#gene lampshade

[rvxen]

ALL QUEER LOVE No. 4 Recontextualized public domain image Procreate on iPad Air True Grit Texture Supply brushes and textures 2024

(Featuring from Left to Right: Martin Manchaser, Orville Quiver, and Pristine Era Gene Lantern starring in "The Wink")

Had a blast with this one! Mashing up costumes, swapping genders, painting happy trees, it had everything!

I'll be setting up an online print shop soon! In the meantime, go on and mosey over to my Patreon (/rvxen) and get a big inside scoop on my process and even more lore about the characters and their world!

[liquidorcard]

Okay, part two. Let's go girls, gays and theys, Papa Polarity ain't saved yet.

[Part 1] [Part3]

Lily Commits Elder Gay Mutant Abuse, feat. "Eldritch Lily" (Part 2)

Everything gets worse . . .

4:13: Lily mischaracterizes Charles Xavier, throws up a Martin Luthor King quote she either doesn't understand or didn't read carefully enough, going full whyte. (Never go full whyte.)

How much do I need to dignify this by explaining why this is fucking asinine? Charles is a pacifist for the most part. A recognized and respected form of activism and protest. Like, the least charitable interpretation of what Lily's trying to say here is that figures like Gahndi, Abbie Hoffman, and dear old MLK himself are posers complicit in the oppression two of them lost their fucking life to.

That quote is referring to white people passively complicit in racism that just want black people to shut the fuck up Lily-- not passive forms of activism.

You know, it's one thing to be profoundly fucking wrong about cartoons, it's an entirely different beast when you're profoundly wrong about shit like this. Absolutely fucking ghoulish.

It feels weird pivoting back to the costumed vigilantes with funky genes, but we gotta keep going. Ironically for how much Lily is focusing on the movies here-- one of my issues with the way Charles is portrayed is he keeps casually threatening people/doing shady shit and getting away with it. Makes you question why it's framed as okay when he does it and not when it's Erik. Charles isn't a saint, he shouldn't be portrayed as one, and there's a lot of thematic dissonance when the films feel the need to lampshade the shit he gets up to less he lose the moral high ground.

4:50: OH HERE WE GO.

5:00: Lily goes on a long rant about the "activists who GO TOO FAR" trope in media.

I technically agree with her, but I can tell by the examples she's giving that she's parroting things Hbomberguy said in his RWBY video, just in a less charitable tone. So, really I agree with Hbomberguy.

She's not wrong that the BoM and Magneto sometimes wanders into this territory (I mean, they were originally 'The Brotherhood of Evil Mutant' and all that) unfortunately, but she hasn't supported that position at all. I have to assume she's heard this brought up somewhere else, this isn't exactly a unique take by any means. I doubt she's actually familiar enough with the content to create an original cohesive argument.

Lily doesn't like moral ambiguity in her media. That would be fine if she wasn't this butthurt that other people feel very differently.

6:05: "And yes, you knew we were getting to it! [ . . .] Almost all of Legend of Korras main villians start at a good through line. But then some twist comes up that makes everything they said before completely pointless."

THESE TWO, "START AT A GOOD THROUGH LINE!?"

LILLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

6:15: "Season one's Amon is a socialist activist who cares about the oppression of non-benders by benders-- until it turns out that he doesn't."

I know this is a popular interpretation of the equalitists, especially given that their name is 'the equalists,' but actually the show never gives us enough information about the sociopolitical dynamics of benders and non-benders to say for sure. I'm not going to get into it here, if you want my full breakdown and analysis on the social politics of Avatar, let me know. In summary, it's tempting to assume benders would be the dominant class as they have literal powers, but that's not really how systemic power works. There's conflicting inference on what the dynamics are, and it may be different depending on the nation. The equalists are schrodinger's activists. They could be the Black Panthers, they could be the Proud Boys. That is not me making a false equivalency between those two groups, it's just never established if their perceived systemic persecution is real or imagined.

This isn't really a criticism of Lily. That it is so ambiguous is a flaw in the show. The interpretation Amon is supposed to be a socialist is as valid as any. Well. . . It's an extremely reductive interpretation of a socialist, and I know Lily doesn't know what a socialist actually is, but I'm trying to be charitable when possible here.

I do LIKE Korra myself, to be clear. But, yeah. There's problems.

6:31: "Season four's Kuvira wants to stitch the Earth Kingdom back together but doesn't want to restore an oppressive monarchy like everyone else does. And then declares that she is the dictator of the Earth Kingdom."

Yeah, that is just a thing that has happened in history, Lily. When there's a power vacuum left by a sudden or violent upheaval of a tyrant, unfortunately often another tyrant at least attempts to take their place. This is one of the reasons why former colonies struggle to cultivate stability-- societies and communities can get fucked in the ass by this kind of shit. This isn't a pro-monarchy message Lily-- consider maybe trying to learn things now and again.

This is why people call you a fake leftist Lily. Doing (relatively) minor gestures of good will like handing out food for a short period then pulling the rug out from under the people once they're complicit is right out of the facist playbook. You are virtually doing the exact thing you accused Rebecca Sugar of, but for real.

You're being outfoxed by a kid's show again.

6:44: "Season two's Unalaq [you get the idea.]"

Lily is pro gentrification until you involve demon kites I guess. I'm confused why she thinks he ever had any good intentions, it's telegraphed immediately he's a bad dude. He's also by far the worst villain-- as in, the worst written.

7:10: "All of them go 'the status quo is bad therefore commence genocide' like they got their political theory from fucking Vaush."

By your line of thinking so did Firelord Sozin:

"I had my own vision for a brighter future . . ."

I don't like Vaush either, but-- this isn't even the pot calling the kettle black. This is the blackened grime on the pot calling the kettle black.

GOD THIS VIDEO IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT MAGNETO. WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT KORRA FOR ALMOST THIS WHOLE POST.

7:19: "The entire show you're watching Korra become a stooge for the status quo every single time. 'The problem isn't that the system is bad, it's that the wrong people are in charge.' And then they inevitably change the status like bringing democracy to the Earth Kingdom and you're left wondering-- wait, why wasn't the other person doing this!?"

I did not edit those two statements together. That is, in fact, Lily pointing out why her own arguments are stupid in the very next breath. Thanks for saving me the effort, I guess.

7:45: "Why weren't the characters you set up to do these things . . . Doing the things?!"

Because they weren't set up to do these things Lily. They're the antagonists. They ideologically were designed to be foils for Korra to overcome.

Korra's political messages aren't even that deep, and yet you're this incapable from telling even obvious totalitarian right-wing ideology and mild liberalism apart.

8:10: "It's so nakedly obvious how protective of the status quo these stories are."

This is, in a very abstract way, a valid criticism of Korra. This is a common problem in a lot of media, and Korra is far from the worst offender. I think it does breach past this to some extent, just not as much as I would have personally liked with all its seasons.

But make no mistake this is Lily again, taking something Lily has seen someone else say and putting that opinion through a blender.

Let's not beat around the bush here, Lily just wanted to bitch about Korra again. It's almost like she thinks if she repeats her idiotic media analysis enough, maybe THIS time people will realize how brilliant she is.

8:27: "A victim of abuse, torture or r@pe trying to kill her [only 'her,' huh?] abuser in vengeance is right to do so."

Okay, that's enough of this for now. Part 3 coming soon.

[dr-futbol-blog]

Hide and Seek

Finally, we get to Sheppard and McKay.

Lead characters, it is natural for them to be in scenes together. Their initial meeting is at the chair platform in the Antarctic base. The one notable aspect of this is that while McKay's jealousy of Beckett and his ATA gene was laid out real thick just moments ago, he displays only excitement watching the platform come to life at Sheppard's touch. He admires this man from the start.

The next time we see them together, it's in Atlantis. And for some reason, McKay seems to follow Sheppard where ever he goes. The major is walking around the gate room turning on lights around him and McKay is right on his heel. From the moment he steps out of the gate, he is following this man that is a stranger to him. They seem to keep winding up in the same places.

Rodney is also doing the looking but trying not to look thing. Looking everywhere else but where he clearly wants to be looking.

Make note that during this scene there was a clear focal point in the room in the bottle of champagne that had just rolled through the gate. Everyone else in the room was looking at Elizabeth holding up the bottle.

Their first proper exchange is the one where Sheppard reveals his math skills to McKay, which has been analyzed to death. Sheppard is cool and calculated, uses his charm to get his way. Rodney is only too quick to acquiesce. Unlike Col. Sumner and Dr. Weir, he is completely defenseless against it. Intuitively, Sheppard also knows what strings to pull. Weir is charmed through candor, Sumner (who does seem to warm up to him eventually) is charmed through the display of guile. Rodney McKay is charmed through intellect, so that's what Sheppard uses to manipulate him.

We get much more interaction between them in the next episode, Hide and Seek (S01E03).

The throwing off the balcony, shot him in the leg scene is familiar to everyone. There's certainly bonding going on, people seeking companionship marooned in another galaxy. McKay displays his admiration of Sheppard in multiple ways, the least of which is not volunteering for experimental and potentially dangerous gene therapy for the hope that he might become just a little bit more like the major.

(And note that while Sheppard and McKay are playing with each other, there are people still without living quarters because "the major seems to be taking his time" making sure they're safe. Priorities.)

There's a big lampshade moment in the scene where the two of them walk into the closet together, and then come out of the closet together. A closet is, in fact, explicitly referenced:

McKay: Someone thought it would make a nice closet. Sheppard: This is definitely not a closet.

This episode also marks the beginning of Rodney being oblivious to Sheppard finding double entendres and innuendo in something he says innocuously in a tense, potentially life-threatening situation.

Sheppard: Think we're going to need a bigger boat. McKay: Size doesn't matter. Sheppard: That's a myth!

My guy, is this really the time for this?

In fact, Sheppard never misses an opportunity to turn something McKay says into a sexual reference (and this is far from the only instance that reveals he is a total and utter size queen; what is he saying here? He's saying that a big dick is better, that's what he's saying here. He's saying that he prefers a big dick). It's pathological. It's Freudian. It's witness to Sheppard constantly having sex on the brain when it comes to this one man, and only this one man, as we never see him do it with anyone else.

All of this is really cute and fun, but what I actually want to highlight is Rodney's Big Damn Hero moment toward the end of the episode.

You see, John Sheppard is presented as the All-American Action Hero. We, as the audience, are supposed to see him like this and the people in-universe are supposed to think of him like this. Rodney McKay certainly sees him as the hero, idolizing him to the point of constructing an image of Sheppard that barely corresponds with reality. He is the protagonist.

Only, for John Sheppard, it is Rodney McKay that is the Hero.

This is lampshaded in the episodes Sateda (S03E04) and Tao of Rodney (S03E14). Rodney often surreptitiously volunteers information, masked in the guise of humour, that he means about Sheppard but would never confess out loud. In the former, he tells us (through describing to Beckett his relationship with Ronan): "We have an unspoken bond. I mean, there are things that go deeper than words, my friend. Deeper than words. But you wouldn't know anything about that, because you never look past the surface of anyone, do you?"

It is humorous when he says it about Ronan. It is absolutely true of his relationship with Sheppard.

Similarly, in Tao of Rodney he describes his relationship with Zelenka to Ronon: "He tries to hide it, but deep down, I'm the wind beneath his wings."

It is humorous when he says it about Zelenka. It is absolutely true of his relationship with Sheppard.

He is the wind beneath the wings of the flyboy, the pilot, the airforce major/colonel, the guy who thinks that people who don't want to fly are crazy. The guy with the wings. Rodney McKay has been the wind beneath them from the moment onward that happens at the climax of Hide and Seek that changes everything for Sheppard.

The lyrics of the song from Bette Midler, arguably the world's best known gay icon, tell us how Sheppard views McKay:

It must have been cold there in my shadow To never have sunlight on your face You were content to let me shine, that's your way You always walked a step behind

So I was the one with all the glory While you were the one with all the strength

Did I ever tell you you're my hero? You're everything, everything I wish I could be Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle For you are the wind beneath my wings

It is obvious that Rodney thinks of Sheppard as his hero. Because we frequently see Rodney fear for his life, avoid conflict, think his way out of situations, his heroism is more difficult to recognize. But the thing is, Rodney feels the fear and does it anyway. He is not afraid to show that he is afraid.

John, on the other hand, is so full of fear every moment of his life that if he were to acknowledge it even for one moment, it would paralyze him. He cannot afford to entertain fear, let alone show it to anyone else, friend or foe. And it is not merely losing the people he cares about that he fears, he also fears showing other people who he is where Rodney is always unabashedly himself. John thinks that Rodney doesn't care whether people like him or not, which makes him free.

Conversely, John has consciously constructed himself into someone that people will like, he reflexively uses his charm as a weapon, as self-defense. He has spent his entire life pretending to be someone he is not, even going so far as to marry the woman his father liked, as a survival mechanism. In the episode, we learn that Sheppard thinks scary things (the masks of hockey goalies are scary while football "is a real man's sport") are unmanly. Fear is unmanly. Showing fear is the unmanliest thing there is.

For John Sheppard, Rodney McKay is a Hero.

We are shown this explicitly in Harmony (S04E14). Oh, we're meant to snicker at this. This is so counter to reality, is it not? This is not how the world sees it. This is not how Rodney McKay sees it, even though in the episode he jibes that this is how he remembers the events. But this is 100% exactly, entirely and fully the way John Sheppard views the two of them, and has done so since the end of Hide and Seek.

This is in contrast to Beckett and Peter making fun of McKay at the beginning of the episode by inventing hero names for him: Mister Invincible, Captain Untouchable. While everyone recognizes Rodney's intellect, no one else thinks of him in this way. The thread running through the episode is McKay conquering his fear which is highlighted by the ancient mcguffin that he is initially unable to turn off because his fear is too great to relinquish the protective barrier.

For John Sheppard, because of who he is and how he has lived his life, Rodney McKay is a Big Damn Hero. Rodney McKay is brave enough to not only feel the fear but to let his fear show, and go for the Hail Mary anyway.

At the beginning of the episode, John was mostly amused by Rodney and his antics; amused enough to want to spend time with him, invite him to share something very personal to him (the football game that was one of the few possessions he had brought with him), to repeatedly tease him knowing what buttons to push, to talk about him even when he wasn't there ("Don't tell McKay what I said about hockey not being a real man's sport ‘cause it's a Canadian thing; a little touchy about it."). Also, look at him smiling as he's thinking about McKay here! All of these classic signs of attraction, by the by.

And yet by the end of the episode it's transmorphed into something more, something genuine.

Where previously he mocked McKay for his fear ("He... fainted"; "That's okay, you might faint again"), he now reinforces Rodney's self-ascription ("Thank you for not saying the other thing"), displaying his respect and admiration for Rodney's willingness to and capacity for self-sacrifice even in the face of paralyzing fear. Sheppard recognizes that although he might undertake one suicide mission after another, Rodney is able to do something that he does not believe he ever could.

This is where it begins. This is why he falls so hard.

[roninkairi]

Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 2- Ember And Clockwork Dialogue

Ember: Also, he is SO biting off Gene Simmons style!

Bold of her to assume that a spirit who's job it is to monitor the timelines doesn't know everything about her.

Ok, NOW I wanna see a new Danny Phantom graphic novel addressing this ASAP. You can't just drop a lampshade like that on us!

@hesjayrich @airebeam

[justaravingwritingdesk]

The difference between Prim and Irina is that Irina lived long enough to change while Prim did not. I don't like Prim either, and I'm not defending her when I say that she can't help being evil and malicious. It's in her genes, it's right on the label: Hereditary Evil Raiser. She doesn't need a tragic backstory, she's already a villain in the making thanks to that. It's in her nature to be evil and malicious. Sure it can be resisted, but how can she resist something she doesn't know about. Not to mention the nature of her upbringing as an aristocrat and the political atmosphere then being contributors to the growth of her malice. People have a tendency of making mountains out of molehills, especially when there's a sentimental or emotional reason behind it, making it all the more complicated. The smallest grievance becomes a reason for a generations-long feud. Oh, and someone pointed out that she's a woman, that's a valid point to consider, for a wholly different reason. She's a woman, meaning she has periods and all that it brings – what if Anne and Arth got together while she was on one of her bad days? A recipe for disaster. Women sure has hell can hold grudges worse than men (why do you think moms can be so much scarier than dads?). And then when the only one who could help her know about and resist the urges – I'm talking about Irina, of course – made it worse. Willingly dealing with demons and surrounding herself with them didn't help. It comes to the point where even her own son wonders whether she's still his mother or just a devil wearing the skin of a human.

As for Seth, he's a scientist without the limits of a moral compass. He doesn't care about ethics, because he doesn't have one. Ethics is a social construct, yet Seth doesn't fit in anywhere in society. No one understands him. It's a detail that mothy has lampshaded for his part in Outlaw and Lychgate. Unless you can understand Seth, sticking him into a box of social norms and mores will always be pointless. Mutual understanding is necessary for trust to grow, for a relationship to be built, for society to stand. It's a two-way street, one Seth sure as hell isn't crossing anytime soon. Actually, I think he has crossed it, but he didn't meet anyone on the other side, cuz they just passed him by. I think the whole reason why he went with Banica is because he's hoping that someday, he'll meet someone who can understand him.

So, yeah, TL;DR of that is that Prim started out with a negative in life and outside of math two negatives don't make a positive. Also, Seth is that one misunderstood character who will never ever be understood for the rest of his not-so-sad and not-so-lonely existence.

And I am so crossposting this on tumblr just because I can.

P.S. I guess HERs are just psychopaths in the making. Kiril only got saved because of his future wife. Like, Behemo quit plotting to destroy the world because he got bored of it. Banica won and got the Karma Houdini treatment, tho.

[arcadian-wild-art]

All songs masterpost!

Figured I'd actually, y'know, tell you guys what my ideas are. As you can see, lots of them are still up in the air! I would LOVE to hear if y'all have any ideas as well!!

Rain Clouds- DONE!

Roots- painted flowerpot

Blue Eyed Girl- yknow what *embroiders your girl*

Letters from the Atlantic- fancy envelopes, like set design style

Whispers-

Liar- Custom deck of cards

Man in Room 39- Open/closed sign

If You're The Coffee- dance (more watercolor layering)

The Anthem of Mr Dark-

Empress- Something themed around the short story, probably

Hers-

Leila- Decorate scarf?

Wolves of the Revolution-

Envy Green- (almost?) done!

Willow- Decorate walking stick?

The Storm- DONE!

The Poet- Animatic OR cool pen thingy

The Ballad of Donnie Gene-

Millstatt- woodburned mountain lake

Wander. Wonder.- maze?

Yurgen’s Tune-

Hey, Runner!- shoes w lyrics / concrete poem?

Tell It Like It Is-

Finch in the Pantry-

Silence, A Stranger-

The Food Truck Blues- build food truck model?

Stan The Man-

Oh, Sleeper- Megaphone?

Civil War-

Holemabier-

The Graduate- 

A Benediction-

Spring: Wake- flower bouquet?

Summer: Walk- flower bouquet?

Fall: War- flower bouquet?

Winter: Will- flower bouquet?

Everybody Wants to Rule the World- Newspaper?

Crazy In Love-

Never Die Young- Done!

Carry On Wayward Son-

Give It A Rest- Cut a shape out of negative space with hole punches?

Barefoot Kid- 

Lara- Decorate lampshade?

Dopamine- lyric video?

Big Sky, MT- Snow globe

Shoulders- Gold leaf thing (mobile)

Little Bird- concrete poem OR origami

Sparrow- Shadow box thing with finger puppet of a bird

Corner- Woodburning

Gàrradh Seilach-

Lift My Head- carve figurines?

Two Kinds- lyric video

Fable Of The Times- book with lyrics. like make a book

The End- Choreograph dance??

Common Courtesy-

Welcome-

Spades-

[anotherhumanpet]

"Oh..." And the hopeful tail wagging has stopped. Sadness.

Coincidentally, his brightness has dimmed down a bit. Not a lot, but enough that he's not a complete eyesore; more like bright, LED bulb that has no accompanying lampshade.

"Something like that." Dennis reaches behind himself to grab a hold of his tail, then lightly dusts the hairs of his tail tuft against Mitch as proof of existence. "The spell said I needed to be a half demon so I could understand Rin, Nix, and Cane better, and then it mentioned something about a guy named Baldr? Like, I'm a child of him now or whatever. I dunno. I'm stuck with light demon genes now for... I think ten or so more hours now?" Assuming the timer holds true and this isn't relying on him learning some opaque lesson.

"Alright. Okay." Dennis sighs before rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes and face. His sleep schedule is probably fucked now thanks to this spell but it's fine. He can fix it. It's fine.

"Okay." With his tail wagging low to the ground behind him, he gestures to the other person and asks, "On a scale of one to ten, how obnoxiously bright am I now? Like, am I better than I was last night?"

[biggaybunny]

Under Tides

So, first off, kudos to the writing team and probably the translation team because I feel like this story was much better about explaining what was going on and I actually understood what was being implied, even if I did have to read a couple of scenes twice. I'm not here to do a literary analysis of it I just wanted to mention it since some past stories have left me too confused to comment on (looking at you, Darknights). Anyway, from what I understand, what's going on with Skadi and the Abyssal Hunters is:

They were Aegir and they were modified by Aegir scientists

They were implanted or their genes spliced or something like that with Seaborn biology, which mutates to an impossible degree (Specter lampshades this when we the Aegir-to-Seaborn mutation happen to the bishop)

The inquisitor and high inquisitor serve as good reminders that even normal Aegirs are fucking freakazoid person-shaped nuclear devices, so this brings them to new levels of "strong as shit"

It's possible that this procedure has a failure rate, and that Skadi's sister underwent it only to end up a feral Seaborn (who likely killed Skadi's mother and grandmother)

The abyssal hunters are not informed of what's being done to them, for any number of possible reasons

Eventually, every abyssal hunter *is* going to mutate into a seaborn, regardless. One possible reason they aren't told of their fate is because their ignorance postpones their destiny by making sure they don't obsess or despair over it. One could argue that active resistance would also postpone it, but that's less reliable.

Gladiia probably knows because captains had to be the ones to watch for signs of the rest of their squad going fish mode in the middle of battle.

Because they're all a liability in the long-term, Aegir probably had no problem sending them on suicide missions.

The grandest such mission might even have been a way of getting rid of dangerous hunters as much as it was an attempt to push the war against the ocean in their favor.

A war that, from the sound of it, the Seaborn don't see themselves as fighting. It's unclear if the destruction of Aegir cities and possibly the whole nation was in fact from another cause entirely (and blamed on the Seaborn, as any nation might blame its problem on outsiders with territory to steal) or if the "First to Talk" was merely downplaying the destruction wrought due to its patchy understanding of certain concepts.

Speaking of the seaborn, it's very possible that they are a hivemind of some sort, given the way the First to Talk speaks. It is aware of itself as a singular actor but that doesn't mean it's not possible for their to be a loose collective consciousness of sorts that means most seaborn do not need to do their own decision making.

A complicating factor is the Church of the Deep, which appear to be aegerians who worship the ocean and the seaborn, and become seaborn-like in a less refined way than the Abyssal Hunters

The main reason I'm certain the church are also from Aegir and not an outside force is that they have the level of technology to do what they did to Specter. What the bishop was capable of scrounging together on his own, in a cave in a shitty cursed town, was capable of rendering her temporarily lucid, which is more than RI has managed so far.

Back to the hunters: the biggest suicide mission (which may have been Aegir thinning their numbers as much as pushing the war forward) appears to have been an effort to kill the Seaborn's "geneszoic", which Skadi likens to their god.

"Geneszoic" is a made up word, but we can guess at what they're implying; it's not exactly subtle. "zoic" is a suffix for describing a certain class or type of animal, like "protozoic" for Protozoan organisms. So it doesn't *really* make sense to describe a single organism this way.

Maybe the geneszoic was what helped guide the evolution and mutation of the Seaborn. Maybe that's why they're such unorganized, crudely formed creatures, only having finally worked out how to create one single being with human-like intelligence. It would make sense as a keystone to knock out.

I think it's also possible the geneszoic was some kind of coordinating structure in the seaborn hivemind, as "brain" of sorts, but that's just a hunch

The fight to kill the geneszoic ends up killing *every* abyssal hunter. It seems that their sacrifice gave Skadi the opportunity to land what she believed to be a lethal blow.

Getting that close to it caused her to become aware of the psychic-like link the seaborn seem to have with one another. Unaware of what's been done to her by the Aegir, Skadi is confused and distressed by this moment pretty much continuously from then on.

There were likely actually several survivors of the initial battle to kill the geneszoic. I believe this is where the church of the deep got its test subjects for their experiments with Originium, taking advantage of wounded survivors to capture otherwise very powerful hunters.

Originium does not seem to be present in the sea or on the sea bed, nor is Oripathy a concern there, so it's likely Aegir technology is powered by something else, by the way.

Specter is among those captured by the church of the deep and survives incredible torment. Everyone else experimented on dies. The purpose of these experiments is likely to find a new weapon against Aegir, implying that the church of the deep still has an enemy worth fighting even presently. I think that's an important detail, tbh.

Specter escapes, likely under her own power, and stays semi-lucid enough to find help at Rhodes Island. The nun outfit finally makes sense: she probably grabbed something to wear while beating a cultist to death with another cultist and once her derangement took over it became part of her identity.

I'm not sure how Gladiia survived. It's possible she simply escaped and never caught up with Specter or Skadi until now. It's more likely her escape cost her something.

Gladiia is already mutating, and is angry that this is happening "too soon". This is why I believe she was informed instead of finding out on her own: she knew what to expect and this wasn't it. Or she is simply lamenting the short time she has left.

It's possible that Gladiia was able to escape by pushing herself past even an Abyssal Hunter's normal limits, speeding up her mutation in the process, which would be another reason hunters are not normally told. This wouldn't explain why no other captains escaped, but it could be that none were willing to do that, or it really was only Gladiia who knew.

Skadi's alter seems to explain why other abyssal hunters were not told about what they are. While she retains some sense of self and some resistance, she's not exactly, yknow, *well*. In constrast, Gladiia knows she has lost some ground but is vehemently opposed to what is happening to her, and has found things to cling to that make her human (in the broad sense of the word used in the world of arknights) and not seaborn. Specter doesn't seem to give a flying fuck, because she's a fucking shark and the seaborn can suck her dick.

I know it's a fair amount of speculation, but we know a whole lot more than we did before. Honestly, it wasn't until I wrote this up that I realized the implication that there's probably some sort of Aegir still out there. Of course, if I missed anything, or any lore we have elsewhere I don't know about contradicts something I've said here, you can always mention that.

[thevindicativevordan]

On Kong Kenan/Super-Man

It should've been him. He should've been the Superman of 5G/Future State/right now not Jon, and he should be the one getting an HBO Max series not Val. Hell he should be getting a movie!

God this dude is literally the best legacy character Superman has ever gotten, wholly his own person with his own lore and status quo while still building on the idea of "Superman". I am so pissed at DC for essentially just dropping him after his ongoing ended, what the hell Lee? You keep trying to make the Wildstorm characters happen, I need you to get my man Yang another Kenan book.

Have to admit I was a bit nervous at first about whether or not Kenan would be a worthwhile character. Yang's New 52 Superman run had been a disappointment to me overall, with only the the arc where Superman has underground wrestling matches against forgotten gods really sticking with me. Now he was introducing a brand new Superman? Didn't feel like he had "earned" that yet. But from the first issue I was hooked on this new character.

Kenan was unlike any other member of the Superfamily. He wasn't kind or sweet, he was an asshole! He was a bully! He was fantastic! Right from the start Kenan was set up to undergo a very different kind of character journey than the other members of the Superfamily. Empathy, humility, respect for people weaker than himself, these are all traits most heroes wearing the S-shield already posses by the time they first don the crest, but not Kenan.

Like all bullies he was even a bit of a coward himself at first, trying to bail on the experiment meant to give him Superman's powers right as it begins. After "saving" Lixin (the kid he bullies and steals lunch from every day) from Blue Condor he demands all the money Lixin has on him as payment. He's not courageous or selfless either at the start, Kenan is as much of an opposite of Superman as you can get short of being Bizarro. Learning the appeal of these traits formed the basis for his growth over the course of his series.

Seeing Yang bring in a lot of recognizable "Superman" elements in the series, but with a twist, was also great. Kenan is the one who bullies "Luo Lixin" rather than the traditional Clark/Lex friendship of Pre-Crisis and Birthright. Initially Kenan develops a crush on intrepid reporter for Primetime Shanghai, Laney Lan, but she dismisses him as too young and Kenan eventually ends up pursuing Avery Ho (Flash) instead. Baxi the Bat-Man of China has a similar relationship with Kenan as the traditional Superman/Batman in terms of being vitriolic best buds, however Baxi is the one who has the most respect for authority while Kenan is the rebel. Kenan is a part of the "Justice League of China" which does not meet with the approval of the already established Chinese superheroes, the Great Ten. That contrasts nicely with the good relationship the Justice Society and Justice League have, as well as seeing Yang lampshade the "Chinese copy" trope and incorporate that into his storytelling.

One of the funniest differences is how Kenan chooses to immediately reveal his identity as Super-Man to the world by taking off the compliance visor he was forced to wear, contrasting with Clark's choice to hide his identity. He was so eager to impress people that he never gave any thought to the danger he could put himself or his family in by revealing his identity until it was too late, something Clark is well aware of and has taken great pains to keep his identity secret. Was a missed opportunity for DC to have Kenan comment on Clark copying him for once when he outed himself under Bendis.

But one of the most poignant differences between Clark and Kenan is the gulf in separation between their relationship with their parents. Clark has a loving relationship with Ma and Pa Kent, trying to live up to their lessons as best he can. In contrast Kenan's mom was believed to have died in an airplane crash when he was just a child, and he never really knew her. His father was distant from him after that and the two weren't really close despite Kenan's attempts to impress him. So Kenan lacks that strong connection while still clearly loving both of them.

Pa Kent's death is one of the most tragic examples of Clark's love for his parents, and I've always been a fan of takes where Clark promises his father to fight for the powerless on Pa's deathbed. Kenan gets a similar scene at the start of his career, his dad "dies" (after being exposed as Flying General Dragon, a pro-democracy "supervillain" from the Chinese authorities perspective) and wants Kenan to promise he'll fight for Truth, Justice, and Democracy. But because Kenan's dad never really bonded with him, Kenan doesn't know what those mean, and can only promise that he never wants to see people die, something his father takes comfort in at least. In classic comic book fashion it's revealed that Dr. Omen, Kenan's "boss" and the one who gave him his powers, saved Kenan's father, because she is Kenan's mother! Kenan's relationship with his parents forms a lot of the crux of his character arc, and seeing how Yang utilizes the classic Superman concept of family kept the storytelling exciting.

Yang's brilliant exploration of the concept of "Superman" through the prism of Chinese culture was a great way to differentiate Kenan as well.

I absolutely freaking love how he tied to the concept of Qi to the S-shield in particular. Connecting the shape of the shield with the way Kenan has acquired his powers along the path of the Bagua (eight trigrams used in Taoism that represent the fundamental principles of reality), with his octagon S-shield outline representing all eight principles together, was mindblowing! So was the idea of restricting Kenan's access to his powers unless he was actually acting in a Superman manner, that tied his character growth to his power growth in an entertaining manner. There were so many characters and concepts that meshed Chinese and DC lore together, like how Emperor Super-Man was Kenan's "Doomsday", they even recreated that iconic dual kill shot! The Chinese Wonder Woman Peng Deilan, being based on the Chinese Legend of the White Snake! There was even some Korean mythology referenced with the Aqua-Man member of the JLC "Dragonson".

Yang also managed to do a Superman Blue/Superman Red story with Super-Man Yin/Super-Man Yang!

Shameful that it took me a while to realize what Gene Yang was doing but once I caught on I was touched. You can tell how much Yang loved Superman and his mythology, and how he was excited to incorporate as much from Clark as he could, while still using it in a way that was solidly Kenan's. And not just Superman's mythology, but the history and lore of the entire DC Universe. I-Ching got to be brought in, fleshed out, and used as Kenan's mentor! The "Yellow Peril" villain from Detective Comics #1, the comic DC gets its name from was brought in and revamped as I-Ching's twin brother All-Yang! Hats off to Yang for taking a racist caricature and attempting to make him into something more.

This series was a beautiful attempt by Gene Yang to build a space for Asian heroes and villains where they could be more than stereotypes, Kenan himself being a defiant mold-breaker in every regard as the complete opposite of most Asian characters in Western media (a jock, a bully, loves his dad but not on great terms with him, a powerhouse as a hero, etc). So much thought and hard work was poured into this by Yang and his team of artist collaborators.

Especially the costumes, man Kenan had so many great looks. From his starting outfit (which is my favorite Superman variant not worn by Clark himself), to the one with the Yin/Yang shield he acquired later on, to his Super-Man Yin & Super-Man Yang outfits, Kenan looked damn cool. Part of me is bummed they didn't go with the Chinese character shield they toyed around with, but I loved how Yang used the "s-shield" as a plot point, so I'm not too broken up over it.

All that great work Yang did to build that space up has been more or less forgotten sadly. It was nice to see Kenan in the DC Asian Month Celebration issue. Avery is going to be in Justice Incarnate at least (unsurprising considering she was created by Williamson). So fucking bummed that Superman Family Adventures cartoon didn't happen, they were going to have Kenan and John Henry Irons in it! Would've been a dream come true for me to see Irons in animation again, and Kenan making the jump to outside media! Maybe that would've encouraged DC to let Yang keep writing New Super-Man, or at least encouraged them to use him elsewhere instead of allowing him fall into Limbo.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what the future holds for Kenan. Jon is being pushed as Clark's replacement in the comics, with DC keeping all the other contenders such as Kon benched. Calvin is leading the Justice Incarnate team likely due to the upcoming Coates reboot that will make Clark black. Val will probably get something once Taylor leaves Jon's book or once they officially announce the HBO Max show is happening. So where does that leave Kenan, my new favorite PoC legacy hero? Currently my only hope is that Yang is working on something for DC involving him. Yang left Batman/Superman, where I was hoping to see a Baxi/Kenan team up, to go work on "exciting other opportunities" per his Twitter. So fingers crossed that there's something in the works for Kenan!

One day I hope he gets his day in the sun again.

[spinning-head-of-cabbage]

*A Door 🚪 opens*

*Gene steps out rather shakily and glances about it. It is very different. For one thing it is much taller and everything is much longer...it also looks absolute terrified. It is terrified, but it is trying to keep it together * C-cabbage? I need to speak with you? *It is quite light-headed, a feeling it certainly isn't used to, and is trying to hold both of it's wrists in a futile attempt to stop the flow of blood that is staining their clothes* Please?

[Cabbage, who had been playing Sudoku with gaps in the air, sits up and nearly falls off the desk they were laying on]

Gene! You're alri-! You are not alright!

[They quickly walk over to the other Spiralet, taking one of its arms around their neck, and pulling some gauze and bandages from the walls and lampshade, quickly trying to at least suppress the blood flow]

Oh fears above what happened to you?

[They continue supporting it, trying to figure out where they should go to heal it]

[pastafossa]

Top 5 favorite movies?

The Princess Bride, gimme that Dread Pirate Roberts life, dressed in black, mysterious, snarky, good fighter hey look it's matt. I want a dog named Fezzik. I dressed as Wesley and have a giant ROUS. I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH.

Blazing Saddles because holy shit that's funny. Gene Wilder and Clevon Little are gems, perfect chemistry, lampshading westerns, breaking the fourth wall, I LOVE this humor.

Winter Soldier because IMO it's the perfect non-teamup marvel movie. Writing? Flawless. Acting? PERFECTION. Bucky? LOOK AT HIS HAIR AND SAD EYES. I love it, give me 500 more.

Thor Ragnarok because it's basically the Princess Bride of superhero movies in that it lampshades ALL the hilarity of Thor and other superhero movies. All the reasons I love PB are why I love Thor Ragnarok.

Jurassic Park because DINOSAURS. T REX. THE DINOSAURS STILL LOOK SO GOOD?

[papermoonloveslucy]

ZIEGFELD FOLLIES

April 8, 1946

Directors: Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth. Vincente Minnelli, George Sidney,  Norman Taurog, Charles Walters. Robert Lewis Producer: Arthur Freed for Metro Goldwyn Mayer

The shooting schedule ran between April 10 and August 18, 1944, with retakes plus additional segments filmed on December 22, 1944 and then between January 25 and February 6, 1945. The film was first proposed in 1939. 

Synopsis ~ We meet a grayed, immaculately garbed Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. in Paradise (his diary entry reads "Another heavenly day"), where he looks down upon the world and muses over the sort of show he'd be putting on were he still alive.

PRINCIPAL CAST

Lucille Ball ('Here's to the Ladies') is appearing in her 64th film since coming to Hollywood in 1933. 

Fred Astaire ('Here's to the Ladies' / Raffles in 'This Heart of Mine' / Tai Long in 'Limehouse Blues’ / Gentleman in 'The Babbit and the Bromide') also appeared with Lucille Ball in Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), and Follow the Fleet (1936). His name was mentioned twice on “I Love Lucy.”

Lucille Bremer (Princess in 'This Heart of Mine' / Moy Ling in 'Limehouse Blues') 

Fanny Brice (Norma Edelman in 'A Sweepstakes Ticket') appeared in the original stage version of many editions of The Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway.

Judy Garland (The Star in 'A Great Lady Has An Interview') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943). 

Kathryn Grayson (Kathryn Grayson in 'Beauty') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943).

Lena Horne (Lena Horne in 'Love') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943).

Gene Kelly (Gentleman in 'The Babbit and the Bromide') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943),  Du Barry Was A Lady (1943), and A Guide for the Married Man (1967). He made an appearance on the Lucille Ball special “Lucy Moves to NBC” (1980).  

James Melton (Alfredo in 'La Traviata')

Victor Moore (Lawyer's Client in 'Pay the Two Dollars')

Red Skelton (J. Newton Numbskull in 'When Television Comes') also starred with Lucille Ball in Having Wonderful Time (1938), Thousands Cheer (1943),  Du Barry Was A Lady (1943), and The Fuller Brush Girl (1950).  On TV he appeared on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in “Lucy Goes To Alaska” (1958). Ball and Skelton appeared in numerous TV specials together. 

Esther Williams (Esther Williams in 'A Water Ballet') also appeared with Lucille Ball in Easy To Wed (1946). 

William Powell (Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.) also played the same character in The Great Ziegfeld (1936). 

Edward Arnold (Lawyer in 'Pay the Two Dollars') appeared with Lucille Ball in Roman Scandals (1933) and Ellis in Freedomland (1952).

Marion Bell (Violetta in 'La Traviata')

Cyd Charisse (Ballerina in 'Beauty') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943).

Hume Cronyn (Monty in 'A Sweepstakes Ticket') was honored by The Kennedy Center in 1986, at the same ceremony as Lucille Ball. 

William Frawley (Martin in 'A Sweepstakes Ticket') played the role of Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”. He also appeared on “The Lucy Show,” his final screen appearance. 

Robert Lewis (Chinese Gentleman in 'Limehouse Blues' / Telephone Voice in 'Number Please')

Virginia O'Brien (Virginia O'Brien in 'Here's to the Ladies') also starred with Lucille Ball in Thousands Cheer (1943),  Du Barry Was A Lady (1943), and Meet The People (1944). 

Keenan Wynn (Caller in 'Number Please') appeared with Lucille Ball in Easy To Wed (1946), Without Love (1945), and The Long, Long Trailer (1954). 

SUPPORTING CAST

Ziegfeld Girls

Karin Booth  

Lucille Casey  

Aina Constant  

Elizabeth Dailey  

Frances Donelan  

Natalie Draper  

Karen X. Gaylord  

Aileen Haley  

Carol Haney  

Shirlee Howard  

Margaret Laurence  

Helen O'Hara  

Noreen Roth  

Elaine Shepard  

Kay Thompson  

Dorothy Tuttle  

Dorothy Van Nuys  

Eve Whitney - appeared on “I Love Lucy” episode “The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15).

Dancers

Gloria Joy Arden

Jean Ashton  

Irene Austin  

Judi Blacque  

Bonnie Barlowe  

Norman Borine  

Hazel Brooks  

Ed Brown  

Kathleen Cartmill  

Jack Cavan  

Marilyn Christine  

Laura Corbay  

Rita Dunn  

Meredyth Durrell  

Shawn Ferguson  

Jeanne Francis  

Jean French  

Mary Jane French  

David Gray  

Bill Hawley  

Doreen Hayward  

Charlotte Hunter  

Virginia Hunter  

Patricia Jackson

Margaret Kays  

Laura Knight  

Laura Lane  

Dale Lefler  

Melvin Martin  

Diane Meredith  

Lorraine Miller  

Joyce Murray  

Janet Nevis  

Ray Nyles  

Billy O'Shay  

Jane Ray  

Dorothy Raye  

Beth Renner

Melba Snowden  

Walter Stane  

Ivon Starr  

Robert Trout  

Chorus Boys

Rod Alexander

Milton Chisholm  

Dick D'Arcy  

Dante DiPaolo  

Don Hulbert  

Herb Lurie  

Matt Mattox  

Bert May - appeared on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford”

Jack Purcell  

Tommy Rall  

Ricky Ricardi (!)

Alex Romero

“LIMEHOUSE BLUES” starring Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, and Robert Lewis

Robert Ames (Masked Man)  

James Barron (Couple with Banners)  

Eleanor Bayley (Couple with Branches)  

Mary Jo Ellis (Couple with Banners)  

Sean Francis (Ensemble)  

James King (Rooster)  

Harriet Lee (Bar Singer) 

Eugene Loring (Costermonger)  

Charles Lunard (Masked Man)  

Patricia Lynn (Ensemble)  

Ruth Merman (Ensemble)  

Garry Owen (1st Subway Policeman)  

Ellen Ray (Couple with Parasols)  

Jack Regas (Masked Man)  

Billy Shead (Couple with Parasols)  

Ronald Stanton (Couple with Branches)  

Wanda Stevenson (Ensemble)  

Ray Teal (2nd Subway Policeman)  

“LOVE” starring Lena Horne

Juliette Ball (Club Patron)   

Lennie Bluett (Dancer)   

Suzette Harbin (Flirt)   

Avanelle Harris (Club Patron)  

Maggie Hathaway (Dancer)  

Charles Hawkins (Club Patron)  

Marie Bryant (Woman Getting Her Man Taken)   

Cleo Herndon (Dancer)   

“THIS HEART OF MINE” starring Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer

Helen Boyce (Countess)   

Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (Lieutenant)

Naomi Childers (Duchess)

Charles Coleman (Majordomo)   

Sam Flint (Majordomo's Assistant)

Sidney Gordon (Masked Man)   

Count Stefenelli (Count)   

Robert Wayne (Dyseptic)   

“PAY THE TWO DOLLARS”  starring Edward Arnold and Victor Moore

William Bailey (Subway Passenger)

Joseph Crehan (1st Judge) - played a Detective on “I Love Lucy” “The Great Train Robbery”

William B. Davidson (2nd Judge)

Eddie Dunn (3rd Subway Policeman)   

Harry Hayden (Warden)   

George Hill (2nd Subway Policeman)   

Wilbur Mack (Subway Passenger)   

Larry Steers (Magistrate)

“NUMBER PLEASE” starring Keenan Wynn

Peter Lawford (Voice of Porky)

Grady Sutton (Texan)

Audrey Totter (Phone Operator Voice)

Kay Williams (Girl)

OTHERS

Bunin's Puppets

Elise Cavanna (Tall Woman)

Jack Deery (Man)

Rex Evans (Butler in "A Great Lady Has An Interview”)

Sam Garrett (Roping / Twirling Act)

Silver (Horse in "Here's to the Ladies') 

Arthur Walsh (Telegraph Boy in "A Sweepstakes Ticket") - appeared on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11). 

‘FOLLIES’ TRIVIA

Sidney Guilaroff, Lucille Ball’s hair dresser, who takes responsibility for her famous ‘golden red’ for this movie, becoming her trademark color.

Although they appear in different segments, this is the only feature film collaboration between “I Love Lucy co-stars" Lucille Ball and William Frawley. Coincidently, Frawley's character in this film shares a striking similarity with his iconic character of Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.” In this film he plays a money-hungry curmudgeon of a landlord, much like the show. In the above photo, he appears with director Minnelli and co-star Brice. 

The horse ridden by Lucille Ball is the Lone Ranger's Silver!

Lucille Ball was actually fired by Ziegfeld from his road company production of Rio Rita in the 1930s.

In February 1956, Lucy and Desi appeared on “MGM Parade” to promote their MGM film Forever Darling. The show also included footage of Lena Horne singing from Ziegfeld Follies. 

Lucy also played a showgirl in pink in “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E19) aired on February 21, 1955. The scene was inspired by Ziegfeld’s legendary stage shows featuring beautiful women wearing elaborate costumes navigating long staircases. To solidify the comparison, Ricky says he is going to a meeting with Mr. Minnelli. Vincente Minnelli was one of the directors of Ziegfeld Follies. 

Lucy Ricardo had previously cavorted around in a lampshade in the manner of a Ziegfeld girl in both the unaired pilot and “The Audition” (S1;E6).

Ziegfeld Follies includes a sketch for Red Skelton called “When Television Comes” aka “Guzzler’s Gin” in which a (future) television spokesman gets increasingly sloshed on his product. This sketch was an obvious influence on Lucy’s Vitameatavegamin routine in “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S1;E30) aired on May 5, 1952. 

Ziegfeld Girl Eve Whitney appeared on “I Love Lucy” episode “The Charm School” (ILL S3;E15). She used her own name for the character.  

The Telegraph Boy in "A Sweepstakes Ticket" Arthur Walsh - appeared on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11) as Arthur ‘King Cat’ Walsh. He teaches Lucy how to jitterbug. 

The first Judge in the “Pay the Two Dollars” James Crehan also played the Police Detective on “I Love Lucy in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5) first aired on October 31, 1955.

Porky, a voice on the telephone in “Number Please” Peter Lawford, played “Password” against Lucille Ball on September 24, 1964.  At the time, Lawford was married to President Kennedy’s sister, Patricia. On November 26, 1968, Ball was a guest on “The Tonight Show” when Peter Lawford was sitting in for Johnny Carson.

Chorus Boy Bert May appeared as a solo dancer on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford” (TLS S5;E21) in February 1967. 

In the dressing room, Lucy jokes with Fanny Brice, one of the funniest women in showbusiness.  This was the only time Ball and Brice collaborated and was Brice’s last film. 

Ziegfeld’s follies began on Broadway, so it was appropriate that the show featured past and future Broadway musical stars:

Lucille Ball ~ Wildcat (1960)

Carol Haney ~ The Pajama Game (1954)

Tommy Rall ~ Call Me Madame (1950)

Fanny Brice ~ The Ziegfeld Follies 

Marion Bell ~ Brigadoon (1947)

Victor Moore ~ Anything Goes (1934)

There was a lot of material that was not filmed, but written and cast. Some of the original skits would have added “Lucy” performers Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern, and Van Johnson to the cast.

[solo1y]

The Batman movies have been getting darker. After the bright and silly 1960s series, everyone thought the 1980s Tim Burton Batman was dark. Then the 2000s Christopher Nolan Batman happened. Surely, we benighted simpletons thought, it can’t get much darker than this? But here we all are. Every twentyish years we get a new, darker reboot. Pity the cinemagoers of 2045 as they leave the new incarnation of Batman (Timothée Chalemet) in stunned silence, afraid to go home and drag their loved ones into their new, despair-ridden worldview. 

The Batman (Robert Pattinson; he’s fine, don’t worry about it) isn’t just dark thematically, it’s dark literally. Everything happens at night or during the day in badly-lit buildings with high ceilings. Even in The Dark Knight, there is a scene in the sunlight where Bruce Wayne spends the afternoon on a yacht with an entire Russian ballet company. There’s none of that in this movie. The only light is from the reflection of red-and-blue police car lights or the oddly muted illumination in the nightclub which forms one of the main locations.

Whenever Bruce Wayne makes an appearance, he is almost indistinguishable from Batman: sullen, dark, antisocial and somehow simultaneously looks like he just got up and he hasn’t slept in three days. This is the first movie where I want to look like Bruce Wayne more than I want to look like Batman, who seems awkward, lumbering and sometimes even clumsy by comparison. 

In every scene he’s in, Batman stomps around in big clumpy boots that he got from Demonia and they do not look or sound conducive to the gymnastic combat stuff you expect from Batman. 

He gets knocked out to the point of unconsciousness. Twice. He keeps missing obvious clues and he ultimately fails to prevent the bad guy from executing his evil plan.

In one scene he completely mishandles his bat-glider (or whatever that thing is) and whacks off a bridge and a lorry, smashing into the ground at high speed. If this were literally any other Batman movie, it would be a laugh moment. No one laughed in my cinema. There was a collective sharp intake of breath, though. Apparently, we were more concerned that he might have actually hurt himself. It’s that kind of movie.

Although they’ve never been a priority, his people skills in this movie are truly awful. Any time he is confronted with a genuine human emotion of any kind, he freezes wordlessly in what I’m hoping is fear and not revulsion. 

The script is good enough, however, to lampshade the old joke about Batman’s superpower being privilege (repackaged by a black Catwoman in a comment about the bad guys as “white privilege”).

One thing very much in its favour is that it's not trying to be a Marvel movie. Don’t expect a fast-paced, witty action movie. After the success of Joker, it looks like The Batman is not connected to any of the Extended-Universe-Justice-League movies we all know and tolerate. DC might be figuring out that its best bet is to stop trying to copy the billion-dollar Marvel juggernaut and keep making great standalone movies. If you make a good movie, people will want to see it regardless. 

This movie is more like a dark, brooding police procedural. At times it could almost be an episode of Law & Order directed by David Lynch. It's a proper, old-school Batman movie minus anything whimsical or humorous.

It's paced (and even plotted) like one of those 1970s psychological thrillers with Gene Hackman, except in those movies everything is a shade of brown and in this one everything is a shade of black. It moves slowly, proceeds in a straight line from beginning to end and it involves a massive, all-encompassing conspiracy between drug smugglers and law enforcement which threatens to destroy the only good cop in the city. 

If you've seen The French Connection, you'll recognise a lot of this. That’s a good thing. 

[soup-du-silence]

Thoughts about the show’s attempt to balance comedy and drama in its villains and plots, but refusing to do so with adventure and slice-of-life stories? I feel like many things could have taken more risks to a great dramatic effect and things were too “funny” when they should have been serious, and it also could have used more air to breathe and just let the characters interact. Don’t like Frank’s reason for only adventure stories either, SU did fine with both??

SU is a masterclass in balancing humor and sincerity and high stakes adventure through a tight script and great acting. Ducktales wishes it could do what SU did with, like, comedic pacing, a meaningful look, or a two minute song. Ducktales using catchphrases and goofs as a crutch is like trying to have a meaningful conversation with someone who keeps saying "thats what SHE said" every time you bare your soul. It got to a point where we started hypothesizing that all of season 3 was still in a Gene-induced AU because Quack Pack obviously lampshaded the catchphrase problem and then the rest of the season just leaned so hard into catchphrases unironically that it felt like it had to be a joke. It wasnt. They thought we really needed Deweyisms three times an episode after they brought attention to it.

And it felt like it started out with potential, the season 1 Lena stuff was very dramatic, the early Della stuff was pretty intense, while I didnt fully vibe with Last Crash, I do get what they were going for, but eventually it just... petered out. Became very....homogeneous in tone. Didnt want to take risks, didnt want to be brave, didnt want to have the kind of heart it swore it was selling. After Lena and Della came back, I stopped being genuinely concerned for anyone's safety.

I think thats why Im so profoundly disappointed in the way the show panned out. Like, I didnt hatewatch Ducktales. I know people have been dunking on me for that. I honestly really adored the show in the beginning, I still love many of the characters. I wanted to see how it ended. It seemed like it was going to be something really big and dramatic and challenging and cool but it tripped over its own shoelaces halfway there. And that bums me out.

[savaralyn2]

Another star trek post under the cut

@gamebird

I feel like you're overtly projecting the limitations of the time on the show and making the show itself come across as negative for.. what.. trying to be progressive despite the times? Needing to use some petty excuses in order to achieve pretty good progress in terms of racial/cultural diversity in media? I really don't think whatever the shallow knee jerk reactions of the people who watched TOS when it first aired should somehow taint the fact that the series itself clearly doesn't condone that kind of negative coloniser mindset. I'd prefer to look at the show as its own thing, not purely as a part of the time period it came from, or at the very most, I'd look to what the creator intended when making it, though even that's kind of unnecessary. "They made the show that way, to show the benevolent, morally correct Federation ‘exploring’ these new lands without a stain of sin or genocide upon them" Maybe most of TOS started things off that way, since it's obviously the most in line with Gene's view of a utopian future, one where humanity has learned from its past mistakes and achieved some level of actual peace and friendly coexistence with each other, but even by late TOS (and ESPECIALLY in TNG/DS9) that Ferelden is NOT portrayed as faultless or perfect.

They make mistakes, there are some ventures into the corruption/abuse in such a large organisation, and again, in TNG and DS9 there are many episodes wherein the Federations actions regarding certain issues or peoples IS questioned and challenged ((By the time DS9 rolled around and Gene passed away, the writers actually mention in some interviews how they found it interesting to explore some more complex political/cultural stories regarding the Federation's actions and generally going in darker directions)), they aren't free of sin, but the Federation as a whole, and especially the main crews of each part, exist for the sake of trying to achieve peaceful race relations and exploring the vast universe to discover things unknown to them. That desire towards peace and knowledge comes across, to me at least, as some of the main themes, not dismissing the entire series as coloniser focused shit that's been corrupted by the circumstances of its creation. ((Incidentally, there's an episode of DS9 that actually kind of lampshades these issues where Sisko voices his dislike of spending time in Vic's casino hologram because he feels uncomfortable in the 'fake' version of the 60's where racial prejudices of the actual 60's don't exist, like its just, as you say, 'sweeping it under the rug', but he ends up accepting and enjoying the hologram when he's convinced by his friend that even though times were indeed hard for people of color in the actual 1960's, the idea here is that they are able to experience/act out how they feel things could have been or SHOULD have been then, with the only limitations being the ones they place upon themselves, and I think that idea applies here as well to this mostly ideal future, at least somewhat))

Star trek evolved into its own thing despite that beginning and those excuses ((even Gene has said in interviews sometime during TNG that compared to when he first made star trek years earlier, he felt like he had become a more educated and worldly man, just like star trek had changed too.))

[halfgclden]

beck & chase ship meme

the real base? second base? checkett 👀

Who is more aggressive in bed? - i just gotta say one thing,,, it ain’t chase

Lights on or off? - chase turns on his lava lamp 😌

Who does what chores? - ummm whatever beck is like “hey do this” chase would bc he’s not,,, super inclined to do them himself but he’ll help out when he needs to orrr if there were chores beck Didn’t like doing he’d take them bc tbh they’re all the same to him

Who gets babied when they’re sick? - oh my god another chance for mr peterson to baby someone? bam spicy soup to make nose run and sooth the soul, changing the lampshades/light bulbs diff colors to make the light coming out softer for beck’s eyes, rubbing vicks on his chest for him?? i feel like beck has the carter “i’m fine” gene and would be like too much affection,,,, i can take care of myself,, please sto p

Who makes breakfast? - illegal for chase to make breakfast but he’d bring beck something from the cafe (plus coffee) bc i feel like beckett is another person who doesn’t eat breakfast and chase is like important meal!

Where would they go on their honeymoon? - o um?? probably somewhere they could drive to NOT canada

What are their quirks while sleeping? - chase kind of sprawls out which is Bad for someone so Lorge and beck wakes up a few times to move a limb or just because and is like Sigh

What is their favorite activity as a couple? - hear me out,,, any science/natural history museum where beck can be all smart and in his element and explain things to chase and chase has his mind Absolutely Blown and is like :0000 they would both be Thriving

Who is the stricter parent? - okay but why can i hear BOTH being like “sorry guys,,, dad/papa said no ://“ so that they’re both the cool one but the kids just think they’re equally strict

Who would be the big spoon? - if it’s not beck this isn’t gonna work out 😔

Who would wake up first? - the real question is did beck sleep last night? and the answer is probably not

Do they have nicknames for each other? - well,,, beck but i can also see chase getting into the habit of calling him pet for some reason? but also probably babe

What happened when they met each other’s parents? - they didn’t have to worry about that aren’t they lucky 😇

How do they apologize after an argument? - beck seems like the first fight he has with a person and he’s like “,, so we’re gonna break up i guess” and chase would be like hUh

What would they be like as parents? - trying so hard to be the cool dads but gods are they ever embarrassing but wow do they care so much and it shows

Who is the better cook? - honestly,,,, they seem like they’re both bad i know beck does compounds all day but that’s Different. they end up eating a lot of ramen

Who is more romantic? - chasey baybee beck shivers once and that jacket is going around his shoulders / hi honey i was thinking about you so i stopped by to bring you lunch and get you out for your break you’re workin real hard / little things that i think would catch beck off guard at first until he got used to being treated like that

What sort of gifts do they get for each other? - chase would still go the homemade route i think! i feel like beck would be like koda,,,, what do i get him

Who gets jealous easiest? - gonna say beck because chase wouldn’t

Who gets more excited for events? (e.g. birthdays, christmas…etc) - oh it’s chase but he gets so Ridiculously Overexcited for Everything that beck can’t help but get at least a little roped in/ at the least he’d be like that’s,,, Adorable

Who is the most adventurous? - chase!

Who is the most protective? - chase 😇

What would they have been like as childhood sweethearts? - nerd plus stoner?? chase keeps going to the tutor bc he’s hot but never actually learns anything bc he’s staring and keeps failing his tests and beck is like what am i doing wrong?? lmao

Song to sum them up? - Honey - Red Hearse / Unwind Me! - mmmonika