places. Approaching behind him, you slowly settle your palms on his chest and hold your breath as the shoot proceeds.

“Trey, adjust the light over there.” Diana voices. You sense movement around you on the set but keep still. “Get a little closer, y/n. Move your hands lower.” Diana instructs. You move your hands down slowly as you shift your feet slightly forward, just a few inches between your face and his back. You feel your hands hit his abs as Diana calls for you to stop. You gulp. ‘Oh my god.’

“Trey, let’s go a little darker. Y/N, I need you just a bit closer, move your legs a bit, I’m catching some interference, you may need to pin your skirt up so it’s hidden.” Diana calls before a pause. “Hell, maybe just strip down to your skivies.” You can hear the smile in her voice. She’s teasing, though you can hear the contemplation in her tone.

“Oh Lord.” You squeak. Another assistant comes up to you and gently adjusts your skirt before helping you move your legs to completely hide behind Charlie. Your chest is now touching his bare back, you feel a slight breeze from a nearby fan hit the backs of your upper thighs. ‘I’m glad I wore cute underwear today.’

The camera clicks, flashing around you. You begin to feel every movement Charlie makes, no matter how subtle. How he slightly twists to one side, an arm adjustment, his abs clenching to give more contour.

“Perfect. Yes. I love it!” Diana rings out between shots. You feel a smile slowly slip into place at the praise. “You guys good?”

“Yes!” Your pitch higher than normal.

“Fantastic. Y/N’s got a light touch.” Charlie glances back with a grin to you. You meet his eyes.

“Oh, well maybe she should dig in. It’d make a great shot.” Diana suggests. Charlie’s grin widens as he looks back to the camera before him. Your eyes narrow. ‘Son of a...’

Your fingertips slowly fall lower on his abs before sinking into his flesh. He gives a light grunt in response. You bite your lip again out of nerves.

“Oh my god, I’m in love.” Diana says as she snaps away. Sweat droplets trail along your skin as the temperate rises, either from the suns changing position or the lack of space between you and Charlie, you can’t decide.

As soon as Diana called it quits, you snagged your blouse from the chair you tossed it on and make your way for the bathroom. Throwing the door open you lock it shut as soon as you clear the frame. Your fingers pull on tissues from the box as you blot away at the sweat sticking to your skin. Your eyes turn up to your reflection in the mirror.

“What the hell?” You wonder aloud to yourself. ‘He’s just a man! Why are you so out of sorts?! You are an adult woman, pull yourself together!’ You have a hard time grasping onto why you’re so attracted to him. Sure, he’s handsome, but you always look beyond the physical. ‘You hardly know him, slow down.’ You continue to lecture yourself as you make yourself more presentable. Finally you decide it’s perfectly natural for a woman to react that way to a man. ‘A well mannered, professional, gorgeous, hot, sweaty, nearly na*ed man...’ You decide you need a cold shower and turn to unlock the door, close down the set and start for home.

But the frustration returns when you catch the all telling grin gracing Diana’s face. She giggles as she packs her camera away.

“You plotter.” You hiss. She full on laughs as you scan the area for open ears or worse, Charlie. All clear.

“I think he liked it. I know I did.” You scowl at Diana as she latches her case shut. You start breaking down the set as she starts for the door. She stops beside you.

“You know, you’re really photogenic.” She says, slipping you a candid photo of you eyeing a blurred Charlie. Your scowl deepens as Diana cackles. She’s almost out the door when a sudden force of air starts surging through the building. “Oh lovely, the air’s on!”

“Really?!” You yell in frustration.

“Perfect timing, right?” You turn to find the man at the center of your thoughts, Charlie. He’s fully clothed now in his black jeans and blue tee. His backpack is slung over one shoulder and his leather jacket is grasped in one hand. You release a puff of air in defeat as you turn to him.

“It was nice working with you.” He holds out his hand again. You switch on your professionalism and take his hand in yours.

“It was a pleasure to work with you. I hope our paths cross again.” Half lie. It was a pleasure to work with him, if only your brain and body would stay professional at all times. You’re uncertain if you’d like your paths to indeed cross again. Dropping your hand, Charlie nods casually and approaches you slowly, looking on around him as he lowers his lips to beside your ear.

“I think they will.” You eye him curiously. He winks before starting for the exit. You turn to watch as he confidently exits the set, presumably never to be seen again.

“I need an ice bath.” You breathe out.

#writing by moose #my writing #writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #story #y/n #fiction by moose #fiction #love #x reader #my crush #crush #charlie matthews #model #modeling #series #part 1

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emsartwork · 5 years ago

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ask dump! Separated loosely by topic

Questions and Comments

1. is this a homestuck thing. this is a homestuck thing isnt it 2. lol i love doing both!!! i love world building but i also like trying my hand at redesigning the mess that is canon fashion. @theoretical-artist 3. thank you!!! oritel and marion are in this post! 4. ayyyyy inginio hit me up (thank you lol) 5. Thank you! 6. maybe? i’ll see if i get around to it, i still have a few characters to get to so the school fairies and the last two selkies might show up with them 7. probably not.... it would be super fun but unless it was a commission i don’t feel like i have time haha 8. I’ve seen their blog around!! i can’t remember if i follow or not but i know who ur talking about and they cool @winxy-writing @winxys-written-world

Character and Worlbuilding

1. My brilliant nerd daughter!!! She sometimes gets so into coding or a video game she forgets to eat or drink so the girls watch out for her. She’s prone to dissociating, especially if the situation is emotional. Her hair is really soft. she actually loves sappy romantic things but has trouble accepting them or vocalizing that she wants them because they’re impractical/illogical. she discovered romcoms when she got to alfea and they are her ultimate guilty pleasure(only flora knows abt this and is always slipping recs to her) 2. They’re weirdly one of my fav couples??? like maybe its because i relate to and have projected onto both of them lmao. but any ways. Daphne and Thoren actually met when they were kids, but didn’t spend much time together because it was at a formal event. Daphne is technically 20 years older than Thoren(only a few years older than Sky), but they’re the same physical age because Daphne spent so long as a spirit. They probably wouldn’t get married as quickly in my version, especially with Daphne’s trauma. Daphne will have nightmares sometimes and Thoren has a whole routine for comforting her and helping her feel safe and grounded. Thoren gets anxious easily, and Daphne will use her magic to subtly change the environment so he feels more comfortable. they like to watch reality tv together and yell at dramatic people. 3. omg yes. this was the most frustrating thing i was watching through winx with my dad like a month ago and every time bloom called her adoptive parents by their first names i yelled at her lol. she would call Vanessa mama and Mike daddy(if you make a kink joke i will eat your liver). She would call Marion and Oritel mom and dad. 4. Yeah kind of! part of her exhaustion in Dowlland was the fact that she had been in fairy mode for so long, hiking underground, and tossed around in a river like??? anybody would need a pick me up after that. She (and all solarians) do have to live where there’s a lot of natural light as they require a high amount of vitamin d(or the equivalent of it for solarians). short trips usually aren’t a problem, Stella is just hella unlucky in the second season lmao. @moonpeachblossom 5. the short answer as to why she’s a blond (scottish??? in one of the dubs???) in an asian inspired culture/planet is because racism (or not so short bcus its a lot to unpack honestly). the answer in my version however is a pretty simple fix. She bleaches her hair. she’s paler than musa but she aint white. 6. I haven’t really yet!! Helia is struggling with his two fairly opposed cultural influences, trying to figure what he wants and whats right for him. He was raised on Lynphea but had frequent trips to Vaonaa. Lynphea is very grounded, they’re slow and steady and stubborn. Vaonaa is much more flexible, they’re flighty and spontaneous and easily adaptable. Helia’s dads love eachother and helia very much but they are VERY different people and both want different things from Helia(they try not to pressure too much but the expectations are still there). Helia’s Vaonaaj dad wants him to pursue magic, specifically wind or air magic. Helia’s Lynphean dad wants him to become a warrior. Helia feels like he’s kind of a misfit in both Vaonaaj and Lynphean culture. It took a while, but he did finally confide his feelings in Flora and she encouraged him to talk with his dads about finding his niche. 7. oooooooh fun fun relationshipsssss Bloom and Sky: so bloom and sky aren’t the most stable couple, and in my version it would take bloom a little longer to be ok with dating a prince. Bloom is fairly insecure in her relationships because of self worth issues, and tend to run away from problems instead of dealing with them. Sky on the other hand is confident but doesn’t really know how to handle people’s feelings and tends to push confrontation. I do believe that with better writing Sky and bloom could be a dope couple but as is in canon they’re VERY problematic. Stella and Brandon: babies. they love each other so much its the best omg. Stella finds her worth in her appearance but she always seems to take brandon’s complements in a less.... arrogant way? if that makes sense? like she truly appreciates them and wants his support. i wish we knew more about Brandon but he’s legit such a good boyfriend. I think they fight mostly when Stella is being a little selfish, or when Brandon is too busy to meet her emotional needs. Flora and Helia: MORE BABIES. so Helia is more of a drama queen in the comics but we’ll ignore that for right now lol. Flora and Helia are probably the least problematic couple in the entire show. They met. Flirted a little. Confessed. and started dating with out any major problems. if i can remember correctly they don’t even really fight??? unless icy has frozen helia’s heart or something lol. I think both Helia and Flora’s love language is quality time so they’re fairly low key and just like to be in the same space and each other. Musa and Riven: boy oh boy. Ok so, ignoring the several times Riven was LITERALLY MIND CONTROLLED his character is still difficult to deal with. I think Musa and Riven are both very intense people, and while that can be super fun and develop into a good relationship, it can also lead to LOTS of problems. I think my major problem with how they broke up was that Musa didn’t support Riven’s training? like i understand being upset you can’t see ur person often, or if they’re really busy, but Riven supported Musa’s music several times in the previous seasons it just seemed weird Musa was so unfairly demanding of him? Tecna and Timmy: nerd babies. They’re super cute honestly. I think Timmy was probably the one to instigate the relationship and bonded with Tecna over technology since she wasn’t super emotionally available at first. They have issues when Tecna is unable to voice her emotions and timmy needs to know what she’s feeling mostly, but after the first few times they’ve both learned to give the other space to figure their stuff out. Aisha and Nabu: ugh perfect couple. minus the kind of sketchy beginning lol. Aisha and Nabu generally don’t fight once they get used to each other. Nabu is a focal point that aisha is kind of bungee corded to if that makes sense? like obvi not in a restricting way. its just Aisha is hella active and needs her own space to explore and grow, but Nabu is her solid ground that she relies on. Aisha and Nex: i actually don’t hate nex as much as the rest of the fandom lol. so like i said Aisha is an active, independent woman, and if Nabu was a separate, stationary, focal point for her, I think Nex is related, moving, counter point. So like Nex can actually keep up with Aisha, and push her and challenge her. Which isn’t a bad thing in relationships so long as a mutual respect is there. 8. well. canon is a little..... messy. My version of the girls definitely retain their individualism. for other differences... they’re just a little more fleshed out? i guess? like Bloom’s moody behavior in the show i think is because of her insecurity issues, so that plays a part in how i draw her and think of her. 9. ok wow this is gonna be tough well here we go Sky: I think sky is an ESTJ he’s not super emotional(inf Fe) but can lean toward controlling(dom Te). he seems to like tradition and think social promises are important(Si). Brandon: ESFJ. Brandon is the mom friend of the boys ok. He goes along with sky’s crazy plans, tries to subtly set Riven up with musa(season 1 i think?), some how managed to land a social butterfly like Stella and seems to just navigate social situations REALLY easily(dom Fe). he also seems to hate being disrespected or taken for granted(Si) stella does this occasionally. Timmy: ISFJ???? thats the vibe i get hear me out ok so in season 2 Timmy gets tecna the exact computer part she needs because 1. He knows they both like things to be practical(Si) 2. He knows and remembered the part she was talking about and filed it away in his brain(Ti) and 3. He and Tecna bonded over tech (Fe) Riven: honestly he’s a tough one.... Maybe a really stunted and angry ISFJ? (speaking from personal experience i am an ISFJ) i don’t have a real reason why but riven’s behavior is really confusing in the show so it makes typing tough..... possibly INTJ as well....... Helia: ISFP. Lmao I might be basing this entirely off of stereotypes but helia has a strong pacifist belief and can be moody(Fi, and more in the comics lol) is attuned to his surroundings(Se) seems pretty focused??(Ni) and i can’t think of his Te showing up be it is an inferior Nabu: ISTJ weirdly a good fit with Aisha(ESTP) tho?? even though he’s an Si dom, he doesn’t go along with the arranged marriage because its not what he believes(Fi) and he’s stubborn about it(Te). Roy: ENFJ honestly just a cutie. He’s personable(Fe), focused for the most part(Ni), and is comfortable in his environment(Se). Nex: ENTP? maybe?? He’s pretty impulsive and has that “work around” mentality I associate with ENTPs.... idk this one doesn’t seem to fit super well... Thoren: Maybe INFJ?? i mean thoren honestly doesn’t have a lot of screen time but he’s attentive(Ni), and tries to take care of people(Fe). most of the infj’s i know are fun but weird lol, but i think thoren has anxiety so that could play into him being less “out there” in his behavior. if any of yall have input on this feel free to let me know. 10. ooooooh good question. So I’m basing these on their parent’s name and the names of people from their planet. Bloom: Hestia or Enya, i also think she got sent to earth with an article of clothing or a blanket that had her name on it, which is why her name is the same lmao Stella: Stella is actually named pretty appropriately considering the other names we have are Luna, Radius, Nova, Chimera, and Casandra, all of those are fairly latin/roman based names. but she could also be called Clara, Aura, Venus etc. Musa: Her mom and dad have very asian sounding names but the princess of melody is named Galatea, so honestly anything is on the table. Aulos, Hee-Young, Jia Li, Kaida, etc. Tecna: lol everybody on Zenith has ridiculous names so im just loosely basing them off of sciencey stuff. Nobelia, Xenon, Titania. Aisha: I actually really like Aisha’s name! Ayize, Sizani, Mehrbano would work tho. Flora: what even is the naming system of Lynphea i don’t understand it. Im gonna make them vaguely naturey and European-ish?? Calla, Terra, Rowan, Willow, I could go on and on there are so many plant names. 11. Hmmm yeah, so basically in my world a person with TOO MUCH magic gets overwhelmed and kinda goes a little crazy(the ancestral witches) the same thing happens with tritannus when he gets the emperor's throne power. He’s loyal to icy and she to him until he looses his ability to think clearly and turns on icy, icy gets freaked out and leaves with her sisters when they swoop in to rescue her. they don’t so much “break up” as they are “broken up” by the circumstances. In general Tritannus does really like Icy, hes attracted to her ambition and powerful personality. Icy started out just manipulating Tritannus but caught feelings oops 12. Yeah so, humans in general can withstand a lot of wild magic as their body “metabolizes” it quickly. Kalshara(the cat lady you don’t know the name of) used extremely concentrated samples, combined with other spells to keep the wild magic in her body permanently. If a human with out a properly developed magic biome (a lot of earthians only have a low functioning one) get exposed to a wild magic source they would probably gain some aspects of fairy animals, probably not like, fur, or anything but eye and hair color changes, maybe some patterns on the skin. but there’s also the chance that they would just.... die..... cus that happens with animals too lmao sry. @weirdghostly

#winx #winx club #winxems #askems #theoretical-artist #moonpeachblossom #weirdghostly #anonymous #ask dump #this is so long im so sorry

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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Marvel's What If: The Stories We'd Like to See

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The new animated series will show us alternate takes on the Marvel Cinematic Universe's timeline. Here are scenarios for every Marvel movie.

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This Marvel article contains spoilers.

When Disney+ hits, one of the many shows tying into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is What If, set to be on-demand in summer 2021. The show will be animated, albeit using many of the actors from the various MCU movies. Based on the What If comic series, which was created in the '70s, the anthology series has a pretty basic concept: take an important part of Marvel history, zig when the original story zagged, and then write a story out of that.

For instance, the comic had an issue where Spider-Man saw the thief who would eventually kill Uncle Ben run by and figured that stopping him would be good PR. He unknowingly saved Uncle Ben’s life in this scenario, but he didn’t learn any major lesson about power and responsibility. Instead, he became a more self-centered ass whose ego was so out of hand as a media personality that he caused a disgraced J. Jonah Jameson to found the Sinister Six as a revenge ploy.

In the case of the new animated series, the stories will be based on the movies’ continuity. So far, we know that one of them will be about Agent Carter receiving the super-soldier serum treatment instead of Steve Rogers.

That got me thinking about what other stories we can get from the movies. I’ve decided to take every Marvel movie and brainstorm a What If scenario that would work for each. Play along at home! It’s fun!

IRON MAN

What If Tony Stark Died?

The story of the movie ends where it should have begun. Tony Stark and his military entourage are under attack and a bomb goes off near Stark. The shrapnel cuts too close to his heart and there’s nothing that can be done. Obadiah Stane takes over the company. Maybe Pepper, Happy, and/or Rhodey investigate and take him down. Maybe not.

What’s important is that Iron Man can no longer be the focal point of the MCU. Presumably, things are going to get really, really bad. Especially with that time the High Council tried to nuke New York City. Then again, greedy as he is, Stane would be on Earth’s side during that conflict and could probably at least lend some kind of hand.

In a world without Stark, I can’t help but think of what all those villains created BECAUSE of Stark would be like. Imagine Loki conquering Earth and being undone by the likes of Stane, Vanko, Killian, Vulture, and Mysterio. Not Hammer, though. He’d still be a total weasel and would try to betray them at the first attempt.

INCREDIBLE HULK

What If Abomination Joined the Avengers?

A plot thread the MCU movies played with briefly before writing it off in a Blu-ray short was the idea of The Incredible Hulk's Emil Blonsky being roped into joining the Avengers. Obviously, he ended up getting nixed because he kind of went on a big rampage through Harlem, but maybe if things went down differently, he would be found less accountable...at least in the beginning.

Before Bruce Banner gets his treatment from Sterns, he might find out about all the horrible experiments he was working on and that would set off the Hulk. A surviving Sterns would still gladly transform Blonsky, only this time Blonsky would be seen as a hero for putting his body on the line so he can bring down the Hulk. With the military behind him, he’s able to win and keeps his dark side in check enough that he’s able to work with the government and be their personal weapon of mass destruction.

The way I see it, this could go very wrong during the events of Avengers. The team is going to be at each other’s throats as is, but in the original version, they were still good people. When there’s a psychopath in the midst, this can only end badly.

Poor Cap, finding out that this guy is his legacy.

IRON MAN 2

What If Iron Man Wanted to Avenge His Father?

When in doubt, go with the Soviet-controlled alternate reality. Worked for Superman and Valiant Comics. It would certainly work for Iron Man 2.

In this scenario, Anton Vanko is able to keep his intentions to himself long enough to screw over Howard Stark, bring the arc reactor schematics to the Motherland, and reap the rewards. Ivan lives a life of luxury while Howard Stark becomes a disgraced figure in the American public’s eye, ultimately destroying himself through alcoholism.

This leads to a story where Tony Stark figures out his father's tech in order to wage a war against the Vankos for destroying his family. Add in Justin Hammer as his weasely sidekick and you got a stew going.

THOR

What If Loki Allowed Thor to Be King?

Loki was the first real “villain who was in the right, but went about it the wrong way” of the MCU. At least in the first act. One of the better parts of Thor was that, in the beginning, Thor was a big jerk and Loki was well aware of this. His initial plot was the save Asgard from having to deal with Thor in charge. Said plot gave Thor the character development needed to prove himself worthy while Loki ended up damning himself.

Loki probably could have done himself a better service if he just let it happen. When Thor runs Asgard into the ground, Loki will be there to take over and fix things. Or maybe Thor will just admit that he isn’t fit to lead and hand over the throne. Either way, the big laugh will come from someone telling Loki that if he knew Thor was going to be such a shitty king, why didn’t he do anything about it?

CAPTAIN AMERICA

What If Captain America Survived World War II?

Seems to be one of the easiest ideas. Hell, this was one of the very first issues of the What If comic and even gave us the first iteration of Bucky Barnes as Captain America. So we have Captain America defeat Red Skull in such a way that he doesn’t have to crash the plane and get frozen for a bunch of years at the end of the movie. Instead, Captain America fights through the rest of the war and we don’t have all that awkward finger-pointing that Steve gets for his Endgame epilogue.

read more: The 100 Best Marvel What If Moments

I’d like to see Cap be in the thick of Hydra’s inner-takeover of SHIELD, especially with Bucky still alive and looming in the shadows. Not only am I down for more team-ups between Steve Rogers and Howard Stark, but the idea of Cap being something of an uncle figure to Tony is too great to ignore.

THE AVENGERS

What If Loki Betrayed Thanos?

Recently, Marvel made it an official retcon that, during the events of the first Avengers movie Loki wasn’t 100% himself. Wielding the Mind Stone, he was really being manipulated by Thanos, which is their way of handwaving all the horrible stuff he did so we can more easily get behind him as a protagonist.

This reminds me of Marvel’s Earth X miniseries, which took place in a universe where all the god-type characters were really overly-evolved mutants from another planet who were endlessly powerful but were molded by the beliefs of others. In other words, all the Asgardians are scaling back their power and acting like Asgardians because when they came to Earth, that’s what humans believed them to be. Loki, being all about trickery and mischief, was the one who could see through it all and realized what he truly was.

I want that kind of energy in the Avengers storyline. I want Loki to figure out that he isn’t in full control of his actions. When Thor implores him to join him against the higher power, let Loki piece it together. The image of Loki working with the Avengers against Thanos is a cool one, but the real conflict is figuring out what to do from there. Whether or not he’s on their side, nobody’s going to trust Loki when the plan is presumably, “Let’s use these two Infinity Stones against a guy who has none.”

IRON MAN 3

What If Aldrich Killian Killed Himself?

Iron Man 3 begins with an origin for Aldrich Killian as the third most interesting character to call himself “The Mandarin.” He got to meet Tony Stark briefly at a New Years’ Eve party, Stark lied by offering to meet him on the roof later that night, and it was at midnight that Killian realized that Stark had essentially blown him off. He considered walking off the roof to his death, but was instead inspired to get his shit together and start up a big arms-dealing conspiracy.

Let’s take him out of the picture. There’s no Extremis plot, no drunk actors, no Vice President getting arrested, etc. This also means that Tony doesn’t get grounded. Part of the conclusion of Iron Man 3 is that Tony is able to grow up and move on in a sense.

People often criticize the MCU for ways it's walked back Tony's growth over the years, though. Tony’s attempt to move forward blows up in his face with Ultron, and thanks to his addictive personality, he can’t help but go back to his Iron Man ways and briefly kill his relationship with Pepper. Even in Endgame, he struggles with what kind of man he should be.

Perhaps the lack of Iron Man 3 would hinder his journey in the long run. He doesn’t blow up his armor or get his arc reactor removed. He keeps being as reckless and dedicated as he’s ever been. It costs him his relationships, but does the ends justify the means? How far can a driven Stark go, exactly?

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

What If Jane Foster Discovered Her Worthiness Earlier?

Granted, we don’t know the context of Jane Foster becoming the new Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder, but it’s going to happen in the upcoming movie, it’s happened in the comics, and it even happened in one of the first What If comic issues. Thor: The Dark World is one of the least exciting MCU entries and Natalie Portman peaced out due to how they handled her character, so let’s jump ahead to the Jane-Thor development.

read more: Thor: Love and Thunder - Jane Foster as Thor Explained

Jane’s already in Asgard for the underdeveloped Meet the Parents concept, so the setting is right. Maybe have her wield Mjolnir to save Frigga and see where it goes from there. I don’t know. It’s not like the villains are going to carry this story.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

What If Nick Fury Died?

The threat from Winter Soldier is such a Gordian knot, and thanks in part to Nick Fury’s help, Hydra was defeated in a rather clean way. Take Fury out of the picture. There is no secret resurrection. He’s straight-up dead. Now there’s no finale based on releasing all the SHIELD files to the public and cutting off Hydra’s head.

Captain America and his buddies still defeat Hydra, but it’s messy. Hell, we might even get the Agents of SHIELD crew involved in this one because why not. Alexander Pierce may be killed or at least thwarted, but the story after the fact will be that Captain America is an enemy of the state, creating a variation of his Secret Avengers from Infinity War.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

What If Ronan Destroyed Xandar?

What If was made for this one. Guardians of the Galaxy plays up Ronan’s disdain for Thanos and the possibility of them throwing down. Early on, Nebula warns Ronan that it’s a fight that he cannot win, but is totally on his side when he’s able to wield the Power Stone. It’s promised that once Xandar is wiped out, Ronan is going to go to war with Thanos.

read more: Marvel's What If? Animated Series Coming to Disney+

A full-on villain vs. villain war would be a damn fun episode. Obviously, like an arms race, each side is going to have to try to build themselves up with more Infinity Stones, presumably making it three-on-three by the time the two throw down. Don’t know how the Soul Stone would figure into this, but depending on how close Ronan and Nebula become...PROBABLY not good for Nebula!

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

What If Ultron Wasn’t Corrupted?

More specifically, the question is, “Could it have worked?” The creation of Ultron was Stark’s desperate attempt to protect Earth from a threat that he knew, deep in his heart, was going to come from the skies any day now. Ultron ended up blowing up in his face and caused the Avengers to splinter prior to Thanos’ run for the Stones. Had the plan worked out, Thanos would still need to invade Earth in order to get his hands on the Mind Stone and Time Stone.

As an aside: Thor doesn't know where the Time Stone is, so I figure he'll trust the Mind Stone to remain on Earth under Stark's care because he's already established that he doesn't want to keep two in Asgard.

While the previous entry is more about two villains clashing, this one is about a war between faceless soldiers. Endless dog creatures fighting endless Ultrons or empty Iron Man armors or whatever. Win or lose, this one has the potential to cause more worldwide damage than Thanos’ casual stroll through Wakanda.

ANT-MAN

What If Hank Pym Trusted Hope?

Hank Pym doesn’t choose Scott Lang to be his successor in Ant-Man. Maybe Scott’s still in prison. Or maybe Hope is his first choice after all. Either way, he builds Hope her own Wasp costume for the sake of stopping Darren Cross. She’s hindered by her inferior cat burglar skills but ends up being a bit colder and violent when it comes to ending Cross’ plans.

The real conflict comes in Civil War. Wasp is very much on Captain America’s side, but Tony Stark tries to get through to Hank Pym on the subject. Hank begins to waver, realizing that as much as he’s hated his technology being in the government’s hands, it still might be safer than what Cross had intended. This, in turn, causes Hope to resent her father all over again as the war between heroes commences.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

What If Quicksilver Was Alive?

This is technically more of an Age of Ultron entry, but with a focus on Civil War. Quicksilver is able to save Hawkeye’s life without sacrificing his own. It’s hard figuring out a good switch for Civil War, but including Quicksilver in the mix might be the biggest offset. The shadow of Sokovia would still be looming, but at least he'd be there to help prevent his sister from becoming a black mark on superheroes.

Not only would he help turn the tide in the airport battle, but if Pietro were to be there for the final battle, he’d possibly be able to talk Iron Man down. I mean, Tony Stark is arguably equally or more responsible for the deaths of Pietro and Wanda’s parents than Bucky was for Tony’s parents, but Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are able to move past that. Quicksilver can fix the Avengers before Zemo is able to splinter them.

DOCTOR STRANGE

What If Doctor Strange Used Time Travel to Save Himself?

Stephen Strange takes a look at Dormammu and decides, “Nope!” He’s going to use the Time Stone to prevent the universe from being taken over, but he goes about it in a more reckless way. He rewinds time to the point that he’s able to stop Kaecilius using magic save-states, which he figures takes Dormammu off the board. Deciding that the other magic folks can carry on without him, he then attempts to prevent himself from texting while driving.

Strange continues on with his earlier life, the mega-demon is no longer a threat, and life goes on. Or does it?

Strange was warned that overusing the Time Stone would cause massive repercussions, so things would undoubtedly go very wrong for the Sorcerer Supreme. Bonus points if this relates to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

What If Ego Raised Peter Quill on Earth?

Ego was never going to be anything other than a monster. Charming or not, he killed a whole lot of his own children as part of his plot to kill just about everyone else in the name of finding his purpose. His redeeming quality was that he had some true love for Meredith Quill, but he didn't love her enough to keep himself from being an outright bastard. He was afraid that his love for her would keep him from achieving his goal, so he killed her in a rather cowardly way for someone so powerful.

I want to see a world where Ego saw things through and stayed with Meredith for good. What kind of person would he have become? I imagine he would have grown old, died of natural causes, and his body would have regenerated on his planet self, presumably with second thoughts on what to do with his powers. It's not too different from the Fantastic Four storyline where they turned Galactus human for a time and showed him the beauty of normal life.

But really, I'd like to see what kind of man Peter would become. I can't imagine he'd be drawn to the stars if his mother had lived longer and he wasn't kidnapped, but cosmic adventure is in his blood. Who's to say?

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

What If Spider-Man Joined the Vulture?

Getting so mad at Tony Stark that you turn into a supervillain is so easy that it seems to happen every other day in the MCU. Sometimes the bad guys even have a point! Hell, Captain America disagreed with him on whether or not to allow Iron Man to blow up Steve's best friend and that caused Cap to become an enemy of the state. It makes you realize that Rhodey's ability to put up with Tony's bullshit is the most amazing superpower of them all.

So in this What If? scenario, when Iron Man strips Spider-Man of his upgrades and gives him a time out in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter really loses it. When he's being driven to the homecoming dance, he tells his date's father about how much of a jackass egomaniac Tony is. In this moment of bitching, Toomes sees Peter as less of a threat and more of an opportunity in the form of a kindred spirit. The two end up working together and Vulture succeeds in stealing all that swank hero stuff from Stark's plane.

At first, it's just Peter turning a blind eye to criminal activity out of spite. Just like the OTHER time that happened, it doesn't work out too well for him. Iron Man is able to figure out that Spider-Man had some kind of involvement in the act and uses the Sokovia Accords as reasoning to bring the hammer down on him. Spider-Man escapes, but Vulture dies in the process. There goes another father figure.

Spider-Man decides to prove himself against Iron Man by taking all the stolen tech that Vulture had accumulated and finding worthy people to wield it in the name of starting up an underground, street-level vigilante group.

THOR: RAGNAROK

What If Nebula Killed Thanos?

In Guardians Vol. 2, Nebula is last seen leaving to go slaughter Thanos. We don’t see her until Infinity War, where it’s shown that she failed. Her failure is what helps Thanos realize that Gamora knows where the Soul Stone is and he goes on his rush to get all the Infinity Stones. Let’s just say that Nebula succeeds and kills her adopted father.

Now look to the mid-credits scene from Thor: Ragnarok. Before Thanos' ship arrived, Thor and Loki had an interesting discussion about whether or not Loki can peacefully coexist with Earth’s inhabitants due to the events of Avengers. This possibility would never be explored due to Infinity War suddenly happening.

read more: 20 Uplifting Marvel What If Stories

But without Thanos? We could actually see Thor as a king who isn’t bogged down by PTSD. We can see a Hulk that isn’t at odds with himself. More importantly, we can see how Loki deals with New Asgard. Especially since he happens to have a Tesseract in his possession.

BLACK PANTHER

What If Killmonger Remained King?

Invading Wakanda and succeeding is nigh impossible. You need to have the Infinity Stones or the Phoenix Force to make it happen or else you're going to end up like the Skrulls that one time -- a pile of bodies sent back to space with the message, "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INVADE WAKANDA," written in blood. This is one of those stories.

Killmonger is an angry hypocrite with no foresight. His plan to arm the underdogs of the world will do nothing but create chaos and untold casualties. It won't take long for Wakanda to become a major target. Rather than throw every superhero at the nation, Iron Man goes alone because he thinks his tech know-how could counter that of Wakanda's. While this is going on, Captain America chooses to go on a one-man mission to take down Killmonger after hearing that Bucky has been killed.

The good news is that Cap and Iron Man are able to work together and even work through their differences. The bad news is that neither survives. After such a failure, Nick Fury sends in as many heavy hitters as possible (deciding to hold off on calling in Captain Marvel), but the results are the same. Killmonger's regime stands tall, even though Wakanda is relatively worse for wear. He does find himself fascinated with the remains of Vision, especially the glowing gem on his head, and keeps his head as a trophy.

The dust has cleared and Killmonger finds himself the king of a global warzone. His victory is shortlived as Thanos and his Black Order arrive for the Stones. Before ending Killmonger's life, Thanos does give him credit for wiping out half of Earth's population before Thanos even had the chance.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

What If Star-Lord Kept His Anger in Check?

One thing that annoys me is when people cite Peter Quill as the reason why Thanos was able to complete the Infinity Gauntlet. Yes, they were so close to pulling off the Gauntlet, and yes, Star-Lord losing control and punching Thanos in the face screwed that up. I get that.

Here’s the thing: Doctor Strange knew that it would happen and didn’t do anything to prevent it because apparently removing the Gauntlet would have still led to a loss. There was only one possible way things were going to work out and that was everything up to the end of Endgame. Star-Lord’s tantrum made little difference and, it’s possible to say, everyone might have been better off because of it.

What I want to know is why that would have been so bad? How would defeating Thanos in that moment have led to defeat? What kind of possible future did Doctor Strange see?

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

What If Ant-Man Joined the Secret Avengers?

Rather than submit himself to house arrest, Scott Lang sacrifices seeing his daughter in order to hang out with Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon for a few years. This leads to a major juggling act because he’s still going to get that weird vision from Janet, but things will be a million times easier to deal with because he doesn’t have to beat the clock with the Jimmy Woo business and he has his Avengers pals watching his back. Ghost is defeated, Janet is rescued, Hank is grumpy, and Hope has lost her respect for Scott for essentially abandoning Cassie.

Anyway, the most important thing here is that the Avengers no longer think Scott is under house arrest and are able to bring him to Wakanda and people can finally be excited to see that Thanos butt thing happen. Do it, Marvel. Do it, you cowards.

CAPTAIN MARVEL

What If Captain Marvel Killed Ronan?

Being a prequel that deals with the Kree, Captain Marvel features a couple of brief scenes that show Ronan the Accuser as one of the antagonists. As we know, decades later, he and Korath will become rogue soldiers out to exact revenge on the Xandarians. That means that in Captain Marvel, Ronan is protected by plot armor. What If features no such thing, so there’s nothing stopping Carol Danvers from simply blowing up Ronan’s ship instead of intimidating him to escape and fight another day.

As time goes on and Thanos needs villains to do his dirty work, he doesn’t have Ronan on hand. What he does have is the Mind Stone and what Captain Marvel has is a history of being susceptible to mind manipulation. Thanos ends up forcing Captain Marvel into being his enforcer and decides that he doesn’t even need Loki to begin with. Instead, Danvers razes Earth and tears through the Avengers. She also annihilates the Guardians of the Galaxy before they can even get started as a team while securing the Power Stone.

In the aftermath, a surviving Peter Quill is found in an intergalactic bar, drinking through his depression. A man appears before him, claiming to be his father, with the suggestion that maybe learning his true power for the sake of getting revenge on Captain Marvel (among...other things) is Peter’s purpose.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

What Became of Thanos 2014’s Timeline?

As I already mentioned, Endgame is the only possible version of the movie’s events where the good guys win. Any and all tangents end with Thanos’ victory. So let’s move away from that.

Endgame’s time heist created two major alternate timelines. One is the alternate version of Avengers, where Loki escapes with the Tesseract and Hydra thinks Cap is on their side. We’ll be getting a whole Disney+ series on that reality.

The other is what’s left behind from the second Thanos. There’s a universe where Gamora, Thanos, and all of Thanos’ underlings and soldiers (minus Ronan) simply ceased to be. They all went to another timeline and never came back. Does that mean that Ego conquers reality? Does the Collector go forward with his plan to acquire all six Infinity Stones?

And what of Earth? This could go in different directions, considering a deleted concept from Endgame was that Thanos 2014 decided to tear apart his timeline’s Avengers before making the time jump. There’s a lot of potential in that episode.

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

What If Mysterio Was Iron Man’s Protégé?

So Quentin Beck created this world-changing hologram technology, watched his boss use it for the sake of personal therapy, make fun of it, and then call Beck out of line? Hey, Beck really shouldn’t have used the lives of a bunch of innocents to prop up his plan, but he had every right to be pissed at Tony Stark.

If television and movies have taught me anything, it’s that if you angrily insult your boss to his face, you have a 50/50 chance of either getting fired or getting a promotion. We saw the firing timeline, so let’s see what happens when Stark decides to actually listen to Beck. I imagine Beck would solidify his belief in the Sokovia Accords and take Spider-Man’s spot in Civil War. Just think about how anti-climactic that airport battle would be when Iron Man’s side ends up being a bunch of holograms and Bucky gets yoinked away in the confusion.

Beck could conceivably figure out Zemo’s plot through his tactics, but the question is how he would follow up on that. Does he step in Zemo’s way or does he agree and allow the Avengers to implode?

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and would love to see DC do an animated or live-action version of Elseworlds: Speeding Bullets. Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

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Gavin Jasper

Aug 22, 2019

What If

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kylo-renegade · 7 years ago

Text

Talk Mechanics To Me- Rey x Reader

Requested By: @nico-di-gaygelo

Request: “Hi, can you do #92 with the fem reader saying that to Rey? :)”

Words: 900

Warnings: Fluff, Mechanic Talk

A/N: So this might be super inaccurate with all the mechanic stuff, and it’s short, but fluff tends to be shorter for me personally. The next one will be much longer hopefully. This used prompt #92, which was a pretty popular one. I hope you enjoy this!

An ordinary day consisted of getting stranded with the Millennium Falcon whilst on a mission. Every mission something went wrong with the old ship and it was in need of repair. You were a mechanic, along with Rey, so you two naturally always tended to the issues on the ship.

“At least it isn’t a hostile planet.” You said to Rey, as you observed the ships main engines. Rey nodded.

“Suppose you’re right. But the Falcon was hit hard. Look.” She said, pointing to the engine. You looked to see that the engine.

“Oh boy.” You groaned. Rey sighed.

“Carburetors leaking. If we don’t fix it now, it’ll leak more and more gas and we won’t be able to start the engine. Let’s fix it before we need to get an entirely new carburetor.” She said, examining it. Her eyes lit up as she talked about the mechanics. She truly was so cute when talking about mechanics and it was moments like these you wish she was your girlfriend.

You smiled softly as she shined her flashlight at it, holding the flashlight in her mouth. You rolled your eyes, before grabbing the flashlight and shining it for her. She turned to you and offered a brief smile.

“Thanks Y/N.” She said. You smiled as she looked closer.

“Shit. Look at this.” She said. You knelt down and looked at what she was pointing at. You groaned.

“The welch plugs aren’t properly sealed. That’s why the gas is leaking. I’ll grab the sealant. Be right back.” You said, placing the flashlight in her hands and walking into the ship. You searched through the bins and found the small bottle you were looking for. You grabbed in and headed outside. Rey smiled at you as she took the bottle from your hands. She chuckled.

“Nail polish. An old trick.” She said, dipping the small nail polish brush in the clear glue. You smiled, grabbing the flashlight and holding it so she could see. She carefully applied it. She finished and looked at you.

“One things down. Thanks for the help.” You smile and nodded. You guys turned to the next engine.

“Easy fix this one. Fuel filter is dirty. We just need to clean it and reinstall it. But it’ll be time consuming.” You said. Rey nodded, smiling.

“However, compared to how bad the damage could have been, it’s small.” She said. You nodded smiling.

“We’ll do that last. It shouldn’t be too bad.” You said. Rey nodded, and you walked over to the last engine.

“This one is always a fun time. Spark plugs.” You said. Rey chuckled as you reached up and removed the spark plug.

“I can build a new one. This one hopefully should last us a bit longer than the others.” She said, her eyes once again gaining their happy glint. You nodded. Rey flipped the spark plug in her hand, before looking to you.

“Should we head back?” She asked. You smiled, before taking her hand and leading her into the ship. You headed to the bathroom and started running the water. She smiled, before pouring some of the cleaner over the filter.

“Thanks.” You said. Rey nodded, watching as you cleaned the filter. You dried it carefully, before setting it aside to fully dry for an hour. You turned to Rey.

“Shall we go make that spark plug?” You asked. She nodded, and you two walked to the large open space of the middle of the ship. Rey brought out a box of wires and other tech things. Her fingers began to move.

“That wire needs to go here.” She said pointing to it. She wired the plug and smiled to you, holding up the stick.

“It has a stronger electrical current, and more space to store energy so it’ll last longer. It’s brilliant really, if I say so.” She said. You smiled softly to her before chuckling. Rey raised an eyebrow. You smirked.

“You’ve got to stop doing that.” You said. Rey’s eyes filled with confusion as you kept your laugh inside.

“What?” Rey asked innocently.

“Saying things that make me want to kiss you.” You admitted. Rey’s eyes widened and her face flushed. You giggled. Rey looked straight into your eyes.

“What did I say that makes me want to kiss you?” She asked curiously. You gestured to the spark plug in her hand.

“All your mechanical talk. It’s truly mesmerizing and as a mechanic, having someone else know about all this is really awe inspiring. And when you talk about it, your eyes light up and you look so happy. It’s adorable.” You explained. Rey smiled as she laughed. It was your turn to raise an eyebrow.

“I thought the same thing about you!” She exclaims. You smiled wide and look at Rey.

“Does that mean you want to kiss me too?” You asked. Rey rolled her eyes before she walked towards you. She pulled you into a gentle kiss. You let her lips lead yours. Rey’s lips were soft, but her lips were chapped. You grabbed her hand as you kissed. They were calloused, but safe. You smiled as you pulled away.

“I love you.” Rey whispered. You smiled.

“I love you too. Now come on. That filter isn’t gonna replace itself.” You said joyfully. Rey laughed at your antics, before allowing you to drag her to the bathroom to retrieve the filter.

#rey #rey x reader #star wars #star wars preferences #star wars x reader #star wars force awakens #star wars last jedi #star wars requests #star wars the force awakens #star wars tlj #star wars tfa #star wars the last jedi #daisy ridley #daisy ridley x reader

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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hrm, I have several asks that all imply a similar premise in their questions, so I’m answering that particular part of those asks, all in one, here.

and the premise is that I hated S6; but truthfully,I’d be reluctant to say that. Instead, I’d say I found its flaws even more glaring thanks to contrast with parts that I did like, but that what goes in the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ columns depends on the hat I’m wearing when I’m asked.

See, if I were to break out the various levels in which I consume any story, in any media, it’d be something like this: as a writer, as a student of visual media, as an anthropologist, as a technologist, as a philosopher... and that’s not counting the various other things I love that -- if reflected well in a story -- will make me happy: engineering, mechanics, architecture, intercultural communications.

behind the cut: an example in how those parts of my brain react, and a quick rundown of the real issue of the season: failure to be inspired evenly across the character spectrum.

Take a scene like the one where the castle is hijacked. I don’t know for sure, since @ptw30 is too kind to smack the shit out of me, but I had to have sounded like a chaotic jumble in reactions when Pidge realizes there’s a virus, tries to barricade it in, discovers it’s got a counter-attack tailored to defeat her defenses, and then must use her stored shutdown systems as final defense.

writer brain: okay, the series of events is kinda cliched but it’s handled solidly, moving at a good clip, aaaand yep there’s the backlash, aaaaand yep, the final pivot, dialogue is jargon-heavy which reduces tension slightly but that emotional reaction beat at the end, good job there

visual brain: not bad, kinda predictable angle, oh, that’s a nice shot, good grief hate that cliche, glasses do not go full reflective like that, ohh that’s a different angle, lovely contrast with the character’s words, not earth-shattering but solid composition

technology brain: FKN STOP IT THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS NO OMFG JUST STOP WTF OF COURSE THERE’S DEFENSES WTF WERE YOU BORN YESTERDAY FKN FIND THE VULNERABILITY NO THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS NO WONDER PPL NEVER GET WHAT WE DO GADAMMMIT ANKERLNSDFOIXCVUDX OMFG

mechanics brain: uhm, does this castle have no isolated systems? did no one in all this time ever look at the castle and say, gee, all of this is connected by a single computer system and boy maybe we should, like, isolate this shit, where are my physical real-world levers and a big red button that will physically break connections in a case like this wtf

architecture brain: my HOUSE has a shut-off valve so I can turn off all water to outside spigots when there’s a chance of freezing, without putting interior water pipes at risk, what genius built this castle and never thought to do the same for all their crucial and vulnerable systems?

philosophy brain: is this meant to shut the castle down, or an act intended to make the castle explode, how to draw a clear conclusion as to the moral reaction to such an act, ramping up danger gives impression that purpose is simply shut-down, as opposed to going for the jugular by taking out life-support vs turning castle into bomb, (technology brain interrupts to say FKN CASCADE FAILURE DAMMIT) and reaction is good but lacking something (writer brain pops in to say but emotional beat! we have emotional beat!) bc still not enough to leap from here to seeing friend as enemy, where is the ethical decision point to justify murder in self-defense

...you can see there’s a lot going on in any one scene, in my brain.

But that also means I can analyze anything -- from an entire story down to a single dialogue exchange or image -- from one perspective and find it satisfying. And there’s no real contradiction imo to turn around and in the very next analysis put on a different hat and be frothing at the mouth over all the failures and numerous flaws.

No work is perfect, just as no audience is a monolith and neither are any of the individual members of that audience. Every single one of us has experiences across many areas and will bring all of them to bear on our enjoyment of a story. Up to and including sometimes willfully shutting down parts when they get too noisy -- like the way I have to grit my teeth through stories showing tech stuff because visual media pretty much never gets it right.

Here’s the bottom line, though, and the one thing that will overrule every other complaint (not neutralize those complaints, mind you, only backburner them in comparison):

do I give a damn about the characters?

As long as the answer is yes, I’ll be riveted, regardless of the goings-on. And that’s where S6 was a fascinating object lesson in how my reactions to some characters have changed, thanks to events in S3/S4/S5.

I honestly skipped every scene with Coran fixing the castle. I don’t hate him; I just didn’t find him half as compelling as the other plot threads.

I tuned out roughly half of what Pidge had to say, because her descent into amorality (and the lack of ever being called on it) has turned her from one of my favorites into one who doesn’t deserve my time.

I only gave Allura half my attention, b/c her deus ex machina in S5 is too OP and that takes away a huge amount of risk. She’s a walking powerhouse now which means a lot less at stake, and what could’ve been a truly dramatic moment (Lance’s near-death) had no drama for me b/c of course Allura can make it all better. (Plus the compressed pacing in that episode meant the story ran roughshod over that reaction beat.)

I skipped Lance’s scenes once I figured out they’d amount to him pining away (but not actually doing anything about it) -- once again, everyone else is working hard and Lance is wrapped up in himself, and I’m tired of it. Get over it, act on it, move on, I don’t care, just shut up.

I paid attention to Lotor until he went over the edge. I’ve heard enough descent-into-madness speeches from fictional sociopaths, and he didn’t even present a good enough motivation to make his actions riveting.

Uh, did Hunk have anything to say? Other than doing engineering stuff in the first episode... frankly, a chunk of which I skipped ‘cause I’d seen that four-minute teaser. Too long, enough I had no interest in sitting through it again.

If Keith, Krolia, or Shiro was on the screen, I was on it. If it was the clone, though, I kinda half-listened. I wanted that one storyline resolved already, so I could decide whether to stop caring for any of these three, too.

I paid attention to the generals... until Axca revealed she’d been working with Lotor all along, and then I realized the story had been lying to me. I do not forgive that. When Zethrid and Ezor shrugged over previous betrayals (Narti) and agreed to work with Lotor, I stopped paying attention to them, too. I’m here for characters, not plot devices.

Also, Romelle was left-field unforeshadowed swerve exposition fairy with an accent almost as annoying as no-name-father’s attempt at, uh, idk what that accent was (but goddammit it hurt to listen to, so I just muted him when I saw his mouth move). Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll drop Romelle off at the nearest mall so she can go buy herself a reason to be in the story.

And lastly, wtf was that about the castle’s destruction, whhhhyyyyy did we get a larger reaction space for AN EMPTY SHIP than we did for, oh, say, LOSING THE CLONE who’d been part of the team for how many months? wtf was that.

If you look up at my list of reactions to the castle-virus point, you’ll notice that there aren’t any mentions of personal stakes or characters. At no point was I thinking, oh no will everyone be okay (or even oh no not the poor castle) -- because any remaining connection with the core cast was tenuous by that point, at best. I had minimal to no emotional reaction to Pidge’s final emotional beat, because I’ve lost all respect for her as a character, so I don’t care anymore whether she cares or not.

Which means that there will be things -- depending on the hat -- that I either have found, or may be shown (via other peoples’ analyses, usually) are worth my time and/or have a reason to be there and/or make me reconsider. But without that connection to the characters, at least half the story is just going to go by at arms-length for me, now, and that’s a lot harder to come back from, all things being equal.

#voltron legendary defender #vld spoilers #meta #analysis is my chocolate cake #come for the sugar stay for the salt #vld #voltron

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shadowron · 6 years ago

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The Lonely Decker

(Dwarf Decker Julian Strouther from Dreamchipper in his Monopoly Man Costume)

Now.

As I’ve noted before: the decker was the first archetype I ever played in Shadowrun, and has always remained my go-to character. I ranked them 2nd best of all 1st edition archetypes, only being beat out by the rigger. So it pains me to say this:

Deckers are kind of boring.

Not that they aren’t useful. It’s just that, and I don’t even think this was really fixed in future editions, every decker you make is basically the same. Buy the best deck you can, buy the best progs you can, max out computer skills. Voila.

Want to play a combat-type? Former Company Man, Gang Member, Merc, Ork Mercenary, Street Samurai, Tribesman.

Want to play a magician? Burned-out Mage, Former Wage Mage, Shaman, Street Mage, Street Shaman.

Lots of variety there.

Even if you wanted to play a more social type: Detective, Rocker.

What’s left?

Well, admittedly, the Rigger. Given that the decker and rigger are both defined by the equipment they use, there is still much more room for uniqueness being a rigger than a decker. Third edition included separately the vehicle rigger and drone rigger, but there’s nothing stopping a custom-built rigger from specializing like this in 1st edition. Even for a vehicle rigger: which vehicle? Optimized for speed, for combat, or for transport? Ditto for the drone rigger. And this is just speaking of 1st edition, pre-Rigger Black Book.

As for the decker, even Virtual Realities didn’t address this flaw – while it included more detailed rules for building your own deck, everyone still made the exact same deck: the best you could possibly build following the rules.

There are two decker archetypes in 1st edition: Decker and Elven Decker. But, as I’ve already addressed in an earlier article, being an elf doesn’t really give you an advantage. Yes, you get +1 Quickness, but your starting Reaction is still limited to 6, and that’s what counts in the Matrix. The other races have penalties to Quickness or Intelligence, and so unless you want to start with a handicap, you want to play a human decker.

Early adventures tried to include more variants. Dreamchipper had a Dwarf Decker as a sample NPC. DNA/DOA had a (sigh) mage/decker. Horrible idea. “He lives for the rush”, which loads at 2400 baud since he’s using fragging tortoise mode because he doesn’t have a datajack. I guess the rush comes from getting your ass kicked in both Astral Space and the Matrix.

(Mage/Decker Andrew Shalene from DNA/DOA before his twelve-hour Matrix run getting past the first SAN)

Searching for Inspiration

The next step would be to say, okay, in what ways could you make different deckers unique?

Now, if anyone comes at me with Otaku/Technomancers… Just no.

On the record? Just interested in 1st edition rules here. Off the record? I hate the entire concept. HATE. H@T3.

They tried to make cyberspace work more like magic, but frag that, don’t just make a lame mirror-image. Do it like Mage: The Ascension, and make the “Matrix” just another metaplane (and yes – I played a Virtual Adept). Or keep the techno-mysticism and ditch the magical element altogether, but then it would be a more blatant ripoff of Count Zero by Gibson.

Shadowrun was first published in 1989, I started playing in 1990. I had not read any cyberpunk literature at that point, and wasn’t even really that much into sci-fi. Had not read any Asimov at that point, was Team Star Wars over Star Trek. This was before The Lawnmower Man (1992), Hackers (1995), and of course, The Matrix (1999), which:

1. You couldn’t even be mad at for co-opting the word “Matrix” from Shadowrun given how much blatant theft Shadowrun engaged in.

2. Why did they never publish a table-top RPG?

Not that there was any lack of computer “hackers” in movies before that, with Wargames (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984), and Weird Science (1985) in successive years of my impressionable youth. As 1990s computer nerds go, I was about a 6/10. I grew up on the Apple II and learned the basics of programming by high school, was a frequent visitor to dial-up BBSs and chatlines on the family PC.

Don’t mean to brag.

Back to the issue at hand: what are the interesting decker variants?

Aligning with the “cinematic hacking” aspect of Shadowrun, there really isn’t much. There are systems you want to get into, and the IC doesn’t want to let you in. Your two options are:

1. Sneak past it, or

2. Crash it.

That gives you only two specialties: are you a Thief, or are you a Fighter?

If you’re the only decker – most likely – then you must be a little bit of both. Pick locks and hide in shadows until you need to whip out the broadsword. Thief maxes out Masking and Sensors utilities, Fighter maxes out Combat and Defense utilities. If you’re not the only decker, then it makes more sense to specialize. Even then, the D&D analogy starts to break down – the Thief can’t “sneak” the Fighter past the IC using Deception or Sleaze progs, as their use is individual to the persona. Fighter could slow/crash the IC, allowing the Thief to pass, but then it risks triggering alarms. No point in the Fighter waiting outside the system and “guarding the gate”, as security deckers are prone to enter from within the system they are guarding.

You could argue that, if your entire campaign was built around deckers, then there would be room for a proliferation of decker species, and you’d be correct, except then you’re really talking about a different type of game entirely. Like if you had taken the Shadowbeat sourcebook and decided to run a *shudder* Rocker-only campaign.

Stuck with the lonely decker

So what is there to do?

Rather than varying what deckers do inside the Matrix, you vary what they do outside. The beauty of the classless system is that you can, apart from magicians, add as much as little of an archetype as you like.

Speaking of archetypes, what would it take to get one of the other, non-decker, archetypes to work as a decker? After all – a good starting nuyen rolls gives you the chance to buy a deck. A Radio Shack CD-100 with Rating 1 Bod, Evasion, Masking, Sensors, Analyze, Attack, and Sleaze is 9800 ¥. Is this the worse deck imaginable? Absolutely, but it is a deck. The character can at least attempt to do something in the Matrix.

To whom do you give this deck? Only two of the other archetypes have a computer skill and a datajack: Rigger and Former Company Man. Of those, the Rigger is the better choice, with a slightly higher Computer skill (3 > 2), and a slightly more in-game motivation for decking (they’re the tech rat).

Now, the only other archetype with a Computer skill is the Detective (at 4), but he has no datajack. Which means that, if you really want to take advantage of this backup wannabe decker, you going to have to…

That’s right. I’m going to say it.

TIME TO BUY A FRAGGIN TORTOISE!

I realize I slammed an NPC mage/decker above – because that idea is just stupid. Detective Decker is slightly less stupid, because he has skills that can be applied elsewhere. Because of the limitations of tortoise mode:

· -1d6 to Reaction

· -1 to all program ratings

· Locked in value of 3 for Persona programs

They’re, yeah, going to suck a bit. But, the advantages of tortoise mode:

· Immunity to black IC

· Locked in value of 3 for Persona programs, so you don’t have to buy them

· Costs a tenth as much as a regular deck.

It’s this last one Detective Decker will take advantage of. Buying higher rating progs to counter the -1 penalty is okay when that Radio Shack CD-100 Tortoise only costs 620 ¥. Less than an Armor Jacket! May as well splurge on the Allegiance Alpha Tortoise for 1320 ¥. Less than an HK 227! Roll well and you may just be taking home that Sony CTY-360 Tortoise (11,100 ¥) you’ve had your eye on all these years.

You deserve it.

Multiclassing

In college, I found myself in the lucky position of finding a group of friends who had Shadowrun as their common RPG – and only because my friend Jimmy had never played D&D. That’s right – had played Shadowrun but not D&D. I had no idea such people existed. Love you, Jimmy.

We also used a rotating GM system to ensure everybody got a chance to play, which works well for Shadowrun, with each run being nicely encapsulated. Led to some interesting inconsistencies with karma and money distribution, but was fun nonetheless. It was in this campaign that Josh’s merc commented “Generic Assault Cannon? That sounds like something I should have.” And Warren’s street samurai trying to argue he could tuck and roll through a window with an assembled sniper rifle strapped across his back.

He did roll *really* well on Athletics, as I recall.

I had a decker/rigger named Pandora. She, like a lot characters of mine, was a blatant filling of party gaps, but one that made sense. Since both decker and rigger are based upon equipment, you just need to start at max Tech level and choose your purchases wisely. Focus similarly in skills: Computer and one Vehicle skill.

Third edition Shadowrun, with its total rewriting of the archetypes, included what most deckers were leaning towards becoming anyway: Combat Deckers. When you were waiting for the one-on-one time with the GM so that you could fulfill the obligatory Matrix portions of the run, you had to do something, and it sure as frag isn’t casting spells, so might as well shoot a gun.

#shadowrun #tabletop rpgs

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learningfrommiley · 4 years ago

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Where are collision repair facilities in their never-ending journey to lean manufacturing?

By Micki Woods

I feel that the word “lean” used to really mean something in the auto body industry, and owners were hypervigilant about becoming lean. But in today’s world, lean is almost commonplace and devoid of any oomph behind it. Why is that?

I Have Arrived!

I believe that, as an industry, we’ve become callous to what lean means and feel that when it was first talked about (at every waking conference), we took advantage of what we learned and implemented some of those strategies. So, in essence, we checked that lean box and were good to go.

For instance, I talked with shops across the country and asked them if they were running lean. They all answered with a quick “Yes!” It was almost as if they were saying, “Is there any other way?” When I asked them why they felt they were running lean, they cited one or two things they were doing in their shops that had been derived from the lean way of thinking. Therefore, they thought they had “arrived”!

The Concept of Lean

I’d like to take a moment to refocus on what lean production means for shops and why I think it fizzled away like a day-old beer (er, I mean, soda) left open on the counter.

The concept of lean production founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno was fairly complex in that it encompassed a lot of specific processes needed to create lean production. Yet, the concept was pretty straightforward: quickly, efficiently, with no waste, happy employees, teamwork and error-free. Wow! That’s all?! (Insert eye-roll here.)

I believe the hard part for the auto body world was how to take that lean production concept and merge it with the repair process. Many of us couldn’t wrap our heads around it, so we picked a few things we felt we could do that could potentially help our shop and left it at that.

You Say Lean…I Say Mind Bender

Now let me point out that a truly lean shop is like a utopia that no one ever truly attains because there’s always a way to be more lean. Lean is a neverending journey. Plus, most shops are not capable of completely scrapping every process capability they have and starting over to do it the most lean way possible. (And if you are, let us know so we can come drool over your unicorn shop!)

So, instead of talking about running your shop lean, let’s call it running your shop the most efficient way possible. As a matter of fact, when I asked some of my paint partners if they provide lean classes today like they used to, they said they do but they have modified most of the titles. For example, Axalta has “Repair Planning” and FinishMaster has “NuVentory” and “Lean Tech.”

Why is that? Why did they have to change the name from Lean Repair 101 or whatever they used to call it to something different? As I said earlier, I believe most shops were overwhelmed by the lean process and others felt that they already had attained it because they had made a few changes.

Lean Fast

As most of you already know, I used to own my own shop in Van Nuys, Calif., called Casa Body Shop or Casa Automotive Group Body Shop. When the economy took a downturn in 2007, my shop became lean very quickly! No manual needed! As I cut expenses left and right and started to dial in my expenses and revenue, I realized how much “fat” my shop had been carrying. I couldn’t believe how lean I could run from a financials standpoint.

I then began attending lean workshops, and although I was excited at the process, I left with my eyeballs spinning in my face and my brain on fire. So, I asked my friend, Curt Nixon, if I could tour his shop, “L” Monte Body Shop in El Monte, Calif. After seeing how he ran his facility with such great processes and following a lean mindset, I knew I wanted to be just like him when I grew up. Ha! Ok, so maybe not exactly. But I tell ya, what an inspiration his mindset was! And there was no denying the success he was having with “keys-to-keys” cycle time, rental days, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and insurance relationships.

I ran right back to my shop and, without even blinking, switched my management systems to Summit so I could have my techs and writers move the vehicle status and have everyone clearly on the same page. I purchased computer work stations for every employee so clear information would be at everyone’s fingertips regarding any vehicle in the shop. I began tearing down all vehicles, blueprinting and waiting for every part to come in before starting the repair and watched my cycle time decrease and errors at completion dwindle. At the time, I thought, “Look at me! My shop is so lean!” In comparison to where it was before, yes, it was lean. But was there more I needed to do to continue on that lean path? Yes.

Eat that Cake One Bite at a Time

Just like we talked about in my article, “Competing with the Big Boys,” in the March 2019 issue of BodyShop Business, it’s not about eating the cake all in one bite. It’s about taking it one bite at a time, one small step at a time that allows you to tackle the big things. This is often where shops fail at running lean or more efficiently.

This is where I was failing because everything sounded really great but I wasn’t even sure where to start! I (maybe like you) felt like I needed to do it all at once. I began to feel overwhelmed, and then I sat and did nothing until I went to see a shop firsthand that was having success and had some specific, attainable goals. Where other shops get stuck in their quest for lean is attempting to adjust something and finding out the adjustment didn’t work. They then panic and resume doing things the old way to keep pumping out work – hence, no change.

A Fresh Look

Here are some ways for you to take a fresh look at your business and see where you can increase your efficiency and not get bogged down by feeling like you have to tackle it all at once:

Do you have a specific area you know you need help with? Or several? List them by priority.

This is going to sound odd, but if you have a list of a few main issues, it’s smart to work through those backwards. Start with the smallest issue because it will be the easiest one to fix. You’ll then gain confidence from that win and build momentum toward fixing the next issue. You’ll need to create a strong process for each item as you work through them and make sure all employees are totally on board. Get that working cleanly with full buy-in (especially from management), then move on to the next item!

Are You Not Sure Where You Need Help?

Some shops think they’re doing pretty well but don’t have any metrics or true feedback. I would recommend you start looking through the CSI reports you get from your insurance partners, your Yelp feedback, etc., and see what your customers are loving about you and where they’re finding faults. Many shops find it valuable to have an internal CSI program that only management or owners can see that allows them to keep tabs on their customers’ experiences. I have a great review driver if that’s something you’d like to look into. Either way, find out what your customers are saying behind your back! No one likes to be talked about behind their back, but it happens. And you need to know what they’re saying so you can fix it!

Do you feel like you’re doing everything pretty well but think getting more cars in your door would be a huge help?

You’ll need to do some marketing of some kind (and I know a great marketer you can call or email if you need a referral – wink wink, nudge nudge), but I’d say this is a great time to sit down and look at your books. Ugh. Boring! Books! But, really. If you need someone to work with you, then your accountant should be able to help you decipher your ledgers. Honestly, anyone can start with the basics and then work through them.

I can tell you from experience that as you start to go down your expense list, you realize there are many ways to save money and many contracts you can adjust. Little savings all start to add up! Then, work through your moneymakers. How can you make more money on what you’re already doing? For example, are you charging insurance for storage when they leave a vehicle over a certain number of days? Have you visited the discussion about your parts discounts recently? If you aren’t a dealership-driven shop, then you should be shopping around for deeper discounts.

Summary

There are always processes that can work more efficiently (a.k.a. “lean” to put the most money in your pocket and smiling faces on your customers and staff).

#process capability

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amandajoyce118 · 7 years ago

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Black Panther Easter Eggs And References

Instead of doing a Six Sentence Sunday this week, I thought I’d finally get around to writing up and sharing some Easter eggs and references from Black Panther. I’ve now seen the movie twice, so I think I’ve got a fair amount, but I’m also sure there are going to be things I missed.

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, there are spoilers in my list! So. Many. Spoilers. You have been warned.

I’m not going to give you everyone’s comic book history and what’s been changed for each character for the movie, but what I will say is that I think this is one of the few MCU movies where every single named character exists in the comics, which is pretty fantastic.

The Marvel Comic flip.

Before the Marvel characters and logo appear on screen, the studio still uses the flipping comic book pages to give you a little nod to their history. Usually, the images are the same for the MCU with the Avengers you see across Phase 1. This time, if you blink you might miss it, there’s a Black Panther symbol in those pages.

The history of Wakanda.

The movie’s opening has a father telling his son (you might have that it was T’Challa getting the story when the movie first opened, but that’s definitely Erik being told the story by his father) the story of vibranium landing in the middle of Africa, tribes separating, and Wakanda being built around the vibranium mound. He also details the lineage of Black Panthers. All that is almost exactly out of the comics. The MCU often changes bits and pieces of the story, like it does for T’Challa’s father dying when he’s an adult instead of a boy, but this stunning set up is almost exactly the same.

Oakland, 1992.

Oakland happened to be where director Ryan Coogler grew up and it’s also where the Black Panther political movement was born in the 60s - shortly after the comic book character made his debut. I’m not sure if 1992 is a significant year for him because it’s not for Black Panther. The previous comic book series ended in 1991 and another volume wasn’t published until 1998. It was considered a particular “bloody” year by local papers though. There were 167 known murders that occurred in Oakland that year, which apparently was a record at the time. Since that’s particularly dark, let’s also note that the Oakland Athletics (that’s baseball, folks), finished first in the American League West that year. (When the movie returns to Oakland at the end, that’s also a nod to Coogler’s real life dream: to be able to give back to the community that raised him. T’Challa puts a Wakandan Outreach program in place. Coogler spoke in some of his very first interviews about wanting to bring his movies to Oakland, to film there, to generate revenue for the city, to work with kids that live there in arts programs.)

Public Enemy.

One of the posters on the wall of the Oakland apartment is for Public Enemy, which seems appropriate for a guy in 90s Oakland who wants to bring power back to his people.

The MCU timeline.

The movie references it being a week since the UN conference and T’Chaka’s death, so it’s set right after the events of Captain America: Civil War, putting it right before Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange, but also possible happening during the last few episodes of Agents of SHIELD’s third season. So, don’t expect a crossover there.

Killmonger’s mask.

In addition to being inspired by real life ceremonial masks worn by the Igbo, the mask also draws on comic book inspiration. Killmonger wears a mask very similar to the one in the movie during his first confrontation with T’Challa in the comics.

Killmonger’s girlfriend.

So, this might not have been intentional, and this might not even really be an Easter egg, but one relationship long time comic book readers will remember is that of Killmonger and Madam Slay. Madam Slay had trained leopards (and we do see leopard-like spots in Killmonger’s costume later), and she was his right hand for a few issues when Black Panther stories were being told as part of Jungle Action comics. She had a thing for knives and wanted to help Killmonger kill T’Challa. Of course, she was also Wakandan, so maybe the woman seen in the movie isn’t her.

Klaue’s arm.

The cannon in Klaue’s arm is inspired by the comic book design. He has a “sonic cannon” in his arm in the comics, which gets something of a shoutout when he says it’s sonic mining equipment that was used to give him the arm in the movie.

Shuri’s buns.

When T’Challa meets his family off the plane, Shuri’s hair is in a couple of buns. That’s your Star Wars reference as it was meant as an homage to another princess in a galaxy far, far, away. Letitia Wright confirmed the nod in an interview.

“What are thoooose?”

I hear this is a nod to a famous vine. LOL Okay, I have to admit that I was never into vine, but everyone in the theater under 30 found this hilarious. I found it more adorable that Shuri bases her shoe design on Back to the Future. But hey, we all find different things funny.

Mount Bashenga.

Shuri’s lab is inside a mountain named for the first known king of Wakanda that becomes Black Panther. He’s even named in the opening sequence of a bed time story.

M’Baku makes a move toward Shuri.

During the challenge, as M’Baku talks about the things he disagrees with in Wakanda, one of them is “a child” being in charge of the technology. In the comics, M’Baku specifically wants to get rid of all of the futuristic tech in Wakanda. He also, at one point, kidnaps Shuri. So, that brief moment struck me as a nod to that.

So, I’ll also note here that M’Baku is a big departure from the comics, but a lot of things were kept to provide a nod to the source material. Like Nakia calling him the “Great Gorilla” when she meets him because the villain name Man-Ape is pretty racist, no? Her term is more a sign of respect. The skin he wears over his shoulders? A nod to him killing a White Gorilla in the comics in a ritual that gives him the strength and stamina of the animal.

(Also, side note: the movie cut, but set design kept, the Jabari tribe loving the wood from a sacred tree in the mountains and using that to build their homes with. It’s in direct contrast with the high tech Vibranium. Winston Duke also worked with a dialect coach so his rhythms would be closer to different Nigerian dialects instead of South African dialects to differentiate himself from the rest of the main cast, setting the Jabari apart from the rest of Wakanda. It was also his idea to do the barking/grunting sounds as a nod to the comic book source material, but to give the Jabari a way to make an entrance and shut people up.

Okoye complains about that wig.

Honestly, this only struck me because Danai Gurira has to wear a massive wig for her role as Michonne on The Walking Dead. I know she’s spoken at length about loving that role, but I immediately thought her character’s hatred for wigs was a nod to the fact that she spends so much of the year in one.

The Pan African flag.

The stripes of the Pan African flag are green, black, and red, so when Nakia, T’Challa, and Okoye walk into the underground gambling ring in Korea and stand at the guardrail, you’re seeing that flag brought to life. (And for those who think that’s reaching for symbolism, Ryan Coogler confirmed in an interview that was the intention of the costuming decisions in that scene.)

Stan Lee’s cameo.

We all recognize Stan Lee by now, but in case you missed him, he’s one of the gamblers. He talks to Agent Ross and takes T’Challa’s winnings when he leaves them behind.

“Every breath you take is mercy from me.”

T’Challa says this line to Klaue in the movie, but in the comics, he said it to someone else. He said it to Namor following the arrival of Thanos in Wakanda. T’Challa and Namor have a complicated frenemy-ship, we’ll say. I kind of hope Namor (since the rights are back with Marvel) gets to make his debut in a Black Panther movie.

Vibranium from Sokovia.

When Agent Ross and T’Challa chat in the casino, Ross mentions the guy he’s dealing with also having been traced to the events in Sokovia. So, just in case you needed another big flashing sign for an MCU connection, there you go.

The story of El Dorado.

Klaue tells the story of a Golden City, and how people searched for it in South America. In addition to trying the movie to the legend of El Dorado, it’s also a nod to the capital city of Wakanda in the comics, called the Golden City. It’s where the royal family lives and where most of the activity takes place in the comics.

Another broken white boy.

When Shuri makes the comment that there’s another broken white boy for them to fix (after the CIA agent is brought in to have his spine repaired), I actually didn’t think about the fact that Bucky Barnes was cryogenically frozen in Wakanda for safe keeping, though I’m sure plenty others did, but of Hunter, T’Challa and Shuri’s adopted brother. T’Chaka saved the boy after his parents died in a plane crash over Wakanda and raised them with his children. Hunter grew to be jealous of T’Challa and the leader of the War Dogs. He was a sometimes enemy of his adopted brother. Of course, the post-credit scene makes it clear that Bucky is standing in for Hunter since the kids even call him by Hunter’s comic book name, “White Wolf,” even if the timeline doesn’t quite add up.

The influence of African cultures.

Yes, Black Panther is a comic book movie, but Black Panther also takes a whole lot of inspiration from different African cultures. For example, the Dora Milaje are inspired by the Dahomey Amazons, an all female military group that essentially died out after the mid twentieth century. The costuming, the body modification, the language, and even the hairstyles in the movie are all rooted in different African cultures. This twitter thread does an amazing job at explaining so much of what you see in the movie.

It’s also worth noting that you won’t see a Wakandan character in the movie with relaxed hair. Why? The country was never colonized. I believe it was Lupita Nyong'o who explained in interviews that the idea of relaxing kinky hair was brought about by colonizers shaming Africans for their looks. Because Wakanda has never been colonized, the residents have pride in something as simple as natural hair.

War Dog assignments.

The “War Dogs” are referenced several times, but outside of Nakia being called a spy, there’s not a whole of information about them. So, the term War Dog is actually in reference to the Hatut Zeraze, which are the “secret police” in Wakanda in the comics. T’Challa actually disbands them when he becomes King because he doesn’t like the idea of sending out people to assassinate others around the world, which is one of their jobs. The movie appears to have made them literal spies instead of assassins.

Shuri’s gauntlets.

I’m sure a lot of people noticed that she built her gauntlets to resemble the heads of panthers. While that’s obviously a nod to the Black Panther being Wakanda’s hero, it’s likely also a nod to Shuri becoming the Black Panther in the comics. She takes her brother’s place when he’s gravely ill and she also becomes the Queen her country needs.

Over the waterfall.

The moment where Killmonger tosses T’Challa over the edge of the cliff? Taken exactly from the comics. T’Challa survives that fall as well, though he doesn’t get help from M’Baku in the comics since they were enemies as well there.

War Dog cities.

When Killmonger and W’Kabi discuss which War Dogs have responded to his plans to take over the world, they are in very specific cities. New York, London, and Hong Kong are mentioned. Those also happen to be the cities that house Sanctum Santorums in the Doctor Strange movie, which means they’re hot spots for magic, lines between realms, etc. (Though this could be a coincidence as they’re also well known and well populated cities that world wide audiences would recognize.)

Killmonger’s Black Panther suit.

I already mentions that he gets leopard-like spots on it, which could serve as a nod to Madam Slay’s leopards, but there’s more. Black Leopard was the name used for Black Panther briefly in the comics to distance the character from any politics. Killmonger also had a sidekick in the form of a leopard he called Preyy. The gold tones in his costume - and particularly the look of the necklace - are a direct callback to what the actual Black Panther suit most often looks like in the comics as well.

T’Challa wrestles a rhino.

The scene where Black Panther takes down a rhino? Pretty much exactly out of the comics. In his very first comic book run in Jungle Action comics - the run is actually called Marvel’s first graphic novel - he had to wrestle a rhino to the ground in the same way.

Alex R. Hibbert.

The young actor, famous now for his role in Moonlight, gets a cameo at the end of the movie as the little boy who chats with T’Challa about his ship. Ryan Coogler is a big fan of Moonlight and has said that the director actual gave him a lot of support in his career. Hibbert gets the last official line in the movie, though there is a mid credits scene and a post credits scene.

#black panther #black panther easter eggs #marvel comics #mcu #marvel easter eggs

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williamexchange · 5 years ago

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Managing SEO for Non-SEOs: 3 Simple Tips

This article is for marketing managers, CMOs, and other executives planning this year’s SEO strategy.

We will take the bird’s eye perspective on managing SEO to help you make smart decisions that will lead to more organic traffic and organic revenue in 2020.

This is equally true if you are leading an in-house SEO team or working with an external SEO agency.

We will cover:

Setting SEO goals and objectives.

Finding the gaps in your SEO.

Meaningful SEO team meetings.

1. Prioritizing SEO Efforts with OKRs

We will want to define clear goals and objectives for our SEO campaign.

The reality of SEO is the reality of any successful endeavor: It will take strategic, consistent, and sufficient efforts to rank well.

This is why I like working with OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Result.

It is a management system used by many tech giants, including Google.

They make SEO efforts targeted for specific goals that we would like to achieve.

The objective is the purpose of our SEO activities. It is aligned with the company’s overall objective, vision, and purpose.

An objective can be more creative, inspiring, and interesting than a classic measurable (SMART) goal.

We usually set quarterly objectives with our clients. Creating objectives is a conscious process in which we engage in a discussion with the client, our team or other stakeholders to create the vision.

A few examples include:

Drive the company’s data-driven content strategy.

Run two backlink campaigns (English, German) to increase authority in Google.

Guide strategy for German SEO to test non-English markets for lead generation.

Build a strong foundation for SEO success by improving website structure.

They are aligned to bigger company goals such as:

Increase exposure online and relevant organic traffic.

Aggressive growth of overall revenue, especially with leads via organic traffic.

Increased lead generation to 20 qualified leads per week.

Key results make the inspiring objective specific and measurable. An objective is achieved when all key results are achieved.

Key results could look like this:

Grow organic traffic by X percent to Y users/month.

Improve rankings for selected target keywords to X.

Grow organic visibility for target keywords by X percent.

Build X topically related backlinks via guest posts.

Fix all the X technical issues outlined in the technical audit.

Create X amount of SEO-driven content pieces per month.

Improve unique, duplicate and common content metrics to X, Y, and Z.

Improve page speed from X seconds to Y seconds on desktop and mobile.

OKRs paint a clear picture of where we would like to go.

They can be documented in a simple spreadsheet and help to streamline your SEO tasks.

Key results that cover more than just leads and revenue are especially important in SEO and content marketing since our efforts will have a lag time.

Your work today will make you successful in a few weeks or months from now when your keywords hit the top positions.

The top 3 rankings drive most of the organic traffic. Until you hit them, success might still seem out of reach.

And while organic traffic, conversion, and revenue ultimately are what we are looking for, we have to measure and understand progress to see if we are moving in the right direction and if our initiatives support our goals.

This is why you might want to supplement your key results with SEO health metrics such as growth in backlinks, referring domains, domain authority/ rating, page speed as outlined above.

I am a huge friend of reviewing effectiveness (even more so than efficiency).

Do our efforts have a significant impact? Are we generating output?

And in this case, output means improving the key results.

2. Finding the Gaps in Your SEO

If you are struggling to decide on your key results and where to focus on (content, links, technical), here are some ideas to consider.

If you want to rank successfully and increase organic traffic, your website needs to satisfy three main components. They are:

Technical infrastructure: To allow Google to crawl and understand your website.

Content relevance: To be found for your target keywords.

Authority through backlinks: To drive rankings to the top positions.

The first step of a successful SEO strategy is understanding where your main bottlenecks and opportunities are.

Is your website slow and needs to be optimized for web speed?

Did you create relevant content that meets the user’s needs?

Are niche-relevant websites linking to you?

The main thing to understand is:

There is no point in over-exploiting your preferred ranking factor.

Some SEO and marketing pros swear by links, some by content.

Don’t fool yourself by indulging in SEO philosophies or online discussions on who is right.

The reality of SEO is that you will need to be optimizing for all three SEO building blocks to be successful.

So, try to understand where the gaps are and start working on the ranking factors where you are deficient as well as improving those things that you are great at?

What have you focused on in 2019? And what factors might have been neglected? What factors contributed to the most success?

For those looking to understand ranking factors in detail, here are some great studies:

2019 study by Authority Hacker

2016 study by Brian Dean

As a rule of thumb:

Many big, old websites with thousands of pages might want to focus on technical SEO, indexing, crawl budgets, and backlinks.

Start-ups and small websites might want to focus on keyword-driven content creation, website structure, and backlink creation.

Understanding these building blocks is the necessary first step to build a cohesive SEO strategy and your key results should reflect all three components.

3. Meaningful SEO Team Meetings

Whether you manage an in-house team or an agency, here is a suggested meeting framework based on the principles of the book “Traction and the EOS” (entrepreneurial operating system).

This meeting framework helps to translate your OKRs into practical to-dos for every week.

Successful meeting 101: Same day, same time, same agenda, starts on time, ends on time.

The meeting agenda can look like this:

Start on time – and with good news

Reporting on company-wide OKRs

Reporting on SEO OKRs, including:

Discussion based on issues raised during reporting, including:

Conclusion, including:

Last week’s initiatives and achievements

Review of key results

This week’s initiatives and to-dos

Looking ahead at the next four weeks

Prioritizing of the issues

Identify issue

Discuss issue

Solve issue (and create to-do or initiative)

Recap of the initiatives or to-dos

Rate meeting

Using OKRs and a clear meeting agenda helps to turn SEO into a practical and manageable activity that is focused on very clear targets. It makes SEO less blurry and confusing and dramatically increases your chance of being successful.

I recommend the following:

Create an inspiring objective every quarter

Make this objective measurable by defining key results

Start a streamlined SEO meeting to track progress and raise and discuss issues

Make sure to cover all three parts of SEO, not just your favorites

Include health metrics that allow you to track progress

There is SEO & Web Designing Company which can help you to get affordable SEO and web designing services Durango, CO for your business.

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