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true-blue-megamind · 4 years ago

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Fan Theory Thursday – The Not-So-Evil Overlord?

Shhh… Want to hear a secret? Come closer... SPOILER ALERT!

Okay, this one delves a little deep into the imaginative side of Megamind fan theories, however I believe it holds enough interest and has enough support to be well worth discussing. There is a supposition which I frankly love: our favorite blue alien was an Overlord of sorts before he briefly took control of Metro City, and he had good reasons to be so. That might sound a little crazy, but bear with me.

This idea has appeared in several fan fictions, and essentially goes as follows: Megamind was more than a supervillain; he was also a crime boss, and he chose that path for the most unlikely of reasons. Bizarre though it may seem, his primary drive was bettering Metro City. (And, yes, I’m aware of how contradictory that sounds.) However, it’s logical when considered more closely. By making himself the de facto ruler of the city’s underbelly, Megamind was able to control crime to an extent, probably even setting limits on certain activities, and guidelines for others. In the majority of fan fictions using this concept, that includs things like reducing violent crime, setting purity standards and purchase limits for narcotics, and ensuring sex workers were neither underage nor abused.

I’ll be the first to admit that, on the surface at least, this seems like nothing more than fans seeking to justify or even moralize a beloved character, but research reveals that there is actually some support for this theory. Firstly, there is the fact, touched upon previously in the Fan Theory post concerning the Warden, that Megamind was clearly already establishing control over other criminals at a young age. While writing a truly wonderful blog article, Demishock actually went through the trouble of deciphering the newspaper clipping shown at the beginning of the film’s title sequence. It contains, among other things, a reference to the fact that, although an elementary school age child, Megamind was feared and obeyed by other inmates at the prison where he grew up. A quote from the Warden reads: “I've got experienced, hardened criminals in here who are afraid of him.” The article goes on to mention an incident which involved a few other inmates, adding that “the other prisoners refused to point fingers for fear of retaliation.”

It is quite possible that Megamind was already building and consolidating a base of power.

Next, there is the fact that the blue man seems to have lines he won’t cross, even as the self-proclaimed Evil Overlord. In one of the storyboards, when Megamind is approached by the Doom Syndicate, he clearly holds them in disdain, yet they are careful to placate him. Obviously they have somewhat different standards. When Agent Orange—who was later reimagined as Psycho-Delic before being cut from the film entirely—compares Megamind’s “inspirational” defeat of Metro Man to “a car crash on prom night,” the blue alien looks rather disgusted. Although they refer to celebrating his victory, it also seems the Doom Syndicate may be indirectly asking Megamind’s permission to go on a crime spree. While this may be because he is the new Overlord, it seems odd that other villains would immediately leap to the assumption such approval is necessary if they were accustomed to acting on their own. However, if they were already in the habit of requesting the blue alien’s sanction, their actions make more sense.

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Whatever the case, it seems that, once again, Megamind and the Doom Syndicate may have very different ideas of what sorts of crimes are acceptable. The Destruction Worker refers to “really putting the screws to the city,” while Agent Orange adds his desire to “swim in the torment of the innocent.” However, these suggestions don’t seem to match what we actually see Megamind doing. In the movie, Megamind does, indeed, go on a crime spree, but none of it appears to be violent. He certainly causes chaos, but no one seems to ever be injured. In fact, in the DVD commentary, one of the creators even states outright that the supervillain never goes beyond vandalism and theft because he doesn’t really want to hurt anybody. (Indeed, in the film it rather seems that, by being raised in jail, bullied, and constantly rejected, Megamind was pushed into supervillainy.) This, together with the previous evidence, paints an image of a man who has been forced to do some harsh things, but who nonetheless dislikes violence and, deep down, possesses a certain moral code, albeit a skewed one.

There are, in fact, several other details that point toward Megamind being far from truly evil despite being a supervillain. As I mentioned in Megamind and Identity, he displays several redeeming qualities, such as his largely friendly treatment of Minion, his respect for Roxanne’s intelligence, and his playful, affectionate game of fetch with the brainbots. However, I won’t go into a long explanation about that here as it can be found in the aforementioned post.

Nonetheless, I don’t believe we can seriously expect that the former villain has never once hurt anyone in his life. Keep in mind that, as discussed in the post How Strong is Megamind, the blue alien almost certainly had to fight in order to survive. However, his unwillingness to attack citizens suggests that he only injured others when it was absolutely necessary. Similarly, the aforementioned “news article” indicates that he may have limited his physically aggressive responses to other criminals only. (After all, the reference to prison inmates fearing him is the sole evidence of possible violence we have.) I have seen it suggested here on Tumblr that he may have taken over Metro City in part because he believed that, if he didn’t, someone worse like the Doom Syndicate would. It may even be possible that he was afraid of appearing soft and thus losing control over the criminal underworld.

Of course, it has to be mentioned here that Megamind also fought with Metro Man, who certainly wasn’t a criminal. However, there are two factors that I believe need to be considered. The first is that it is very likely that Megamind didn’t expect he could truly harm his nemesis. This is evidenced by both the his apparent shock when Metro Man seems to actually be dead, and by his overt statement during the museum scene that he “didn’t think it would really work.” The second is that, as young Metro Man was a bully, tormenting Megamind without provocation and encouraging other children to do the same, Megamind may have mentally placed him in the bad guy/threat category.

His lack of violence is not the only proof that Megamind had a better heart than most credited him for even when he was a supervillain. Keep in mind that he had a holographic disguise watch and a hoverbike. Presumably, Megamind could have simply fled Metro City when Titan turned evil, but he didn’t. Instead he went to Roxanne for help, stating that if they could not find the new villain’s weakness Titan would “destroy the whole city.” And this was after Titan had tried to kill him. Clearly, despite being a supervillain, Megamind cared enough about his home town to put his life in danger.

The final support for the Benevolent Overlord theory is less obvious: Megamind had to have been getting funds from somewhere even when Metro Man was still functioning as the Defender of Metro City. (Indeed, in some of the early concept art, the Evil Lair was imagined as a luxurious space boasting things like a huge library and a sleek laboratory. Some fans still picture the living quarters in much the same way despite the creators stating that he built his inventions from whatever he could get his hands on.) Near the beginning of the movie, Minion mentions a supplier in Romania, and presumably he and Megamind had to be getting food and other necessities somehow. While it’s true that the blue villain was clearly not above thievery, we also know that his plots were always defeated by Metro Man, so it’s safe to assume that he rarely if ever got away with stealing anything before the former hero’s supposed “death.” Of course, it also seems extremely unlikely, even laughable, that Megamind would have had a day job. Where, then, did the money come from? Many fans theorize that, as the local crime boss, he received a cut from all illegal activity. It certainly seems like the most probable explanation.

Art by Kory Heinzen, found in The Art of Megamind by Richard von Busack

So why would Megamind build his technology and machines largely from scrap if he had a constant cash flow? Given his concern for the city, several fan fictions have imagined the blue man secretly and anonymously donating a significant portion of his ill-gotten money to various charities and non-profits. That idea is not directly supported by any evidence, but it does fit with what we know. It’s also consistent with Megamind’s character: a feared supervillain who possesses a surprisingly good heart and, given his past, knows too well what it’s like to be thrown away by society.

So, was Megamind a crime boss as well as a supervillain? Did he use that position to secretly better life in Metro City? If so, is he still doing that now that he is the Defender of Metro City, thus curbing criminal activity from within as well as fighting it from without? (For the record, given that there is no apparent gang war happening during The Button of Doom, I would propose that the answer to the last question may be yes.) These are certainly interesting ideas to consider, and the mere fact that this animated film offers enough details to argue the point is a testament to just how well-constructed the movie is. I consider it yet more proof that the film Megamind is truly an underrated masterpiece.

#Megamind #Megamind movie #megamind fan theory #fan theories #fan theory #fan theory thursday #Overlord #crime boss #good bad guy

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roseofithaca · 4 years ago

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Defrosting Grumpy Three (a Season 8 meta)

I keep thinking about how Season 8 of Classic Who is almost like the first one the show has to a ‘season long arc’ that I don’t feel gets talked about enough. Obviously everyone knows it as “the one where the Master is in every story” but I feel like there is a subtle character arc for the Doctor in this season as well which is tied to the two main characters introduced in the first episode; the Master and Jo Grant.

I’m not the first one to point out that out of Three’s five seasons; this is the one where he’s at his most grumpy and short-tempered. I know a lot of people point to this season as reasons for why they don’t like Three and I totally get that, he’s a real git sometimes, in particular the first and last stories. There are moments where he’s asking for a slap and, no, I’m not talking about him claiming to be buddies with Chairman Mao and a Tory MP. Because I would’ve thought it was obvious that he drops those names purely to gain trust of these people who don’t trust him (at least that’s my headcanon because it doesn’t fit with the anti-capitalist, anti-pollution, anti-imperialist writing). Just him being constantly ungrateful to the Brigadier, snapping at Jo, or just being childish in the most ‘kid throwing a tantrum’ way possible.

But it’s easy to get why. By Season 8 he’s been trapped on Earth for we can assume at least a year. New Who fans who’ve seen the Power of Three and saw how crazy Eleven went when he tried to stay on Earth to study the cubes just for a few days/weeks know the Doctor can’t stand staying still, especially in one time and place. In his first season he could be short-tempered but slightly less so. In Spearhead he’s quite polite and motivated, though that could be the most pleasant form of Post Regeneration Trauma he’s been through. Plus he had Liz, who you can see he immediately clicked with. A fellow genius who finds herself out of place or treated a little unfairly as a female scientist surrounded by men, both of them willing to sass the Brigadier when he deserves it. He also still keeps trying to fix the TARDIS, as if convinced this won’t be as permanent as the Time Lords intended.

But by Season 8 (or you could say even before that, in Inferno) his attempts clearly haven’t succeeded past slipping into a terrifying parallel universe, and now cabin fever is setting in. And Liz, his science bud, has gone off and left. And while it’s sad we didn’t get a goodbye between the two of them, her passing remark towards the Brigadier about the Doctor just needing someone to pass him test tubes and fill his praise kink maybe implies that, at least from Liz’ POV, they weren’t as equals as Three thought, or she didn’t feel that fulfilled working with him, even if she did appreciate him as a friend.

So enter Jo to replace Liz, who is everything Liz wasn’t. Liz had to study and work her way to her position; Jo is a spoiled girl who got to play spy by sheer nepotism. She failed A level science and doesn’t have the same sharp-wit he and Liz shared. Three is mean to her even before she introduces herself as his assistant when she only tries to help, and doesn’t hide his disappointment when she tells him. Perhaps it might also be that she reminds him of his companions before Liz; she’s cute and perky like Zoe and also loyal and determined like Jamie, even though she lacks Jamie’s physical strength and Zoe’s genius. Still, she’s young and he might not want to put her in danger the same way he nearly lost his previous young companions many times in the War Games.

When Three goes to the Brigadier to try to get rid of Jo, the Brig is far more smug than in the previous season, as he seems to have worked the Doctor out by this point. Their little moment at the end of Inferno where Three insults him and tries to escape only to then come back with his tail between his legs acting all buddy has shown him who Three really is; that this whole grumpy shtick of this is just a defence mechanism while he’s so out of his depth. I like to think the Brig hoped Jo would soften him up, to bring out the compassion that was more overt in his previous incarnation, as well as just pass him test tubes and keep tabs on him. His knowing smile when he watches Three try and fail miserably to fire her seems to prove his point.

In the same story we also have the Master showing up for the very first time. He was created to be the ‘Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes’. These kind of ‘foil enemies’ that pop up in so many stories, where you have a villain who is supposed to be a perfect match in intelligence or skill to the hero, are more often than not presented as ‘what the hero could have been’ if they chose to be evil rather than good; the Master is no different. And even though it’s not established until the next season that the Doctor and Master used to be friends, there’s clearly an underlining fondness in their banter which hints at past feelings as well as mutual respect. It says quite a lot that Three is more relaxed and friendly during his conversations with the Master half the time they talk than he is with the humans he’s meant to be saving, or even his own close friends. Because, for all their moral disagreements, the Master is his own kind and his only link - other than his broken TARDIS - to the rest of the Universe.

In almost every story of S8, after the Master has revealed his evil scheme only for the Doctor to point out how it will backfire on him, they have to work together or form some kind of alliance of convenience. In Claws of Axos, the Doctor outright pretends to betray his friends and elope join forces with the Master to escape, only for it to be a trick in order to defeat the Axons. But considering Three’s attitude in this season, it’s a very convincing act as much to the audience as to the humans. And then in Colony in Space, the Master offers the Doctor half-ownership of the Universe....and the Doctor clearly hesitates! Yes, the Master tempts him with the persuasion of ruling ‘in the name of good’ but Three has to take a moment to remember what a slippery slope that line of thinking is. He’s so tired of being trapped, sick of being leashed by the Time Lords, that the Master comes along as a devil on his shoulder at his most vulnerable point. Considering the last story involves the Master summoning the actual Devil (or close enough) and is also where Three’s temper seems to be at its peak seems all too fitting.

It’s also interesting that the Master’s greatest fear that appears in the Mind of Evil is an image of the Doctor laughing maniacally over him. It’s the closest we get to an image of Dark!Three in the show. To contrast; the Doctor’s greatest fear isn’t the Master, it’s the eruption from Inferno. Seeing the Earth swallowed by flame - not because of an outside force like the Daleks or Cybermen, but by humans themselves. It’s easy to imagine him wondering why he even bothers with them when they’re their own worst enemy.

(Side note; apparently the Evil Overlord in the Inferno parallel world IS the Third Doctor, according to the Expanded Universe, though I haven’t read up on this. We were robbed of seeing Pertwee play an evil Doctor.)

So while this is going on and the Master is playing his games with the Doctor while also tempting him, intentionally or not, to the ‘dark side’, we also have Jo at his side. And Jo takes all of the Doctor’s snapping and mood swings like a pro, and is very quickly overwhelmed with a lot of the stuff she’s faced which that she didn’t know she was signing up for - being hypnotised, captured by aliens, taken to alien worlds in the far future etc. She screams as most companions did at that time, but because it is what you would expect from a girl fresh out of school and throwing herself into something she clearly didn’t properly prepare for. The Doctor has to save her a lot, more than often because she tried to help only to get herself captured. As much as he does warm to her - because he’s not immune to how adorable she is - it serves to prove his point. Even when he finally gets to leave Earth for a day, she’s too frightened to want to leave the TARDIS. What good is she to him?

Now she continues to prove she has her uses. She has her escapology skills which get them out of a few tight spots. Depending on the writer, she can turn into an Emma Peel-esque agent capable of self-defence and subterfuge. And she’s always patient with the Doctor, no matter what mood he’s in, and extremely loyal. She’s also kind and compassionate with every side character she comes across. There seems to have been a backlash to these kinds of qualities in female characters in the past twenty years or so, what I like to call the Cinderella critique, where if a woman is kind and generous more so than smart, sassy and sword-wielding she’s seen as ‘weak’. Jo is always there at the Doctor’s side when he’s managed to get hurt or knocked out (Three took a lot of naps, anyone else notice this?). Even after he does whisk her away to another planet and nearly don’t make it back, she could easily throw her job away if it was too much, but she sticks with it because you can see that she wants more than anything to be useful and do good for her world - it would be another two season until she found what her own passion was with being an environmental activist but this is where she wants to start.

But it’s not until the end of S8 that we see Jo’s greatest strength and how it saves Three when every other defence he had was gone. He’s spent most of that story chastising her for believing in magic and superstition, as well as anything else he can find to snap at her for like criticising the Brigadier even though he does the same thing all the damn time (this could be seen as a ‘I can insult my bro but you can’t’ moment but it’s still not pleasant). But when he learns the Master is preparing to sacrifice her, he runs in to save her despite knowing it’s a suicide mission. He also gives a cold exchange to the Master when told he’s a ‘doomed man’.

Oh I’m a dead man! I knew that as soon as I walked through those doors so you better watch out! I have nothing to lose, do I?

It’s a telling line that, behind all his patronising and abruptness, he’s reached a point he doesn’t feel he has anything left to keep going. He’s lost his freedom and his knowledge of time travel; but he’ll die before letting Jo die or letting the Earth burn again. When Azal claims the daemons gave humans knowledge, Three responds: Finally he’s turning his anger on the one who deserves it to save the one who has been his friend, even at his lowest points, for the past several months, while still showing his disappointment in what he’s seen of humans living amongst them:

You gave them knowledge to blow up the world and they most certainly will. They can poison the water and the very air they breathe.

When Azal appears, he nearly makes the Master’s greatest fear come true by offering his power to the Doctor instead. And the Doctor looks horrified, immediately doing a Jon Snow and refusing it. Unlike when the Master offered him power before, he doesn’t hesitate for a moment, even though Azal’s powers could probably get his TARDIS working again in a snap. He looks almost scared at the thought of possessing something like that. Perhaps his dark persona in that other world became that way because he did take such an offer?

Azal prepares to kill the Doctor for refusing his offer, which is where Jo saves the day by offering her life for his. A lot of people dislike this ending for the idea of the villain being destroyed ‘by the power of love’ more or less, but this was a lot less common a deus ex machina as it is in New Who. The Doctor explains how it works when they’re free as:

Azal could not accept a fact as irrational and illogical as Jo being prepared to give up her life for me.

Three says it as he’s just as baffled, if also amused, by it as Azal was. Why would Jo give up her life for him? Compare that with when Ten has to give up his incarnation to save Wilf, how he rants that Wilf isn’t important but he has ‘so much more’ to give. Even the Doctor wrestles when it comes to sacrificing himself for others sometimes but Jo did it without a seconds thought, made even more illogical given Three’s often harsh treatment of her. But one thing that is obvious is that Three’s grumpy face is gone; he’s smiling for the rest of the episode, looking at Jo with quiet heart eyes, and letting her drag him into the maypole dance, conceding that she was right and there is ‘magic’ in the world.

Much like Rose was the companion Nine needed after the Time War to enjoy seeing the Universe again and appreciating life, Jo serves a similar purpose in S8 in that she gradually reminds the Doctor through her actions of the strengths in being brave, kind and selfless. She and the rest of the UNIT family are there to remind him of the goodness in humanity and that we’re always learning and trying to improve; as Three says to Azal that ‘they need a chance to grow up’. Jo is the angel on his shoulder to contrast the Master as his personal devil; right down to having her dressed in the sacrificial ‘virgin’ garb opposite the Satanic Master to cap the season off.

Three still has his sour moments after this but he’s far less cantankerous going forward and sweeter towards Jo especially, praising her bravery and learning in future, just as Jo also grows more confident in her abilities and enjoys her adventures with him. He seems far more relaxed on Earth and less desperate to get away because of the people he has around him that make it worth staying around for. Three’s morals and loyalty to humanity might not have been so firm had Jo not been there to ground him, especially with the Master constantly there almost holding out a hand to him offering freedom and excitement. Like all good companions, she saves the Doctor as much as he has to save her, in more ways than one, which she doesn’t get nearly enough credit for. And it’s what adds to the heartbreak of her eventual exit because of the effect she had on his life.

It’s just one of my favorite tropes when a character gets better and softens or becomes kinder not because they had to ‘change for someone else’ but because they were inspired by them, especially if it’s the person they underestimated the most.

#it's about found family yo #classic who meta #doctor who #third doctor #jo grant #three x jo #the master #unit era

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dappercritter · 4 years ago

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Random She-Ra Season 5 Thoughts: THE FINAL RAMBLING

Yep. I finally got all my crazy absurd thoughts about this gay adventure-romance-drama cartoon summarized into one incoherent yet fun to read computer document/article! ...four months after the show itself ended. Oh well, no one’s perfect. Anyways, there are a whole lot more insane observations than ever before, so I had to put it below a link so this thing didn’t back up my blog or any of yours. Hope you enjoy reading through these as much I enjoyed spouting them for no discernible reason other than I felt like it!

-I feel that since is the last season, I ought to talk about an important part of the show that I’ve been putting off: the animation. It’s… okay. It’s definitely smoother than what the original 80’s show and it’s brother series (heheh) looked like, but at the same time it still seems to suffer from similar limitations which causes some distracting moments of stiffness. But other than that, it’s pretty good. It’s no Titmouse or Studio Mir but it looks good and it gets the job done.

-After all, let’s not forget: “Imperfection is beautiful!”

-Even when things are at their lowest, Adora is a jock with a heart of gold.

-Horde Prime and the Galactic Horde’s aesthetic feels like a mixture of Catholicism, Scientology, Heaven’s Gate, and modern Microsoft, and honestly, that just makes him creepier.

-Speaking of Horde Prime, he didn’t waste any time with destroying Bright Moon. …apparently.

-Furthermore, on the topic of his giant holographic messages, WAS THAT A FREAKING MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MOVIE REFERENCE?!

-Boy, Glimmer and Catra sure got along quickly! It’s almost like they magically understand each other because they both assumed leadership roles and screwed up big time! …I guess.

-Either that or this season is going to be a speedrun.

-Wow, the Rebellion sure got used to having a once-thought-dead king as well as a known enemy general/abuser running around their camp awful fast, didn’t they?

-Mara’s got a spaceship, a cyber girlfriend, a magic grandma, a dragon, a tragic backstory, AND a force ghost?! Dang, even in death, the girl’s got it all. No wonder everyone likes her!

-(*me looking at the TV rating at the start of episode*) “Why is language in there? Is there surprise cuss words or something in this season?” (*sees Horde Prime seize control of a clone for the first time*) “HOLY FREAKING SH—oh that’s why.”

-Applause to the crew for making the “dinner with Prime” scene for making a meal between a sparkly princess, a catgirl, and alien cult leader feel even more uncomfortable than it had a right to.

-(*me throughout the season whenever a clone was onscreen*) Is that Hordak? Is that him? Is that him? Is that him right there? Oh it is—oh no wait. … Is that h—

-Extra applause for having Glimmer learn from her grey-area wetwipe phase and refusing to sell out her friends again whilst telling the imperialist cult leader where to stick it.

-I would pay a sizeable portion of my life savings to hear what a Scorpia and Swift Wind duet would sound like.

-In fact, I’d double it if it was just Scorpia singing.

-Ah what the heck. I would triple it for an entire She-Ra musical!

-As happy as I am to see to see Entrapta interacting with the other princesses again, I have to say that their big reunion left me with some mixed feelings. Here’s a quick rundown:

-Entrapta, a grown autistic woman, being led around on a leash by non-neurodivergent teenagers—again: that’s bad.

-The Princesses confronting Entrapta about joining the Horde: that’s good!

-The Princesses blaming all their problems with the Horde bots on Entrapta’s actions and her hyper fixations alone: that’s bad.

-Entrapta explaining herself, admitting that she regrets her mistakes, and getting the Princesses to understand that she thinks and communicates differently, but in spite of that, she really does want help find Glimmer: that’s good!

-Entrapta never gets to call out the Princesses for how poorly they treated her: that’s bad.

-Entrapta saves the day and goes to space: that’s good!

-Scorpia and Entrapta still haven’t interacted even though the former is with the Rebellion in the first place because she went to look for her because she is her best friend: …can I go home now?

-How nice! Michah finally got to shapeshift!

-And he’s rocking that She-Ra outfit to boot!

-So is Darla a back up of Light Hope or do they just run on the same operating system and have the same voice?

-I could watch an entire season of Adora, Bow, and Entrapta going on space adventure in a rundown ship with their custom-made spacesuits, tbh.

-Is anyone else weirded out that Catra’s younger self looked at her in her flashback(?).

-Actually what WAS happening there, anyhow?

-(*watching Bow’s spacewalk to save Glimmer*) “Is that a Gravity reference?” asked the man who never saw Gravity.

-Speaking of spacewalks, how did Glimmer survive those precious few seconds in space? Does the teleporter teleport a breathable atmosphere too?

-Also, Catra, WHY did you think it would be a good idea to teleport Glimmer into space? I know you had a plan and the ship was right there but… Ah, never mind.

-Not that I’m complaining but Glimmer’s apology to the rest of the friend squad for her HORRIBLE plan last season went… surprisingly quickly.

-You know as cool as The Star Siblings are, being a quirky band of space-travelling siblings with cool powers and some trans rep to boot, I only have one small problem with them: weren’t there already Star Sisters on Etheria back in season 1?

-That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about Masters of the Universe characters to dispute it.

-Entrapta confirmed pan, objectum, AND horny on main. Dang girl, you’re gonna have fun whether you got Hordak back or not…

-“The Velvet Glove” is both a menacing and stupid name for a decadent overlord’s mothership.

-Wait, it’s from the 80’s canon? Oh. That kind of explains it, actually.

-Goshdangit, I wanted Catra to face punishment for her crimes, but I didn’t think that would involve going to evil alien conversion therapy!

-Nor did I want her to die! For a second. Actually, since it obviously wasn’t going to last I was… weirdly okay with that part???

-Horde Prime seems awfully okay with Catradora. I mean he’s still super creepy and manipulative about it, but also oddly progressive for an evil brainwashing cult leader.

-(*Adora transforms into a She-Ra through seer will*) First of all, called it. Second of all, WOAH MAMA now that’s a glow up!

-Wrong Hordak did not have to be a thing, and yet, I’m glad that he is.

-Hordak remembers the LUVD crystal and Entrapta… Hordak remembers Entrap—! It’s happening! Oh my gosh, it’s happening! Everybody stay calm!

-Wow, Entrapta didn’t have to be so forgiving of Catra for everything she’s done to her but she did. Only I’m not sure if that was Entrapta taking the high road or the low road.

-Or which road the crew took for that matter.

-I remember when I thought those “Chipped AUs” floating around here on tumblr were just something the fans came up with and that chipping people was not an actual despicable thing Prime does in canon. I miss those days.

-I know it’s not the same as before or the original design, but True She-Ra’s designs and powers? I think they slappin’.

-Hooray, Adora and Catra are finally making up! And it only took four and half seasons worth of communication failures, toxic villainous behaviour, and physical violence for Catra to snap out of it!

-…We can go back to Entrapdak now, right?

-Poor Elberon. First they unknowingly adopt a double agent then get invaded by the Horde and now they’re getting brainwashed and chipped by the Galactic Horde. They might be a cute village, but they got some pretty lousy security.

-You know it’s cute that Micah is doing his best to be friends with Frosta and get back in touch with his dad-side, but look I can’t be the only one worried about how the local King is a less proactive leader than the princesses or the known war criminal/abuser, right?

-“The Perils of Peekablue” or as I like to call it, “You Thought ‘Boys Night Out’ Caught You Emotionally Off-guard? Hah! Watch This.”

-You know I didn’t think Scorpfuma would be a thing aside that one moment of flirting near the end of season 4, but they really pushed for it to be a thing! This is… actually pretty great! Perfuma’s not perfect, and I would have appreciated giving them a little more time to bond and form some real chemistry, but at least she reciprocates Scorpia’s sweetness instead of rebuffing it in increasingly aggressive fashion.

-I’m not sure what’s more concerning: that Mermista set a boat on fire, that it’s worded like she had a fling as part of some experimental phase, or that Sea Hawk is turned on by this.

-Peekablue might not be real, (I think?) but he is one dapper dude! Female-to-male redesigns could learn a thing or two from him.

-It involved them getting stung and seizuring, but that was a heck of a way to reintroduce Double Trouble! I swear I got watching them cycle through their transformations in some sort of physical reaction.

-Or maybe that was just me worrying about their wellbeing…

-Okay, I get the Chips are huge, and actually rather clever threat, but how do these characters get chipped in the first place? I get there are chipped people who spread the chips throught the population but where do they get those from???

-Do one of those Horde Prime drones just sneak behind someone, slap a chip on their nape then hand them a whole bagfull and say, “Beep boop beep, Horde Prime’s Light, blah blah blah. Alright have fun, kiddo”?

-Or is it some sort of Alien: Covenant deal where they’re just floating around and Lord help you if one sticks to you?

-HOLY CRAP THEY ACTUALLY GOT SCORPIA TO SING! AND SHE WAS GREAT!

-Oh shoot. Guess I owe the crew twice my life savings now…

-Entrapdak might be what got me into this show, but it’s Double Trouble that kept me around, so you can imagine how happy I was to see them make their grand reappearance!

-Conversly, you can imagine my disappointment when they just disappeared until the finale.

-And on that note: HOW DID YOU GUYS LOSE DOUBLE TROUBLE?!

-You forgot to cherish them, didn’t you?

-So, Scorpia sacrifices herself just after finding a new girlfriend and gaining some newfound confidence, Mermista and Sea Hawk are split up,and Double Trouble didn’t join the main cast. Why can’t you just have fun like a normal cartoon, show?

-Gosh, I love me some shifting title cards!

-Is it just me or did they sneak in some more Annihilation references on Krytis?

(-Said the guy who was too chicken to watch the movie and just read about it and watched a few clips online.)

-(*audibly sighs*) FINE. I guess I like Catradora now. Are you happy now, SPOP Crew? ARE YOU?!

-Hooray, Catra’s got a emotional support animal! And they’re a shapeshifting magic alien cat. Those are the best kind!

-Is it weird that I knew that weird glowing stuff on Krytis was just magic all along, or was it just not hidden very well. Anyways, I like Krytis. I like that we got to see a truly alien world with its own form of magic.

-Plus, we got a logical advancement of the magic versus science subtheme with magic being Horde Prime’s weakness! Neato!

-Getting back on the “which is worse?” wagon for a second, I don’t know what feels less right: that Wrong Hordak’s big revelation and his resolution to free himself and his brothers and friends from Horde Prime’s control is played humorously, or that Real Hordak should be the one having this moment.

-That bit with Castaspella and Shadow Weaver where she tells Casta about Etheria being a living thing with inherent magical property, or whatever, while we got a peaceful shot of some boar creatures sleeping was actually kind of nice. It would have been nicer though if it wasn’t part of a power hungry abuser’s obvious scheme. If only there was a kindly old witch lady character who was in touch with nature and knew just what to say when someone was feeling downOH WAIT.

-Furthermore… Why did Shadow Weaver and Castaspella need to have romantic tension?

-Seriously though, where’s our Madame Razz quota this season? Where’s my supportive magic grandma timelord at, yo?

-Yup, they speedran this season.

-I’m actually really disappointed we didn’t see more of an intergalactic new rebellion rising up to fight Horde Prime’s forces across the universe. Especially if it meant we got to see more Star Sibling action!

-Again, I adore Wrong Hordak but I keep wondering what was keeping the crew from just bringing in Original Flavour Hordak. (You know, aside from teasing us Entrapdak fans and trying to distract us with a loveable new character in the meantime.) I mean he could have done the whole infiltrating the clone squads and tricking them bit, too.

-Heck, he could have done the wink, too!

-I’d gleefully point out Loo-Kee’s cameo this season but apparently, they already made some several seasons ago. That’s what I get for not rewatching the 80’s show and training my eyes first.

-(*sees Erelandians*) Are those freaking Toads and Toadettes?

-So, what’s keeping them from just hitting Spinerella’s chip again? Besides emotional baggage and gale force winds, I mean.

-Perfuma coming out of a cave scared out of her wits, demanding to know who’s there, clinging to her friends as soon as they come back, and balling her eyes out is a big, BIG mood.

-Frosta absolutely decking Catra in the face was nestled somewhere between cathartic and excessive.

-Netossa spraying her with a bottle of water on the other hand…

-Oh, so Greyskull was the name of a Rebel Squad! I think. Meh, the important thing is we got an explanation and it still sounds cool.

-Leave it to a couple of dads to make a secret message out of a dad joke.

-You know I made fun of Light Hope for being creepy, but I swear that avatar from the Spire is even creepier. I don’t know if it’s her face—those dang blank eyes, man—or just that it she’s less animated than the real thing, but it just felt… off.

-Aww, Noelle made Netossa’s princess weakness illustrations! So cute!

-Forget episodes that deserves Emmys, Keston John deserves one for voicing Hordak, Horde Prime, all the clones, and several minor villains and giving each and every single one a distinct voice! Where my king’s respect, eh?

-Yes, Catra you had a small disagreement with Hordak. …Over sending his girlfriend and your “friend” to DIE IN A LITERAL LIVING HELL.

-Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

-Why does Perfuma get pressured to get angry and go wild when Entrapta’s the one who’s had it the worst out of all them? Why can’t my gamer girl go berserk, dammit!?

-Okay, but really, how do these fricking chips work??? Are they parasite devices who store Horde Prime’s Baptizing Dew then slowly pump it into their host’s bodies? Do they have their own nervous systems? Are they technorganic? Also, how and why do we need to make these chips are bigger threat then they need to be?

-Horde Prime showing up on Hordak’s throne in grand Killing Joke style and casually throwing shades at his brother’s overblown attempts to impress him is pretty awesome, but it feels strangely underdeveloped. Hordak’s not there to have his hard work insulted and we never got to see Adora have any similar encounter with Hordak here before, so unless you look at it from the perspective of someone who has been here before in the Horde story like Catra it lacks the dramatic weight it should have had.

-Scorpia resisting the chip to save her new friends was pretty great, though.

-I swear, when they got to the scene where Adora and the others figured out that Shadow Weaver was grooming her so she could use her to get to the Heart of Etheria, I was mouthing “You B***H” through the whole thing.

-They really brought back Etherian deep magic just so they had something to make Micah threatening. …okay.

-Okay, the rest of “Failsafe” messed me up, so here’s a rundown on all the other messy thoughts I had while the show ripped my heart and ground it to dog food:

-Entrapta and Hordak reuniting: Yay!

-Swift Wind yanking her away before she can get through to him: Boo.

-Catra encouraging Adora to try and take care of herself for a change: Yay!

-Adora hurts Catra and she runs away: Boo.

-Adora finally calling out Shadow Weaver on what an utterly horrible person she is: Yay!

-Adora resolves to risk sacrificing herself to save the world: Bo—okay, seriously, was all this suffering really necessary, show?

-I know I mentioned in my previous She-Ra random thoughts that I supported Glimmadora, but I am okay with Catradora and Glimbow ending up canon. The only problem I have is how rushed they feel—moreso with Glimbow. With Catradora, the crew had an entire season to make it work again and they took it. Glimbow it feels like they were down to the last few episodes and went, “Oh right, we were gonna do something with these two!” then did their darndest to fit in some chemistry in between all the other stuff going down.

-As ominous as it was, the music where Horde Prime starts hacking Etheria honestly SLAPS.

-Okay, I know everyone is magic or something, but I am legit surprised getting electrocuted in water didn’t kill the heroes right then and there.

-Sea Hawk tries to flirt with his girl even as she’s trying to kill him. Truly, he is a man of taste.

-What do you know, Shadow Weaver can only do good when she’s (canonically!) punch drunk.

-You know a whole lot of this could have been avoided if Holo-Mara was Adora’s mentor instead of Light Hope.

-When I think about it, it was actually really clever to make Horde Prime the final villain for Adora to face: a domineering decadent man who’s been in power forever against a humble emotionally vulnerable compassionate young woman.

-Not to mention the divide between cult-like oppression and progressive freedom. Or something.

-Holy crap, did the First Ones get a great freaking a Great Old One for a guard dog?!

-So, you guys seriously didn’t bring Angella back to reunite with her family OR mention her all season after the impact her death had on everyone all last season until Glimmer needs a power-up at the last possible minute and then you never bring her up again. That is absolutely a dick move in bird culture.

-Entrapta’s hacker sticker gives me life. Gamer girl gremlin princess forever!

-On the one hand, I’m disappointed that Adora and Catra don’t get to have an awesome couple battle against the security monster and win. On the other hand, Shadow Weaver is finally dead. YAY!

-With apologies to the writers and especially Lorraine Toussaint. She did splendidly bringing this character to life and even if I hated Shadow Weaver, I adored the effort she put into making her one of the most emotionally complex villains I’ve ever seen.

-Words cannot, will not, and will never describe the pure joy that I experienced when I first saw Hordak’s big scene: standing up to and disowning his tyrant brother, saving Entrapta, declaring his love to her (albeit in a nicely lowkey fashion), and then throwing Horde Prime to his apparent doom Disney style with Entrapta cheering him with sheer glee. GOSH, it was everything I could have hoped for from this season!

-Now if only they kept the deleted scene where they got a moment to themselves before Prime body-jacked him again like the creepy sonuvabich he is.

-Horde Prime just wouldn’t be a religious villain if he didn’t tell everyone to burn.

-Bonus points for actually trying to burn the frigging planet.

-Aside from the idea of Adora switching to wearing a She-Ra themed dress everywhere in the future, the future vision was really quite sweet, and seeing Prime step in to ruin it made it all the more impactful.

-Can I just say that it’s absolutely wonderful that the show, for all it’s flaws, said “**** senseless heroic sacrifices”?

-BREAKING: Lesbian cat finally makes up with her jock ex, has a canon kiss so pure it saves the world!

-In other news, Catradora fans are still spoiled rotten.

-Wow, look at all those character comebacks they skipped through! Look, there’s the chefs from Dryl, Double Trouble, Huntara, the Horde Trio, Imp, Madame Razz—are you kidding me?!

-Grumbling aside, I actually find the idea of the Horde Trio and Imp getting involved in a G-rated science-fantasy version of the first Hangover movie quite amusing.

-Oh dang, they pulled a Castle in the Sky with the Velvet Glove!

-As nice as it was to see Aodra save Hordak from Horde Prime and destroy the latter through exorcism via sheer compassion, I’m rather disappointed we never got to see She-Ra go full Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengence on any creepy old cult leaders.

-Yeah, it would have gone against the “love conquers all” set up, but love takes on many forms, does it not? So, why can it not manifest as cleaving your mortal enemies with extreme prejudice to save your loved ones?

-Furthermore, in addition to Holo-Mara being a better mentor, Hordak raising Adora instead Shadow Weaver could have prevented a lot of similar problems. Maybe. Possibly.

-Eh whatever, he has a lifetime’s worth of fanfiction to make up for it.

-ENTRAPDAK IS CANON, ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

-And so is Catradora and Glimbow! That’s nice, too.

-Aww, how sweet of them to skip through Catra and Scorpia, and Glimmer and Micah’s big reunions! It’s not like we’ve been waiting forever for this stuff or anything. HahahahAHAHAHDHAHAHFHAFHKSADJHFKAJHDfine.

-And so it all ends with everyone either friends, in love, or both, as heroes decide to make up for it all with a grandiose sequel promising more exciting space adventures we probably won’t see! HOORAY!

-All snarky ranting aside, I actually really enjoyed the finale. It was exciting, heartwarming, and above all it ended on happy, hopeful note without leaving too many frustrating questions unanswered. (*glares with utmost contempt at Voltron and Star vs. The Forces of Evil*)

-You know, this wasn’t bad for a final season, but I think this might have worked better as two seasons. Not in Netflix’s cheap “split a regular 13-episode season in two 6-7 episode long seasons” strategy, but I mean two full seasons with their own storylines leading up to the grand finale:

-First, one that starts out with Horde Prime’s arrival the downfall of Etheria, focuses on the space adventures, ends with their return to Etheria and gives the characters time to recuperate from season 4.

-Then, we have one final season that focuses on the Best Friend Squad’s Return to Etheria, Horde Prime’s plan, gives everyone more time to properly reconcile before ¾ of the entire cast gets chipped, sets up a new Rebellion made up of Princess Alliance and former Etherian Horde members, maybe even set up a proper Hordak redemption arc or something, and then our big happy ending.

-On a mostly unrelated note, I also feel that the whole show could have turned out even better if it had been either a dedicated science-fantasy war drama with some levity (like the good Star Wars shows or Avatar: The Last Airbender) or a lighthearted yet empowering slice-of-life action-adventure romcom (i.e. basically a well-made remake of the original show in the style of Adventure Time and Parks and Rec or something).

-My final random thought for this whole thing: we really could have used a triumphant end credits song or something. Aside from obviously recommending Fabulous Secret Powers, I would have also recommended the original 4 Non Blondes “What’s Going On,” a reprise of “Warriors,” Gorillaz’s “We Got the Power,” or (my favourite) Talking Head’s “(Nothing But) Flowers” since the ending scenes remind me of it.

Thanks again to the crew for giving me something to live for and/or complain about!

Now, let’s hope the He-Man reboots do as well...

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krizaland · 5 years ago

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Defying Gravity Chapter 7

First Chapter Previous

Alrighty! I’ve finally conquered my writer’s block and I bring you chapter 7! Thank you all so much for your patience and support! I love you all so much!

Be warned: There’s angst ahead! Have some tissues on standby!

Here’s the song I used btw

Meanwhile, Purple finally ran out of donuts to feed you and was tenderly petting the top of your head.

You shuddered at his touch as you tried to hide your discomfort. You hated being in the arms of an evil alien overlord. One wrong move, and you could be killed! Or worse:

Zim could be killed.

It didn’t take long for Purple to notice your discomfort.

“Cutiepie, what’s wrong? Why do you seem all….gloomy?” Purple asked as he continued to pet you.

“Oh it’s nothing…”You lied as you tried to sound happy.

“Aww, you can tell me anything, Cutiepie! What’s wrong?” Purple pressed.

“Well.. I’m just a little…sleepy is all.” You hoped that Purple would believe your lie.

“Sleepy? Why didn’t you say so? Come on, let me take you to my quarters! You’ll rest a lot better there then in Big bad, Red’s quarters.”

And with that, Purple carried you off to his quarters. All you could do was hope that once he brought you to his quarters that he would leave you alone.

“Here we are~ I even bought you a little bed right here!” Purple sang as he plopped you down into a super fluffy purple pet bed.

PAF!

You let out a squeak as you poked your head out of the endless sea of lavender fluff.

“Aww! You look so cute! I knew you’d like it!” Purple giggled as he clapped his hands.

“Yes…It’s very soft,” You admitted as you let out a fake yawn, “Thank you, Almighty Tallest.”

You tried not to vomit as the last words escaped your lips.

“Oh please, call me Purple!” Purple giggled as hi PAK sparked a bit.

“Ok, thank you, Purple…” You let out another fake yawn as you pretended to fall asleep.

“I’m so glad you picked me, Cutiepie! We’re gonna have so much fun together!” Purple whispered as he kissed the top of your head.

You tried to hold back a shudder as you tried to ignore the kiss.

PING!

Purple jumped a bit as Red made his way into his chambers.

“Hey! You know you’re interrupting a very important-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, look, can I talk to you…Outside?” Red grumbled as he put his hands on his hips.

“If this is about Cutiepie, you can’t have them! They already chose me! So just leave us alone! Cutiepie is trying to sleep!” Purple huffed as he folded his arms.

“First off, their name is Y/N. Second, how are they supposed to sleep when you’re screaming?” Red lowered his voice as he spoke.

“Cutiepie is my pet, therefore I get to pick their name!” Purple pouted.

A growl rumbled in Red’s throat as his ruby eyes narrowed.

Purple swallowed hard as pink sweat dripped down his face.

“Outside. Now.” Red commanded.

And with that, Purple reluctantly followed Red outside.

PING!

You let out a sigh of relief as you slowly sat up.

If there was one thing that scared you more that Purple’s pets, it was Red’s rage.

You almost felt bad for Purple as the sound of muffled arguing echoed from behind the door.

You took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.

Staying calm grew more and more difficult as you found yourself missing Zim again.

You found yourself wishing for a way to see him again. Even if it was just for a little while!

In that moment, you remembered your communicator bracelet!

You looked down at your wrist and sure enough, the bracelet was still there! What luck!

After making sure the Tallest were still preoccupied with their argument, you turned on the communicator and called Zim.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Zim let out a gasp as he felt his own communicator go off.

“Eh?! Y/N?!” Zim’s eyes lit up, “Excuse me, I have to take this!”

And with that, Zim ran off and answered your call.

“My human?! Is that you?! Is that really you?!” Zim squealed as your face appeared onto the screen.

“Yes, it’s really me! Oh Zim, I’ve been missing you so much!” A few tears trickled down your cheeks.

“My human!!! It is you!! Oh thank god you’re alright! Zim misses you too! You look even more beautiful then I remembered.” Zim sniffled as he struggled to dry his own tears.

“Don’t worry! I’m fine! A little shaken, but fine. Hey, what’s with the armor?” You asked nervously.

“Zim is coming to rescue you from the FILTHY TALLEST! I had to suit up and stuff!” Zim explained with a smile.

“WHAT?! Zim are you crazy?! They’ll kill you! Please stay back on Urth! I don’t want to lose you!” You pleaded.

“You won’t lose Zim! I have acquired the help of the Resisty! Oh and the Dib-Monkey. He wouldn’t stop bugging me.” Zim admitted.

“Dib’s there too?! Oh god! Please go back home! I don’t want anything bad to happen to either of you!” More tears fell from your eyes.

“Fear not, My Human! Zim shall rescue you! I promise to ensure that everyone will live!” Zim vowed dramatically.

“Zim please-”

“Nuh-uh! Stop trying to talk me out of it! I am coming to rescue you whether the FLITHY TALLEST like it or not!” Zim interjected.

“Zim, please! I can risk losing you! Just go home!” You pleaded.

“Eh?! Do you still not have faith in Zim?!” Zim snapped.

“No! I always have faith in you! It’s just…I’m worried about you!” You explained.

“My human, you have nothing to be worried about! Zim would do anything for you!” Zim insisted.

“But-”

“Anything.”

You let out a sigh as more tears poured down your cheeks.

“Hey, look at me.” Zim’s voice softened.

You slowly looked up and tried your tears.

“You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide. I know you want me. So don’t keep saying our hands are tied.” Zim sang as he gazed deep into your eyes.

“You claim it’s not in the cards, fate is pulling you miles away and out of reach from me! But you’re here in my mind! So who can stop me if I decide that you’re my destiny?” Zim’s voice grew louder as the song continued.

You let out a soft gasp as Zim became more dramatic.

“What if we rewrite the stars? Say you were made to be mine? Nothing could keep us apart! You’d be the one I was meant to find! It’s up to you! And it’s up to me! No one can say what we get to be! So why don’t we rewrite the stars? Maybe the world could be ours? Tonight..”

You let out a chuckle as you playfully shook your head.

“You think it’s easy. You think that I don’t want to run to you. But there are mountains. And there are doors that we can’t walk through.”

“I know you’re wondering why because we’re able to be just you and me within these walls. But when we go outside, you’re gonna wake up and see that it was hopeless after all…” You sat up straighter as you held back more tears.

“No one can rewrite the stars! How can you say you’ll be mine? Everything keeps us apart! And I’m not the one you were meant to find! It’s not up to you! It’s not up to me!When everyone tells us what we can be! How can we rewrite the stars? Say that the world can be ours, tonight?” Your voice was passionate as you rose to your feet.

Zim’s eyes were glued to yours as tears streamed down his cheeks as well.

“All I want is to fly with you! All I want is to fall with you! So just give me all of you!” You and Zim’s voices oozed desperation.

“It feels impossible!” You sang as your eyes squeezed shut.

“It’s not impossible!” Zim countered.

“Is it impossible?” You asked as you opened your eyes.

“Say that it’s possible!” You and Zim sang in unison as your hands dragged down the screen.

“How do we rewrite the stars? Say you were made to be mine? Nothing can keep us apart! Cause you are the one I was meant to find! It’s up to you! And It’s up to me! No one can say what we get to be! Why don’t we rewrite the stars?! Changing the world to be ours?” You and Zim’s voices melted together as your souls aligned for a moment.

PING!

You let out a gasp as the door opened.

“I’m sorry…” Was all you could whisper as you cut the call.

“Wait! My human! NOOO!!! MY HUMAN! MY HUMAN!!!!” Zim wailed as he shook his communicator.

“You know I want you… It’s not a secret I try to hide. But I can’t have you. We’re bound to break and my hands are tied…..”

#Invader Zim #Invader Zim x reader #Invader zim tallest #invader zim red #invader zim purple #Defying gravity invader zim

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ohifonlyx33 · 6 years ago

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current mood: i can’t believe ppl ever said marvel characters in movies and shows are “too light and happy”

all peter parker does is loose uncle ben an have an kinda awful life

gwen stacy (technically sony shhhh i know) dies in the most tragical third act of my entire life tied with infinity war

wanda maximoff had to kill the love of her life in a fight for, well infinity, i guess. and still wafted away knowing she failed.

tony stark got kidnapped by terrorists, and now is terrified of loosing everyone he loves... naturally, he also has to see his protege son boy die in his arms

steve rogers... lost like 80 years of time while being frozen in the ocean and the people he knew, including love-of-his-life, peggy

bruce banner just has a terrible life

stephen strange had a horrible career-ending accident

thor lost his mother and father, an evil sister (he never knew), a mostly amoral brother he loved, his favorite hammer, his homeworld, his friends, and many (maybe all?) of his people.

drax lost his whole family

we are groot

peter quill lost his mother and got abducted by aliens like 2 minutes later, grew up with mean kree, killed his planet-dad, almost killed gamora, then found out she died anyway at the hands of her adopted father

btw gamora was stolen from her home planet as a child and trained to be an assassin when thanos decided to kill the rest of the population before he later decided to kill her

(speaking of “child assassin“ ...natasha romanoff whose records also went public btw)

then also nebula had her body parts replaced with machine parts every time her sister gamora beat her in combat. thanks thanos.

kinda like how mike peterson was caught in an explosion and given a cybernetic eye and a cyborg body, then had his son held as blackmail to make him do hydra’s dirty work as deathlok.

or how kinda how bucky was brainwashed and given a metal arm and told to kill people (and tony’s parents).

and agent 33 was brainwashed

so was daisy johnson... by a creature who looked like a boy she used to like until she found out he was a hydra traitor, daisy johnson who was thought to be an orphan, but found her family only to find out they were both crazy and kinda murdery. then she was given terrifying powers that she couldn’t control, lost a friend because of them, lost a boyfriend, was forcibly operated on by her bff, and now her other father figure is currently presumed to die permanently.

coulson has been dead, had his memories messed with, had his hand cut off, watched his girlfriend bleed out in front of him, and suffered from fatal heart failure

melinda may had to kill a little girl in bahrain, had to shot her husband and watch him turn into a monsterous killer. was kidnapped and replaced by a robot. fell in love with her best-friend, who was dying

fitzsimmons... hahahahahahahahahaha don’t even get me started. have they ever been purely happy more than twice since they officially became a couple?

has fitz EVER been happy since he was a child and his father abandoned him? or since that time he had brain damage??? or maybe it was the time he was forcibly plugged into a VR he helped create and had his whole identity reprogrammed. or how bout the psychic split he had after six months in solitary confinement with a dark voice in his head, which caused him to operate on his best friend, while trying to save the world... and then later when a ceiling FELL on HIM....

jemma simmons? had to cope with so much ptsd and go undercover at hydra. was stranded on a dessert planet??? ALONE. FOR SIX MONTHS. was sent to the future, without fitz, where she was deafened and enslaved by an alien overlord? returned to the present only to watch her husband losing his mind. had to be told her husband was dead... and now she has to go into space to find the fitz who was frozen in space on his way to the future.

mack lost his daughter hope.... twice. and had to watch his girlfriend die.

elena “yo-yo” rodriguez lost a cousin, and also both of her arms... after seeing a grim future for herself that would end in her own death.

matt murdock is just a hot, blind ninja catholic mess

jessica jones is a hot mess too... because a psycho rapist had control over her mind and body so she drinks too much

you know what, it’s too much to think about all the dark stuff in the netflix shows and you already know netflix is dark

then there’s tyrone johnson (no relation to daisy), who lost his brother to cop violence

and tandy bowen who lost her father to a corporation accident. feel free to add more... i didn’t even go into villains or all the smaller characters so.....

and now... a list of characters who haven’t suffered:

galaga man in avengers

the nova corp officers in gotg

maybe wong??

the tree and the puppy dog that deke encountered in that one episode

darcy lewis and her intern, i guess

luis from ant-man

#mcu #marvel #aos #fitzsimmons #daisy johnson

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lovelyirony · 7 years ago

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It Depends on Your Outlook on Life

Tony Stark didn’t think he would be the type to be an evil overlord who demanded everyone bow to him. It just wasn’t in his plan for life. But then things kind of got screwed up. And He Really Didn’t Think This Thing Through. Because now he has Rhodey as his right-hand man and they’re gonna break into the government and steal government secrets and sell them to Ukraine. Tony likes borscht soup, and that’s what he’s getting paid in. (Rhodey’s gonna cry, but whatevs.)

He came into power after Afghanistan. He was in the desert for three months, and then government demanded that he bring back weapons. Tony said no. They didn’t exactly like listening. They sold more of his weapons, tore the contracts apart until Tony had a legal obligation to create weapons for twenty more years than the contract stated. But hey, who is going to argue against the government?

Tony effing Stark. He could do it. He went to college at fifteen and read more than enough Wikipedia articles to know that he could screw over the government anytime he wanted to. (After all, he ran the biggest corporation. People were reliant on him, and he knew it.)

So Tony kept on working. He released new weapons; most of the time, they worked. But Tony ran it. He made sure they went where they were supposed to go. Tony was so thorough that the government was trying to drop him. Tony let them, and became a reclusive bachelor who only stepped outside to water his plants and sunbathe on the roof. (No way was he going to the beach with all that water.)

The people viewed him as a man who manipulated the government into releasing him to just live alone, not providing anything for the American people. (If they looked at some of the logos, there would be a remarkable similarity to the SI logo.)

And then, Tony committed a crime.

This wasn’t unusual for Tony. He committed a lot of crimes. He littered once because someone handed him a cup of coffee and he told them not to do that because holdingisbad and he also lazily hacked into the government on a slow Sunday. He did not get caught for any of these things.

SHIELD has computer whizzes. These people live and breathe computers, and they study every aspect of Stark technology. They memorize it, adapt to it, and make it better. Well, as better as they think it is. Tony thinks that it’s cute, that their attempts are just updating it slightly.

So he gets caught for hacking into their system. Because they’re so obsessed with their computers that they noticed the tech genius of the era hacking. (He was a little impressed and totally going to offer better healthcare plans for them to work for SI.)

Except they don’t. Because SHIELD unlawfully labels him as a threat. Which is really not true, by the way. Sure, he has a suit made of iron that he uses on occasion, and the suit is so far ahead of other advancements that it would make Einstein cry, but it’s whatevs. SHIELD thinks that he’s a terrorist because he’s looking into files about himself to make sure that they aren’t selling or buying his weaponry. Because SHIELD would probably do that.

So then, the government thinks that he’s a bad man. And then the public thinks he’s a bad man. And then Pepper calls him and asks if she has to continue working for a villain and Tony cries.

(Not reallyhedidnotcryPepperisalyingliarwholies.)

Rhodey, at least, sticks with him. They can’t legally discharge Rhodey because there’s nothing on Rhodey or Tony that technically proves that they’re villains, but the military has discharged a man for less. Rhodey doesn’t mind. He starts working on engineering projects at SI and vehemently argues against people who think that Tony Stark murdered Oprah or something.

Tony actually does become a villain in the process of proving his innocence. Rhodey usually doesn’t do the Stupid Thing. It is Tony who carries out the Stupid Thing and Rhodey makes sure that the Stupid Thing actually works. But not this time. Tony has to make sure that the Stupid Thing actually works. Because Rhodey is planning on breaking into the government a-la-Watergate and steal documents. Only it’s not as bad because he’s not trying to learn where the CIA is hiding top secret people or aliens. He’s just trying to see if they’re close to pinning evidence on Tony.

(Newsflash: they aren’t.)

But Rhodey and Tony don’t know that, and SHIELD somehow found out. So they’re after their asses, and it’s basically just a huge crockpot of mutual friendship and shit.

They send Hawkeye first. So far, Tony has read two things about Agent Barton: 1.) He’s not good at following orders. 2.) That man came into work late because he wanted pizza. Tony kind of wants to be friends. But, a third thing that he learned: Clinton Francis Barton Has Excellent Aim. Better than some of Tony’s aiming mechanisms.

So he gets an arrow to the right leg, and that hurts like hell. Rhodey is already after Clint, muttering that he’s always hated when birds get on his windshield or whatever. (Tony doesn’t get all of Rhodey’s one-liners, but he’s more focused on making sure the paper about Rhodey’s identity doesn’t get out of his file.)

They try to send Black Widow, but Tony straight-up Nopes out of that situation and decides to take a vacation to a private island that he flies to by himself and that technically doesn’t exist. Rhodey points out that this could be his supervillain hideout place, and Tony would agree except the energy it takes to get out there is exhausting, and Tony is not about that life.

So, Natasha Romanoff doesn’t exactly fail. She finds the location of the island, which should be impossible and rallies some agents to get on a huge plane and fly out there. But Tony also considers this and ends up in Bangladesh. He visits an old science teacher that he met about fifteen years ago, and learns more about particle separation than he thought he would. That was nice.

So SHIELD keeps on trying. They send diplomats, warp minds, and Tony kind of keeps committing crimes like flying without a pilot’s license and stealing their best copier. In his defense, Tony honestly didn’t know it was illegal to fly his own suit without a pilot’s license, but it makes sense.

Well then they get a little superhero from the ice, and his buddy. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are dug up from the ice, perfectly fine. (Well, Bucky has no left arm, so Tony anonymously sends a schematic for an advanced metal arm. SHIELD uses it.)

Steve and Bucky are led to believe that Tony is a villain. By the way, only Americans and the Brits think that Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is a villain. This is because SHIELD, in general, sucks, and Tony is pretty sure there’s a snake infestation in there somewhere. Other countries have had Iron Man lend funding to their countries after storm damages or when they are in desperate need of funding for education. Tony also builds orphanages and visits to hold babies. (BY THE WAY THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING SO SUCK IT.)

Captain America and newly proclaimed “Winter Soldier” (what a lame-o name) are after Iron Man. Steve has proclaimed that he will get the villain and save the American Way or whatever. Tony wasn’t listening, Rhodey paraphrased. (Rhodey’s the best.)

Well, Iron Man is in Iran helping a medical clinic get off the ground, and there flies in the standard SHIELD jet. (Tony could’ve made them a new jet if they’d just stop the accusations. Of course, he’d name it something better--probably a helicarrier because he could say “how much does it carry? Hella.” and it would be funny. Clint would laugh. They’d be friends.)

“Iron Man,” Captain America calls. “We’ve come to stop you.”

“Stop me from establishing a prominent medical clinic?” Tony asks. He holds his hands up, looking at the crowd. They aren’t like the U.S. They can’t sustain millions of dollars of damage and be okay. “Run.” The villagers flee, screaming in terror.

“Yeah, a medical clinic,” Bucky--Winter Soldier--snorts. “Sounds like they’re excited to see you, Metal Boy.”

“I know damn well you know I’m over thirty,” Tony snaps. “And they’re not screaming at me; believe it or not, Captain America and Winter Soldier aren’t as big of idols here. They know me, they don’t know you.”

“You think you’re innocent?” Winter Soldier asks.

“Uh, yeah?” Tony says. “I’m wearing red and gold right now, probably not the best nonthreatening colors, but let me tell you, it’s better than wearing all black and painting a red star on the arm like I’m Stalin.”

His eyebrows raise in confusion. “What?”

“Oh, I forgot. You didn’t live through the Cold War. Brief yourselves on it, it’ll do you wonders.” Winter Soldier nods, then winces. Tony almost laughs.

The Freedom Frisbee whizzes out of nowhere, pushing Tony back a couple feet. The throw of the shield must mean that Rogers is crazy strong and Tony wonders just how much he’s held back over the years and--wait, no, he has to fight.

Tony keeps it minimal. He’s not doing any lasting hits. Just a few beams to move the two into an isolated spot. He waits until they think they’ve cornered him.

“Do you want to know the best thing about owning your own flight suit?” Tony asks. “The rocket boots.”

Before Cap has the time to say a Bad Language Word, Tony is jetting off. He’s kind of nervous that he just fought his childhood idols and lived, and that they’re after him because they think he’s an American bad guy, but whatever.

Steve and Bucky come back confused. Tony Stark--Iron Man--didn’t seem like a villain. After the fight, they both analyzed the scene. The villagers were terrified of them, and there were small decorations of Iron Man in the shops. Iron Man had the full potential to devastate the two of them at least a dozen times; yet, he didn’t take the opportunity.

SHIELD was even murkier for the two of them. They share their suspicions with a doctor named Bruce Banner, who is on contract at SHIELD for turning into a huge rage monster at convenient times and also helping with scientific breakthroughs. (Bucky thinks that that man is the Bitterest Man He’s Met and believe Bucky, He Has Met Himself.)

“Nah, Tony isn’t a villain,” Bruce says. “We’ve talked a couple of times.”

“You’ve talked with the guy?” Steve asks. “And you didn’t think SHIELD should know about this?”

“They didn’t tell me that they had a containment control center for Hulk in case I got too out of control for them, but that’s another story,” Bruce says. (He Is Very Salty.) “Besides, we haven’t gotten you guys up to date on all the scandals within the government and cover-ups that you guys could only dream of.”

Bucky is convinced the moon landing is faked.

(Natasha laughs so hard she cries.)

Steve and Bucky conduct further research. SHIELD isn’t as it should be, and Director Fury knows it. He hasn’t been the one to order the hits on Stark, it’s been a higher-up. Alexander Pierce.

Tony is happy that no SHIELD personnel have been bothering him. This means that he got to do ALL of his laundry this week. That’s very important, because Tony has been missing his favorite science pun shirt. He should text a picture to Bruce.

Natasha succeeds fully. She breaks into Stark Tower with no detection, along with Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, and they picked up a god along the way. (Lmao who knows how Thor got there? Jane Foster was trying to get him away from SHIELD and called Bruce. Don’t worry about it.)

“So we know you’re not a big, bad villain,” Natasha says. “We want in.”

“What the collective fuck,” Rhodey swears. “What...how...when did you get in?”

“Ten minutes ago,” Clint says. “It would have been fifteen, but I cried about a dog along the way and Thor had to stop to carry me.”

“You are a very emotional man!” Thor declares. “I am Thor, crowned prince of Asgard and--”

“Okay,” Rhodey says quickly. “Well, uh, Tony should be up in about...ten minutes? Let Jarvis call him. J, you know what to do.”

Tony comes up. He flails and drops his nano ball. It gets on Bucky’s hand. Bucky flails back and nearly falls out a window. (Jarvis gets it on video.)

The Avengers form, their own organization. They make rules according to the whole team, because screw team leaders. Steve eventually brings in Sam Wilson, who is an absolute gem and has a sick flying jetpack thing. (”It’s not a ‘jetpack thing’ you ass,” Sam tells Bucky. “It’s a highly innovative flight pack.” Bucky snorts. “Looks like a jetpack, I’m callin’ it whatever the hell I want,” he snarks.)

The team is strong, communicative, and watches Too Cute! religiously. They’re a great team.

@the-flightoficarus you mentioned you liked any story about villain!Tony so I got inspired. Thanks for the random inspiration.

#i'm collectively ignoring every marvel movie for this #give me liberty or give me death #essentially a villain-oops-my-bad-not-a-villain story #tony stark #steve rogers #natasha romanoff #clint barton the disaster child #bruce banner #listen bruce is salty as fuck #thor #bucky barnes #SHIELD

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handsome-edd · 7 years ago

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long “rant” abt the characterisation of a few ew people under the cut

so let this be clear, this is heavily opinion based

also, context : i am someone who likes characters with big "action drives" and strong personal motivations, that run a story. so my likes are based on that, and also "is it smart design" basic stuff

let's start with the main character, edd i like him, i really do for a main character he's surprisingly chaotic neutral/almost evil. no morals whatsoever marked anywhere in the show aside from "what inconveniences me", really, he's just someone who does whatever he wants whenever he wants, let it be good things or bad things, as long as it kills boredom. this is /really/ surprising, coming from a character who at first glance falls in "frankly average looking protag". these guys tend to be lawful neutral/almost good, which says a lot. he's a real flip of the archetype he is based on, and one that is a really strong driving force behind the nonexistent plot of eddsworld : he's the one who starts most of the bullshit going on, really. it's a simple characterisation, but it's uncommon, and still enough to build mountains of stories on. so yeah I really like him

now let's jump to tord cause it's when related to edd that he becomes interesting. if you kept up with the entirety of eddsworld, tord kinda went from the more silent character of the group of protags that was normal aside from how he liked guns and hentai, to tankie overlord. yeah, whatever. he just went chaotic evil. but just a second- compare him to edd. he's just a guy who does whatever he wants whenever he wants, with no morals aside from "what inconveniences me". point being, where he's interesting is that he's an antagonist that is... pretty much the same as the protag. only difference is how they "kill their boredom", aka what goals they put to themself. tord decided on world domination which is a wee crazy but, you get me, and edd’s whatever he wants today. after in themselves the concepts behind tord’s character aren’t very interesting honestly, very stereotypical, but still huge story drivers. so-so score for him. doesn’t help that most of his leader character is just mentioned and pure “up to fanon”. and sadly that results into fanon building with stereotypical and not very explored tropes most of the time

now this wouldnt qualify as a rant if i didnt do some plain just hate now, right ? okay, here comes the most boring character of eddsworld. tom. yeah you read that correctly okay so let's see... tropes here just to agitate the viewers such as weird eyes with no explanation or the curses/monster transformation and yadda yadda that result into a boring, stereotypical fanon ? check. implied to be the smartest of the group yet never is seen in canon doing anything with said brain ? check. kinda the anti-hero of the group, a classification useless when all the protags are already not good nor lawful aligned ? check. dramatic past that haunts him yet it doesn't seem to give him any drive in the story whatsoever ? check. angry drunk stereotype completly left unexplored ? check. that last one actually is what pisses me off the most. as much as irl tom is a guy who got serious depression issues and such, canon tom... eh. idk, he feels like he does it out of boredom or something, like its not from a drive but from a /lack/ of drive. he's not even a "sad" depressed drunk and so with a coping drive, he just feels like a "I let myself live with no attempt at control" character and imo his drinking is exactly that. edd, tord and eduardo (ill talk abt him next) all do random things but put their control at the service of said random things and live rather than let themselves live. tom is a character who just... can't even do that. he kinda feels like the kind of character who'd lie in a couch all day if edd wasn't here to become bored and drag him into things or tord wasn't here to press at his buttons for fun. and honestly ? i dont see how someone can build a story with that. there's nothing. he's fucking empty. the only times he moves is when his ability to do nothing is threatened or when he's dragged in by everyone's energy. so yeah tom's boring and I don't get how people write fanfictions entirely made of him being pissed by tord, who himself becomes bland when put in that context. oh wait i forgot, fanon turns him into sad drunk (and can't even pull it off).

anyway.... tom has 0 drive right ? but you know who's my fav ? eduardo. cause that guy got a drive that's absolute bullshit. his sole fucking reason for everything he does from renovating his house to mowing the lawn to destroying entire factories or getting alien satelite dishes and even breathing seems to be centered around spiting edd. it's. the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. he's a guy with an endless motivation for beating edd that comes of literally nowhere other than a years old grudge and that he never questionned despite his obvious capacity at planning and doing actually smart things. he never rests and is always doing things, perhaps even more than edd who just does stuff to beat boredom- eduardo moves cause he has to move. all the time. always. he has a goal and he's constantly working on it. and it's pure utter bullshit. i love him. point being, the "baddie who is obsessed with the main character" trope is something he pulls off perfectly- it's hillarious, it's endearing, and it really powers the story. AND it gives you the yummy kismesis fanon stuff which always makes for pretty wild fanfictions, tho this fandom kinda isn't quiiiite good at pulling it off. (note : i strongly belive that tom and tord do not care enough about each other to result into an actual kismesisitude. edd and eduardo make a point of their day to concentrate precisely on each other and see each other as humans, equals(eduardo would not bother with edd if he really saw him as an inferior), and enemies. with tom and tord, you don’t have that. tord is just an inconvenience between many in tom's life, and tom is just a toy between many in tord's life. both just happen to be humans rather than events or items.)

anyway i wanted to compare eduardo to tom but now that that's done, i can talk bout matt, who is surprisingly interesting too ! it's hard to tell what his drives are, other than "worship myself", but it's funny cause well. that narcissist trope. it's honest to god the first time i see it pulled that way. a narcissist character... who does not hate on any other character, nor takes down other people for the sake of his own beauty. it's what always stunned me about him. they made a character with an immense self love, but absolutely void of any need to take down other people so to show how "superior" he is. it baffled me. this is a completely unexpected deformation of the trope that I legitimately applaud, honestly, even if indeed it is true that matt isn't so much of a story driver, other than how he is very much playful which gets him in situations. point being : matt is fucking underrated

welp, i think i kinda ran out of characters i could properly talk about. jon's just the guy who's kinda cute and who follows his group leaders and has no idea what he's doing so capacity at doing things for a story depends of the group leader, and mark's just too quiet in canon to really say anything about so I can't really continue this post.

#eddsworld #ew edd #ew tord #ew tom #ew matt #ew eduardo #boi

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mentacose-archive · 8 years ago

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kidge headcanons

hi there nerds and peeps alike.... i haven’t been contributing enough to my fave voltron ship. i do have a few wip kidge fics but that’s all they are for the time being. works in progress so please take these headcanons meanwhile

pidge and keith are the ultimate discovery couple.

like, we’ve all basically established that they are super into conspiracy theories and cryptids and aliens right??? well, ever since joining voltron, their outer space dreams have been more than fulfilled. aliens are real, what more could they ask for?? yeah, they’re fighting a war, and it’s super hard and mentally and physically draining, but there are countless alien worlds out there. and while they may not have the time to explore them all now, they definitely plan to in the future.

sleeping schedules are a nonexistent concept to them

something we’ve already established, yeah, but consider-- pidge staying up late, working on a project. keith walking in and telling her that it’s late. pidge retorting that he’s the one to talk-- it’s not like he sleeps anyway. keith telling her that once she goes to sleep, he will go to sleep. pidge 100% taking up the challenge. “i’ll go to sleep when you do.” “no you.” “no you”

so it’s basically a contest of who can stay up the longest. great job keith you totally deviated from your purpose in the first place

so they go round and round in a never ending circle until some outside force interrupts the cycle (ahem shiro), or one of them straight up passes out.

study sessions. oh man, study sessions

keith finding pidge in distress about the fact that, since they’re so far away from earth and fighting an evil alien overlord, their brains are slowly turning to mush. like, they’re gonna be pretty uneducated once they return to earth. yea, they’ll be physically very fit and strategically developed, as well as having gained very good teamwork skills, but what are they actually gonna do once they got back?

plus, she kinda misses studying

queue days where she and keith kinda. sit down with a menagerie of space snacks and teach each other stuff. pidge teaches keith about technology, a subject he can easily get into because she’s so dang enthusiastic about it.

keith discussing with pidge different combat strategies and getting her more familiar with piloting techniques that she couldn’t quite nail down while at the garrison

coran actually finds himself finding all the books he can about any subject he comes across and giving it to these two cause they really love learning together !!! it warms his heart to see these two earthlings so excited about knowledge.

keith and pidge slowly learning to trust each other with their feelings. to become the other’s rock and comfort in the time of need. to be a shoulder to cry on.

keith can’t ignore the times he sees pidge holed up in her room, pretending to be working on coding when she’s actually trying so hard to keep in her tears. she misses her family, and he knows that. he knows that all too well

eventually he gathers the courage to walk in and just. stand by her. let her acknowledge his presence or ignore him.

and after some time, she just. pulls him into a hug. and from there letting her feelings out to him gets easier and easier

as for keith, he doesn’t usually cry when his frustration and sadness builds up. he forces the feelings out through exercise, or by standing off by himself, waiting for it all to dissipate away.

pidge learns to recognize when he’s feeling terrible. and, like he did for her, she approaches him but says nothing, letting him decide if he wants to talk or not

they’re both so in tune to each other’s feelings. they’re the arms of voltron, they gotta get in each other’s heads. they know when the other is feeling really down. and they quickly learn exactly how to make the other feel better when that happens.

falling asleep on/ next to each other

whether it be reading a book, holding a study session, or watching movies pidge managed to find on her laptop, keith and pidge sometimes fall asleep next to each other.

sometimes pidge will totally be leaning all her weight on keith. her head’s slumped on his shoulder, her arm’s splayed across his knee, and she’s out cold. keith is trapped. he has no choice but to snooze in that position because pidge is a cat. once she falls asleep on you, there’s no getting up.

sometimes keith uses pidge as a pillow. she’ll be working on coding when he stumbles in, completely worn out from training. he’ll flop next to pidge, resting his head on her head/ shoulder. they’ll engage in small talk, but inevitably keith dozes off. he’s tired. and pidge silently suffers cause teenage guys are heavy. but, deep inside, she doesn’t mind. at all

pfffffft imagine how flustered they’d be once they woke up. the first few times their faces are brick red and they’re stammering like crazy.

imagine the day pidge and keith finally decide to admit their feelings to one another

of course, it’s gonna be awkward. they’re gonna be nervous. but i can kind of see pidge just going, “hey keith. i’m pretty sure i have a crush on you,” one day. this would probably be when she realizes that , with the way she and keith have been acting for so long, that it’s way past obvious they like each other. so it’s better to address it now than let the charade of “we’re just friends” continue.

keith would be caught off guard poor guy. but he wouldn’t be able to lie his way out of it either

so now they’ve admitted it. they like each other. time to act like they’re in a relationship then

queue the random hugs and kisses

not right away, though. after they’ve been officially together for a while. at some point, pidge gets into the habit of giving keith quick side hugs. she’ll high five him and embrace him in the hallway. when she’s super duper excited, she’ll crush the air out of him. when she’s sad and in need of snuggles, she’ll shuffle over to him and burrow underneath his arms, clinging to him in a hug.

keith is 100% on board with this. while he’s not the biggest hugger in the universe, he can’t deny that he absolutely loves being hugged by other people. a little sun of pure delight will flare up in his chest whenever pidge wraps her arms around him and squeezes tight.

and what’s a kidge relationship without constant sass, inside jokes, and endless roasts??

“keith-i-love-borrowing-pidge’s-stuff-when-she’s-not-looking-kogane”

“pidge, i’m gonna have to confiscate your caffeine before. y’know. you die.”

pidge splaying her entire body on the couch in the lounge “finders keepers keith. looks like you’re out of luck.”

keith straight up picking her up and setting her to the side. “too bad you’re the size of a stuffed bear, pidge.”

#voltron #keith #pidge #kidge #otp mistletoe #raises hands #backs away #most of this is lame by #but !!! here you go guys #im out

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tessatechaitea · 8 years ago

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Doom Patrol #3

I often read with the light in my eyes instead of on the book.

I will forever miss Crazy Jane. All of these new perky young manic pixie girls that comic book companies portray as "women" can't hold a candle to her.

Hopefully the new Batwoman comic book will maintain Batwoman as an actual adult woman who doesn't have to be uniquely cute and peppy to attract an audience. I want to read about adult women sometimes too! I mean, don't get me wrong! I still want a lot of stories about Maps! Although I did drop Superwomans so maybe I'm lying to myself about what I really want (and, yes, I meant to pluralize that. Just look at the cover!). I just wanted to point that out before somebody else pointed that out because I know I dropped that title because I was bored of the writing. Just like Green Lanterns which also featured an adult woman. Sure, she was developmentally arrested but still more of an adult than say Burnside Batgirl. You know, I also dropped Batgirl and Batgirl and the Birds of Prey! And Aquaman! Probably because it was featuring so much of Mera! And Flash was focusing too much on Iris West! And Cyborg had that awful Sarah Charles who was so adult it made me angry! And Green Arrow which prominently features Black Canary! And Red Hood and the Outlaws had a female character in it too! Did I just cancel all of the books with strong female leads?! What kind of secret sexist monster am I? Obviously when I just typed that I was a "secret sexist monster," I meant it was a secret from myself. I'm sure all of you dear readers already new it. I'm also a secret sex monster. Wink! I meant that in a sexy hot way and not in a disgusting pedophile and/or rapey way! Being sexy in writing is difficult. Flex takes Casey to a ride in Danny World called Itty Bitty Bonsai Beach. Apparently it's going to recount Casey's origin story to her. Why doesn't she just look in the back of this issue and read her Who's Who Entry? Meanwhile, Larry and Cliff get reacquainted back in Casey's apartment. Larry wants to find The Chief but Cliff remembers that The Chief was the architect of all of the accidents that turned them into superheroes. Plus The Chief was just a head when Cliff last saw him, wasn't he? I'm conveniently forgetting the Niles Caulder who appeared in The Ravagers. I'm even sorry I mentioned him if you never knew that Niles existed. Anyway, before they can come up with a plan, Terry None comes home with pizza. Oh, and this guy suddenly appears with no respect for the plot.

I wonder if this negative alien has ever really tried to be positive? Maybe he should get a Tony Robbins DVD?

Meanwhile, some aliens calling themselves the Vectra invade the Mercy General Hospital parking garage to smash the fuck out of Danny the Ambulance. Not cool. Casey hops off the boat on her ride to walk around the Doomed World sets. She walks by past members of the Doom Patrol. She checks out the Scissormen and the Brotherhood of Dada and the Candlemaker. She eventually finds herself in a comic book shop and begins digging around in the back issue boxes where she finds one that looks plot relevant.

If you've ever wondered how I could spend so much time reading comic books and finding things to write about them (and mostly not about them, actually), it's because every comic book I pick up looks like this to me. Except it says "Tess" instead of "Casey".

Through the comic book, Danny tells Casey her secret origin. She was a comic book character in a comic book published by Danny to entertain the people on his street when he was merely a street and not yet a world. Her memories are the memories of her adventures in those comic books. And I'd like to point out that before this moment, I still didn't really know how much I liked this book.

Now? I love this book. I'm such a fucking easy slut.

That previous page hits me so hard directly in the nostalgia that I'm a bit dizzy at the moment. Fucking hell, I wish I still loved comics as strongly as I did back then. Remember what I said about time earlier? Well now I'm saying it again except harsher! Meanwhile, those Vectrans I mentioned earlier? They're beginning to torture Danny the Ambulance so he'll let them in so they can harvest meat for their Evil Space Fast Food Franchise Overlords. As they do this, things start falling apart on Danny World. Casey, who is indeed having an existential crisis, does not want to be Space Case the Comic Book Superhero, so she heads back to the Cabaret and the exit to Danny World. She loses her right leg just under the knee as she heads out because her comic book version is catching up to her and, in the comic book, she has a metal leg. She's also followed by a cute little critter that's probably named Fugg since that's all the thing says. Both of them are captured by the Vectrans as they exit Danny the Ambulance.

Intermission.

Lastly, Larry and Cliff are transported to the Negative Zone so Larry Trainor can once more become a proper Negative Man. Probably. The Ranking! +2! This comic book actually broached my emotional shield for a few moments. It was already a bit weak due to remembering Judas on his Day of Adoption but I think even without that, the Crisis on Infinite Earths page with all the perfect little touches would have been enough. I'm totally into this comic now! I hope Shade the Changing Girl gets to this place too! I even feel like I trust Gerard Way to handle Dorothy and Crazy Jane if he'd like to bring them back. I hope he'd like to bring them back. I mean, I more than hope. I think the proper term is "I threaten him with death if he doesn't bring them back." My lawyer Pickle Boy says I should state, in writing, that I meant that death threat hyperbolically, even if I didn't really.

#Doom Patrol #Gerard Way #Nick Derington #Tamra Bonvillain #Vertigo #DC Comics

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smokeybrandcompositions · 7 years ago

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Inspiration

I’ve watched anime for close to 30 years. I’d say 28 or so. If you count Transformers as an anime (I do because it’s based on a Japanese product and animated overseas in Asia somewhere, then I’d have been watching it for a clean 30. I have seen some terrible, terrible, sh*t in my day but, at the same time, some of the best shows I have ever had the pleasure of digesting was from Nihon. Evangelion, Ghost In The Shell, and Akira all come to mind. Outstanding animation. Outstanding narrative. Characters that have stood the test of time and become, in their own right, iconic. There have been some brilliant gems in this new crop of anime as well. Erased is easily the best thing I’ve watched since Breaking Bad and that isn’t even an exaggeration. So it’s mad vexing to me that people still give anime fans sh*t.

Seriously, Re:Zero is f*cking amazing. It deconstructs a newly popular genre, and creates something engaging and unique while still feeling familiar. That sh*t is brilliant. One Punch Man is the quintessential Anti-Shonen outing but it’s beautifully animated and crazy tongue in cheek. There’s a reason why it’s so popular. Even though it’s so good and chock full of satire about anime itself, I still get sh*t for suggesting it. We’re not even going to get into that artistic, surreal, flair like Angel’s Egg or Monogatari. The access point for shows like that is crazy high but, goddamn, they are pure brilliance. I can go on and on with shows worth a watch (Overlord, Saga of Tanya the Evil, Gilgamesh, Anything Tenchi, Speed Grapher, Anything Fate, Mnemosyne, Mai Hime, Desert Punk, Burst Angel, Melody of Oblivion, Elfen Lied, Hero Academia, Food Wars; the list is vast and infinite) but that doesn’t even matter. The second I tell them it’s anime, I get shut down. But these assholes are quick to tell me shows like Nails or Power or Empire or Kevin Can Wait are super good. Look, I get that you enjoy those terrible, terrible, clichés but I don’t really need to watch another cookie cutter, prime time, turd. Where’s the originality? The diversity? The goddamn creativity? With the exception of a handful of shows, America television fails at all of the above. But anime? Nah, son. There’s at least two show a season that scream original idea. And they’re usually dope as f*ck.

Is it the adult themes that turn the American palette? Japan tends to sexualize the f*ck out of their female characters but can you blame them? Wish fulfillment, I suppose or an inherent inferiority complex put to paper? IS that really something so disturbing stateside? The media here does a goddamn fantastic job of sexualizing kids and women, too. Kylie Jenner immediately comes to mind. What about ol’ girl from Modern Family, Ariel Winter? Anytime she walked the carpet at any event, they zoomed right in on her gigantic bosoms. I think she was, what? 15 when that started? It became so much of a problem, chick went and got a breast reduction. At 17. That’s wild to me but somehow that’s fine, to ogle a real life teenager, but Yoko Litner is a problem because she’s a busty ass, bikini clad, Short-Short wearing, 14 year old character in an anime with gigantic robots and space f*cking aliens! Like that’s a problem but sexually objectifying a flesh and blood teenager into body mutilation isn’t? Get the f*ck out of here!

Can it be the stigma that animation is just for kids? I honestly believe it’s this one but seriously? Just because it’s animated doesn’t mean it can’t be compelling. Requiem For A Dream literally rips off a scene from Perfect Blue, shot for shot. Darren Aronofsky bought the rights to Perfect Blue, specifically to rip off that bath tub scene for his own film. A decorated visionary like that, looked at that anime from Satoshi Kon, and thought to himself, “This scene is brilliant and perfect in every way. I wish I could put it in one of my films so I am going to buy the rights to adapting this entire film stateside, specifically for this one, 2 minute, goddamn bathtub scene”. And them, of course, there’s Inception or rather, Americanized Paprika - Also a Kon production. The similarities between the themes presented within Kon’s masterpiece and what Nolan did with Inception are undeniable. And Nolan doesn’t even try to deny it. Cat is forthright about Paprika’s influence on he pet project and it really, really, shows. Oh, but that can just be chalked up to how dope Satoshi Kon was. Name another anime adapted or influenced a major Hollywood blockbuster. I’ll list three; Ghost In The Shell has influenced everything from The Matrix to Ex Machina. Kimba The White Lion has it’s paw prints all over Disney’s Lion King. Seriously, that sh*t borders on plagiarism. If you try to tell me Pacific Rim isn’t a homage to Gundam, Escaflowne, and the Sentai series, I’ll fight you. So, then, if some of our most visionary and creative studio directors see the worth in anime, why is it so taboo to enjoy it? They obviously do. So much so, they actively incorporate it into their films and everyone eats that sh*t up. But because the source material is a bunch of colored drawings, I’m an asshole for enjoying them? Right. Mr. ET himself, Steven Spielberg, has been actively trying to adapt GUNNM for decades and JJ Abrams, Spielberg junior, is actively adapting Your Name for live action to cater to American audiences. But I’m the asshole. Right.

Is it because anime comes with subtitles and you’re forced to read? You know what? This might be the reason. Dun’t nobody reed too gud in ‘Murrica. #MAGA!

I couldn’t tell you why anime is so downtrodden here in the states. It’s truly amazing when you actively engage with it. Sure, just like everything else, a few series can be perverted, superficial, or daft. But there are real gems out there and writing them off just because they happen to tell a wonderful story through animation or just because you have to read subtitles is both lazy and a disservice to yourself. Especially if you consider yourself a cinemaphile.

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smokeybrand · 7 years ago

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Inspiration

Is it because anime comes with subtitles and you’re forced to read? You know what? This might be the reason. Dun’t nobody reed too gud in ‘Murrica. #MAGA!

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techpriestanon-blog · 7 years ago

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Okay so I don’t know why I was suddenly thinking about this in the shower today, but you know what grinds my gears? Peripheral mystery plots in non-mystery shows. Handled right, they’re a neat exploration into an unknown element. Handled incorrectly, they’re a pulsating tumor hanging off the plot and making you wonder why the hell they bothered introducing it in the first place.

I enjoyed shows like Hyouka and Ghost Story because, honestly, I enjoy mysteries. Never been much good at solving them, but watching someone else do it has always been really fun for me. (Side note: I think I’m bad at them because I lack the lateral thinking ability required to make the evidence jumps. Or maybe people are just bad at writing them sometimes, because I can more or less first-try most Phoenix Wright cases).

I’m going to pick on Attack on Titan even though I’m not a fan of the show, haven’t read the manga, and only watched like six episodes of season 1, because I still think the way they handled the mystery of what Titans are and how they work really poorly. Feel free to blow up my inbox and inform me of what an idiotic plebian I am for not worshiping at the feet of our giant naked cannibal overlords.

See, they establish really quickly that Eren’s dad did . . . something to him involving a needle, and one of the driving motivations in the early arc (beyond Eren’s near-suicidal need to kill every single Titan he lays eyes on) is getting back to his hometown to find out what dad was keeping in his creepy medical basement. Then we get sidetracked by a million years of basic training and character development. Okay, sure. Then we get sidetracked by ten million years of retaking Trost. Alright, sure, Girl Genius took five years to recount the events of about two in-universe days. Then Eren turns into a Titan.

What.

Honestly, if they’d just said “oh, yeah, sometimes people do that” I probably would have accepted it. Special powers in anime is nothing new, and the main character having special powers in anime is about as old as the art form itself. But no, they tied it to Daddy Yeager’s creepy needle thing, so now that secret is probably locked in a basement accidentally buried by giant naked cannibals, too.

Then other people start doing it, too, but they’re evil and work for a doomsday cult. Because apparently every near- and post-apocalyptic setting has a bunch of people crazy/stupid enough to consider suicide on a racial scale to be a good idea. So maybe the whole “I can turn into a giant, intelligent naked man” power isn’t locked up in Daddy Yeager’s murder basement?

Who knows. I don’t think they ever explained why, and I think the little explanation they’ve given literally was “yeah, sometimes people do that,” but still seemed like it was implying that there was something deeper and darker to it than that.

I guess between this and the fact that it’s just too grim kinda turned me off of the series.

Infinite Stratos can also get raked over the coals for this (and many other things). I’ll admit that, years ago, I was actually something of a fan. Dug up the light novel translations and read as far as they had (which was right when things got irritating, oddly enough), watched the anime, whole nine yards. Never read the manga, though, so I guess you can still crucify me for that.

But after spending most of the series as your average “harem comedy with a certain schtick to flavor the extra non-harem-related bits” they abruptly introduce this whole huge evil organization with nebulous goals fielding some kind of opposite-sex clone of the main character. Or possibly just a younger clone of his older sister, established to be the baddest ass of all the badasses in the world. What are their goals? Who knows! What do they do? Steal ISs to advance their goals! Lose their experimental ISs in largely pointless attacks against the main characters. Vanish into thin air to do it all again next week on another continent.

The biggest mystery in the first season of the anime was “what the hell was like, half of episode 12 supposed to be?” Because NGE did the whole “self-reflection with the soul of the robot” thing, but at least had the excuse of the robot being a biomechanical alien cyborg powered by the soul of Shinji’s dead mother. But the ISs haven’t been established to be alive, or even self-aware. Self-modifying, sure, but that was shown to be a chunk of adaptive coding and some very complicated hardware. Then it never comes up again.

The biggest mystery of season 2 is “who are these people and what do they want?” This is not answered, or even really addressed. They just show up, wreck shit, get their shit wrecked, and vanish. I guess the other mystery is “who the hell let the guys who made the Rosario+Vampire anime in here?” but that’s a different bag of fleas altogether.

As much as I enjoy Neon Genesis Evangelion, it can get lumped in here, too. So many questions are raised about the nature of the Evas, the nature of the Angels, the nature of the Human Instrumentality Project that it begins to feel like A Series of Unfortunate Events, or a poorly-knit sweater of dangling plot threads. And the worst part is that I’ve been part of the fandom for years. I’ve watched the show, I’ve watched the Rebuild movies. Never got around to digging up End of Eva, but I’ve read enough about it that I don’t really think I have to at this point. But the worst part of it is that, even with all of the published material, all of the bonus content, all of that -- we still don’t have a concrete idea of wtf any of it actually means. Fans have assembled good enough guesses to write internally-consistent fanfiction of it, but interpretations differ between authors and any attempts to get the Anno to actually explain this shit mostly results in him waving Death of the Author in the interviewer’s face.

Which is, y’know, kind of irritating. Postmodernism has never really been my thing, and so the idea that the intentions of the author are irrelevant compared to what interpretations can be deciphered from the text can lead to some really weird shit. Like the theory that Dracula knew how blood types worked years before medical science did, and so his repeated draining of Mina Harker was actually him saving her life. Or that . . . fuck, what are their names? Two characters in The Outsiders are gay for each other (which led to a hilarious shitstorm on Twitter when somebody asked S.E. Hinton about it and she said no, that’s not how she wrote them).

I guess, what I was getting at when I started this whole thing, is that if you’re not a mystery show, where answering the plot-driving question isn’t the point of the plot, you need to progress your mystery on a time scale that isn’t best expressed in geologic eras. I don’t care how kickass your fight scenes are, or how involuted your political intrigue plot is; if you’re going to introduce a mystery element, do something with it in a timely manner, and for the love of all things holy, give us some concrete answers when you do.

#holy shit steele #why

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