#goodman brand

[spockvarietyhour]

[reallyundistinguishedbitch]

Do you guys think Saul quit smoking cold turkey after Kim left or...???

[thekimspoblog]

Hate how good your Kim Cosplay is.

Better Call Saul!

Halloween picks of me and my boyfriend goofin around as Saul Goodman era Jimmy and Kim Wexler. Slaying and serving (divorce papers)

Bonuses:

[theboarsbride]

Maul Goodman, Attorney at Claw⚖️📜

Heehee Bob Odenkirk werewolf because I wanna be silly and on-brand, and y’all are gonna suffer because of it heehehehehe

[girlsdressingrooms]

Iris Barrel Apfel, Decorator and Fashion Stylist

(August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) 

Ms. Apfel was one of the most vivacious personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design, she has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic.

Her originality was typically revealed in her mixing of high and low fashions—Dior haute couture with flea market finds, nineteenth-century ecclesiastical vestments with Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers.

With remarkable panache and discernment, she combines colors, textures, and patterns without regard to period, provenance, and, ultimately, aesthetic conventions. Paradoxically, her richly layered combinations—even at their most extreme and baroque—project a boldly graphic modernity.

Iris Barrel was born on Aug. 29, 1921, in Astoria, Queens, the only child of Samuel Barrel, who owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye, who owned a fashion boutique.

She studied art history at New York University, then qualified to teach and did so briefly in Wisconsin before fleeing back to New York to work on Women's Wear Daily, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson, decorating apartments for resale and honing her talent for sourcing rare items before opening her own design firm. She was also an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

As a distinguished collector and authority on antique fabrics, Iris Apfel has consulted on numerous restoration projects that include work at the White House that spanned nine presidencies from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.

Along with her husband, Carl, she founded Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company and ran it until they retired in 1992. The Apfels specialized in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute assembled 82 ensembles and 300 accessories from her personal collection in 2005 in a show about her called “Rara Avis”.

Almost overnight, Ms. Apfel became an international celebrity of pop fashion.

Ms. Apfel was seen in a television commercial for the French car DS 3, became the face of the Australian fashion brand Blue Illusion, and began a collaboration with the start-up WiseWear. A year later, Mattel created a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll in her image. Last year, she appeared in a beauty campaign for makeup with Ciaté London.

Six years after the Met show she started her fashion line "Rara Avis" with the Home Shopping Network.

She was cover girl of Dazed and Confused, among many other publications, window display artist at Bergdorf Goodman, designer and design consultant, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Ms. Iris Apfel became a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in its Division of Textiles and Apparel, teaching about imagination, craft and tangible pleasures in a world of images.

 In 2018, she published “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon,” an autobiographical collection of musings, anecdotes and observations on life and style. 

Ms. Apfel’s apartments in New York and Palm Beach were full of furnishings and tchotchkes that might have come from a Luis Buñuel film: porcelain cats, plush toys, statuary, ornate vases, gilt mirrors, fake fruit, stuffed parrots, paintings by Velázquez and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a mannequin on an ostrich.

The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Ms. Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

Ms. Apfel’s work had a universal quality, It’s was a trend.

Rest in Power !

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Meet Velvette📱🧶

Meet my take on Velvette! I had LOT OF FUN with this one! She’s reviewing Pentabucks newest drink!(being its top influencer can get you it for free!)

My Velvette’s more involved with social media/advertising/trends rather than owning all of Hell’s fashion indurstry. She’s basically a social marketer/influencer who uses her influence to support and advertise a lot of the overlords and high influence peoples businesses, products and services. She’s def still into fashion, I imagine she has something like a Bergdorf Goodmans, luxury end store and probably collabed with other fashion brands). I also see her own some fo the trendiest resteraunts, clubs, beauty salons, etc. def sewn herself into big brands!

I’ve heard she was suppose to be a doll because her pilot look mouth alluded a bit to stitching and wore frilly clothes.

so I ended up making her a rag doll! Doll’s are very popular to sell, especially to sell additional objects such as fashion, accessories, etc. Basically she sells herself out to the public eye 👁️. There’s also a bit of sewing terms that fits with social media such as “Pinned”, “Threads”, etc.🪡📍

And rag dolls are known for their adaptability(perfect for trend setting Vel)! I styled her outfit as a kinda tweaked modern outfit of Raggedy Anne/Andy’s outfit. The jumper and black booties. Restyled into a more flashy romp jumper and heeled boots 👢 Even made it to her name, VELVET!

Ngl many friends of mine have said she gives off Monster High vibes(I feel like 2000’s cartoons def inspired me). As well as Lalaloopsy!!!!!!! I was also a bit inspired by OG Millie’s outfit(love the double straps).

Put her in two shades of brown for a patchwork vibe! Another thing I’m going for with the rag doll theme is to allude to insecurity. I imagine she came from less glamorous origins. Didn’t have porcelain dolls like Charlie or plastic Barbies like all the other popular and rich girls, but simple rag dolls and stuffies. No matter how hard she tries to be like perfect porcelain or pretty plastic…she’s cursed to be seen as just some raggedy rag doll💔. I also imagine her death had something related to becoming…torn up(I imagine it wasn’t a pretty end)…

For this look, went with bubble braids made from balls of yarn 🧶 She has all kinds of hairstyles, from yarn, cotton, stitch on wigs and even real hair(from scalps of those who got on her nasty side, @a-sterling-rose suggested this). There’s even a type of hairstyle called “yarn braids”.

Wears fake nails 💅. Gel, acrylic, she’s made of cloth so she can adapt to any kind.

Gave her actual ears 👂 (added them on herself).

Clout Glasses 😎.

For her color scheme, @the-burd-lord suggested I'd go with RGB theme, colors on display screen(Vox is the leader and a screen) Ngl I was conflicted what colors to go with for the vees(Primary, Red blue purple etc). But then I realized when u mix those colors u get those other colors and then I decided to give the Vees two main color themes for each. One for show, the other their true colors! Velvette likes to use green, magenta and purple, for a visually pleasing vibe, light green and magenta for sweetness with purple/gold for luxury, but truth she’s a vain, envious clout seeker who has and will do less than ethic things for the likes. The two colors r also a mix of Val and Vox’s colors(uses them, advertises them to advertise herself!)

Played around with a assymetry color vibe for the envy vibe, thats she’s two faced 🎭. Having a deceptive social media personality like Miss Heed(less lovey dovey).

@lovesart23 video on Velvette really helped me consider what to do with her, like her beign Envy theme(she’s a clout chaser afterall). I LOVE her use of purples and greens for her! I also really dig the eye theme which mine in a sense does too. In this case, button eyes.

Added more weight on her a bit, to give off a more rag doll type body(especially with the limbs 🦾🦵)

Gave her black purple eyes with pink and mint button irises. Got Pin eyelashes 🪡📍

Her her a needle/selfie stick. Good for selfies, fashion emergency and stabbing people!

What do u think? I’d love to know💖

I’ve also done the Hazbin Gang, Mimzy, and even her associate, Vox 📺.

[gleamingtempest]

DRDT Naming Conventions & Easter Eggs

Spoilers Below

Alexander - Means defender & warrior. This matches Xander's personality. Matthews - Generic last name. Apparently, his name was originally 'goodman'. Min - Means clever. This matches Min's talent. Jeung - Means loyal. This is ambigous, but ironic because Min betrayed Teruko. 暁子【て る ・ こ】 Teruko - Numerical. Teruko is the 13th name in the cast. This reflects her unlucky talent. 田脇【た ・ わき】 Tawaki - 'Dawn Child.' This might have significance. 'Dawn' = Hope. I'm not sure. Also, alliterates with Teruko. Charles - Named after Charles Convention, a chemistry & physics convention. Cuevas - Generic. Means 'Caves.' Also, alliterates with Charles. 楽【いーでん】 "Iden" - Means easy. Eden is an easy person to be around. Eden - Means paradise. Eden could be considered 'holy' amongst the setting of the killing game. 飛佐【とび ・ さ】 Tobisa - Means 'Fly' & 'Help' or 'Aid.' This reflect Eden's upbeat personality, as well as her agreeable, helpful nature.

亜鈴【あ ・ れい】 Arei - Means 'Dumbbell.' She is athletic; also, generic. 投石【なげ ・ いし】 Nageishi - Means 'Throwing Stones' - She is a bowler. Nico - 'Nico Nico Nico Ni' Hakobyan - Sounds like nyan. Ace - Numerical. Ace is the first in the cast naming order. Also, he has 9 siblings, so it is probably a card motif. Markey - 'Dedicated to Mars', or alternatively, war. This reflects Ace's personality. Also, it sounds like 'Jockey.'

静湖 Jing Hu - Still Lake. This reflects Hu's serene personality. It also reflects her butterfly motif. Veronika Grebenshchikova - Excessively long slavic name evokes horror imagery, I imagine.

Rose - Flower naming convention. Lacroix - The cross. Sacrificial figure(?) - for her family. Crucified for the sins of others. (Caught because of others ineptitude.) J - Blue Jay. She is blue. Julia - Young. Generic. Rosales - 'From the place of roses' - From fame. Arturo - Bear. (???) Giles - Shield. (???) Levi - Clothing brand. He is a personal stylist. Fontana - Sounds expensive. Means fountain. Generic. Whit - Means 'white.' Purity of intentions, I assume. Young - Unknown. (We don't know what kanji was used.) David - Beloved. Reflect his celebrity status. 詹 Chiem - Means 'circumlocutional.' He is a public speaker who often uses his words. Mai - Numerical. 11th in the cast naming order if 'Xander' is listed as 'Alexander.' 11:11 is a lucky time to make a wish. This reflects Mai becoming what the cast wants her to become. Also, reflects parallels to Teruko's luck. Akaski - Means 'Bright Light.' Equivalent to hope.

[forthegothicheroine]

In Hawthorne City, the welcome sign [would be] spelled out in scarlet letters. All the houses have a legally mandated seven gables. A marble faun is erected in the Common. Every minister at every church wears a black veil. Its favorite Halloween decoration is the scarecrow instead of the witch. The bars have names like The Great Stone Face and The Elixir of Life, and the hotels names like The Ambitious Guest and, well, the Hawthorne Hotel. And the high school mascot has a high forehead and a mustache. This could have been Salem had the Witch Trials never happened. I mean, not literally, but Salem would most likely only have been famous for being the city that gave us Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author who gave us The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, Young Goodman Brown and The Birth-Mark, Ethan Brand and Wakefield. The author who Herman Melville called the American Shakespeare. Whom Edgar Allen Poe called "one of the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth." On the other hand, had the Salem Witch Trials never happened, we might not have had the Nathaniel Hawthorne we all are supposed to read in high school

J.W. Ocker, A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts

[asgardianangel]

can we get a oneshot where you have a one-night stand with Sleazy Saul and accidentally end up pregnant and tell him, only for him to be over the moon and wanting you to be his stay at home trophy wife, all according to his plan of “accidentally” knocking you up

I’m on my period and thirsty for Sleazy Saul 😭

A beautiful thing (Saul Goodman X Fem!Reader)

Warnings: 18+ Smut, Saul being sleazy, age gap, naive reader, rough sex, breeding kink, forced pregnancy

It was a rainy night in Alburquerque, and the bell of the pharmacy door jingled. Tireless you stepped inside and searched aisle after aisle finally you came across what you were looking for...pregnancy tests. 

Signs were small at first nausea and feeling fatigue but then you missed your period. You just had to make sure. Picking up multiple tests even different brands you walked up to the counter. 

Back at your apartment you found yourself in the bathroom waiting for the results. It felt like an hour had past and you felt more anxious by the second. Then the result became clear. 

Positive. 

You decided to take another and then another test. All came back with the same result. You were pregnant. Having a baby was something you expected in life but not now, you weren’t financially stable enough to raise a child. Barely getting by with the bills. 

But then you realised something else. Who you had slept with to get yourself in this situation.  

Saul Goodman. The big-time criminal lawyer. 

- 

You thoughted back to that night as you worked your desk job in court filing paperwork for upcoming trials and whatnot. There you met him. Saul was famously known to be ‘sleazy’ but that didn’t stop you from blushing at each comment he made towards you. 

 The older man you secretly loved getting the attention from. He was so desperate to get you out the professional secretary space. 

‘C’mon doll let’s go out for dinner I know the perfect place’ 

Giving you gifts of flowers and small adorable stuffed animals to place on your desk. You found the gestures to be sweet. 

‘Please just one little drink together’ he begged leaning over your desk like a schoolgirl with a crush. Never has a man been so desperate. 

Until one late afternoon you gave in, and his blue eyes beamed like a puppy dog. He invited you out to a quiet dim lit bar with the promise of buying you ‘as many drinks as possible’ Saul was a charmer who showed interest in every detail about your life with his eyes occasional wondering your body. 

He made sure to compliment you throughout the night and it progressed into more lustful pace. Saul bit his lip as you reacted with a blush and a little look away. 

‘What? Has no one ever told you how absolutely beautiful your body is?’ he questioned causing you to laugh.  

‘You are the most stunning woman I’ve ever met, and God damn that ass kills me every time I see it’ you listened to him going on and on about your ass all night.  

The thought of having a little fling with the one and only Saul Goodman excited you. Yet the idea was little off putting at first considering if your co-workers found out you would probably be slut shamed for going with the sleaziest lawyer around.  

But at the end of the night, you didn’t care. You needed to let loose every once and while. 

Pulling Saul by his green patterned tie as you lead him inside your cosy little apartment was how it started. Hands roaming around your body you stared at him with utter desire unbuttoning his shirt slowly. 

Saul whispered sweet nothings into your ear as he left vibrant love bites on your neck. His touches were soft as if he was taking his time kissing everywhere on your body as he stripped you bare.  

Only when you finally made it to your bedroom his desperate and eager manner ramped up again. He pushed you to your bed causing you to gasp in surprise as he climbed up on top of you. His cock was so hard already as he kissed and licked your tits. ‘Can’t believe I can finally see what these babies looked like’ he groaned playing with them. 

The mixture of the alcohol and pure passion caused you to beg him like a slut. Moaning his name over and over as he now played between your legs. Making sure you were ready for him. Delving his long fingers inside you as his tongue followed along. Legs quivered he was so close to making you cum but suddenly stopped when you almost reached that sweet climax. 

 You whined and he chuckled pecking kisses on your thighs. ‘P-please Saul I need t-’ you tried to say but was cut off by a harsh slap to your behind. 

‘You made me wait so long baby I wanted you the day that I saw you’ the older man muttered in your ear with slight annoyance. You gave him a kiss of forgiveness to which he grabs your chin by force and makes you take his tongue  

‘So, you are gonna cum when I say so sweet face’ he told you kissing you some more. His hand moved up and down on his thick cock as you watched in a trance. Fuck... you wanted him inside you so bad. 

‘Ass up sweetheart’ he ordered as if your pray was answered. You sighed as you throbbed at just the tone of his command turning onto your tummy and lifting yourself up in presentation. Saul hummed at the act smoothing his hand along your ass. 

‘I-I almost forgot to ask do you have any protection?’ you questioned quietly. You were on the pill but liked to be extra safe.  

‘No’ he simply responded wrapping his arm around your waist prepping kisses on your back. ‘Well, I guess you could p-’ he stopped you there with an annoyed hush sound. 

‘Oh, sweetheart I can cum in you if I want’ he whispered in a chuckle. ‘Aren’t you not on the pill?’ he then asked.  

‘Yes-ah!’ he cut you off again this time slamming into you causing you to gasp and moan. Saul’s arm wrapped tighter around you as he slammed into you again with a groan. 

‘Oh, doll you belong to me uh’ he tells you with another groan into your ear. His thick cock dived so deep inside you that you could only whimper at his words. Saul picked up a fast pace, but his thrusts were deep into you as he kept you in your place. 

Your small bed was jolting hard against the wall with his eager movements. As words of possessiveness and moans bounced off the walls.  

You cried out his name as his strong arm kept you falling onto the roughed-up sheets with your face. You had never had such a good fuck before you were kind of worried you become addicted to him. 

His thick cock stretched you so well kissing those sweet spots as Saul occasionally whimpered. 

You could hear him groan quietly something to himself but couldn’t exactly work out what it was. 

 His cock was throbbing hard within you ‘such a good girl hm’ Saul then chanted over and over as you felt the both of you becoming close to that climax. 

‘Beg me to cum inside you doll let’s make something beautiful’ he ordered but you didn’t quite think about what he meant by that. All that matter is that orgasm you have long waited for. 

‘Please c-cum in me please ah!’ you cried as his long fingers rubbed on your poor clit along with his harsh thrusts. 

‘that’s its baby cum with me c’mon y-you can do it’ he encouraged with a deep groan. He didn’t need to tell you twice as your entire body shook and you squeezed his cock so intensely. His thick load shot inside you coating your insides as you sighed in relief. 

He stayed inside you holding your body close to his resting his head on your back. You thought he would get off you and the night would end...but no 

Saul was insatiable he had you again and again in many positions like the man was possessed. 

And you now ended up pregnant. 

Sighing you held your head not sure what to do you were going have to confront him and figure out what you were going to do. Yes, you wanted a precious little baby, but you imagined having one in a stable healthy relationship not by a one-night stand with a big-time criminal lawyer. You couldn’t imagine him stepping up to become a father.  

There it was his office you parked in front of it deep in thought. How was he going to react? Would he send you straight to the unplanned clinic? Saul was a reasonable man you were sure at least he would do is have an in-depth discussion about it. 

Stepping inside the building you instantly noticed how busy it was. You should have called beforehand. Maybe you were too nervous to do so. A dark-haired woman looked up from her paperwork to see you awkwardly standing there. “Can I help you?” she asked. 

“I’m here to see M-Mr Goodman” you stuttered slightly. Nerves started to play. 

The woman huffed “Well your gonna be here for a while” Gesturing to all the clients with her pen. 

Nodding “It’s fine I’ll wait” you mumbled leaning against the wall.  

It felt as if hours as passed by when you finally heard his voice. 

“Who’s next for some excellent legal advice?” He asked his blue eyes scanning the waiting room. Then they fell upon you. 

“Ah Y/N look time no see” he beamed, and you smiled at him. God this is going to be one hell of a talk. Saul gestured you into his office and shut the door.  

Silence followed for a moment until he clapped his hand “So?” he started pulling out a chair “what can I do for you?” he questioned softly as you took a seat. 

You took a deep breath and started talking “well just to be clear I’m here on personally matters” you state quietly.  

Saul hums in a chuckle “Oh back for round two huh?” A part of you wishes heavily for that was the case. This man is always so horny. 

“There’s no simple way to put it-” Saul cuts your words. “Sweetheart you can tell me anything” he assures you getting up from his chair and walking behind you. 

You sigh softly as he begins to massage your shoulders in comfort. “c’mon tell me” He encourages. 

“I’m pregnant”  

Those two words left your mouth and Saul’s eyes grew wide. You weren’t exactly sure how what to make of it “Really?” he asked in a weirdly excited tone. 

You nod your head in confirmation, and he made a desperate move to give you a long kiss to the lips. The older man steps back and you gave him a confused look. 

“You are not unhappy or shocked at the news?” You questioned lightly and he just chuckles. 

“Quite the opposite extremely happy and surprised” he tells you with another kiss.  

“Stand up” Saul grabs your hand helping you up to your feet. He then places both hands to your body almost like he’s checking you out for approval. 

“Oh, baby you are gonna look even more stunning” he muses his hands feeling your body and then rests upon your tummy. Like you were already showing. 

“Gonna be such a beautiful mama” Saul’s hand reaches under your shirt on your bare skin. “I’m just imagining it now you all big and swollen with such a precious thing we created” Saul was over the moon. 

You just stood there confused of his reaction as he whispered to himself. 

“Can’t believe I’m going to be a papa” 

“I wonder what we are going to name you” 

“You are going to have an amazing life kid with a mama and papa who love you” 

All the words and phrases you never actually believed you would hear from a man like him.  

“Stay with me doll I will take care of the both of you” Saul promised softly. You didn’t know how to respond to that.  

A wild one-night stand (and probably the best sex you ever had) and all the sudden the famous criminal lawyer wants to be a family man. 

“I know how it is but trust me all I’ve ever wanted the most was a family.” he tells you. Stepping back, you give yourself some space. 

Saul reaches for his phone income button “Cancel and reschedule my appointments for the next hour Francisca” he excitedly ordered. 

Saul stares over at you with a grin and the look in his deep blue eyes you recognised from that night. Walking over to you again he strokes your hair “I think my future wife and I are in some desperate need of alone time” his voice deepens seductively.  

He didn’t give you a chance to speak as his head was suddenly between your trembling thighs again. 

From then on Saul made in clear how your life was going to head. Plans of marriage parenthood and ultimately being his beloved housewife. You expressed concern how fast it was all going but he never took ‘no’ for an answer. 

The sex was still amazing as ever, but it never distracted you on how much he controlled your life. The man was insatiable as ever having you in every position possible. Saul was never tired from working in fact he was desperate to see you in his bed. His perfect and pretty little housewife carrying his child.  

“Everything has to be right sweet face” he would tell you. 

But you would never find out the truth.  

A pharmacist named Daniel Wormald (aka peach cobbler) repaid Saul for his legal advice by completing a rather important request for him. 

Switching your birth control with placebos...  

[slamminslamminmcgill]

can i request nsfw saul goodman x gender neutral reader? I’m thinking the reader is his assistant or something like that. It can be a story or headcanons it’s up to you. Thanks! ❤️

gonna do hcs bc i wanted to make sure to get this done for u 😘

you could have the most impeccable resume in the world or you could have "pwease hire me 🥺" scribbled in crayon on a mcdonald's napkin. if saul thinks you're hot, you're hired.

yes, he's going to try to make moves. yes, they're going to be cringe.

in true slippin' jimmy fashion i see him having a lot of "accidents" on the job to try to get what he wants

"oh noooo im so sorry i spilled coffee all over your brand new shirt! clumsy me :(" *ogles your chest all day*

*bumps into you while he's carrying a comically large stack of papers* "aw man! help me pick these up, will ya? gotta make sure we get these in order." *"accidentally" brushes your ass while reaching behind you*

call him a pervert/dirty old man after he tries something. he's into it.

i can see this becoming a fun dynamic where you'd tease back >:3c wearing VERY risqué outfits to work and always making sure to have one extra button undone, swaying your hips a little extra as you walk. "oopsie i dropped my pen! lemme just stick my entire ass in your face bend over and pick it up 😏"

one day you come in wearing a particularly slutty outfit and sit on his desk to discuss a case. he'd be staring up at your exposed skin for long enough that eventually he'd get fed up with the formalities and shoot you straight.

"look, kid, let's cut the bullshit. are we doing this or not?"

"doing what, mr. goodman? i have nooo idea what you're talking about."

"come on, yes you do," he'd stand up from his desk and put his hands on your hips, "walking in here dressed like that, climbing on my desk and practically giving me a lap dance? that's what we call 'leading the witness', sweetheart."

and then y'all would fuck nasty in his office during breaks 😌

he loves doing it on/at his desk. his absolute favorite is when you're bent over the top of it and he's taking you from behind.

definitely an exhibitionist. his office is soundproof but i bet he'd love to flirt with the idea of getting caught. ESPECIALLY if you're being a brat.

"oh, you wanna act up right now? maybe i should just turn on the intercom and let the good people of albuquerque hear what a whore you really are."

he will ABSOLUTELY tease you under the desk in front of clients because he likes seeing you squirm.

he's either really lovey dovey with aftercare (cuddling, smooching your face, petting your hair, telling you how good you were) or he's immediately back in business mode.

you'd be slumped over drooling on his desk with his cum leaking out of you and he just taps you on the shoulder. "hey, space cadet, when you get back down from orbit, you think you can put your pants back on? we got a line of people waiting outside."

[stylesnews]

FLORENCE, Italy – As Steven Stokey-Daley’s fall show in Florence during Pitti Uomo wrapped, the British designer, the 2022 recipient of the LVMH Prize for Young Designers, revealed longtime fan Harry Styles is acquiring a minority stake in the company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Harry and I have a shared vision for the future of S.S. Daley and we look forward to this new chapter together as we focus on brand longevity and scaling the business into a modern British heritage house,” the designer, 26, said.

The pair was introduced by Styles’ stylist Harry Lambert, who masterminded the wardrobe for the artist’s “Golden” music video, outfitting him in Stokey-Daley’s graduate collection.

The investment is geared at building S.S. Daley’s direct-to-consumer business and forge ahead with plans for a “sustainable and long-term expansion,” the company said in a statement.

After graduating from the University of Westminster, Stokey-Daley made his London Fashion Week debut in September 2021 supported by the National Youth Theatre artistic director Paul Roseby, staging a four-part performance by members of the theater, riffing on British tailoring and tackling such topics as social class, inequality, school life, sexual awakening and homosexuality.

That same year, the S.S. Daley designer was among the recipients of the British Fashion Council’s Newgen initiative and was awarded again by the British fashion governing body the following year, with the BFC Foundation Awards.

The designer’s gender-fluid take on the uniforms of the British upper classes, such as wide-leg trousers, argyle-knit wool vests and embroidered shirts, appeals to a Gen-Z sensibility, and a growing female customer base. The brand is currently stocked in a handful of retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Dover Street Market, Matchesfashion, Bergdorf Goodman, 10 Corso Como Seoul and I.T Store.

Attending the S.S. Daley show in Florence, Sir Paul Smith praised Stokey-Daley and said: “I think that the ideal thing [for him] would be to try and work in parallel with a commercial company that help him develop as a commercial designer, as well as creative designer. And of course, that’s what everybody dreams of. He has the balance between commerciality and creativity.”

“I think [his designs] might have had similarities in my earlier [career]… We are in 60-something countries now. So you have to be a lot more aware of commerciality and things that work for the shops especially right now because the business and around the world is so difficult for people,” Smith added.

Styles’ investment falls in line with a growing number of celebrities becoming brand shareholders. They include, among others, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon who invested in Spanx; Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas in skiwear maker Perfect Moment; Beyoncé, Jessica Alba and Rihanna in French accessories firm Destree; Mila Kunis, Cameron Diaz and Gabrielle Union in Autumn Adeigbo, and Mark Wahlberg in Italian sneaker brand P448.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

i wrote this weeks ago for fun but since fleetwood mac garcia got approval i'll send the whole thing (also totally agree that eliwood WOULD love the eagles. he’d play hotel california so much during road trips and roy hates him for it)

(playable) GBA FE Axe Dads Classified By The Type of Dad Music They'd Listen To:

Barte: Blue Öyster Cult. Barte is peak axe dad but there's no way in hell he'd actually like good music. (I say as I listen to ‘don't fear the reaper’)

Douglas: Not really dad music anymore but Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. He'd say he likes jazz then listen to the most white boy jazz of all time. Also Micheal Bublé or Kenny G.

Hector: Hector is such a mess. He wouldn't even listen to music on purpose. If he did listen to music seriously he’d like Queen or maybe Spin Doctors? He’d like dad rock but not sure what brand.

Hawkeye: Steely Dan. He’s not a stoner but he is so clearly depressed and probably knows that Athos is a lying POS. His favorite Dan album would probably be Aja. caaaaall me deacon blues… [note or sth: can you tell what my favorite band is? lmao. /silly]

Garcia: Fleetwood Mac. ‘Dreams’ makes him cry. Ross would make fun of him for crying at the most dadcore band of all time and Garcia would sit him down and take thirty minutes telling Ross his entire life story (again) and how much the song resonates with him. Then Ross would feel really bad :]

Dozla: Weird Al and/or They Might Be Giants. Maybe Crash Test Dummies too? He seems like he’d sing ‘Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm’ under his breath subconsciously and it'd annoy the shit out of Rennac.

-🦴

.

[queen--kenobi]

Pick stuff from your room and have people vote which one they want to take home!

Thank you for the tag @purgetrooperfox!!!

Tagging: @baba-fett @emilykaldwen @bouncehousedemons @writingbylee @rexxdjarin

[fatehbaz]

In the 19th century, British colonists faced several challenges in India, [...] [including] malaria. [...] The imperialists needed an answer to the problem and they found it in quinine. [...] [T]he British promptly embraced quinine, consuming tonnes of it every year by the mid-1800s. [...] Quinine was so bitter that soldiers and officials began mixing the powder with soda and sugar, unwittingly giving birth to “tonic water”. [...] [I]t prompted Winston Churchill to once proclaim, “The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.” [...] If by some good fortune malaria did not claim them, plague, cholera, dysentery, enteric fever, hepatitis or the unforgiving sun could. Preserving and protecting the body was [...] crucial to the success of the colonial project. As historian EM Collingham aptly summarised in her study, “The British experience of India was intensely physical.”

One way the colonists tried to deal with this challenge was through food and drinks. “The association between food and the maintenance of health was a concern of Anglo-Indian doctors, dieticians and the British authorities throughout the duration of colonial rule [...],” writes Sam Goodman in Unpalatable Truths: Food and Drink as Medicine in Colonial British India. [...]

---

The Medical Gazette, for instance, recommended treating dysentery with a “low diet” comprising thin chicken soup [...]. Botanist-physician George Watt too extolled the virtues of sago. In A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1893), he wrote that sago is “easily digestible and wholly destitute of irritating properties” and in demand [...]. For fever, weakness and sundry ailments, beef tea [...] was considered an ideal remedy. And for cholera, The Seamen’s New Medical Guide (1842) prescribed brandy during the worst of the sickness and half a tumbler of mulled wine with toasted bread and castor oil [...]. Ship masters and pantrymen would stock their vessels with foods with known medicinal benefits such as sago, arrowroot, lime juice, desiccated milk and condensed milk (the iconic Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk tins, later known as Milkmaid, enjoyed a permanent spot on British ships).

---

Businessmen too recognised the precarity of life abroad and realised that therein lay a perfect commercial opportunity. By the 19th century, numerous companies had cropped up across Europe, including in England, that would sell food in hermetically sealed tin containers.

One of these was Messrs Brand & Co. Recommended highly in Culinary Jottings for Madras by Colonel Robert Kenney-Herbert, Messrs Brand & Co had several offerings [...]: essence of beef, concentrated beef tea, beef tea jelly, meat lozenges, [...] potted meat, York and game pie, and A1 sauce [...]. Another company, John Moir & Sons, focused mostly on canned soups [...], selling oxtail, turtle, giblet and hare.

---

By the late 19th century such was the popularity of canned foods that rare would be the pantry in a colonial home that didn’t store them along with medical provisions like opium, quinine, chlorodyne and Fowler’s solution (an arsenic compound). [...] As Flora Steele and Grace Gardiner wrote in The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, “A good mistress will remember the breadwinner requires blood-forming nourishment, and the children whose constitutions are being built up day by day, sickly or healthy, according to the food given them; and bear in mind the fact that in India, especially, half the comfort of life depends on clean, wholesome, digestible food.”

To assist the British woman in this ostensible duty, there were a number of cookbooks and housekeeping manuals [...]. The Englishwoman in India, for instance, published in 1864 under the pseudonym A Lady Resident, had a whole section with recipes for “infants and invalids”. These included carrot pap cooked into a congee with arrowroot [...] and toast water (well-toasted bread soaked in water). Steele and Gardiner too had a few recipe recommendations [...], including champagne jelly (“most useful in excessive vomiting”) and the dangerous-sounding Cannibal Broth (beef essence), which they said should be consumed with cream [...] to treat extreme debility and typhoid. [...]

---

One dish born of this encounter was the pish pash. The pish pash is considered an invention of the colonial cook, who adapted the kedgeree – the colonial cousin of khichdi – into a light nursery food. The famous Hobson-Jobson defined it as “a slop of rice soup with small pieces of meat” [...]. None other than Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal, gave confirmation of its efficacy when in 1784 he wrote to his wife from the sick bed [...]. There are enough records to show that the imperialists counted marh (starch water from cooked rice) and bael (wood apple) sherbet among their go-to remedies and benefited from the medicinal qualities of chiretta water and ajwain-infused water.

---

Text by: Priyadarshini Chatterjee. “How food came to the rescue of the British in India.” Scroll.in (Magazine format). 26 April 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[s10127470]

The MCU Synergy Problem

It’s been a month since X-Men ‘97 came out, and just about everyone’s has already pointed what makes it so good.

-Staying true to the spirit of the original while still striving for its own identity

-Staying true to the characterization and depiction of the characters, and in some cases, improving on their characterization such as in the case of Jean Grey and especially Morph.

-Introducing new concepts, elements and characters that haven’t been explored in other adaptations yet.

-Having so many callbacks to the original while not coming off as nostalgia pandering.

-The animation and action! MY GOD! The animation and action!

Really, the only problem people have with this show is the weird love triangle between Rogue, Gambit and Magneto.

We already had to deal with the infamous love triangle Cyclops, Jean and Wolverine in the original, we did not need this.

Not only is this just unnecessary, it’s also just weird since in the original, it was never even implied that Rogue or Magneto had any sort of history between each other at all.

But here, they met during Rogue’s days with the Brotherhood. And I think when they met, Rogue was still a teenager.

During that time, the two grew an attraction towards each other and although it’s not explicitly stated, it is implied that they did….ya know…

Man….

Although I do enjoy Magneto, unlike a lot of other people, I can acknowledge that he’s kind of an awful person.

He’s a supremacist, a terrorist, a mass murderer, a violent, abusive psychopath, and a deadbeat father (well, when he used to be a father but we’ll get to that soon).

But never though that “groomer” would be an addition to that list as well.

All I can say is that….if this show took place in the modern day, Magneto ain’t beating any allegations.

But besides all that, another major positive people have with this show is just how….comic booky it feels, which is something that’s been lacking with a lot of Marvel content for the better of a decade now.

But before we get into that, let’s take a little history lesson.

Marvel was founded all the way back in 1939 by Martin Goodman….but it wasn’t called Marvel at first, it was actually called Timely Comics. But by 1951, the name of the brand was changed to Atlas Comics. 

During this era, the comics saw the introduction of several characters include The Human Torch (the android), The Whizzer, Miss America, The Destroyer, the original Vision and The Angel. 

But the two most notable characters introduced during this time were none other than the patriotic fighter of justice Captain America and the anti-heroic aquatic incel Namor the Sub-Mariner.

But Marvel would become the comic book powerhouse we know them as today starting in April of 1961, when Altas Comics was changed to be part of the newly-named Marvel Comics brand, helmed by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

And over the course of the 1960s, Marvel would not only quickly become the biggest name in the comic industry (only being rivaled by who else, but DC), but also introduce many of their most recognizable stars.

This would include the likes of The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Iron Man, The X-Men, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans, Black Panther, The Silver Surfer, Black Widow and Hawkeye, and of course, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

And in addition to tons of, in the words of Yogurt…..

Marvel would also see plenty of entries into the wider world of television. 

From the anthology series Marvel Super Heroes, to the acclaimed five-season run of The Incredible Hulk starring the legendary bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, to the absolute meme-fest that was the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon.

But Marvel really found their footing amongst the public consensus in the 1990s, largely thanks to their animated shows.

We had X-Men ‘92, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Fantastic Four ‘94, and The Incredible Hulk ‘96. 

What made these shows stand out from their predecessors was that they strived to actually be adaptations of their respective comics.

Yeah, prior to these shows, all of the cartoons were largely villain-of-the-week shows with little to no continuity and apart from the characters, didn’t really take a whole lot from their source material.

But these shows actually went out of their way to actually adapt storylines from the comics, had ongoing plots, and much stronger characterization than before.

And even besides that and of course, merchandising, Marvel was making quite the name for itself in the world of video games. Most notably the ones that were made by Capcom, which included the likes of The Punisher, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and most famously of all, Marvel vs. Capcom.

Their status among the public consensus became even stronger when the 21st century rolled around.

This was largely thanks to the multiple films based on Marvel Comics properties that came out during the 2000s.

This included the likes of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Ang Lee’s Hulk film, Tim Story’s Fantastic Four duology, Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil, and (Sirs whose names will not be mentioned here at all)’s X-Men series.

And apart from the merchandising (which was stronger than ever before thanks, the 2000s would also see some of the best video games based off the Marvel Comics and its IPs.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, X-Men Legends and its sequel Rise of Apocalypse, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Spidey himself had a multiple of great games from this era.

From ones based off his cinematic outings, to ones based off his alternate universe escapades (Ultimate Spider-Man), to ones that featured the characters’ worst voice actor to date and was responsible giving us that famous depressed Spidey walking meme (Web of Shadows).

But everything would change for Marvel in 2008 with the release of….

This film would not only serve as the invincible armored Avenger’s first outing on the big screen, but would also be the start of one of the most well-known and influential pieces of media in Marvel’s entire history…..

The Marvel….Cinematic….Universe….

Just about everyone knows about the MCU.

It only not made the characters of Marvel even bigger than before (along with introducing some of the more lesser-known characters to the general public), but also helped popularized the concept of the shared cinematic universe in general.

The franchise has gone on to become one of, if not, the biggest and most successful film franchise in history and has left a major impact on the world of cinema and even Marvel themselves.

And unfortunately, not really for the better…..

Everyone has already pointed how much of a negative influence the MCU has had on the media we consume.

From the multiple failed attempts from studios who desperately wanted to trend chase by making their own cinematic universe, only for these attempts to end up being massive failures, to a lot of writing in many films post-Avengers having this quippy and observational sort-of-write that while beloved at first, has gone on to become seen as annoying and tiresome…..

But I really want to focus on the effect it’s had on Marvel as a whole.

To start this off, let’s look the place where this MCU effect has been the biggest problem…..and it’s ironically enough, the comics.

Ever since MCU began, Marvel has been adapting elements from the MCU into the comics, which became especially more apparent after the first Avengers film.

And while Marvel is no stranger to adapting elements from Marvel media outside the comics, it’s never been to this extent.

This synergy has seen major changes in the appearances and characterization in many of its characters, including…..

-Iron Man being portrayed as far more snarky and quippy than he previously was. At first, people were on board with this change, not only because people liked Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal, but also because during the mid-2000s, Iron Man was not a popular character. Not in the frankly overused and tired “nobody knew who Iron Man was prior to the release of the first film” way. But more in the sense that everyone hated him during that time. This was largely thanks to the absolute clusterfuck known as Civil War, which turned Iron Man into a full-on villain. Plus he was indirectly responsible for One More Day, aka the worst Spider-Man story ever written.

-Loki became far more heroic and started looking and acting more like his MCU counterpart. Hell, the Loki we know today isn’t the same one introduced back in the 1960s. That Loki died all the way back in 2010, and the one we know today is essentially his reincarnation. And this reincarnation was not only introduced in the exact same year that the first Thor movie released, but in the exact same month as well!

-Thor started acting far more goofy and air-headed like his MCU counterpart following Thor: Raganrok.

-Hawkeye started giving off what could be best described as “uwu small bean tired dad” in the Matt Fraction run, which started just 4 months after the first Avengers film.

-Agatha Harkness having her appearance changed into that of a much younger woman following Wandavision.

-Introducing the Ten Rings following Shang-Chi, and having the titular hero being the user of them instead of just being Bruce Lee like he had been for last 50 years.

-Literally everything involving the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Its also led to tons of the characters getting somewhat phased out like….

-Iron Fist, due to the poor reception of his MCU show and complaints towards him being a “white savior”.

-Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, aka the original Ant-Man and the Wasp, who were also two of the five founding members of the Avengers. But despite that, neither of them appeared in the first Avengers film. And although it was a loose adaptation of The Ultimates, Hank and Janet were still present in that story as founding members of the titular team. Hell, Hank definitely has this the worst as he was killed off back in 2015, and was only recently brought back from the dead…..and he’s an old man now. I wonder why?

-Valkyrie, who was not only killed off permanently after Thor Ragnarök, but replaced with not one, but two characters very similar to the Valkyrie that appears in Ragnarök.

-The Inhumans, who had a major push in relevancy in order to promote their upcoming movie and TV show. But after the former got cancelled and the latter ended up being a massive flop, they ended up being banished to the shadow realm and barely acknowledged anymore. Also, the reason for their push plays into a later point.

-Quicksilver, which also plays into that later point I just mentioned.

-Black Panther, who Marvel seems to be somewhat edging out in the comics literally because of Chadwick Boseman’s passing.

And worse of all, retcons……such as…..

-Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch being revealed to have never been Magneto’s children nor mutants at all….shortly after the release of Age of Ultron.

-Shang Chi’s biracial heritage being rewritten to have him being fully Asian shortly after his film.

-Nebula, in addition to being made to look and act more like the movie version, also was revealed to be Thanos’ adopted daughter and Gamora’s sister….just like in the movies. 

-Ms. Marvel being revealed to have been mutant all along instead of an Inhuman…..just months before the release of The Marvels.

-Thor and the other Asgardians are not mythical beings, but actually aliens who were mistaken for gods by humanity….who just so happen to use magic (yeah this is a weird one because it constantly keeps flip-flopping between one or the other).

-Nick Fury being revealed to have had an illegitimate son who looks exactly like the MCU Nick Fury, who himself was based on the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury, who was African-American and modeled after Samuel L. Jackson. This is really weird because if they wanted a Samuel L. Jackson inspired Nick Fury, they could’ve easily just waited for the 2015 Secret Wars event and just had the Ultimate Nick Fury be one of the surviving inhabitants of the Ultimate Universe to be brought over to the 616 Universe along with Miles Morales, The Maker, and that son of Wolverine everyone forgot the existence of (even Marvel themselves!).

So yeah, as you can see, this is quite a problem.

Marvel has essentially been trying to make the comics resemble the movies rather than the other way around.

Which has not only gotten annoying and tiresome, but it’s also pretty disingenuous.

I mean, you’re pulling from a source material that has literal decades of content and lore to use, and now you’re actively trying change and contradict that lore just because of a series of movies adapting said source material?

This is obviously because they’re trying to appeal to new Marvel readers who came right from the movies.

But for some reason, Marvel seems to believe that general audiences have never heard the word “adaptation” before.

But this isn’t just an issue for the comics, it’s also an issue for…..pretty much every medium Marvel can be represented in.

For over a decade, Marvel has been essentially trying to push the MCU as the default everything.

Anything Marvel related: it all has to be similar to the MCU and barely anything else. And if it can, just utilize any of the comics written post 2010.

It’s pretty much the same problem that a lot of recent Spider-Man media suffers from.

When they’re adapting stuff, it’s almost always from the cartoons, Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man and Dan Slott’s run on Amazing Spider-Man.

And this has often come to the detriment of many of the non-MCU projects released during the 2010s.

Three of the best examples of this I could think of were Avengers Assemble, Square Enix’s Avengers, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. 

Avengers Assemble is famous for being the Marvel cartoon that was only created just to ride on the success of the first Avengers film.

But in spite of this, it was apparent during the first two season that this show was striving to have its own identity. Specifically utilizing some of the lesser-known faces of Marvel.

But as the series went on, the MCU got bigger and bigger. And as a result, the show started to get bogged down by MCU synergy.

From having storylines that were obviously done to tie into whatever movie came out not that long ago, to even changing characters appearances in order to better reflect their MCU counterparts.

The best example of the latter was with Falcon, who was a member of the main cast.

During the first three seasons, he actually stood out from the rest of the team visually as his outfit wasn’t trying to emulate the MCU.

It wasn’t emulating the comics either because I think that outfit of his was wholly original to this show.

But during season 4, Falcon ends up going through a time warp. And when he comes out, he’s been aged up from a young college-aged man to a grown man around the Avengers’ ambiguous age range and is wearing an outfit similar to his MCU counterpart.

Now we come to Square Enix’s Avengers.

My God…..was there anything this game did remotely right?

Or at least competently?

And one of the many flaws of this game was its roster.

And this actually plays into another major point on how stifling MCU synergy is.

Ever since the first Avengers movie, whenever the titular Avengers appear in just about anything, they’re almost always shown having the same roster.

That being Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Sometimes there will be other members like Falcon, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Vision and Captain Marvel, but that’s because those guys are also major names in the MCU as well.

Like for God’s sake, switch it up a bit! 

For the next major thing the Avengers appear in, how about we have a roster based on like…..

The Heroes Return roster, or the Hickman roster, or the Englehart roster, or the New Avengers roster, or the Stern roster, or the West Coast roster, or even the Classic roster!

But back to the Avengers game, they didn’t even commit to that never-changing roster I just mentioned!

When the game released, the Avengers video game had Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow as the main Avengers roster until Ms. Marvel joined up.

Yeah, Hawkeye didn’t appear as a part of the roster until his own DLC with Kate Bishop!

As for the other additions to the roster, we had Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Winter Soldier and the Jane Foster Thor.

Yeah, when looking at this game as an adaptation of the comics (which it barely was), the roster is absolutely pathetic when you look at the INSANE amount of members the Avengers have had over the decades.

And when looking at this game as an adaptation of the MCU, it didn’t even commit to that!

This is even more of the case when you look at the list of characters they initially had planned, but they obviously had to drastically cut all that for the sake of time constraints.

Hell, if you want to see something really sad, just look at the villain roster.

Over the 3 years this game was around, it only gave us 4 (yes 4) villains.

M.O.D.O.K., Taskmaster, The Abomination and Klaw….

Yep! Just these four schmucks!

No Red Skull, no Mandarin, no Baron Zemo, no Leader, no Ultron, no Kang the Conqueror, no Absorbing Man, no Wrecking Crew, no Enchantress, no Whirlwind, no Crimson Dynamo, no Circus of Crime….

Hell, they don’t even have Loki, the most popular and well-known Avengers villain!

It’s even more sadder when you consider the DLCs, i.e Spider-Man, who despite having undoubtedly the most well-known rogues gallery in all of Marvel, not one of them appear at all in his DLC!

In the wise words of a young redheaded YouTuber who likes to talk about Spidey….

“How easily you got showed up by Fortnite!”

If you want more detail on the history of this game and what went wrong, I suggest watching Matt McMuscles’ What Happened video on the game, but basically the reason that the game was the way that it was due to the laziness and apathy of Square Enix, the inexperience and slight incompetence of Crystal Dynamics, having WAY too many cooks in the kitchen (i.e., they worked with five studios, all of which were located in different parts of the world), and most of all, the utter greed of Marvel.

And funnily enough, this game ties into my next talking point…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite! The fourth and possibly final game in the series….and is regarded by just about everyone to be the weakest game as well.

Just like Avengers, one of (if not) the biggest criticisms of this game was the roster.

Infinite had a roster of about 36 characters, having the second smallest roster in the series’ history, only surpassing Clash of Heroes’ 15.

This was quite the surprise when compared to the previous game, 3’s 48 characters and especially 2: A New Age’s 56.

As for the roster itself, it was made up of both veteran characters and new characters.

Returning from the previous game, we had Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Ghost Rider, Nova and Rocket Raccoon.

Also returning were two faces that hadn’t been seen since 2: Venom and Thanos.

As for the new characters, we had Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Gamora and Ultron.

Yeah not exactly the most interesting roster.

And I’m sure many of you noticed by now, there’s something notable characters missing from the roster.

Namely the X-Men, their villains and Doctor Doom, all of whom have been staples of the franchise since the beginning.

And there’s a reason for that….

A very, scummy reason….

I already mentioned this in my X-Men: The Next Mutation post, but it does bare repeating her.

As the MCU became more popular, Marvel became focusing on pushing the Avengers as their premiere superhero team, with the Fantastic Four and X-Men essentially being dethroned.

Along with that, their relevance in the comics notably began to degraded, and barely began making appearances in media outside the comics.

The reason for this, apart from Marvel focusing on cashing in on the Avengers, was because despite still owning the overall rights for the FF and X-Men (which, why wouldn’t they?), their film rights were still owned by 20th Century Fox.

Since Fox was pretty much a rival company to Marvel until Disney bought them out, Marvel basically saw any form of FF and X-Men representation as free-marketing for Fox.

So they decided to essentially not to allow any FF or X-Men related characters to appear in any media outside the comics and even reduced their overall presence as well.

Which is why Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the other non X-Men mutants were retconned into not being mutants, why Quicksilver himself has been sort of been an afterthought in recent years, why the Inhumans were pushed so hard, and why the FF and X-Men characters weren’t in this game.

Plus the justifications and excuses for this from the developers are absolutely hilarious, because you can just tell that they’re lying through their teeth while being held up at gunpoint by a bunch of Marvel executives.

Oh yeah, let’s bring up the other biggest elephant in the room and want led to Square Enix developing Avengers.

After Infinite came out and got quickly abandoned by the player-base, many people at Capcom have come out to reveal just how awful it was working with Marvel and Disney.

They weren’t just pushy with who and who couldn’t be in the roster. 

They were also pushy about how the characters that would be in the roster would be portrayed (specifically wanting them to heavily resemble their MCU iterations) and even changing their themes to be exactly like the MCU ones. 

Hell, this pushiness was so bad that for the trailers, they did not want the Marvel characters to be depicted as losing!

This was also an issue back during 3 as well, but it was essentially amplified during this game.

This really shows just how petty Marvel really is….

They’re willing to ignore and downplay the existence of two major players of their brand that people have loved for decades and were created by the two men them helped make the company they are today.

They’re unwilling to compromise and it has to be their way or the highway.

And this pettiness eventually came to bite them in the ass as Capcom’s statements about working with them eventually reached many of the other big video game developers.

And soon enough, when Marvel was trying to find someone to develop Avengers, none of the big game developers wanted anything to do with it!

Eventually, they did find a developer with Square Enix, who already had experience working with Disney via Kingdom Hearts.

It’s actually ironically hilarious that the heads at Marvel believed all three of these projects would actually be successful because of the MCU synergy, but they all ended up being flops because of said MCU synergy!

But this desire for MCU synergy has not only negatively affected non-MCU project of this time, but even ones that either came out before this desire or….never came out at all.

I’m sure many of you remember The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

This show was essentially a love letter to the Silver Age comics of Marvel  and strived to be an near-faithful adaptation of many classic and even recent Avengers storylines, while also having its own unique spin on it.

Hell, in some cases, the EMH versions of these storylines are actually better than the originals, especially in the case of Secret Invasion. 

Sadly, the show got cancelled in 2012 after 2 seasons and 52 episodes…and to this day, EMH probably has one of the dumbest and scummiest reasons for cancellation in television animation history.

The reason this show was cancelled because Marvel wanted to replace with it a show that was more in-line with the MCU, aka Avengers Assemble.

Yep! Not low ratings. Not bad critical reception. Not budgetary reasons. Hell, not even bad toy sales, which was a major reason for a lot of action cartoons around this time getting the axe!

And it doesn’t get much better from here.

During the 2010s, there were a lot of promising Marvel projects that never saw the light of the day, with two of the most notable being the animated Deadpool series and Marvel Era.

Following the success of 2016 film, FX and Marvel Television decided to collaborate to created an animated series based on the merc with the mouth, with Donald Glover (yes, that Donald Glover) being one of the main showrunners, alongside his brother Stephen.

However, the series was cancelled almost a year within its development, with the main reason being that Marvel wasn't particularly big on the vision that the Glovers had for this series.

And apart Donald speculating racism on Marvel’s part (which given that Jeph Loeb was meant to be an executive producer on this series, that possibly could be the case), another possible factor for the show’s cancellation was because of Deadpool’s connection with the X-Men, and during this show’s production, Marvel was still in their “the X-Men don’t matter anymore” phase.

And it really sucks because the pitch animation for this was really good and made this seem like it was going to be a very fun show.

New we come to Marvel Era.

Out of all the cancelled projects, this was perhaps the most interesting.

Marking a first for their animated shows, this would’ve been an anthology series released in 2014 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Marvel Comics.

It was going to be produced by Powerhouse Animation (best known for Netflix’s Castlevania series) and it was gonna have 7 stories, with each one being themed around a different decade and focusing on a different character.

There would’ve been a 40s story focusing on Captain America, a 50s story focusing on either Wolverine or Namor the Sub-Mariner, a 60s story focusing on the X-Men, a 70s story focusing on The Heroes for Hire, a 80s story focusing on The Punisher, a 90s story focusing on the aforementioned Deadpool, and a 2000s story focusing on Captain Marvel.

This honestly seemed like it was going to be a really great show, which was enhanced by the absolutely gorgeous animation of the pitch trailer.

Unfortunately, Powerhouse announced that the project was cancelled because it wasn’t what Marvel Television were focusing on.

Which is code for: Marvel didn’t want it because it wasn’t MCU adjacent….

To wrap this up, I just wanted to bring up the reason I made this in the first place.

Over the last few weeks, there was a leak for a upcoming episode of X-Men ‘97, which showed a shot of Captain America’s shield.

And this led many people to somewhat groan, believing that this was yet another case of MCU synergy. 

And although this was proven to be false, it really does speak volume with how much influence the MCU has had.

Although it has brought lot of Marvel’s star characters into the mainstream, the MCU has shaped and changed them so much, that it seems like they can no longer exist as characters who have existed for literal DECADES.

They always have to be associated with a film franchise that has existed for about 1/6 of their existence in fiction.

But I think the biggest takeaway to all this is that this constant MCU synergy kinda shows a lack of reverence for Marvel’s legacy.

Look at this merchandising from the 2010s and 2020s....

In most of this merchandise, the character roster featured is almost always the same.

The Avengers, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Web Warriors, and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Inhumans were also apart of this roster until, as I mentioned earlier, got banished to the Shadow Realm....

Occasionally you'll get some of the other cosmic characters like Nova, She-Hulk and some of the street-level heroes like Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider, and The Heroes for Hire.

But those are few and far between.

But other than that, it's largely the four I mentioned earlier.

Because they're the main faces of the MCU, and as we all know, everything has to be related to the MCU in some way....

But now let's compare that to some Marvel merchandising from the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s....

Upon seeing this, you can tell that there’s a far greater sense of appreciation for Marvel.

This merchandising pulls from nearly every corner of the Marvel Universe you can think off and features characters from the heavy hitters, to the borderline obscure.

Plus it still heavily features the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters, who, may I remind you, spent a good chunk of the 2010s having their presence greatly reduced and their existence constantly threatened or denied because of movie rights!

All in all, Marvel really needs to stop the MCU synergy.

In spite of what they think, it’s clearly done nothing but harm and stifle many potentially good (even great) projects.

Not only that, but it’s also gonna start harming the Marvel brand itself with how homogenized they’ve made everything and the rapidly increasing lack of interest in the MCU.

Plus its also brought out the worst in Marvel.

From cancelling projects for stupid reasons, to showing a lack of respect for the legacy they’ve build, to literally being difficult to work with because of how they want everything to be their way.

But things do seem to be looking up a bit….

There’s been the multiple of Spider-Man media of the last few years , which has been one of the few Marvel projects that aren’t bogged down by MCU synergy.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur also ended being shockingly really good, and although it does have some MCU synergy, it’s pretty minor.

And now we have X-Men ‘97.

It does appear that there’s some kind of movement in Marvel to actually start making projects again that aren’t being made to be a glorified MCU circle-jerks.

And hopefully, this could led to some really unique and interesting projects, specifically for this year.

Since remember, this year marks the 85th anniversary of Marvel Comics, so that’s pretty big!

But then again, their corporate overlord had an utter embarrassment of a year for their centennial….

And Marvel themselves also contributed to that as well….

[rynnthefangirl]

Albuquerque, 2011

Kim is driving on I-25 when she passes by a billboard for Desert Spring Dentistry - your best life begins with a smile!

She’d been wondering what the billboard would say now, had dreaded seeing it despite intentionally taking the route that she knew it was on. And it really was just perfect. The perfect blonde model with the perfect blinding white smile, on a perfect blue background, with the perfect empty slogan promising that the key to a good life was just to put on the brightest and fakest grin that Desert Spring Dentistry has to offer. Echoes of an advertisement from nine years prior of one James Morgan McGill, Attorney at Law. Blue suit, blonde hair, white grin, fake, fake, fake.

Honestly, it was fine. Amusing (comforting?) even, how the universe finds these ways to bridge the past and the present. Or maybe she’s just being melodramatic, seeing Jimmy in random dental advertisements.

Besides, it’s not the worst thing to be up on that billboard.

In those dark and blurry weeks after leaving Jimmy and the law, she’d distracted herself by bouncing all around Albuquerque, checking in on her former clients, making sure they were settled and happy with their new representation. She’d watched as the Saul Goodman advertisements began popping up in earnest around her, on commercials, park benches, newspapers. And on her third trip down I-25 South to meet with yet another distressed former client and explain why she was no longer available for legal services, she saw it. Saul Goodman— Better Call Saul!— towering down upon her from the exact same billboard where Jimmy McGill once dressed up as Howard Hamlin in a scheme to kick start his legal practice.

She’d nearly pulled over, to give herself a second to process the sudden sick feeling in her stomach. But she hadn’t, she’d kept driving, Jimmy’s ad still swimming before her eyes.

He hadn’t been wearing the outfit they’d used in the scam— whether because that’d be too on-the-nose or because it was off-brand for Saul Goodman, Kim didn’t know— but the shirt and tie were blue, and she knew that was no coincidence. No more than it was a coincidence that of all the billboards in the city of Albuquerque, Jimmy chose that one.

She could practically hear him calling out to her from it, voice dripping with spite and that same poisonous optimism he’d had after Chuck.

You see, he was saying. I’m doing fine. I’m thriving! What happened means nothing to me!

Howard means nothing to me.

Chuck means nothing to me.

You mean nothing to me.

She had gone and picked up the divorce papers later that day.