#if all of this makes zero sense to anyone then that's cool and also expected

[plum-pitt]

X-Men Origins Rewrite

Ok I guess this is a follow up to this post i made not too long ago abt rewriting this shit, the brainworms rlly got to me here so you’re getting a follow up sooner than expected lol

Before I actually do any rewriting though I wanted to lay out the big changes I’d be making and why, mainly for myself as a guide and to organize my thoughts both about the original film’s issues and how these changes could potentially solve them, but also to allow anyone else with some ideas for possible changes to add their own thoughts or suggestions by engaging with the post.

As for what kind of final product you could possibly expect these ideas to result in, i haven’t quite decided if I want to just do an in depth outline for the story with my proposed changes or do like a full length fic novelization. It’ll probably depend on how motivated I still feel about the exercise by the time I’m finished and happy with the cleaned up outline, but I digress. Lets just go ahead and get into the changes I want to make:

Proposed Changes:

First off, I’m removing Blob and Gambit from this cut. I like both of the characters and think it’s cool they tried to include them but the cast is crammed enough as it is and those two serve very little narrative purpose that can’t be shifted to others just as easily.

Second, I’m adding Silverfox to Team X and letting that serve as the meeting point for her and Logan, it gives the audience more time to get to know her and come to care for her and Logan’s relationship, while also harkening back to the comics where she was also a part of the weapon x program. Also I know this isn’t a real film but let it be known that if it were i’d actually hire a Native American actress to portray her, i’m still shitty they whitewashed her.

Third, I’m removing the third act “Silverfox wasn’t really dead” twist. I really shouldn’t have to explain why, that shit was dumb and completely unnecessary, not to mention introducing a shit ton of plot holes with that whack ass mutant ability they pull from thin air. In my version she’s human(as far as we know) and when she dies she dies for real, full stop.

Fourth, we are GETTING a biblically accurate Deadpool. They did my bro dirty and I refuse to compromise on this. His role will be larger to compensate for his big ass personality and the fact that i’m affectively letting him take up Gambit’s role from the original in addition to what he already had. Also I just think he bounces off of Logan really well and could serve as a really interesting parallel with having such similar trauma and very different ways of responding to it and seeing the world. Like just imagine D&W if they accidentally traumabonded over their similar origin stories.

Fifth, I’m making Victor our stand in for the films Weapon XI! He doesnt get adamantium or new powers like Wade, only the dehumanizing psychological torture present in the original Weapon X comic. I think it works great for his spiraling arc, gives me a chance to squeeze a faithful weapon X adaptation in here without upending the entire film’s structure, and helps to better position his character on a trajectory towards his more feral appearance in X1 where he doesn’t seem to fully recognize Logan.

Sixth, I’d like to include Dr. Cornelius as the head scientist in Weapon X. My current concept is that he’s in charge of all the unethical mutant capturing and experimenting, working under Stryker’s supervision but still an outsider to the government, being sent in by Stryker’s most significant source of funding for his program in Nathaniel Essex. I know this has zero basis in canon I just think it sounds cool and makes sense for Sinister to have hands in a program aiming to create perfect mutant soldiers, as someone using mutants DNA to create a genetically perfect race of superhumans and become the ultimate life form. (Sinister would not play a large role, more of a looming presence pulling strings and fucking people over)

To get more overarching here, I wanted to hone in on the dynamics and themes present in the original that i thought had the most potential for further development. Victor’s spiral to madness and eventual complete loss of self under Stryker, Logan learning to let go of Victor’s influence and the violence that he let define his life only for both to drag him back after Silverfox’s demise. Really digging into that nature vs nurture shit, and adding more mutant politics (and their accompanying metaphors for the struggles of marginalized people) cuz honestly i feel like it’s absence in the original is very noticeable, and ties in really well with Logan’s arc of self acceptance and learning to see himself as more than the violent nature of his mutation.

Stuff I Still Want Changed:

Ok so here’s where I’m throwing my hat out for suggestions, because there are still a couple minor things present in the movie that i’m just not a fan of or don’t really know what to do with. The difference is, with these I can’t really think of tweaks that could fix/improve them. So if yall have any ideas on what I can do about these, or maybe some completely unrelated changes that you just think could improve the rewrite, please let me know.

One, not really sure what to do with Zero, he’s around for a lot of the movie but didn’t really stand out much to me. I just don’t know a lot about the character or what his deal is in the comics to find something cool to do with him. I’m going back and forth on if his role is ultimately necessary?? Does Stryker really need another henchman? Or should I use the space he occupies to hone in more on Victor and Logan’s rivalry? Idk i’m still on the fence so tell me what yall think.

Two, god I just fucking hate those memory wiping adamantium bullets. It’s such a stupid plot device that makes no sense conceptually and was clearly just thrown in as an afterthought at the last second like the writers forgot they needed to erase his memory by the end. That’s not to mention the fact that the bullets’ function was retconned later in Logan. Genuinely though I cannot find another way to go about fucking up Logan’s head without basically upending the structure of this movie in its entirety so any ideas on how to solve this dilemma are appreciated.

[euclydya]

Pros of this roster:

Has somehow lowered the barriers between frozen/dormant layers and their own so much to the point of just waking up members in some of them.

Said woken up members [like myself] can front now with little to no problem

Cons:

Is like mostly unaware of that and keeps getting weirded out and scared when someone from any of our other layers pops in [aside from anyone in the Hierarchy. They're OK with those guys for some reason]

[allwormdiet]

Extermination 8.2

I'm gonna be real, I don't think Legend is good at this

I actually really like the sense of mounting dread that's happening with Leviathan. Not just the storm that's approaching provoking black clouds in isolation but Legend's explanation of what to expect. What's coming is bigger than the Wards, bigger than the ABB, bigger than the Empire. It's so much worse. And you know it's coming.

The fact that Leviathan is so deadly because of the mere impact of water is a really fun detail, I know that a lot of Worm comes down to making fantastical powers impact with realistic consequences but the total negation of the idea of water being something soft is well done, especially in the scenes where it's actually implemented.

Newfoundland is 42,000 square miles in area and about a mile at the highest point, and Leviathan sank it like a toy boat. Kyushu is smaller but taller, and it fucking went under. I know a little bit about what Simurgh can do, so that shit is appropriately terrifying, but now I'm wondering what the hell Behemoth has going on that makes him as scary on the scale of entire landmasses sinking beneath the waves.

This is kinda diabolically clever, it gives the exact stakes and the clear threat of what comes with failure to stop Leviathan. It also puts even more pressure on those gathered to push harder and risk more.

A further reinforcement of the idea that this thing is fucking immortal, and another reminder from the very backdrop that it's getting closer.

"The inevitable." That's unambiguous. They truly believe that the Endbringers will eventually destroy humanity, and that all anyone can do is buy a little more time, at the cost of however many dozens of capes sacrifice themselves every fight. Losing that much more capacity to do something with every fatality.

The world is dying. They just have to hope it's a slow death.

A) who keeps making Wards fight Endbringers, for real

B) Fuck are the Travelers doing mucking around with an Endbringer?

Tattletale starts hitting this man with a verbal combo straight out of Marvel 2 and literally doesn't stop for the entire rest of the arc

What are the odds that Leviathan is clever enough to have deliberately interrupted this meeting as they were dispersing? Because I don't think they're zero and that's terrifying.

Man. We've been there, is the thing. Like we know the Boardwalk, we've seen the Undersiders walk up and down it, shop, grab lunch, talk about shit. And now it's just splinters against the tide.

God, what a cool design. I'll give kudos on this, it's a fucking badass monster that's about to wreck this city. And it's spooky! The face just being a featureless shape except for the eyes is a little odd but with everything else it comes off more uncanny than if it was on its own, and there's something about the description of how its head moves that's just unsettling.

And we're off to the fucking races.

Current Thoughts

What a good fucking threat. We've had three previous chapters of buildup to this moment, plus the offhand mention in 3.6, and when Leviathan finally appears in the flesh(?) his first move kills at least one cape and knocks out more. His presence can be felt in the fucking weather, he can scatter the city's defenses without even being present. This is a monster where its reputation, fearsome as it is, might actually be underselling it.

Anyway, up next we finally get that glimpse into Tattletale's thoughts that I was literally begging for at the end of Arc 7 lmao

[findafight]

Jonathan’s line about Steve in vol 2 was so…. I don’t know. I mean yeah it straight up confirms that Nancy and Jonathan make fun of Steve behind his back, and like I get that I have never been in Nancy’s situation so obviously it seems more mortifying to me, but I would have felt so guilty in her place. I can’t imagine not shutting Jonathan up if he started shit talking about Steve. Like Steve would have been straight up unmentionable if I was Nancy. Idk.

I get that Duffers don’t treat their characters emotional lives seriously, but like. That’s why Robin being kind to Nancy in s5 despite Nancy’s uh.. well frankly appalling attitude towards Robin, makes zero sense to me. I really wanted Nancy to struggle being in Steve’s group. Not in the “she deserves it bhahaha” way, but like… Steve dumped his friends for her (which was good for him), and her expecting to get the same treatment and meeting Robin instead? Who actively dislikes her and for a good reason? Who is smart and cool and kind? That’s way more interesting than people kissing Nancy’s ass the whole season, while she is actively putting Max’s life in danger. Like, yeah in high school she is the chief editor of the newspaper, and at home she is the eldest sister, and with Jon she makes fun of Steve, and now none of these people are here, but Steve is here and so is his bestie. And Steve is as kind as always, but Robin dislikes her, and it is not just prejudice

Nancy Wheeler you wild girl! She has no guilt lmao She's like yeah steve was dumb and annoying and didn't enable my investigation, and jon goes yep, what an idiot. All while Steve is just like. bumpin around making friends with little nerds haha. Minding his own business blaming himself for the end of their relationship. You're right, it's kinda bonkers because even if we take the stance that Nancy didn't cheat (which I believe she did) like. she still had him as her second choice and as soon as he pushed back a bit and didn't give her the kind of support she wasn't telling him she needed (until talking about exposing the lab in the library where anyone could hear) she jumped ship and ran to Jonathan. Why would she want to talk about Steve? Why wouldn't she want to try to forget he ever existed as anything other than Mike's friend Dustin's older friend? Is that not weird for her?

(i think you might mean s4? but i can work with s5 too haha) It's so much more compelling to me to have Nancy and Robin at odds with each other because Robin is like a little guard chihuahua holding a grudge for Steve. She holds grudges so well let her do it more!! like jesus give him someone in his corner! And also for herself! She got so nervous and tried to explain and defend herself, and Nancy only really started to listen once they got into the hospital. Nancy has a not great plan that puts one of the kids in danger, one of the kids Steve is close to. (Max wrote him a letter!!) I think Robin would really see Steve's people as her people, even if she wasn't personally close to them she'd still feel comfortable around the younger teens because Steve is? Let robin be critical of this plan. Let her call it out or something. Give Nancy someone to push against, it's no fun if there's no resistance! I want Nancy to be the one wanting friendship with Robin, and Robin not being receptive to it. Nancy not having a relationship handed to her would be refreshing and I want to see how she'd try to win Robin's friendship.

Let Robin not want to work with Nancy because she's heard the rumours about how her and Steve ended, even though he only mentioned that he wasn't a good boyfriend ans wasn't what she needed so it didn't work out. Robin saw that one week Steve and Nancy had a fight, and a day later she was ditching with Jonathan? yeah something is fishy there to even the most socially oblivious person. Let Robin know Steve well enough that she knew he at least thought he was telling the truth but that there must have been more. Let Robin decide she was going to do the most cliche best friend thing and not be very nice to the ex that broke her bestie's heart.

ooooh anon what you're saying is so interesting because, yeah. Steve dumped Tommy and Carol for Nancy, and that was good for him, and then Nancy got with Jonathan who doesn't really have any friends in Hawkins. So she's always been her boyfriend's main person of similar age they're close to. But now Steve's got Robin. Who is funny and kind and weird and loyal and smart and sarcastic. Who is obsessed with Steve and who Steve is also obsessed with. And that, from a s5 stancy pov, is so interesting because now Nancy is now competing (in her mind) for her boyfriend/potential bf's attention with his best friend. Like Jonathan was focused on his family, obviously (and this caused strain for them too) but it's not the same socially as a best friend taking priority. Steve would still hold those relationships, because they're good for him and good for the others, and there's zero reason for him to abandon them this time.

I think Nancy would hate it. Like Steve would obviously give her tonnes of attention, but with him having actual close friendships not just with Robin but Dustin and Max (at least) too, she'd still feel like she was bartering for time with him. That is suuuuch a fun potential dynamic between nancy and steve and also nancy and steve's friends.

[frodo-with-glasses]

More Reading Thoughts: A Conspiracy Unmasked

Ohohoho here we go >:-D

Merry like “hmm, I can tell something’s fishy about this, but we’ll have to talk about it later”

The Brandybucks being described as “virtually a small independent country” is GreatTM X-D

“…as a matter of fact, [the Bucklanders] were not very different from the other hobbits of the Four Farthings. Except in one point: they were fond of boats, and some of them could swim.”

*Phil Dragash Merry voice intensifies* I LOVE BOATS Y’KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE BOATS SO MUCH I MEAN THEY’RE SO COOL AND BOATY AND THEY FLOAT

Aww, Sam’s already getting a bit homesick :-(

Gollummmm

Frodo: “I mean we already ate, but we could eat again.” Merry: “Say no more, fam”

Frodo seeing Bilbo’s things in the new house and being “sharply reminded” of him :-C Hello it is once again Crying About Frodo and Bilbo O’Clock

BATH SECTION YEAAAAAHHHH

“Which order shall we go in? Eldest first or quickest first? You’ll be last either way, Master Peregrin.” HAHAHA GETTIM FRODO

And Merry like “excuuuuse me, you should know by now that I’m better at planning and logistics than that; there are THREE tubs >8-D”

And Pippin splashing Frodo with the bath water 🤣 This whole section is so stinkin’ CUTE

I, too, cannot properly dry my hair until I am out of the steam in the bathroom. Frodo is the most relatable ever.

Merry has such dad energy 🤣 “You’d better clean up your mess, Pippin, before you get any supper!”

The squabbling over the mushrooms haha

Ooooohh The Talk is here

It honestly makes so much sense that Pippin is the one talking when Frodo refuses to. Frodo is trying to keep secrets, and Pippin has zero filter.

Also Merry reading Frodo like a book is SO GOOD

“You are miserable, because you don’t know how to say good-bye. You meant to leave the Shire, of course. But danger has come on you sooner than you expected, and now you are making up your mind to go at once. And you don’t want to. We are very sorry for you.”

THAT’S MY SMART BOI

I can’t wait to draw this part

“You do not understand! You must go—and therefore we must, too. Merry and I are coming with you. Sam is an excellent fellow, and would jump down a dragon’s throat to save you, if he did not trip over his own feet; but you will need more than one companion in your dangerous adventure.” Awww, Pippin!!

Also the foreshadowing, wow

Hahaha Merry presenting Sam like “TA-DA! Our chief spy!!”

Sam: “Gandalf did say to take someone you could trust, sir!” Frodo: “But I can’t trust anyone, apparently!” Sam: :-C

Oh oh oh it’s this part…!!

“It all depends on what you want. You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin - to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours - closer than you can keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway: there it is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the Ring. We are horribly afraid - but we are coming with you; or following you like hounds.”

MERRY MY LAD I LOVE YOU TO DEATH

That’s true friendship right there

Frodo like “I am NEVER trusting that you are actually asleep ever again” 🤣

“Three cheers for Captain Frodo and Company!” I’m going to melt 🥹

Merry once again being the G.O.A.T. by having the ponies prepared

“It seems to have been a very efficient conspiracy.” HECK YEAH IT WAS

I love that Fatty has barely talked through the whole chapter except to blurt “NOT THE OLD FOREST” at the very end

Merry continues to have Dad Energy by breaking up the almost-argument between Pippin and Fatty

Oooof the dream about the Sea…

[sneezypeasy]

*sigh*

Y'know, this really doesn't/shouldn't matter, but as this particular accusation keeps getting thrown at me over and over again - oh fuck it, I'm gonna take the bait this one time and set the record straight once and for all. Honestly my "appetite" in this context is truly not anyone's business (and if you don't care to hear about it this is the one warning you'll get to click away lmao) but I've reached the point where if you really wanna attack my credibility based on who you think I enjoy fantasizing about, I'm gonna throw you a bone and tell you exactly what type that is - cuz as much as I'm sick of the ad hominem attacks the Aussie in me is even more sick of watching them miss so fucking hard. If you're gonna roast me, the least you can do is hit me where it hurts, goddamn it. Get it right or go home you uncooked noodles. Capiche?

When it comes to my taste in men, my "type" is: big, strong, hairy brutes. There, I said it. Give me lumberjacks, give me cavemen, I want my Jason Momoas, I want my Ma Dong-Seoks, I want them broad shoulders and tree-trunk calves and I wanna see those muscles bulge. If a fictional character ever gets me biting my lip at the screen, it's never gonna be a fine-featured pretty boy, it's gonna be a good thick daddy who can take my wrists, pin me against a wall and [--------------------------------‐---sustained bleep sound effect---------------------------------]

1:38-1:51 🤣

Personality wise, I'm a basic bitch who has approximately zero defenses for the "jerk with a heart of gold" stereotype. Gets me every time, without fail. The smooth-talking playboy who flirts with everyone and who could bed anyone he wanted, but who only lets you see him at his deepest, dearest, most vulnerable moments? Sorry, am I supposed to not fall for that shit or something? Well frankly I don't understand how and I'm not ashamed to admit it. If he happens to be built like a fortress on top of that? Yeah, I'm done. Have me bathed and brought to your tent, sir, please and thank you.

I admit, it's rare that a character with the physique I like also has that heartbreaker personality I'm a sucker for. Guys in fiction are usually strong and mean or they make up for their lighter frames with silver tongues and barbed promises - rarely do writers create a character who's stacked with both brains and brawn, so to speak. Makes sense though, as while irl people can max out any combination of stats that they put effort towards - in fiction a character who's too good at too many different attributes can come across unbalanced or Gary Stu-ish and will fail to resonate with audiences unless the writer really knows what they're doing.

That being said, there really isn't any character in ATLA who fits my type - either of them, actually. There are some bit characters like Chit Sang who get close in terms of physical build - but Chit Sang has very gaunt, angular facial features that I'm really not a fan of and tbh, while I get that I can't expect all my big buff boys to also be masters of wit and cunning and charm, being dumber than a box of rocks does seal it for me, sorry. In terms of personality, I guess the closest character would be Jet, and he's cool and all but yeah, the whole "would go as far as killing kids" thing makes him a bit of a hard sell for me too. (And yes, it's worth questioning the writers' choices to create him with those flaws to begin with but look, that's a discussion for another day 😂)

All this to say, if you wanna tease me about coveting fictional characters and allowing thirst to cloud my judgment - COME AT ME BOYS. But not with Zuko, for fuck's sake. The character that makes sneezy.exe blue-screen ain't him. It's actually the late great Carthaginian General Hannibal Barca, the man the myth the legend may he Rest in Peace if anyone's seriously wondering. Look, I do like the scar, and the awkwardness is endearing - he's definitely not ugly or unappealing by any means so please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to bash him or nothin' - but if I'm being brutally honest, he's not my type! Not physically, not even emotionally. If I ship Zutara, it's because aspects of the ship appeal to me that are unrelated to my personal opinion of Zuko as an object of fantasy, which if you must know (and now you do, congratulations, you're welcome), the kind of boy I do fantasise about when I'm in the mood for that sort of thing could literally and figuratively sweep Zuko off his feet - and then sit on him. In either order.

P.S. While we're on this topic, the character I personally relate to most heavily is not Katara either btw. It's Toph. If you're going to accuse me of bias, questioning my views on Toph would make the most sense for that reason. But really, it's hardly my fault that she's basically the most perfect flawless irreproachable badass in ATLA or practically all of animation as a whole. Come on now. *whistles innocently*

[reverieblondie]

Partners

Pairing: Kaine Parker x gnSpider-person!Reader

Warnings: Kaine has a potty mouth and threatens people but other than that just fluff!

Summary: You get called into Miguel's office for a new mission, you wonder who you will get partnered with, though it shouldn't be a surprise by now...

A/N: okay I know this is the fic nobody is asking for but the heart wants what the heart wants. and I want grumpy Kaine Parker to hold my hand while he threatens to beat up people. No, I'm not going to apologize. This fic was inspired by @eughi wonderful art of Kaine! if you want to know more about this character please check out their account they are amazing!

The picture that started my obsession here

he's just so pretty!

Word count: 2,797

In the dim light of Miguel's office, you stand listening patiently as he debriefs you on your next mission. This is all nothing new to you, some dimension, a new anomaly, you have had this debriefing many times now. Though the places and targets change you know what to expect by now there is only one thing that keeps you listening intently to the drull words of the spider society's brave leader. 

Once he's done drilling into you what dimension and what anomaly you are supposed to capture, it's the moment you had been waiting patiently to hear, who your partner is for this mission. This was the thing you looked forward to hearing, Partner assignments. Would it be Jess? Webslinger? Spider-cat? You loved that little ball of fuzz. As you're cycling through the possibilities of who you could be teamed up with, it's then that your answer walks into the room. 

Kaine Parker, in his very iconic suit of red and black, it’s littered with stitches. You didn’t know if they were from getting patched up after fights or just for aesthetic purposes. But either way, they did look pretty cool. Scarlet lenses of his mask keep on you as his tall figure approaches, you know he's studying you and also sizing you up. -Honestly, it’s no surprise if he was, he sizes up everyone without needing to say a word.

Being paired with Kaine again shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. Not being exactly social and his fighting methods leaning towards more…intense, it didn’t exactly make him easy to work with. Not surprising though, The dude is the definition of intimidating with his 6’4 height and broad muscular figure, plus his brash nature made it hard for people to adjust to. Aside from Peter B and Ben, you're the only other person he would go on missions with. Opting to go alone when paired with anyone else, and if they protest they are promptly threatened. Edgy, but you kinda enjoyed that about him. 

Standing next to you now you wait patiently as Miguel debriefs him, it’s a much more summarized version than what you had to experience. Kaine is not the type to listen to a lengthy explanation, he’s more get the facts than get out kinda guy. Hell he didn’t even go to the mandatory monthly meetings.

As you stand there your senses are going haywire, looking up to where they are thrumming from you see those lenses staring down at you. Kaine seemed to have a staring problem and your spider senses always went crazy when he was. Maybe it was because of his sheer size, or it was possibly from seeing how easily he had zero qualms ripping into enemies when he deemed it necessary. Whatever it was, no other spider made your senses crazy like he did. 

Once Miguel is done with his debriefing, Kaine is already opening a portal to the dimension ready to get this over with, ruthless and efficient. What more could you want? 

“I want them captured in one piece, Kaine,” Miguel calls after us as we approach the portal. 

You give a dutiful nod in understanding, Kaine however…

“Keep telling me what to do and I will break your fucking face…” 

Luckily for you, he said it as he went into the portal, the last thing you need to be doing is trying to pull those two off each other….again….

----

“Yeah, then Kaine called like a million spiders to cover up the anomaly and proceeded to beat them to a pulp. He really can’t stand any Jackel variant.”

Munching into your burger you're still talking about your mission you had with Kaine a few days ago. Hobie and Gwen seem bewildered by your story, the young spiders having had little to no interaction with Kaine always seemed to look forward to the stories of your missions with him. Though you argue Peter B has the better ones involving Kaine. As you talk Peter nods in agreement, seeming to signal that he understands all the little quirks that make up Kaine. 

A few more minutes into your conversation Jess is strolling up to the table to join you all for lunch. Using only the context of the story she quickly deciphers who you're talking about. 

“Kaine huh, another intense mission with the scarlet spider?”

“Yeah, tasked to catch a rogue Jackal. You would think Miguel would learn not to let Kaine on Jackal missions considering how messed up they are when they arrive here. But he gets the job done and he's not a bad guy to have on a mission. Plus sometimes it’s funny when he cusses at the anomalies.”

They give you an odd look and you shrug going back to eating your food. As you're eating you're suddenly being interrupted mid bite by Gwen. 

“Okay I am sorry but I am dying to know. What does Kaine look like?” 

The completely odd question takes you back for a moment, “You know…red lenses…black and red-” 

“No, no, no,” she quickly interjects “I mean his face.” 

Without much thought, you point towards Peter, and this causes Peter to scoff, “Okay just because he's one of my clones doesn’t mean we are exactly alike…”  

Taking a second to think you nod, “You know you're right. Imagine a way cooler-looking Peter with long auburn hair and face scares.” 

The young spider's face lights up at the information and Peter shoots you a displeased look, he already gets teased enough from how Kaine and Ben are total beefcakes compared to him, but Kaine has height and cool looks beating him now.  Then you suddenly remember something. 

“Oh sometimes he forgets to shave so he will have a scruff going on, honestly looks pretty nice on him and fits the vibe.” 

This comment seems to make Jess snicker and smile towards you. “Well just wait till he finds that out…he won't shave anymore…” 

Rolling your eyes you shoot her a glare, “What's that supposed to mean?”

Peters chiming in now. “You know what she means…”

“Okay, let me just set the shit straight. Pardon the language kids. Kaine doesn't like me like that, he threatened my life the other day when I got in his way.” 

“Then why does he only partner with you?” 

“With that logic, he might like you, Peter?” 

“Woah, woah, first gross, second me and Ben are like his brothers. You're the only one not in the family he will be around.” 

“Because he has to.” you counter

“Because he wants to.” Jess persisted

Going to move to your next argument about how you two are nothing more than partners; it being because maybe he just likes your fighting style, your watch is suddenly blaring calling you in for a mission. Gwen and Hobie laugh as Jess and Peter give you a smug look as you get up to leave the table. Shielding your face from Gwen and Hobie you mouth a “Fuck you” to them. Sure Kaine's vulgar language may be getting to you but that doesn’t mean you're going to be cussing at kids…not yet at least…

As you walk to Miguel's office for your mission assignment, you find yourself walking rather briskly. Kaine might be your partner again…

The thought makes your senses haywire and you walk to the office faster…

—-

Kaine ended up not being your partner for that disaster of a mission. Laying in the infirmary your whole body still aching despite the painkillers you were given. Moving carefully you're very aware of the stitches patching up your side that ache in every which way you move. Your first mission with a different partner besides Kaine in forever and it failed ending with you both in a hospital bed. 

Lucky for you though you got to be in your own private room not having to hear the complaining of your partner's screw-ups that resulted in this. Miguel is sure to give them a long lecture when they get well…as for you you're probably going to be HQ bound till you heal up all the way. You just had to be one of the spiders without fast healing…just your luck…

Laying there you're trying to just close your eyes to try and forget about the terrible mission and your current pain but a loud bang outside makes you jump and look towards the door to the hallway. Loud yelling that sounds…familiar…Then it's that tingling of your senses only one spider can get from you. 

“Where are they?!” 

Crash, Bang, skreech!

“Wait, they are resting you can’t go in there!” 

“What are you going to do? stop me?” 

Before you can even register what’s going on Kaine is pushing through your door locking it so nobody can come in. Turning to you he looks pissed! You open your mouth to say something but he quickly silences you, 

“Shut up!” 

Next to you now; the conversion abruptly ended before it could begin, he’s looking over you examining your face and your bandages, bruises and cuts litter your body and the bandages are wrapped all around you but you're okay, you're alive. Suddenly Kaine claw like hands are gently gliding over your skin tracing the brushes and cuts as gently as possible. The touch sends shivers through your body you're hoping he doesn't notice. 

Still surveying you he takes his mask off abruptly, his scared face is scrunched in an angry expression, and deep brown eyes are staring at you studying you. You can’t help but feel more intimidated with him out of his mask than when he’s sizing you up in it. Those intense brown eyes are magnetic, his handsome features on full display. Some people might think the scars take away from his handsome face but you think it only makes him look better. Way cooler-looking than Peter… 

“Who was with you?” he says in a suddenly calm voice compared to how he came in. 

“What?”

“Dammit! Can you not hear? Who were you partnered with and what dimension was it?!” - and the yelling is back…

“Spider guy from 2782, dimension 38, vulture anomaly…” you say quickly, still confused why he was asking… 

His hand comes up to rub the top of your head gently, a very personal and friendly gesture for him. Staring intently at you, there is almost a softness in his stony eyes, it's…different from any way you have ever seen before. Your breath seems to suddenly evaporate from you. This is a completely different…loving side of him you have never experienced from him…it doesn't seem real…are you in a coma? 

“I’m going to kick his ass, then kill that anomaly…” -no this is real…

Once he's done speaking he’s stopping his rubbing on top of your head and now he gently glides his hand down to your cheek. 

“Wait-”

Before you can protest he’s already at the door unlocking it and leaving the infirmary. Gone without even looking back at you…typical Kaine… 

____

The rumors of Kaine's warpath quickly spread all over HQ and got back to you. Spider Guy got spared due to the doctors intervening after much convincing. Though all that rage ended up getting released on the vulture anomaly you and guy failed to get. 

Vulture barely made it out with his life and was in critical condition once he was turned in. Of course, this caused Miguel and Kaine to get into it. Those two seem to always find a way to fight despite them having similarities…maybe one day they could be friends? Though with how little they interact with people socially, their hanging out would properly be them just staring at each other in a room plotting how they would kick one another's ass. 

It has been a few days since the mission you were released from the infirmary but still not cleared to go back to mission work. So this means your days have devolved to you walking around HQ. Why you didn’t just take this time to sit at home in your dimension and relax you didn’t fully know. Though a part of you truly knew what you were doing, deep down you were looking for Kaine.

Of course after everything that happened and after what he did. He didn’t even come to talk to you. Or check in on how you were healing, hell everyone else did but your usual partner goes on an almost murder spree but can't bother to say hi. Though that's not his style, he's the ‘only I can kick your ass and if anyone else does it they are a dead’ kind of friend. Plus when he saw you he seemed…upset, could it be hard for him to see you inquired? For a moment you ponder the idea before quickly shaking it off.

Walking some more around HQ you find that you're in a more isolated area, a rarity for the society. Usually, everyone was so packed together so this is a welcome change of pace. Enjoying the quiet you look to the windows to observe the city but your eyes land on something else. Kaine without his mask hair tied in that half-up knot that compliments his face shape so perfectly. His brown eyes are so focused on the city, he looks lost and thought, you almost feel bad for going over to break his concentration but you haven’t seen him and you want to talk to him. 

Making your approach you plop down next to him, your eyes are on him but he keeps his forward but you know he knows it's you next to him so you skip the greetings. 

“So, I heard you went a bit overboard. Not that I'm surprised. But breaking the anomalies' kneecaps and leaving the dimension in a panic does seem like an escalation from your normal methods…”  Leaning over you try to meet his eyes but he keeps them straight ahead before he sighs, 

“I would have burned that dimension down if I needed to” Your mouth slightly drops and your eyes widen, well that's ...different… your heart racing now you feel that familiar tingling…how this guy rattles and intrigues you.

Sliding his eyes over he looks at you before he turns his head fulling, eyes tracing where your inquiries once were but have now been healing. In his eyes you think you see relief though with Kaine’s stoic expression you can never be too sure…

“Why did you do all that?” -the question seems almost stupid in hindsight. 

Kiane's eyes meet your face for a moment staring silently into your eyes before looking back out into the futuristic city. “Your my partner, and I don’t need you getting hurt because of some other idiots mistakes” 

The answer makes you laugh a bit, always so judgemental and coarse about others. Then the words you always think of asking but never do slip your lips next, “Why do you like to go on missions with me?” 

Kaine takes a minute to think before he shrugs “I guess, things are just a bit better with you around….” 

A smirk appears on your lips and as he looks back at you and huffs with an eye roll. “Shut up…” 

All you can do is slightly laugh before nudging him “Well, I like being around you too, best partner someone could get paired with.” 

You know that even if his face isn't changing in expression you know your words mean something to him. At least that's what you're hoping, Kaine is great and you're fond of him despite how others feel about his rough nature. He's a good guy even if he doesn't think so, but you are willing to take the time to convince him of that. 

A couple of minutes pass before you move to get up and give him some alone time, something you are sure he values. As you stand you feel something that stops you in your tracks. Looking down you see Kaine's large hand on yours holding you gently, moving your gaze to his face you see that he’s avoiding eye contact looking away from you with a furrowed brow and a slight pout on his lips. 

Sitting back down you hold his hand gently back and you watch as the blush slowly dusts his cheeks. You have to hold back the urge to call him cute. Holding your hand is a huge step of affection for him if you tease him now he will never be vulnerable again to you. 

Time passes and you keep your hand in his as you gently slide your thumb across his large hand. The silence is comfortable and as you turn to look at him you swear you see the slight tinge of a smile….what a softie….

[rei-ismyname]

Archangel no more? 🙄

Warren Worthington the third, OG X-Man, was altered by Apocalypse a loooong time ago. Angel became Archangel and for the most part it was a burden, often inscrutable to make sense of, and disappeared once under extreme circumstances. From House of X to Fall of X Archangel was a transformation that he had under control and he used it sparingly to increase his combat efficiency.

He did die at Gambit's hand in Dark X-Men, but like everyone else (except Havok and Magneto) he was resurrected by the Five/Four.

Then X-factor #1 came out and he definitively said he 'can't turn into Archangel anymore.' Also, Frenzy is cool as hell and has been reformed for a decade. I've read every title, including the infinity comics and this is simply not explained.

Here he is in Heir of Apocalypse #1, a From The Ashes mini, turning into Archangel (it's so bad. I don't recommend you read it. Just check out the winner and how ridiculous they look on the wiki.)

Here he is in Heir of Apocalypse #4, still Archangel. It's the last page he appears on and there was zero mention of Apocalypse undoing his transformation or anything else.

What's up with that? First of all X-factor sucks so much - it's sexist, regressive, unambitious and worst of all, boring. It took time to reference why Havok isn't a zombie anymore, but there's nothing like that for Warren. He's been in a coma for 3 issues so there's been no new information. Under a better creative team I'd expect clues or even a slick explanation, but it's pretty obvious this was at best a mistake by the writer, missed by the editor. At worst, it's an example of From The Ashes lack of care for details, continuity and character work.

I have to ask myself 'if the creative team doesn't care about the characters, why should I?' Why should anyone? Either Angel is a bad joke or inconsistent and neither is positive. Sadly, he doesn't even get the worst treatment in X-factor - Polaris is unrecognisable. Gerry Duggan kept her pretty flat in X-Men and Fall of the House of X, but it was at least Lorna Dane. She's worth her own post, though I'll wait until she shows up again, probably tied to railroad tracks with an ACME bomb fuse lit next to her.

From The Ashes is a misnomer IMO - it's just ashes. I hope DOOM wins when that kicks off tbh.

[nyaagolor]

Geeta Team Tweaks

Continuing off my Nemona post: I am Geeta's strongest soldier but her team sucks. Not in the sense that it doesn't have a theme or is ill-fitting, but it just doesn't exude the level of badassery that she deserves. I thought it would be fun to explore different ways of building her team that highlight interesting and underutilized Paldean pokemon and explore a new angle theme wise. Under the cut bc these get long

So Geeta's whole thing is the beauty and diversity of Paldea, shown by her pokemon that represent each of the provinces. However, I think it would be a little more fun if instead, Geeta's team represents the very peak of Paldea-- made entirely of hard to find, powerful, and elusive pokemon that the player only would have seen if they explored every nook and cranny. Not only does it make Geeta look badass, but it serves a meta purpose: those who truly love paldea and spend longer exploring the region can more easily defeat her because they know what to expect, while those who blast through the story will be met with unfamiliar pokemon who can wipe them out

Glimmora: I think she should lead with Glimmora, but that the pokemon should be used in all her promotional material and be the pokemon most closely associated with her. In the same way that Pawmot isn't Nemona's ace in the game but is the Pokemon she's associated with most, I think it should be the same for Geeta. Also, I think the way you find Glimmora should be tweaked so that Geeta having one is more special. As it stands, Glimmora connecting Geeta to area zero is something the player can only find out after the battle with her, which dampens the intrigue. Plus, it can be found easily in some caves, which doesn't make it an unknown or a threat. Instead, I propose that Glimmet / Glimmora only be found in a single spot in Paldea-- a hidden alcove in one of the caves where crystals from area zero are starting to grow. By having a pokemon that spawns only in a rare and out of the way location, players who explore are rewarded because they know how to handle it. Either way, Geeta owning this rare pokemon that most have probably never seen immediately makes her seem badass and mysterious

Espathra -> Amarouge / Celruedge: The fact that these things aren't used in any main story battles and that Celruedge doesn't appear on a team at all is a genuine crime, so I'm fixing it. Also, as cool as Espathra is, it's associated more closely with Tulip, so I don't think it's good for Geeta to have a repeat member like that. The sword boys, on the other hand, are uncommon, powerful, and badass, and serve to highlight Geeta's strength and mastery over the pokemon of the region to the point where she can evolve pokemon like Charcadet that very rarely see evolution. She would have the one that corresponds to your version (Armarogue in Scarlet, Celruedge in Violet)

Gogoat -> Paldean Tauros (Aqua or Blaze): You know how I mentioned in my Nemona team post that she would have a Paldean Tauros in her team, which is implied to be her previous ace? Yeah that's because of Geeta. Nemona looks up to Geeta a lot, and I figured Nemona's Paldean Tauros is actually inspired by Geeta's Paldean Tauros. However, while Nemona's Tauros is the breed that corresponds to the version you're playing, Geeta has the one that corresponds to the Opposite Version (Aqua Breed in Scarlet, Blaze Breed in Violet), ensuring that you're facing a new and surprising threat during your champion fight

Avalugg -> Gholdengo: Imma be honest I do not think Gholdengo fits her vibes at all, but it's not used by anyone in the game and that's pitiful. It's powerful and cool, which also fits for a champ. Also, it fits with the same theme of exploration-- without scaling the watchtowers and searching Paldea for coins, you won't be able to evolve a Gholdengo and have little idea of what you're facing

Veluza -> Rabsca: Uhhhhh honestly I just wanted a cool looking pokemon that wasn't a repeat from another NPC's team. This felt like a good pick AND uses the let's go feature, so it fits with the exploration theme too

Kingambit: This is a good pick, it should have been last, you've heard this a million times. The big thing about Kingambit, however, is that I think it should take advantage of unusual tera types. Since Geeta doesn't have a type specialization, you go into the battle having NO idea what her ace might be. and uh. I don't either. Fairy, maybe? idk I don't play comp I'm here for themes and motifs

Anyway, that's all for Geeta! This is a pretty big overhaul, and I'm curious to see if anyone else had ideas for alternate versions of her team

[agapi-kalyptei]

Not gonna lie. I wrote my first programs 34 years ago but I never was a "real" developer in the sense that I'd write fast desktop apps, manage threads, and all that low level stuff. So learning Rust in the past few months, even if I have some very basic experience with programming in assembly, is still a lot to digest. However, today I got back to my test project and am really hyped that I have.... a button that increments a number.

"Ha, I can do that in javascript in 10 minutes." I mean yeah. Obviously. Anyone can. Here's the cool thing tho. I made mine overly complicated.

The UI looks as you'd expect it to, mostly a starter project leftovers:

The HTML is as simple as can be, just plain HTML and javascript, no compile step. We live in stone ages here and we love it.

The submit button has a simple handler in javascript:

This is, once again, trivial, and all just from the template project. Bottom part says "when a user clicks this button, call "greet" function". The top part is the greet function that invokes a Tauri command also called "greet".

What's Tauri? An open source project that lets you write JS/TS/Rust applications with WebView and bundle them as stand-alone, self-contained, one-file applications for desktop, and starting with Tauri 2.0 (now in beta.2) also for Android (and later iOS). If you know Electron (Slack, Spotify, Discord etc all use Electron, they're just websites with Chromium and C++ code packaged around them).

Anyway. Tauri runs a Rust "server" application that serves your HTML/JS app, but also lets you run high-performance Rust code. Adding a command is relatively simple:

Here's where things get interesting. For me.

Because I wanted to learn Bevy, a game engine written in Rust, because I want to learn how to write using a high-performance functional-programming-like pattern called ECS (Entity Component System), I have added Bevy to this project.

However, both Tauri and Bevy block on the main thread, so I had to find a tutorial on how to spawn Bevy in a different thread, and how to pass information to it. An example:

#[tauri::command] turns a normal function into a Tauri command that I can call from HTML/JS. It injects resource called BevyBridge which is just two lines of code: #[derive(Resource)] pub struct BevyBridge(pub Sender<u64>, pub Receiver<;u64>);

Sender and Receiver being from crossbeam-channel bevy crate which is for sending data back and forth safely and quickly between individual threads.

so "state.0.send(1)" means I'm sending a 64-bit unsigned integer with a value 1 to the channel.

And this is how to receive the message - inside of Bevy engine, in a separate thread. For simplicity, if I send zero, it resets the counter, and if I send any number it adds 100000 to the number, just for clarity. (Elsewhere I'm incrementing it by 1 on every game loop, so theoretically 60x a second. Or 15000x a second because Bevy is unreasonably fast and it doesn't need to render anything in this setup.)

And the best part is that with a single command (cargo tauri build) I get an .msi file, an .exe installer, both around 4MB, and a 11MB .exe file with no dependencies besides WebView (installed on every current desktop OS by default). There's just something about giving someone a floppy disk with an executable that you made yourself.

Is it dumb? Yes. Does it make me happy? No. Does it make me glad, and very relieved that I'm not completely lost? You bet.

[ferhog]

Getting into Metroid This Past Month:

I first learned about Metroid (as well as most Nintendo franchises that weren't Pokemon and Mario) through my friend's copy of Smash Bros Brawl at around the age of 9. Samus being a hot lady underneath the cool set of power armor left enough of an impression for me to try and draw her from memory, but I otherwise had no interest in actually playing her games for most of the following decade and a half. In that time I learned a bit of her lore from Smash Trophys, Game Theory videos, and watching the first few minutes of Other M cutscenes to hear the lady from Smash Bros talk, but it wasn't until shortly after the release of Metroid Dread when I watched some late game cutscenes from the game and GameXplain's Metroid movie pitch video that I became interested enough in the story of the games and Samus as a character that I decided to downlo- I mean obtain copies of Zero Mission and Fusion for my Visua- I mean Gameboy Advance, which I held off on starting until I worked through my gaming backlog more, and it was earlier this summer that I decided the time had come.

The Metroid Manga: Before starting Zero Mission as my first game I read the manga so I'd get a good sense of Samus' backstory before starting. Now I knew what to roughly expect thanks to the Gamexplain movie pitch adapting much of the story, but overall I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. I probably don't need to tell you that Ridley was the absolute highlight. His pure evil is matched only by Louie from Pikmin in terms of Nintendo villains and it got me very invested in his rivalry with Samus throughout the games. Aside from that, my favourite part of the manga was Samus' characterization and her relationship with her bird dads. I have a real soft spot for all adoption related tropes so I really like the idea that Samus was taken in by what was once the most important race in the galaxy and inherited their legacy of keeping the peace, which she basically turned into a job via bounty hunting. However a lot of what the manga does is better in concept than in execution, as the art is hard to follow a lot of the time and much of the story is sped through quite quickly, no thanks to how much time is spent with the extensive cast of side characters. When Samus started her zero mission I held off on finishing the story until I played the game, and while I'm glad that they went with adapting the game at the end because we got to see a climactic fight against Ridley it is super bizarre that they didn't commit to the idea and just stopped when Samus reached Mother Brain. The manga is absolutely worth reading but best thought of as a companion to Zero Mission, probably best read afterwards.

Metroid Zero Mission: My experience with Metroidvanias was basically just Hollow Knight, the first Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, and while I was excited to experience the same sense of adventure I also feared getting lost as per this franchise's reputation. However I surprisingly managed to make my way though the whole game with only one thing I had to look up, which embarrassingly was the same mistake David Jaffe infamously made in Dread, as I failed to realize I could shoot a ceiling open even with enemies there to hint that I could. I think the game has the perfect balance between freedom and guidance as someone's first Metroid game through the chozo statues that mark your next destination without telling you how exactly to get there. Combine that with it being a remake of the first game and I think it was just the perfect game for me and anyone else to start with. My biggest issue gameplay-wise was just the fights against Mother Brain and the two black Space Pirates were very frustrating, the latter because the combat just didn't feel designed for a fight that reflex based, at least not for a newcomer. After finishing the game I felt compelled to earn the Zero Suit Samus ending, which I accomplished by constantly scouting out the optimal routes and resetting so I could get through them as fast as possible.

AM2R: I wanted to play these games in story order so I knew I had to play some version of Metroid 2 next. After trying out the original Metroid that you unlock after beating Zero Mission I figured the pre-NES games weren't going to be fun for me so I wanted to play either AM2R or Samus Returns, and I went with the former as it would be easier to find and would be closer to the game I just finished. The game is a very impressive feat for a fan-made project, though I think it was the one I had the least fun with overall. A few hours into the game I listened to the Some Call Me Johnny review which mentioned it being very hard, and that made sense considering it was a fan project by big Metroid fans for big Metroid fans, but it did result in a few of the bosses being quite frustrating with how much skill they demanded, particularly with the space jump which I struggled to understand the timing of. I didn't feel like instantly replaying it as I did with Zero Mission but I really loved how they adapted the ending.

Super Metroid: "This SNES game probably won't hold up that well right?" Thought the guy whose first console was the PS2.

Super Metroid is one of the greatest games of all time.

Metroid Fusion: I was real intrigued going into this game given what I'd heard about its linearity and extra story focus compared to the prior games but it was still a shock going straight from 2 playthroughs of Super Metroid to this. It didn't even really feel like Metroid, especially with how you were essentially playing through levels via Adam sending you through specific locations with specific tasks. Eventually I got used to it and fully accepted it as a Metroid game as I was increasingly required to be more explorative, though I think of all Metroid games I've played it has the most needlessly abstract methods for mandatory progression. The example which I eventually gave up on and looked up was the yellow Space Pirate X which which could only be damaged with a shot to the back apparently? There was seemingly no visual hints for that and the doors didn't even open if you absorbed the X before they formed the Space Pirates. While I figured out the other examples on my own I just felt I had to blow up way more seemingly random walls than normal. The bosses were generally very fun except for everything about Yakuza. A super long lead up to a boss that kept killing me super easily before I figured out how to avoid its grab attack, followed by a struggle to regain health for the ensuing SA-X encounter with how little health you get from enemies that could fly in out of nowhere and do more damage to you than you were regaining. Speaking of the SA-X, it wasn't in the game as much as I was expecting, but each encounter was quite memorable, especially when I was hiding behind power bomb blocks and it dropped a power bomb. Overall I didn't like most of this game's choices, but I like it when franchises try new things so I wouldn't say anything should have been changed except for how much health you get from enemies. This was the 2nd game I didn't feel like instantly replaying.

Metroid Prime: As of writing this I am currently a few hours into the first Metroid Prime, specifically having just gotten the boost ball. The Metroid formula was very well translated into 3D and the visuals have aged amazingly. I may be playing a remaster but most remasters still don't look this modern. But curiously this has been the Metroid game I've spent the most time away from during a playthrough, going several days without picking it up again. It's not that I dislike playing it, I just don't feel as much of a strong desire to keep coming back to it. Maybe I just feel the need to catch up on other stuff after playing so much Metroid. I do think I'll get around to playing the rest soon enough.

One of my biggest impressions overall is that Metroid is actually quite underrated despite how iconic it is. Samus seems mostly remembered as a Smash Bros character and her iconic twist as one of gaming's first female protagonists, but it doesn't seem like that many people actually play the games. It's also funny that while Samus is famous as a sex symbol in the Smash Bros and general gaming fandoms, it seems that the actual Metroid fandom prefers their Samus cooler than sexy. Anyway I'm looking forward to eventually picking up Dread, the game which first hooked my interest into this franchise, and the other 2 Prime games. Maybe I'll even pick up Other M if I see it around.

[binkywinky]

I liked seeing the realism of the awkwardness between Carol and Monica and just how generally awkward Carol would be after years alone in space but I miss the cocky know-it-all version of Captain Marvel we got in the first movie. She was just so competent and cool and this movie felt a little tepid in that regard. Also wanted much more in terms of a conversation between Monica and her especially considering the ending. There should’ve been some kind of deep emotional exchange and we just didn’t get that. What do you think?

Hmm. Honestly, my first thought is that it sounds like maybe you wanted a different movie, but let me take a crack at this.

I'll address the version of Captain Marvel part first.

In CM, Carol was cocky because she was a young soldier as part of an elite team that only cared about the Kree. She had cool powers and never saw her actions as having any consequences because she was told the Kree were always in the right and she was a hero. She also had no memories or real emotional attachments to anyone, so there was no one depending on her or waiting on her back home. She could be as brash and know-it-all as she liked.

In The Marvels, she's almost 70. She has some of her memories back. She has people she cares about and who care about her - and who have expectations of her. She's lost one of the most important people in her life. She has thousands of planets of people who look to her to help them. And she has seen firsthand that being cocky and a know-it-all can have catastrophic consequences that spiral out of your control.

It wouldn't make a lick of sense for her to have the same attitude in The Marvels as she did in CM unless the plot and trajectory of her character was completely different. CM was about owning her power and reclaiming herself, which leans itself towards showcasing the cocky side of her. The Marvels is about family, reconnection, and atonement - which does not really call for that cocky aspect of her personality to be at the forefront. She still had moments of being cocky and certainly competent (like while fighting), but it was tempered by experience, as it should be. So while it may not be as exciting, I think it was better for her as a character because we actually got to see more sides of Carol and not just Captain Marvel. And personally, I find that a lot more interesting than the cocky, know-it-all schtick. We've seen that with countless characters in the MCU - I'm kind of over it. It's lazy IMO.

Now as far as the stuff with Monica, I stand by my statement that their deeper conversation would naturally have come after they finished the mission with Dar-Benn. They had to reach a point with each other where they're willing to have that conversation first, and that wasn't earned until the end. It's just unfortunate that Monica got trapped on the other side, so we can't see that full talk yet.

But you bring up an interesting point, and I really want to know, what exactly did you want or expect to happen? And I'm asking to take into account the actual situation they were in and what makes sense for the characters, not the fanfiction of what we're all guilty of imagining playing out. Because, for example, I've seen people say Monica should've fought Carol or screamed at her, and that makes zero sense because that's not in Monica's character. I also don't know what Monica would yell at her about after being told point blank, "I wanted to come home, but I inadvertently doomed a whole planet of people to die, and didn't feel like I deserved to be with family until I fixed it." Like what is Monica supposed to say to that? "I don't care - you still should've visited." That's silly.

So genuinely - and this is open to anyone - what would you have preferred to happen that still makes sense within the context of the movie and with the characters?

[mainstoryarchive]

Revolution - 50: Equals

Translator: Creampuffs

Makoto: Alright, I’ll play the music, then~ Is the volume okay?

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Location: Dance Room

Makoto: Alright, I’ll play the music, then~ Is the volume okay?

Hokuto: This practice room is soundproof, so you can increase the volume. It won’t bother anyone. This space belongs to us.

Don’t worry about the dance formations. Just dance – with a smile, if you can.

I’ve finally realised the other day, but if you smile while performing, it makes the performance look so much better.

Makoto: Ahaha. Hidaka-kun, your expressions and way of thinking have gotten softer~♪

Hokuto: I’d like to think it was the fruit of my training with the twins. I can’t quite tell myself.

I’d like to say the same to you, as well, Yuuki – you’re more powerful than before. Although, I do think it would be best if you either took off your glasses or used a pair of sports glasses instead.

Makoto: Oh, now that you mention it, I probably should, huh. Your field of vision’s expanded so much, Hidaka-kun~ You’ve started nagging more and it can be a bit annoying, though ♪

Hokuto: Hmph. If you don’t want me to nag, then grow into an excellent idol that I can’t find fault with.

I can’t lose to you guys, either. Especially to Akehoshi and Isara, who basically ditched training last week.

Subaru: Hey~ I didn’t ditch. Anyway…

I think I’ve learnt what it means to "put myself in other people’s shoes" after I spent the last week with the Transfer Student.

You’re making a big mistake if you think I’m still the same old me, okay?

Come over here, Sally~ Let’s dance together! Hurry up or we’ll leave you behind~☆

Mao: Alright, alright. Geez, must be nice – you guys always look like you’re having fun~

I’ve had a bit of a late start, but I’m gonna work hard so that I can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you guys.

No, I’m not gonna think about the difficult stuff – I’m just gonna enjoy myself ♪

Watch. This is my specialty… break dancing ♪

Subaru: Wow, that’s so cool~! I’m gonna do that too. Spin, spin ☆

Makoto: How’d you do that!? That’s amazing!

Ugh, it’s so frustrating! I’m the only one who’s dancing awkwardly like a robot. I need to practise more!

Hokuto: (…Hmm. I’d expect no less from Isara. You’d think he spent a lot of time with us – he joined the dance circle so naturally.)

(He must pay a lot of attention to his surroundings. His sense of balance is also out of this world.)

(He’s especially amazing when he pairs up with Akehoshi. As expected of fellow members of the Basketball Club – they’re so in sync.)

(They can also be a bit too wild, so I need to make sure I keep them grounded.)

(Thanks to my training with the twins, I think I now know about the breathing and timing needed for these sorts of things.)

(Yuuki is also doing his best to keep up. Everyone is striving to improve by working hard and encouraging each other.)

(Things are heading in the right direction. You wouldn’t believe it’s just been a week.)

(The training Sakuma-senpai assigned to us was fitting for each person.)

(We can grow stronger. I still don’t know whether or not we can beat the Student Council.)

(But the probablity of our victory isn’t zero. That’s what I believe. So, I’ll do my best.)

(Grandma, maybe there’s a chance I can come to love “idols”, as well.)

Subaru: Hey, Transfer Student, you look like you’re itching to do something. Do you wanna dance with us~?

Come over here! Think about the songs and the difficult stuff later – let’s just have some fun ☆

Together, we can rise higher and higher! We’ll reach the top of the dark starry night, and then we’ll become stars!

We’ll become “Trickstar” – the first star of the night that will revolutionise this school!

Ahaha~☆

[ ☆ ]

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[consequencesofargentdawn]

With all due respect, and regardless of 'warning' (about what btw?) we just have no choice but to reply to what is, at best case, a major misunderstanding and ignorance of situation. You choose whether to publish it or not, but we must explain things and make our position clear.  "multiple independent reports" - how do you know it's not same person spamming accounts and fakes? Just takes a hour to make maybe 50 or 100 of them. If it's 3 people doing this - multiply by 3. How do you know it's not PCU drones that were ordered to suddenly start doing this at same time? Some of them may have old tumblr pages which look legit or active WoW accounts, after all, PCU drone is a WoW player too.

"You also insulted one of our editors, claiming they were "PCU scum" for putting your main invitation "bot" or however you use to automate your invitations on ignore." - none of our officers are aware of any situation like. While we indeed to send automated guild invites, that's just to speed up finding people we need (and we indeed find those who thank us for invite, such as victims of PCU or friends of somebody who PCU bullied out of WoW), however we always respect people's right to refuse, and it would make zero sense for any purpose to get toxic and try to offend them. Don't you think (can you?)? Also - Izanaxis is a horde character, while the guild is alliance. It is cross-faction, yes, however FastGuildInvite addon does not work if you run it on character of opposite faction. You could have checked it easily, big fail. Unless you think Izanaxis would just run to random people and spam /ginvite ? Cool, but even then - if somebody refuses - what is the point of getting toxic about it? The fake evidence you are spammed with tries to portray as like some crazy fanatics, when in fact we are reasonable people (in light of recent events I would say more reasonable than you).

"CoAD is not your personal army, nor are we your hammer to swing at others" - it is not, where did we say it is? "Anyone claiming to be CoAD in game is not CoAD" - none of us (of officers) ever claimed of being CoAD, where did you pull that from? All we did was trying to advertise your website in good faith, because we wanted more of actual WoW players know of it existence and even use it as their daily news source. We included it in guild info labeled as 'General news site', similar in some TRPs. Sometimes when people asked what is PCU we directed them to your site to read. That's it, we never claimed to be part of it, being editor of it or working together with it. But don't worry about that, after you backstabbed us like a rat for no reason (still not sure if on purpose or played by PCU like stupid kid) and then proceeded to, basically, harass and slander us with more lies, we won't mention you anywhere ever again. I should also mention that we actively sent you valuable evidence between 2019 and 2022, in good faith (not from this account, also I won't tell which evidence exactly but it did a big impact on the outcome of PCU situation). Of course proving anything like that would be too hard, but from now on expect interesting evidence avoiding you and being brought up by somebody else, somewhere else.

It's also very funny how you marked Hand of Conquest as 'inactive', while them having events with 15-20 online nearly every evening, most are also fully honor geared (which proves they play game actively on their HoC characters). Do your editors even play the game, or just read some guild statistics from outdated third-party site? At this point you are outright lying to your readers. Makes the whole list not trustworthy enough to even bother checking others. The whole 'PCU is dead' mantra is a big and very suspicious lie.

To sum up.

After careful consideration our council came to conclusion that COAD changed into something that can't be trusted anymore, became careless or, possibly, got corrupted by PCU (there could be agreement like 'as long as Perroy is out of WoW we will keep informing people that PCU is dead to keep situation calm'? who knows, after all you think of yourselves as those sneaky benevolent puppeteers who can decide what is better for realm and enforce it with lies if it achieves the goal). Therefore we part ways for now.

The only potential way to make it work is if you thoroughly examine each of your editors, especially new ones, investigate the whole situation with 'PCU dead' narrative, maybe start playing actual game? or at least make some bot that monitors in-game activity of guilds (via Who). Then make necessary adjustments and reach out to us. Haha, just kidding, of course you'll do nothing of that. Therefore it will be our last post, feel free to smear us with more lies if you want, those who are smart will see through them and also what kind of blog COAD has became. Have fun fading into obscurity in your little 'PCU is dead' bubble.

[coldstoicism]

001. ⸻ Writing and artwork on this blog may contain mature themes such as canon-typical gore and violence. Posts will be tagged accordingly. Mortal Kombat is not a game for the faint hearted so do proceed with caution if blood & gore are triggering themes to you. Only follow & interact if you're 21+.

002. ⸻ I'm an adult with responsibilities and a job outside of writing, I might sometimes take a day or two to respond to you. Please be aware of that and don't assume I'm ignoring you. I'm doing my best to get back to everyone and I apologize if responses sometimes take longer.

003. ⸻ English is not my first language. While I'd like to think I have pretty decent grammar, I might make mistakes sometimes, especially when it comes to correct punctuation as it is vastly different from that of my native language. Please be patient with me, I'm trying my best.

004. ⸻ I use small text to write, but I don't mind switching to the regular text size for better accessibility. Just let me know ahead and I'll make sure to adjust the text size for my posts accordingly. I also use icons in my posts.

005. ⸻ This blog is crossover friendly and open to writing with original characters. With all the different timelines existing in the Mortal Kombat universe, the possibilites to craft unique stories are pretty much endless. Don't be afraid to reach out if you have a cool plot idea, I would love to hear it.

006. ⸻ I feel like this should be self-explanatory, but no godmodding, no taking control of my character or anything of the likes. It's very annoying and it will take away my enthusiasm to continue writing with you.

007. ⸻ I'm above engaging in petty drama with anyone on here, I made this blog to write for my favorite character and for no other reason. I can't stand negativity and toxicity. If I see you being rude to others, spreading hate or even bullying other people in the community, I will instantly block you. If you have a problem with me, feel free to reach out to me so we can have a civil conversation about it.

008. ⸻ Please be aware that my portrayal of MK1!Bi-Han is not 100% canon-accurate. While I tried to make as little changes to the character's personality and backstory as possible, some aspects of him will be based on my own headcanons. The writing for him in MK1 is annoyingly inconsistent, contradicts itself on multiple occasions and sometimes even makes no sense at all, so I won't be adopting much of it into my portrayal. Do not expect me to write Bi-Han as a one-dimensional joke villain just because ❛ it's canon ❜ in the current timeline. If that's the portrayal you're looking for, you might want to look for someone else to write with. That said, this blog will feature different versions of Bi-Han from different timelines, so please do specify the timeline you'd prefer for the plot to be set in. For now I only write Bi-Han as Sub-Zero and I haven't decided on whether or not Noob Saibot will become a secondary muse on this blog yet, but it's well within the realm of possibilities.

009. ⸻ I do not condone hate, homophobia, racism or anything of the sorts and if I see someone partaking in such problematic behavior that will warrant an instant block.

010. ⸻ Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of writing romance plots, I don't have any preferred ships for Bi-Han and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I just don't see Bi-Han as someone who's particularly interested in romance or relationships. Depending on how his character develops in the current timeline, that might change in the future.

011. ⸻ Lastly, if you have further questions, feel free to send me a message at any time.

[a-really-good-lawyer-abandoned]

I've seen a number of discussions of the NMCU Daredevil ep Nelson V Murdock, some of which I couldn't understand, and figured I'd throw in my 2 cents so far as my feelings on one particular thing.

I really, really dislike what I call the 'BFF Secret Identity Reveal Fallout' trope.

I see it all the time, often as a key narrative beat when attempting to create tension or complexity. The hero has someone they care for or trust more than anyone else, but they keep the secret out of fear - fear of a number of things, but often at the core a fear of rejection. This might be amplified by the BBF previously expressing negative feelings about the masked persona.

Then the secret comes out, and just as they feared the BFF is angry, and at the center of the interpersonal tension is the fact that the hero lied, and that's the part that gets to me, because the reasons for why the hero lied seem to so rarely be taken into consideration - lying, especially to a loved one, is depicted as wrong in and of itself.

But here's the thing - lying isn't inherently amoral.

(I'll note here that I recognize this is an opinion - our personal morals are steadfast, connecting to our core values, which are actually the anchors of our identities/sense of self, but they're just that: personal, not universally absolute. What I'm expressing here is my own opinion.)

The concept that it is inherently amoral gets my back up, and I know it's because of personal experience (good times with trauma! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧), but I think my feelings are legitimate nonetheless. I know how it is to lie to protect yourself or others from harm, physical or otherwise; that there are times honesty is unsafe, or even simply unkind. I know how it is to lie out of fear of rejection - every time I come out to someone I feel it. I've learned the hard way that someone who has given every indication that they have zero issue with queerness and would be accepting of my queerness can end up not being accepting. It rips my heart out every time, and does nothing to help my own trust issues - this reminder that you can never actually know how a person will react to something, or how they'll treat you as a result.

I know how it is for a friend to believe that them showing me trust creates an obligation that I show them the same - the expectation that trust from one party should engender an equal degree of trust in the other, regardless of what is or isn't being shared or what either party's personal experiences have been.

Now, how does that apply to these fictional situations? Well, it varies depending on the story of course, but when the 'lesson' is just straight up 'lying is amoral' or even 'best friends should never hide things from each other', I grit my teeth. The impact of a lie on the person it's told to is put front and center, while the impact of revealing the truth on the liar is treated as secondary or even treated as moot. The liar broke The Rules by lying, and that makes them the one in the wrong, full stop.

I see that a lot in discussions of why or why not people consider Foggy's reaction 'right' or 'wrong', and rarely consideration of the shape his reaction took (whether the things he said were warranted, fair, or should later be discussed or apologized for). I see people saying that Matt's reasons don't matter, and that he was wrong for not trusting Foggy (and whew, the issue of Matt's ability to trust is a whole other thing, speaking of trauma). I also see people defending some things Foggy said on the basis that he was angry and had a right to be, when his right to be angry isn't actually the issue. If I say something unfair or unkind, etc, in the heat of the moment, it's my responsibility to talk that out with the person later when tempers have cooled, regardless of whether I was 'right' or 'wrong'. That's the kind of thing healthy communication and healthy interpersonal relationships require. All emotions are valid, but not all behavior rooted in that emotion is.

Of course, it's a very complex thing. Sometimes there isn't a clear cut 'person A was Wrong and person B was Right'. And what you lied about and why factors in, but that's exactly the point. My ex lying to me because of trauma-caused trust issues? Understandable. Him doing it because he was afraid I'd dump him when I learned he'd been cheating? Nope.

And then there's the 'you should have known it would be different with you' thing.

I recently saw a situation play out in a story where the hero brings up the BFF's previously expressed opinions on the masked persona and the BFF saying that the hero should have known that their opinion would be different as far as the hero is concerned - that their particular case would be viewed differently, an exception to the rule, so to speak.

I don't love that, either. 'It's okay because it's you' is a kind of exception that isn't the kindness it's so often portrayed to be. I've had people say homophobic or sanist things then tell me that oh, they don't mean *me* of course, because I'm *different*. My grandparents heard the same kind of thing all the time growing up, having friends say all kinds of antisemetic garbage in front of them and say, 'oh, but we don't mean you, of course'.

When I'm treated as an exception because I'm a 'good queer', it isn't a relief. That person still disdains what I am. Them saying that to me isn't kind, and I can't believe it to be kind in these fictional contexts. If the BFF can understand, accept, or even get behind why the hero takes certain actions - or even commits certain crimes - that should open the door to the possibility that there may be more to why other people do similar things. A more openminded viewpoint, such as a willingness to look at all the factors before rendering judgement, should be the result, not 'it's okay just this once because I care about the person doing it'.

My feelings about people equating criminality with amorality is a whole other complication when it comes to my thoughts on these situations. I won't get into that here, but I thinks it's another issue worth consideration.

I'm not going to write out my opinion on the Foggy/Matt conflict, though I do get into it a little in the fic I'm writing. I really just wanted to express my issue with that particular aspect of that narrative trope in general and how it's discussed, and the way the matter of trust and applying morality to distrust is often talked about, too. I may be expectionally sensitive to this kind of thing, or maybe I'm not. I'm not sure my possible sensitivity is the point, though.

Either way, it's a trope that gives me a lot of anxiety, and when I rewatch shows or reread stories I often find myself needing to skip those parts. That goes for fanfic, too.